As we kiss summer goodbye and head into spooky season, nothing gets me more in the mood for a cosy autumn than a seasonal read. Below is a fabulous list of 7 spooky stories to delve into this October. With Halloween just around the corner, books about hauntings and ghosts seem particularly fitting for our shorter days and gloomy weather. And they all coincidentally happen to be written by brilliant women!
A brief history on ghost stories before we dive into the list… These eerie plot lines gained popularity from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, with many of the major writers from that time period writing ghost stories as an appealing side hustle. The demand for them made it a quick and easy buck. Many of the themes seen in these novels go on to shape 20th-century horror, from supernatural fears and the fear of the unknown to psychological torment and the internalised dread lurking in the human psyche. Whilst most of the stories below feature literal hauntings, we can also view some hauntings as an allegory, and the ghost as a symbol for something else (not just the dead or death but something lurking behind the surface that is far more sinister…)
This list will cover books which thematically explore mental breakdowns in the form of madness, feelings of irrepressible guilt, repression and everything in between. Hopefully you will leave this page with a little something to tuck into this Halloween. As the approaching winter winds rattle your windows and an icy chill snakes its way into the home, snuggle up with a hot drink and get engrossed in one of these novels… just don’t expect to come away entirely unscathed!
‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson (1959)
There is no better way to start off our list than with a classic. You simply cannot go wrong with the Queen of American gothic literature: Shirley Jackson. Written in the late 1950s, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’, remains the blueprint for all other haunted house stories. It is everything you want in a gothic fiction: it chills and creeps up on you in unexpected ways.
Jackson explores themes of isolation and paranoia, blurring the lines of reality and imagination through an amazing cast of characters whose sanity grows increasingly uncertain as the chilling tale unfolds. Personally, I love a story wherein the location is a character in and of itself. It’s oppressive presence left me questioning if Hill house is truly haunted? Or a conduit for what’s in your troubled mind?
‘The Woman in Black’ by Susan Hill (1983)
Another classic ghost story coming at you! And once again, set in a decaying and isolated house, ‘The Woman in Black’ is a short and sweet, fast-paced story that will hooks you from the very beginning. Adapted for both film and TV, and now one of the longest-running shows in the West End, Susan Hill depicts an atmosphere of dread and illustrates sightings of the Uncanny, keeping you gripped the whole way through.
Filled with tension and suspense, as well as a lingering sense of doom that makes it an addictive read, this book is a perfect start point for readers who are more intimidated by the classics. The language is stunning, it evokes the style of a Victorian novel despite being written in the 1980s, with the slow-building horror proving that sometimes what we don’t see is far more effectively frightening than what we do.
‘The Empusium’ by Olga Tokarczuk (1913)
Written by a Nobel Prize winning writer and a master of suspense, ‘The Empusium’ by Olga Tokarczuk is a deeply unsettling and creepy ‘health resort horror story’, that weaves in aspects of magical realism into its wonderfully constructed narrative. The smart blending of disturbing horror, dark humour, folklore and feminist writing is incredibly unique and makes an intriguing read. Tokarczuk plays with themes of misogyny in an insightful way as she paraphrases sexist things celebrated by male historical thinkers and implements them throughout the novel, exposing the prejudices of her time.
Compared to the two previous books, this one is a slightly slower read and may take longer. But don’t let this deter you from giving it a go! The content forces you to confront history and gender in an unexpected manner, that will leave you reflecting these grand ideas of the past.
‘The Vet’s Daughter’ by Barbara Commyns (1959)
This is one for the ‘weird girl literature’ enthusiasts. Short yet introspective, ‘The Vet’s Daughter’ is a twisted tale set in an English village written in a hauntingly lyrical style. The narrative centres around a 17-year-old girl named Alice whose awful father is a vet. Desperately longing for company and feeling the need to be included with others, she tries to escape her oppressive home. She finds out she has an eerie ability that becomes a source of fascination to those around her, who try to take advantage of this. Her yearning for escape is reminiscent to Eleanor’s intrinsically lonely character in ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ (Is Commyn’s potentially the British Shirley Jackson?)
Commyn’s writes in a distinctive childlike fable manner which blurs the lines between humans and animals in this novel. I’d classify this as a quiet horror, with the exploration of themes such as exploitation through forced breeding and forced feeding – leaving the reader to question how we ethically treat animals. It is certainly a deeply unsettling read that gets increasingly horrific and disturbing as it unfolds.
‘Ammie Come Home’ by Barbara Michaels (1968)
Just a little over a decade further along our list, we’re leaving the peculiar fantastical world of Alice and returning to the classic old-fashioned ghost story. A supernatural mystery set at a party in Washington DC, where the guests decide to put on a playful séance, but quickly takes a sinister turn when a young girl starts to speak in a voice that’s not her own. This is for you if you’re looking to be more spooked out by a true Gothic suspense, rather than reading a horror that’s more focused on the graphic violence and the gore.
‘Katalin Street’ by Magda Szabó (1969)
Instead of ending our list with a straightforward horror, we will be looking at an allegorical haunting on the grip the past can have on us. In ‘Katalin Street’ set in the 1930s, three close families live next to each other, where the children grow up together in an idyllic and heartwarming fairy-tale like environment. However, the affect of World War II shatters this innocence, with the children not only mourning those they have lost, but also the happier simpler times of before. Multiple narrating voices including the ghost of a deceased person evoke the terrible nostalgic feeling which lingers throughout the story. Szabó uses childhood as an allegory for life, and adulthood as a kind of afterlife, exploring how our past, happier, innocent selves can become the ghosts who haunt us long after we’ve grown up.