Listen up, readers: I know it’s only October 3, but it’s time to give into the thrills and chills of the season. In the past, we’ve run our Halloween-themed blog contests closer to the 31st, but this year we figured we’d get you the books early so you’d have time to really creep yourself out before the holiday.
This week, you can enter to win an assortment of spooky books that range from truly scary (warning: do not read alone), to campy. I’ll let you figure out which is which:
By the way: Has anyone started planning a Halloween costume? I’ve alternated between Hester Prynne and Nancy Drew for the past five years, so I think it’s time to mix it up. Inspired by my love for The Wilder Life, maybe I’ll dress up as Laura Ingalls (bonnet and everything).
By the way, part two: Tomorrow’s edition of BookPageXTRA is all about our favorite books that will keep you up at night and give you goosebumps. Sign up now to join the fun.
TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this post with the name of a) your favorite scary book or b) your best literary-themed Halloween costume idea.
CONTEST DETAILS: One winner will be chosen by random.org from among entries received by 6 pm CST on October 7. The winners will receive copies of The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition by William Peter Blatty; Plain Fear Forsaken by Leanna Ellis; Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion by Janet Mullany; Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers; and Jack and Jill Went up to Kill: A Book of Zombie Nursery Rhymes by Michael P. Spradlin. This prize must be shipped to a North American address.
For even more Halloween excitement, see our roundup of horror stories in the October issue of BookPage—available now!
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ETA: Congratulations to our winner, Jane! Jane’s favorite scary book is The Exorcist, and her favorite costume was when her daughter “in second grade, dressed up for literary character day as Laura Ingalls Wilder. She even carried a homemade ‘Charlotte’ doll.”
Thank you to all who entered! Contest is now closed.
Under the Dome
Almost anything bu Stephen King, particularly THE SHINING and CUJO.
The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan would be my creepy pick.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth just freaked me out… I hate zombies…
The one that kept me sleeping with the lights on is an oldie, but goodie, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
I love to read anything by Edgar Allan Poe, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson around Halloween as well as multiple collections of ghost stories.
My literary costume ideas range from Jane Austen characters to Harry Potter characters, but this year I think I am going to be the Wicked witch.
My daughter dressed as Amelia Bedelia one year, complete with hat and apron.
The Tell-Tale Heart and The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe
Dean Koontz is always good for some chills
Pet Sematary creeped me out big time.
Me too! And it was depressing as well.
I think that the scariest book I read was Helter Skelter, non fiction. I know it isn’t the typical Halloween scary book but it was frightening on evil someone can be. For a fiction book Carrie…
Costume, I would go as Elizabeth I.
It’s not a very well known book, but I love We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I’ve reread it about 100 times!!!
The scariest one to me Intensity, Dean Koontz, I couldn’t sleep the night I was reading it! Made sure my gun was close by it was so “real” – it happens in our world today so… my favorite costume, Bride of Dracula!! My ex looks just like Eddie Munster, widows peak and all!!
I just started reading IT by Stephen King and I’m scared already!
Though it’s not the best writing and there are much better authors in the horror genre, Darkness by Dean Koontz is the scariest book I’ve ever read.
Audrey Rose by Frank De Felitta – I don’t recall much about this book (read it in the mid-70s) except that while I was reading it I remember being too afraid to check to make sure the front door was locked.
Anything Seven King..but think “IT” was scariest,even I got the shivers&goosebumps,and looked in the closet…
scares me still,Steven King(not seven)bad omen !!!!!!!!
The creepiest book I’ve read to date is “Pet Sematary” by Stephen King.
In this story a very young child is killed when a huge truck accidently runs him over & if this is not tragic & sad enough the distraught father, without thinking of consequences, secretly digs him up from his eternal rest & re-buries him in an ‘evil burial ground’ he learns of that is supposed to bring his son back to life. The child then comes back but not as the father expected.
