Love that book so much! Two little girls draw together and it’s partly about the characters they draw. Sophisticated narrative in many ways and unlike anything else I’ve read that captures children and imagination.
@Laurie I always gathered he meant it to be read on a dark and stormy night by candle or fire light, as electric lights were still relatively new and not in every house…It adds to the aura of it.
For lovers of Castle I must recommend Paul Tremblay’s Headful of Ghosts. Really. Take my word for it. He sits on the committee that gives out the Shirley Jackson award and is a Shirley Jackson scholar.
@Eliza it took me a while to get into it, but it turned out to be terrific. His newest one is The Cabin at the End of the World and it is hair raising.
The scary thing about hill house, besides the perfect writing by a master, is the blend of mental emotional problems with the haunting so you are never sure what the true genesis of the haunting is. This has been copied many times now but when Jackson did it, it was a new concept. We have a deeply disturbed woman -is she being preyed upon or is she preying on everyone else?
Absolute favorite, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Also, “The Woman in Black” and this year hoping to add the new “Dracul” by Dacre Stoked as a regular spooky season read, as it will be released early in October.
We read Legend of Sleepy Hollow in my literature class in high school and loved it! Still my top favorite. Thanks to Mr. Hawkins I change my books to the season. LOL
I once bought a book in the Indianapolis airport called “Haunted America” (this was in 1993). I re-read that each Fall for about 5 years. I haven’t had a “Fall reading list” since then. I’m excited to get some ideas here!
You would like Troy Taylor. He has written a story for that book. He has put out several historical ghost stories over the years. My favorite is Season of the Witch based on the Bell Witch of Tennessee. He has several of Illinois (he is also an IL native), Chicago, and St. Louis. You might check him out.
So many, but I tend to return to Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Works of Poe, and the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz if you can find editions with the insanely horrifying and terrific illustrations by Stephen Gammel, (a lifetime’s worth of nightmare fuel to be had there).
I read the Haunting of Hill House 2 years ago for Halloween and that book still gives me nightmares. I also just saw they’re making it into a Netflix series.
Years ago wherever we were on our family vacation, we’d visit a bookstore or state park gift shop where we could always find a book of local ghost stories to read around the campfire. My son and nephew loved this tradition.
That terrified me when I was 13. It was also a movie back then — so scary. A remake of the movie came out years ago featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones. It was terrible — not even scary. The effects were really cheesy.
There is one movie version that’s REALLY good – not the one with Vincent Price, which was also very cheesy, but another black and white version from the 60s. I think it’s called the House on Haunted Hill maybe?
I just looked them up on Wikipedia. The Haunting is the black and white movie I saw when I was 12 or 13 in Indiana– it was really frightening. Strong cast. That’s the one you are referring to. That movie and the 1999 remake with Zeta-Jones House are based on the Shirley Jackson story. House on Haunted Hill was the Vincent Price movie that came out around 1959. At this moment, I am glad it’s daylight outside…
@Vicki I think the one that terrified you is the one I was referring to as being really good – scariest movie I’ve ever seen and followed the book really well, even quoting that terrifying first paragraph: “and whatever walked there walked alone.” ?
I did this for my adult book club a few years ago. A couple thought it was inappropriate for children. I didn’t think it was any more macabre than Roald Dahl which I devoured as a kid
I read The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff thinking it was a scary story. It’s not scary, it’s an odd story line, and a good read, I really enjoyed it, even if I didn’t feel scared.
One of my ghost story hits. I was walking outdoors near the library one day when a kid lowered himself from a tree, said, “And her head fell off”, and sauntered away.
Read it in the 70’s after watching the film, Spent a small fortune to buy a copy about 20 years ago, & snapped up the criterion film when it was issued.
Every year my husband and I listen to a book together during October. Frankenstein and Dracula were both great! Last year our son joined us for Lovecraft stories. Creeeepy. I think this year we are going to listen to Edith Wharton ghost stories!
Dawn, question. I just read Something Wicked This Way Comes, my first Bradbury novel. Although I enjoyed the storyline idea, I found the book slow and hard to get into. I didn’t care for the writing style and thought it would work more for poetry than a novel. My question is, are his other books written in a similar style as Something Wicked… or are they different and therefore I should give another one a try. Thanks. ?
