No fall is complete without a couple of nights sheltered from the wind, curled up with a good book. Essential to this experience is a book with just enough eeriness to bring the chills anyway, and so here are my personal favorites for the fall season!
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
-
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a short horror novel that follows two sisters, Merricat and Constance, who live a secluded life along with their uncle in their family’s withering Victorian estate. For those of you who read short stories in high school, it’s likely you came across “The Lottery” by the very same author. Similarly twisting and haunting, this book makes a great read for the spooky season.
- In Cold Blood – Truman CapoteÂ
-
If you’re a fan of true crime, you’d love In Cold Blood which started the genre itself. Truman Capote spent 6 years researching the 1959 murder of the Clutter family, becoming close with both the killers and the chief investigator. This enabled him to write this one of a kind insight into how a murder scars the world left behind, the guilty included.
- Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
-
Klara and the Sun, at its core, is a book about the cycle of life. The book follows an AI companion, Klara, as she tries to figure out how she can help and find belonging in a family. A great read as you contemplate the end of one season and the beginning of the next. Also perfect timing to get the read in before the movie with Jenna Ortega comes out!
- My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite
-
A darkly humorous book, My Sister, the Serial Killer follows a nurse named Korede as she deals with her sister’s frustrating habit of killing her own boyfriends. Ever the older sister, Korede is quick to head the coverups for Ayoola. That is until Tade, the doctor Korede is in love with, seems ready to be boyfriend number four. Funny and twisted it’s a great read for anyone who wants a bit of eerie without the fright.
- The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
-
For those that love the aspect of costumes and festivities that come with the October month, The Night Circus is perfect! This is a tale of two competitors who only know each other through the magical displays they leave behind. Woven with magic, mystery, and obsession, this book is superb for a crisp autumn night.
- Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
-
Though there’s a fair chance most people at Vassar have read it, I’d be loath to exclude Frankenstein. Frankenstein is the ideal book to read in October, and I’ve yet to meet someone who did not like it. This gothic work of art channels all the pain of a 19 year old woman, and puts a new meaning to the word monstrous.
- The Letters of Abelard and Heloise – HeloĂŻse d’Argenteuil and Peter Abelard
-
This book is a collection of letters exchanged between a husband and wife after the most wild and wicked, not to mention completely true, series of events that have driven their separation. They debate love, philosophy, religion, and guilt in the way only two angry lovers can. Both shock and thoughtworthy, this collection of letters will leave your blood boiling hot enough to stave off the fall chills.
- The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater
-
This book is a young adult series, but oh so seasonal. A witchy mystery, a foretold death, and a quest that can only be followed through graveyards or deep into the woods. Blue, a not quite witch, guides the majority of the book, as she meets and befriends a group of boys at a nearby boarding school whose fates seem inexplicably tied to hers.
- The Raven And Other Poems – Edgar Allen Poe
-
Last, but not least, for anyone who’s in the mood for short and moody pieces to inspire them, I cannot recommend Poe’s poetry enough. Especially in fall, there is no one better to empathize with over dying hours, ghosts of the mind, and the spirits that move us.