13 Halloween Reads

Get into the mood for Halloween with 13 spooky, supernatural and spine-tingling stories. Both old favourites and new discoveries are included this list of some of our favourite scary books for dark and stormy nights.

Long Lankin

by Lindsey Barraclough

Bodley Head Children's Books

The isolated All Hallows church holds great terrors for Cora and Mimi and their new friends. Here the ghosts of children slain by Long Lankin appear. And now he's coming for Mimi...

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White Cat

by Holly Black

Gollancz

Cassel Sharpe doesn't know who to trust - his mother is in prison; his grandfather is a black-fingered death-dealer and his brothers plan to use him to commit a murder.

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The Diviners

by Libba Bray

Atom

In this lively and atmospheric tale of 1920s New York, party girl Evie finds herself investigating a sinister string of occult murders.

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Scarlett Dedd

by Cathy Brett

Hodder Headline

Scarlett is dead. Which sucks. She's stupidly gone and accidentally killed herself while trying to get out of a school trip.

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Hollow Pike

by James Dawson

Indigo

Lis London had hoped that a move to the country would allow her to escape not only the bullies but also her recurring nightmares

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Zombies Don't Cry

by Rusty Fischer

Electric Monkey

Being a teenager is hard enough when you’re alive but imagine the extra problems faced when you’re a teenage zombie!

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Ghost Knight

by Cornelia Funke

Orion Children's Books

At his new boarding school in Salisbury, Jon finds himself contronted by a terrifying and vengeful gang of ghosts that no one else can see.

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The Graveyard Book

by Neil Gaiman

Bloomsbury

Bod sometimes goes beyond the graveyard into the world of the living – and here his life is under threat from the man Jack, who has sought him since he was a baby.

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Constable & Toop

by Gareth P Jones

Hot Key Books

A Victorian funeral parlour is the setting for this exciting mystery that blends comedy with the dark, spooky and supernatural.

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Mortlock

by Jon Mayhew

Bloomsbury

Orphaned twins Josie and Alfie, separated as babies, rediscover each other and set out on a quest for the truth of their past in this Victorian horror story.

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Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror

by Chris Priestley

Bloomsbury Children's Books

These spine-tingling stories-within-a-story are the stuff of childhood nightmares, with a good smattering of ghosts, demons, blood and gore.

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The Raven Boys

by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic

Popular author Maggie Stiefvater is in top form in what is arguably her most complex and ambitious book to date, and the first in a magical new series.

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Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron

by Jonathan Strahan

Hot Key Books

What makes a witch? Despite the title, the stories in this imaginative collection suggest you might need more than just a pointy hat or a broomstick.

Read about 'Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron'