Some days call for a warm mug of tea, a soft blanket, and the perfect book. As the days become shorter and nights longer, it’s the perfect time to curl up with something deliciously spooky to read! Our curated list of Halloween-time books will have you sleeping with the lights on, practicing your spellwork in the backyard, and confidently walking into the ghostly mist to solve a murder mystery. Let’s dive in.
Released in 2021, Slewfoot is a gorgeously crafted historical horror novel set in colonial New England that combines the terror of society with whatever slinks through the woods at night. If you’re a fan of Robert Eggers, the Blair Witch Project or the Wicker Man, you’ll sink into Slewfoot with glee. The writing of Slewfoot transports you into a pagan dreamscape with seductive spirits, whispering town folk, and a determined heroine striving to carve a place for herself in an oppressive world.
The Sworn Soldier series is a collection of horror/fantasy novellas set in a world just a few steps to the side of our own reality. Each novella follows a retired soldier drawn into mysterious and spooky situations either as a guide, detective, hero, or all three. There are eerie hares, sentient mushrooms, hungry ghosts, and eldritch cosmic horrors woven into characters that feel really real. Kingfisher draws inspiration from classic gothic literature tropes while taking the reader into the gruesome, ghastly, and gloomy contemporary narratives that are dryly funny and completely nightmare fuel.
Rachel Harrison is making a name for herself in the horror literature world by blending quick-witted humor with interesting takes on horror tropes. In “Kiss Slay Replay,” the reader is taken into a Groundhog Day terror full of masked killers, spurting blood, and there’s no end in sight. The main character, Willa, is forced into the role of the “final girl” – the one survivor at the end of the slasher flick – but she keeps dying, only to wake the next morning to relive the horrifying day again. As if running into your ex-fiancé wasn’t bad enough!
A vulnerable and honest memoir, “The Diary of an American Witch” by Marshall WSL is literally his diary as a witch in the United States. Written over 13 months from 2023-24, Marshall shares spellcraft, his experiences as a queer child in Texas, his mistakes and triumphs in a heartwarming, humorous voice. Marshall is a practicing witch with two other books released so far that detail more of his witchcraft practice in a more technical way, for the witchcraft curious and scholar. “The Diary of an American Witch” feels like a long, wonderful conversation with your witchy best friend.
Iris Beaglehole’s cozy mystery series about a mother, a daughter, a living house, and a magical town is perfect for a cool fall day. There are 9 books in this series, and Beaglehole is a real-life witch, so you have a lot of Myrtlewood to figure out! The stakes are high, the banter is witty, and the magic is as real as you’d like. And even though this town has fey, ghosts, and other creepies living next to the human citizens, Beaglehole’s accessible writing and cozy narratives won’t keep you up too late at night.
A brand new fiction tale of the Northeastern United States and contemporary witches brought to us by Alice Hoffman, of Practical Magic fame, just in time for the new sequel to Practical Magic! This book follows two college-aged women as they are brought into a secret society of witches and unravel a mystery of girls going missing. Hoffman’s lyrical storytelling and the shadow of McCarthyism aren’t to be missed!