While I enjoy reading scary things over the course of the year, there’s something special about loading up on the horror during October. It’s probably due to the fact that the weather’s getting cooler, the nights longer, and the veil between the living and the dead thins (mwa ha ha!). It’s fun getting into the holiday spirit by embracing all things creepy.

Here are some books (and manga!) I recommend to get you into the mood.

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Ok, so I’ve mentioned this book in a couple previous posts on the site. But it blew me away. It’s a historical work set in Jim Crow Florida filled with the horrors of racism, abuse, and…the spirits of the dead. I read this book in the beginning of 2025 and have not been able to get it out of my mind.

I’ve also mentioned this work before. It’s a short story about a family staying at their vacation home on a beautiful island that’s filled with ghastly secrets, and faceless things that prey on the innocent. The ending is horrific and will stick with you.

I recently finished this whopper of a story collection, and while not every story worked for me, there are some memorable tales here that have really affected me. It’s a very atmospheric and creepy book.

I read this a year or two ago and while I had an initial response of slight disappointment, this book has grown on me in my memory and there are genuinely tense, freaky moments in this book. Expect to feel claustrophobic and hallucinatory while reading this.

This one is a classic. I read it as an adult while living in Japan–otherwise my previous experience with it was the 1989 film, which I adore. Anyway, this is a gloomy, gruesome book, and some of the most atmospheric, haunting scenes take place in the woods on the walk to the Micmac burial ground. Forests at nighttime have always creeped me out, but those scenes in the book are genuinely scary.

Yeah, I’ve got a second King novel here. This was the second book by Stephen King I’d ever read, and I think I was either 13 or 14 when I picked it up (I read IT when I was twelve. Um…that’s not a book for kids). Anyway, I had watched the TV miniseries remake that King approved of (and I liked it! truly!), had been to The Stanley (aka the real-life inspiration for the Overlook Hotel), and of course, seen Stanley Kubrick’s film (which I didn’t really care for. I would’ve liked it if I hadn’t read the book, I think). Anyway, all this to say that The Shining is a foundational horror text for me that genuinely frightened me.

This manga has a beautiful title and focuses on a secret prince of the underworld tasked with sending yokai to hell. He hires a man who has been plagued with seeing ghosts and monsters his whole life, taking him on as an assistant, and the two work together to banish the scary things to where they belong. This is a gorgeously illustrated manga, but I have to shout out that some of the yokai and spirits look really disturbing.

A very young suicidal boy gets a second chance at life when he learns that if you tell 100 ghost stories, a ghost will appear. He plans on living long enough to see if this bizarre wish will come true. The little boy arms himself with a camera and addresses his audience, telling a new ghost story every night. And…spooky things start happening. The majority of the story consists of each tale he tells, and they are all creepy.

So, this has not meshed well with readers and has pretty average-to-poor reviews. I actually liked this one. It shares the gruesome history behind some of Kyoto’s most famous places, and centers around characters who are less than savory and meet horrible ends. Now, when I lived in Japan, I was saving Kyoto for my final year there before my contract ended–and then COVID hit and everything shut down. So…no Kyoto for me. I was really disappointed. I think that’s why this manga works for me–I haven’t been there and the history is interesting.

Junji Ito is a master of horror with both his storytelling and illustrations. This weird, unnerving story involves people who suddenly find spirals in everything, and it takes over the town, driving people to strange deaths, and strange madness.

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I hope these horror selections whet your whistle and give you something new and exciting to read for October (and beyond!). I’ve really enjoyed all of these and highly recommend you check out each authors’ full catalogs, not just the books and manga featured here. Have fun and stay spooky!