Halloween Reading List: 30 Books to Scare You This Weekend
The Stacks host Traci Thomas recommends 19 fiction titles, 3 anthologies, and 8 nonfiction accounts to prepare listeners for the October 31 holiday.
By Grace Anderson ·
Traci Thomas, creator of the podcast The Stacks, released a curated list of horror literature on Thursday to prepare readers for Halloween this weekend. The recommendations span fiction, anthologies, and nonfiction, totaling 30 titles. Thomas selected the books to provide a range of scares, from classic novels to true crime accounts.
The fiction section of the list includes 19 titles. Stephen King appears twice with Carrie and Rosemary's Baby, the latter co-written with Ira Levin. Other notable entries include Toni Morrison's Beloved, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie. The list features several translated works, such as Agustina Bazterrica's Tender Is the Flesh, translated by Sarah Moses, and Han Kang's The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith. Contemporary authors like Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chuck Tingle, and Carmen Maria Machado are also represented with short story collections and novels.
Three anthologies round out the fiction recommendations. Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. edited two volumes titled Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology and Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II. Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams edited Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror. Cynthia Pelayo edited the collection Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror.
The nonfiction list includes 8 books focused on real-world tragedies and crimes. Lizzie Johnson's Paradise details a town's struggle with an American wildfire. Ben Wickey wrote More Weight: A Salem Story, while Wright Thompson published The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. Historical events covered include the Rwandan genocide in Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families and the Attica prison uprising in Heather Ann Thompson's Blood in the Water.
Additional nonfiction titles address the Manson murders in Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry's Helter Skelter, the Donner Party saga in Daniel James Brown's The Indifferent Stars Above, and the Rape of Nanking in Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Richard Lloyd Parry's People Who Eat Darkness: Murder, Grief and a Journey into Japan's Shadows completes the list.
The recommendations are available for purchase at local bookstores and major online retailers. The Stacks podcast will continue its regular schedule after the holiday. Listeners can access the full list and related audio content through the podcast's official platforms.
