Fall is a season favored by many and for good reason. With fall comes sweater weather, pumpkin spice, Halloween, and delicious drinks. This fall is a little bit different than most years since we are currently living through a pandemic. While this might be the perfect down to cuddle up on the couch and watch a nice little horror movie, it is also the perfect time for another cozy activity: reading.
So put on your comfy clothes, cocoon yourself in a fuzzy blanket, light a candle, turn on your fairy lights, play some nice music (perhaps Sweater Weather by The Neighborhoud or maybe even some Arctic Monkeys), sip on a nice drink of your choice, and pick a book off of this list to get into that fall spirit.
1. The Graveyard Book By Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens, also known as Bod, has been raised by supernatural beings after the murder of his family. He has ghosts for parents and a guardian who is neither apart of the living world nor apart of the world of the dead. The graveyard, however, is not where the danger lurks. It is in the living world where the man who killed his family still lives.
2. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
While Cinder may not be about ghosts and vampires, it is about cyborgs. A retelling of Cinderella where the protagonist, named Cinder, is a gifted mechanic and a cyborg. Cinder lives in a world where Lunar people watch the world below and wait to make their move. Even though this book has a futuristic twist, Marissa Meyer did not forget to include a handsome prince who goes by the name of Kai.
3. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Set in a town off of the coast of Oregon, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. That was two hundred years ago. Now, each summer the three sisters return and take over the bodies of three girls in order to get revenge by luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under. When Bo Carter arrives the night before the sisters return for the summer, Penny Talbot will have to make a decision: save herself or save Bo.
4. Lobizona by Romina Garber
If you like folklore, you’re going to like Lobizona.
Based on Argentine folklore, Lobizona follows an undocumented immigrant named Manuela Azul. Manu and her mother fled from her father’s crime family in Argentina. Now in Miami, her mother is arrested by ICE and Manu is looking for answers. The more she investigates, the more she realizes that she might just be living something straight out of Argentine folklore. Where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja, a witch, and the seventh consecutive son is born a lobizon, a werewolf. Now she has discovered that her being in the U.S., undocumented, might not be the only thing that is illegal. Her existence is illegal.
5. The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams
Before Cassandra Heaven, seventeen-year-old Esme Pearl just had a babysitters club.
Cassandra shows up and is willing to do anything to join Esme’s club because her mother left a note telling her to “Find the babysitters.” Esme and Cassandra find out that being a babysitter means a lineage of superpowers, magic rituals, and saving the innocent from evil. It turns out, they have more in common than they originally thought.
6. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
If you are a fan of Halloween, Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree is an absolute must!
The short novel is set on Halloween night and it follows eight boys in costumes as they go to meet their friend Pipkin at a haunted house. When they get there, they see a large figure named Mr. Moundshroud. Pipkin is swept away and Mr. Moundshroud takes the eight boys on a journey to find their friend.
The Halloween Tree not only focuses on Halloween as it is presently known, but it also focuses on traditions throughout time that mirror Halloween. The boys witness a funeral procession in ancient Egypt, the persecution of witches, the gargoyles of Notre Dame, and even the catacombs of Mexico. The Halloween Tree is sure to take you along on an adventure and put you in the Halloween spirit!
7. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
This next book may not be the definition of fall or even Halloween but it is reminiscent of the mystical fall season.
Le Cirque des Rêves shows up with no warning, pitching up their striped tents and putting on a show. It is also only open at night. Celia and Marco, two young magicians, have been trained their whole lives to do what they are about to do now: compete against each other. Despite the high stakes, they fall in love and set off a chain of consequences that involves everyone around them.
8. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
If you did not know that the iconic movie Coraline is an adaptation of a book by the same name…well, now you know! That is right! It was a book before it was a movie. And yes, they still have buttons for eyes.
For those of you who have not seen Coraline and do not know what it is about (go watch the movie after you read the book!), Coraline follows the story of a young girl and a door in her new house. After Coraline and her parents move into a new house, she finds a locked door. Once unlocked, the door opens to reveal a brick wall until one day it does not. One day, it leads down a passage into another house that looks just like her own. This house, however, is full of everything Coraline could ever want. Everything seems alive! The house even comes with another mother and another father who want Coraline to stay with them and be just like them. That includes sewing in buttons where her eyes are. When Coraline finds the souls of other children trapped in the other house, she knows she has to set them free.
9. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
Fans of classic literature this is your sign to grab a copy of Frankenstein and get to reading. Often confused as the name of the green monster that everyone has heard of, Frankenstein is actually the name of its creator. This classic follows the story of how Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s monster was created and the chaos that followed. Despite being published in 1818, Frankenstein still manages to be one of the most famous and widely read horror novels.
10. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Cemetery Boys is Aiden Thomas’s debut novel and it has something for everyone. This story follows Yadriel, a trans boy who is struggling to be accepted by his traditional Latinx family. He is determined to prove himself as a brujo so, with the help of his cousin Maritza, he performs the ritual on his own. He sets off to search for the ghost of his murdered cousin to set him free but instead, he accidentally summons the ghost of Julien Diaz. Julien is the school’s bad boy who is ready to finish his unfinished business before leaving. Yadriel agrees to help Julien but the more time they spend together, the less Yadriel wants to let Julien go.
11. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Another classic has made its way onto this list of must-read books. Written by Robert Louis Stevenson and published in 1886, this short novella is one of the original gothic works that has become widely popular amongst horror fans.
The novella tells the story of a legal practitioner, Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates the weird things that are going on between his friend Dr. Jekyll and a man who is said to be evil, Edward Hyde. Unknown to Mr. Utterson, Dr, Henry Jekyll has been trying to isolate and eliminate human evil. Instead, he accidentally manages to unleash the darkness within himself and it turns him into the evil and murderous Mr. Hyde.
12. These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling
Here is another witch related book for you to choose from. Hannah is a witch who can control the four elements: fire, earth, water, and air. The only problem is she lives in Salem, Massachusetts where she has to keep her powers a secret or risk losing it for good. When a blood ritual is performed at a school bonfire, evidence of dark magic starts appearing all over and Hannah is sure it is the doing of a blood witch. Her coven does not think so which leaves her with one option: working with her ex-girlfriend, Veronica. The mission only gets more complicated when Hannah develops a crush on a new ballerina in town amidst a supernatural disaster. The attacks on Salem only get deadly and Hannah’s powers will be tested.
13. The Dark Descent of Emily Frankenstein by Kiersten White
Another Frankenstein has made their way onto the list only this time, it is Elizabeth Frankenstein. Now you may be wondering who Elizabeth is but do not worry you are not the only one.
Elizabeth Frankenstein, formerly Elizabeth Lavenza, is taken in by the Frankenstein family and given only the best. She befriends Victor Frankenstein and soon they are inseparable. As the years go by, she notices that her survival depends on managing Victor’s temper and entertaining all of his ideas no matter how absurd. Despite her appearance, Elizabeth is determined to do whatever it takes to stay alive.
14. Dracula by Bram Stoker
No October is complete without vampires. What better vampire to read about than one of the originals: Count Dracula himself. Dracula was first published in 1897 and has since inspired countless other vampire novels, movies, t.v. shows, and even music. People are no strangers to the name Dracula but they might not know the original story. Do not be one of them and let yourself be sucked (bad pun but completely intentional) into the pages of Bram Stoker’s most famous novel.
Dracula is actually not written from the Count’s perspective. The story is told through a series of journal entries written by a small group of men and women. They follow Dracula, in an attempt to stop him, as he makes his way from his castle in Transylvania to London in search of more blood to stay “alive”.
If reading the original story of Count Dracula is not enough to convince you, maybe learning about Van Helsing, one of the original and most iconic vampire hunters, is enough to do so.
15. Undead Girl by Lily Anderson
The last book on the list is yet another YA novel about witchcraft. Mila Flores is a teenage Wiccan armed with lip gloss, Doc Martens, attitude, and an ancient spellbook. When three girls, Riley, Juna, and Dayton die, Mia does the unthinkable and she brings them back to life. Mia refuses to believe that her best friend, Riley was apart of a suicide pact but when the girls come back, they do not remember their murders. They only have a week before the spell wears off and Mia has to work fast to find out who the murderer is before they strike again.