Not a book… but a poem. The Cremation of Sam McGee. Several lines I love. Talk of your cold, through the parkas fold it stabbed like a driven nail. (Talking about a corpse) at times I’d sing to the hateful thing and it harkened with a grin. And then I took a hike for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so. I guess he’s cooked and its time I looked…
I read a different classic horror story (published at least 50 years previously) every October. This year it will be Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury). As for my favorite, it’s a tie: Dracula (Stoker) and Frankenstein (Shelley).
Books from childhood: spook, about a witch’s camiliar that is a dog that fell off a broom , by Jane Little; the little leftover witch, about a girl witch that falls off a broom and is taken in by a family (only when reading as an adult did I see the allegory to adoption and cried); suddenly… a witch, about a girl who has a cold and can’t go to a Halloween party until her cat Magicks her a broom and an invisibility spell.
@Kerri I bought it as a teen and still have my copy. Among other things nostalgic for days when children went out and trick or treated at night by themselves!
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde; both The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving; anything by Ruth Chew makes me nostalgic for childhood halloween.
I like Halloween themed short stories. A good place to start is the anthology Halloween, editor Paula Guran. ? Also, Guran edits The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. I think there are nine volumes so far.?
I try to read one classic horror book (that I haven’t read) every October. I’ve only done it for 4 years, but I’ve read Frankenstein, Dracula, The Shining, and The Haunting of Hill House. I’ll probably read some Lovecraft this year.
The frankly massive short story collection, The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Over 1000 pages and more than 100 short stories from authors like Lovecraft, Bradbury, George R.R. Martin, Octavia E. Bulter, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, and many, many others. I haven’t started it, but I hope to read one story every night of October.
A very odd one that I read a couple of years ago is Horrorstör, by Grady Hendrix. It is a satire based on an Ikea catalog, and it looks like – and starts out feeling like – it might be classified as humor, but it’s one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read.
I love Halloween.. Ghost stories. I love short stories anyway and many celebrated writers have written a good ghost story. As far as novels,, Salems Lot by Stephen King and Ghost Story by Peter Straub. I liked Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
@Laurie most are from short story collections. I read one that Truman capote wrote that was really spooky. But if you are looking for one book that has all creepy stories. Id say “Cold Hand in Mine” by Robert Aickman and “the haunted looking glass” ghost stories collected by Edward Gorey
Coraline. It’s fantastic and creepy.
The Mist!
Nothing is better than Victorian Ghost stories.
The Witching Hour by Ann Rice
Totally agree???
Anything creepy. Shirley Jackson in particular.
Love her
Oh yaaaaah….for sure
Bunnicula, a kid’s book about a pet rabbit that is believed to be a vampire. It’s hilarious!
The Halloween Tree!
Practical magic
Frankenstein
Twilight Series!
Something Wicked This Way Comes, or The Halloween Tree, both by Ray Bradbury
The exorcist, something wicked this way comes, the omen and Stephen king short stories
Anything by Susan Hill
The Historian
The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/515GI7lt-FL._SL300_.jpg
Love that book so much! Two little girls draw together and it’s partly about the characters they draw. Sophisticated narrative in many ways and unlike anything else I’ve read that captures children and imagination.
Loved that book when I was a kid!
Don’t usually do spooky but this year I have The Turn
of the Screw on my list.
I haven’t read this yet but intend to soon. The Innocents is one if my top two haunted house movies of all time.
I liked this one!
I liked this one!
Harry Potter, of course!
Something Wicked this Way Comes.
I reread the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning
The Gashleycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey
Frankenstein and Dracula
I prefer the bible and fall books.
This is the time of year I pull out the haunted history type books, along with a basket of fall/Halloween books for my son.
Anything written or illustrated by Edward Gorey!
I read a new spooky novel every October. My favorite is probably Dracula.
Have you ever read it how Stoker meant it to be read?
how did he mean it to be read?
@Laurie I always gathered he meant it to be read on a dark and stormy night by candle or fire light, as electric lights were still relatively new and not in every house…It adds to the aura of it.
@Rae that sounds so creepy and fun!!! I’m going to do that ??
