Spooky season is here, which means it’s time to curl up with a blanket, your favorite hot beverage and a spine-tingling book.
If you’re looking not just for cheap scares but for real thrills, then look no further — these books have stood the test of time as horror classics.
Here are some classic stories to help you get ready for the Halloween season.
‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley, 1818
The story goes that Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” as part of an informal contest with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron to see who could write the best ghost story. Two hundred years and countless film adaptations later, it seems safe to say that she succeeded.
Her tale of a scientist who wants to create life and ends up creating a monster is one of the most classic horror novels of all time.
‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ by Washington Irving, 1820
Irving’s short story is considered “one of America’s first ghost stories — and one of its scariest," according to the History Channel.
Even after 200 years, the “headless horseman” that terrorizes the town of Sleepy Hollow is an iconic Halloween figure.
‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe, 1843
Known as “Master of the Macabre,” Poe has plenty of hair-raising stories in his oeuvre. But his short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” written from the perspective of an unreliable narrator whose madness is slowly unveiled, is probably his most well known.
Bonus: If you’re looking for an even shorter thrill than a short story, try Poe’s haunting poem “The Raven.”
‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886
This novella, exploring good and evil in human nature through the story of the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll and the murderous Mr. Hyde, remains so relevant today that “Jekyll and Hyde” is still used to describe someone who has two very different sides of their character.
‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892
It’s a remarkable story that can make yellow wallpaper an object of horror, but that’s exactly what this short story does.
The story is told by a woman who’s confined to her room for the summer, without work, by her husband in order to recover from a bout of depression — leaving her with nothing to do most of the time but stare at the wallpaper. And, gradually, the wallpaper seems to start to come alive.
Not only is “The Yellow Wallpaper” a classic of horror, it’s also considered a groundbreaking feminist work.
‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker, 1897
“Dracula” isn’t the first vampire novel (that distinction belongs to “The Vampyre” by John Polidori from 1819, per Wired), but it is certainly the most iconic.
Like “Frankenstein,” it’s seen plenty of film adaptations over the years — in fact, in 2015, Count Dracula was recognized by Guinness World Records as the “most portrayed literary character in a film,” with a total of 538 film appearances.
Because of Dracula’s popularity, Bram Stoker’s novel laid the groundwork for many of our modern pop culture stereotypes about vampires, including the idea of vampires turning into bats and being repelled by garlic.
‘The Turn of the Screw’ by Henry James, 1898
“The Turn of the Screw” was called one of “the only two great novels of the supernatural in the last hundred years” by no one less than horror icon Stephen King, according to BBC. Recently adapted by Netflix as “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” this story about a governess caring for two young children who becomes convinced they’re being haunted is just as spooky as ever.
‘The Call of Cthulhu’ by H.P. Lovecraft, 1928
H.P. Lovecraft is so iconic in the horror community that he has a whole subgenre named after him — Lovecraftian horror, also known as cosmic horror. And his short story “The Call of Cthulhu,” about the discovery of an ancient cosmic entity, shows Lovecraft at his very best.
Bonus: Can’t get enough cosmic horror? Try Lovecraft’s novella “At the Mountains of Madness” next.
‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier, 1938
As far as iconic first lines go, “Rebecca” is near the top of the list: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
And just like that, the reader is plunged into du Maurier’s Gothic masterpiece, which tells the story of a young woman who thinks she’s found happiness when she marries a mysterious man and moves to his isolated manor house — only to find herself haunted (figuratively but also sometimes literally) by his late wife.
The novel has certainly endured — in the 87 years since it’s been published, it’s never once gone out of print, according to The New York Times.
Bonus: Fun fact — du Maurier’s 1952 short story “The Birds” became the inspiration for another classic Hitchcock film of the same name.
‘The Haunting of Hill House’ by Shirley Jackson, 1959
It’s been called “the best haunted-house story ever written,” and for good reason.
“The Haunting of Hill House” follows a young woman named Eleanor who joins a group of supernatural investigators during their stay at the intimidating Hill House. The horror builds not just through ghostly phenomena but through what’s taking place in Eleanor’s mind.
Bonus: Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” sparked outrage from readers when it was first published in The New Yorker in 1948, but it’s since become a classic.
‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ by Ray Bradbury, 1962
Though he’s perhaps best known as the author of the dystopian “Fahrenheit 451,” Bradbury also left his mark on the horror world. His story, about two 13-year-old boys who encounter an eerie traveling carnival and the mysterious Mr. Dark, has also been immortalized as a 1983 Disney film.
Bonus: If you’re looking for a Halloween story that’s a little more on the nose, try Bradbury’s 1972 novel “The Halloween Tree.”
‘The Shining’ by Stephen King, 1977
No list of horror novels would be complete without the “King of Horror” himself.
King’s written a range of horror novels over the years, but “The Shining” is his top-selling book, according to USA Today. And the film version, starring Jack Nicholson as the caretaker of an isolated hotel who begins to slowly lose his mind, has become a horror classic in its own right, though King himself famously dislikes the movie.