7 Books To Read This Spooky Season
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Halloween decorations have hit the stores and pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks which can only mean one thing: It is officially spooky season and time to dive into our favorite spooky, gruesome, and chilling content! I love to read, especially during the fall, and while movie and TV show watchlists spread across the internet like wildfire, book lovers are often left out. It can also be incredibly daunting to sort through all of the books available on shelves and the hundreds of “must read” BookTok recommendations. No need to worry, I have put together my list of the top seven books you should read this spooky season!
7. The Tell-Tale Heart (Edgar Allan Poe)
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While this piece of fiction is a short story and not a novel, it is one of my favorite things to read this time of year. Poe’s use of sound throughout this story is what makes it so truly terrifying to read, especially when the lights are off and the room is silent. The psychological thriller explores what guilt can do to the mind of man and how desperation can turn guilt into hysteria. Using an unreliable narrator who while descending into madness tries to convince the reader of their sanity creates a perfect spooky season read.
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6. The Guest List (Lucy Foley)
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A BookTok favorite, this novel is chilling, eerie, and unnerving from the first page until the very last. A wedding is set to take place on a stormy island just off the Irish coast – what could possibly go wrong? As the guests begin their celebrations, family drama, jealousy, and decades-old secrets resurface threatening to destroy the wedding before it has even begun. Add alcohol to the mix, and things quickly turn dark as someone ends up dead and everyone is pointing the finger at the person next to them.
5. Welcome To The Dark House (Laurie Faria Stolarz)
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This is the only YA entry on this list, but I couldn’t make a spooky season reading list without it! A mysterious entity known only as the “Nightmare Elf” emails a group of teens about an essay contest that, if they won, would allow them to see behind the scenes of a famous horror director's new project. The question the teens have to answer in their essay? “What is your greatest nightmare?” While the contest seems innocent enough, the winners soon learn that their worst nightmare is only just beginning and that they may not make it out alive.
4. Survive The Night (Riley Sager)
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A serial killer on the loose and a stranger whose story doesn’t quite add up. Unlike some of the other entries on this list, this novel is more thriller than horror. After a chance meeting at the university ride share board, Charlie accepts a ride from a kind stranger. However, this decision could be one of her last. As the two share stories and carefully avoid discussing the active serial killer on campus, she quickly beings to realize that something isn’t quite right. Could she be in the car with the killer? If she is, how will she get out alive?
3. Clown In A Cornfield (Adam Cesare)
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Who doesn’t love a horror novel centered around a small town and a killer clown? BookTok has been raving about this book since its release in 2020, and it's easy to see why. Reminiscent of IT, this book is perfect for anyone looking to get a good scare! After Kettle Springs’ local corn syrup factory shuts down, the town is split in two. The adults on one side want to make the town a better place and the kids on the other hope to bide their time until they can escape the town and never look back. Unfortunately, the town mascot, Frendo the clown, has his own ideas about how to make the town a better place: ridding the town of every child that wants to escape it so badly
2. The Final Girl Support Group (Grady Hendrix)
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All horror fans know what the final girl is. The last woman standing at the end of the film after facing down with the villain and watching all those around her die. But what happens after the movie ends? Hendrix’s novel explores that very question by following a group of final girls who meet together with their therapist in a support group. Unfortunately, these girls have attracted the attention of someone who plans to make sure that not a single one of them is standing by the end of the story. What they don’t realize is that unlike before, the final girls have each other to rely on and that might just make all the difference.
1. Dracula (Bram Stoker)
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We’re ending this list with a classic. Bram Stoker’s novel has transcended time and helped inspire thousands of authors to create their own versions of vampires. A gorgeous piece of Gothic Horror literature, the novel is told through letters, diary entries, and newspapers. While Count Dracula is the main catalyst for the events that take place during the novel, there is no singular protagonist which creates a fascinating and terrifying read as it explores every horror that the Count has brought to life.
Have you read any of these books yet? Did I leave any off the list?
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Source(s): Goodreads