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4 Spooky Reads You Can Still Finish by Halloween
Unlocked for all readers, courtesy of Inside Hotels!
I am, and always have been, a terrible procrastinator. In school, I was the queen of writing entire essays the night before they were due, and even now, I often need the pressure of a fast-approaching deadline to get things done. I’m also very much a mood reader, and if I emotionally decide the window for a read is over, it’s over. (These are not my best traits!)
Unfortunately, these two tendencies are a particularly bad combination when it comes to seasonal reading. Look, it’s easy to decide on a random Saturday in December to make some hot chocolate and dedicate two hours to watching a Hallmark Christmas movie with your friends. It’s less easy to commit an entire week to a fluffy Christmas novel, particularly if, like me, you’re a slower reader with a towering TBR. Reading is simply a more sustained commitment for most of us.
If any of this sounds familiar, you might find yourself in the same pickle I’m in right now: wanting to read something Halloween-y but worrying you’ve run out of time. Well, I’m here to tell you that you absolutely haven’t! In fact, you still have time to squeeze in something spooky that also happens to be a bona fide classic.
Today, I’m sharing four short Halloween reads that have become cultural touchstones. Even if you’ve never read them, I’m willing to bet you’ve heard of them, and you might be surprised by just how short they actually are.
So go ahead, light a candle, pour a hot drink, and settle in for some last-minute—yet timeless—scares.
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4 Spooky Reads You Can Still Finish by Halloween
About 20 minutes:
“The Monkey’s Paw”
by W.W. Jacobs
If you saw this year’s breakout horror movie, Obsession, you’re already familiar with the concept of “mysterious object grants your wish, but oh my god, no, not like that!!!” First published in 1902, this short story by W.W. Jacobs is the blueprint for the very specific horror trope that takes the adage “be careful what you wish for” to its most chilling extreme.
Here, an ordinary family comes into possession of a magical, mummified monkey’s paw (ew) that is said to grant three wishes. Thinking, “Hey, what could be the harm?” the father uses it to wish for some money, and…well, it’s a short story, so just go ahead and read it. Not only is this story absolutely unforgettable, but it’s also a masterclass in why what we don’t see is often far more terrifying than what we do.
About an hour:
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
by Washington Irving
Given how major a figure the Headless Horseman has become in American folklore (and New England tourism), you’d probably expect this to be a big ol’ story. Nope! It’s only around 30–40 pages, depending on the edition. In fact, I bet if you wanted to, you could read the whole thing in between trick-or-treaters.
Set in the 1790s in, you guessed it, Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving’s famous ghost story follows Ichabod Crane, a schoolteacher who hopes to marry a wealthy farmer’s daughter. But between a romantic rival determined to scare him off and a local legend about a terrifying Headless Horseman, Ichabod is in for a frightful courtship.
A couple of hours:
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Here’s another larger-than-life tale that seems like it would be a tome but is actually a novella! It’s longer than the first two picks, so plan accordingly, but trust me, it’s worth it to finally acquaint yourself with this timeless tale of a doctor whose reckless experiments with human nature unleash his sinister alter ego.
In my mind, there are three major camps of horror: eldritch, supernatural, and scientific. This one falls firmly into the “science gone wrong” category, which just so happens to be my favorite. If you love reading about what happens when humans try to play god, or what lurks beneath the surface of even the most civilized man, block off an afternoon sometime in the next two days and get your Hyde on.
A day:
The Halloween Tree
by Ray Bradbury
Okay, okay, this is a full-length novel, but it’s a kid’s book! And even by novel standards, it’s pretty short.
Ray Bradbury is one of my personal GOATs, and I really struggled to decide which of his works to include here. Ultimately, The Halloween Tree won because, come on, what could be more perfect for this list than a fantastical journey through the history of Halloween and the worldwide traditions that shaped it, all told through the adventures of a group of kids searching for their missing friend? No one conjures the haunting, unsettling insinuation of magic quite like Bradbury, and you’ll never regret spending time in his company.
Bonus:
Hallowe’en Party
by Agatha Christie
Surprise, here’s one more! If you’re a faster reader than I am, you might even have time to squeeze in a full-length novel, like Agatha Christie’s fast-paced, Halloween-themed Hercule Poirot mystery. As the title suggests, it all begins at a Halloween party, where a thirteen-year-old girl is found dead in the bobbing-for-apples tub. Enter Poirot, who must figure out who killed her and whether her earlier claim to have witnessed a murder had anything to do with it.
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Genevieve Nierman, Resident bookworm @ Pix Media
Genevieve Nierman is an editor, writer, and interviewer with over a decade of experience in books and publishing, including roles at Little, Brown and Company and Alfred A. Knopf. She is currently Senior Books Content Manager at Pix Media, where she runs the flagship newsletter Book Pix. She lives in New York City with her orange cat, Oscar, and an ever-growing stack of books.
Currently reading: Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li
