October must be my favourite month. It’s home to Halloween, the holy day for horror fans, and its Library Month, which is a celebration of all things library and book related. What better way to celebrate than by showing off a list of books recommended through well-loved horror films, from classic flicks to modern masterpieces. Just a warning, there are some spoilers for the films mentioned below, so read at your own risk!
If you liked Rosemary’s Baby, try Nestlings by Nat Cassidy.
Ana and Reid need a break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling―with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia, but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on their baby. Like Rosemary’s Baby, Nestlings is all about surviving parenthood in the face of creeping paranoia, supernatural entities, and a building full of creepy neighbors. For more horror novels for those of us that deeply fear of becoming a Mom, check out our book list, Motherhood is Scary. Best to skip this if you are expecting though…
If you liked Midsommar, try Harvest Home by Tyron Thomas
Midsommar’s tale of a group of anthropology students on a once in a lifetime trip to attend a festival in a remote Swedish Village brought the subgenre of folk horror into the spotlight. If you want a novel with the same folky frights like small villages, creepy traditions, and isolated communities, then you’ll need to check out this classic, Harvest House. After watching his asthmatic daughter suffer in the foul city air, Theodore Constantine decides to get back to the land. When he and his wife search New England for the perfect nineteenth-century home, they find no township more charming, no countryside more idyllic than the farming village of Cornwall Coombe. Here they begin a new life: simple, pure, close to nature—and ultimately more terrifying than Manhattan’s darkest alley.
If you liked any of the Friday the 13th series, try Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
Teens being brutally punished, and the slasher genre goes hand-in-hand. Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start amongst the farming town. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can. Instead of a hockey mask wearing Jason Vorhees (or his dear old ma’) culling the “rotten” youths, Clown in a Cornfield has Friendo, a creepy Baypen clown mascot in a pork-pie hat who is going for a supremely high body count. Possibly higher than Jason himself!
If you liked Get Out, try The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Get Out was a genre breaking film that reinvigorated horror with perspectives unseen in popular media. It paved the way for future storytellers to hold a mirror up to society and give a glimpse into the real-life terrors people are facing every day due to their culture or the colour of their skin. The Other Black Girl delivers a whip-smart and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who felt manipulated or threatened in the workplace. Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
If you liked The Exorcist, try Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
Camp Damascus is the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in America. Here a life “free from sin” awaits. But the leaders of the camp are doing something nefarious with their residents to ensure they will never have “impure” thoughts. At its core The Exorcist is a film about a priest, who is losing his faith, having to battle a demon for the innocent soul of a child. While Camp Damascus has plenty of possessed teens, its essentially about the dangers of heterosexual American-evangelical purity culture and the religious zealots who destroy and break their children to fit a mold of “normalcy”. For more horror novels centered around demonic entities, check out our book list, Demonic Possessions Between the Pages.
If you liked The Cabin in the Woods, try The Haunted Forest Tour by James A. Moore
The Cabin in the Woods takes horror tropes that we all know and love and flips them for unsuspecting audiences. If you are looking for a similar meta story that has plenty of dark humor and is full of conspiracies and fast-paced monster mayhem, then The Haunted Forest Tour is for you! Overnight, without warning, in a small New Mexico town a forest springs up, killing anyone unlucky enough to be in the area. Years later, strange monsters inhabit the forest and Haunted Forest Enterprises makes a fortune conducting tours by tram along the perimeter of the forest. However, this Halloween HF Enterprises offers their first (and most likely last) annual Halloween tour. It will go further into the forest than any tour has before leading its passengers down strange and mysterious paths to see the beasts lurking in the heart of the Haunted Forest. Don’t worry though, Haunted Forest Enterprises has a perfect safety record… so far.
If you liked Carrie, try The Weight of Blood, by Tiffany D. Jackson
Okay, so this one might be cheating a little since The Weight of Blood is a retelling of Carrie, but I promise, it’s so much more than a by-the-books retelling! Tiffany Jackson has taken the religious trauma in Carrie and has changed it to a timely book about racial trauma and modern segregation. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity.
If you liked Scream, try My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
You won’t find a more hardcore eighties-slasher-film fan than high school senior Jade Daniels. And you won’t find a place less supportive of girls who wear torn T-shirts and too much eyeliner than Proofrock, nestled eight thousand feet up a mountain in Idaho, alongside Indian Lake, home to both Camp Blood – site of a massacre fifty years ago – and, as of this summer, Terra Nova, a lake-side retreat for wealthy newcomers. Like Scream, My Heart is a Chainsaw is brimming with meta horror, but it also includes the themes of class, race, the seizure of Indigenous lands and the effects of an abusive home-life. Stephen Graham Jones shows off his skills at creating a story with a mysterious slow burn, but when the horror does come, it’s a fiery inferno of gore and terror.
If you liked The Craft, try The Furies by Katie Lowe
Like The Craft, The Furies is set in the nineties and centers around a group of outcasts coming together and experimenting with dangerous magic. Unfortunately, we do miss out on the killer alt-girl fashion of the coven in The Craft, but The Furies makes up for that with plenty of scares. Violet, steps on the campus of Elm Hollow Academy, an all-girl's boarding school on the outskirts of a sleepy coastal town. Bright but a little strange, uncertain and desperate to fit in, she soon finds herself invited to an advanced study group, led by her alluring and mysterious art teacher, Annabel. There, with three other girls--Alex, Grace, and Robin--the five of them delve into the school's long-buried grim history: of Greek and Celtic legends; of the school founder's "academic" interest in the occult; of gruesome 17th century witch trials. Annabel does her best to convince the girls that her classes aren't related to ancient rites and rituals, and that they are just history and mythology. But the more she tries to warn the girls off the topic, the more they are drawn to it, and the possibility that they can harness magic for themselves. Violet quickly finds herself wrapped up in this heady new world of lawless power--except she is needled by the disappearance of a former member of the group, one with whom Violet shares an uncanny resemblance.
If you liked Shaun of the Dead, try Eat My Heart Out by Kelly deVos
While I truly believe no horror/comedy can outdo the hilarious, heart-wrenching, and quotable story of Shaun of the Dead, Eat Your Heart Out may just come close. It’s about a group of teens who are forced into spending their winter break going to fat camp. However, unaware to them, the counsellors at Camp Featherlite have all accepted the “miracle cure for obesity” and it has changed them into bloodthirsty genetically modified creatures that resemble zombies. This book successfully combines a zombie story with humor and social commentary on fatphobia without feeling too serious. Chapters alternate from each main character's point of view, giving the novel a cinematic feel.
And so, dear reader of the macabre and mayhem, it’s your turn to grab one of our horror books and snuggle in the safest spot in your home for some scares that will surely chill you to the bone.
If you’re looking for more horror reads, check out some of our staff-created book lists! Diverse Horror will introduce you to the terrors that plague a variety of different cultures and Genre Blending Horror delivers a list of genre-bent scares for every reader! If you’d rather have personalized recommendations, no horror necessary, try out our Book Match service! After receiving your form, a staff member will use your likes and dislikes to select five books suited perfectly for your needs!
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