Spooky Reads for Adults!

Wondering what to read to get into the super spooky mood for Halloween this year? Witches, ghosts, vampires and werewolves, oh my! Some people like to put on their favorite spooky costumes and tell tales of witches and ghosts. However, many of us crave some dark, Gothic and spooky reads to make their Halloween much more enjoyable. Some of these Halloween books are spine-tingling fun, while others are extremely creepy spook-tacular reads.

Updated September 28, 2023
S
St. Lucie County Library System
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Halloween party murder
Meier, Leslie
Paper Book
Small town traditions are celebrated throughout Maine during the holiday season. But when it comes to Halloween, some people are more than willing to reap a harvest of murder... HALLOWEEN PARTY MURDER by LESLIE MEIER Tinker's Cove newest residents Ty and...
Ghosts of St. Augustine
Lapham, Dave, 1939-
Paper Book
Ghosts. Unearthly presences. Things that go bump in the night. St. Augustine, America's oldest city, has them all. The unique and often turbulent history of the Ancient City has spawned more than four hundred years' worth of shadowy figures of the dark hours. Come walk through misty, cobblestone...
We have always lived in the castle
Jackson, Shirley, 1916-1965
Paper Book
Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books | 50 Covers competition ...
Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851.
Paper Book
A deluxe edition of Mary Shelley's haunting adventure about ambition and modernity run amok.Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Now a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with an introduction by Elizabeth Kostova and cover art by...
And then there were none
Christie, Agatha, 1890-1976
Paper Book
"If you're one of the few who haven't experienced the genius of Agatha Christie, this novel is a stellar starting point." -- DAVID BALDACCI, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author An exclusive authorized edition of the most famous and beloved stories from the Queen of Mystery. ...
A season with the witch the magic and mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts
Ocker, J. W.
Paper Book
Edgar Award-winning travel writer spends an autumn living in one of America's spookiest tourist destinations: Salem, Massachusetts Salem, Massachusetts, may be the strangest city on the planet. A single event in its 400 years of history--the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-...
Best of How to haunt your house. Volume II dozens of spirited DIY projects for parties and Halloween displays
Mitchell, Shawn
Paper Book
Create a spooky memory for visitors coming to party or trick-or-treat with more than 20 DIY projects for haunting your house. With a bit of theatrics and light, you can create your own flying phantasms, giant jointed-leg spider, coffin, and other spooky displays. Now you can create an extreme...
All hallows
Golden, Christopher
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home. It's Halloween night, 1984, in...
The mother next door a novel
Laskowski, Tara
Paper Book
"A polished and entertaining homage to Big Little Lies and Desperate Housewives... The denouement is bonkers, but satisfying." --The New York Times Book Review "A witty, wicked thriller packed with hidden agendas, juicy secrets, and pitch-perfect satire of the...
The bakeshop at Pumpkin and Spice
Kauffman, Donna
Paper Book
Every autumn, Moonbright, Maine, is the picture of charm with its piles of crisp leaves, flickering jack-o'-lanterns...and a touch of the sweetest kind of enchantment. Witches, goblins, the occasional ghost-they're all sure to be spotted at the annual Halloween parade, where...
The haunting season eight ghostly tales for long winter nights.
Collins, Bridget. A study in black and white.
Paper Book
Eight bestselling, award-winning writers return to the time-honored tradition of the seasonal ghost story in this spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales. Long before Charles Dickens and Henry James popularized the tradition of supernatural horror, the shadowy...
Dracula's guest a connoisseur's collection of victorian vampire stories
Sims, Michael, 1958-
Paper Book
BeforeTwilightandTrue Blood, even before Buffy and Anne Rice and Bela Lugosi, vampires haunted the nineteenth century, when brilliant writers everywhere indulged their bloodthirsty imaginations, culminating in Bram Stoker's legendary 1897 novel,Dracula. Michael...
Abraham Lincoln vampire hunter
Grahame-Smith, Seth.
Paper Book
Indiana. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness." "My baby boy..." she whispers before dying. ...
Spooktacular crochet 20+ bootiful projects for Halloween.
Annie's (Firm), editor.
Paper Book
Special events and holidays are fun to celebrate, and Halloween especially seems to bring out our playfulness. We've brought together 23 fun crochet projects just for Halloween that are sure to have you reaching for your crochet hook and orange yarn! In this book, you'll find projects for the home,...
The haunting of Blackwood House
Coates, Darcy
Paper Book
From bestselling horror author and queen of gothic mysteries Darcy Coates comes a chilling story about the shadows of dead things-and how they haunt the living. How long could you survive? As the daughter of spiritualists, Mara's childhood was filled with seances and scam mediums. Now...
Interview with the vampire
Rice, Anne, 1941-
Paper Book
40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION * From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, "a magnificent, compulsively readable thriller...Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth--the education of the vampire" (...
The September house
Orlando, Carissa
Paper Book
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street - for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price - they couldn't believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former...
The spite house
Compton, Johnny
Paper Book
A Best Horror Book of the Year (Esquire)! * A Bram Stoker Award Nominee! * A 2024 Legacy Awards Nominee! * A Finalist for the Reading the West Book Awards! A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and...
Black tide
Jones, K. C. (Kevin Charles), 1983- author.
Paper Book
A character-driven science fiction/horror blend, KC Jones' Black Tide is Stephen King's The Mist meets A Quiet Place. A BRAM STOKER AWARD FINALIST! It was just another day at the beach. Then the world ended. Mike and Beth...
The lost village
Sten, Camilla, 1992- author.
Paper Book
*BEST MYSTERY/THRILLER FOR THE YEAR* for NPR "Come for the mounting horror and scares, but stay for a devastating examination of the nature of family secrets." - New York Times book review "[A] scary, highly entertaining debut...that pays homage to...
How to make a horror movie and survive
DiLouie, Craig, 1967- author.
Paper Book
From Bram Stoker Award‑nominated author Craig DiLouie comes a darkly humorous horror novel that sees a famous 80s slasher director set out to shoot the most terrifying horror movie ever made using an occult camera that might be (and probably is) demonic. Horror...
Bad dreams in the night horror stories
Ellis, Adam
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A USA TODAY BESTSELLER Like a graphic novel version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this thrilling collection of original horror tales is packed with urban legends, terrifying twists, and delightfully...
Horror movie a novel
Tremblay, Paul
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller! PLEASE NOTE: the limited edition with red stained edges is sold out, but we invite you to purchase an unstained one -- same haunting story, same chilling twists! A chilling twist on the "cursed film" genre from the bestselling author of The...

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