Classic Stories to Read for Halloween

October 7, 2017     erinthebooknut     Holiday, Recommendations

When it comes to Halloween reading I like to mix classic spooks with my regular  YA and adult spooky reads. I was an English major, but even before that I loved to read spooky classic works, and there are plenty of good ones out there. Here are a few.

When it comes to short stories there are a few I really recommend. The first is pretty much anything by Poe. My favorites include “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Tell-tale Heart”, The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. “The Black Cat” and the poem “The Raven” are also excellent.

Poe is not your only choice for creepy shorts though. You’ve got the fabulous feminist piece, “The Yellow Wallpaper” which I completely adore, or the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. There’s also the lesser known “The Speckled Band” which I think makes a great Halloween read ask well.

Also recommended would be “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. The former, moreso than the latter.

Getting into classic longform fiction there’s tons of great gothic type books to choose from. Be it something as common as Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, or even Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN. Now me, I’m not a big Frankenstein fan. It really doesn’t interest me at all. But Dracula, that’s where it’s at. The supreme vampire story before all the fluff and sparkles ruined it all, a proper horror novel.

Now if you’re tastes run a little weirder, perhaps HG Well’s “The Time Machine” is more your speed. Seriously, there are some creepy bits in this story that no one can deny. Or maybe some classic Grimm’s Fairy Tales, these darker versions of the tales are the creepy originals and are much spookier than the disney versions everyone knows.

Lastly is probably one of my favorite picks. HP Lovecraft’s Stories have inspired everything from movies to board games (incidentally Elder Sign and Mansions of Madness are fantastic Lovecraft inspired games to play for Halloween). Of these stories which detail the powerful and the creepy, my favorite is “The Call of Cthulhlu”. It’s even better when you listen to Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd read it to you, even if he can’t properly pronounce “R’ylleh” to save his life.

So if you need some classic horrors or gothics to add to your Halloween reads, check a few of these beauties out.You really won’t be disappointed and you may find a new creepy favorite or reread an old friend.

WHat’s your favorite creepy classic? Share in the comments.

From my shelf to yours,

Erin.

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