10 Halloween Reads To Dive Into This Spooky Season

Last updated on 16 January 2025

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Looking for some spooky Halloween reads?

I’m not really into horror, whether that be moves, TV or books. I can deal with a little but mostly if it’s in and around a different genre or story line. But I also think it’s fun to read something different when the seasons change. Christmas stories at Christmas, summer books in the warmer months, spooky tales at Halloween. So today I thought I’d share with you some of the books that I’ve read that fall into that spooky sort of genre – they’re not horror, really, or at least they’re not densely horror-filled, and they’re a fun addition to your October TBR pile.

Ghosts

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

In The Graveyard Book Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, lives in a graveyard. He wandered in when he was a toddler and the residents of the graveyard take him under their transparent wings. This is a middle-grade book so you’re in safe non-horror hands as Gaiman weaves the story of Bod and his graveyard family together. Could ghosts get any more Halloweeny?

City of Ghosts, by Victoria Schwab

Another middle-grade book to add to your TBR pile is City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab. The second in this series is called Tunnel of Bones and has just recently been released. It follows Cassidy Blake and her best friend Jacob (who happens to be a ghost) as they head to Scotland with Cassie’s parents and get into all sorts of spooky mischief. Like I said, it’s middle grade, so it’s not going to give you nightmares, but it’s supernatural enough that it fits right in with Halloween. It’s also very short (only 280ish pages) so you can probably read it in one sitting.

Shoutouts: Rules for Vanishing, by Kate Alice Marshall; Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Monsters

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

My favourite thing about this story is that the pages are filled with actual weird and wonderful photographs that Riggs has found on his trips to thrift stores and the like. Out of the images he discovered in dusty boxes on forgotten shelves he’s created this wonderful, supernatural, spooky world and great characters and interesting settings. While I have yet to read any more than this, the first in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series, if they’re anything like this one then they’re bound to be good.

Zombies

The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan

I read this book on a bus to London back in 2013 and thoroughly enjoyed it. In my book review I said “it’s not classed as a horror, I don’t think (on the back it just says ‘fantasy’), but it would fit into the genre fine. It’s not super horror-y but it has enough blood and guts to get you to be highly concerned at the rate of your heart beat while reading it.” The Halloween factor is the zombie-like beings that put fear into the souls of the main characters, and while the second one wasn’t as enjoyable, this was a really fun (and creepy) read.

Witches

A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness

You may have seen the TV show which came out a year or so go which is based on this book. Even though I read this book in 2013, I’m pretty sure the show sticks to the story pretty well! Not only do you have witches in this series, but you have vampires and werewolves too.

It may sounds like we’re harking back to the mid 2000s with those themes, and I guess we kind of are, but the way that Harkness writes the characters in A Discovery of Witches and the lore, myth and legends that surround the tale are really excellent. The world she’s created within the world we know is top-notch, and while I haven’t read the others in the series yet, I really want to before Season two is released. A Discovery of Witches is quite long (around 690 pages) and a bit slow at the beginning, but it’s worth the effort.

A Curse of Ash and Embers, by Jo Spurrier

In my review of this book, I give a short summary:

“A mysterious letter arrives for Elodie one day requesting that she become a maid in a house in another town. When she arrives, it’s not what she expected. It’s dark and dingy, and the woman inside is odd and poorly, and has no idea where the letter came from. But Elodie makes the most of it and thinks she was sent there for a reason, so she stays.

It turns out that Aleida Blackbone, the woman, is a witch, and soon Elodie is thrown in the deep end with monsters, strange plants, broken houses, mystical creatures, a cute boy, and the recently deceased Gyssha Blackbone looming over everything that happens in the house.”

It’s a witchy-dark-magic sort of book, and a very spooky paranormal tale.

Shoutouts: Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling (obviously)

Vampires (?)

The Passage, by Justin Cronin

I wanna say vampires, but they’re also … not. If you’ve read this already then you will know what I mean. If you haven’t this is a brilliant book for this spooky season. It’s a big book and covers a multitude of years, characters, interweaving stories, and a girl called Amy at the centre of it all. It can get a little complicated at times because there are so many aspects, but when they all come together you’ll be blown away. There was also a TV series made from this book, so be sure to check that out after you’ve read it!

Shoutouts: Bloodlust and Bonnets, by Emily McGovern

Eerie

Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

A classic tale which is actually labelled horror on Goodreads, Something Wicked This Way Comes is literally a book that happens at Halloween time, as the Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show rolls into town. The book tells the story of two boys getting tangled in the mystery, magic and mayhem of the Shadow Show.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Another classic tale, if you’re not familiar with Dorian Gray then in short, Gray is a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. An artist paints a portrait of Gray and from thereon in things go downhill. Gray’s vanity and pride go deeper and deeper, and with every passing day his portrait becomes uglier and uglier, rotting away like a physical representation of Gray’s soul. It’s about morality, vanity, humanity, living life for yourself and no one else. But at the same time, it’s a great book, and a perfect read for Halloween.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

Another well-known story in Gothic genre, We have always lived in the Castle is more on the eerie, bizarre, disconcerting end of the horror spectrum, but is still one that’s creepy enough to read this Halloween. It’s what you don’t read that will probably make you shiver; those unspoken, read-between-the-lines vibes that you get from it. It’s another short read, coming in at around 150 pages.