Spooky reads for the whole family this Halloween

From the mildly spooky to the downright terrifying, we've got something for every kind of reader this halloween! Featuring witches, vampires, ghosts and monsters (both fictional and real!) this list is sure to get you in the mood this spooky season.

For the horror readers

Fever House by Keith Rosson

A small-time criminal. A has-been rock star. A shadowy government agency. And a severed hand whose dark powers threaten to destroy them all.

When leg-breaker Hutch Holtz rolls up to a rundown apartment complex in Portland, Oregon, to collect overdue drug money, a severed hand is the last thing he expects to find stashed in the client's refrigerator. Hutch quickly realizes that the hand induces uncontrollable madness- Anyone in its proximity is overcome with a boundless compulsion for violence. Within hours, catastrophic forces are set into motion- Dark-op government agents who have been desperately hunting for the hand are on Hutch's tail, more of the city's residents fall under its brutal influence, and suddenly all of Portland stands at the precipice of disaster. . . .

Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez

A haunting exploration of female friendship, desire, and memory set against the sultry backdrop of Florida's swamplands.

It's been years since Ingrid has heard from her childhood best friend, Mayra, a fearless rebel who fled their hometown of Miami for college in the Northeast. But when Mayra calls out of the blue to invite Ingrid to a weekend at a house in the Everglades, Ingrid impulsively accepts. From the moment Ingrid sets out for the house, danger looms- the directions to the house are difficult, she's out of reach of cell service, and the wet maw of the swamp threatens to swallow her up as she drives deeper into the Everglades. But once she arrives, the two women settle into the familiar intimacy of each other's company - their reunion only spoiled by the reemergence of past disagreements, and the unexpected presence of Mayra's new boyfriend, Benji. In the house and its grounds, time itself seems to stretch and expand, and Ingrid begins to lose a sense of the outside world, and herself.

Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung (translated by Anton Hur)

A novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research centre that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own ...

The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer's goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the centre. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels those around it. The cursed sneaker down the hall is stolen by a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee, who later finds he can't escape its tread. A cat in Room 206 reveals the crimes of its former family, trying to understand its own path to the Institute's halls. But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories take on the horrors of animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.  

For the romance readers

Ghosted by Amy Hutton

Banishing vengeful spirits from the mortal realm is Holly’s day job, but she’s never had to ghost anyone before – until Callum breaks her heart, making her wish she could exorcise her ex from her life.

It’s been two years since professional ghost-whisperer Holly Daniels ghosted Callum Jefferies – successful paranormal podcast host, unsuccessful boyfriend. So when he reaches out asking for her help investigating the infamous East Mill haunted house, Holly is hesitant to get involved, despite his infuriating charm. But the house in question calls to her, and she can’t resist. When they arrive in East Mill – and take up adjoining rooms at a rundown bed and breakfast – something in the air stirs up old feelings. If only the local ghosts would give Holly some peace and quiet to work out what those feelings are… As their investigation unfolds, Holly and Callum unearth a string of mysterious deaths linked to the house – one of which is bound up with East Mill’s very own seventeenth-century witch trials. But Callum is hiding something, and as disturbing details emerge about the family who once occupied the house, Holly realises she will have to put her life – and her psychic powers – on the line if she and Callum are going to get out of East Mill alive.

Soul Searching by Lyla Sage

Home is where the heart is--and this one is haunted.

Collins Cartwright does not want to go home. Sweetwater Peak, Wyoming, was supposed to be in her rearview mirror, but when she finds out a developer is trying to buy her parents' antiques shop out from under them, she doesn't have a choice--at least, that's what she tells her family. They don't need to know she's lost her job and is out of money. Or that the ghosts who have always been her companions have recently gone silent.But just because she's returned home doesn't mean she has to stay with her parents or crash on her twin sister's couch. Lucky for her, the new-to-town upholsterer has a room for rent above his store. Unluckily, it is absolutely crawling with more ghosts who are freezing her out. And Collins hates being ignored.

Brady Cooper is absolutely and totally fine. Seriously, there's no secret reason why he decided to uproot his life and suddenly move to Sweetwater Peak. He just needed a change of pace. At least that's what he tells himself. And everyone else. When he agrees to let the elusive Collins Cartwright stay in his spare room, he doesn't know that she's absolutely bonkers--constantly talking to herself and having conversations with no one--or that she looked like that. But as they begin to get closer, the lines between them start to blur, leaving both of them--and the ghosts who have been pushing them together--wondering whether their temporary arrangement could be something more permanent.

Phantom by H.D. Carlton

November 12, 1944. This house holds on to souls for a lifetime. I thought I had given it to my husband when I vowed to love him until the end of time. I lied. Nothing could have prepared me for the day my phantom appeared outside my window. He was terrifying, yet hypnotizing, and I couldn't deny my intrigue. I never intended to fall into a whirlwind romance with my stalker. Especially because he's so much more than that. A criminal. A mobster. The man who offers me solace from the monster in Parsons Manor. There are many that haunt these halls, yet it's only my husband I fear.

