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This year’s spooky reading guide will be a bit different from the last two years.
First of all, I haven’t read many books since the last post that I just loved. 2022 has been the worst reading year because I’ve finally read some backlist books I was really looking forward to, but they didn’t live up to my expectations at all.
Second of all, I thought it would be more fun to include some books on this list that were recommended by other people in the bookish community! They totally delivered and I added a couple of books to my fall TBR.
Related: 13 Creepy Books To Read This Fall
So let’s get into this year’s list, starting with my personal recommendations.
My Recommendations
We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
Read It If…You enjoy psychological thrillers
I grabbed We Were Never Here as an add-on from Book of the Month last year and absolutely loved it!
Two friends must navigate their relationship after returning from a backpacking trip where one of them killed a man and the other friend helped cover it up. The final chapter still creeps me out when I think about it!
Related: Is a Book of the Month Subscription Worth It?
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Read It If…You enjoy sci-fi horror
Dead Silence is blurbed as Titanic meets The Shining…in outer space.
A salvage crew on the last leg of their job finds a luxury space-liner that disappeared 20 years ago on its maiden voyage. All of the passengers and crew were assumed dead. As the crew boards the ship, they quickly determine that something isn’t right. Soon the crew is seeing things that aren’t there and hearing voices in the dark.
The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins
Read It If…You enjoy survival horror
Two teens go on a hiking/camping trip in the Appalachian Mountains as a final goodbye before departing for college. But there is something in the woods watching and waiting..
The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Read It If…You like suburban housewife drama and vampires
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is a campy tale about a group of Southern women in the 90s who begin to suspect something is not right with their new neighbor.
prescribedreads on Instagram also recommended this book on my Stories poll. “Vampires make this rec obvious for Halloween, but the dark humor and satire in this book makes it amazing! It’s scary, it’s funny, it’s dark. Every Southern woman knows women like the ones in this book! Plus, the rats are stuff of nightmares!!!”
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
Read It If…You enjoy amateur sleuthing
A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.
Grab The Book of Cold Cases as an add-on from Book of the Month here.
Horrid by Katrina Leno
Read It If…You enjoy a haunted house tale without jump scares
I will admit this was 100% a cover buy, but I did really enjoy this book. It is a YA horror but doesn’t focus on the teen angst side of the story like most YA books.
A haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Book Community Recommendations
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
Read It If…You enjoy a small town witch plot
Cackle was on my radar when it was first released, but I kind of pushed it to the side since I didn’t love The Return. But this book was actually recommended twice, so I added it to my own fall TBR.
A darkly funny, frightening novel about a young woman learning how to take what she wants from a witch who may be too good to be true.
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
Read It If…You enjoy isolated settings/locked room mysteries
Daisy Darker was not one of my favorites, but I can’t deny the atmosphere is perfect spooky season!
The book is set on an island at high tide on Halloween. One by one the members of the Darker family begin to turn up dead. I wouldn’t do much more digging into this book because I feel like knowing which mystery it is a retelling of gives away too much of the ending.
Grab Daisy Darker as an add-on from Book of the Month here.
The Whisper Man by Alex North
Read It If…You enjoy detective POVs
This is another book that did not work for me, but I can see why people enjoy it for fall reading!
In this dark, suspenseful thriller, Alex North weaves a multi-generational tale of a father and son caught in the crosshairs of an investigation to catch a serial killer preying on a small town.
Grab The Whisper Man as an add-on from Book of the Month here.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
Read It If…You enjoy historical fiction with a touch of paranormal
I have heard of this series for years but honestly have never really looked into it much. I know it is a historical paranormal YA series about a teen girl sent to New York as a “punishment.” Seriously, what teenager would think that’s a punishment?
A young woman discovers her mysterious powers could help catch a killer in the first book of The Diviners series–a stunning supernatural historical mystery set in 1920s New York City.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Read It If…You enjoy gothic horror
I watched the movie adaptation of this several years ago and didn’t really like it, but I’ve always heard great things about the book.
Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
Read It If…You enjoy psychological suspense
This is on the super short side for a Stephen King novel (the edition I linked to is less than 300 pages!), so I would definitely give this one a try at some point.
A frightening suspense novel about a young girl who becomes lost in the woods as night falls.
stephanie.garrott blurbed this on Instagram: “Stephen King is the master of spooky suspense! This one has extra fall vibes with the New England woods setting and the baseball plot line.”
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Read It If…You enjoy a throwback to the 80s
My Best Friend’s Exorcism is actually on my September TBR for the Falloween Readathon I am hosting on Instagram! There’s also an adaptation coming to Amazon Prime at the end of September, so it seems like the perfect time to finally read this one.
This unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist blends teen angst and unspeakable horrors into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.
Which book on my list are you most excited to read this fall? Let me know in the comments!
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