It’s Halloween! Here’s a reading list of scary stories to keep you spooked until next Hallow’s Eve.

by Paige Pritchard

I was a fearful child. Looking back on my earliest years of media consumption, I can remember having visceral reactions against a number of seemingly innocuous stimuli. My dad taking me out of the movie theater because the wolves in Beauty and the Beast were making me cry. Skipping out on sleepovers to avoid sitting through a scary movie. And always, always sitting up in my bed at night with the light on, giving my best effort to overcome my irrational fear of the dark.

In spite of this temperament, I have always loved reading horror stories. It’s not that I like being scared, I just like reading good stories, and so-called “scary” tales are often just that. Whereas one weekend I would be running scared out of a theater, come Monday I’d be back in the library, checking out Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or Goosebumps. It’s a paradox I can’t well explain, only that words offered me an access point to horror that movies and television never could.

I’ve since warmed to horror movies, but still proceed with caution. My appetite as a reader, though, has only increased. Which is why I find it so disappointing that so few women gain prominence in horror writing. More than any other genre I follow, horror seems inundated with male luminaries–Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Dean Koontz, M.R. James, and so on. I love these writers and appreciate their development of the genre, but also made it a point this year to seek out the women who had a hand in it, too.

The books and stories below include tales that I grew up with, and new discoveries I made while researching this article. Not only will this list provide you ample reading while you stuff your face with candy the next few days, but it’s also a handy guide for All Hallow’s Read, a literary holiday started by Neil Gaiman and adopted by scary story readers everywhere. To celebrate, all you do is give away a scary book for Halloween instead of candy (we won’t tell if you do both). The Riveter is celebrating too, not only with this list, but also with a book giveaway. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post and let us know what your favorite scary story by a woman writer is. The winner will receive a copy of Caitlin Doughty’s new nonfiction book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory.

Short Stories

“Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler

For those of us who like our share of horror with a side of sci fi, Octavia Butler is the perfect choice. This glass-ceiling shattering sci fi writer won both the Hugo and Nebula and was even awarded a MacArthur genius grant. She’s explored a breadth of sci fi genres during her career, spinning tales of time travel, dystopias, genetic engineering, and space travel. In “Bloodchild,” the title piece in her collection of short stories, readers travel to a distant planet where refugee humans have managed to build a settlement, but only after making a truce with the planet’s arthropodic natives, one which involves a dramatic physical sacrifice and flips gender roles on their head. She also plays into our collective insectophobia with this one, citing the botfly as specific inspiration. So, yeah, you’ve been warned.

Read it here.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

This classic creepy story is a high school English class staple, yet somehow I missed it until now. A friend lent me her Shirley Jackson short story collection with the insistence that I read this immediately.  I look forward to returning it to her with the news that it’s one of the only stories that has made me audibly gasp. As her career will show, Jackson  is a master of suspense. Here, she crafts a brilliant scene, using a small town square as the only setting for her narrative, and filling it with characters you connect to after just a few sentences. These techniques are common for the short story form, sure, but Jackson uses them with purpose. She only has so many pages to grab our attention, and can hold it only so long before we give up on solving the mystery. All at once fast-paced and fully fleshed out, this would be a short story in its most complete form with an even looser conclusion. But Jackson lives up to her foreshadowing, and delivers a shocking conclusion that puts the entire piece into a new perspective.

Read it here.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oats

Oates based this story on the serial killer Charles Schmid, and dedicated it to Bob Dylan, whose song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” she claimed for inspiration. I’ve always found the story controversial, mostly because the sequence of events implies that the main character Connie, a teen exploring her sexuality, basically asks to be stalked by a male predator. Some have also interpreted it as a criticism of “girly” culture; if you forego school and family for makeup and boys, then you get what you deserve. Maybe I’m being too hard on it though, and Oates just felt compelled to write this out after reading about Schmid. Maybe she really does support Connie’s sexual freedom, and in her innocence, her fate finds more tragedy. Either way it’s a well-written piece, and I recommend you read it and develop your own interpretation.

Read it here.

“The Bad Graft” by Karen Russell

Call it eco-horror or natural horror, but Karen Russell makes apt use of man vs. nature conflict in this convoluted romance for the New Yorker. It starts out conventionally enough—two wide-eyed lovers escape to the desert, but how many couples have we seen survive a horror story? The two arrive at Joshua Tree National Park, searching the spiritual setting for an affirmation of their relationship. What they get is a botched case of convergent evolution. Whereas this story is about ghosts, possession, and identity crises, it’s also about a couple trying to live with each other after the passion of the honeymoon period passes. Their relationship’s slow dissolution and stale dynamic might actually be the most disquieting part of Russell’s captivating tale.

