10 Backlist Reads for your Spooky Season TBR

Is it Young Adult or New Adult? … I can’t tell, but that this series isn’t more widely talked about is surprising to me. Think Bridgerton meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Lady Helen realizes her ability to cast the demons infiltrating high society back where they came from, with the help of a certain, handsome Lord Carlston.

In this loosely based Jane Eyre retelling you’ll meet Andromeda who is hired to rid a creepy mansion of a powerful, evil spirit. This story is super atmospheric, romantic, creepy and all-out-horror at times! Not to be missed in your spooky TBR pile!!  

You are or were a Goosebumps fan? Then on your next chilly October morning, brew a cup of coffee and sit down with this amazing middle grade from Katherine Arden. This story will have you feeling the fall vibes immediately with her descriptions of the “Stars Hollow” town and its breezy, rainy weather. An ordinary class field trip to a local farm goes greatly amiss when the events of the ghost story that Ollie is reading start to come true. When the bus breaks down and her broken digital wristwatch tells her to RUN, only Ollie and two classmates will listen as the scarecrows around them close in. Trust me, you’ll never look at Scarecrows the same after reading this one.

Don’t snooze on this hidden gem! Jess Kidd is one of my favorite authors and this chilling murder mystery meets ghost story is my favorite! Crumbling old manor estates, spooky small villages, a wise cracking old woman and plenty of humour and heart — it is the perfect story to settle in with on a cold, October night. It’s 1976 and Mahony is returning to the small Irish village in which he was born to finally solve the mystery behind his mother’s disappearance and his abandonment at an orphanage when he was a baby. Mahony’s arrival in Mulderrig is met with a mixture of curiosity and open hostility. Those who don’t trust outsiders, those who want to forget the past, and those who are fascinated by this handsome stranger. He stirs up not only the local residents but also the local ghosts, because Mahony has an interesting ability … he can see and communicate with the dead.

If you’ve ever found yourself wanting a creepier version of The Secret Garden, pick up this unique story! Middle Grade? YA? Who knows! Trust me you’ll be transported in this beautifully illustrated, escapist little novel that follows orphan Olivia Prior as she returns to the grande familial estate her mother warned her against and finds, along with her last living relative, a crumbling ruin of a garden wall with an iron door … an iron door she must never open. But does she listen? Beyond that door is an upside alternate world that might just explain what haunts her cousins dreams and what happened to her mother.

When it comes to horror, I love a good middle grade. It keeps things on the delicious Goosebumps side of spooky without diving into the extraneous bloody detail that most gothic novels adore. Being a resident of the seventh most haunted town in America, Evie Von Rathe is used to ghosts. She lives with her aunt Desdemona who is an expert on the paranormal … but when she disappears into an abandoned slaughterhouse, Evie makes a “good deal” with a terrifying creature called The Clackity to get her back. Now travelling into an upside down world with a black sun and purple sky, Evie must battle through seven houses, each scarier and creepier than the last, and return the ghost of a serial killer to The Clackity! AHH! … it’s soooo spooky. You’ll love it.

The perfect transition from summer to spooky-fall vibes! Ellerie Downing lives in the quiet town of Amity Falls in the Blackspire Mountain range–five narrow peaks stretching into the sky like a grasping hand, bordered by a nearly impenetrable forest from which the early townsfolk fought off the devils in the woods. To this day, visitors are few and rare. But when a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned. As fall turns to winter, more strange activities plague the town. They point to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures who promise to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires, however grand and impossible, for just a small favor. But their true intentions are much more sinister, and Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.

I am admittedly not the biggest horror/gore fan but I couldn’t stop turning the pages of this story! A group of women form a book club in the early 1990s, then band together to rid their community of a vampire that may be behind disappearing children. The premise sounds simple, but this novel delivers on so much more: the failings of a society stacked full of ignorant privilege, racism, chauvinism and gas lighting to name a few. Content warnings do apply with this one so do take note, but if you’re looking for smart horror this is it.

This story combines just the right amount of contemporary, creepy, feminism, magic and witches. Small towns, lattes, festivals, haunted mansions, and a plethora of spiders … don’t worry, they’re nice … a funny, cozy story that focuses on the bonds of female friendship and the power of self acceptance.

In this civil war era reimagining, the dead walk the earth and thusly ended the war as both sides turned their collective attention on the new threat. Jane McKeene is a student at Miss Preston's, a combat school for Black girls to be trained in both weaponry and etiquette. Her goal is to be assigned to a wealthy white family where she will be tasked with their safety and protection for the undead plague. But that was before her world, and all she knew, came crashing down. Families are going missing, her mother's letters are not being returned and Jane is desperate to fight her way home to Kentucky. But this zombie reimagined world is no different than our own past, a young black girl holds no power against the corrupt male oppressors. Using her whit and strength she battles evil both real and dundead as she journeys to freedom. This story is for anyway craving a unique fantasy spin on real historical events, with a good smash up of horror & zombie apocolypse … and odd combination that shouldn't work, but in the hands of Justina Ireleand it is so entertaining and powerful.