It's no doubt that September lasted shorter than the battery in an iPhone but I'm not worried because it's October, and that means, it's spooky season! Are you ready to decorate your house with pumpkins, spider webs, play gloomy music in the background, and pullout a book perfect for the mood? Well, here are eight unique books that will take you straight to another world of night creatures and spookiness!
1. I'm A Gay Wizard
- Author: V. S. Santoni
- Genre: Fantasy Fiction
- Publisher: Wattpad Books
Goodreads Rating: 3.2
You try magic once and it sticks to you like glitter glue. . .
When Johnny and his best friend, Alison, pass their summer holidays dabbling in magic, they never expect it to have consequences. Sure, it’d be great if they could banish bullies or change their lives for the better, and what harm could come from lighting a few candles and chanting a few spells? When they cause an earthquake that shakes Chicago to its core, they draw the attention of the Marduk Institute, an age-old organization dedicated to fostering the talents of young wizards.
Once there, Johnny and Alison are told they can never return to their previous lives and must quickly adapt to a new world shimmering with monsters, fraternities, and cute boys like Hunter and Blake. But when they’re pulled into an epic, supernatural fight that could cost them both their lives, Johnny and Alison find strength they never knew they had as they battle for love, acceptance, and their own happy ending—all with the help of a little magic.
2. The Haunting of Ashburn House
- Author: Darcy Coates
- Genre: Horror
- Publisher: Black Owl Books
Goodreads Rating: 4.2
There's something wrong with Ashburn House... the ancient building has been the subject of rumors for close to a century. Its owner, Edith, refused to let guests inside and rarely visited the nearby town.
Following Edith's death, her sole surviving relative, Adrienne, inherits the property. Adrienne's only possessions are a suitcase of luggage, twenty dollars, and her pet cat. Ashburn House is a lifeline she can't afford to refuse.
Adrienne doesn't believe in ghosts, but it's hard to ignore the unease that grows as she explores her new home. Strange messages have been etched into the wallpaper, an old grave is hidden in the forest behind the house, and eerie portraits in the upstairs hall seem to watch her every movement.
As she uncovers more of the house's secrets, Adrienne begins to believe the whispered rumors about Ashburn may hold more truth than she ever suspected. The building has a bleak and grisly past, and as she chases the threads of a decades-old mystery, Adrienne realizes she's become the prey to something deeply unnatural and intensely resentful.
Only one thing is certain: Ashburn's dead are not at rest.
3. Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction
- Author: Lisa Kröger
- Genre: Horror, Non-Fiction
- Publisher: Quirk Books
Goodreads Rating: 4.1
Meet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature’s strangest tales, from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond.
Frankenstein was just the beginning: horror stories and other weird fiction wouldn’t exist without the women who created it. From Gothic ghost stories to psychological horror to science fiction, women have been the primary architects of all sorts of speculative literature. And their own life stories are just as intriguing as their fiction.
Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein, who was rumored to keep her late husband’s heart in her desk drawer. But have you heard of Margaret “Mad Madge” Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier (and liked to wear topless gowns to the theater)? If you know the astounding work of Shirley Jackson, whose novel The Haunting of Hill House was reinvented as a Netflix series, then try the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era.
You’ll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V. C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Colter, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today’s vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). Curated reading lists point you to their most spine-chilling tales.
Part biography, part reader’s guide, the engaging write-ups and detailed reading lists will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spooky novels, novellas, and stories.
4. The Only Good Indians
- Author: Stephen Graham Jones
- Genre: Horror
- Publisher: Saga Press
Goodreads Rating: 3.8
A tale of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind to catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
5. No One Gets Out Alive
- Author: Adam Nevill
- Genre: Horror
- Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Goodreads Rating: 4
Darkness lives within... cash-strapped, working for agencies, and living in shared accommodation, Stephanie Booth feels she can fall no further. So when she takes a new room at the right price, she believes her luck has finally turned. But 82 Edgware Road is not what it appears to be.
It's not only the eerie atmosphere of the vast, neglected house, or the disturbing attitude of her new landlord, Knacker McGuire, that makes her uneasy—it's the whispers behind the fireplace, the scratching beneath floors, the footsteps in the dark, and the young women weeping in neighboring rooms. And when Knacker's cousin Fergal arrives, the danger goes vertical. But this is merely the beginning to the gateway of horrors beyond Stephanie's worst nightmares. And in a house where no one listens to the screams, will she ever get out alive?
6. Cemetery Boys
- Author: Aiden Thomas
- Genre: YA Fantasy
- Publisher: Swoon Reads
Goodreads Rating: 5
A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave in Aiden Thomas's paranormal YA debut Cemetery Boys, described by Entertainment Weekly as “groundbreaking.”
Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can't get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He's determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.
7. Dracula
- Author: Bram Stoker
- Genre: Classic, Horror
Goodreads Rating: 5
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.
The novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of people led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
8. It Will Just Be Us
- Author: Jo Kaplan
- Genre: Horror
- Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Goodreads Rating: 4
Sam Wakefield's ancestral home, a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp, isn't a place for children. Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it's all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life. But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts.
Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam is even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy who commits disturbing acts—threatening animals, terrorizing other children, and following Sam into the depths of the house wielding a knife. When it becomes clear the boy is connected to a locked, forgotten room that no one has ever entered, Sam realizes this ghost is not like the others. This boy brings doom.
As Elizabeth's due date approaches, Sam must unravel the mysteries of Wakefield before her sister brings new life into a house marked by death. But as the faceless boy grows stronger, Sam will learn that some doors should stay closed—and some secrets are safer locked away forever.
I hope these books can you in the perfect spooky vibe! Let me know which one you choose in the comments below!