Recommended Reading: Spooky Books
Nothing signals the approach of Halloween quite like the skeletons, ghosts, and spiders’ webs decorating houses and windows all over Brooklyn. We couldn’t let it go by without highlighting some of our all-time favorite spooky books filled with enough witches, haunted houses, terror, and excitement to turn even the most horror-averse. Whether you’re looking for a book to keep you terrified for weeks or something more on the thrilling side of things, there’s a spooky book for you!
The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg
I am experiencing a dislocation of reality. This line appears on the very first page of The Third Hotel and has lingered in the back of my mind since I read it last year at Danni's recommendation. Clare, recently widowed, is attending a horror film festival in her deceased husband's stead, but when she lands in Havana there he is: her husband Richard, hale and whole. Terribly confused, Clare follows her dead husband over the following days, and the edges of reality become so blurred that they may as well have not existed in the first place. It's not a ghost story, exactly; it's not horror, it's not a psychological thriller, there is no Shocking Twist that brings the facts to light. It is a story about a woman grieving in a city where she does not belong. It's not a ghost story, but this book has haunted me, as it will haunt you. –Abby
Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
Quinn Maybrook and her father move from Philadelphia to Kettle Springs, Missouri for a fresh start after the death of her mother. On her first day at her new high school, she falls in with the popular kids.
There is a restlessness and discontent in Kettle Springs, a town hit hard by capital divestment and whose mascot is Frendo, a red-nosed clown in a pork pie hat. The authority figures feel the town’s teenagers are out of control. The teens feel the adults are stuck in their old ways. This dynamic divides the town, making it the perfect breeding ground for a homicidal clown bent on destroying what little harmony is left.
This is perfect for fans of movies like Disturbing Behavior, The Faculty, or I Know What You Did Last Summer. It has that classic teen horror movie feel and is really well-written. –Danni
The Troop by Nick Cutter
Scoutmaster Tim Riggs is taking his troop on the annual trip into the Canadian wilderness. What was supposed to be a routine bonding experience turns into a weekend of trauma and death when a stranger stumbles into their campsite. Riggs, whose day job is a medical doctor, assumes the young man is ill and in need of assistance.
This is the first decision that leads to the boys quivering in fear of an entity that has no discernible goal, but to devour.
This book is a wild, disgusting ride. I had a good time, and the last scene made my heart break. –Danni
The Keep by Jennifer Egan
I love how this novel takes the classic tropes of gothic literature--crumbling castles, isolation, foreign locations--and plays around with them to create an eerie and unsettling atmosphere. And as if this isn't enough, The Keep has an extremely meta personality, with a story within a story and a strong awareness of itself as a work of fiction. I've read this book a few times now and there are so many interesting layers that I always discover something new on each reread. –Lindsay
The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina River Garza, trans. Suzanne Jill Levine & Aviva Kana
I will read anything by this 2020 MacArthur Genius fellow. I adore her work for its ability to puzzle me, scare me, and reveal a truth to me that I am too stupid to realize myself.
This novella is a noir detective novel, a dark fairytale, and an adventure novel like no other. An unnamed female detective is hired by a wealthy man to find his former lover, a lover who is believed to have vanished in a town that is plagued by inexplicable strangeness. The Detective hires a translator and ventures into the wilderness in search of someone, but what she finds is more than she signed up for. –Danni
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
There are some books that you can just feel. That bore deep under your organs and kind of wiggle around, never quite settling. Everything Under is one of those books for me. It's eerie and grimy with a sharp tongue. It's about secrets, and family, and confronting the hurt we have caused, and loving those who have hurt us. There is an ominous river monster, and Greek-level tragedy, and lots of people running away from what they might become. In short: a perfectly haunting book for those that don't usually do traditionally scary stories. –Colleen
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Reading this is like watching a Blackfeet Jordan Peele movie. I don’t normally read horror, but this book possesses all the alluring elements of a classic revenge thriller while exploring some of the themes you might expect in a literary fiction novel, such as cultural identity, family, and tradition. It’s been described as Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange, and I couldn’t agree more, it combines all the grit and gore of the former with the propulsive, character-driven suspense of the latter. A dark and surprisingly funny page-turner. –Serena
The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub
I grew up in a house full of scary stuff. Macabre bric a brac on the shelves, Hitchcock movies in the VCR, and, of course, endless rows of books, many of which tended toward the dark and spooky in one way or another. We weren’t Halloween people--that was for amateurs! No, we were always a little bit scary, and that scariness mostly came from the room at the top of my parents’ house, my father’s office.
My dad, Peter Straub, has written more than 20 books. They are often shelved in the Horror section, sometimes in the Thriller section, sometimes in Fantasy, and sometimes, like in our store, in the regular old Fiction section. His books are wild and smart and have very long sentences, and if you think you know exactly what kind of writer he is based on what his books jackets look like, you’re probably wrong.
