There are so many Halloween adjacent genres to explore this time of year, from paranormal fantasy to murder mystery crime thriller, to your classic all-out horror story. So instead of offering you a meager handful of selected titles (equivalent to the snack pack of raisins in your trick-or-treat bag), we’ve got you covered with a whole alphabet of delightfully devilish word associations to satisfy your spooky cravings (in other words, the full-sized chocolate bar).
Last week we tackled A to M and this week we’ll finish with N through Z.
Spoiler: it’s not zebras.
N is for Night(mare)
The Sandman by Lars Kepler: Part of the popular Joona Linna series, Sandman centers on the detective’s belief that notorious serial killer Jurek Walter has been working with an accomplice when his once believed victim shows up wandering outside Stockholm in the middle of the night. Fun fact: Lars Kepler is actually the pen name for a husband and wife writing team from Sweden – both having had established writing careers before creating the pseudonym.
O is for Otherworld
Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab: Schwab writes a variety of wonderfully otherworldly tales for both adult and YA audiences – the former under V.E. and the latter under Victoria. In Shades of Magic, Kell is a magician with the unique ability to travel between parallel Londons – and a daunting responsibility to save them all.
P is for Poe
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe: First published in 1845, this poem has long been celebrated for its spooky supernatural atmosphere chronicling a man’s slow descent into madness. The poem has been included in multiple collections over the years as well as extended into full volumes with accompanying illustrations. Also gave ravens a bit of a Halloween edge.
Q is for Queen
Evil Winter by Marissa Meyer: So, most fairy tales were originally written as much for adults as they were for children (often more so), then heavily censored for an exclusively younger audience, and now we’ve seen a huge resurgence of their more sinister beginnings in re-reworkings for adult and youth. Meyer is one of the authors leading this evolution with the first in the Lunar Chronicle series, Cinder, and this last installment with special focus on the evil Queen (complete with dystopian/sci-fi bonus).
R is for Rebecca
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: Ok, so we’re a little bias with this one. But the classic gothic melodrama has disturbed readers and audiences alike for over 80 years with its haunting dream of Manderley. Most popularly portrayed in Hitchcock’s Best Picture winner, the novel has recently seen new life in another adaptation of Netflix.
S is for Sorcery
Practical Magic series by Alice Hoffman: Published in 1995, Practical Magic is technically the last book in the series of the enchanting Owens women. In 2017, the author published a prequel called Rules of Magic and this year we were treated to an even earlier installment that traces the centuries-old curse to Maria Owens, first accused of witchcraft in Salem.
T is for Thriller
Since thriller is such a large but important category, we’ll do a bit of a cheat here by recommending some of our modern faves that don’t neatly fit our easily regrettable alphabet outline. If you’re looking for a gripping page turner, consider something by Ruth Ware, Shari Lapena, Tana French, Greer Hendricks, Megan Miranda or Lisa Jewell.
U is for Undead
Dracula the Un-dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt: Dacre is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker. And it’s not often you’d play the whole so-and-so is my great granduncle card – except when said connection wrote Dracula. Undead is presented as a sequel to the original work while Dracul (yep, that’s the spelling) is a prequel he later penned with J.D. Barker.
V is for Vampire
Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris: The Sookie Stackhouse series (inspiration for the wildly popular True Blood) is to adults what the Twilight series is to preteens. Vampire suspense/romance loving adults that is. And while the entire collection easy classifies as guilty pleasure reading, Harris and her prolific back catalogue of vampire infused fiction was one of the first to reignite this classic genre.
W is for Wizard
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: You may have heard of a little series called Harry Potter. And while an obvious choice four our wizards pick, it is also ripe with ghosts, magical beasts, goblins, and more - so a true Halloween feast. X is for X-Files The X-Files by Joe Harris: Comic book writer Joe Harris chronicles much of the onscreen action from the popular reboot, full of all the supernatural suggestion, government coverups, and long buried secrets we’ve come to expect.
Y is for Yorkshire
Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz: Ok, so Y was hard. But this first installment in the Power of Five series in no less worthy of note. Not long after being sent to Yorkshire for bad behaviour, Matt Freeman senses there is something wrong with the whole village in this YA supernatural struggle of good v. evil. Horowitz is also author to popular adult titles like Moriarty and The Word is Murder.
Z is for Zombies
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey: This isn’t your classic zombie tale. If that’s even a thing. Here we get a peek inside the zombie perspective (no, it’s not just brains) and a little more of the biology behind how they came to be – presenting a tale that is both intriguing and unexpected.
All books listed are available via TPL or through or Libraires in Niagara Cooperative consortium (broaden your search by selecting LiNC in the drop-down menu at the far right of our catalogue).
