Halloween is right around the corner, and I couldn't be happier. Yesterday, I bedecked my bookshelf with candles, fake cobwebs, and dried flowers (yes, my Agent Carter Funko Pop looks slightly out of place, but she can deal). One of the best things about Halloween is that it's during autumn, when nothing is cozier than reading a creepy book while the wind howls outside your Victorian estate. Here are a few suggestions as to what that book should be.

(The snarky descriptions in italic are my reviews on the ones that I've read. The rest are on my to-read list!)

Classics

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

"This is the Uncensored 1818 Edition FRANKENSTEIN; OR, THE MODERN PROMETHEUS, a novel written by the English author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley about the young science student Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment." - Amazon (definitely click this link if you want the version that most of us never got to read!)

We're just starting with the obvious here. I actually read this one for school in 12th grade, which was the best decision my curriculum ever made. If you've never read it, you probably think it's about monster-making. In actuality, it's a crazy country-hopping story about this guy who was so emotional that he built a human just to prove that he could, then freaked out and abandoned it to the wilderness. This is the first sci-fi novel, the first non-religious creation myth, and a thought-provoking foray into what it means to be human--which is really the scariest thing of all.

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

"Atop the stormy Yorkshire moors sits Wuthering Heights, a manor inhabited by Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw and their two children, Catherine and Hindley. The fate of the manor, and the family that lives in it, is forever changed when the Earnshaws adopt a dark-skinned orphan boy named Heathcliff. As the years pass, Heathcliff and Catherine fall deeply in love, but even their great passion cannot survive the pressures of society and the black force of jealousy. Driven away by a broken heart, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights only to return years later, bent on the cruelest kind of revenge." - Amazon

Like with Frankenstein, most of what you've heard about Wuthering Heights is probably wrong--this book is downright disturbing. It's not a love story, but it is a story of obsession, power, revenge, and dogs. There are moors, and some dead rabbits in a basket, and a lot of murders. Also, half the characters are named the exact same thing because it's multi-generational and people like naming their kids after themselves. In my opinion, the only time to truly experience the full vibe of this book is around Halloween. That is clearly what Emily Bronte would have wanted.

Literally Anything that Edgar Allan Poe Wrote

(This particular collection can be found here.)

Honestly, I could read the Prince of Goth's happiest poem and still feel sad and overly dramatic.

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

"Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to a isolated mansion on Indian Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die…

Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?" - Amazon

This one is all kinds of fun, especially if the ending hasn't been spoiled for you yet. (Also, I read it right after the newest screen adaptation came out, so I was picturing Aidan Turner as Phillip Lombard the whole time and it made my reading experience that much more enjoyable.)

"The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H. G. Wells

"Shipwrecked and abandoned, Edward Prendick cautiously steps ashore a remote island in the Pacific. Though wary, Prendick is unaware of the horrors that await him here. But what appears at first to be a typical volcanic island slowly reveals itself to be the macabre workshop of maligned London physiologist Dr. Moreau. Moreau’s genius had been celebrated far and wide until the true nature of his work was exposed. Now secluded on his island, Moreau engages unimpeded in gruesome experiments of vivisection, splicing animal and man together in a terrifying display of his dominion over nature. When Prendick realizes he’s slated to be the next subject on Moreau’s grisly surgical table, he flees to the jungle—where all manner of unnatural creatures abound . . . " - Amazon

"Dracula" by Bram Stoker

"A junior solicitor travels to Transylvania to meet with an important client, the mysterious Count Dracula. Ignoring the dire warnings of local townsfolk, he allows himself to be seduced by the count’s courtly manners and erudite charm. Too late, the solicitor realizes that he is a prisoner of Castle Dracula, his guards a trio of voluptuous young women with sharp white teeth and a taste for blood.

Soon thereafter, the solicitor’s fiancée, Mina, visits a friend on the English coast. The town is full of speculation over a Russian ship run aground nearby, its crew missing, the dead body of its captain, crucifix in hand, lashed to the wheel. A giant dog was seen leaping from the deck before disappearing into the countryside. The ship’s cargo: fifty boxes of Transylvanian dirt. As the beautiful Mina will soon learn, Count Dracula has arrived." - Amazon

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Ray Bradbury

"A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes -- and the stuff of nightmare." - Amazon

"The Thing on the Doorstep" by H. P. Lovecraft

""The Thing on the Doorstep" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror fiction. It was written in August 1933, and first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales.
Two novels suggested as inspirations for "The Thing on the Doorstep" are Barry Pain's An Exchange of Souls (1911), about a scientist's invention that allows him to switch personalities with his wife, and H. B. Drake's The Remedy (1925; published in the U.S. as The Shadowy Thing), in which a character with the power of mind-transference comes back from the dead by possessing the body of an injured friend." - Amazon

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

"An intriguing combination of fantast thriller and moral allegory, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" depicts the gripping struggle of two opposing personalities — one essentially good, the other evil — for the soul of one man. Its tingling suspense and intelligent and sensitive portrayal of man's dual nature reveals Stevenson as a writer of great skill and originality, whose power to terrify and move us remains, over a century later, undiminished." - Amazon

Young Adult

"Stalking Jack the Ripper" / "Hunting Prince Dracula" by Kerri Maniscalco

"Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege, stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world." - Amazon

For all the YA lovers out there, I present Stalking Jack the Ripper and its sequel about Prince Dracula (released just last month). The ending is WHACK and frankly, you'll either love it or hate it, but the characters are fun and the little details are fascinating. I can't say much about Hunting Prince Dracula because I've only just started reading it, but so far, I'm thoroughly entertained.

"Anna Dressed in Blood" by Kendare Blake

"Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead―keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life." - Amazon

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

"A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, "Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows." - Amazon

Middle-Grade

"Doll Bones" by Holly Black

"Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her. But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen—and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave." - Amazon

This one's great for a read-along with a younger sibling or if you enjoy Middle-Grade books yourself. I read it at 15 and really enjoyed it, so I think it spans across a lot of age groups. It's suitably creepy, with a Stranger Things-esque group of friends and coming of age story. If Holly Black's name sounds familiar, it probably is--she's the author of The Spiderwick Chronicles and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

"Lockwood & Co" series by Jonathan Stroud

"A sinister Problem has occurred in London: all nature of ghosts, haunts, spirits, and specters are appearing throughout the city, and they aren't exactly friendly. Only young people have the psychic abilities required to see—and eradicate—these supernatural foes. Many different Psychic Detection Agencies have cropped up to handle the dangerous work, and they are in fierce competition for business. In The Screaming Staircase, the plucky and talented Lucy Carlyle teams up with Anthony Lockwood, the charismatic leader of Lockwood & Co, a small agency that runs independently of any adult supervision. After an assignment leads to both a grisly discovery and a disastrous end, Lucy, Anthony, and their sarcastic colleague, George, are forced to take part in the perilous investigation of Combe Carey Hall, one of the most haunted houses in England. Will Lockwood & Co. survive the Hall's legendary Screaming Staircase and Red Room to see another day?" - Amazon

"Coraline" by Neil Gaiman

"When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life." - Amazon

(Want an even longer list of YA/Middle Grade titles? Click here!)

Happy reading!