As someone who likes to tailor their reading lists to match the energy of their surrounds (beach reads only on vacations, thank you very much), it seems only fitting to write you out a list of the spookiest and scariest tales for the month of October.
With Halloween only a few weeks away, so long as we've got our costumes sorted, we'll be spending our evenings curled up by the lamp light, tucking into our favourite horrors, Sci-Fi novels, and true crime reads.
Below, we've picked out 20 of our favourite horror and Halloween books that have made it onto our spooky reading list this year...
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Starting our list of horror and Halloween books is Wilde's gothic horror tale set in late-19th-century England, which follows the life of a young aesthete whose lust for youth and beauty sees him face the devastating consequences of his unchecked desires.
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Shelley's 1818 novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein and his great ambition to create intelligent life. But upon his creature's first stirrings, Frankenstein realises he has created a monster.
3. The Shining by Stephen King
King is largely regarded as the undisputed master of modern horror, and 1977's The Shining is one of his masterpieces. When five-year-old Danny's family become caretakers of the remote Overlook Hotel, a brutal winter sets in and they must wrestle with not only the hotel's dark secrets, but with their own minds.
4. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Machado's award-winning 2017 short story collection weaves together urban fables, gothic literature, and popular culture in eight queer, feminist, seductive horror tales.
5. Japanese Ghost Stories Lafcadio Hearn and Paul Murray
No one does the horror genre quite like Japan does, and these eerie classic tales depict flesh-eating goblins, faceless 'mujina', phantoms, ghouls and deadly spectral brides.
6. Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
Feminine rage is explored in this wildly original, magical realism-style satire that follows a stay-at-home Mum who believes that she is turning into a dog.
7. The Houseguest: And Other Stories by Amparo Dávila
Pushing the limits of desire, paranoia, insomnia, and fear, Dávila's haunting short stories are full of strangeness, darkness and melancholy. From a man forced to take care of his late brother's demonic pets, to a woman's cruelly controlling husband, who brings a stranger home to live with them.
8. Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
Named the Best Book of the Year by Time, Huffington Post, Kirkus, and more, Etter's novel follows a young woman who feels trapped in the toxic corporate nightmare of her Silicon Valley startup, and must decide how much she's willing to give up for success.
9. Eyes Guts Throat Bones by Moïra Fowley
Traditionally a YA novellist, Fowley explores of all our darkest impulses and deepest fears in her debut collection for adults. These folkloric and horror-adjacent short stories are sexy, sinister and at times, gruesome.
10. Dracula by Bram Stoker
Written in the late 19th century, Irish author Bram Stoker's epistolary novel recounts one man's trip to Transylvania to help a Count with the purchase of a new home.
11. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Another contemporary laureate of the horror genre, Gaiman's Coraline sees a young girl venture through a hidden door to find a new, dark and twisted reality.
11. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The book that created a genre of novelistic non-fiction, Capote's notorious true crime novel depicts the savage and senseless murder of a family, and taps into the very essence of American violence.
12. Perfume by Patrick Süskind
Süskind's historical fantasy novel set in eighteenth-century France is an evocative and haunting olfactory journey that tells the story of a murderer with a particularly potent sense of smell.
13. Mind Hunter by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
This bestselling true story and inspiration behind the hit Netflix show of the same name tells the story of its author, retired FBI agent John E. Douglas, who became part of the first team to probe the dark minds of incarcerated serial killers.
14. Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
This dystopian Splatterpunk novel by Argentinean author Bazterrica narrates how humanity might evolve to no longer having domesticated animals, and a young man in the business of a human slaughterhouse.
15. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
This 1959 gothic horror novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and crafted one of the most influential haunted house tales of all time. Jackson's story follows the summer renters of Hill House, who are hoping to find scientific evidence of the supernatural.
16. Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
An amnesiac girl discovers she's a genetically modified 53-year-old vampire, and must uncover her past while facing those who still seek to destroy her. Butler's last novel published before her death, it tests the limits of our understanding of 'otherness'.
17. Out by Natsuo Kirino
The story of a young Mother who strangles her abusive husband and enlists her coworkers to help cover it up, Out leads readers into Japan's violent underbelly in a gripping blend of literary suspense, dark comedy, and a poignant exploration of women's extreme actions and friendships.
18. Beloved by Toni Morrison
At its core, Beloved is a masterfully crafted ghost story, but Toni Morrison’s skilful unraveling of guilt, desperation, and trauma transforms it into a singular, devastating Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
19. The Raven: Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Guillermo del Toro curated Penguin's horror series, selecting The Raven: Tales and Poems, a landmark anthology showcasing Edgar Allan Poe's powerful, imaginative exploration of the darkest corners of the human mind.
20. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
James' masterful, subtly terrifying ghost stories remain a cornerstone of the horror genre, with their haunting ambiguity and lingering uncertainty being key to their brilliance.
Want more than just our favourite horror and Halloween books list? Check out our holiday reading list and our list of new-releases to check out in 2024.
