Reading Recommendations: Spooktastic Reads 2025

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!

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Dreamer

Vera has unusual dreams – anything she dreams comes alive. Dream Traveling, her family calls it. Doing it all her life, Dream Traveling doesn’t affect Vera as much as it used to. She has her rules and her methods – as long as she follows them, all is fine.

Until she sees something she discovered she couldn’t handle. Now, her dreams are plagued by The Hunter, a deadly character that wants nothing more than to haunt her mind and leave behind a bloody spree. Vera must find a way to get The Hunter out of her head before he makes sure she never wakes up again.

So much for “sweet dreams”.

This novel was so suspenseful from beginning to end. Multi Mind keeps the reader hooked into the story and it’s full of interesting characters and a unique concept. I’ve read many books with dream traveling as a concept and I appreciate how the author makes this concept into their own. Vera not only travels the dream world but also interacts with it physically. While the novel starts out calm midway through it escalates into thrills and chills as Vera must figure out how to overcome a deadly nightmare. It’s a thing of mind against matter and Vera has to summon up the courage to face her fears head-on. 

Final Verdict:

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The Masked Truth

Riley Vasquez is haunted by the brutal murder of the couple she was babysitting for.

Max Cross is suffering under the shadow of a life-altering diagnosis he doesn’t dare reveal.

The last thing either of them wants is to spend a weekend away at a therapy camp alongside five other teens with “issues.” But that’s exactly where they are when three masked men burst in to take the group hostage.

The building has no windows. The exits are sealed shut. Their phones are gone. And their captors are on a killing spree.

Riley and Max know that if they can’t get out, they’ll be next—but they’re about to discover that even escape doesn’t equal freedom.

The situation in the novel is terrifying, dangerous, and realistic. Armstrong’s attention to detail puts readers into the heat of the story and asks them the question “What would you do in this situation?” Would you run, hide, or fight your way to safety? While reading this book you truly feel the fear embedded in each character and the intensity of the situation. This book is also equally a psychological thriller. It puts you on edge and you’re not sure who is telling the truth and who is lying. Just when I thought the climactic part of the story was over, the plot takes readers for a spin.

Final Verdict:

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Dragon Head

The end of everyone was just the beginning…
Returning home by train after a class trip, Teru Aoki takes a most frightening ride inside a mountain tunnel. When the train derails, nearly everyone aboard is killed. Amidst the bloody carnage, Teru discovers two survivors – but salvation is far from their grasp. As they try to dig out from the wreck in order to come up with a plan to stay alive, the lack of light and food, combined with the stench of death and decay, will lead one member of the group down a dark and demented path. And with sudden, violent earthquakes shaking the tunnel, escaping to the outside world may lead them to an even greater danger… 

Dragon Head is an action/horror story three high schoolers who are the sole survivors of a train accident. The are trapped within in a tunnel, deep underground where nobody is coming to their rescue. Mochizuki’s drawing style is detailed and thorough. It embodies the dark tones and fearful emotions presented in the manga. It poses the question of “What would you do?”. It’s a scary situation and with no light and little food I’d be grasping at straws too. 

Final Verdict:

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The One and Only

Ruby thinks being a new mother and government microbiologist during a pandemic are hard enough. But then the pathogen mutates into ZOM-B and Russia kidnaps her while on assignment in Taiwan.

Somehow, Ruby is at the center of a global crisis.

Will she find out why? More importantly, can she save her family and perhaps the world?

If only she could break out of the Moscow prison and find her way back home because the clock is ticking…

This is different from other zombie apocalypse books I’ve read before and the plot alone makes it stand out from others in it’s genres. The book had me hooked from beginning to end. It starts out with the “outbreak” story line typically found in zombie stories and ends on a completely different note. I was shocked and enthralled by the amount of twists and turns in this story! It was constantly exciting and action-packed. The authors great attention to detail makes the reader feel as if they are inside a movie.

Final Verdict:

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An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder

Mateo Borrero has ninety-nine problems, and all of them hinge on the fact that his terrifying and currently-missing bruja mother trapped a demon in his body when he was born. His mother forbade him from ever using magic, but now that she’s gone, magic’s his only marketable skill, and he’d really like an exorcism—which costs money he doesn’t have. What’s the harm in making a quick buck by calling himself an Occult Specialist and chanting a few half-remembered spells in his crappy Spanish?

Enter Topher, a naive nepo baby with a curse that keeps killing people around him. Most importantly, he’s rich, and too clueless to clock that Mateo–and his (absolutely-not-the-assistant) astral-projecting best friend Ophelia–have never actually had a client before. Lifting Topher’s bad luck curse should be simple, but as luck would have it, nothing is simple, and Topher–who Mateo sort of, kind of likes–might be at the center of a deadly magical conspiracy. 

To make matters worse, the more magic Mateo does, the stronger the demon inside him grows and the more he wants to eat people. But would caving to the urges of an ancient evil really be that bad if it helps him get a payday?

This novel is marketed as a Fantasy novel, but felt as more of a Horror mystery novel to me. While it is full of humor and snarky banter, it is very descriptive overall in its descriptions of body horror and violence. Those who are more sensitive to these elements along with some gory scenes that occur in the latter part of the novel, may want to go into this novel with caution. The characters felt well-developed, and the somewhat open ending gives me a feeling that there may be a sequel in the future. This book is action-packed, full of the paranormal, and also comes with a little bit of romance (but it does not end up being the main focus).

Final Verdict:

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Do you have any “Spooktastic Reads” you’ll be reading for Halloween? Do you have any recommendations to share? Comment below!