To read together

The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton

Jack Skellington is the most important figure in Halloween Town and for years he has delighted in organising macabre tricks and frights for Halloween. But this year he doesn’t feel right, there must be more to life than scaring people? Then Jack stumbles upon a cheerful, colourful place called Christmas Town and he knows what he must do—he will bring Christmas to Halloween!

The Boo Zoo by Kyle Mewburn

A ghoulishly fun adventure through the spookiest zoo in town! We're off on a trip to the Boo Zoo, in the creepiest part of town ... There's zombies and witches and goblins galore, banshies and werewolves and so much more. So come on a trip to Boo Zoo ... where there's a welcome for someone like you!

Wild About Halloween by Sarah Speedie

The spooky season has arrived. Tomorrow’s Halloween! I think I’ll have a party  – the scariest you’ve seen! When the whole family is WILD about Halloween, how will they choose the perfect party theme?

For the young readers

Ghoulia by Barbara Cantini

Ghoulia is a typical little girl . . . who happens to be a zombie. She lives in Crumbling Manor with her Auntie Departed and albino greyhound named Tragedy.

In search of a real friend, Ghoulia tries to venture past the manor's walls, but she can't hide her pale green skin or the deep purple circles under her eyes. The other children will be afraid of her, and no one will want to be her friend. But when Halloween rolls around, Ghoulia hatches a brilliant plan. All the other ordinary children will be dressed up like monsters, so Ghoulia can go out into the town and be entirely herself.

School of Monsters (Greg's Spooky Suprise) by Sally Rippin

In this hilarious story from the best-selling first-reader series, Greg's monster surprise goes monstrously wrong!

Greg loves the spooky season. BOO! But others don't. What can he do? Greg's built a haunted house, but it's a bit too scary for his friends. Can he work out a way for them all to have fun?

The Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse

A spellbinding middle-grade graphic novel full of mischievous magical hijinks, family secrets and self-discovery.

Effie's aunts are weird. Like, really weird. Really, really, really WEIRD! The secretly-magic kind of weird that makes Effie wonder . . . can she do magic, too? Life in Brooklyn takes a strange twist for Effie as she learns more about her family and herself. With new friends, a cursed pop-star, and her magically-inclined aunts, Effie's life is about to get interesting.

Ghost Book by Remi Lai

Twelve years ago, the boy and the girl lived. But one was supposed to die ... July Chen sees ghosts. But her dad insists ghosts aren't real. So she pretends they don't exist. Which is incredibly difficult now as it's Hungry Ghost month, when the Gates of the Underworld open and dangerous ghosts run amok in the living world. When July saves a boy ghost from being devoured by a Hungry Ghost, he becomes her first ever friend. Except William is not a ghost. He's a wandering soul wavering between life and death. As the new friends embark on an adventure to return William to his body, they unearth a ghastly truth - for William to live, July must die.

For the young adult readers

Only a Monster by Vanessa Len

Joan Chang-Hunt has no idea she's part monster until she's thrust into a battle between a monster-slayer and one of the most ruthless monster families of London.

Only a monster would kill a hero. Right? Joan Chang-Hunt has just learned the truth: her family are monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers. And there is a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to destroy her family. To save herself and her family, Joan will have to do what she fears most: embrace her own monstrousness. Because in this story...she is not the hero. Dive deep into the world of Only a Monster: hidden worlds dwell in the shadows, beautiful monsters with untold powers walk among humans, and secrets are the most powerful weapon of all. And the line between monster and hero is razor thin.

Emily the Strange by Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner

Do it yourself; think for yourself; be yourself. The iconic, free-spirited, rebellious and bestselling YA graphic novel series, Emily the Strange is a cult classic: perfect for fans of Wednesday and Heartstopper.

Emily is not your average thirteen-year-old girl. She wears the same black dress every day. She loves maths and science. Her best friends are four black cats and she's into old rock and punk music. Emily is anything but typical and so is this exciting series of novels about her life.

The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

Three girls, one supernatural killer on the loose . . . 

Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider - that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave - even trading in the occult. Jude Wolf may be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul has been slowly turning necrotic. It's a miserable existence marred by pain, sickness, and monstrous things that taunt her in the night. Now that she's glimpsed what's beyond the veil, Jude's desperate to find someone to undo the damage she's done to herself. Enter Emer Byrne, an orphaned witch with a dark past and a deadly power, a.k.a. the solution to both Zara's and Jude's problems.

For the crime readers

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death. A child's disturbing picture of his home. A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments. Each contains a chilling warning. Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight.

Uketsu's eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite

No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...

So goes the family curse, long handed down from generation to generation, ruining families and breaking hearts. And now it's Eniiyi's turn - who, due to her uncanny resemblance to her dead aunt, Monife, is already used to her family's strange beliefs, as well as their insistence that she is a reincarnation. Still, when she falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family's history. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak, or can she escape the family curse and the mysterious fate that befell her aunt?

