Book Bag | Spooky Book Master List
Hello my lovely little weirdos. It is October a.k.a. spooky season but I don't need an excuse to talk about scary, creepy, disgusting, horrific books, do you? I have read so many books this year, rekindled my love of reading and have begun to feel like I am starting to get a better sense of the kinds of books I enjoy. One genre of books that I cannot get enough of is - without a doubt - horror.
When I say horror, I know that is such a broad genre. Ghosts, witches, demons, monsters, human depravity, psychological horror, etc. its all in there and I love every single second of it. From the cute + creepy wholesome horror to the horrific, gore filled splatterpunk and even the ones that are just emotionally/mentally upsetting and terrifying... I have never met a horror novel I didn't like. (that’s not true but they won’t be making the list ;)
This list will be an ongoing project of the different horror novels I read and highly recommend, it will be broken down into categories that get more intense the further down you go. I got the idea when I posted a few spooky book recs in my Instagram stories the other day but I wanted a more in depth and permanent list so here we go!!
Level 1 -
This level is reserved for books with spooky vibes. Scares are subtle/sparse and there is little/no violence.
Seance Tea Party - spooky but precious graphic novel about a real girl who is afraid to grow up and the ghost girl who will never grow up. For more information, here is my review.
Murder of a Werewolf - the first book in the Brimstone Witch Mystery series. No smut, no gore. It has big Halloweentown vibes and I had so much fun reading it. Available on Kindle Unlimited
The Graveyard Book - a Jungle Book retelling but instead of a jungle, it's set in a graveyard.
Coraline - a favorite in my house, so cute, so fun, a little spooky and the movie is great too!
The Witches - I used to read this to my kids, complete with voice act outs. Spooky and fun, a classic.
The Ghosts of Rose Hill - this book is first of all gorgeous but it is also such a sweet story about a girl who discovers an abandoned cemetery and connects with a ghost boy haunting the graves.
The Haunting of Hill House - this is a classic of course, I felt like it was a little boring but then I got an actual chill up my spine so it goes on the list :P
Carmilla - slightly sapphic vampire story that predates Dracula. Yes, please.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - another Shirley Jackson classic story about a strange family on the outskirts of town.
What Stays Buried - this book is too precious. I cried. It was spooky but sweet. A young girl can see ghosts until her 13th birthday which is rapidly approaching. Kids start going missing and the clock is ticking for her to figure it out. Available March 7, 2023
The Seance - a nice little scary story about a group of girls who host a seance and then one of them goes missing! I read this in middle school and fell in love.
The Fear Street Collection - one of my favorite series from my childhood that I still pick up from time to time. The books are mostly stand-alones so you can enjoy them in whatever order and they are.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - while I found reading this classic to be daunting because it read like one, long run-on sentence, we can’t act like this story hasn’t affected horror and spooky storytelling and so, it is on the list! I love the tale of the headless horseman so much.
I’m in Love with Mothman by Paige Lavoie - I met this darling author at BookNet Fest 2023 and I love mothman so I HAD to get this one. We read it last year with our book club for spooky season and it was fun (with some spice tossed in) and the book is really pretty too!
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden - I read this and it is 1 of 4 in the Small Spaces series. It is middle grade horror, it has spooky vibes and likable characters and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series, it was so much fun!
Level 2 -
These books will test your limits without obliterating them. Violence, mature themes and dread abound.
Always the First to Die - a storm hits Florida and everyone should evacuate but people start dying, nice little creepy read.
The Sacrifice - an island in the Philippines that the locals know is haunted, an American film crew shows up to hunt the spirits. What can go wrong right?
Suburban Hell - the moms on the block have a huge problem when one of their own gets possessed at wine night.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - another little story set in a suburb, ladies of a darker book club are experiencing their own horror story when a vampire moves into the neighborhood.
