Spooky TBR
7 Creepy, Haunting, and Scary Books for the Halloween Season
Oh. You thought I was just gonna go ahead and let October pass without posting anything JUST BECAUSE I haven’t posted shit all year?? Well joke’s on you pal, cause I’m back!
October is about to be full of all of the charming topics you’ve come to expect from me this time of year but since it’s been a while, and technically it’s still September, we’re gonna ease back into it with a simple list. A spooky TBR list, that is.
See, during my hiatus I’ve been able to go above and beyond my Goodreads reading goal for the first time in YEARS, but no matter how many books I’ve gotten through, my 'to be read’ list never seems to get any shorter. That’s why I’ve decided to share with you seven books from my list I plan on reading in October that should be perfect reads for the Halloween season.
Clown In A Cornfield by Adam Cesare
First up, Clown in A Cornfield, a 2020 Bram Stoker Award winning young adult novel by Adam Cesare. Here’s what the book is about:
“Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half.
On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.
Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.”
Why’d it make my list?
Who doesn’t love a little old vs young, traditional vs progressive fight to the death? From what I’ve seen, people seem to love this one and (maybe SPOILER alert?) there’s a sequel that came out in August of this year. So if Clown In A Cornfield really gets ya goin, there’s a whole second book you get to dive into immediately after!
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Full disclosure, I’ve read Coraline before but it’s been years and I’m very excited to give it another go:
“When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous.
But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.”
Why’d it make my list?
Coraline is a spooky children’s classic! You can read it with your kids (or alone like me) and then throw on the movie when you’re done if you’re not ready to leave Gaiman’s creepy world.
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
The Weight of Blood is the latest thriller by Tiffany D. Jackson having only come out earlier this month and lucky enough a friend of mine is letting me borrow her copy she got from the library so I don’t have to sit through the weeks wait for the eBook version (thanks Tara!)
“When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.
An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.
After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life.
But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.”
Why’d it make my list?
If you’ve read my stuff for a while I know ya’ll know what I’m gonna say. Tiffany D. is my girl and I love her and she can do no wrong in my eyes. Plus, she’s been very vocal about the way Stephen King’s Carrie influenced this story which has my interest even more piqued since King is easily my favorite horror writer of all time.
The Clackity by Lora Senf
Probably the book on this list I know least about, The Clackity, a middle-grade novel released in June of this year, caught my attention while I was mindlessly browsing Amazon:
“Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.
There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie must embark on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls."
Why’d it make my list?
If I’m gonna be honest, the illustration on the cover is what made me buy this book and it turns out there are a few other illustrations featured through out the story. Add in serial killers, ghosts, witches, and other shadowy creatures and I’m totally sold.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Okay, confession. While writing up this post I discovered the original title of And Then There Were None was….very not nice. I’ll leave you to look up the original title while I’m gonna hope the story itself is less problematic than the original title but seeing as this one was originally published in 1939, I’m not gonna be surprised either way:
“Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to an isolated mansion on Indian Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die…
Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?”
Why’d it make my list?
I saw a Youtube video of a girl sharing all the things she likes to do on a spooky fall day in which she talked about reading two books, this and the other Agatha Christie story you’ll see later on this list. Agatha Christie is the “Queen of Mystery” and I’ve never read any of her work that didn’t feature Hercule Poirot so this one seemed like fun one to try out. Minus that unexpected less than fun fact about the original title #whoops.
Ring by Koji Suzuki
The book that started a whole franchise, Koji Suzuki’s Ring was originally published in 1991 in Japan:
“A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.
Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society's fears to a rural Japan—a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic—haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late—for everyone—assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.”
Why’d it make my list?
I actually bought this book to read during October last year and just never got around to it so I figured it was time to dive in. I’m also familiar with the American film version which I know is pretty different from the source material so I’m looking forward to finding out what the author originally intended.
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
The second Christie book to make my list, Hallowe’en Party brings everyone’s favorite mustachioed detective, Hercule Poirot to the party:
“At a Halloween party, Joyce—a hostile thirteen-year-old—boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.
That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the `evil presence'. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer…”
Why’d it make my list?
How can I make a spooky reading list around Halloween without including a book SET at a Halloween party? I also have really enjoyed the other Hercule Poirot stories I’ve read in the past and love a good whodunit, sounds like a perfect way to close out the month!
So who wants to join the book club? If you plan on reading any of the books off of my list let me know which one and why in the comments OR if you’ve read any of them before share your thoughts down below!