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How do you get into the Halloween spirit when even Hocus Pocus makes you skittish? (I mean, hypothetically speaking…)
If you can’t handle horror or can’t stomach gore, have no fear—literally! There’s more than one way to celebrate the spooky season. Whether you’re a horror aficionado who’s already read all the classics or a complete wimp who’s looking for something not-so-scary, we’ve got your back (in a totally not-creepy way). Here are ten chilling Halloween reads for every level of thrill-seeker, rated by spookiness. One ghost for not super-scary, two ghosts for chills down your spine and three ghosts for eeeek! ????
Image credit: @silviuz/Twenty20
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Guestbook
Leanne Shapton
Spooky meter: ???? (one ghost)
A series of ghosts appear at their former bedsides. A woman returns from a visit to Alcatraz with an uncomfortable feeling. A tennis prodigy collapses due to an invisible presence. Artist and author Leanne Shapton explores the visitations that haunt us in this stunning collection of stories and vignettes.
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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk
Spooky meter: ???? (one ghost)
Thriller-meets-dark-fairy-tale in this story about a recluse in a Polish village who gets involved in the investigation of a series of murders. From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, this mystery brilliantly explores the murky border between sanity and madness.
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Bunny
Mona Awad
Spooky meter: ???? (one ghost)
Margaret Atwood called this spellbinding novel “Jon Swift + The Witches of Eastwick + Kelly ‘Get In Trouble’ Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell!” Need we say more?
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The Saturday Night Ghost Club
Craig Davidson
Spooky meter: ???? (one ghost)
A bunch of misfit kids spend an unforgettable summer investigating local ghost stories and urban legends. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things or anyone who wants a spooky fix with a heavy dose of ’80s nostalgia and coming of age feels.
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The Poison Thread
Laura Purcell
Spooky meter: ???????? (two ghosts)
A thrilling Victorian gothic about a young seamstress who claims her needle and thread have the power to kill… The Poison Thread is a spine-tingling, sinister read about the evil that lurks behind the facade of innocence.
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Japanese Ghost Stories
Lafcadio Hearn
Spooky meter: ???????? (two ghosts)
In this collection of classic ghost stories based on Japanese folklore, paintings come alive, deadly brides haunt the living, and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. These chilling tales are major classics in Japan—do you dare to find out why?
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The Little Stranger
Sarah Waters
Spooky meter: ???????? (two ghosts)
One postwar summer, Dr. Faraday is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive, is now in decline. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life?
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Fever Dream
Samanta Schweblin
Spooky meter: ???????????? (three ghosts)
A young woman lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He’s not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. Fever Dream is truly a nightmare come to life.
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Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Spooky meter: ???????????? (three ghosts)
From the rubble-strewn streets of Baghdad, an oddball scavenger named Hadi collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. But when the corpse goes missing and a wave of murders sweeps the city, Hadi soon realizes he’s created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive.
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The Good Son
You-Jeong Jeong
Spooky meter: ???????????? (three ghosts)
Early one morning, Yu-jin wakes up to a strange metallic smell and a mysterious call. Yu-jin soon discovers his mother’s murdered body, lying at the bottom of the stairs of their Seoul duplex. Thus begins Yu-jin’s frantic search to uncover what happened, and finally learn the truth about his family.
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