@Laurie I love to do that with Dracula and Frankenstein. It brings out the true horror of both! Let me know what you think when you do so! ?
I will let you know!!!
Ha! Sounds fun but it might strain my eyes too much!
Bunnicula with my kids!
The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson ❤️
I love We Have AlwaysLived in the Castle. For some reason I just don’t get The Haunting of Hill House. What am I missing?
I don’t know. I love it! I’m planning to try it on audio this year. It’s available through my library via Hoopla.
For lovers of Castle I must recommend Paul Tremblay’s Headful of Ghosts. Really. Take my word for it. He sits on the committee that gives out the Shirley Jackson award and is a Shirley Jackson scholar.
@Eliza it took me a while to get into it, but it turned out to be terrific. His newest one is The Cabin at the End of the World and it is hair raising.
Natalia Aponte but is cabin supernatural?
The scary thing about hill house, besides the perfect writing by a master, is the blend of mental emotional problems with the haunting so you are never sure what the true genesis of the haunting is. This has been copied many times now but when Jackson did it, it was a new concept. We have a deeply disturbed woman -is she being preyed upon or is she preying on everyone else?
@Eliza there is a very faint suggestion that one of the characters might have seen something supernatural— but the reader can’t be sure
@Eliza I see. I’m going to have to read it more carefully. Stephen King has said that it’s one of the best horror novels of the 20th century.
@Natalia does cabin have supernatural elements?
@Eliza I heard about that one on Bookstagram. I meant to get it at my last Barnes and Noble trip and forgot.
Absolute favorite, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Also, “The Woman in Black” and this year hoping to add the new “Dracul” by Dacre Stoked as a regular spooky season read, as it will be released early in October.
We read Legend of Sleepy Hollow in my literature class in high school and loved it! Still my top favorite. Thanks to Mr. Hawkins I change my books to the season. LOL
Stephen King!! or Harry Potter!
I once bought a book in the Indianapolis airport called “Haunted America” (this was in 1993). I re-read that each Fall for about 5 years.
I haven’t had a “Fall reading list” since then.
I’m excited to get some ideas here!
You would like Troy Taylor. He has written a story for that book. He has put out several historical ghost stories over the years. My favorite is Season of the Witch based on the Bell Witch of Tennessee. He has several of Illinois (he is also an IL native), Chicago, and St. Louis. You might check him out.
@Jaime thank you! I will definitely check these out.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Ann Rice’s Interview with a Vampire
Just learned that there is a “new” edition
So many, but I tend to return to Lovecraft’s The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Works of Poe, and the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz if you can find editions with the insanely horrifying and terrific illustrations by Stephen Gammel, (a lifetime’s worth of nightmare fuel to be had there).
Wait for Halloween. It’s only September 1.
But so many Halloween books ?
Close enough!
Something Wicked this Way Comes.
The Halloween tree
Tangled Webs, by Anne Bishop
Lovecraft and Poe stories!
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
My 3 year old was obsessed with this book for months. She has finally calmed down about it thankfully! lol
The art of the deal
This comment wins the internet today ?
THAT IS a horror story!
Boom!
I can not “like” this enough! ?
Dracula, Frankenstein of course, also “The Raven”, spooky folk tales, ghost stories.
Halloween Tree
The Shining
MISTS OF AVALON. I celebrate Samhain, not Halloween.
…but I will start reading, and watching scary stuff now. I can’t start too early.
Me too!
Dracula
I read the Haunting of Hill House 2 years ago for Halloween and that book still gives me nightmares. I also just saw they’re making it into a Netflix series.
the 1963 film version is terrifying!
@Ronda I think I need to look this up, so many people mentioned it. Have you read it?
Whaaaat? There was a superb, perfect movie made in 1963. I wish they would leave perfection alone.
@Chris it is the single finest haunted house novel of all time.
@Chris I have not read it, I’m still traumatized from seeing the movie when I was 13 or so!!
Bunnicula
13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey by Kathryn Tucker Windham
Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic
THe lIttle Stranger
The Haunting of Hill @House
It’s always Halloween if you read any of the Nocture Falls books by Kristen Painter
The Hallo-weiner by Dav Pilkey
Following
Almost any Stephen King story
Frankenstein by Mary @Shelley
Trying out “Robert the Devil” now. So far so good
It’s a children’s book but I love Jennifer,Hecate,Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Koningsburg
Loved that!
