Spooky reading for the spooky season
One of the best things about the East Coast is the fall. Last November, I made a trip to California and was surprised to find mild weather and a nameless time. There’s a reason it’s called the place where seasons never change, and I realized then and there, I was an East Coast girl through and through.
It’s difficult to imagine a life without the annual fall experience. The rainbow range of autumn leaves. Hot, steaming drinks enjoyed on brisk, cold mornings. The wood-burning smell of evening stoves and bonfires. Perhaps it’s the liveliness, the colors, the change that brings Halloween to life. It’s not just a day; it’s a whole month. The trees get loud, crinkly and strange. The dark becomes a realer presence. And I look forward each year to embracing the mystery with all its pumpkins, twinkly lights and early sunsets.
Part of enjoying the season can come with the right book, and I try to do that with my literature choices. Whether it’s an eerie novel or some short scary stories, there are options for everyone to welcome the fall with their paperbacks.
For those of you who can relate to the season coming and going too fast, here are a few suggestions of scary stories to squeeze in before Thanksgiving comes.
An all-time favorite of mine is “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (Scholastic Inc, 1981, 111 pages). My first encounter with this compilation of spooky folk tales was my childhood. This book was in my father’s collection, tucked away in his special book hutch. Once, my cousin and I snuck under the stair crawlspace in the basement and read it aloud to each other by candlelight. Needless to say, it took me quite some time after that to muster the courage to go downstairs by myself. These stories are old folk tales, passed along and becoming strange legends with a life of their own, outside of the pages and into the schoolground, whispered during recess to friends.
All of these are child friendly and can be enjoyed again by adults through the eyes of the children in their lives. It was a joy to revisit them with my nieces and nephews over a campfire. But fair warning, they will spook more sensitive children. They may also convince your niece that toes will be found in your garden.
Related Items
This must be the place: ‘Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one’
Toltec wisdom resonates in today’s world
Poetry reading at City Lights
Honor our heritage, protect our libraries
Another set of short stories perfect for October is “Edgar Allan Poe” (Doubleday, 1966, 832 pages). This collection includes his well-known poem, “The Raven,” which I love, but also plenty of prose to choose from as well. A couple of my favorite tales from here are “The Cat” and “The Masque of the Red Death.” Poe has a way of writing that’s mystical, eerie and classical. I’m not a fan of horror and I find these to skirt outside that genre while still succeeding in a scare.
For those of you who have no problem reading books and gobble them up like candy in a kid’s Halloween basket, I’d suggest Mary Higgins Clark. I first learned of her in high school and became addicted. She has books anywhere from suspense to thriller to mystery. Even though it strays from the usual supernatural element of Halloween, her works have an intensity and captivation that keep you hooked all the same. “All Around the Town” (Pocket Books, 1993, 341 pages) was one of the first I read and would highly recommend. It throws in mystery, murder and split-personality disorder all together, and you won’t want to put it down.
Another book of hers, “A Cry in the Night,” (Pocket Books, 1993, 352 pages) is perhaps more on the eerie side. This book was so gripping I read it in one sitting. I opened it up one evening, thinking I’d read a few chapters before bed, but found myself still reading it when my dad was getting ready for work at 5 a.m. We were both confused as to what time it was that morning. This book tells the story of a young woman who suddenly is thrown into a beautiful, unexpected romance. But the unexpected turns sinister when she finds her new husband may not be the man who she thought he was.
There’s something about scary stories and mysteries that make me feel like a child again. Curling up on a cool porch with a hot drink, or staying up later than I should to read just one more chapter that becomes five. They reignite wonder, open your eyes to the peculiarity of reality, and pull you headlong into a world of their own.
I love reading all sorts of things. Classics, long histories, nonfiction and even dry essays. It’s good to push yourself and read to learn. But every now and then, I need to pick up a book that’s going to pick me up in return and take a hold of my attention. Spooky stories do exactly that. During a time of year that everything is changing, dying and about to fade away, I feel like the same little girl I once was, up too late and wrapped up in a world far from her own.
(Anna Barren is a teacher and lifelong lover of books. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