Right now, I’m rereading one of my dad’s books, The Talisman, which he wrote with Stephen King in the early 1980s, when I was a very small child. I hadn’t read it since I was a tween, and it is such a welcome feeling, revisiting characters I knew so long ago, written by previous incarnations of my dad and Steve, thinking about the two of them as writers in my current stage of life; parents of tiny humans, ambitious, and ready to create new worlds. The book is full of peril and adventure. Is it ‘spooky’? Maybe not. But there is real fear in it, and danger, and mysterious forces, and love. It’s also 800 pages long, and so it might be fat enough to tide you over until after the election. –Emma
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
The best description I can give of this new release is portal horror. Kara is newly divorced and in need of a place to stay. She moves back in with her mom, whom she finds insufferable, but then her uncle offers her a job at and the apartment above his museum of oddities--taxidermy animals, odd drawings, and the like.
While locking up one night, she discovers a hole in the wall. Needing help to patch it up, she enlists the help of a barista named Steve who works next door. Unlike a normal hole, there is no view of sheet rock but instead a corridor of doors that lead to a place of unimaginable fright.
I was THOROUGHLY scared while reading this, which is not easy to do. –Danni
The Dead House and And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich
While these two books are categorized as Young Adult, both will still give an adult reader the chills. Kurtagich's vivid descriptions have a way of crawling under your skin and burrowing deeper and deeper as you keep reading. While the two books have different basic plots–The Dead House taking place in a boarding school setting and And the Trees Crept In revolving around a rural country home--both will make you question which characters you can trust, and whether or not you can even trust your own mind. –Lindsay
Malorie by Josh Malerman
BIRD BOX #2! Need I say more? Malorie takes place 10 years after the events of the first book. Truly, it’s action-packed suspense with a blend of slow-burn mystery. It’s the sequel we didn’t know we needed! –Jacque
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Daphne is the OG Gothic Queen. It’s a tradition of mine to read at least one of her novels each autumn-spooky season. Rebecca has been selling off the shelves because the new Netflix movie comes out on October 21st! I’m also a big fan of Rebecca but I wouldn’t want Jamaica Inn to fall under the radar. This book is one of her best because she creates an atmosphere like no other - the English countryside with the moors, the bogs, the tors all come alive. You will feel the inn’s dark, brooding power. –Jacque
The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
Not a creepy read, but definitely October/Halloween worthy. The Witches of NewYork takes place in 1880's Manhattan and follows three women: two seasoned witches who own a tea shop which caters to the needs of women all across the city, and a young woman with special gifts who is looking to break free from her rural farm life and ends up employed at this tea shop. In this novel we get a more nuanced look at life as a female witch and get to experience all the magic and danger that comes with this. –Lindsay
The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada
A bored housewife, an absent husband, and a new, eerily desolate neighborhood next door to the in-laws, who are nearly strangers. Enter: a mysterious creature, an exposed family secret, and a hole. Let’s just say, things get weird! A slim, absurdist thriller that will leave you unsettled and, most likely, scratching your head. Perfect for those who want a quick, atmospheric read that is vaguely allegorical and a bit disturbing, but not so scary you get monster nightmares! –Serena
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
Miranda Silver hears voices -- her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. Her house speaks to her, leans into her, keeps her close & safe. Will do anything to keep her close & safe. This is a gorgeously written, thrilling gothic horror novel about the tangled webs of family legacy & deeply rooted white nationalism. When you finish it: take ten minutes to sit with it, and then read the first chapter again. I swear your life will be forever changed. –Abby
I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
This book is a trip (literally and figuratively). The basic premise: a young woman and her new boyfriend take a road trip to visit the boyfriend's parents for the first time. However, there is so much going on here, from the strange dialogue between characters and subtly off-putting signs that something is not quite right. At the risk of sounding clique, nothing is as it seems. (dun-DUN!) The back of the book states, "You will be scared. But you won't know why..." and I can't think of a more accurate way to explain this novel. –Lindsay
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
NCIS agent Shannon Moss is a member of a select unit that ventures into deep space (which we then understand is also a way to travel into deep time) to gather information about crimes in the present. One night she gets a call to a double homicide. A wife and her son are brutally murdered while the husband and daughter are nowhere to be found. The husband turns out to be a member of the same select group that Moss is. He was a pilot in Mission Zodiac that sent twelve ships into deep space.
As Agent Moss’s investigation has more and more puzzling developments, the closer the world is drawn to The Terminus, the end of everything as we know it.
If you finished the Netflix original DARK and are craving something similar, look no further. –Danni
The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams
This paranormal young adult is a mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Babysitters Club. It’s such a fun, spooky read with such a nostalgic vibe. If you’re in the mood for a carefree, witchy adventure opposed to a scare - I totally recommend it.
Esme Pearl is a high school student with a passion for babysitting. One day her world is turned upside down when objects start floating around her. And just like that, her life is full of magical creatures, spells, and other spooky occurrences! –Jacque
