I mentioned in yesterday’s contest post that we’re already getting geared up for the spooky Halloween season here at BookPage. What better way to do so than by reading scary books?
Here are 15 books from our archives that we think are sufficiently spooky. What are your favorite creepy books? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
An amnesia victim suffers from short-term memory loss in S.J. Watson’s debut, Before I Go to Sleep. As the victim, Christine, spirals into paranoia, the reader wonders if—and why—her husband is not being entirely truthful to her. Read more>>
Chasing the Dead by Joe Schreiber
Equal parts supernatural horror and psychological thriller, the majority of Chasing the Dead takes place during one nightmarish 14-hour period—when a single mom find out that her daughter has gone missing . . . then the kidnapper takes her on a horrific ride (think grave robbing and an appearance of the undead). Read more>>
Dracula’s Guest edited by Michael Sims
BookPage contributor Michael Sims is the editor of Dracula’s Guest, a collection of the best Victorian vampire stories, with contributions ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to Bram Stoker himself. Read more>>
Fangland by John Marks
Fangland is no ordinary vampire tale, and it’s not simply a re-telling of Dracula. In the story, a television producer journeys to Transylvania to interview a crime boss—where she learn that he is a vampire. This is a darkly funny book that’s both sad and terrifying. Read more>>
Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist
John Ajvide Lindqvist finds horror in the element of water in Harbor, the story of a man who loses his daughter to the sea and a pair of ghosts. Read more>>
lost boy lost girl by Peter Straub
Peter Straub’s lost boy lost girl is a groundbreaking novel from a master of literary horror. It’s a ghost story, a murder mystery, a beautiful love story, a gruesome account of a serial killer—and a heartfelt study of the bonds that hold family together through good times and bad. Read more>>
Merrick by Anne Rice
Merrick is classic Anne Rice, a vampire saga set in the mystery-shrouded streets of New Orleans. The main character is Merrick Mayfair, distantly related to Rice’s Mayfair Witches and a powerful psychic and magician in her own right. Read more>>
Neverland by Douglas Clegg
This sinister tale was originally published in 1991, and is still as haunting now as it was two decades ago. It’s a Southern Gothic story of a 10-year-old boy who becomes drawn into a web of evil on his family’s vacation. There’s a shack on his grandmother’s property that the boy’s cousin has named “Neverland”—and where reality is blurred with nightmare. Read more >>
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
From the author of Fight Club, Rant is a faux oral history that includes comments from more than 100 characters on the life of Buster “Rant” Casey, a teenage rebel whose iconic death in a fiery car crash made him a dashboard saint among a cult of teenage car-crash enthusiasts. Read more>>
Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar
In Zoran Drvenkar’s Sorry, four 20-something German friends run run an agency that will apologize for others (for an exorbitant fee). Their business takes a turn for the grotesque when a brutal killer leaves his mess for the Sorry team to clean up. Read more>>
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
Novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd imagines a shocking world in which Victor Frankenstin is best friends with Percy Shelley. Read more>>
The Right Hand of Evil by John Saul
Ted Conway moves his family to a mansion near Shreveport, Louisiana, after his Aunt Cora leaves him the house. Once there, the family starts to succumb to the mansion’s supernatural influence . . . Read more>>
The Vampire Archives edited by Otto Penzler
For even more vampire tales, read Otto Penzler’s collection The Vampire Archives, a collection of stories ranging from pure pulp (Stephen King) to high art (D.H. Lawrence). Read more>>
Under the Dome by Stephen King
King’s Under the Dome takes place in a small town in Maine that is sealed off from the world by an invisible force field. Nobody knows what the field it is or how it got there. It’s on the sealed-off stage of the town where the worst and best of human nature will be displayed. Read more>>
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
In Michel Faber’s debut, a woman (who is not what she seems) picks up a string of hitchhikers. Although the message of Under the Skin is ultimately compassionate and humane, the book is not for the faint-hearted or squeamish. (Let’s just say that Hannibal Lecter would have love it.) Read more>>
Want even more spooky reads? See last year’s blog post highlighting scary books, complete with a Freak-ometer rating.
Not scary but unsettling: Dark Steps (http://tinyurl.com/darkSteps)
What about these novels–I thought they might fit into the Halloween Spirit….The Restorer (Graveyard Queen #1), The Glass Demon, The Violets of March. All are on my to-read shelf and The Restorer is our Book Club pick this month.
I love Palahniuk, but I didn’t like RANT at all. I would like to invite the readers to check out INVISIBLE MONSTERS and DIARY too, since I thought they are examples of Palahniuk at his most potent (I don’t think he will ever out-write FIGHT CLUB though)
As soon as I tweeted this people almost assaulted me, saying I needed to check out CHASING THE DEAD and NEVERLAND. So they have marked the people that read them. Also, that Peter Straub books looks gloomy as hell. Great list, thanks!
Some of these books I agree with, like Straub and Saul, but the rest is just a mess. Merrick is hardly creepy. Instead it is the beginning of Rice’s decline by mixing her two series. If anything, her book Violin was truly creepy in a hypnotic way. And Under the Dome? Did you even that garbage? Or did you just pick a King book at random?
The rest are quite good, though, especially the Clegg, as that was one of his few GOOD books.
I recently read “The Dead Path” by Stephen M Irwin, it seems to have it all and you’ll never look at a spider in quite the same way.
I still think Stephen King holds a huge place for creepy. My favorites being “Carrie” & “Salems Lot”. Shirley Jackson may have done mostly shortstories, but creepy they are to the max. LOVE her!! The 1st time I read Bram Stokers “Dracula” , even though I had seen the movie as a kid a ton of times, CREEPED me out. Last but not to be forgotten “The Omen”.
I think you really need to add Joe Hill, who is Stephen King’s son to this list. His books and stories are great. Horror genes do run in families!