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Eight Halloween Reading Lists Based on Very Specific Vibes, Themes & Tropes
Sadie Hartmann (known as Mother Horror on social media) is the co-owner of the monthly, curated, horror fiction subscription company Night Worms and the author of two books about the horror genre, the Bram Stoker Awards–winning 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered and her latest, Feral & Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction. Goodreads asked Hartmann to recommend horror novels for you this Halloween season.
Think of these lists as a unique kind of bookish alchemy. I used essential genre ingredients of horror: a splash of blood, grave bones, long shadows, and mixed them with the whimsical elements of dark fantasy, romance, and gothic.
These lists become elixirs that I designed to help readers sink into an immersive vibe—every book on each list is in conversation with the next, allowing space for an uninterrupted experience…if the mood suits you. Almost like a mixtape, enjoy the selections back-to-back for the most fulfilling enjoyment, or sample a few books from each one and build your own Spooky Vibes Buffet. There's no wrong way to do this. Experiment!
Candle Wax & Rituals, Seances, and Ouija Boards
If you want to live deliciously, you must summon the dead by reading cursed books at night, alone, with the closet door open. But don’t practice any of this in real life. Ouija boards and seances open doors to a whole host of supernatural nightmares you don’t want to invite into your personal space—best just to read about fictional people making that mistake.
Sexy, Sapphic Vampire Costume Party
I mean, this list needs no introduction, but I’ll tantalize you with this: There is something so seductively satisfying about reading books about women who make mythologies out of their everlasting pursuit of each other with an unquenchable, blood-lusty, ravenous fire.
Corn Mazes, Dark Carnivals, and Crisp Autumn Leaves
This list is an aesthetic. It’s waking up on a foggy morning and getting lost in the cornrows in the backyard; it’s going to a harvest festival and taking a hayride out to a secret, ritualistic sacrificial ceremony; and it’s worshipping old gods stuffed inside of a scarecrow or old gnarled tree.
A Haunted House That Is Probably a Metaphor for Trauma
Not just your typical haunted house, these paranormal voids trespass against their visitors psychologically. Instead of the ghosts of dead people haunting these halls, you will find that some things can be far more invasive and threatening: The ghosts of our own traumas and trials have come to haunt us from the inside out.
8 oz. Pumpkin Spice Latte, Please (Short Books)
Is October a busy season for you? These books are short and sinister. Short fiction is the perfect format for horror—the tight word count allows for the tension to hold taut for the entirety of the story instead of that slow-burning dread. Tuck one in here or there between novels or before bed to break a reading slump or cleanse the palate.
Final Girls Just Wanna Carve Pumpkins (Slashers)
This list is for horror fiction lovers who are also movie lovers. If you like to spend your spooky season binge-watching classic horror movies, bloody slashers with high body counts, and films where the hunter becomes the hunted…these books are for you.
Coven Meeting in the Woods: Next Full Moon (Witchy Books)
Nothing says October like a full moon and witchcraft. Everything on this list is a lesson in feral and hysterical womanhood channeled into hexing the patriarchy or reclaiming personal agency and independence. A legion of women’s voices harmonizing to tell our stories the way we want them to be told. This is our sisterhood and our narrative.
Skeletons in the Family Closet (Cursed Families and Intergenerational Trauma)
Family secrets and lies long since buried begin to rise to the surface to claim new generations of family members. These stories remind us that the old ancient curse is strong, but the will to break free and control our own destinies is its own special kind of magic.
