Horror for Halloween? Groundbreaking.

By Sarah Yurch | August 29 2024 | FictionHolidays

Home Depot’s viral 12-foot skeleton is back in stock, which can only mean one thing: spooky season is just around the corner. We likewise see readers flocking to the horror section at their local bookstores; sales of scary books reliably increase every October. The tradition of telling ghost stories dates back at least to colonial celebrations of All Hallows’ Eve, so anyone choosing a frightening fall book is participating in a time-honored Halloween tradition.

A few of our top titles are below. For more, check out our Adult and YA bestselling spooky, scary, and thrilling books.

A Novel
9780593183212
Now in paperback, the New York Times bestselling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night writes his "best plot twist yet.” (People, "Best Summer Books")
$18.00 US
Jun 06, 2023
Paperback
Dutton
US, Canada, Open Mkt

The Remastered Full-Color Edition
9780375703768
THE MIND-BENDING CULT CLASSIC ABOUT A HOUSE THAT’S LARGER ON THE INSIDE THAN ON THE OUTSIDE • A masterpiece of horror and an astonishingly immersive, maze-like reading experience that redefines the boundaries of a novel.''Simultaneously reads like a thriller and like a strange, dreamlike excursion into the subconscious." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times  "Thrillingly alive, sublimely creepy, distressingly scary, breathtakingly intelligent—it renders most other fiction meaningless." —Bret Easton Ellis, bestselling author of American Psycho “This demonically brilliant book is impossible to ignore.” —Jonathan Lethem, award-winning author of Motherless Brooklyn One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsYears ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth—musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies—the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.Now made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and second and third appendices, the story remains unchanged. Similarly, the cultural fascination with House of Leaves remains as fervent and as imaginative as ever. The novel has gone on to inspire doctorate-level courses and masters theses, cultural phenomena like the online urban legend of “the backrooms,” and incredible works of art in entirely unrealted mediums from music to video games. Neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of the impossibility of their new home, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.
$29.00 US
Mar 07, 2000
Paperback
Pantheon
US, Canada, Open Mkt

9781984896391
For readers of Kara Thomas and Karen McManus, an addictive, twisty crime thriller with shades of Serial and Making a Murderer about a closed local murder case that doesn't add up, and a girl who's determined to find the real killer--but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
$10.99 US
Jan 05, 2021
Paperback
Ember
US/CAN (No Open Mkt)

An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
9780593468463
A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and gritty crime by both new and established Indigenous authors that dares to ask the question: “Are you ready to be un-settled?”
$17.00 US
Sep 19, 2023
Paperback
Vintage
World except Canada

9781101934746
"A haunting, beautiful, and necessary book that will stay with you long after you've read the last page."--Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a StarThe New York Times bestseller that's been described as "Girl, Interrupted meets Speak" (Refinery29).
$10.99 US
Apr 10, 2018
Paperback
Ember
US, Canada, Open Mkt