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Check Your Shelf

All of the Halloween Season Reading Lists

From scary picture books to queer gothic novels to witchy romances, these Halloween reading lists will have your October TBR teetering.

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Katie McLain Horner

Contributing Editor

Katie's parents never told her "no" when she asked for a book, which was the start of most of her problems. She has an MLIS from the University of Illinois and works full time as a Circulation & Reference Manager in Illinois. She has a deep-rooted love of all things disturbing, twisted, and terrifying and takes enormous pleasure in creeping out her coworkers. When she's not at work, she's at home watching the Cubs with her cats and her cardigan collection. Other hobbies include scrapbooking, introducing more readers to the Church of Tana French, and convincing her husband that she can, in fact, fit more books onto her shelves. Twitter: @kt_librarylady

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We’re right in the middle of Halloween season, which means your displays probably need a little refreshing! Whether you’re looking for picture books, YA horror, or queer gothic, we’ve got you covered with these creepy, eerie, and shudder-inducing reading lists from Book Riot and beyond!

Halloween Reads for Kids & Teens

Griselda Snook's Spectacular Books cover

Scary picture books for Halloween (or should I say…”scary”).

Hauntingly good ghost stories for tweens.

13 YA horror novels with BIPOC main characters. (I mean, if you haven’t read anything by Tiffany D. Jackson, now is the perfect time to do so!)

Halloween Reads for Adults

the eyes are the best part book cover

The best horror novels of 2024 (so far).

8 comics for Halloween.

9 comics about strange phenomena.

20 of the best gothic novels to read on a gloomy night. (Mexican Gothic is probably showing up on every gothic fiction roundup, and that is 100% the mood I’m in this year.)

5 horror novels about obsession.

20 books to read this Halloween season.

10 recent works of gothic horror to read ASAP.

6 ghostly romance novels.

cover of The Good House by Tananarive Due, featuring a scary house with a scary tree behind it

7 excellent haunted house novels written by women. (And I’ll give you a bonus title with this list, because The Good House by Tananarive Due wasn’t included, and that should be a crime.)

8 queer gothic novels to read by candlelight.

8 haunting Appalachian and Southern Gothic novels.

10 delightful witchy romances.

For me, I’m going all-in with my scary reading this October…I have Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay and a re-read of The Hunger by Alma Katsu on my bedside table. What creepy books are you reading this month?