10 Hauntingly Atmospheric Books Just in Time for Halloween
Crisp, crunching leaves. Tart apple cider. Dark coats and darker nights. Whether you’re in it for the slasher gore or the pumpkin spice, autumn is a season for the senses. You don’t need a calendar to mark the first day of October; it’s a change you can practically taste. But in case you’re having trouble getting into the spooky spirit, here are ten tantalizing books to read this October, some horror, some not, all taut with tension and steeped in just the right amount of fog and foreboding. I promise they’re not too scary. Well, maybe some of them are. I’ll let you be the judge.
#1: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
“Merricat, said Constance, would you like a cup of tea? / Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me. / Merricat, said Constance, would you like me to go to sleep? / Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!”
TAGS: Family Secrets, Old House, Dark Humor, Paranoia
What better way to begin than with this chilling read by the Queen of Horror herself? We Have Always Lived in the Castle is told in the voice of aspiring witch eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood, who lives with her sister and uncle on their isolated Vermont estate. Six years ago, the Blackwood family suffered a tragedy at their dinner table, leaving three survivors. Constance, Merricat’s elder sister, was acquitted of the crime, but many of the townspeople still believe her guilty. But Merricat has a plan (not to mention an encyclopedic knowledge of poisonous mushrooms) and she’s prepared to do anything to keep her sister safe.
#2: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
“She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.”
TAGS: Fairytale Retellings, Feminism, Gothic Horror
Sensual and subversive, this anthology of fairytale retellings is steeped in Gothic symbolism, with a sharp feminist edge. Carter’s lush prose transports you to a world both vicious and fantastical, opulent and eerie, reimagining classic tales such as “Bluebeard”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and “Little Red Riding Hood”. It’s a close interrogation of the way women are depicted in fairytales and Gothic fiction—typically swooning, virginal, and nightgown-clad—restoring agency to characters so often martyred to further the arcs of their male counterparts. Oh yeah, and it’s creepy as hell.
#3: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
TAGS: Dark Fantasy, Parallel Worlds, Portals, Kid-Friendly
If you’ve only watched Henry Selick’s (admittedly stunning) stop-motion adaptation, then you’re missing out. In this Gaiman classic, Coraline discovers a door to a magical world uncannily similar to her own in her new apartment, complete with an Other Mother and an Other Father—and they want Coraline to be their daughter. But belonging comes at a cost. Interestingly, Gaiman has often noted that while Coraline entertains children, it terrifies adults. Blame those button eyes—not to mention those singing rats. Still, Coraline is a great option if you’re looking for something a little less gory.
#4: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.”
TAGS: Rival Magicians, Doomed Lovers, Dark Fantasy
The Night Circus is the type of book you want to hold in your mouth and savor, like the first (and best) sip of your favorite autumnal beverage. Morgenstern taps into the uncanny magic of a cold October night to create Le Cirque des Rêves, a travelling magical circus which features such delights as a vertical cloud maze and a garden made entirely of ice. Unbeknownst to the guests, the circus is also the battleground for a fierce contest between two rival magicians and their apprentices. While I found the romance underwhelming, this book’s vivid imagery kept me reading. I swear—some chapters I could smell the caramel corn.
#5: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
“Little solace comes to those who grieve when thoughts keep drifting as walls keep shifting and this great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves moments before the wind.”
TAGS: Epistolary, Surreal, Metafiction, Psychological Horror
This experimental horror novel has accrued something of a cult following in the twenty years since its initial publication. Surreal, unsettling, and unflinchingly self-aware, House of Leaves reads like a textbook; it is through the footnotes that we follow the story of narrator Johnny Truant, who is putting together the scattered pieces of a manuscript left by his dead friend Zompano—hence the book’s epistolary style. Reactions to Danielewski’s work have proved visceral and divisive. Whether you love it or hate it, clearly House of Leaves is not a book easily forgotten.
#6: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
“If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”
TAGS: Gothic, Historical, Something-in-the-Attic, Slow Burn
Grab your antique candelabra and tuck into this Gothic classic. Orphaned and outcast governess Jane Eyre journeys to Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired to care for the young ward of the troubled Mr. Rochester. Jane feels a kinship with Mr. Rochester, and the two begin to fall in love. But a dark secret walks Thornfield’s halls at night. Will Jane uncover the truth or be left heartbroken again? Thornfield Hall is the perfect Gothic setting: aristocratic and remote, decaying and foreboding. Likewise, Jane is the perfect protagonist—brave, fierce, and unflinchingly principled—and you can’t help but root for her as she uncovers the mysteries of Thornfield Hall.
#7: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
“Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one.”
TAGS: Ghosts, Unreliable Narrator, Creepy Kids, Old House
Continuing our trend of governesses in peril, this famous short story follows a young, inexperienced woman on her first job: governess to two beautiful but odd children on their isolated family estate. But Bly Manor is not as empty as it first seems. Our governess soon comes to believe that ghosts walk amongst them. Worse, they’re after the souls of her two young charges. In case you hadn’t already guessed, this is the story that inspired Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor. But what makes James’s version so chilling is its unwavering uncertainty. Are those phantoms lurking in the windows? Or is our narrator seeing only what she so desperately wants to see?
#8: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
“When the mist rises, and the smiling man comes walking, you must avoid large places at night. Keep to small.”
TAGS: Sinister Scarecrows, Survival, Grief, Kid-Friendly
Small Spaces is the middle-grade debut of Katherine Arden, author of The Winternight Trilogy. Eleven-year-old Ollie discovers a book which tells of three siblings and their dealings with “the smiling man,” a menacing entity who grants wishes for the ultimate price. While on a school fieldtrip, Ollie stumbles upon the graves of the very people she’s reading about—and things only get stranger when the bus breaks down outside Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a sinister history. As night falls, Ollie’s watch begins to count down, leaving her with a single message: RUN. Sinister scarecrows, creepy cornfields, and haunted farms join forces in this spooky, kid-friendly fall read.
#9: Misery by Stephen King
“He had discovered that there was not just one God but many, and some were more than cruel — they were insane, and that changed all. Cruelty, after all, was understandable. With insanity, however, there was no arguing.”
TAGS: Psychological Thriller, Hostage, Obsession, Big Axe
Yes, yes, I had to put an obligatory Stephen King entry on this list. And while other books like The Shining might seem a more obvious choice, I settled on Misery because I think it speaks to our present day in unexpected ways: the desolation and psychology of isolation, the increasingly obsessive—and possessive—nature of fan culture. Misery entraps its reader in an atmosphere of constant tension and dread, just as writer Paul is trapped beneath his comforter by Annie Wilkes, his crazed jailer and number one fan. It’s a claustrophobic read perfect for falling temps and perpetual quarantines. Oh, and there’s some axe-swinging as well—in case you want a little more blood on those pages.
#10: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.”
TAGS: Creepy Old House, Ghosts, 1950s, Psychological
What list would be complete without this giant of the genre? From the first words of Jackson’s iconic opening paragraph, Hill House asserts itself as an indomitable, inescapable force—possessive, corrosive, and steeped in tragic, bloody past—as much a character as the four strangers who find themselves walking its desolate halls. Will our strangers escape, or are they doomed to become part of the house’s haunted history? Clocking in at only 182 pages, The Haunting of Hill House is the ideal companion for any dark and stormy night. Or just a drizzly autumn afternoon.