Unstashing 10 spooky novels for a perfect Halloween indulgence
- Dominika Fleszar
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
We're diving deep into the underrated gems that deserve a spot on your spooky season "to be read" list.
It's Halloween!
The perfect time to pick a quiet corner and get lost in a spine-chilling novel, one that makes you want to double-check the locks on the door, hide under your blanket, and hope that there are no monsters under your bed.
This Halloween, why not trade the jump-scares for a slow, delicious burn of dread? If you're looking for a spooky indulgence, look no further than this carefully curated list of horror novels—a mix of timeless classics and modern nightmares guaranteed to keep your lights on.
1. “The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix
Before your book club was arguing about “Fourth Wing”, these Southern moms were taking down actual vampires. Hendrix delivers a brilliant metaphor wrapped in genuine scares: a vampire moves into a Charleston suburb in the '90s, and only the women of the neighbourhood book club notice something's wrong. Campy, bloody, and surprisingly poignant about the invisible labour women do to keep their communities safe.
2. “The Spirit Bares Its Teeth” by Andrew Joseph White
This gothic Victorian horror follows Silas, a trans autistic teenager trapped in a finishing school that promises to turn "mediums" into proper ladies. What starts as oppressive becomes genuinely terrifying as Silas uncovers the school's grotesque secrets. White crafts a visceral, furious narrative that's equal parts ghost story and indictment of how society treats those who don't conform. Content warning for medical trauma, but absolutely worth the emotional gut-punch.
3. “The Devourers” by Indra Das
This isn't your typical werewolf story. Set in Kolkata, a history professor meets a stranger who claims to be half-werewolf and asks him to transcribe his family's darkly violent, erotically charged history spanning centuries. Das weaves together Indian folklore, queer desire, and body horror into something wholly original. It's lush, brutal, and deeply sensual - think shape-shifter mythology filtered through literary fiction. The kind of book that gets under your skin and stays there.
4. “Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn
Dunn reimagines “Carmilla” as a lush sapphic gothic set against the backdrop of Industrial Revolution England. Lenore, trapped in a loveless marriage to steel magnate Henry, travels to the remote Nethershaw estate in the Peak District. After a carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into her life, Lenore finds herself awakening to desires she's long suppressed. As local girls fall sick with a terrible hunger and a hunting party approaches, Lenore must choose between reclaiming her husband's affection or surrendering to what Carmilla has unlocked within her. It's sensual, atmospheric, and a perfect queer reimagining of the vampire tale that inspired Dracula.
5. “Such Sharp Teeth” by Rachel Harrison
A woman gets bitten by a werewolf and has to navigate her transformation while dealing with her twin sister's impending wedding and motherhood. Harrison balances genuine body horror with biting (sorry) commentary on womanhood, family expectations, and the rage women are told to swallow. It's funny, it's gross, it's feminist horror at its finest.
6. “Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story” by Olga Tokarczuk
Nobel Prize winner Tokarczuk turns her formidable talents to gothic horror in this unsettling novel set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Polish mountains circa 1913. A young engineer arrives for treatment and finds the resort populated by strange guests, mysterious deaths, and something predatory lurking in the surrounding forests. Tokarczuk blends “The Magic Mountain” with creature horror, adding her signature philosophical depth and dark humour. An impressive proof that literary fiction can be genuinely terrifying.
7. “Victorian Psycho” by Virginia Feito
Winifred Notty arrives as a governess at a remote Scottish manor in the 1850s, and she's not your typical Jane Eyre heroine. She's a full-blown psychopath. Feito gives us an unreliable narrator who's equal parts fascinating and horrifying, wrapped in a gothic atmosphere thick enough to choke on. It's darkly funny, genuinely disturbing, and a brilliant inversion of the classic Victorian gothic. Think “The Turn of the Screw” if the governess were the real monster.
8. “The Darkening Globe” by Naomi Kelsey
Set in 1597 London, this historical gothic follows Beatrice, whose husband returns from the New World with a mysterious woman and an enormous painted globe. When the globe begins turning on its own and gruesome illustrations appear on its surface - followed by matching deaths - Beatrice realises something sinister has entered her home. Kelsey crafts a twisty, atmospheric thriller about a woman desperately trying to prove she's not paranoid while uncovering what really happened on her husband's expedition. It's claustrophobic, eerie, and features one of the creepiest cursed objects in recent memory.
9. “The Terror” by Dan Simmons
Yes, this one's older (2007) and inspired a TV series, but it deserves its flowers. Based on the true story of the doomed Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage, Simmons imagines what really happened to the crew trapped in Arctic ice. Spoiler: something is hunting them, and it's not just scurvy and despair. This is survival horror meets historical fiction meets creature feature, and at 700+ pages, it's the perfect October/November commitment. Cold, brutal, and absolutely gripping.
10. “Ghost Story” by Peter Straub
Let’s finish with a real oldie - this 1979 classic is criminally under-read, considering it's one of the best horror novels ever written. Four old men in a small town share ghost stories in their club, but the past they've been running from is catching up to them - literally. Straub weaves together multiple timelines and narrative layers into something that feels like a fever dream you can't wake up from.