There is really nothing better than reading creepy horror books at Halloween.
Here are 10 of the best ones that you can pick up this year.
The Watchers – A.M. Shine
On a journey to sell a parrot, Mina finds herself stranded in the middle of a forest when her car breaks down and her phone stops working. She’s forced to wander the dark woodland in the hopes of finding help when she stumbles across a concrete bunker and a woman shouting at her to get into the bunker right now.
Mina finds herself locked in a room with a wall of glass and an electric light that only activates at night. The darkness is when the The Watchers come above ground to observe the humans captured.
It soon becomes clear to Mina that there is no way to escape and there’s only one rule – Stay in the Light.
This was recently made in to a movie by M. Night Shyamalan and his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, that didn’t get great reviews but the book was actually good so don’t let the movie reviews influence you!
How to Sell a Haunted House – Grady Hendrix
Louise finds out that her parents have unexpectedly died in a horrific car crash, and she can’t imagine anything worse than returning to her hometown to sort everything out and see her brother, Mark.
But, she has to so she leaves her young daughter with her ex and heads to Charleston. But, soon after arriving she discovers that her parents left every single thing they own to Mark, except for the hundreds of creepy dolls and puppets lovingly made by her mother which were left to Louise.
In a moment of pettiness, she heads to her parents house and plans to spend as long as she can collecting up the dolls and puppets to delay the sale of her parents house for as long as possible.
But when she’s staying the house, she can’t help but notice that some of the dolls end up in unusual places. She becomes convinced that her brother is moving the puppets around to scare her… but is he?
How To Sell A Haunted House is a horror book that features lots of creepy dolls and focuses on the complicated relationship between siblings.
Fantasticland – Mike Bockoven
Since the 1970s, FantasticLand has been the theme park where ‘Fun is Guaranteed!’ But when a hurriacane ravages the Florida coast and isolates every staff member stuck at the park.
5 weeks after everyone is trapped, the authories finally make it to the park to rescue the survivors where they find a horrific scene – heads are on spikes, bodies litter the park.
The book is told as if it’s a true crime book about all of the horrific things that happened during the horrible experience.
The September House – Carissa Orlando
The September House follows Margaret who finds her dream home in a large Victorian house she bought for surprisingly cheap.
But soon after she moves in with her husband they discover that every September the walls drip with blood, the ghosts of former inhabitants appear and they’re all terrified of something in the basement.
Margaret is determined to stay so a few years later she’s learnt to deal with the hauntings but her husband hasn’t – he’s decided he’s had enough and left her. But then their daughter starts to become concerned when her dad stops answering his calls so she decides to pay them a visit. The only problem is she has no idea about the hauntings and her mother is determined to keep them a secret.
This is a very unique haunted house story. It starts as a classic haunted house tale but slowly becomes something very different.
Into the Drowning Deep – Mira Grant
A mockumentary film crew travels out to the mariana trench with the intention of filming a documentary about fake mermaids. They 100% plan on faking these mermaids but when they get out there… something happens and they all disappear. All they leave behind is their boat and camera footage that shows something horrifying.
7 years later, a new camera crew and a research team head back out and this time they’re a lot more prepared. They plan to find real mermaids for the first time ever.
But when they get there they realise that things are far worse than they ever could’ve imagined.
Into the Drowning Deep is a super creepy book that follows a number of characters as they learn about deadly mermaids. It’s a multi pov book that features lots of interesting and diverse characters. Prepare to be creeped out!
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight – Kalynn Bayron
Charity has the summer job of her dreams. She plays the ‘final girl’ at Camp Mirror Lake, where guests pay to be scared in a full-contact horror game based on a slasher movie. They recreate scenes from the classic film and try to make it as scary as possible for their guests.
But on the last weekend of the season, some of Charity’s coworkers begin to disappear and when one of them turns up dead, she begins to feel like her role as the ‘final girl’ is about to become a bit too real as they’re forced to fight for survival.
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is a like a classic teen slasher movie in book form. It’s pretty short (so easy to binge) but it still feels like a full story packed with a lot of gore and action.
Plain Bad Heroines – Emily M. Danforth
In 1902, 2 students at the Brookhants School for Girls are madly in love and obsessed with the memoir of a scandalous young writer. A few months later, they’re found dead after a horrific wasp attack, the book lying next to their intertwined bodies. After 3 more deaths on the property, the school is closed for good.
Over a century later, a controversial horror film about the events at the school is being filmed at the crumbling and supposedly cursed school starring hollywood lesbian ‘it girl’ Harper Harper.
Plain Bad Heroines is a book that’s pretty long (640 pages!) but it did not drag at all. It has a really cool and creepy setting that is made a lot more interesting by the dual timeline.
Just Like Home – Sarah Gailey
Vera’s mother calls her back and, in spite of their long estrangement, she returns to the childhood home where her serial killer father killed and buried his victims.
Coming home is hard for Vera and it’s made even worse when she finds that a parasitic artists has moved into the guest house and someone is leaving notes around the house in her dad’s handwriting.
Just Like Home went in a direction I wasn’t really expecting but it was incredible. The complicated relationships between all of the characters was one of the best things about this book. It’s so weird and creepy and the audiobook was fantastic.
The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
A junior solicitor travels to Eel Marsh House in Crythin Gifford to sort through the papers of a recently deceased old woman where he begins to see the woman in black.
Despite his experiences with the woman in black, he decides to stay the night at Eel Marsh house where he begins to learn the reasons behind the hauntings.
The Woman in Black is a classic haunted house tale. If you haven’t already read the book then I’m sure you’ve seen one of the movie adaptations. I was first exposed to this story in the movie starring Daniel Radcliffe and the book is worth the read if you enjoyed the movie!
I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me – Jamison Shea
Laure is a black ballerina, constantly overlooked for her white counterparts even though she knows she’s the best. To level the playing field, she ventures deep into the Paris Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood which grants her the influence and adoration she’s always dreamed of.
But as she begins to surpass her peers, leaving broken bodies behind her, she discovers she’s not the only monster around and her vicious desires have made her the perfect target for slaughter. I’ve seen this book described as Ace of Spades meets House of Hollow meets Black Swan and that is the perfect description for the book. It explores themes of racism and feminism and gives us a look into the crazy competitive world of ballerinas.
