comScore
  1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser

Power Grid

30 Spooky Story Recommendations for All Hallows Read

by The Mary Sue Staff | 12:33 pm, October 25th, 2011


Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Of course, some stories don’t fit all that neatly into one category or another, and so we put them here.

  • “The Body Politic”

Clive Barker’s short story concerns a world where it is revealed that all human hands are sentient, and no longer wish to do as we would tell them. Charlie’s hands intend to lead the revolution, and to that end, against his will Right chops off Left so that he can raise a hand army through convincing other hands to do the same.

  • Exquisite Corpse

So, think of Dexter, the serial killer who kills people he deems to be a threat to humanity. Now, take away the whole moral angle and replace it with a bloodthirsty fetish for murder, and this is Andrew Compton. And this is your protagonist. Andrew cruises the gay scenes of London and New Orleans in search of his next lover/victim, but he isn’t what you’d call “pure” in his intentions to just seduce and kill — he likes eating these guys. He isn’t ashamed of it, and he isn’t prudish about it, and you can’t even look away from it. Because when you read Exquisite Corpse, you are reading it from his perspective. You are Andrew Compton, and there is no escaping the cannibalistic, deviant thoughts in his head. And what’s even more disturbing is that his victims fall in love with him. They’re misfits, and you like them, but before too long, they’re prey.

And then he finds Jay Byrne, who is a guy exactly like him. Two of these guys. You know, it’s one of those romantic “I met this guy, and I wasn’t sure if he was on my team, but sure enough — he is also a cannibalistic serial killer!” stories to tell the kids!

  • Galaxy of Fear

Galaxy of Fear is a series of twelve books written for younger readers, each about 100 pages long, concerning the scary adventures of siblings Zak and Tash, as they travel with their mysterious uncle Hoole through the galaxy. Which galaxy? The Star Wars galaxy.

Yes, this is Goosebumps: Star Wars. I have never read it, and I have no idea if it’s good, but if you can find it, please cackle on my behalf.

  • The Bad Seed

Hey, you like kids? You’d probably love Rhoda Penmark. Just don’t deny her something she wants, or she’ll murder you. This book was controversial not because it features a child serial killer, but because it brought up the whole nature vs. nurture debate in the mid-1950s. Was Rhoda Penmark born evil? Her grandmother had exhibited the same homicidal behavior, but her mother did her best to provide a happy, comfortable lifestyle for her only daughter. And she still killed people for things as trivial as a penmanship medal. It’s such a sick, twisted story that when it was made into a movie for the first time, they had to change the ending to get past the Hays Code. (Evil could not go unpunished — in the book, Rhoda gets away with everything.) Lots of psychology, lots of sweet little girls committing unspeakable acts.


Previous Previous
Next Next
9 of 9

TAGS: | | | | | | | | | | | | |


  • http://twitter.com/Menshevixen DH

    Garth Nix, Flannery O’Connor, Bunnicula…this list is great! I did love Galaxy of Fear when I was a young’un. :B

    I would also recommend something Shirley Jackson (We Have Always Lived in the Castle is my favorite).

  • Johnny Kaje

    I’d throw Dark Horse’s Beasts of Burden on there. It’s about dog paranormal investigators.

    Sounds silly, but it can be terrifying and heartwrenching. One page in particular is guaranteed to make you cry. And the artwork is gorgeous. I wrote about it here (ad there’s some stuff here that should also be on this list):

    http://johnnykaje.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/top-5-comics-i-found-at-hurleys-heros-on-a-whim/

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13000931 Andrew J. Rostan

    Great list!  Especially with the nod to the classic horror tales and Bronte and Gilman.  The two I would add are Henry James’s magnificent “The Turn of the Screw” and Jorge Luis Borges’s tribute to Lovecraft, the delightfully sneaking-up-on-you-til-you-jump “There Are More Things.”

  • http://twitter.com/NikkiSticks Nicole G.

    Love this list! Fantastic job. 

  • Francesca M

    Wait wait wait..

    No mention of ‘The Witches’ by Roald Dahl??? The movie was nothing special (sorry Henson crew) but the book. Very very very very very very very very very OMG scarey in that beautifully creepy Dahl sensibility.

