As the leaves begin to turn, it’s time to think about Halloween, which means it’s time to find the perfect costume, watch scary movies and read horror stories. Here are a few options to put a chill down your spine.
From the master! The Outsider: A Novel
Does anyone do it better and more consistently than Stephen King? Not a chance. Here’s his latest and not only is it a New York Times bestseller, it will soon be an HBO limited series starring Ben Mendelsohn. The book starts with an eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse being found in a town park. Yeah, creepy. And the suspense builds throughout. Classic King! Publishers Weekly’s review: “What begins as a manhunt for an unlikely doppelgänger takes an uncanny turn into the supernatural. King’s skillful use of criminal forensics helps to ground his tale in a believable clinical reality where the horrors stand out in sharp relief.”
More about the book | More from the master, Stephen King
Suicide Forest (World’s Scariest Places)
So, you like Stephen King? Jeremy Bates is a #1 seller on Amazon and this is a tale of mystery and horror set in Japan’s ancient Suicide Forest, a place that is easy to enter but, for some, impossible to leave. It’s a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for horror. Now this is part of the Scariest Places series, but it’s a standalone novel, so you won’t be lost if this your first Bates novel. But if you read one, you’ll probably want to read more. He’s that good.
More about the book | More from Jeremy Bates | His YouTube channel
Can’t go wrong with a classic! Frankenstein
There are a seemingly endless television and movie versions of Frankenstein, but there’s only one original – Mary Shelley’s classic novel. It’s not the type of spine-tingling horror story we expect nowadays, but it’s a classic for a reason. She wrote the novel between the ages of 18 and 20 … feel like a slacker now? … and it is widely considered to be the first real work of science fiction, being published in the early 1800s. It’s not a bloodfest or a psychological thriller, but rather a thoughtful novel with some overt and some subtle themes meant to appeal to most everyone. Interestingly, the story arose from a competition among Shelley and some other writers to see who could write the best horror story. History would say she won.
Get the book | More from Mary Shelley | Skip the book, watch the movie
Perennials
Perennials is both a teen thriller and a coming-of-age story set in the Deep South. How’s this for a description: Imagine elements of To Kill a Mockingbird and I Know What You Did Last Summer being thrown into a blender. It’s about a serial killer and the connecting thread between the victims is they share their names with plants. You know – Rose, Violet, Lily … or maybe a last name like, say, Bush. The book is aimed at young adults, but it’s not kids’ stuff.
Get the book | More from Bryce Gibson | More books about serial killers
Gather ’round for ghost stories Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories
If you want some chills but don’t want to invest in reading an entire novel, this collection of ghost stories will fit the bill. Dahl endeared himself to many with James And The Giant Peach and The BFG, but that should have told you he loves the unexpected. To pull together the 14 stories in this volume, he read 749 stories in the British Museum Library. He chose well, too. His goal? “Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story,” Dahl writes. “It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts.” Prepare to be disturbed one short story at a time!
Get the book | More from Roald Dahl | More collections of horror short stories