My Best Friend's Exorcism - a fun little demon possession story set in the 1980's
The Bird Eater - part haunted house, part small town horror, lots of bird death, available on Kindle Unlimited
The Hellbound Heart - this is the story that brought us the Hellraiser franchise, absolutely a favorite
The Outsider - part small town horror, part supernatural monster tale, very long but sufficiently creepy
They Drown Our Daughters - there's something in the water drowning an entire line of women... slow start but great once it picks up
The Blackwater Series - I really love this series, it did get brutal at times but for the most part it is just a spooky story about a strange family, more "something in the water" vibes
Dead Flip - YA story about a haunted pinball machine in the 1980's, loved this one so much and I really love the author
Man Fuck This House - creepy novella about a potentially haunted house
Comfort Me with Apples - novella about a rigid little gated community that may be more than it seems
Nothing but Blackened Teeth - creepy Japanese novella about a ghost bride haunting a house, I wasn't a huge fan of this one but it is worth trying and the cover is so cool.
The Dark Between the Trees - the woods are haunted, it felt a lot like the beginning of The Descent but it was kind of slow for my tastes
The Grownup - another day, another novella about a creepy family.
House of Crows series - another haunted house, haunted woods story/series, quick reads, available on Kindle Unlimited
We Made it All Up - YA and super fun but creepy, a couple of friends write queer fanfic about their classmates but then strange things start happening
Horseman - a sleepy hollow retelling that was really fun, I loved the main character
The First Day of Spring - a don't remember this being gory, it is more of an emotionally damaging book, a girl murders a little boy and loves it, she grows up and has her own kid, lots of traumatic events, I felt empty while reading it, great book
Bird Box by Josh Malerman - I actually watched the film way before reading the book but I thought both were pretty solid and scary. The concept of a monster who causes your death the moment you lay eyes on him is terrifying. It is currently available on KU!
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman - After Bird Box, I gave Josh Malerman another shot with this domestic, supernatural horror about a young girl with an entity living in her closet who wants to “go inside her heart.” Big yikes.
Jackal by Erin E. Adams - a paranormal thriller/horror about a young Black girl who goes missing in the woods outside of her hometown. A great debut and another eerie book club pick!
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison - I grabbed this because it was pink, duh. Pink and culty, this horror novel follows a twenty something as she returns home to confront her weird af family and things get dark.
The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco - a ghostly YA horror novel about a young boy and the dark, lonely, vengeful entity that has attached herself to him.
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas - historical horror with vampires and a touch of romance? Say less to me.
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno Garcia - this historical horror novel set in Mexico City’s film scene in the early 90’s genuinely gave me a chill once or twice. There are classic horror nods, Nazi occultism and it was just another win for SMG.
We Don’t Swim Here by Vincent Tirado - this queer, YA horror/mystery follows a young Black girl who is new to a small town where the locals refuse to go into their lake and she is determined to find out why.
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi - an all time favorite historical horror fantasy of mine, this story follows a bride and groom as they return to her childhood home and the house begins to reveal dark secrets of her past to the man who promised to love her no matter what.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - gothic horror set in a glamorous but ominous mansion in 1950’s Mexico where a young socialite is determined to uncover its secrets. Super creepy. This was my first SMG book and I’ve never looked back!
The Hunger by Alma Katsu - this is a fictional retelling of the real life horrors of the Donner Party and it was freaking delightfully terrifying and grim.
Level 3 -
These books crank things up a notch; you will be uncomfortable. Gore has entered the chat.
Near the Bone - absolutely terrifying, snowy mountain setting, I was tense the whole time
Seed - a family curse that is so good that I am now going through the author's entire catalog, available on Kindle Unlimited
The Shuddering - a group of friends in a snowy mountain cabin and there's something in the woods, this had big Until Dawn vibes and it read and felt like a horror film. Available on Kindle Unlimited.
Slewfoot - a witchy story set in 1666 Puritanical Connecticut, there's something in the woods, absolutely incredible and the physical copy has beautiful artwork to help immerse you in the story
Dirty Heads - queer monster story that kind of went over my head but I am reading it again to try to understand it better, available on Kindle Unlimited
Ring Shout - dark historical supernatural horror novella where the monsters are wearing white hoods and fueled by hatred aka KKK, incredible, rich story with lovable characters, yes times 1000
Just Like Home - part serial killer story, part secrets coming to light story, the main character returns to her childhood home to care for her dying mother, strange and gripping
Cabin at the End of the World - very unsettling home invasion story set in an isolated cabin in the woods
Mary; An Awakening of Terror - slow burn, perimenopausal woman sees ghosts and gore as she returns home to care for her estranged dying aunt, really gory but a great story
The Mary Shelley Club - YA but still pretty creepy, lots of nods to classic horror novels and film, lovable characters and an gripping story
Pretty Girls - less horror, more thriller but horrific none the less, a woman discovers a dark secret about her deceased husband, calls her estranged sister to help. this book is brutal and amazing.
