13 Spoopy Reads for Scaredy-Cat Halloween-Lovers
Maybe you think the title of this post is a typo. Surely, you think, I meant “spooky.” With gentle love, reader, I must correct you. Spooky books are for the brave of heart. Spoopy books are a step down on the hierarchy of fear. They’re for scaredy cat readers who love Halloween season, a taste of magic, and a tingle of intrigue without drinking nightmare fuel. Readers who want to mitigate the spookiness with a bit of humor, charm, or wonder. Readers like me.
And in the spirit of treat season, I’m throwing out spoopy recommendations as varied as Halloween candy – there’s fantasy, romance, classics, and more. May you find your full-sized Snickers bar of a book in the sweet treat of a list below.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
When he returns to his childhood home for a funeral, an unnamed middle-aged protagonist is drawn to a house at the end of the lane. There, he coaxes a magical, frightening childhood back into his hazy memory. In that memory, another child swears to protect him, and they face a world of danger together. Despite a creepy nanny and a foot-burrowing worm, there’s a lot of tenderness between the characters that becomes even more heartbreaking as the protagonist questions his own memories. It’s hard to turn the last page on this tale of friendship and sacrifice, but my copy of the book has Neil Gaiman’s personal recipe for crepes in the back, which soothes the loss a little.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Artemisia is a nun who prefers her own company to that of others, but after possessed soldiers attack her convent, she strikes out to save her land from ravenous spirits. With ravens, warrior nuns, and an antisocial protagonist wrestling with a ghost that threatens to possess her….it would all be a little frightening if the banter weren’t so darn good. I read Vespertine last October, and I swear this book cast a chill in the air. Ravens stopped by my apartment complex for the first and last time to celebrate the experience, and the sky stayed gray all week while I read it. Let us know if this atmospheric book has the same effect on your world.
Genre: YA Fantasy
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
This book is one part vampire horror and two parts sweet tea with extra judgmental looks. Southern hospitality bites Patricia Campbell in the butt – so to speak – when the hot new neighbor she invites over turns out to be a monster. Luckily, her loyal true crime book club is there to back her up in the fight against a bloodsucker. Author Grady Hendrix has long been the king of the horror spoof, and in this novel he turns his pen to the plights of bored housewives and the ways many of us use true crime to spice up our otherwise mundane existences. Full of sarcasm and southern charm, this book is a romp for anyone who can stomach a not so little dash of gore.
Genre: Thriller
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
A traveling circus serves as the stage for two dueling magicians to settle their mentors’ scores. Only one of them can make it out of the contest alive, but as they create attraction after attraction in the circus to prove themselves, their shows of strength begin to look more and more like love letters. Hesitant to end the duel since it would prevent their love, the magicians unwittingly trap a large cast of characters in the circus. The imagery is lush as they struggle to free themselves and their friends from a contest with unclear rules and unsympathetic organizers.
Genre: Fantasy
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
Seeing ghosts is just a pain for Florence Day. Lately, the only thing she wants is to convince her new pain-in-the-butt editor to grant her an indefinite extension on a ghostwriting project for a famous romance author. After a terrible break up, the love stories just aren’t flowing anymore, and she doesn’t think they ever will again. That all changes when her father dies, reawakening her desire to communicate with the dead in hopes she’ll get to speak with her father one last time. Instead, it’s that stuffy editor who haunts her after a sudden accident, resulting in a wholesome romance that scampers through graveyards, funerals, and difficult childhoods.
Genre: Romance
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
El was born to be an evil sorceress, and everyone knows it. Her grandmother prophesied she’d bring chaos, and the Scholomance, the wizarding school she attends, almost exclusively dumps spells of mass destruction in her lap. Even non-magical strangers get a bad vibe. Fortunately for the world, her mother is one of the greatest healers in history who insists El can choose a different future, and El is determined to live up to that belief…as soon as she escapes the Scholomance alive. When failure means death, she’ll need to overcome her sour exterior and earn all the help she can get. I loved all three books in this trilogy so much. Touching relationships, exciting worldbuilding, and evolving danger kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Several people on staff would resort to witchcraft to get another book with these characters.