This book scared the liver out of me when I first read it and I still think it rates #1 in the ‘make your skin crawl & sleep with the lights on’ category.
As for a costume…I love witches…:> The scary “Wizard of Oz” type of witch…although in reality I’m more like Glenda the Good Witch…:>
Thanks for a chance to win and I enjoyed reading the other comments and scary book choices!
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood,and the fact that it was a true story was even worse..then the movie came out..
I went as a pregnant woman and looked it,with a big pillow helping,I had a toy shot gun,and when men came in.I pointed it at them and ask ,you’re the pappy,ain’t ya??? A real pregnant gal came up said how far along are you,when is it due…and I had to tell her,we knew everyone but a few people…one friend said he’d be the dad,my husband and his wife were laughing so hard ..what fun…
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin gave me the creeps, as did The Keep by F. Paul Wilson.
Anything by Shirley Jackson.
“Pet Sematary” by Stephen King was the first of his books that I read at the ripe old age of ten, and I remember it scaring the heck out of me.
As for a costume, my sophomore year of high school, I decided to go as Ophelia. I wore a long white nightgown, had a long blond wig, and wore pale makeup and carried a bouquet of flowers. Unfortunately, many of the other guests at the party I attended thought I was supposed to be Lady Godiva because of the wig.
Neverland, by Douglas Clegg, was the scariest book I ever read. Read-with-the-lights-on, check-under-the-bed, ask-your-best-friend-to-spend-the-night kind of scary. Scary.
Scariest book Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
My favorite scary book is It by Stephen King
I’d have to say The Strain because it scared me so much I had to stop reading it!
Out of all the ghost and horror stories I have read, I will have to say my favorite is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
I am not a fan of scary books. How about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz? The stories make kids laugh…even tho they are sort of creepy if you have not heard them before. The illustrations are pretty scary too.
I’d say Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. It’s the original vampire story!
Neil Gaiman’s THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, while not totally scary to the end, that beginning when the family is being murdered and the baby creeps away–really gave me chills.
One Halloween I went to school wearing my Edgar Allan Poe sweatshirt and a black crow on my shoulder. I called myself: Nevermore.
Favorite scary book: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane,
Well, my literary costume one year was to be Laura Ingalls from “Little House on the prairie” when I was a young girl. I got a lot of compliments on that costume because my aunt Grace made the whole costume for me.
“Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King was the first scary book I ever read that actually gave me nightmares. His most recent “Full Dark, No Stars” was especially creepy and bleak too. Nobody does it better than him!
The Thomas Harris books, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.
Helter Skelter- had nightmares, I guess it was the fact that people could be so evil and do what they did.
When I was a child I was Pippy Longstocking, it was great! My mom used a hanger to make my braids stick out.
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John Saul are all masters of horror. It’s hard to choose just one that really scared me, but King’s, “Needful Things” and “The Tommyknockers” both really creeped me out.
As for Halloween costumes, I wear black, nerdy glasses, so I am trying to decide if I want to be Where’s Waldo, or Velma from Scooby-Doo.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, Dean Koontz and Stephen King books.
In The Woods by Tana French or In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Both psychologically creepy.
Favorite scary book, “The Shining “. Very excited for the sequel. Big love for my Uncle Stevie! I don’t know if my costume is literary but I love handing out apples on Halloween dressed as the evil queen from Snow White.
the historian isn’t so scary as it is creepy, every year for holloween i reread it.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
A) The scariest favorite read of mine would have to be the Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe.
B) My literary costume idea would be a vampire out of The Vampire Chronicles.
The Haunting of Hill House.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
Wow. It is tough to pick only one scary book! The Exoricist by William Peter Blatty, The Witching Hour by Anne Rice and Salem’s Lot, The Stand and The Shining by Stephen King. I have to take into consideration when and where I was reading these books, as well!
There are too many scary books out there. But since I’ve been reading Stephen King books since I was 12, they seem to be easier to read now! I’d say the scariest would probably be the books that are realistic, with murders, things that could really happen.