Ghost Eaters - Gore and grief galore. After her toxic ex passes away, Erin takes a drug that is said to let you peak behind the veil and speak to ghosts so of course, nothing can go wrong with that, right? Easily one of my favorite books, you may have seen the fan art I made…
Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson - a new favorite sapphic horror novella has entered the chat. While I found this a tad predictable, it didn’t matter. I loved this book. Gross, cute, creepy. LOVE it.
Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson - Since I loved Bloom so much, I had to read Guillotine (hello, it is a pink book) and this is basically what you’d get if the staff from Saltburn decided they’d had ENOUGH. Fast paced, grim, classism, feminine rage. It’s all there!
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle - this was a 5 star queer, religious horror read for me in 2024. Conversion camp, sinister ethics, demons, found family. I ate this up AND it gave me chills at one point so I had to make a rule: no reading in bed.
Hello, Old Friend by Elizabeth Bedlam - an extreme horror novella (available on KU) that follows a woman trying to heal.. When she is gifted a set of instructional DVDs to aid in her journey, will she find peace? And if so, at what cost? It’s dark y’all so tread lightly.
The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim - this was less horror and more just… dark fiction, I guess. Ji-won’s life is kinda falling apart and she starts dreaming of eyes… the title kind of tells you where we’re headed and the details are not spared. Available on KU!
Amelia by A.W. Rene - an epistolary style, extreme horror novella about a woman descending into madness via letters written to her daughter. Lots of bug imagery and gore. Available on KU!
To Be Devoured by Sara Tantlinger - sapphic extreme horror with a lot of animal gore and bugs. Another descent into madness, we love a descent into madness.
Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine - a visceral horror/thriller following a pregnant woman who is convinced there is something dark trying to keep her pregnancy from happening. I could not put it down. Lots of pregnancy imagery, gore, animal stuff, self harm. Look out for this one, available on KU
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman - a disgraced knight encounters a strange young girl and sole survivor of her black plague struck village and they go on a quest together. This book is WEIRD and I will read anything including the Black Plague so I don’t know what you want from me.
What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman - another deeply unsettling horror novel from Clay about a woman, returning home and helping a man find his lost child after reading his palm and seeing dark visions.
Brother by Ania Ahlborn - Appalachian domestic horror where a young man is determined to break away from his family’s dark proclivities aka snatching up and brutalizing young women.
Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates - dire circumstances in an isolated, snowy setting. This wintery horror read like a movie. A group of travelers gets stranded in a snow storm and things get intense very quickly.
Level 4 -
These extreme horror, splatterpunk, gory books are NOT for everyone. Everything is turned up to 11. Good luck.
Dead Inside - witty with an interesting plot but filled with unspeakable acts of human depravity, a security guard at a hospital spends a little too much time in the morgue… why? I refuse to even say; read at your own risk.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - a sapphic internet romance but like… sadistic and vile to the 10th power. This book is good but gross.
True Crime - super bleak, tragedy after tragedy, gross and disturbing, abandon all hope, available on Kindle Unlimited!
Tender is the Flesh - a dystopian future where animals are toxic for humans to consume so naturally, government mandated cannibalism is the only answer, right? Really bleak, really upsetting.
The Haar by David Sodergren - An elderly woman finds a strange blob creature on the beach of her isolated Swedish fishing village and there is weirdness and balls to the wall gore (sometimes literally) throughout. Available on KU
Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnam - a domestic extreme horror novella that reads like an episode of ABC’s of Death, a sick man whose death is imminent, his wife who cares of him until the very end. A lot of medical gore and body horror with a weird twist.
Disseverment by VC Krol - disgusting, gory, extreme horror following a young man who is going to meet with his long estranged mother and her new husband who has “helped her heal.” Eating disorder, self mutilation, suicide, body horror, rape, torture - its all here, be freaking ware. Available on KU!