Halloween Roundup: 5 Spooky Reads to Give You a Fright
Suspense and Horror Reads to Trick and Treat You
Many of us may no longer be dressing up and trick-or-treating around our local neighbourhoods, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still celebrate Halloween in true spooky fashion. The following spooky reads will trick and treat you with suspenseful plotlines and satisfying endings!
For this Halloween roundup, I was tempted to choose novels full of our favourite spooky creatures: ghosts, vampires, witches, and werewolves. However, I realized the scarier reads I’ve enjoyed aren’t about the monsters under the bed but the ones living alongside us. The following suspense thrillers don’t just give you goosebumps while reading, they also make you double check that your doors are locked before bed. With the exception of a classic YA horror that made the list for its nostalgic scare, the rest in this roundup will scare you with the horrors of human nature they portray.
1. Verity by Colleen Hoover (332 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
Lowen Ashleigh can’t believe her luck when she lands a job finishing a book series by bestselling author Verity Crawford, who is unable to complete her last three novels due to medical reasons. Jeremy Crawford, Verity’s husband, welcomes Lowen into the family home where Verity’s office and book notes wait to be sorted through and Verity herself lives in an unresponsive state upstairs, cared for by an in-home nurse. As Lowen finds herself falling for Jeremy, she also discovers an unfinished autobiography written by Verity, full of disturbing admissions that Verity never intended anyone to read. The more Lowen learns about the Crawford family, the less certain she is about what she thinks she knows of the couple.
Why You Should Read It
This book is full of the kind of suspense that will make you feel uneasy while sitting in the comfort of your reading chair. Hoover reveals each new twist of this dark tale in perfect timing so that you can’t help lying to yourself as you promise just one more chapter. The characters’ struggles with perception and manipulation bleed from the pages and leave readers just as baffled, even with the last page turn.
Spook Scale
5/5 Brookie Stars
2.The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (352 pages)
Image via Celadon Books
A dead husband. A silent wife. From the very first sentence in chapter one, readers learn that Alicia Berenson is a murderer. Six years ago, she killed her husband and hasn’t spoken since. Hoping to uncover her motives, psychotherapist Theo Faber begins treating Alicia. Alongside Theo, readers uncover a troubling past and possible motives beneath Alicia’s once seemingly prized life as a famous painter.
Why You Should Read It
The Silent Patient is a read that will keep you guessing until the very end. As a lover of suspense novels, nothing aggravates me more than when the killer’s identity is painfully obvious in the opening chapters. Ironically, even though this novel reveals the killer from the very start, I still felt genuinely surprised by a plot twist that left me wondering how Michaelides was able to craft a story he could so perfectly turn on its head.
Spook Scale
3/5 Brookie Stars
3. The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag (432 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
On New Year’s Eve, the body of an unidentifiable female falls out of the trunk of a car into oncoming traffic. Quickly pegged as “Zombie Doe” by the media, she is one of nine girls to recently show up dead in the Minneapolis area. Homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are assigned to the case and must determine not only the girl’s identity but if it was someone close to home who wanted her dead or the elusive serial killer Doc Holiday. As longtime partners, Kovac and Liska have seen a lot, but they face evil from all angles while trying to solve this particular case.
Why You Should Read It
The 9th Girl is the first of Hoag’s novels I’ve ever read, and upon finishing it, I raced to find as many other works of hers as I could. Her well-developed characters and crisp but telling descriptions bring the story to life right before your eyes and make it easy to feel the fear, confusion, urgency, and repulsion that her characters experience in all of her thrillers. Even while The 9th Girl follows the lives of two detectives from some of Hoag’s earlier novels, anyone can pick up this book and lose themselves in this tale of crime and horror.
Spook Scale
5/5 Brookie Stars
4. The Chain by Adrian McKinty (368 pages)
Image via Mulholland Books
After dropping her daughter off at school, Rachel Klein receives a phone call that will change her life forever. Her daughter has been kidnapped and in order to save her life, Rachel must kidnap someone else’s child. The masterminds of this nightmarish scheme remain in complete control while keeping their hands clean: a child is spared only if another is taken, and the parents themselves must do the kidnapping — and if it comes to it, the killing. Like so many parents before her in “the chain”, Rachel finds herself doing the unimaginable as she tries to save her child’s life.
Why You Should Read It
The real horror of this novel comes when you find yourself in the shoes of its characters. McKinty (somewhat maddeningly) thinks of all the plausible plot holes for this twisted concept he conjured up. By the time you finish the book, you have no choice but to answer the very question he asks of his characters: could you destroy another family to save your own? This story is one that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.
Spook Scale
4/5 Brookie Stars
5. Coraline by Neil Gaiman (208 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
Coraline is a bored but curious young girl who moves into the second story apartment of an old house with her inattentive, often absent parents. While exploring her new home, she stumbles upon a door that leads to another world, very similar to her current one but better. Here she has an “other mother” and “other father” who seem eager to please her with yummy meals and fun toys. However, the more time Coraline spends there, the more concerned she becomes. Her other parents wish to keep her forever, and Coraline soon discovers she must find a way to save not only herself but the souls of other children who have been captured before her.
Why You Should Read It
This YA novel is one I revisit every late October in the height of spooky season. I can still recall how I felt reading it for the first time in grade school. With each passing year, everything about “other mother” and Gaiman’s vivid storytelling can still make my skin crawl. Complete with ghosts and other worldly darkness, Coraline is a quick and easy read to pick up a few nights before Halloween if you’re looking for a creepy scare.
Spook Scale
5/5 Brookie Stars
Love our roundup? Don’t forget to pick up one of the reads and enjoy a fright this Halloween. Let us know what you thought of these Halloween spooky reads by emailing us here!
Taylor Stawecki is a 20-something Michigander with a love for the great outdoors and written word. She spends her weekdays working for a digital marketing company and as a freelance copywriter. In her free time, you can find her reading, writing poetry, running, watching a Grey’s Anatomy rerun, or spending time with her family and friends. As an old soul, she enjoys collecting salt and pepper shakers and cuddling up in oversized sweaters.
