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Autumn is in full swing, and all its festivities have officially taken over. For many, fall is the season of coziness, of pumpkins, and a chilly breeze as you stay inside with a warm drink. But fall is also the season of sinister scares. With Halloween just around the corner, fall is feeling spookier by the minute.
For me, the pinnacle of fall is a good book. The best fall book blends the season’s coziness with a good fright. However, so many people only recommend cozy romances. I wanted to touch on a handful of books that capture a more bone-chilling side of autumn, because nothing says cozy like a book that weirds you out!
- Bunny by Mona Awad
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Bunny is a novel that is currently spiking in popularity, and for good reason. It follows Samantha Heather Mackey as she attends the prestigious Warren University in pursuit of her Master of Arts in creative writing. She is soon roped into a wealthy, eerie, almost cultish clique called the Bunnies.
On the outside, the Bunnies seem like this perfect group of girls, but as Samantha spends more time with them, she is fully exposed to their sinister nature. They perform strange rituals to conjure “male Darlings,” gather in bunny masks, and refer to each other only as “Bunny.” The entire book is a critique of how pretentious and snobby wealthier fine arts schools can be, but as you read the text, it captivates the reader in a wonderful dance between magic and hallucination.
Mona Awad via Amazon - I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
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40 women are trapped inside a bunker, guarded day and night, with zero memory of how they got there. 39 of them remember their lives before. They remember their families, their jobs, and their passions. The narrator, an unnamed girl, only knows the bunker. She just might be what they need to escape.
This book is introspective, dystopian, and somehow both hopeful and hopeless. It evoked such a wide range of emotions that I had to include it. It might not explicitly be a thriller or a horror, but it kept me on the edge of my seat.
Jacqueline Harpman via Amazon - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
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It wouldn’t be a true weird girl book list without the original weird girl herself. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the epitome of a cozy read that will change your perspective on life. The iconic story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation deserves all the recognition it’s been given, and more. I encourage everyone to read the uncensored, 1818 version for a spookier effect, but either version is a fantastic read.
Mary Shelley via Amazon - My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
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Ottessa Moshfegh has a plethora of strange books, but I think the perfect place to start is with My Year of Rest and Relaxation. The book follows a pretty young girl who recently graduated from Columbia University. Although she lives in the Upper East Side of Manhattan in a paid apartment, she is absolutely miserable. Her parents are gone, her Wall Street boyfriend treats her horribly, and her insecure and needy best friend all tangle into her life in an intoxicating manner. Through a mixed-up combination of drugs and “hibernation,” our narrator wants to become a better version of herself. The desire is so carnal that she wishes to never even think about her old self. Moshfegh dives into the intricacies of emotional wreckage in a way that is equally as gorgeous as it is ghastly.
Ottessa Moshfegh via Amazon - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
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In this novel, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born in the slums of 19th-century France with an incredibly accurate and absolute sense of smell. He begins honing his craft as he studies to become a powerful perfumer. However, the precious oils and earthen herbs he learns from are no longer satisfying his urges. He leans into things like fresh wood and brass doorknobs, but that only gets him so far. The scent of women is his true captivation. Jean-Baptiste lives to capture the scent of young women, and he will do whatever it takes to make sure he can.
Patrick Süskind via Amazon - Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
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Julia Armfield writes so tenderly and gloomily about both grief and sapphic love. Miri, the main character, believes her wife, Leah, has been lost to the seas in a terrible deep-sea catastrophe. However, Leah returns changed by the ocean. Miri has a chilling realization: the wife she once loved is slowly slipping away.
The book isn’t necessarily horror so much as an emotional dissection set on a horror foundation. It ghoulishly touches on grief and love, and what it means to love someone and how that changes you. Armfield explores all forms of love, not just the romantic kind. However, fair warning: she does so in many words. Every emotion is described with utmost precision. If reading paragraphs about how deeply a character is feeling appeals to you, this book is absolutely your niche.
Julia Armfield via Amazon - The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
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A girl can have hobbies, and those hobbies don’t cater to men? Purvis writes a uniquely strange story about five sisters who refuse to conform to their society. 18th-century Britain was no place for an eccentric woman, but these girls did not care, making them the laughingstocks of the town.
One evening, a rumor spreads like wildfire that the girls are turning into dogs and wreaking havoc on the little town. The reader is sent on a wild goose chase, following multiple townspeople, each unreliable and unsure whether the girls really are dogs. The story is a play on misogyny and how dogs can be controlled but women cannot, and the dangers that come with being a woman of her own kind.
Kenobe Purvis via Amazon - Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas
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Luke Dumas knows how to write an excellent horror story, but in my opinion, this book is so much more than that. Nothing Tastes as Good is an obvious play on the phrase “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” and the book critiques that very idea.
It’s a beautiful horror story about a man named Emmett who finally becomes skinny after a miraculous drug changes his genetic composition. The side effects, however, include an insatiable urge for human flesh. Emmett must fight to seem more human to his peers while losing his humanity. He spirals into a monstrous, man-eating creature. He’s afraid of what he’s becoming, but he can’t let it go just yet. Dumas intertwines societal expectations and Emmett’s self-worth in a visceral horror story that has you hoping for the main character, but also worried about the path he’s on.
Luke Dumas via Amazon
Though this list is curated for a very specific kind of reader, I encourage those interested in fall books to check any of these out! Expanding your horizons while reading can expose you to something you might fall in love with that you might have previously ignored. I hope you give one of these marvelous books a chance.