Last Updated on September 23, 2021 by BookScouter
It’s that time of year when you begin to feel a chill in the air, the dark nights start to get longer and you yearn to curl up with a suspenseful tale. We get your October mood and have compiled a list of the best spooky books. You can get them online using BookScouter, and we promise, you won’t get scared of prices — they are really chilled. Moreover, our pricing tool does all the price searching for you! So check out our list, but BEWARE of what great books you may find.
Classic Horror: you know the stories but have you read the tale?
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Made into a movie: try the original source material that inspired the film
The Birds by Daphne DuMaurier
Hellraiser by Clive Barker
Carrie by Stephen King
The Shining by Stephen King
Psycho by Robert Bloch
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Vamps, Witches, and Werewolves: take a bite out of one of these series
Stephanie Myers – The Twilight Series
Cassandra Claire – The Mortal Instruments Series
Anne Rice – Vampire Chronicles
Deborah Harkness – All Souls Trilogy
Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls
Christine Johnson – Claire de Lune series
Short stories: great to read out loud if you dare
Edgar Allan Poe – There are various collections of his short stories
Alvin Schwartz – Three Volumes of Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark
Henry James – The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories
Too Scary: you may wish you hadn’t read
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
The Shining – Stephen King
Carrion Comfort – Dan Simmons
Ghost Story – Peter Straub
Bird Box – Josh Malerman
Not too scary: share with your little monsters
Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman – Washington Irving
Ghosts in the House! – Kazuno Kohara
The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt – Riel Nason
Creepy Pair of Underwear! – Aaron Reynolds
Herbert’s First Halloween – Cynthia Rylant and Steven Henry
Zombelina – Kristyn crow and Molly Idle
How to Catch a Monster – Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton
Bonaparte Falls Apart – Marjorie Cuyler
Scooby-Doo: A Haunted Halloween – Gail Herman
And finally, you don’t have to take our word on it. Here are a few other lists of spooky Halloween reads
Buzzfeed 13 Witchy Tales to Keep you Spellbound
The Raven read by James Earl Jones and others
To get in the proper horror reading mood, check out this video for a reading of “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe read by Vincent Price, Christopher Walken, James Earl Jones, and Christopher Lee.
