Haunting new books just in time for Halloween

Pick up a read perfect for Halloween this October. Photo Credit: Charles Eckert

It’s spooky time. Thrill-seekers who wait for jack-o’-lantern season all year long can dive into a slew of scary, haunting new books that will give them chills. Scaredy-cats, there’s something for you in here, too.

‘A Cosmology of Monsters’

By Shaun Hamill

A straight-up horror novel about a family engrossed in the business of, well, monsters and terror, this debut hearkens back to traditional creepy reads, with a modern twist appealing to fans of “Succession” and bingers of Netflix’s scariest streams. Immerse yourself in a multigenerational saga that will likely have you sleeping with the lights on — and not just so you can read a few more chapters.

‘Toil & Trouble’

By Augusten Burroughs

Burrough’s latest memoir embraces the theme of its Halloween-season publication date, reflecting on his witchy heritage dating back to Colonial America. The laugh-out-loud prose takes readers on a journey of power (both abstract and very tangible) as Burroughs rediscovers himself among ghosts, the devil and more.

‘Frankissstein’

By Jeanette Winterson

Forget everything you know about the classic Mary Shelley novel and let Winterson rewrite the tropes. Protagonists include Ry, a young transgender doctor; Ry’s love interest, the acclaimed academic Victor Stein, outspoken about the implications of artificial intelligence and a potentially grim future; and freshly divorced Ron Lord, purveyor of sex dolls. While the complicated, funny and haunting drama plays out among this trio in Britain, the bodies of dead Americans lie cold in a storage facility in Phoenix, until, well, they’re (maybe) revitalized.

‘Drowning with Others’

By Linda Keir

Ian and Andi Copeland have a life that some people would kill for — a beautiful home, thriving businesses (plural!) and a daughter, Cassidy, whom they are truly proud of. But did someone kill for them to have it all? At Cassidy’s prep school, where the Copelands met, the discovery of a sunken car near campus, along with the remains of a writer who went missing 20 years ago during the Copelands’ senior year, unleashes a trove of questions about the disappearance.

‘Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction’

By Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson

If reading about horror is more appealing to you than actually reading the genre, dive into this nonfiction look at the women who redefine fiction. Biographies of more than 100 female authors provide an inclusive look at the evolution of storytelling over the past two centuries and include suggested reading lists, if you are inspired to dive into the spooky tales.