My favorite season is here–not just autumn, but the spooky season. I have a tradition of watching all the spine-tingling, terror-inducing movies I can leading up to Halloween to get into the spirits, and this year, I wanted to add books to that! I’ve compiled a rather ambitious spooky season TBR full of eerie horrors, suspenseful thrillers, and murder mysteries to indulge in October. Bring on the dread and the unease, the disquiet and apprehension to your reading lists!
There’s Someone Inside Your House
My favorite subgenre of horror is definitely the slasher variety–there’s something far more terrifying about a human wrecking havoc than a paranormal entity, perhaps because there’s a sense of realism. That being said, I’ve been eyeing this YA slasher for quite some time! Pitched as Scream meets YA, There’s Someone Inside Your House was recently adapted by Netflix (releasing October 6th). I’ll be reading for book before I watch the movie!
Makani Young thought she’d left her dark past behind her in Hawaii, settling in with her grandmother in landlocked Nebraska. She’s found new friends and has even started to fall for mysterious outsider Ollie Larsson. But her past isn’t far behind.
Then, one by one, the students of Osborne Hugh begin to die in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasingly grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and her feelings for Ollie intensify, Makani is forced to confront her own dark secrets.
House of Hollow
Look at how stunning this cover is. Was I swayed by the cover before even reading the synopsis? Maybe. This one blends horror and fantasy, with elements of magical realism. Horror never looked so pretty.
Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they canāt quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.
Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sisterās ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.
As Iris retraces Greyās last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children.
The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous ā and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.
Home Before Dark
This might be the only horror novel I’ve seen garner a lot of love on bookstagram. I’ve never read any of Sager’s books, though his mysteries and thrillers seem to be a hit. I’m eager to delve into this story about haunted houses and ghostly encounters.
What was it like? Living in that house.
Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularityāand skepticism.
Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her fatherās book. But she also doesnāt believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, donāt exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her fatherās death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals arenāt thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggieās father.
Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itselfāa place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her fatherās book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.
The Forest of Stolen Girls
Look, I don’t just buy books based on covers, I swear! But a pretty cover is certainly hard to resist. Forest of Stolen Girls has been on my list since the beginning of the year (I’ve mentioned it in my 10 Books by Asian Authors to Read in 2021 post). This is a historical murder mystery about vanishing girls set during 1400s Korea–how cool is that?
Hwani’s family has never been the same since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in the forest, near a gruesome crime scene. The only thing they remember: Their captor wore a painted-white mask.
To escape the haunting memories of this incident, the family flees their hometown. Years later, Detective MināHwani’s fatherālearns that thirteen girls have recently disappeared under similar circumstances, and so he returns to their hometown to investigate… only to vanish as well.
Determined to find her father and solve the case that tore their family apart, Hwani returns home to pick up the trail. As she digs into the secrets of the small villageāand reconnects with her now estranged sisterāHwani comes to realize that the answer lies within her own buried memories of what happened in the forest all those years ago.
You Love Me
Ah, Joe. Our favorite psychopath returns in the third installment of the You series and what can I say other than I can never get enough of these books? Psychological thrillers are one of my favorite subgenres and no one does it quite like Kepnes.
Joe is done with the cities. Heās done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now, heās saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe.
He gets a job at the local libraryāhe does know a thing or two about booksāand thatās where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe wonāt meddle; he will not obsess. Heāll win her the old-fashioned way: by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, theyāll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town.
The trouble is, Mary Kay already has a life. Sheās a mother. Sheās a friend. Sheās busy.
True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. Heās ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.
The Final Girl Support Group
What happens to the remaining survivors of slasher flicks after the credit rolls? I love the unique premise of this one. It deals with the aftermath and trauma of surviving a horrifying massacre…but it’s not quite over yet. Gives major horror sequel vibes.
In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?
Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized–someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.
But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
The 7Ā½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day. Imagine having to relive the day of a murder again and again, but each time waking up in a different body. I’d go crazy trying to solve the murder, but let’s see how our narrator fares!
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.
For fans of Claire North, and Kate Atkinson, The 7Ā½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man’s race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
Gideon the Ninth
We need more necromancers in fantasy. Raise the dead! I’ve seen a lot of great things about this series, and the spooky season felt like the perfect time to read the first book.
The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
Of course, some things are better left dead.
tender curiosity 