Six Spooky Books to Get Your Spine Tingling This October

We Have Always Lived In The Castle - Shirley Jackson
For me, Shirley Jackson is the ultimate gothic writer - and in particular, We Have Always Lived in The Castle is the perfect creepy tale. Told from the perspective of eighteen year old Merricat Blackwood, the story follows the remaining Blackwood family as they live estranged from the rest of their small town community. Taking place six years after the rest of the Blackwood family are poisoned, the novel grapples with the sanity of its protagonist, alongside the cruelty of small town people. Both of which are recurring themes in Jackson’s literature, also present in her novel The Haunting of Hill House and short story collection The Lottery. Not necessarily an outright horror, We Have Always Lived in The Castle has no graphic details nor jumpscares, but rather it’s one that provokes a steady creeping feeling in the reader. Lizzy O’Riordan

Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories - Algernon Blackwood
By far the most spine-tingling tales I have ever read, Algernon Blackwood’s short stories seem to take hold of your breath and heartbeat and control them through subtle, unsettling narratives that lean heavily into the weird, ancient and occult. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, these stories continue to stand the test of time and have me sleeping with the light on for a few nights after each read. In this collection of shorter works, the reader will encounter strange and unnerving characters, settings and events, each more disquieting than the last. From the ancient and magical mysteries which lie within The Willows, to the campfire horror of the Wendigo, every story will envelop you in a different time and place, and there’s no escaping the dread and horror that flows forebodingly from each page. A must-read for anyone who prefers understated, subtle terror to jolting jump-scares. John Ashton.

House of Leaves -  Mark Z. Danielewski
This is the scariest book I’ve ever read. You’ll be instantly hooked on Johnny Truant’s desperate, fear-drenched, and progressively erratic narrative. Then, you’ll be forced to actively partake in the creation of the story. And this only deepens the horror. It’s one thing to read a scary story, but to actually have to piece it together yourself? That’s something entirely more sadistic. Rather than passively absorbing words set out clearly on a page, knowing that there’s a straightforward form of beginning, middle and end, Danielewski has constructed a circulatory, intertwining metanarrative which requires you to not only read the novel, but re-read and skip backwards and forward, making you feel lost inside its pages. A clever way of reflecting the House’s kaleidoscopic labyrinth which grows and shifts at the very heart of the story.  Eventually, you’ll probably find yourself frantically scrolling through forums for answers and writing scribbly notes in the margins — the actions of an obsessed reader. Hell, the actions of Johnny Truant himself. You might even have nightmares. But hey, Danielewski warns us about that from the very start, where, on the acknowledgements page we read: “This is not for you.” Emily Malone

Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 
‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ is the famous opening line of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel Rebecca. It sounds like the start of a romantic novel, with Manderley as its dreamy, palatial setting. When the unnamed narrator tells her story, however, we discover a far more mysterious place. After only a few weeks of courting the wealthy Englishman Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo, the narrator agrees to marry him, moving into his estate in Cornwall. What she discovers there is an aristocratic society still devoted to her seemingly perfect predecessor, the ex-wife of de Winter named Rebecca, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances. The narrator is left to deal with the seething criticisms of Mrs Danvers, a housekeeper who was devoted to Rebecca, and with the judgements of the people around her, who both think she is unfit to replace her. Rebecca haunts the narrator’s conscience. The novel isn’t your classic jump-scare horror novel, but it’s an excellent example of gothic literature, a chilling study in absence and isolation, and it culminates in a series of events that shocks the narrator and reader alike. Lewis Keech

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
From the desert island of Robinson Crusoe to the Big Brother of 1984, occasionally literary classics slip into the popular imagination divorced from the literary context in which they were created. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is no exception. Far from being a tale of a green-skinned monster on the rampage, the 1818 novel—one of the earliest examples of science fiction—follows Victor Frankenstein’s attempts to create life and the tragic events that ensue. Tenderly told from the perspectives of both the scientist and his creation, Shelley’s story explores the possibilities of technology and the ethics of difference while also giving rise to one of Halloween’s most iconic characters. But don’t expect much in the way of frights: the horror in Frankenstein is not to be found with the monster that is created but in how it exposes the perils of individual ambition and the cruelty of society towards those it deems outsiders and misfits. Daniel Swann 

Call of Chtulhu - HP Lovecraft
Top of any horror fantasy list is the monstrous High Priest of the Old Ones, first encountered in the 1928 short story, Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft. Described as so terrible to behold that it destroys the sanity of those who see it, Cthulhu is the leader of the species who came to earth before the evolution of human life. Now dormant but communicating with human beings through telepathy, the Old Ones will rise again when the time is right. With a ‘face’ a mass of writhing tentacles, and a scaly body, Cthulhu is the prototype for many a Sci-Fi monster, notably the Ood in Doctor Who, who also communicate via telepathy, and Davy Jones in The Tales of the Caribbean; and the myth of aliens living disguised among us is the inspiration for Men in Black. Lovecraft was something of a tortured genius, never fully recognised in his brief life, but through works like The Shadow over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness he has acquired cult followers, as well as inspiring heavy metal bands, Black Sabbath and Metallica. Rick Hall