October Reading List
Here’s the list, in no particular order. I go into the works and add links below.
Halloween, edited by Paula Guran
Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre, edited by Paula Guran
A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Halloween Masks: A Trio of Tales, by Jeffrey Thomas
Autumn Cthulhu, edited by Mike Davis
Halloween edited by Paula Guran
Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre edited by Paula Guran
Both are awesome books of Halloween themed short stories that’ll really get you in the mood for the best holiday of the year. The first one, Halloween, is comprised of classics and reprints, and the second one, Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre, is all original work. If you can only get one, I recommend the newer anthology simply because I hadn’t read any of the stories before and had read many of the classics in the first anthology, but you can’t go wrong with either. [image error]
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
A very fun novel that perfectly encapsulates the feel and spirit of Halloween to me. Here’s the back-cover material:
Loyally accompanying a mysterious knife-wielding gentleman named Jack on his midnight rounds through the murky streets of London, good dog Snuff is busy helping his master collect the grisly ingredients needed for an unearthly rite that will take place not long after the death of the moon. But Snuff and his master are not alone. All manner of participants, both human and not, are gathering with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night. It is brave, devoted Snuff who must calculate the patterns of the Game and keep track of the Players—the witch, the mad monk, the vengeful vicar, the Count who sleeps by day, the Good Doctor and the hulking Experiment Man he fashioned from human body parts, and a wild-card American named Larry Talbot—all the while keeping Things at bay and staying a leap ahead of the Great Detective, who knows quite a bit more than he lets on.
[image error] This is such a fun book and I can’t recommend it enough.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
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A masterwork of dark fiction and one of the best stories to usher in October and Halloween. A classic that needs no more explanation from little ole me.
Halloween Masks: A Trio of Tales by Jeffrey Thomas
Three short stories set on Halloween from a very underrated author. They are short and quick and creepy, and for only $0.99 on Kindle, if you love horror stories and Halloween and you don’t check this out, you’re doing yourself a disservice. For the price, this is one of the best Halloween-themed purchases I’ve ever made.
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Autumn Cthulhu edited by Mike Davis
One of the creepier short story anthologies of the last few years. If Something Wicked This Way Comes expresses the childlike wonder of the season, Autumn Cthulhu goes way darker and is all creeping adult. Great group of stories and a great book. Fun note: I had a story rejected for this anthology…*sigh* One day.
So that’s my Halloween reading list. What do you read to get into the Halloween spirit? Note: Images are book covers from Amazon.com, and not mine.