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree.
Years ago wherever we were on our family vacation, we’d visit a bookstore or state park gift shop where we could always find a book of local ghost stories to read around the campfire. My son and nephew loved this tradition.
The Haunting of Hill House.
That terrified me when I was 13. It was also a movie back then — so scary. A remake of the movie came out years ago featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones. It was terrible — not even scary. The effects were really cheesy.
There is one movie version that’s REALLY good – not the one with Vincent Price, which was also very cheesy, but another black and white version from the 60s. I think it’s called the House on Haunted Hill maybe?
I just looked them up on Wikipedia. The Haunting is the black and white movie I saw when I was 12 or 13 in Indiana– it was really frightening. Strong cast. That’s the one you are referring to. That movie and the 1999 remake with Zeta-Jones House are based on the Shirley Jackson story. House on Haunted Hill was the Vincent Price movie that came out around 1959. At this moment, I am glad it’s daylight outside…
@Vicki I think the one that terrified you is the one I was referring to as being really good – scariest movie I’ve ever seen and followed the book really well, even quoting that terrifying first paragraph: “and whatever walked there walked alone.” ?
??????
The Shadow of the Wind ,Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Night in the Lonesome October
“The Halloween Tree” by Ray Bradbury is suitable for adolescents. Good read…
I did this for my adult book club a few years ago. A couple thought it was inappropriate for children. I didn’t think it was any more macabre than Roald Dahl which I devoured as a kid
I thought of it as a story about friendship, learning about other cultures.
Good ghost story. Middle grade or YA novel.
I loved Avi as a kid ?
Picture book I frequently read with my children, and a good one for Halloween.
I read The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff thinking it was a scary story. It’s not scary, it’s an odd story line, and a good read, I really enjoyed it, even if I didn’t feel scared.
Pet Semetary
That book freaked me out for years. I’m tempted to try again, and see how it feels now.
Scariest book ever!
Anything by Edgar Allen Poe.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Miss Pereguine’s Home for Peculiar Children (series) and Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Hound of the Baskervilles
I was just thinking of a good Halloween to-Read list. I’m thinking:
Interview with a Vampire
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers
And Salem’s Lot
Edgar Allen Poe ?
Her Fearful Symmetry
For the little ones: The Spooky Old Tree by Berenstain
The Haunting of Hill House
Oh yeah…
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
Hound of the Baskervilles
Miss Peregrine series by Ransom Riggs
Halloween party is to be read soon pile.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker
Neil Gaiman.
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
I couldn’t even finish this book
That was such a well written, evocative and suspenseful story.
I agree with you, but at the time, I found the suspense too much for me.
SO scary.
??? Agreed. Harvest Home was chilling
The House On Haunted Hill !
You mean The Haunting of Hill House? Superb!
Shirley Jackson sure knew how to write. So scary!
Or I should say… The Haunting of Hill House
This is mentioned many times in this string. I’m going to have to look it up.
The movie is coming soon.
Natalia Aponte what movie? There was a superb movie in 1963 and a horrible crappy one in 1999.
Chris Hammond this is the single best haunted house book ever written
@Eliza I think it’s Netflix. Should be coming out soon.
@Eliza https://ew.com/tv/2018/08/27/the-haunting-of-hill-house-premiere-date-first-look/. Apparently it’s coming out next week!
Natalia Aponte I wish people would leave perfection alone. The 1963 movie is fantastic.
@Eliza I’ll have to check it out – I haven’t seen it. You know, I liked the book ok, but not the way most people do. I’ll have to read it again.
@Natalia the movie makes a few changes to the book with the scientists wife. The changes make the movie scarier.
@Eliza I saw the original back then when I was 13. Scared the bejabbers out of me. Great cast.
@Vicki me too. Scared me crazy at a young age. As did the film The Innocents.
I’m saving Dracula for the first time this fall, Halloween. I first read Frankenstein last year in October and it is one of my all-time favorites.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving.
I was just going to suggest that. Read it to my students.