As for a costume, what just popped into my head is someone could dress up like the big white whale and a buddy could dress as Ahab.
Any of the Hannibal books!!!!!!
Silence of the Lambs
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
“Where the wild things are” costume
Dracula is still the only book I’ve read that gave me nightmares!
I don’t know if this counts as a literary costume but in college a friend dressed as a Freudian Slip. It was a big hit!
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
I had nightmares when I tried to read this book as a teenager. I gave up.
I have a new favorite creepy read, The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop. My skin is crawling because the words are so beautiful yet I have to keep reminding myself that the main character is having sex with dead people! I am repulsed and can’t seem to put it down at the same. An appointment with the shrink might be in order when I finish this. Never have I read a book that made me physically ill before.
Halloween- Daisy Buchanan from Gatsby
My favorite scary book for this year so far has been Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake which was the perfect mix of terrifying ghosts, blood and gore, and a thoroughly entertaining scare-iffic plot!
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman both scare the bejeebus out of me, even now. I love reading them with my high school students!
The plague by Albert Camus
a)Ghost Story by Peter Straub – don’t finish the book alone anywhere
And because it was so much fun
b) Pippi Longstocking- complete with wire hanger to hold up the pig tails
Thomas Tryon’s Harvest Home read the book some years ago enough to keep the lights on all night….
“Zombie in Love” by Kelly DiPucchio. I know it is a children’s book but we have been actively searching for zombie/vampire/monster books for the very young (grandchildren and great-nieces/nephews) so they can understand their parents (who grew up having “Tales From the Crypt” read to them) better.
The Shining!
Dracula.
As for costume, I’d love to dress up as Sherlock Holmes.
Stephen King is always good for really creepy books, but I think some of his scariest are some of the short stories he’s written. Don’t remember the names of any particular ones, but the stories stick with you years later!
The first creepy book I remember reading was The Exorcist. Late at night. Alone. While minding the desk in my college dorm. It was so spooky!
And favorite costume?? When my daughter, in second grade, dressed up for literary character day as Laura Ingalls Wilder. She even carried a homemade “Charlotte” doll. A very good choice since she is named, in part, after the main character in the Little House Books.
I love anything by Stephen King! Probably my creepiest faves are The Shining and Lisey’s Story. I also loved Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, Mr. King’s very talented son.
The Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. Creepy!!
Anything by Stephen King.
My favorite creepy book is The Tell-tale Heart!
To date, probably the scariest book I ever read was The Watchers by Dean Koontz. It literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
As far as literary Halloween costumes go, last year I went as King Arthur and my wife went as The Wicked Witch of the West.
I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was in high school, and was so scared I couldn’t put it down.
I like the house of doors by Brian Lumley. I would dress up as Keladry of Mindelan
One of my favorite books that also creeped me out is The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Anything by Stephen King.
Salem’s Lot
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. I read the book then listened to the audiobook. It was really creepy on my nighttime commute. You can definitely tell that he is Stephen King’s son.
The Ruins or The Passage
Carrie by Stephen King
Costume: Lisbeth Salander
Ed Gein
The Shining
Red Dragon
The book that most scared the bejesus out of me in recent years was SHADOW MAN by Cody McFadyen. I thought I’d become so jaded and then I had to turn on the lights and check the doors and windows to make sure they were locked. My all-time favorite ‘scary’ short, is THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson. Well, just about anything by Shirley Jackson.
After reading the first few chapters of The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston, I had to sleep with the lights on and my bedroom door locked!
The Shining scared me so much in high school I made my sister come sleep in my bedroom!
Stephen king -IT
Or anything by King
The Glister by John Burnside or anything by Stephen King
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Helter Skelter. The fact that there’s truth makes it more creepy for me.
The Shining and It by Stephen King (especially It – took the fourth try before I could read it through)
The Exorcist is the best among many good ones.
