Last week, we kept it real: true crime, true hauntings, and history that actually happened. This week, we are making things up, and honestly, that might be scarier.
There is something only fiction can do on a dark October night. A good ghost story knows exactly where to put the creak in the floorboards. A great horror novel gets under your skin and stays there. And the best spooky books, from the funny ones to the genuinely frightening, remind us why people have been telling scary stories around the fire for as long as there have been fires.
Independent presses are where so much of the most inventive spooky fiction lives: Arctic horror from Northern writers, Japanese ghost stories, many in English for the first time, a classic vampire tale reimagined on the Underground Railroad, and a retirement home for aging monsters. So whether you want a haunted house, a witch in the woods, or just a cozy murder with a jack-o'-lantern on the porch, here are nineteen of our favorite Halloween novels and ghost stories, sorted from spine-chilling to spooky-but-sweet. Pick your poison.
Haunted Houses|Witches & Curses|Vampires|Gothic Ghosts|Around the World|Spooky, Not Scary|Kids & Teens
Haunted House Novels
Home is where the haunt is. Creaking floors, cold spots, and real estate you should never have signed for.
Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker (Turner Publishing)
Felix Allsey writes travel books about America's most haunted places by haunting them himself. His next stop is the infamous Rotterdam Mansion, where he plans to stay thirteen nights without leaving, sleeping through the day, with his oldest friend and fellow horror-movie obsessive along for company. Then come the screams from upstairs and the figures in the doorways. From an Edgar Award winner, this is a true love letter to the haunted house genre, full of dark humor and film trivia until it very much isn't.
Amityville Awakens by Robert P. Ottone (CLASH Books)
What happens when the most famous haunted house in the world gets torn down? Nothing good. With the Amityville house gone, North Amityville and its neighbors start seeing shadows that move, orbs in the night, people who go missing, and a strange fungal mold creeping across suburban lawns. Two-time Bram Stoker Award winner Robert P. Ottone gives the legend a fresh, sprawling take, proof that evil does not need a house to live in. Brand new this October.
Hymn for the Forsaken by Megan Lynch (City Owl Press)
A tech company wants Ina Klee's overgrown West Virginia homestead for a data center, and Ina refuses to sell. Generations of Klees have brewed supernatural tinctures on that land. When the wealthy, charming Cuppy family offers help, Ina learns too late that they are enchanted, ruthless, and used to taking what they want. Appalachian gothic with a slow-burning, magical dread and a morally gray heroine, out October 20, just in time for the big night.
Witches, Curses & Hexes
Something wicked this way comes. Whispered accusations, women who walk the woods at night, and one very vengeful doll.
Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks (Hub City Press)
It is 1939 in the North Carolina mountains, and farm wife Irenie Lambey has taken to slipping out at night in her white nightshirt, wandering the woods and hiding strange keepsakes in a cavern. Her husband, a logger turned fundamentalist preacher, is sure it is witchcraft. NPR called it "a spellbinding story of witchcraft and disobedience," and it won the Southern Book Prize. This is literary Appalachian fiction where the line between witchcraft and a woman's quiet disobedience is hard to see.
She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove (Bindery Books)
Lucy McQuinn isn't like other girls. She was murdered, and now she is back, possessing an eighteen-inch antique porcelain doll and hunting the man who killed her: Kyle, a "promising young man" in a small, idyllic town that refuses to hear the truth about him. With help from Nicola, a fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle, Lucy sets out to expose his crimes, or else make him suffer, slowly. A ghoulish, gleeful tribute to female rage, and a love letter to friendship that spans this life and the next. Revenge has never been so well dressed.
The Fressingfield Witch by Jacqueline Beard (Vinci Books)
Unexplained deaths are stirring whispers of witchcraft in Suffolk, and private detective Lawrence Harpham, wrestling with demons of his own, takes on a case that echoes the dark history of the Suffolk witch trials. The first Lawrence Harpham mystery, it is a sinister tale of secrets and betrayal that blurs the line between reality and superstition, perfect for mystery fans who want a little sulfur in the air. If you loved last week's real witch-trial history, start here.
Vampire Novels
Fresh blood for an old legend. Two vampire stories that sink their teeth into the classics.
Caramelle & Carmilla by Jewelle Gomez and J. Sheridan Le Fanu (Aunt Lute Books)
Two vampire stories in one volume. Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872), the sensual, sapphic original that came a quarter century before Dracula, is paired with Caramelle, a new story by Jewelle Gomez set in the world of her novel The Gilda Stories. In it, two vampires arrive at a way station on the Underground Railroad seeking not prey but sanctuary. With a foreword by Gomez linking the two, it is a thoughtful, gorgeous reimagining of what a vampire story can be.
