A former roommate of mine once pointed out, correctly, that I am a creature of ritual.
I have a Halloween Ritual: every year since about 1998, I have enjoyed my Halloween day by watching the movie “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, listening to a recording of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air’s 1938 broadcast of “The War of the Worlds,” and watching the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence from the movie “Fantasia.”
In a conversation with my cousin (a HUGE fan of Halloween), she asked what I was doing this year. I told her of the above ritual, and while she liked them, she asked what I like to read for Halloween.
That got me thinking about some of the scariest (and I don’t scare easily), most suspenseful, creepiest, and best stories I have read…
It is my belief that in reading a scary story, a person wants to experience the excitement and the nerve-racking emotion of FEAR in a safe space.
Here are my recommended suspense books for the Halloween season:
1. Fear by L. Ron Hubard
I want to start with the classic novella Fear by L.Ron Hubbard. It is a story which perfectly follows Lovecraft’s description of the strongest kind of fear as “fear of the unknown.” To say more would require spoilers, so I will simply say this: READ THIS BOOK if you enjoy a good scare. Of this book, Stephen King has said:
“Fear is actually one of the books in the chiller genre which actually merits employment of the overworked adjective ‘classic,’ as in ‘This is a classic tale of creeping, surreal menace and horror,’ one of the really, really good ones.”
I completely agree with Mr. King’s assessment. This book will make your Halloween suitably creepy. I hope your reading this Halloween is absolutely SPOOKTACULAR!
2. The Call of Cthulhu & At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, often acknowledged as the father of Weird Fiction and Cosmic Horror, once wrote in a 1927 essay entitled “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” The essay goes on to claim that this fear is mostly psychological in nature and is the basis for the best works of horror.
Thus, I highly recommend the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. He is not for everyone, but I like his tales. The titles I recommend are his signature novella, “The Call of Cthulhu,” where he introduces the cult of the Elder Gods and what lies beyond the void. Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu Mythos” permeates his work. His best novella, in my opinion, is “At the Mountains of Madness,” which deals with discoveries surrounding an ancient civilization on or near Antarctica. If you’re new to Lovecraft, I recommend beginning with two of his stories, “The Cats of Ulthar” (have you ever suspected that your cat was plotting revenge? You weren’t far wrong!) and “The Music of Erich Zann,” which deals with the dangers of staring into the void.
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
I am also a fan of Gothic Horror, especially the “classics.” Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or The New Prometheus is often accepted as the first Science Fiction novel. It also crosses into the realm of horror, but in reading the novel one discovers that the “horror” lies not in the monster, but in the man.
4. Dracula by Bram Stoker
Another favorite of mine is Bram Stoker’s epistolary novel Dracula. When I first read it, I did not know that it was a story told through a series of letters and diary entries. I also discovered, much to my delight, that this is not primarily a horror tale, but a love story that transcends time. The Dracula movies don’t really emphasize this aspect. Read the novel and you’ll see what I mean.
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Two other Gothic novels that I love are The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins, 1860), which is essentially a story of ghosts, gaslighting, deception, and identity, and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, which I first read in high school for an AP English class. It is a ghostly love story and remains to this day my second favorite novel ever. There is also a terrific song called “Wuthering Heights,” released by Kate Bush in 1978 and covered by Pat Benatar in 1980.
6. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe
No Halloween reading list would be complete without mentioning the stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe. I especially recommend “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which has been called the most perfectly constructed short story ever by Stephen King. Other recommended Poe titles include “The Black Cat,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and of course “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven.”
7. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Other short stories that I highly recommend are “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), a thoroughly fascinating trip into insanity, and H.H. Munro’s (Saki) “Sredni Vashtar,” which absolutely terrified me when I read it in 6th grade. I reread it before writing this article, and even now it’s very creepy!
Conclusion
Let me know which one you try and if you agree that these are some of the scariest, suspenseful, creepiest, and best stories.
Bob Weber is a United States Navy Veteran, having served 15 years in the submarine force. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Physics (B.S.) and English (B.A.) from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Education degree from Grand Canyon University. After his Navy service ended, he spent 20+ years teaching English, Physics, Math, Chemistry, and Religion at an all boys’ Catholic High School in San Diego. He currently resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana where he is retired and continuing to observe his favorite.