The Rabbit Club by Christopher J. Yates

When Ali McCain, an eighteen-year-old from Los Angeles, is accepted at Oxford, it’s a chance to fulfill his dreams. To study English literature in England; to meet true intellectuals; and to glimpse the life he might have lived had his father — British rock star Gel McCain, legendary front man of the Pale Fires — not abandoned him and his mother when he was a toddler.But not long after he arrives, Ali is drawn into a dark, disorienting world where events grow more curious by the day. Trading on his father’s name, he gains entry into one of Oxford’s oldest and most selective secret societies, the Saracens. As he immerses himself in this rarefied world, he inadvertently sets in motion a series of events that might culminate in disaster.

For the fantasy/sci-fi readers

Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings

Sub-tropical Bellworth is founded on floodplains and root-bound secrets. And Charlie, remarkable only for vanished friends and a successful sister, plans to leave for good, as soon as he deals with his dead aunt's house. Then Grace arrives, with roses pressing up through her skin, and drags Charlie into the ghost-choked mysteries of Bellworth, uncovering the impossible consequences of loss and desire - and a choice Charlie made when he was a boy. But peeling back the rumours and lies that cocoon the suburb disturbs more than complacent neighbours and lost souls. And Charlie and Grace are forced to a decision that threatens not only their lives, but all they believed those lives could be.

The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seo-Ran

When four isolated elderly people die back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn't understand why she's the only one at her precinct that seems to care. But her colleagues at the police force dismiss the case as a series of unfortunate suicides due to the patients' loneliness. But Su-Yeon doesn't have the privilege of looking away- her dearest friend, Grandma Eun-Shim, lives on the sixth floor, and Su-Yeon is terrified that something will happen to her next. As Su-Yeon begins her investigation alone, she runs into a mysterious woman named Violette at the crime scene. Violette claims to be a vampire hunter, searching for her ex-lover, Lily, and is insistent that a vampire is behind the mysterious deaths. Su-Yeon is skeptical at first, but when a fifth victim jumps from the window, her investigation reveals the body was completely drained of blood. Desperate to discover the cause of the deaths, Su-Yeon considers Violette's explanation that something supernatural is involved. The Midnight Shift is a gripping mystery, overflowing with commentary about societal isolation and loneliness, the sharp knife of grief, and the effects of marginalization, perfect for readers of Cursed Bunny; Woman, Eating; and A Certain Hunger.

For the non-fiction readers

A History of Witchcraft by Jeffrey B Russell & Brooks Alexander

Witchcraft has always been a fluid and intriguing belief system that has enchanted and sometimes terrified humanity. Now in its third edition, A History of Witchcraft has established itself as the authoritative history of witchery and the occult. Beginning with magic in the ancient world, Jeffrey B. Russell explores the definition of witchcraft in its many diverse forms, from the worship of the Greek goddess of magic, Hecate, and the witch crazes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the development of modern witchcraft by Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner in the early twentieth century.

Brooks Alexander analyzes the development of witchcraft and neo-paganism in the present day, charting the dissemination of modern witchcraft through media and the tensions that arise when a secretive cult becomes an open and recognized religion. This updated edition features a new chapter exploring the challenges that witchcraft has faced in the past decade, including the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, the COVID-19 pandemic, and new neo-pagan groups.

Folklore of the Sea by Margaret Baker

The vivid, often eerie, superstitions, tales and rituals of the sea were the sailors 'response to danger -- immediate and uncontrolled. As a sailing-ship beat for weeks across the Southern Ocean, domain of the albatross, meeting no one in the lonely wastes, her crew felt an urgent need to appease the sea-gods. Even today, with engines, iron or fibreglass hulls, and less credulous seamen, much traditional sea lore has survived, especially in the fishing fleets.

Stories of phantom ships and crews (from the Flying Dutchman onwards), of the perennial sea-serpent, of lonely lighthouses; rituals such as the crossing-the-line ceremonies or blessing the fishing fleet; old weather lore, sailors' chanties and sea language, taboos and talismans, precautions taken at keel-laying or launching -- all these are recorded and interpreted here.

For the crafters

Creepy Crochet Kit

Delve into the spooky side of crochet with 8 ghoulish projects, a helpful instruction book, a hook, and yarn to make your own Nosferatu and tombstone. Let the scary, stitchy fun commence!

Whether you're new to crochet or just looking for new, unique projects to create, Creepy Crochet Kit delivers with 8 fabulous, frightening patterns that celebrate spooky season and beyond. After a brief review of basic crochet techniques and an intro to amigurumi, you can hop right into the projects.  Follow along with clear instructions and ample process photography to create a whole cast of spooky creatures. Start with the kit supplies and stitch your own Nosferatu amigurumi doll and tombstone. Next, choose from a spooky bat, a creepy-cute zombie, the grim reaper, a detailed chupacabra, a skull garland, or a set of creepy eyeballs, and stitch your little (spooky) heart out.

The Sticker Treasury of Ghosts & Dark Curiosities

The Sticker Treasury of Ghosts & Dark Curiosities is a deluxe compendium of more than 800 vintage-inspired stickers, perfect for embellishing any creative project you have on the go, be it scrapbooking, junk journaling, collaging, gift wrapping, or merely personalizing any page.

With 96 pages of stickers, from the whimsical to the spooky, these books have a sticker for every occasion.