Dracula, Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Something Wicked This Way Comes- Ray @Bradbury
Yes.
So creepy….
Dracula. I’ve never read The Exorcist, so I’ll be doing that this year.
A few short stories I enjoy around Halloween: Young Goodman Brown, Sop Doll, The Monkey’s Paw, and The Black Cat.
I can’t believe I forgot about Poe!
I read “The Exorcist” when I was 12. Not a good idea.
@Terry I love the movie. I’m betting the book is better. I love horror. I like being scared.
@Lori a good short story for fall is the Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce
@Bonnie Thank you!
Something Wicked this way comes. Classic Ray Bradbury.
The Legend of Sleeping Hollow and Dracula ?♂️
Dracula or The Winter People.
The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything
By Linda Williams
It’s Halloween by Jack Prelutsky. Scholastic Books. Copyright 1977.
Swiped as a child from my mom’s First Grade classroom. There are 12 short poems in it. I’m 44, but still read it every year.
I used to read “Bunnicula” to my students
My boys loved this series.
Something Wicked This way Comes
I’m reading The Little Leftover Witch to my daughter. It was one of my favorites when I was young.
Omg I mentioned that below. LOVE.
@Elizabeth omg yes it’s quite amazing. I mean rationally you know you’re not the only person to read the book but.. to MEET one? Wow!
“The Green Ribbon”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_3PIkV2anqk#
Anyone remember this from “In a Dark, dark room”? ???
One of my ghost story hits. I was walking outdoors near the library one day when a kid lowered himself from a tree, said, “And her head fell off”, and sauntered away.
The Graveyard Book
I’m planning on reading Dracula this October! ?♂️
Something Wicked this Way Comes
The uninvited by Dorothy Macardle published in 1941, made into a terrific movie, 1944
Loved this!
Read it in the 70’s after watching the film, Spent a small fortune to buy a copy about 20 years ago, & snapped up the criterion film when it was issued.
I never knew it was a book. Thanks for mentioning it!
I have it on DVD. Someone made me a copy from an old VHS tape.
The shining
PenPal
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Frankenstein.
The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
Teaching Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. My favorite kids’ book is The Witch’s Broom.
If you like Castle then I recommend Paul Tremblay’s Headful of Ghosts. He is on the Jackson award committee and did a perfect little tribute.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
Last year I read the Winter People by Jennifer McMahon, it was excellent. My favorite to read to my kids was One Halloween Night by Mark Teague.
Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree!
A Discovery of Witches!
The Halloween Tree by Bradbury, and Kings The Dark Half.
Room on the Broom for my preschool class.
Ambrose Bierce, H P Lovecraft
The Potter books. And some Poe.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is creeptastic!
Coraline by Neil Gaiman is wonderful….so is his The Graveyard Book…..
Anything by Edgar Allen Poe…
Anything by Stephen King….
And I TOTALLY AGREE with ANYTHING ILLUSTRATED BY EDWARD GOREY…..
Yessssssss……..
I read House of Leaves last October, absolutely loved it!
Yes! House of Leaves!
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and ANYTHING by Mary Downing Hahn.
The Graveyard Book was good.
Every year my husband and I listen to a book together during October. Frankenstein and Dracula were both great!
Last year our son joined us for Lovecraft stories. Creeeepy.
I think this year we are going to listen to Edith Wharton ghost stories!
I read HP Lovecraft as a teenager. Really creepy. The paperback book covers were extra creepy.
Dracula!
Edgar Alan Poe
Harry Potter
Frankenstein
Practical Magic
Dracula
I also really like Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick.
All of Poe (and I like to see productions of his works, too). Neil Gaiman’s Coraline….
Ray bradbury’s Halloween Tree – be sure to get the edition with the woodcut illustrations!
Frankenstein, Dracula, and anything by Poe.
Wendy Webb—she is masterful at creating atmosphere!
The October Country. I love Ray Bradbury.
Dawn, question. I just read Something Wicked This Way Comes, my first Bradbury novel. Although I enjoyed the storyline idea, I found the book slow and hard to get into. I didn’t care for the writing style and thought it would work more for poetry than a novel.
My question is, are his other books written in a similar style as Something Wicked… or are they different and therefore I should give another one a try. Thanks. ?
