Halloween Reading: Traci Thomas Lists 30 Horror Books
The Stacks host shares a curated list of fiction, anthologies, and true crime titles for the upcoming holiday.
By Madison Lewis ·
Traci Thomas, the host and creator of The Stacks, has released a list of horror book recommendations for readers heading into the Halloween weekend. The selections span fiction, horror anthologies, and nonfiction. Thomas aims to provide options that will get a reader's blood racing.
The fiction section of the list includes titles from well-known authors and international translators. Stephen King is represented by Carrie. Toni Morrison appears with Beloved. Shirley Jackson is included via The Haunting of Hill House. Other entries on this list are Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, and Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. The list also features Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, and The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. Additional fiction picks include Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Lone Women by Victor LaValle, and The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee. Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby and Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie round out the individual novel and short story recommendations. The list concludes with Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, and Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant.
Thomas also recommends three horror anthologies for group reading or variety. Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. edited Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology and its sequel, Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II. Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams edited Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror. Cynthia Pelayo edited Something Followed Us Home: Tales of Latiné Horror.
The nonfiction portion of the list focuses on true crime and historical tragedies. Lizzie Johnson wrote Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire. Ben Wickey authored More Weight: A Salem Story. Wright Thompson documented The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. Philip Gourevitch compiled We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry wrote Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders.
Daniel James Brown's The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party is another entry on the nonfiction list. Heather Ann Thompson wrote Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. Iris Chang is included with The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Richard Lloyd Parry's People Who Eat Darkness: Murder, Grief and a Journey into Japan's Shadows completes the nonfiction recommendations.
The article was originally published on WBUR.org. Thomas provided the list as a guide for readers seeking specific types of fear and tension before the holiday.