Now Comes the Mist by Julie C. Dao (Podium Publishing)
In Dracula, Lucy Westenra is the beautiful victim. Here, she bites back. Rich, adored, and secretly fascinated by death, Lucy meets the mysterious Vlad on her sleepwalks through Whitby and agrees to cheat death with him, thinking she is dreaming. When he shows her what he really is, he expects a good Victorian lady, appalled by his darkness. But for the first time, Lucy feels free to show her own darker side. Winner of the RNA's Fantasy Romantic Novel of the Year, this is a seductive, gothic retelling with a heroine who is far more than a cautionary tale.
Gothic Ghost Stories, Old & New
Old ghosts never die. One timeless Halloween tale, and one new gothic haunted by history.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Mint Editions)
Before there were jack-o'-lanterns on every porch, there was Ichabod Crane: a lanky, superstitious schoolteacher competing with local hero Brom Bones for Katrina Van Tassel's hand, and riding home alone after an autumn party. You know who is waiting on the road. Washington Irving's 200-year-old tale is still the most Halloween story ever written, equal parts spooky, funny, and atmospheric. Short enough to read aloud in one sitting, ideally by candlelight.
A Ghost Among Magnolias by James Slater Simmons (Lanternfish Press)
Petronia Slater's life has been plotted out since birth, like that of every child of Alonzo Slater, a successful Black builder and landowner in turn-of-the-century Milledgeville, Georgia. Stifled, and curious about her mother's mysterious past, she sneaks out of her college dormitory to a disreputable neighborhood across Atlanta, where she meets a young doctor, Ben Simmons, and dreams of running away for good. But history, and her family's ghost, have other ideas. Set during the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, it is a historical ghost story about the past and future of an influential Black family, guided by a mysterious specter. New this fall.
Ghost Stories from Around the World
Every culture has its ghosts. Japanese yokai, African Gothic, and the monsters that stalk the Arctic dark.
Taaqtumi 2 (Inhabit Media)
Taaqtumi is an Inuktitut word that means "in the dark," and this horror anthology shows just how much can hide there. Writers from across the Canadian Arctic, including award winners Aviaq Johnston, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, and Jamesie Fournier, set ancient monsters and mysterious beings loose in the modern North. Contemporary Arctic settings, the open tundra, and creatures of legend: this is horror you will not find anywhere else.
The Creation of Half-Broken People by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (House of Anansi Press)
A nameless woman plagued by visions works for the Good Foundation, whose museum is filled with artifacts from the family's exploits in Africa. The Goods are descendants of Captain John Good, of King Solomon's Mines fame. Then she spots an ancient woman leading protestors outside the museum, a woman she knows is not real, and the secrets of her past return. Soon she is living in an attic, then in a haunted castle. Longlisted for the 2026 Dublin Literary Award, this is African Gothic with a knowing nod to the genre's classics: hypnotic, haunting, and full of love and magic.
The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan by Noboru Wada (Tuttle Publishing)
Seventy-seven Japanese ghost stories, many in English for the first time, gathered from the mountainous Shinshu region where locals believe they really happened. Meet the beautiful Snow Woman who appears in a blizzard with a terrible secret, a kappa that lures villagers into a pond, and the daughter of a mountain witch looking for love. Told for generations around the hearth on snowy nights, these short tales are perfect for dipping into one at a time, if you dare.
Spooky, Not Scary
For the scaredy-cats. Monsters with a sense of humor, cozy murders, and an otherworldly Halloween feast.
Way Past Deadtime by Scott Craven (City Owl Press)
The residents of Upton Arms, a retirement home for aging vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other oddities, are finally out of the coffin. Literally. Now they are navigating daylight, suspicious neighbors, and the indignities of modern life, just as an old enemy plans to wipe them out. Their strategy: bickering, bonding, and occasionally biting someone who deserves it. A laugh-out-loud cozy paranormal sequel to Upton Arms, out this October, with all the found-family heart you could want.
