Spooky Reads for Halloween
If you didn’t already know, I am a huge fan of Halloween. HUGE. I’m all about trick-or-treating (although at my age, it’s more like drink-while-you-treat), DIY costumes, and Halloween parties… Oct 31 is the one day a year I’m guaranteed to go all out.
There’s one major exception to the Spook Craze, however, and that’s scary movies. I saw my first horror flick when I was 12 (Halloween, aptly enough) and Michael Myers did some serious damage to my psyche. Nowadays, this delicate flower can’t handle more than the tiniest bit of suspense.
But I DO love a scary book, and this seems like the perfect time of year for a Spooky Reads list! I’ve compiled eight of my favorites; some fiction, some non-fiction, some true horror stories and some a bit out of the horror box.
“In the near future, where America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you're out - permanently.” - stephenking.com
Starting strong with the master of horror himself! I love everything from Stephen King and The Long Walk is one of my favorites. The premise is simple (especially compared to some of his latest work) but it’s captivating and terrifying in the way that only King can achieve. Plus, he’s from Maine - east coast love!
“Sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal. . . . A murder… . . . a tragic accident… . . . or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. But who did what?
Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.” - Book Outlet
Okay, this is not necessarily a “scary story” - but it is suspenseful and murder-y! Big Little Lies recently made its way to the screen in the form of a killer tv show with alllllll the big Hollywood actresses. It was a relatively quick read and sucked me in from page 1.
“Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that 'The Devil in the White City' is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.” - Good Reads
The Devil in the White City is slightly less dramatic than you’d expect for a serial killer story. But it IS non-fiction, and the combination of H.H. Holmes + Chicago’s biggest event just can’t be beat.
“As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.
But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten.”
- Penguin Random House
Devolution is a Bigfoot fiction (I don’t think that’s a spoiler since it’s on the book jacket) but it reads like non-fiction and it is SOOOOOOO good. Fair warning though, it’s a bit gruesome. And if you pick this up, give it a few chapters; I found the narrator very whiny at first but the book quickly drew me in.
Max Brooks also wrote World War Z, which was adapted into a film by the same name starring Brad Pitt. Highly recommend that one as well!
“From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.” - blakecrouch.com
Dark Matter comes highly recommended by this post’s inspiration, my mother! Although I haven’t read it myself, it’s on the to-read list (Dianna’s recs are generally spot on). I don’t generally consider myself a sci-fi gal, but The Martian and Ready Player One recently made me re-consider that conclusion. If you read this let me know what you think!
“New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).”
This book is technically fiction, but it considers a very real scenario: what happens to us after a terrorist attack utilizing electromagnetic pulse weapons. AKA, the ones that take out all of our electronics. It’s very well-written and definitely an eye opener for anyone interested in defense!
“One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.” - Good Reads
I actually watched Gone Girl in theatres, back in 2014, before I read Gillian Flynn’s book. Sometimes a novel can’t hang in that scenario, but not this gem. Whether you go the book or the movie route (starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, and Neil Patrick Harris), Gone Girl is a total winner. So is Sharp Objects, another Gillian Flynn hit!
“A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece. A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.”
Ending this list with a true classic: The Road is in my Top 10 Books of All Time. As the description says, it’s more of an “end-of-the-world” book than a “scary story.” But in MY book, it’s a must-read. I discovered recently that The Road is also a movie, starring Aragorn (aka Viggo Mortensen) but I can only vouch for McCarthy’s incredible book.
And there you have it! The spookiest 8 books to wrap up October 2021…plus anything Stephen King has ever written. Obviously.
