Top Halloween Reads 👻 8 Contemporary Thriller Books to Read this October

The month of October has come to be synonymous with spooky vibes -and consequently reads. Of course, Halloween is the main culprit in this case. However, I can't miss this opportunity to talk about and promote some of my favourite thriller books. The list below includes literary thrillers, action-packed books, gothic stories etc. So, if you need some October book recommendations, keep reading!

Gothic 🏡

 

1. The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (2016)

A family has been visiting the same shrine, located in a grim coastal town called Loney, for years in the hope that their mute child, Hanny, will be cured. During their last trip to Loney, Hanny gets accidentally involved in the business of some dangerous people. His younger brother will be there to rescue him as always. Or, at least, he will try. 

2. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009)

In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, its owners -mother, son and daughter- struggling to keep pace. 

But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how disturbingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. 

3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (2006)

Sent to investigate the disappearance of two little girls Camille finds herself reluctantly installed in the family mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and a precocious thirteen-year-old half-sister she barely knows. Haunted by a family tragedy, troubled by the disquieting grip her young sister has on the town, Camille struggles with a familiar need to be accepted. 

But as clues turn into dead ends Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims and realises: she will have to unravel the puzzle of her own past if she's to survive this homecoming. 

4. The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock (2011)

We follow a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s . There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

NOTE: At first I would categorise the last two books as thrillers or crime fiction, but then I came across the term Southern Gothic, and I changed my mind. 

Thriller 🗡

5. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter (2015)

Claire and Lydia haven't seen each other since their oldest sister, Julia, went missing. Twenty-four years later, they meet again after the murder of Claire's husband, Paul. The two estranged sisters will investigate the origin of some horrifically disturbing video files Paul left behind. Their search will lead them to the discovery of truths about their own family that might be too much to handle. 

NOTE: Click here for the trigger warnings and my opinion on this book. 

Weird Horror 😲

6. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (2016)

A woman goes on a road trip with her new boyfriend to his parent's farm in the middle of nowhere. When the two take an unexpected detour in a snowstorm, she is left wondering if there is any escape... 

7. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (2018)

As a child, Natsuki believed she was an alien, a different species to her earthling family and classmates. She hoped a spaceship would come down and take her home. Now, she lives quietly in an asexual marriage, pretending to be normal. 

But the buried horrors of Natsuki's past are pursuing her. As she flees the suburbs for the Nagano mountains and a reunion with her beloved cousin Yuu, she wonders, what will it take to escape the earthlings? 

Literary Fiction ✍

8. Can You Hear Me? by Elena Varvello (2016)

1978 in a small community in Northern Italy. Elia Furenti is sixteen years old, living an unremarkable life, until he meets Anna who propels him to adulthood. The situation at home doesn't really help; Elia's father is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind. 

At the same time a young boy is murdered. And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods... 

💀

And these are all my October recommendations. What is your top spooky read for this month?