With Halloween fast approaching, it’s that time again to unwind with some Scary books filled with creepy content before things drop down to below-freezing and when the scariest thing to look forward to is the prospect of an older man coming down your chimney in the dead of night. And if those words are enough to keep your attention, then perhaps some reading material is in order to spice things up from the routine of the same old horror flicks and over-the-top games you may be accustomed to.

Sour Candy

Trick or Treating meets Cosmic Horror

Let’s start things off with a scary book on the shorter side that can be read in a single sitting or two. Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke, an author known for his distinct style of horror, graced readers in 2015 with a story that follows the downward spiral of a man after a chance encounter with a strange little boy in an otherwise innocuous Walmart. If you’re a fan of the works of H.P Lovecraft and are looking for something a bit more modern (and less racist), then Sour Candy is a great place to start with Burke’s works.

The Haar

Deep Sea Frights From The Perspective Of A Pensenior

Using our scary books to keep with the theme of supernatural elements juxtaposed against an otherwise pedestrian setting, The Haar by David Sodergren places readers in a once picturesque Scottish seaside town threatened with the encroaching fist of an American mogul who plans to convert the land into a profitable tourist destination.

Of course, the sudden land development inadvertently awakens a long-dormant presence that washes up on the shores of the sleepy seaside town, leading to some truly grisly but entertaining moments. With the story unfolding through the eyes of an older woman well into her 80s, the Haar is a very unique read that shouldn’t be missed by fans of body horror.

No Longer Human

A Miserable Masquerade, now in Manga form

Taking a break from supernatural horrors, let’s talk about an all-time classic that got a graphic novel adaptation by the famed mangaka Junji Ito in 2020. Of course, the scary book I’m referring to No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. The horrors depicted in No Longer Human are of a psychological nature that delves deep into the recesses of human nature, specifically in all the wonderfully horrible ways it can manifest and create ripples of anguish that affect those closest to you.

In other words, No Longer Human is a heavy read and can be considered an atypical depiction of what can classically be defined as horror. If I had to choose, I prefer Dazai’s original story, but for those wanting a more atmospheric take, the 2020 manga adaptation by Junji Ito is a fantastic way of digesting the otherwise hard-to-swallow classic.

Looking Glass Sound

A Writer’s Memoirs Manifest in Terror

Shifting things back to a scary book that takes place in a coastal setting, Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward delivers a familiar story that is anything but by the book’s end. The psychological horror narrative takes an already creepy premise of a close-knit group of friends who gradually become embroiled with a figure known as the Daggerman.

This is a mysterious home intruder that takes polaroids of sleeping children, eventually leading the cast down a dark path. The past comes back to bite them like a twist of a knife in which Wilder Harlow, the book’s main lead, recounts his traumatic childhood in a book he is writing that happens to bleed into reality.

Negative Space

Chasing your High into the Great Unknown

If you have the stomach for raw and often unforgiving narratives, particularly ones told from the fragmented and often drug-induced perspective of suicidal teenagers, and are open to more, well, open-ended narratives with a healthy dose of social commentary, then look no further than B. R. Yeager’s scary book, Negative Space.

Taking place in a fictional New Hampshire suburban town, Negative Space’s POV constantly shifts between its four teenage leads, which lends the book a contemporary feel that those who are always online will be sure to appreciate. Revolving around a string of suicides that teether on an epidemic scale, Negative Space explores the possibility of what lies beyond the perception of our reality, the dark truths that linger past the threshold of sanity.

There you have it, some horror-themed scary books that will help ease you into the frightful festivities of October without the ethereal glow of a TV or tablet screen, unless, of course, you’re a fan of ebooks, then well, all the power to you and have a Happy Halloween filled with treats and terrors a plenty.