13 books full of thrills and chills for Halloween
Halloween is nearly upon us — and with it, trick-or-treating, costumes and jump scares. While some people are happy indulging in hay rides and pumpkin picking during this season, others relish in the mystery and mischief of the holiday — seeking out ways to heighten fear.
For those who fall into the latter category, we've put together a list of books that will send shivers down your spine: hair-raising novels with an array of diverse of perspectives, ranging from traditional thrillers to supernatural horror. But there's also something here — a few good mysteries — for those of you who want to sleep at night.
Creatures of the night and mind
What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher
Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author, Ursula Vernon, writing under the pen name T. Kingfisher, artfully transports Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" to a contemporary setting. In this version, Alex Easton, a nonbinary retired army lieutenant, goes to the home of their dying childhood friend Madeline Usher, whose brother Roderick they served with. Alex arrives to find the Usher house simultaneously alive and dead; as Kingfisher writes,"The dead don't walk. Except, sometimes, when they do." Not only is the home decaying, but also the siblings, Alex discovers. And an abundance of creepy white hares, which have forgotten how to run and stare right at humans, and a wild assortment of fungal horrors have overrun the property. With the help of Eugenia, a British mycologist, and Denton, an American doctor, Alex must determine "what moves the dead."