Death in the Haunted Wood by Kim Griswell (Storm Publishing)
An aging horror-movie star is reopening a forgotten theme park called the Haunted Wood for its Halloween Spooktacular, and someone is sending him threatening vintage postcards. Then his groundskeeper turns up dead beneath the dock. Writer Saffi Graywood has to unmask a killer among the jack-o'-lanterns, movie props, and costumed guests, with a cup of spiced chai in hand. The coziest possible way to spend Halloween: a Pacific Northwest murder mystery with all the spooky trimmings and none of the nightmares.
Soul Food Stories edited by Salem West and Christel Cogneau (Bywater Books)
What does soul food mean to a demon, ghost, witch, or vampire? Salem West and Christel Cogneau put that question to a lineup of award-winning Bywater Books and Amble Press authors, including Anna Burke, Jenn Alexander, Jacob Budenz, Virginia Black, Cathy Pegau, and Ann McMan, and the answers make a bountiful feast of All Hallows stories. Sometimes sweet and sometimes terrifying, sometimes warm and sometimes demented, with titles like "Tilly's Tarts" and "Ghost Writer." Pull up a chair and take it one course at a time.
Spooky Books for Kids & Teens
Small frights for small (and not-so-small) readers, from a picture book ghoul to a YA haunted house.
Baroness Spookiness by Tini Malina (Gestalten)
Once upon a time, the name Baroness Spookiness sent shivers down everyone's spine. She was the mistress of mayhem, the queen of all things creepy. These days? Not scary at all. Then one restless night, she discovers that her beloved ghost cat is seriously ill, with a dreadful case of not-enough-spook. To save her feline friend, the Baroness has to rediscover her frightful flair. A funny, sweet picture book about a former ghoul learning to spook again, and a lovely gift for the little monsters in your life.
The Elevator Ghost by Glen Huser (Groundwood Books)
Nobody at the Blatchford Arms knows what to make of new babysitter Carolina Giddle, with her sequin-sprinkled sneakers, her trinket-crusted car, and her tarantula sidekick, Chiquita. But armed with bone-shaped peppermints, candles to set the mood, and ghost stories eerily suited to each of her charges, she can calm even the most rambunctious kids, all the way to a great Halloween party. From Governor General's Award winner Glen Huser, it is a quirky mix of humor and horror for young readers, with a story for every kid in the building.
A House Unsettled by Trynne Delaney (Annick Press)
Asha hopes moving to her great-aunt's crumbling country house will be a fresh start, especially once she meets her neighbor Cole. Then come footsteps in the halls, a chill that won't lift, and cold hands around her neck in the middle of the night. Searching for the source, Asha uncovers secrets that tie her family to Cole's. A YA ghost story that asks who built this house and whose blood paid for it, it explores how Black, queer love and resistance can break the cycles that haunt us. For teen readers.
That is our spooky shelf for the season: haunted houses, witches, a very vengeful doll, vampires with something to say, and ghost stories from every corner of the map, all from independent presses that keep strange, wonderful books in print. Whether you want to sleep with the lights on or just curl up with a cozy mystery and a bowl of candy corn, there is something here for every kind of reader. Turn the page, if you dare. Happy haunting!
A Few Notes in the Margins
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best horror and ghost story novels to read for Halloween?
For a classic haunted house, start with Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker or Amityville Awakens by Robert P. Ottone, a new take on the Amityville legend. For literary gothic, try Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks or A Ghost Among Magnolias by James Slater Simmons, a historical ghost story set in 1906 Atlanta. And for the most traditional Halloween read of all, Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is still hard to beat.
What are good Halloween books that aren't too scary?
Cozy paranormal and spooky comedy give you all the Halloween atmosphere with none of the nightmares. Way Past Deadtime by Scott Craven is set in a retirement home for monsters, Death in the Haunted Wood by Kim Griswell is a cozy murder mystery at a Halloween theme park, and Baroness Spookiness by Tini Malina is a picture book about a ghoul who has forgotten how to be scary.
What are good spooky books for kids and teens?
For young children, Baroness Spookiness by Tini Malina is a funny picture book about a ghoul relearning how to spook. Young readers will love The Elevator Ghost by Glen Huser, about a babysitter whose ghost stories build to a Halloween party. For teens, A House Unsettled by Trynne Delaney is a YA ghost story with real chills and real depth.
Why read horror and ghost stories from independent publishers?
Independent presses take chances on the stories that make the genre feel new: horror from writers across the Canadian Arctic like Taaqtumi 2, Japanese ghost stories, many in English for the first time, like The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan, and bold reimaginings like Caramelle & Carmilla. That range means you will find books here you will not see everywhere else, and every purchase helps keep those voices in print.
Happy reading!