8 Spooky Books You Have to Read this Season

If you think you’ve read every kind of haunted house story there is to read, think again. Just Like Home is a slow burn haunted house story with an absolutely terrifying payoff. Vera hasn’t been on speaking terms with her mother for some time, but when she finds out her mother is dying, Vera returns home to say goodbye and get the house in order. But the house is filled with dark secrets. Returning home means facing the memories of Vera’s serial killer father and all the terrible things he did within those walls.

This debut YA horror novel is all about building that spine-chilling dread that makes for a truly spooky reading experience. Desperate to make it in the cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, Laure Mesny makes a deal with a pulsating river of blood deep in the Catacombs. Although the deal gives Laure everything she’d ever wanted, it comes at a steep cost. And Laure quickly feels herself succumbing to the darkness.

Catriona Ward’s novels are always mind-bendy and spooky, and her latest is one of her best yet. Years ago, a killer stalked Wilder Young’s small town in Maine, and trauma bonded a young Wilder to his childhood friends Nat and Harper. Now, decades later, Wilder has returned to the town to write his memoir and unpack the horrifying events that happened that summer. But the longer he spends in the town and the more he writes, the more Wilder feels like he’s losing his grip on reality. And it feels as if the book is somehow writing itself.

There’s really nothing spookier than a haunted house story, and Johnny Compton’s debut wastes no time getting into the scares. Eric Ross is on the run with his two daughters. Running out of money and unsure of where to turn, he feels like his prayers are answered when he sees a position advertised for a caretaker of the Masson House. The Masson House is notoriously haunted, but this only draws Eric to the house more. His family has their own ties with the supernatural, and Eric is looking for answers.

How about a cursed winery to give you the creeps this Halloween season? The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations. But behind their successful winery are horrible secrets and a curse that has its clutches on every member of the family. Margot Hull has spent her life away from her family’s winery, but when her parents both die unexpectedly, she returns to the childhood home she barely remembers. Little does she know what horrors await her there.

Vampires of El Norte is a spooky, supernatural western set on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1840s. Nina has seen her fair share of threats living close to the border, and she knows there are dangers far greater than the Anglo settlers in the north. There’s something that lurks near the ranch at night, attacking people and draining them of their blood. Nena knows because she was attacked nine years ago. Nena’s childhood love, Néstor, thinks Nena died in that attack. Since then, Néster has moved from ranch to ranch, working as a vaquero, unable to shake his grief. When the United States invades Mexico in 1846, the two are brought back together in a surprising reunion, just in time for the monsters to return.