Genre: Fantasy
Taproot by Keezy Young
A young gardener, Hamal, strikes up a friendship with a teen ghost, Blue. As their friendship develops into something more, strange things are happening in the spirit world. Blue will do whatever it takes to protect Hamal, but when the spirit world’s problems seem connected to their relationship, righting things might mean breaking Hamil’s heart. Told through beautiful illustrations that will have you revisiting its pages long after you finish the story, this queer paranormal romance is short, sweet, and just the right amount of creepy.
Genre: Graphic Novel
Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
After graduating from Harvard, Jessamyn is still closeted, broke, and jobless. Medical fees force her family to move back to Malaysia, and since she hasn’t been there since she was a toddler, she feels extremely out of place. That’s enough for any individual. But Jessamyn starts hearing voices, too. Soon she realizes it’s not stress but the spirit of her grandmother intent on vengeance, and Jessamyn will help the cantankerous woman whether she wants to or not. There are ghosts, gods, gangsters, and supernatural happenings, but the heart of the book is Jessamyn’s family, and their relationship dynamics will keep you turning the pages.
CW: Attempted Sexual Assault
Genre: Fantasy
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Whether Catherine and Heathcliff share a love that transcends death or a toxic bond that keeps their souls from rest, this classic full of troubled characters remains unforgettable. I was a fool to resist its allure as long as I did. Once I finally finished this book, I couldn’t shake its darkness and its beauty. It boasts larger-than-life personalities, mysterious personalities, a gothic chill that creeps off the moors...and no gore or jump scares!
Genre: Classic Gothic Fiction
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown
A princess grieving for her mother and a refugee hoping to start a new life with his sisters collide on the cusp of a festival that happens only once every fifty years. Though they connect instantly, the two are on course to murder one another before the festival’s end. Mental health issues, trauma, and loss haunt both characters, but if they aren’t careful a centuries-long rift between their people may keep them from offering one another the support they need. Inspired by West African folklore, the world of this satisfying duology has rich history and traditions. The magic system, the importance of stories, and the beings that Karina and Malik encounter spark the imagination and add that touch of intrigue needed for a spoopy read.
Genre: YA Fantasy
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Already cursed to a bad fate, Sophie’s life gets harder when she unwittingly crosses the Witch of the Waste and is transformed into an old lady. She seeks out a wizard in a roaming castle for help, but breaking the spell will require Sophe to find more strength in herself than she ever has before. Along the way, she’ll find new friends, unexpected truths, and a strange romance. Fans of the Ghibli movie adaptation will enjoy tracking what the film changed and what it kept the same as well as all the extra material the book has to offer!
Genre: Fantasy
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
The men in Yadriel’s family have long been able to summon ghosts, so when his super traditional Latinx family has trouble accepting his true gender, Yadriel decides to prove he can summon ghosts, too. It works…kind of. Instead of summoning his murdered cousin, who he’d hoped to set free, he summons the ghost of a former classmate who wants to solve the mystery of his death. The two boys work together in the days leading up to Día de Muertos to achieve their goals. They find romance in the process. After a hard-fought win, Yadriel believes he’s lost the one thing he hardly let himself hope for, but he ends up getting more than he ever let himself dream. Hopeful, earnest, and cathartic, you will find yourself suddenly drowning in joyful tears. Bookseller Mariah certainly did.
Genre: YA Fantasy
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
My friend called this book “all bones and necromancy.” Gideon is a swordswoman dying to get off her home planet, but the only person really offering her a way out is her arch nemesis Harrowhawk– the leader of the planet, a necromancer currently puppeteering Gideon’s dead parents. No problem, though. All Gideon has to do is serve as Harrowhawk’s cavalier in a competition to become an immortal elite member of their society. Harrowhawk will finally have enough power to keep her house alive, and Gideon…well, Gideon can go to space. Thus forms our dynamic duo. Sarcasm, lesbians, and a distinctive world await readers who can brave some gore and body horror.
Genre: Fantasy
