13 of the best scary books for Halloween or anytime

Halloween is a great time for scary books whether you are looking a spooky book to give away for All Hallow’s Read or something to read yourself. Because it’s been a while since I’ve read a lot of scary books, I asked people on Facebook and Twitter to name their favorite scary books. Here is a list of the best scary books based on those recommendations.

Not surprisingly, many of the best scary books are by Stephen King. These were people’s favorite scary books from him:

• The Stand (described by one reader as “The 1970s Ebola Primer.”)
• Pet Sematary
• The Shining
• Misery
• Night Shift (The story “The Boogeyman” was specifically mentioned by two readers, one of whom said that to this day she has not been able to “1. Reread it. 2. Sleep with the closet open a crack.” )

Shirley Jackson was also mentioned several times with both of these scary books getting repeated recommendations:

• The Haunting of Hill House
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The other favorite scary books were

• Ghost Story by Peter Straub
• Intensity: A Novel by Dean Koontz
• The Wasp Factory: A Novel by Iain Banks
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (No relation despite our matching middle Zs)
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
• Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn

Also mentioned were two Neil Gaiman short stories “Snow, Glass, Apples” and “The Price,” which are both in the collection Smoke and Mirrors.

One children’s book was also mentioned, The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree.

What is your favorite scary book?

RELATED POSTS:

• All Hallow’s Read: Give a scary book for Halloween
• 3 classic scary stories ruined by modern twists
• 20 more two-sentence horror stories
• The rag man, a spooky true story of a mysterious visitor
• ‘Twas the Night Before Halloween

For the month of October, Listing Beyond Forty is Listing Toward Halloween, featuring posts related to or inspired by Halloween.  Read all the previous posts here.

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