Reading Recommendations: Spooktastic Reads 2023!
It’s that time of the year again where horror films reign, kids go trick or treating, and candy is everywhere! Since Halloween is coming up later this month, I’ve compiled yet another list of creepy novels to satisfy your horror cravings. Each book has its own horror rating, from one to three ghosts:
Enjoy these spooky tales to fill your night with fright!
*See last year’s recommendations here!*
Welcome to The Dark House
For Ivy Jensen, it’s the eyes of a killer that haunt her nights. For Parker Bradley, it’s bloodthirsty sea serpents that slither in his dreams. And for seven essay contestants, it’s their worst nightmares that win them an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at director Justin Blake’s latest, confidential project. Ivy doesn’t even like scary movies, but she’s ready to face her real-world fears. Parker’s sympathetic words and perfect smile help keep her spirits up. . . at least for now.
Except, things are already a little weird. The hostess is a serial-killer look-alike, the dream-stealing Nightmare Elf is lurking about, and the seventh member of the group is missing.
This horror novel is a rollercoaster ride of thrills and chills told through multiple points of views. The contest the characters enter seems too good to be true and soon we find out how sinister things truly are. This YA novel has an overarching theme of facing your worst nightmares as Stolarz crafts a terrifying scenario and an overall creepy ambience throughout the story. It was suspenseful and shift of perspectives keeps the readers on their toes. You aren’t sure who you can really trust. I appreciated the play on horror tropes, including how it’s displayed within the character’s personalities and the ending leaves the reader hanging on for more.
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk is opened, people around her start to disappear…
The year is 1914, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, and forced her to flee her hometown of Redondo, California, in a hellfire rush, ready to make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will be one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can cultivate it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing keeping her alive.It’s hard to know what you expect out of any horror novel but this one (while it does have some gore) Lone Women mainly relies mainly on suspense. The novel is detailed enough to place the reader in Adelaide’s shoes but also simplifies certain aspects to leave it up to the reader’s imagination. The latter is much more powerful as the parts that are unseen in a horror novel/film always leave you the most terrified. The novel excellently displays how appearance can be deceiving as more sinister things and people start to reveal themselves. The multiple point-of-views allow the reader to get into these characters’ heads and deepest thoughts. This novel delivered multiple thrills and the chills.
While en route from Austria to marry Louis, Dauphin of France, the carriage of Archduchess Marie Antoinette is intercepted by bloodthirsty zombies. The sole survivor of the attack is Marie Antoinette’s twin brother, Albert. He heads for Versailles in his sister’s gown–and instead of continuing life as himself, decides to take his dead sister’s place. Now at the heart of the French royal court, Albert must face the undead horrors as the man who someday would become Queen.
This graphic novel series has an interesting premise and its set during a terrifying zombie apocalypse in an alternate history setting. The artwork is incredibly detailed to give his story an eerie atmosphere and showcase the sometime gruesome aspects of survival. The zombies are unsettling to look at and the action scenes are very intense! What starts out suspicious twin turns into something more sinister as readers get to navigate through palace politics, demons and danger that lurks around every corner.
The Taking of Jake Livingston
Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can’t decide what’s worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from. But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student—the handsome Allister—and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake.
Unfortunately, life as a medium is getting worse. Though most ghosts are harmless and Jake is always happy to help them move on to the next place, Sawyer Doon wants much more from Jake. In life, Sawyer was a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school before taking his own life. Now he’s a powerful, vengeful ghost and he has plans for Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about dead world goes out the window as Sawyer begins to haunt him. High school soon becomes a different kind of survival game—one Jake is not sure he can win.
What a fantastic, spooky, and unsettling horror novel. Douglass does a fantastic job of creative an mysterious ambiance adding the smallest details to enhance the horror aspects of this novel. If this novel was a movie I would be on the edge of my seat from the imagery of bloody wraiths, ominous mists rising from the ground and haunting nightmares Jake experiences. I this this horro novel was a great blend of supernatural but also a good social commentary on race, bullying, and gun violence. I enjoyed Jake’s journey of gaining confidence through overcoming spectral obstacles.
Squad
When Becca transfers to a high school in an elite San Francisco suburb, she’s worried she’s not going to fit in. To her surprise, she’s immediately adopted by the most popular girls in school. At first glance, Marley, Arianna, and Mandy are perfect. But at a party under a full moon, Becca learns that they also have a big secret. Becca’s new friends are werewolves. Their prey? Slimy boys who take advantage of unsuspecting girls. Eager to be accepted, Becca allows her friends to turn her into a werewolf, and finally, for the first time in her life, she feels like she truly belongs.
But things get complicated when Arianna’s predatory boyfriend is killed, and the cops begin searching for a serial killer. As their pack begins to buckle under the pressure—and their moral high ground gets muddier and muddier—Becca realizes that she might have feelings for one of her new best friends.
This graphic novel is a mixture of a play on classic horror tropes, high school drama, and werewolves. I love the retro aesthetic of the artwork and style (like the 80s). I appreciated that the plot was a balance of a coming-of-age story and pure horror. Becca and the squad become predators instead of the prey turning horror tropes on its head. The plot is suspenseful and full of many twists and turns, especially when the secrets of the pack start to unravel. This graphic novel gives a unique take on the werewolf stories we are familiar with and gives it a fresh spin.
Division X
Twenty-four years old, no job, and kicked out by her parents, Randi Matheson is living at her aunt and uncle’s trying her hardest to complete a novel she can’t seem to start when a carnivorous monster interrupts her middling life on a full moon night. Attacked during an ordinary family dinner, Randi’s relatives are murdered, and she is bitten by the beast. Surviving the slaughter, Randi returns home to her distressed family only to become a monster herself under the next full moon.
Nearly devouring her younger brother, she is stopped by the intervention of Division X, a company devoted to the killing and capture of paranormal threats. She awakens in a containment cell the next morning to be given an ultimatum… work for them as a new weapon in the fight against evil or be dissected. Small town horrors lie in wait with even smaller heroes to stand against them. Can Randi save them and herself, or will everything crumble to the wills of evil?
I enjoyed the retro feel of this novel and its callbacks to themes with 80s-themed slasher films and other sub-genres of horror. While the situations are action-packed and sometimes deadly for the Division X crew, the book takes on a lighter tone with its dialogue and characters. While I feel the main characters Randi falls a bit flat at times, her other co-workers at the company and her family back at home have some great banter and comedic timing. It’s the awkward moments or heavy sarcasm at the most inopportune times that help to keep the reader immersed in the story. Their teamwork and commentary on cases kept me entertained.
Do you have any “Spooktastic Reads” you’ll be reading for Halloween? Do you have any recommendations to share? Comment below!
OOOooooOOOO, I want to read Lone Women because I really enjoyed his novella earlier this year. Great suggestions (and, yes, thanks to your inspiration, I did get out the Hallowe’en mugs)!
I just finished the second book in Aviaq Johnston’s series (which begins with Those Who Run in the Sky and continues with Those Who Run Below) and found it quite gripping. She’s a young, Inuk author (living north of the land currently called Canada) and the stories are about a young man who’s on the path of being/becoming a shaman. Maybe they are intended as YA reading (the chapters are short and there are some illustrations), I’m not sure; I really enjoyed them…and I definitely had to read them in the daylight!
Yes, I think you’ll enjoy Lone Women. It’s so good. and Yay for Halloween mugs! Thanks for the series recommendation, I’ll have to check it out.