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
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Halloween party murder
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 Heather Moon turn...
We have always lived in the castle
Jackson, Shirley 1916-1965
Paper Book
Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret, with an afterword by Jonathan Lethem. A Penguin Vitae Edition Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian....
Frankenstein (unabridged) (AR).
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft 1797-1851
Paper Book
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS'sThe Great American Read At the age of eighteen, Mary Shelley, while staying in the Swiss Alps with her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and others, conceived the tale of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the monster he...
And then there were none
Christie, Agatha 1890-1976
Paper Book
First, there were ten--a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal--and a...
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 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...
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 seances and scam mediums. Now...
Interview with the vampire
Rice, Anne 1941-
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
Paper Book
"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...
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...
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...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.