10 Best Scary Books to Read for Halloween
We all know the feeling of not being able to fall asleep after watching a scary movie. You keep replaying the film’s third act over and over in your mind, and every time you close your eyes, the disturbing visuals are all you can think about. We can all probably agree that the greatest horror movies are the ones that leave a little bit to the imagination – where we’re left wondering, “But what did the demon really look like?” That’s exactly why books are sometimes a million times scarier than movies. With a book, everything is left up to your imagination. And if you’ve got a creative brain, your mind is definitely going to conjure up some nightmarish images. Here are 10 books that will easily keep you up at night.
Related: What To Read This Month, According To Your Astrological Sign
1/12Read these, if you dare.
2/12My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
This book is described as Beaches meets The Exorcist and it absolutely lives up to that description. It follows two best friends named Abby and Gretchen over the course of their teenage years. One day, Gretchen begins to act strangely, and Abby eventually realizes that her best friend has been possessed by a demon. When no one believes her, she takes it upon herself to try to save Gretchen – which means performing an exorcism on her own.
3/12Dawn by Octavia Butler
Dawn is the first book in the sci-fi series Xenogenesis and takes place after Earth’s apocalypse. The novel’s protagonist Lilith has been kept alive by aliens and has to return to Earth along with new extraterrestrial creatures. Dawn is the perfect blend of horror and science fiction, and guaranteed to give you the creeps.
4/12The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Despite the fact that The Witches of Worm is a YA novel, it is legitimately scary. (It's even been banned in schools and libraries for elements of witchcraft and demonic themes.) The book focuses around a girl named Jessica who finds a kitten in a cave. She names the cat Worm, and takes him home with her. Jessica soon discovers that Worm belonged to witches, and he begins telling Jessica to do terrible things.
5/12American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
The book version of American Psycho is just as unsettling as the movie, if not more. It follows Patrick Bateman, a ruthless psychopath who engages in gruesome activities night after night. The book is made even more unsettling by Ellis’s singular storytelling. While it will make you laugh at times, it’s also bound to make you double check your doors at night and probably sleep with the light on.
6/12Piercing by Ryu Murakami
This novel is seriously disturbing. It opens with protagonist Kawashima Masayuki struggling against the overwhelming desire for blood. Afraid of hurting his family, he decides to murder someone random in order to get the urge out of his system. The book follows Kawashima as he writes down his elaborate plots to commit murder. But when he actually sets out to commit the crime, things don’t go according to plan.
7/12The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House is a classic horror novel, but don’t let its 1959 publishing date fool you – it’s got all the makings of a modern-day ghost story. It centers around four strangers who meet at a notoriously haunted mansion. As they begin their stay, they start to notice strange things about the house. The oddities that they experience quickly segue into full-blown fear, and they are forced to examine themselves in the process.
8/12Blindness by José Saramago
Blindness is a seamless combination of horror, science fiction, and social commentary. It describes a city that is suddenly impacted by an epidemic that causes a vast portion of the population to become blind. Those affected are sent to a psychiatric hospital, where they quickly turn on one another. This novel succeeds in terrifying its readers while simultaneously making them think about the human condition.
9/12Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
Reputed as one of the best horror novels of the 20th century, Carrion Comfort paints a picture of a certain type of monster called “mind vampires.” These creatures have elaborate psychic abilities where they can read the minds of humans and force them to do their bidding. This is definitely not a quick read, as it clocks in at over 800 pages of pure unadulterated terror.
10/12The Ritual by Adam Nevill
If you like The Blair Witch Project, you’ll love this novel. It follows four college friends who decide to go on a hiking trip for a reunion. While in a forest, they soon find themselves lost, and stumble upon an old, abandoned house. The house contains remnants of old sacrifices; they find bones and other terrifying objects. A dark force haunts the house itself, making it very difficult for the friends to escape.
11/12The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
This YA novel is a solid thriller with a side of romance. It begins with Mara waking up in a hospital with no idea how she got there. She later learns that she was in an accident and was the only one to survive among her friends, but has no recollection of the details of the event. Over the course of the novel, she pieces together the story while dealing with disturbing hallucinations. But she also manages to fall in love.
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