Spooky Books for Book Club: 7 Reads for Halloween Week
Seven spooky books for book club or a dark evening, from cozy creepy to sleep-with-the-lights-on, with scare levels and a discussion question for each.
Halloween is Saturday, and you don’t need a costume to get into the spirit. A good spooky book and a dark evening will do it.
Below are seven picks, from charming-and-a-little-eerie to properly frightening. Each one has a scare level so you can choose your fright, plus a discussion question in case your book club wants a seasonal pick. Three are short enough to finish before the weekend.
How to read the scare levels
- Cozy creepy: atmosphere, not nightmares. Good for a first spooky read.
- Goosebumps: real dread, slow-building, best after dark.
- Sleep with the lights on: for readers who like to be genuinely rattled.
The new ones
The Water House by Nneoma Ike-Njoku (2026)
Scare level: Goosebumps
In 1960s Nigeria, Celia is suspected in her little brother’s 1967 drowning, even by her own mother, and sent away from the family’s island mansion. Years later, her past forces her back. The publisher describes it as a twist on Jane Eyre and Rebecca, and Kirkus calls it “a stellar neogothic tale.” It’s a debut that came out this month, and it’s a natural pick if your group loves the classics on this list.
Discuss: Celia isn’t always truthful with us. Did you trust her more or less as the story went on, and why?
Solace House by Will Maclean (2026)
Scare level: Sleep with the lights on
It’s the summer of 1993, and a group of broke university students are hired to clear out a crammed Victorian mansion. Then they find the former owner’s eerie journals, which describe a realm running parallel to ours. Grove pitches it as falling somewhere between The Secret History and House of Leaves, and Kirkus’s review sums it up as “original, mind-bending, terrifying fun.” At 512 pages it’s a big commitment, so save it for a long weekend rather than a one-week club read.
Discuss: Some of the students want to dig deeper and others want to stop. Which camp would you have been in?
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher (2025)
Scare level: Cozy creepy
This retelling of Snow White follows Anja, a blunt healer who studies poisons. A king summons her to cure his 12-year-old daughter, whose illness nobody can explain. BookPage’s review calls it “a dark twist on Snow White” with a funny, curious narrator and a tender love story. Pick this one if you want eerie and charming at the same time.
Discuss: Anja solves problems like a scientist, while fairy-tale heroines usually rely on luck or magic. How does that change the story?
The translated ones
Strange Pictures by Uketsu, translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion (English edition 2025)
Scare level: Goosebumps · Short read (about 240 pages)
It begins with two college students reading an abandoned blog, whose posts and a dead wife’s drawings seem to hide a secret. From there, a series of linked stories slowly reveal how a string of deaths connect. The Asian Review of Books describes “an abiding sense of dread” and a mystery that ties up every loose end. It’s a great fit for puzzle lovers, and the drawings are part of the clues.
Discuss: Did you try to solve the pictures before the characters did? What did you get right?
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell (English edition 2017)
Scare level: Sleep with the lights on · Short read (under 200 pages)
A young mother named Amanda lies in a rural clinic, and a boy who isn’t her son sits beside her, pushing her to remember what happened. Publishers Weekly praised how Schweblin “guides her reader through a nightmare scenario with amazing skill.” A heads-up: it centers on a mother’s fear for her child, so it hits hard if you’re a parent. You can read it in one sitting, but you might not want to read it alone.
Discuss: Amanda talks about a “rescue distance,” how far she can let her daughter go and still reach her in time. What’s yours?
The classics
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
Scare level: Cozy creepy · Short read (about 160 pages)
Merricat Blackwood lives with her sister and uncle in a big house, cut off from a village that hates them after the rest of the family was poisoned. It’s darkly funny, deeply strange, and easy to finish in an evening (Penguin Classics edition). It’s ideal for a group that wants eerie without gore.
Discuss: Who’s the real villain here: Merricat, the villagers, or someone else?
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
Scare level: Goosebumps
A young, nameless bride arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s grand estate, and finds she’s being measured against his first wife, Rebecca, who has died. There are no ghosts, but you’ll feel Rebecca’s presence in every room (Virago edition). If you read The Water House too, you’ll see how much modern gothic still owes this book.
Discuss: We never learn the narrator’s first name. Why do you think du Maurier left it out?
Hosting a spooky book club night
Keep the lights low, with candles or string lights, and pick one short read so everyone actually finishes. Ask each person to bring the line that gave them chills and read it aloud. It’s the easiest icebreaker there is, and it works whether people loved the book or not.
