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 22, 2025
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...
We have always lived in the castle
Jackson, Shirley
Paper Book
Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly...
Frankenstein
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Paper Book
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read "I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine...
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
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-transformed it into the Capital of Creepy in America. But Salem is a seasonal town-and its season happens to be Halloween. Every October, this small city of 40...
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...
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...
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. ...
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 séances and scam mediums. Now she...
Interview with the vampire
Rice, Anne
Paper Book
The spellbinding classic that started it all, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author--the inspiration for the hit television series "A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and...
The September house
Orlando, Carissa
Ebook
"Why run from a haunted house when you can stay and ignore the ghosts? Just when you thought you'd seen everything a haunted house novel could do, The September House comes along and delivers an eerie, darkly funny, and emotionally grounded book about the ghosts that haunt houses and...
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...
Bad dreams in the night horror stories
Ellis, Adam
Ebook
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
Ebook
Instant New York Times bestseller! A chilling twist on the "cursed film" genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World. In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, ...
Going home in the dark
Koontz, Dean R.
Paper Book

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