  • Talia

    Great list! The Neil Gaiman titles are wonderful, and Bunnicula was one of my favorites as a child.

    I would add World War Z myself, which I am reading now. It’s scary because it reads like such a “it could REALLY happen and this is how it would go down” scenario, as the book presents interviews and first-person accounts from survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse. A little history/government/politic theme heavy, but very interesting and unique in it’s approach.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=550310357 Ree Mariani

    I went kind of mad trying to read house of leaves, felt like I fell into the book.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1705628571 Nichole Filbert

    Yes. House of Leaves is like a conspiracy theory. There’s so much going on, I recognize something new every time I reread it. Love story, horror novel…all I know is it’s a good idea to keep a tape measure at hand…

  • http://www.facebook.com/rebecca.ann.auman Becky Auman

    Fantastic list! I’d throw in Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always for the kids’ section. It’s a criminally overlooked book that always gave me the heebie jeebies as a kid. Also the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series should be in there somewhere, although where it would fit, I don’t know. It’s rare to find a book series with such creepy illustrations. And who doesn’t love a book which includes a song about worms crawling in and out of a corpse?

  • http://twitter.com/Nakedhobo Glenn Buettner

    I’d highly recommend the Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle by Patrick Rothfuss as a childrens book that’s not for children as a good one.  And anything by Lovecraft.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sdmcpherson Stephen Dudley McPherson

    What about HG Wells’ War of the Worlds and Bram Stoker’s Dracula? Perfect horror stories and you can get them for free.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Celyn-Salow/827689707 Celyn Salow

    My personal favorites are Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and “Annabell Lee.” The second poem is often overlooked, but to me the thought of a wind deliberately coming out of a great, ominous cloud to chill a girl to death is more frightening than a man going insane in his purple-curtained chamber.

  • Sarah Cook

    Flannery O’Connors “An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge”
    Incredibly, incredibly creepy.

  • Anonymous

    No Carlos Ruiz Zafon? I was so scared when I finished The Angel’s Game at 3 in the morning I had to immediately start reading Harry Potter again just to calm down. He has many others and they are all the scariest things I’ve read. 

    Also, the Passage by Justin Cronin, just came out last year and was a truly scary vampire story. They are not sexy and they will hunt you and kill you. 

  • http://twitter.com/Jennylectric Jenny Usalis

    Wonderful suggestions! I’m reading book 3 of Abarat now. The paintings he did for these books are stunning!
    Joe Hill’s “Heart Shaped Box” caused me to cancel my nightly ritual of reading at bedtime for about a week. A twisted ghost story.
    Clive Barker’s short story “Dread”.I read it in his Books of Blood collection when it came out and I still haven’t mustered up the guts to read this one again.

  • Andrea Peterson

    Great list, some that I’ve loved and some that I will be checking out soon. One thing: the story you refer to as “The Black Cat” by Neil Gaiman is actually called “The Price”.

  • Anonymous

    Oh my gosh, you’re right. That’s what I get for relying on my own memory. 

  • Anonymous
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amanda-Dotson/115201844 Amanda Dotson

    Wait…no Ray Bradbury? October Country? I’m shocked and appalled.  Otherwise, fantastic list!

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    tiny.cc/qcfnd

  • Anonymous

    Fantastic list. Now I have so many new books to read!

  • http://twitter.com/johnproyal John P. Royal

    They have stories online and in the Dark Horse Book of Monsters (Pretty sure it was Monsters), too. And they did a story with Hellboy.

    I love those characters.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1587564547 Jen Spence

    To this day, I cannot read The Thief of Always. I tried when my Dad and sister read it, ut I just couldn’t push through.

  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    tiny.cc/qcfnd

  • Johnny Kaje

    Not to be anal but I believe that one was by Ambrose Bierce (sp?)

  • http://www.facebook.com/david.schmitt#!/ David R. Schmitt

    Another kids scary book done by Clive Barker was “The Thief of Always.” Fantastic, I’d put it right up there with Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book”.

  • Anonymous

    tinyurl.com/297sxrk

  • Anonymous

    tinyurl.com/297sxrk

  • Gabi Gorgas

    May I suggest “The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill. Great use of atmosphere, wonderfully creepy, and overall very well-written.

X