A cymbal banging mechanical monkey from a creepy Stephen King story.
Rosemary’s Baby, I made the mistake of reading while I was pregnant. The Haunting of Hill House, and IT.I have to completly read through a book even if it scares me badly. If a scary book is made into a movie, I have to see it, to see if they make close to the book.
It by Stephen King
I read it the summer I was 16
BAG OF BONES BY STEPHEN KING HAD ME WITH GOOSEBUMPS
THE WICKED WITCH FROM THE WIZARD OF OZ OF COURSE
anything by Bentley Little…stories start out like a normal day in the park but then takes you on a ride of mayhem,gore and ultimate scary!!!
My fave scary book: Bunnicula! The celery stalks at midnight.
Stephen King’s “Salems Lot” still scares me. The 1st movie version is almost as good as the book, 2nd not nearly. The printed word, in the hands of a master, is still king.
Stephen King’s “Pet Semetary ” stands out as both creepy and depressing. “It”, though it was a scary read, also rekindled memories of growing up in the ’50s and ’60s.
The Stand by Stephen King because it feels so real
I’m scared by just about anything! Dean Koontz, Steven King, even Peter Pan when he’s on the island with the pirates. I guess that’s why I love romances. Usually they’re not too scary, most of the time!
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
Helter Skelter, definitely. I read it when I was in middle school, and I had trouble sleeping for quite a while after that.
I was an Ent(not sure about the spelling) one year from “Lord of the Rings” Glueing bark on a pair of dyed brown long johns was no easy task. I was a female Marley’s Ghost another year & searched everywhere for old fashioned pad locks and I was the Mad Hatter way before Johnny Depp every tried his hand at it. Oh I almost forgot Snow Whites evil Queen step mother also. That was fun I carried a heart in a box all night. Lastly one yr. I was Medusa it took me over a week to glue various sized rubber snakes it a bald cap, but I looked really cool.
Probably any of Stephen King’s short story books.
And I know it’s typical, but Harry Potter costumes!!
My favorite horror book was Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
I absolutely loved The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I also was creeped out by The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. And while not actually a ghost story, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins was a creepy read.
The Exorcist is my all time scary book.
I found “All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By” by John Farris really creepy.
Whispers and Lies by Joy Fielding (creepy) and anything by Richard Laymon!
The scariest book series I have ever read are the Frankenstein series by Dean Koontz. I was so scared for all human kind and the animals. Whoa!!!
The Shining by Stephen King. I love the episode of Friends where Joey says that it is so scary that he keeps his copy in the freezer.
Duma Key – Stephen King
Stephen King, Rose Madder. Eep!
The Shining by Stephen King
The Haunting of Hill House
A good scary mystery book is Jeffery Deaver’s “The Blue Nowhere”.
Party Idea: come dressed as your favorite master. Of the macabre. Bring a dish or drink inspired by one of your author’s works. Prizes awarded for best entry and for most correct guesses.
The only book that has ever kept me up at night anf made me look over my shoulder for things that go bump in the night is Stephen King’s “The Shining”!
Scariest moment whilst reading a book: Reading Salem’s Lot by Stephen King when I was a teenager. I was reading the novel in bed, very late at night, and just when the vampire was scratching at the second-story window, a tree limb scratched my bedroom window! I was so wrapped up in the story that I screamed and threw the book across the room . . .
The first horror book I read was The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson. I read it 3x in a row then proceeded to delight my mother by freaking out at night over the glow in the dark Halloween decorations. She’d told me not to read it that it would scare me and it sure did. I haven’t stopped reading horror yet and love a good haunted house story.
Intensity by Dean Koontz – scared me so much I never read another one of his books again!
The Shining will ALWAYS terrify me…
Yes Salem’s Lot was scary and then the movie made me freak out!
I was so excited to receive your email telling me I had won the drawing. I have already received the books…. just in time for some pre-Halloween reading.
Thank you so much. It was a wonderful surprise!