Halloween. We don’t do it well in Australia. Every year I buy a couple of packets of Cadbury fun-size bars just in case I am visited by trick-or-treaters. I don’t want to be another in a long chain of dud houses who weren’t on board with the All Hallows vibe. Of course, that means every year when there are no trick-or-treaters I essentially have a couple of packets of fun-size Cadbury bars for dinner. Cherry Ripes go well with red wine. If you’re drinking white, I’d go for strawberry Freddos. That’s my hot tip for Halloween.

I read a lot, but I don’t read a lot of horror or what I would instantly classify as horror by the usual definition. You can see then, what the issue was when I decided I wanted to write a quick post on Halloween reading options. Stephen King tops all the lists of scary books, but what if you’re just not into Stephen King?

Still, once I had a good rummage on my book shelves, it turned out there were a number of books that in turns scared and unsettled me, and one or two that legit gave me nightmares. So, using only what was on my shelves, here are 10 scary reading options to go with your fun-size chocolates. No Stephen King to be seen.

Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin (1967)

Rosemary reckons her neighbours are satanists, and that’s a scary thing. Levin takes all of the tropes of gothic horror and moves them from lofty distant castles to your own lounge room. Well-plotted and terrifying.

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (1985)

Offred is kept as a ‘handmaid’ in a near-future dystopian society where fertile women are owned by the ruling class because of birth rate decline. Told with Atwood’s deft hand, it is frightening in its plausibility.

Dracula – Bram Stoker (1897)

I love vampire stories and the original is still the best.

The Road – Cormac McCarthy (2006)

Post-apocalyptic, disturbing, grim. A harrowing read.

Coraline – Neil Gaiman (2002)

Coraline’s seemingly perfect other world is not all its cracked up to be. They replace your eyes with sewn-on buttons, for one thing. Though for younger readers, Coraline is creepy as shit.

Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Linqvist (2004)

Another vampire story, and boy is this one dark. Oskar is a bullied kid who befriends his new neighbour, a vampire child. A genuinely disturbing book dealing with some pretty confronting and disturbing themes. This one kept me up at night.

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley (1818)

You know it. Archetypal gothic horror where doctor creates monster – which makes him the monster, actually.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson (1962)

The story of the Blackwood sisters, isolated in their home after one of them poisoned the rest of the family. Atmospheric and suspenseful.

Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham (1951)

Proper sci fi with a plague of blindness and carnivorous plants. I love this book!

Fevre Dream – George RR Martin (1982)

I know, I know. Enough with the vampire books. But vampires on a steam boat on the Mississippi in the 1850s? Please and thank you!

‘Til next time,