Creepy Reads for Halloween 2021

Halloween 2021 looks a lot better than Halloween 2020 did, and on top of that good news, the Astros are in the World Series! To celebrate, I selected some fun and creepy reads to help everyone get into the Halloween spirit. While I enjoy writing about creepy books, I do not always enjoy actually reading them so I searched around to find some great recommendations. 

I have sorted the books by theme to help guide people towards the right type of spooky read for them. A number of these books could fit in more than one category so I tried to slot them into the one that I felt fit best. I have starred the books that I have read and enjoyed, and they are listed below in no particular order. 

Here are some reads to help you enjoy the season:

Mildly Creepy:

• *The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
• Survive the Night by Riley Sager
• *Broken Harbor by Tana French (or anything else by her)
• *The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (short story)
• *The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe (short story)

Really Dark Reads:

• The Whisper Man by Alex North
• The Stand by Stephen King (as the master of suspense and horror, he has numerous other books that qualify here)
• The Nowhere Man by Catherine Ryan Howard
• The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
• The Chain by Adrian McKinty
• Night Film by Marisha Pessl
• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Gothic Reads:

• *The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James
• *The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
• *The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
• *The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
• *Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier 
• The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni

Ghost or supernatural stories:

• *A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan
• *The Last to See Me and I See You So Close by M. Dressler 
• The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (she has numerous other ghost stories too)
• *The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcy Coates
• The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates
• Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Scarier Ghost/Supernatural/Horror stories:

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 
• The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
• Craven Manor by Darcy Coates
• Hunted by Darcy Coates

I want to hear about your favorite creepy books below in the comments!

For more book recommendations and bookish thoughts, see Cindy’s monthly Buzz Reads column, her Thoughts from a Page Podcast or follow @ThoughtsFromaPage on Instagram. Find upcoming Conversations from a Page events here.