Check out our list of spooky books, perfect for the season.
by Gayvin Powers
Smoke trails through the brisk air as the veil thins in October, leading to nights of soulful, chilling tales with ties to the South. Ghosts wander the streets, spirits haunt old Civil War cemeteries, and mysterious murders linger on the page of a good book. October is the perfect month to cozy up with a mug of hot apple cider and see if something wicked this way comes.
FICTION
Elphie: A Wicked Childhood by Gregory Maguire (coming-of-age fantasy)
Elphie is the prequel to Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which inspired the hit musical. With evocative writing, Maguire delves into Elphaba’s younger years, revealing early experiences with friendship, family and a burgeoning call to protect the sentient animals in Oz. Destined to be a witch, Elphie faces early struggles of her growing powers, neglect, rejection and cruelty, while daring to aspire for more than the expectations placed on her.
Remain: A Supernatural Love Story by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan (supernatural mystery)
Sparks, author of The Notebook, and Shyamalan, director of The Sixth Sense, come together for genre-bending storytelling that pulls on suspense, paranormal and romance to create a supernatural thriller. The story features Tate Donovan, a grieving architect, who is skeptical about spirits and marked by trauma. But Donovan must come to terms with a family secret of seeing spirits trapped between life and death, otherwise he won’t heal from his sister’s death.
Abernathy: A Frankenstein Retelling (The Dread South) by Sirius (Southern Gothic, fantasy)
Adapted from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Abernathy is set in the Louisiana bayou. It features Dr. Ramsey Abernathy, who is haunted by his deceased brother. This drives Abernathy to fashion a new body for his brother to inhabit. As his obsession grows, he must either finish building a grotesque body for his brother — or lose him forever.
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (historical mystery)
Author of The Only Woman in the Room and The First Ladies, Benedict sets The Queens of Crime in 1930s London. The murder mystery features beloved women crime writers, including Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and Baroness Emma Orczy. The women must solve a dangerous case of a murdered nurse, before Dorothy’s past threatens her future.
CHILDREN’S
Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood by Robert Beatty (middle-grades mystery and adventure)
2025 marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, and the release of North Carolina author Robert Beatty’s eerily timed book about 13-year-old Sylvia Doe. Sylvia awaits foster care when a great flood hits — and she must save what she loves most: her horses, home and the people closest to her. One-hundred percent of Beatty’s royalties from the book go to N.C. victims of Hurricane Helene.
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (middle-grades mystery)
The Newbery Honor book, and the first book in the Mo & Dale Mysteries series, follows Miss Moses LoBeau, a sixth-grader, who has been making waves throughout the small town of Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, in search of her “upstream mother” and solving a local murder. If she doesn’t, she may lose her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, and those she loves most. SP
