5 Halloween Stories to Read

Here at This Is Horror we have put together a list of recommended spooky reads that will send a shiver down your spine on All Hallows’ Eve. Please bear in mind, we take no responsibility for the terror induced by our recommendations!

The ‘Pine Deep Trilogy’ – Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man’s Song and Bad Moon Rising – by Jonathan Maberry, encapsulates the whole feeling of Halloween in rural America, combined with a deep horror mythos and the twining of music and cultural tropes into the psyche of the average superstitious ‘everyman’. A great battle between good and evil ensues which reads as both a coming-of-age story and a small town chronicle of bad choices and unalterable events.

Although not set at Halloween, The Ritual by Adam Nevill is a visceral and terrifying trek through the darkest of Swedish woods and the darkest of pagan beliefs. Featuring some of Nevill’s darkest imagery The Ritual will make any reader think twice about stepping outside on Halloween night.

‘Pumpkin Night’ by Gary McMahon is one of the finest short stories on offer actually set on Halloween. It was featured in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 and touches upon everything that makes Halloween special. This offbeat tale has a grotesque finish that will leave the reader thinking about it long into November…

‘The Pennine Tower Restaurant’ by Simon Kurt Unsworth is a short story featured in Unsworth’s collection Lost Places and is the most chilling story that he has produced. He takes something completely innocuous, a motorway service station, and turns it into one of the most terrifying settings for a horror story in recent times.

The Faceless by Simon Bestwick is a layered and intelligent horror story featuring excellent characterisation and an authentic Northern English town as a setting. The Spindly Men who stalk the misty streets of Kempforth are truly terrifying, and the thought of them walking the streets of your town on Halloween would truly chill the blood.

DAN HOWARTH