They’re short stories so they’re written in that style. Give it a try. It’s dated but still good.
Something wicked this way comes by Ray Bradbury.
Reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Would make a great read for Halloween or any time!
Still love Harry Potter, The Sorcerer’s Stone.
War of the Worlds, and the accompanying DVD from Mercury Theatre.
Edgar of course ?
Any collection of ghost stories by M.R.James.
I love those old classic ghost stories too.
Yes! They lend the kind of spookiness that only James can provide, right? 🙂
@Shakuntala Yes, the atmosphere is definitely spooky. And the hauntings are subtly chilling.
Sleepy Hollow
Not a book… but a poem. The Cremation of Sam McGee. Several lines I love.
Talk of your cold, through the parkas fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
(Talking about a corpse) at times I’d sing to the hateful thing and it harkened with a grin.
And then I took a hike for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so.
I guess he’s cooked and its time I looked…
And the dogs were fed and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel to toe …. I love Service
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King.
I’ve read both of those. Really good.
If you like Castle then you should read Paul Tremblay’s Head Full of Ghosts. His tribute to Jackson and that one in particular.
I just finished Head Full of Ghosts ?
@Katie really good no?
@Eliza so good. Disturbing in a “under your skin” kind of way. I had to make myself stop thinking about it!
Looking forward to putting this on my October TBR! Thanks for the suggestion!
I read a different classic horror story (published at least 50 years previously) every October. This year it will be Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury). As for my favorite, it’s a tie: Dracula (Stoker) and Frankenstein (Shelley).
Following
Ray Bradbury “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
I usually pick a Stephen King I haven’t read yet.
The Headless Horseman.
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
Great one, and short too.
Books from childhood: spook, about a witch’s camiliar that is a dog that fell off a broom , by Jane Little; the little leftover witch, about a girl witch that falls off a broom and is taken in by a family (only when reading as an adult did I see the allegory to adoption and cried); suddenly… a witch, about a girl who has a cold and can’t go to a Halloween party until her cat Magicks her a broom and an invisibility spell.
https://www.amazon.com/Spook-Jane-Little/dp/0689714173
I think you and I had the same reading list? Also, Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett and The 13th is Magic by Joan Howard.
@Kerri yes little witch! But I don’t know the other! Putting on TBR list!
The Witches, then I watch the movie, Angelica Huston is the best as the witch!?♀️
I loved this little book❤️
@Kerri I bought it as a teen and still have my copy. Among other things nostalgic for days when children went out and trick or treated at night by themselves!
And let’s just say G-d Bless eBay and Amazon used books! It’s all there!
Also The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. By. John Berenot. Any mystery novel by. Agatha Christie, or poems by. Edgar Allen Poe. ???
Shirley Jackson! Love her work. I always go back to Poe.
Salems Lot.
I think I’m going to finally finish Harry Potter and start again at the beginning. ❤️
The Shining
Deadbeat by Jim Butcher. One of my favorite books of the Dresden Files.
Dracula, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allen Poe’s writings.
Porkenstein
Coraline, it’s a little bit scary and so much fun!
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Poe short stories.
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
A lot of Stephen King..and, of course, Edgar Allan Poe!!
The Turn of the Screw.
Loved this book in Elementary school. ?
I still have this one. It was a Weekly Reader book.
I have this one too (inherited it from a great-aunt when she passed).
Loved all the Georgie books. Author is Robert Bright. Old fashioned, but maybe certain types of kids today will enjoy it.
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde; both The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving; anything by Ruth Chew makes me nostalgic for childhood halloween.
In the Haunted House, by Eve Bunting
And for grownups, a new one, Melmoth, by Sarah Perry.
I saw someone mentioned Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon– very chilling– also The Other by the same author. Whew!
The Other was very creepy.
Both really creepy, atmospheric, and fantastic.
I like Halloween themed short stories. A good place to start is the anthology Halloween, editor Paula Guran. ? Also, Guran edits The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. I think there are nine volumes so far.?
Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Faulkner is a pretty creepy fellow. I also enjoy King and Joe Hill.
Seasons don’t affect my reading choices, whatever I happen to be reading! Movies is where I watch seasonal!!!
