10 scary books you need to add to your Halloween reading list

In the mood to light some candles, snuggle up with a blanket and scare yourself senseless? Perfect.

If you’re a book lover willing to lose a little sleep this fall, we’ve compiled a list of the latest and forthcoming titles that’ll pair well with the spooky season. Some particularly terrifying, creepy and suspenseful books hitting bookshop shelves this fall include a graphic and grotesque short story collection, a gothic eco-horror about a family tending a cranberry bog, tales of haunted manors and a college road trip that take a terrifying turn, and of course, we’d be remiss not to throw in a debut novel about werewolves.

Check out the full list below:

“The Bog Wife” by Kay Chronister

Publication Date: October 1 (Counterpoint Press)

The Haddesley family has always tended the cranberry bog and the bog sustains them, but there’s a supernatural catch: A long-held covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, produces a “bog-wife,” born from vegetation to carry on the family line. When no bog-wife comes to life, the five West Virginia siblings face an unknown future. This gothic Appalachian eco-horror is both a psychological drama and a family saga.

“The Coiled Serpent” by Camilla Grudova

Publication Date: October 8 (Unnamed Press)

This strange little short story collection takes readers through haunting and graphic tales of a custard factory explosion that wreaks havoc on a small community, a cursed hotel for ailing girls that welcomes a new guest with mysterious menstrual issues, a revolt at a putrid spa that’s been exploiting its employees, a museum director who curates a venomous garden and invites the public to have a taste and many more. While readers may need a strong stomach for the queasy and visceral descriptions in Grudova’s stand-alone stories, this bizarre and irreverent collection could be the perfect creepy companion.

SEE ALSO: How the horror story ‘Dearest’ got its start via a pandemic pregnancy

“Coup de Grâce” by Sofia Ajram

Publication Date: October 1 (Penguin Random House)

In this experimental horror novella, Vicken is a young man planning to end his life by throwing himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal. Vicken’s suffered with depression and anxiety since his adolescence and he’s decided to end it all, but he winds up trapped in an infinite Montreal subway station. Determined to find an exit, he makes his way through the cathedral-esque rooms and claustrophobic corridors, but the labyrinth is neverending. “Coup de Grâce” is psychological horror that examines despair and hope and begs the question, what could be more terrifying than getting lost in the maze of your own mind?

“Good Dogs” by Brian Asman

Publication Date: October 1 (Blackstone Publishing)

Being a werewolf isn’t all howling at the moon. Delia’s spent much of her life fighting the beast within her, plagued by nightmares of childhood trauma and trying to find her way in a lonely and complicated world. The den mother to a motley crew of lycanthropes in Southern California, Delia leads her pack in managing “the Change” responsibly to keep their San Diego suburb safe. But these are werewolves after all, and things don’t always go as planned. To prevent anyone else from getting hurt, the pack heads into the wilds around Talbot — a town abandoned for a century — to find a new way of life, but soon realize they’re not alone … and they’re not the only ones who bite.

SEE ALSO: There’s something foul in an LA fashion house in Lilliam Rivera’s ‘Tiny Threads’

“The Hitchcock Hotel” by By Stephanie Wrobel

Publication Date: September 24 (Penguin Random House)

Alfred Smettle isn’t just a Hitchcock fanatic: He’s the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the filmmaker. Guests at The Hitchcock Hotel can enjoy round-the-clock film screenings, film props and memorabilia, and an aviary with a murder of crows. After not speaking with his old college Film Club pals for more than a decade, Alfred invites them to the hotel to celebrate the venture’s first anniversary. Will this be a friendly catch up or does Alfred have plans to steal a page from the “Master of Suspense” himself?

“Killer House Party” by Lily Anderson

Publication Date: October 1 (Macmillan Publishers)

In this YA horror novel, the Deinhart Manor has been thought to be haunted for as long as anyone in town can remember. When the last living Deinhart passes away, the mansion goes up for sale and Arden’s real estate agent mom happens to have the keys. House party, anyone? So as Arden and her friends celebrate their graduation at the abandoned gothic manor, the party turns into a bloodbath as the house reveals plans of its own. Will Arden and her friends survive or become ghosts who haunt the manor? While this one is recommended for 10-12 grade reading level, it’s probably not suitable for children.

“Memorials” by Richard Chizmar

Publication Date: October 22 (Gallery Books, Simon & Schuster)

It’s 1983 and three classmates from a small college hit the road to shoot a documentary about those roadside memorials honoring people lost to automobile accidents. As they make their way deeper into the Appalachian backwoods, the road trip takes a turn from bonding over campfires to a sinister venture into something possibly otherwordly. Were these roadside deaths unfortunate accidents … or the work of someone or something that might be out to get them, too? From the ominous locals who make sure these students know they are outsiders to the eerie symbols that keep popping up at the memorials, this book’s creep factor goes full force.

SEE ALSO: 15 books coming out in October to add to your reading list

“Model Home” by Rivers Solomon

Publication Date: October 1 (Macmillan Publishers)

The three Maxwell siblings couldn’t wait to get away from the upper-middle-class home outside Dallas where they grew up. They had been the only Black family in the neighborhood, and although the neighbors seemed welcoming, scary and strange things kept happening in their home. As adults, the siblings are forced to return to Texas after they receive news of their parents’ mysterious death. It wasn’t natural, but could it have really been supernatural? Solomon upends the typical haunted house trope and delivers something that examines trauma, mental health and racism in the American South.

“Saint the Terrifying” by Joshua Mohr

Publication Date: October 1 (Unnamed Press)

“Saint the Terrifying” is the first installment in a three-novel punk rock epic structured like an Icelandic Viking saga. In this first book of Joshua Mohr’s trilogy, a West Oakland punk guitarist chases down a gang of thieves targeting musicians. The Saint of the title isn’t just another thrash musician; he’s an ex-con who wears neon yellow antlers on stage – and when he’s offstage, he’s a vigilante bringing down a crime ring. An ex-con raised by his father in the wilds of Norway, Saint learned the ways of the Vikings and trained in ancient Norse martial arts. His sparring partner? A bear.

Join SCNG Premium content editor Samantha Dunn on Oct. 18 to talk with Joshua Mohr about “Saint the Terrifying” on BOOKISH.

SEE ALSO: 20 mystery novels and crime collections for your fall book reading

“The Witch’s Door” by Ryan Matthew Cohn and Regina M. Rossi

Publication Date: October 1, 2024 (Chronicle Prism)

While this isn’t a horror novel, it is a memoir that dives into the mysterious and the macabre. Regina and Ryan, founders of Oddities Flea Market, detail the backstories of the creepiest objects, art, and artifacts they’ve collected. A taxidermied monkey named Mr. Peepers, a collection of anatomical wax figures for sale in Munich, a Tibetan Kapala skull decorated with bits of coral, an actual witch’s door and two Charlie McCarthy dolls that might be haunted are just a handful of the oddities explored in this fascinating romp.