Read “The Bad Graft” here.

For more of Russell’s horror writing in her short story collection, Vampires in the Lemon Grove.

“Nimitseahpah” by Nancy Etchemendy

I found this story by perusing past winners of the Bram Stoker Award, the preeminent award for horror writing. Hoping to include it in this list, I decided to skim it even though it was 2 a.m. and I had already vowed to quit working for the night. I ended up closely reading the entire thing, hunched over my computer on my bed, with the hair on my neck standing straight up. It could be that I was just really tired, but this story creeped me out. There’s a specific scene where Etchemendy describes a mine accident that made me reach over and turn on the light. Set in the gold mining towns of the old American west, this story uses the regional history to build a tale around local legend. The main character is a miner’s wife who is struggling with depression after a miscarriage. It probably doesn’t help that soon after her illness she inadvertently discovers the gates to Hell. On a picnic no less! Thankfully, there’s someone protecting her from the surrounding evils. Or something.

Read it here.

Books

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The classic gothic horror story that helped kickstart science fiction. Numerous film adaptations, good and bad, have been made since it was first published in 1818. But the original book is still the only version to really explore Dr. Frankenstein, his god complex, and the complicated psyche of his monster.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Building on the popular whodunnit mysteries at the time, Christie delivered a masterpiece with this detective story. Eight strangers, one murderer, all trapped together on an island. Christie takes took this simple concept and turned it into one of the best suspense novels of all time.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Yet again, Jackson creates a staple for the horror genre. So many modern haunted house movies can be traced back to this book. It follows fur people living in a haunted house for a summer on the behest of a supernatural investigator, who wants to prove the existence of ghosts. Because that’s always a good idea.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Hey! It’s that scary movie starring Harry Potter! It’s also a novella and a popular English stage play. The eponymous “woman in black” haunts a small town, where it is believed her sightings foretell the death of a small child. Although it was written in 1983, Hill adopted the style of the classic Gothic novel, because Mary Shelley doesn’t get to have all the fun.

Jamaica Inn or The Apple Tree by Daphne du Maurier

Both are regarded as some of du Maurier’s best forays into the horror genre. In Jamaica Inn, a group of sailors wreck and murder ship crews across the Cornish coast. The Apple Tree is a collection of short stories that includes the familiar classic, “The Birds”. Both were adapted into films by Alfred Hitchcock.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Our own editor Joanna Demkiewicz admits to having nightmares after reading this thriller. Flynn rose the ranks of horror writing, and popular fiction in general, with her smash hit Gone Girl. But before that, she wrote this equally unsettling account of brutal murders in a small town.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Gillian Flynn gave generous praise to this fantastical story when it was released in 2013. Although Beukes is South African, she chose to set her novel in Chicago after a brief stint of living there. She then chose to write a story about a time traveling serial killer. And everyone loved it.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

The only nonfiction book I picked, Stiff is a well-researched account of what happens to cadavers after the whole death and burial spiel. Roach pairs her graphic descriptions with tremendous insight and relevant information. While it might not scare you–Roach’s irreverent commentary is more likely to illicit a laugh than a scream–it’s just morbid enough to make the list.

The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton

Memory: I’m in the third grade, sitting at my desk, head craned to see the teacher, butt on the edge of the seat. It’s the after lunch read-aloud time, and it’s the day we’ve set to finish The House of Dies Drear. Outside, a storm lashes rain against the window as our teacher raises her voice above the thunder. Nearly bellowing, she delivers the climactic end of the popular children’s ghost story. I still remember every single word of that chapter. And it still scares me.

Wait Til Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

Just like House of Dies Drear, the creeping horror of Hahn’s ghost story still strikes a chord in many adults. The combination of a murderous spirit and a troubled child never bodes well, and this story surely frighten you at some point or another. Great for reading under the covers with a flashlight or aloud at a sleepover.

Once again, don’t forget our #allhallowsread contest! Tell us your favorite scary story in the comments below to enter to win a copy of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Happy Halloween!

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Paige Pritchard is the managing editor of The Riveter. Follow her on Twitter at @peapodpritchard.