In that case, for Halloween I recommend the Audrey Hepburn thriller Wait Until Dark
@Joel seen it a million times!!
The Tell-Tale Heart
Oh I remember listening to the audiobook of that in eighth grade, and it gave me the creeps! Poe will always be a master of horror!
I always read Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked this Way Comes.
Robert McCammon’s USHER’S PASSING and other McCammon books.
Witches
The Halloween Tree.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula ?♂️
Everything John Saul
Don’t read anything special for Halloween.
The outsider
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving . Also “The House of Seven Gables” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
In a Dark Dark Room. Silence of the Lambs. Misery.
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned here, but someone just recommended it on another thread: Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
I try to read one classic horror book (that I haven’t read) every October. I’ve only done it for 4 years, but I’ve read Frankenstein, Dracula, The Shining, and The Haunting of Hill House. I’ll probably read some Lovecraft this year.
I do the same thing! I also recommend The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Not much of a horror reader but I love children ‘ stories, Room on the Broom is a favorite, not necessarily Halloween, but it has a witch.
Also, Georgie and Georgie’s Halloween
Harry Potter
The Ghost of Nicholas Greebe
Following
The frankly massive short story collection, The Weird, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Over 1000 pages and more than 100 short stories from authors like Lovecraft, Bradbury, George R.R. Martin, Octavia E. Bulter, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, and many, many others. I haven’t started it, but I hope to read one story every night of October.
Old school “Goosebumps”
Carrie by Stephen King! It’s my favorite of his books!
Anything by Stephen King
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The Halloweiner.
bunnicula
Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and anything Poe.
A great collection for $1!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B016CFGT60/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8
There’s another thread on this topic in here, some of the suggestions are the same but there are probably different ones as well.
Just read Mr. Mercedes. It’s first in a trilogy. O Boy!
A very odd one that I read a couple of years ago is Horrorstör, by Grady Hendrix. It is a satire based on an Ikea catalog, and it looks like – and starts out feeling like – it might be classified as humor, but it’s one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read.
I plan on reading “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski. I’ve heard it’s awesome and quite scary.
It’s brilliant!
Jumanji!!!
Libby Bray’s The Diviners is quite good.
Patricia High Smith’s Mr. Ridley books are entertaining and absolutely hair-raising, especially Ripley Under Ground and Ripley Underwater.
Bunnicila! Always my class read-aloud!
The celery stalks at midnight!
Edgar Allen Poe
I do a live storyteller version of “Telltale Heart” at the local historical house tour every other year or so!
Drood by Dan @Simmons
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Washington Irving is fun.
A Night in the Lonesome October (novella) by Roger Zelazny
My favorite ?
I read Skeleton Creek to my 6th graders. It’s billed as, “Blair Witch Meets the X-Files’….scares the crap out of ’em and they love it!
My fifth graders loved Skeleton Creek.
Christine by S. King
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray @Bradbury
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. A YA book, but I love it!
It steven king
I love Halloween.. Ghost stories. I love short stories anyway and many celebrated writers have written a good ghost story. As far as novels,, Salems Lot by Stephen King and Ghost Story by Peter Straub. I liked Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Laura Barton- are there any short Ghost stories you would recommend?
I can recommend Joe Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts colleciton
@Laurie most are from short story collections. I read one that Truman capote wrote that was really spooky. But if you are looking for one book that has all creepy stories. Id say “Cold Hand in Mine” by Robert Aickman and “the haunted looking glass” ghost stories collected by Edward Gorey
I read a lot to my Grandkids..Little Critter, Room on the Broom, The Little Old Woman who wasn’t afraid of Anything…
Love Room on the Broom!
@Elizabeth have you read Piggie Pie? It’s the companion book to Room on the Broom.
@Cindy, no, I’ll look for it, thanks!
My children loved a little book called The Leftover Witch
The Shining by Stephen King
Harry Potter series!
Also his other book, The Other. Scary.
I plan on reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in celebration of its 200th Anniversary!
One of my favorites!
Mine too!
Big, big pumpkin
Following as I need a book set on Halloween for my 2018 Pop Sugar challenge.
Telltale heart, The fall of the house of usher, Legend of sleepy hollow, Interview with a vampire.
Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories by M. R. James