Who needs caffeine when we've got the perfect boo(k)s to keep you up all night?
As the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer, there's no better time to dive into tales of things that go bump in the night. From timeless classics to spine-tingling short stories, here are thirteen books that will get you in the Halloween spirit.
Why are ghosts always from the past? And what happens when they meet modern technology? Jeanette Winterson explores these questions and more in Night Side of the River
Our world has changed, but our ghosts haven't—they've just found new ways to haunt us. From apps to the metaverse, they’re everywhere. This 'spine-chillingly good' collection of stories feels like an evening around the campfire, swapping tales of spectral visitors.
When the voices call, don't answer...
After his parents' tragic deaths, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote town of Ballantyne. Branded an outcast, Richard claims a telephone booth at the edge of the woods sucked his classmate Tom into the receiver. No one believes him.
Described as one of 'today's most interesting thriller writers,' Jo Nesbo will keep you up until the witching hour with this twisted spin on the classic coming-of-age horror story.
Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, 1851: McGlue is down in the hold, still too drunk to be sure of his name, situation or orientation – but he has blood on his hands. He may have killed a man. That man may have been his best friend. As the ship makes its voyage home to Salem, Massachusetts, intolerable memory accompanies reluctant sobriety.
Ottessa Moshfegh delivers a killer story you won't be able to forget with McGlue .
Alex is a young woman on the brink. Behind on rent and with nothing keeping her in New York, she agrees to spend August at the beach house of the older man she's seeing. After one misstep, she's dismissed with a ticket back to the city. But Alex decides to stay, charming her way into the lives of the wealthy island residents, leaving a trail of destruction.
This gripping page-turner may have been the thriller of the summer, but it's also perfect for a cozy October night.
Looking for a Halloween read that's more enchanting than eerie? Dive into this spellbinding novel, a timeless classic perfect for the season.
Full of breath-taking amazements, Le Cirque des Rêves seems to cast a spell over all who wander its circular paths. But behind the glittering acrobats, fortune-tellers and contortionists a fierce competition is underway.
Celia and Marco are two young magicians in the Circus, who have been trained since childhood for a deadly duel. With the lives of everyone at the Circus of Dreams at stake, they must test the very limits of the imagination, and of their love.
Tom Ripley wants money, success, and the good life - and he's willing to kill for it.
Struggling to stay one step ahead of his creditors, and the law, Ripley leaps at the chance to start afresh on a free trip to Europe. But when his new-found happiness is threatened, his response is as swift as it is shocking.
This pick makes the perfect Halloween read and watch, with two fantastic adaptations to choose from!
If you like us have been dying to get your hands on Karl Ove Knausgaard's latest novel from The Morning Star series, now is the perfect time to finally dive in.
For several days, a bright new star in the sky above Norway has blazed over the restless lives of those below. Tove, an artist, is consumed by intense creativity as she spirals towards psychosis. Line falls in love with a musician named Valdemar and is lured to a secret death metal gig in a remote forest. Geir, a policeman, is investigating a ritual murder but chances upon something more horrifying even than the bodies in the trees – the last bodies he sees, because, as undertaker Syvert is the first to realise, people have stopped dying since the star appeared...
As a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, Max watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him.
Both a celebration and autopsy of a relationship, The Echoes is a story about stories and who has the right to tell them, asking what of our past can we shrug off and what is fixed forever.
This is a novel that will haunt you long after you finish the final page.
Blurring the line between dreams and reality, imagination and perception, Final Cut
As children, Brian and Jimmy made home movies of grisly murders. Now aspiring filmmakers, they and new girl Laurie set off to a remote cabin to film a sci-fi horror. But as Brian's affection for Laurie goes unreciprocated, he writes himself into a fantasy where she is both his damsel in distress and saviour...
The Shadow Key by Susan-Stokes Chapman
You'll be spellbound by this tale of Welsh mythology and arcane magic, set in the quiet village of Penhelyg.
After a grave mistake, Henry Talbot has been forced to take an unappealing position as a village doctor in remote Wales where he can't speak the language and belief in myth and magic is rife. When Henry discovers his predecessor died in mysterious circumstances, and starts to notice a symbol appearing in odd places, he sets out to find answers.
There’s something devilish going on in Penhelyg - will the shadow key unlock its dark secrets?
Love is at stake in this radically reimagined vampire myth.
Louisiana, 1850. A young girl escapes slavery and is taken in by two mysterious women. Rumoured to be witches, the pair travel only at night, dress in men's clothing and seem to know others' innermost thoughts. But the girl sees the promise of true freedom in their dark glittering eyes: the promise to 'share the blood' and live forever.
This short story collection is the perfect treat for readers who prefer their scares in small doses.
A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations –yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore.
On entering The Hotel, different people react in different ways. To some it is familiar, to others a stranger. Many come out refreshed, longing to return. But a few are changed forever, haunted by their time there. And almost all those affected are women...
Mark Haddon weaves ancient fables into fresh and unexpected forms, and forges new legends to sit alongside them.
From genetic engineering to the eternal complications of family, Haddon showcases how we are subject to the same elemental forces that obsessed the Greeks. His astonishing powers of observation are at their height when illuminating the thin line between human and animal.
'There is nothing more terrifying than the monster that squats behind the door you dare not open...'
