Happy Halloween!
I love Halloween. It's my second-favourite holiday, and that's saying something, because I am a huge wuss. I get scared very easily.
I blame a particular incident following a viewing of The Ring for my inability to remain calm through scary movies.
But despite that, I have always been drawn to ghost stories. It's a weird contrast to love and hate them at the same time.
In honour of all things Halloween, I've tried to narrow down a list of great reads in honour of costumes and trick-or-treating, of witches and spooks. Enjoy one of them tonight while snacking on all that Halloween candy!
In no particular order and, as per usual, including links to their respective Goodreads pages, here we go:
The king of the macabre, pretty much everything Poe wrote could be listed here. So instead, we'll go with his full works.
My personal favourites include "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Pit and the Pendulum", though really, I have many favourites.
I rarely read horror (though I still like ghost stories). Earlier this summer, though, I picked up this one, wanting to read it before the new movie came out. The movie was awesome. The book was even more awesome. A shape-shifting clown and the question of all the different types of evil...
Plus the storytelling is incredible.
This list probably could have been all Poe and King works, honestly.
I reread this one last year in my Halloween reading, and was reminded of the Disney cartoon that scared me more than I cared to admit as a child.
Headless horsemen meet the ultimate spooky atmosphere. A scary story this is not, but few develop the eerie mood as well as this tale.
It's shocking I don't have more lists featuring Shakespearean plays.
This one features some of the most famous witches in literature!
“Double, double, toil and trouble;Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!”
Murder, unnatural events in the nighttime, and witches messing with the mortals. Plus, blood - so much blood! Sounds like a perfect Halloween tale to me.
I'll never forget the first time I read Dracula. One of my favourite professors in university assigned it as the first book in my first English class there. The professor wore all black, including dark sunglasses, and bright red lipstick. When she swept into the room and announced that we'd be starting with this classic, there were a few snickers.
I read it all in one night. Partly because it was awesome. Partly because I was too scared to sleep. (I was convinced the lights from the smoke detector in my little basement suite were actually glowing eyes. Yeah, I know.)
You can't talk about Halloween and darkness and creatures and scary stuff without mentioning Lovecraft. His work is the epitome of the horror genre, so if you're a fan, you should check out any of his pieces, though a lot of people recommending starting with "The Call of Cthulhu" as an example.
I will never forgive Twilight for changing the way pop culture sees vampires. Joss Whedon at least gave his vampires depth, and while some were sort of "good guys", they were still, at their base, monsters. Or at least at odds with their monstrous sides.
Interview with the Vampire is a better option than sparkling. It gives us the complex vampires literature loves. They're evil, but not irredeemable. The characters are just awesome, and the psyche of vampires is a pretty cool take on the genre.
In other news, I love the movie version of this.
Another classic. Forget the zombie-like, rigid, idiotic representations of the monster in media. Heck, forget who you even think Frankenstein is. This disturbing Gothi tale addresses obsession, regret, science, isolation, and what it means to be human.
"Intelligence is knowing Frankenstein isn't the monster. Wisdom is knowing he is."
This is the one I was going to read this Halloween, but I don't think I'm going to get to it. It's pretty high on my list, though, having just read the Dark Tower books. I love the tie-ins.
An ultimate, thrilling story of vampires and small towns and secrets and darkness.
Really, this whole list could just be Stephen King books. Who else does Halloween that well? (Besides Poe, of course.)
Another play, another piece I teach, another one with a great movie adaptation. This one is more comic, but is a fun approach to the season. Insanity, poison, and little old ladies. Sounds fun, right?
And yes, another Stephen King book. (Hey, I think we should all be impressed I limited the King books to only three!)
This one is his first novel. Power, horror, destruction, abuse, death, and telekinesis. Oh, and of course, blood.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
I read this during last year's Halloween reading. I was putting it off, because it seemed very wrong to take my favourite book and add zombies.
But you know what? It was fun. I literally laughed out loud a few times, so hell yeah, I'm recommending it.
Don't judge me.
I'm including this one because I just watched the movie for the first time this season in preparation for teaching it to my junior high film study class. It's fantastic. Dark and spooky, and featuring kids! What beautiful and eerie, fantastical world-building.
Plus, Coraline herself is kind of awesome.
Bonus Choices:
This one is a bonus because I haven't read it, but I came across it again and again on Halloween reads lists. I have seen the movie (the 2008 version), and loved it. Absolutely loved it.
It's on my "to be read" (TBR) list now, so I thought maybe you'd like it on yours, too!
Ray Bradbury is another one of those names that pops up again and again on these lists, especially on the ones that have to do with all things creepy. I haven't read this particular collection, but it seems a good place to start with Bradbury's chilling tales.
What's your favourite scary story? What are you reading this Halloween? Comment below!
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