7 Bone-Chilling Books To Read For Halloween

Oh October. The air begins to chill, the sun sets earlier. Before you know it, you're walking home from work in the dark and...is someone following you?! Want to get into that creepy Halloween spirit? Check out these 7 scaaaaary books. And head here if you want even more terrifying tales...

1. Your House Is on Fire, Your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye

Via luxuryreading.com

Booklist called this a "wicked novel" saying it is "...Stunning...[There is a] quiet, unnerving effect [to] Kiesbye’s Brothers Grimm–like prose....An episodic, poetic, nightmarish offspring of Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes."

2. Sharp Objects: A Novel by Gillian Flynn

Via wordpress.com

If you loved/were terrified by Gone Girl, you should try Gillian Flynn's first book. Hank, a Powell's employee says: "Gillian Flynn's debut novel is a literary thriller that will shock and repulse you, even as it draws you inexorably into its tangled, sadistic web of deceit, secrets, and horrific revelations."

3. The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey

Via thebooksmugglers.com

Should you read The Girl with All the Gifts? Ask Joss Whedon, who says: "The story of Melanie and the people around her is so thoughtfully crafted, so heartfelt, remorseless and painfully human, that it takes the potentially tired trope of the zombie apocalypse and makes it as fresh as it is terrifying. The story spirals towards a conclusion so surprising, so warm and yet so chilling, that it takes a moment to realize it's been earned since the first page, and even before. It left me sighing with envious joy, like I'd been simultaneously offered flowers and beaten at chess. A jewel."

4. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Via wordpress.com

What would a scary book list be without Stephen King? As the New York Times says: "He's so good at scaring that he can even raise goose bumps when he writes about the measles." Try reading Doctor Sleep but don't expect to do too much sleeping.

5. The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

Via wordpress.com

Speaking of Stephen King, we'll just let him tell you about this next one: “Joyce Carol Oates has written what may be the worlds finest postmodern Gothic novel: E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime set in Dracula's castle. It's dense, challenging, problematic, horrifying, funny, prolix and full of crazy people. You should read it...Oates's hypnotic prose has never been better displayed.”

6. Fiend by Peter Stenson

Via cdn.bloody-disgusting.com

How do you make a zombie novel also an addiction novel and also insanely readable? Don't ask questions like that, just read it. As Warren Ellis says: "This is the real meat. The last zombie novel you'll ever need."

7. White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Via panmacmillan.com.au

If you're looking for something reminiscent of Shirley Jackson to really get you into the Halloween-y mood, try this one which The Independent calls: “Superbly atmospheric....The dark tones of Poe in her haunting have also the elasticity of Haruki Murakami's surreal mental landscapes.” Happy October!

Want more? We've got a bunch of goosebump-inducing books on sale over at Powells.com.