I’ve been waiting all year to do this post. It’s s time for Halloween reads. Here is a list of books that would be perfect for October. They are some of my favorites. Keep reading to see why.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Synopsis:

The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. 

A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.

This is set on the week of Halloween. Ray Bradbury does an awesome job at describing the feeling of Halloween that I remember as a kid. There is an excitement in the air that you can’t explain. And the thrill of a carnival turned sinister gives me the spooky vibe that I want out of a Halloween read.

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The Invited

Synopsis:

In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams.

When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago.

With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house–a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse–objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

I love a good haunted house story. The Invited took that concept and rebuilt it. When the wife brings in antique items to include in the construction of the house, the past comes with them. Essentially, she is building a haunted house. Each item has a story, and they are explored throughout the book.

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Beloved

Synopsis:

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.

Beloved is chilling in so many ways. I think it is something everyone needs to read. Last year, I was gifted a copy through a Halloween swap on Litsy. I devoured it.

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The Shining

Synopsis:

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

Pick any of Stephen King’s books and it will be perfect for Halloween. He is the king of horror. However, The Shining really sticks out to me when I think of Halloween reads. I love a good ghost story, and this is one of the best.

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So those are a few of my favorite Halloween reads. Let me know what yours are in the comments. Also, I am looking for more books actually set on Halloween. Do you have any suggestions?

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