Horror and thriller books have been around for centuries. Beginning with the rise of Gothic literature in the mid-18th century, the first horror book was The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, published in 1765. Other notable early scary stories include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and The Tell-Tale Heart from Edgar Allan Poe (1843). Horror and thriller books have been terrifying readers ever since. For everyone who revels at the bumps in the night this time of year, peruse the scary stories and read late after dark…if you dare.

Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKey Heidicker, a 2020 Newbury Honor recipient, is a collection of connected tales based on classic horror stories. The narrative switches between a set of seven fox kits in search of forbidden stories, and a Vixen storyteller’s scary fables about two different kits who face the menacing forest together.

 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson has remained at the top of the scary story list for the past 65 years since it was first published in 1959. Four supernatural seekers come together for the summer to investigate suspected paranormal phenomena at a remote house in the hills. The Netflix series of the same title was loosely based on Jackson’s book. Two films, both titled The Haunting (1963 and 1999) were adapted from the book.

 

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix. Feeling like her world is shrinking after leaving her nursing career to stay home with her kids, Patricia looks forward to her regular book club meetings. But when neighborhood children start acting strangely and disappearing after a sensitive and artistic stranger moves in, Patricia and her book club know they are the only ones who can see the true threat in their community.

 

The Hot Zone: Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston. Nearly 40 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an outbreak of Ebola in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. This nonfiction thriller seeks the origins of viral hemorrhagic fevers and our desperate measures to control them.

 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides won Goodreads Best Mystery & Thriller in 2019. This psychological thriller follows the mystery of a famous artist who killed her husband and became mute, and the psychotherapist who treats her in a secure facility.

 

Pet Sematary by Stephen King was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1984. The Creed family moved into a home in rural Maine. Their seemingly idyllic life was shattered by evil lurking in the woods just behind the house.

 

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden is book one of the housemaid trilogy. Living in the tiny attic room with the lock on the outside of the door, Millie is happy for a housemaid’s job. But she sees more than she should of her employers’ lives and learning their secrets, and Millie has secrets of her own. In classic McFadden style, this psychological thriller ends with a twist.

 

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand is a companion novel to Jackson’s Hill House. Both books blend with a meta story structure and a contemporary feel. “A struggling playwright, Holly Sherwin, her musician girlfriend, and a few friends find a creepy old mansion on an isolated hill from which to rehearse Holly’s most ambitious play. Ignoring the red flags about the house and setting, the friends soon find themselves fighting each other, and the house itself,” reads the blurb.

 

Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories by Roald Dahl is a compilation of the famous author’s favorite ghost stories. Fourteen short stories made the cut as Dahl read more than 700 supernatural tales housed at the British Museum’s library. “Spookiness is, after all, the real purpose of the ghost story,” Dahl wrote in the introduction. Amazon lists this book for ages 8 and older.

 

Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe is the first book in the seven-book series. Published in 1979, Bunnicula has become a classic children’s story. Told from the perspective of the Monroe’s family dog, Harold, the story follows the exploits of Chester, the family cat as he tries to keep the family safe from the newest pet: a rabbit with tiny fangs.

 

The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing by Edward Gorey is an alphabet book featuring 26 children, each representing a letter of the alphabet, and the mundane way each die. “Far from illustrating the dramatic and fantastical childhood nightmares, these scenarios instead poke fun at the banal paranoia that comes as a part of parenting,” states an essay written for Project Muse about Gorey’s most famous abecedarian book. Each short tale is written in rhyming dactylic couplets and not necessarily intended for small children.

 

By Celeste McNeil