Book List: Must-Read Radar: Five Spooky Season Recommendations

Spooky season lasts all year round as far as I’m concerned (horror 365, baby!), but in celebration of the actual time period we Halloween lovers so (im)patiently await, I’ve put together a list of five supremely spine-chilling book recommendations. Stay tuned for my next “must-read” installment, which will include additional YA titles.

Five Spooky Season Recommendations:

• Sallow Bend by Alan Baxter: A wonderfully creepy folk horror novel set in a remote, small town that involves missing children, an ancient evil, an annual carnival, and a dark-historied lakeshore cabin.

• All Hallows by Christopher Golden: A deliciously atmospheric, mid-’80s Halloween tale that wraps the reader in fantastically chilling, cozy October vibes that quickly morph into unease and terror. A scary, riveting, gory, wild, and violent story that oozes dark mystery rooted in fascinating folklore. A gripping experience anytime, but absolutely perfect for fall. (Recent review here.)

• When the Night Bells Ring by Jo Kaplan: A tense and fantastic read that jumps back and forth between a future, climate-ravaged Nevada and a sinister, mystery-cloaked 1860s Nevada via a diary found in an old, (seemingly) abandoned mine shaft. An eerie, claustrophobic, and terrifying work of gothic horror that gives that coveted “one more chapter feeling” throughout.

• Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede: A phenomenal extreme horror novel about a Halloween lover’s savage inner awakening. A haunting, unflinching, unapologetic storyline achieved through fearless, feminist, piercing prose with an undercurrent of gloriously simmering rage that glows with passion and strains with tension and fury. (Recent review here.)

• The Resting Place by Camilla Sten: A tense, suspenseful, and ominous gothic horror/thriller with a protagonist who suffers from face blindness. Add in a tragic and mysterious family history, an unsolved murder, and a secret estate deep in the Swedish woods, and you’ve got a page-turning tome tailor-made for spooky season!

What are some of your recs?

❤Amanda

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