Now, I love a good scare, especially around this time of year when that’s kinda the whole point of the holiday…to be frightened. Here are some authors and their books to bring you the chills. First up! We have one of my favorites, Grady Hendrix.
Grady Hendrix
Mr. Hendrix doesn’t shy away from the gore or slasher, so if that’s not your thing, I would approach with caution. Let’s start with My Best Friend’s Exorcism, which is arguably one of his most popular books. In this book, we see best friends Abby and Gretchen who are joined at the hip and there for each other no matter what. That is until Gretchen starts acting very strange. Abby thinks that’s no big deal until the oddness continues to pile up and she realizes that something is very wrong with her best friend.
This next title is very on-brand with Halloween vibes: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. One of my favorite pitches of this book comes from Hendrix himself when he pictured what would happen if his mom went up against Dracula. In this book, we follow a book club, or rather a member of the book club to be more exact. Patricia Campbell starts to feel there is something very odd about the newcomer to the neighborhood. This is especially true when children start to go missing and she takes it upon herself to investigate.
Jennifer McMahon
Jennifer McMahon is the next author on this list. Her horror is usually historically based and is for those who love a dual-timeline book. The Winter People takes place in a small town in Vermont, both in the early 1900s and in the present day. In the past timeline, we learn of a woman named Sara Harrison Shea who was found dead shortly after the death of her daughter. The mystery of both deaths was never solved.
In the present-day timeline, we follow a mother with her two daughters who have taken up residence in Sara’s old farmhouse. When their mother goes missing, the elder daughter Ruthie struggles to figure out what happened and why her mother has Sara Shea’s diary in her room.
McMahon’s latest book is a Frankenstein retelling, which is something I am super excited about. The Children on the Hill follows Violet and Eric, two children who live with their grandmother, Dr. Hildreth. Their lives are pretty normal at the offset, then one day their grandmother brings home another child named Iris and the three children slowly become very close friends. We then jump forward in time where a child has gone missing and there are claims of a monster sighting in the woods.
Christina Henry
What I love about Christina Henry is that her horror books can have a retelling aspect to them. Alice, the first book in her The Chronicles of Alice series, is an Alice in Wonderland retelling. We see a young woman locked in a hospital for the insane. She doesn’t remember much except for a tea party. I’m hesitant to say too much about this book as I think the less you know about it the more fun it is to discover the little bits and pieces as you read. But, this woman starts to question her memories; why does she remember a tea party and so much blood?
The next book from Henry is Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow. Judging by the title, it’s quite obvious what this is a retelling of. Twenty years after the legendary events of Sleepy Hollow, a young boy and his friends find the headless body of a child in the woods just outside the town. What they now have to figure out is this if the events of so many years ago are just stories. If not, is it possible that the Headless Horseman has come back to torment the village yet again?
Darcy Coates
Darcy Coates is pretty well known for her haunted house stories. I love a good haunted house story myself and here are a couple of hers. The Haunting of Ashburn House. Ashburn House has always been rumored to be haunted, but Adrienne is unable to turn down the inheritance when it is presented to her. However, once moving in, she realizes that even though she herself doesn’t believe in ghosts, there is something very odd about the house. Strange messages are on the walls and old portraits hang inside. The more she discovers the more she realizes that the stories might not be just stories after all.
The Haunting of Leigh Harker is another of Coates’ books. Leigh Harker has lived in her nice quiet home for several years now and for all intents and purposes, it’s been a lovely place to live…until it wasn’t. A shadow stands in her doorways at night and things turn off and on by themselves. Instead of leaving her home, Leigh stays and struggles to figure out what has changed and caused her home to become the main character in a horror movie. The question really is, will staying be a good idea or not and what exactly will she uncover.
Josh Malerman
I feel as if the name Josh Malerman is pretty well-known in the horror genre. His bestselling book Bird Box was made into a very popular movie with a star-studded cast, including the brilliant actress Sandra Bullock in 2018.
I won’t say too much about the next one as it is very short—only 118 pages. A House at the Bottom of a Lake is weird. That is by far the best way I can describe it; absolutely weird and perhaps leaning more toward speculative than horror, but for the argument, we shall place it here. We follow two teenagers who are out on their first date in a canoe when they spot a house at the bottom of the lake. The story takes off from there and it is fascinating.
I hope some of these books and authors bring spooky vibes to your Halloween!
