Spooky Reads For The Spooky Season

Last updated on 5 September 2023

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It’s the spooky season which means we all need some spooky reads!

If you’re anything like me then you love October. My reasons for loving it don’t make as much sense as your reasons perhaps (I love the fact that its fall in the northern hemisphere, but here in New Zealand it’s spring … but I like to live vicariously through you guys), but the fact of the matter is that it’s Halloween season and that means spooky reads are a must!

To get you in the mood for Halloween, and to add to the 2019 Halloween reads list, here are some more spooky reads I recommend checking out, with a roundup of some other spooky reads which I haven’t actually read but have heard good things about.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

The story is heartbreaking, and there is some stunning symbolism, themes and important topics throughout. It almost reads like a fable, with the main storyline interspersed with addition tales told to Conor by the yew tree. I think the illustrations are the spookiest part for me: haunting yet somehow beautiful.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

This was a great book. I love a story set in the 1800s and better still when it’s in London. Incorporating a historical series of events like Jack the Ripper into a YA novel was an excellent move, and I loved the setting and the times just as much as the characters and the plotline. The dark London streets, mortuary, and, of course, a serial killer on the loose, make for an excellent spooky read.

Hunting Prince Dracula by Kerri Maniscalco

Likewise, the second in the series, Hunting Prince Dracula, was just as good. This time we follow the main characters to Romania, where tales of Prince Dracula are on everyone’s minds. Another historical element, and a spin on the classic tales we’ve probably known in the past. While I have yet to read the next one, Escaping from Houdini, I’m looking forward to picking it up sometime!

Rules For Vanishing Kate Alice Marshall

I read Rules for Vanishing in one sitting, it was that good. I was so captivated by the idea and the ghostly flavour to it, and the ‘what will happen’ next feeling every single page that I rocketed through it. The story itself is creepy; a young girl, lost in the woods, never found but has become a legend in the town. Then another girl, Becca, goes missing, and her sister Sara is determined to get her back. The squad of teens who go into the woods, following instructions set out in a notebook, is an odd collection of characters, but somehow they set off on this journey through the darkness together. It was unlike anything I’ve read before.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

What an intense book. It’s not often I move away from Young Adult books these days, but of course, I had to pick this one up because it’s Leigh Bardugo and you guys know much I enjoyed her Grishaverse. I was really looking forward to seeing how she crafted a story outside of the world of the Grisha. And it did not disappoint, my friends.

Bloodlust and Bonnets by Emily McGovern

This was a really fun graphic novel. The characters chaotic and crazy yet brilliant, and the storyline perhaps even more so. Did the story make sense? Not really, no. Was the artwork brilliant? As always, yes. Basically, it was just a really fun book that highly entertained, and has vampires in it.

Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab

In 2018, Victoria ‘V.E.’ Schwab released City of Ghosts, and it followed the story of Cassidy Blake and her adventures around Edinburgh, Scotland. Cassidy’s parents are ghost hunters and host a TV show, but Cassidy can actually see ghosts; in fact, her best friend Jacob is one.

In Tunnel of Bones we follow Cas and Jacob to Paris, France, where things are not as holiday-esque as they’d like. They join Cassidy’s parents around the city on their filming locations, but it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that there’s a poltergeist causing havoc. As the story goes on, Cassidy and Jacob try to figure out who the ghost is menacing in the city of Paris, and how to make it stop.