25 Best Halloween Books to Read If You're Feeling Brave

Gillian and Sally Owens are tired of their family lineage being the talk of the town. Despite popular belief, they are not in fact evil and they don't practice witch craft. When the two sisters grow up, they decide to take matters into their own hands, both in different ways, ultimately drifting them apart. But when they're brought back together time after time (unwillingly), they start to wonder if magic is indeed to blame.

Listen, moving schools as a teenager is already scary enough. So when Makani reluctantly transfers to one with a serial killer on the loose, she realizes she's living in her own nightmare. Students go missing one right after each other, keeping her on edge at all times. Not knowing what else to do, Makani devises a plan to catch the murderer dead in his tracks.

Kids have a habit of telling the darnedest lies, but when Joyce tells her family that she witnessed a murder—she's being serious. They finally believe her, just when it's too late. Now, it's up to Joyce's family and Hercule Poirot to figure out what kind of "spirit" they have looming around their home.

Romantically cheating on one witch is bad enough. Cheating on three is just plain ol' stupid. Because when a trio of broken-hearted witches band together to get revenge, you can expect it to turn real messy—in the most magical way possible.

Every town has their disputes. Hey, not everyone shares the same opinion! Though, when Quinn Maybrook moves to a small city in Missouri, she soon finds out that this small town has some real big personalities. It all seems manageable at first, but when a killer clown suddenly emerges, wiping out the disruptive kids, Quinn becomes frightened and suspicious of a few obvious neighbors.

Well, the title pretty much sums this one up! The first part of this nail-biting trilogy includes stories of the risen dead, near-death experiences, and madmen in the form of corpses.

You'll never want to be hungry again after reading this one. If you know anything about the Donner Party, then you know just how gruesome this story is. Stephen King gives his take on one of the horrifying moments in American history.

Kaine Prescott knows her husband's death wasn't an accident—despite what police tell her. She moves into a worn-out house in a small, desolate town in Wisconsin. Ivy Thorpe lived in the same home a century prior in 1906, sharing a similar story to Kaine. The novel follows both stories, connecting them together as they manage their grief and trauma.

42 chilling, bite-sized stories make up this horror compilation. Leading with some of the most renowned names in fiction, Tiny Nightmares reimagines what it means to be scared. Read one right before bed, or a couple— whatever your mind can take!

These three witches in New York aren't the Sanderson Sisters, but their story is unnerving in its own respect. The year is 1880, and 17-year-old Beatrice is bored with her life when she sees an advertisement for an open position at a tea shop. Certain that this is her fate, she leaves her countryside home for the big apple, where she meets the shop owners, Eleanor and Adelaide. Powers held inside these women are quickly discovered during Beatrice's stay.

Mary Shelley's tale about Dr. Frankenstein and his creation gone awry is considered the birth of the science fiction genre. She wrote the book as part of a competition with her husband and friends (which included the poet Lord Byron!).

Need we say more? There's no creepier way to get ready for Halloween than with Stephen King's famous psychological horror novel, The Shining. As if its 600+ pages weren't enough, there's also a sequel you can pick up called Doctor Sleep.

Read the story that inspired the massive Broadway musical of the same name. It's all about the Wicked Witch of the West—who isn't really that wicked at all.

If you devoured the series on Netflix, then you should absolutely pick up the book that inspired it. The Haunting of Hill House is touted as one of the best haunted house stories of all time. It follows four occult seekers who are investigating the notoriously haunted Hill House.

You've probably seen the Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt film, but what about the book behind it all? Anne Rice's mesmerizing narrative is told from the perspective of Louis de Pointe du Lac, a 200-year-old vampire, as he recounts his story to a young reporter.

While you probably read this classic book in your high school English class, it's worth a Halloween reread. It's about the duality of human nature, told through a tale about a man who transforms into his evil alter ego at night.

No one would judge you if you chose to read Stephen King books all October. Carrie would be a great place to start—it's actually his first published novel!

Any vampire fan has to read Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling. It completely reinvents the vampire story, tackling issues about race and family as the main character uncovers details of her past life while protecting herself and those she cares for.

Interested in cozying up with a mystery this Halloween? Any of Agatha Christie's novels will do, but And Then There Were None is a great choice. When ten people are invited to a mansion on an island by a mysterious host, each guest starts to share their deepest secrets—all while getting picked off one by one.

Here's another Neil Gaiman novel! Coraline finds a door to a new universe in her family's house, where she meets exact copies of her mother and father—except in here, they're the ideal versions of themselves. However, as Coraline gets more attached to her other parents, she learns that there's something much more sinister going on.