It’s October, which means it is the spooky season! With Halloween coming up in a week, here are four spooky authors to read to get in the spooky mood. With each author is included a few of their best scary works, and an explanation of one of them.
1. Stephen King
- The Shining
- Jack Torrence is husband and father to a five-year old son, Danny. Jack gets a new job as an off-season caretaker at the old Overlook Hotel. He hopes this can be a fresh start as he is a struggling writer and a recovering alcoholic. His family comes with him to the hotel, and his son Danny has psychic abilities that allow him to see the hotel’s haunted past. A winter storm hits, which traps the family in the hotel. The supernatural forces within the hotel come out to possess Jack, which puts his wife and son in great danger. If you are into supernatural stories and want a good, scary read, this is the book for you!
- Carrie
- Pet Semetary
- Salem’s Lot
- The Stand
2. Bram Stoker
- Dracula
- This story is not told in a typical story format as it is told through letters, newspaper articles and diary journals. In the story, Jonathan Harker travels to Translyvania in order to help Dracula with buying a house. Harker finds out that Dracula is a vampire while he is staying, however, and escapes. Dracula moves to England however, and inflicts pain there as he causes a ship wreck on the coast of Whitby and a woman to have cuts on her neck. A small group gets together to try to hunt Dracula. If you like a good vampire story and want to know if Dracula was caught or not, this is the book for you!
- The Jewel of Seven Stars
3. Shirley Jackson
- The Haunting of Hill House
- The story revolves around four main characters who go to Hill House, which is a mansion that is thought to have supernatural activity in it. Dr. Montague, one of the four, tells the other people the tales of the house, including stories of suicide and painful deaths. As they stay in the house, they experience spooky experiences and haunts. As the time goes on, however, these frights become more intense until it is obvious that they will not all make it out alive. There is a Netflix series and many films based off of this book, so if you want to read a book that you could then watch later, this is the one for you!
- We Have Always Lived In The Castle
- The Letters of Shirley Jackson
- Dark Tales
4. Anne Rice
- The Vampire Chronicles
- “The Vampire Chronicles” is a 13 book series that follows the life of a French man, Lestat de Lioncourt, who became a vampire in the 18th century. The first novel of the series follows how Lioncourt turned Louis de Pointe du Lac into a vampire. Since Lioncourt and Lac are both vampires, they make and keep safe Claudia, who is a child vampire. If you enjoy a well developed story and vampires, then this 13 book series is the one for you.
BONUS: Edgar Allen Poe
If novels aren’t your thing but you still want to get in the Halloween spirit, Edgar Allen Poe is the author for you! Poe is known for writing dark, mysterious, and scary poems and short stories. If you do not have enough time to read longer works, Poe’s works are the perfect length.
Halloween is a fun season with spook and scare. If spook and scare are your thing or whether you enjoy it, these four authors will be perfect for getting you in that mood. Stay tuned as next week I will give you four of the best horror novels ever written. Stay tuned and Happy Spooky Season!
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