Let’s just start this post by saying the answer to the question “which Stephen King book should I read to get into the spirit of Halloween?” is correctly answered by saying; “any of them.” You could probably even read his book On Writing and get in the horror mood. Here’s my personal choices for the ten Stephen King novels you should read for Halloween.
Jack Torrance, his wife Wendy, and their young son Danny move into the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has been hired as the winter caretaker. Cut off from civilization for months, Jack hopes to battle alcoholism and uncontrolled rage while writing a play. Evil forces residing in the Overlook – which has a long and violent history – covet young Danny for his precognitive powers and exploit Jack’s weaknesses to try to claim the boy.
Horror Level: Spookiest for those who fear isolation, madness, and ghosts.
Children of the Corn (Contained in the Novel Night Shift)
Burt and Vicky are traveling through Nebraska on their way to California on a vacation meant to save their failing marriage. After being involved in an accident in which they run over a young boy who ran into the road, they take the body to Gaitlin, a small isolated community nearby. The story centers on their encounters with the strange citizens of Gaitlin and the entity they call “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.”
Horror Level: Most unsettling for those who fear strangers, getting lost, fanaticism, and creepy children.
In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of 13, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.
Horror Level: For those who love a good psychological thriller with a twist so frightening I genuinely had trouble sleeping.
The first collection of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago.
“Riding the Bullet,” is the story of Alan Parker, who’s hitchhiking to see his dying mother but takes the wrong ride, farther than he ever intended. In “Lunch at the Gotham Café,” a sparring couple’s contentious lunch turns very, very bloody when the maître d’ gets out of sorts. “1408,” the audio story in print for the first time, is about a successful writer whose specialty is “Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards” or “Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Houses,” and though Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel doesn’t kill him, he won’t be writing about ghosts anymore. And in “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French,” terror is déjà vu at 16,000 feet.
Whether writing about encounters with the dead, the near dead, or about the mundane dreads of life, from quitting smoking to yard sales, Stephen King is at the top of his form in the fourteen dark tales assembled in Everything’s Eventual. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, they announce the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time.
Horror Level: Perfect for those who want a variety of shorter horror stories. You can read one or more a night as a terrifying countdown to Halloween.
Author Ben Mears returns to ‘Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.
Horror Level: Classic type of scares with vampires, blood and murder in a small town.
The road in front of Dr. Louis Creed’s rural Maine home frequently claims the lives of neighborhood pets. Louis has recently moved from Chicago to Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their children and pet cat. Near their house, local children have created a cemetery for the dogs and cats killed by the steady stream of transports on the busy highway. Deeper in the woods lies another graveyard, an ancient Indian burial ground whose sinister properties Louis discovers when the family cat is killed.
Horror Level: If reanimated animals is your thing, go for this one. Go for this one if reanimated animals is especially NOT your thing for maximum skin crawling.
Billy Halleck commits vehicular homicide when his lack of attention to driving results in the death of an old lady on the street. Overweight Halleck is a lawyer with connections, though, and gets off with a slap on the wrist. After his trial, a gypsy curses him with a single word, “Thinner.” Halleck begins to lose weight uncontrollably and must pursue the band of gypsies who are responsible for his dwindling condition.
Horror Level: If you enjoy watching an awful person get some comeuppance in slow motion, pick up this novel.
Novelist Paul Sheldon has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction. Annie Wilkes, Sheldon’s number one fan, rescues the author from the scene of a car accident. The former nurse takes care of him in her remote house, but becomes irate when she discovers that the author has killed Misery off in his latest book. Annie keeps Sheldon prisoner while forcing him to write a book that brings Misery back to life.
Horror Level: Fantastic for those who enjoy their monsters most when they are in human form. Writers read this one as your worst nightmare.
The Langoliers (From the novel Four Past Midnight)
A group of travelers on a red-eye flight from California to Maine wake up to discover that most of their fellow passengers have vanished mid-flight, along with the pilots and flight attendants.
Horror Level: Readers who love a mystery wrapped-up in an unsettling premise should choose this one. Black Mirror and Twilight Zone fans crack this one open.
A promise made twenty-eight years ago calls seven adults to reunite in Derry, Maine, where as teenagers they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Unsure that their Losers Club had vanquished the creature all those years ago, the seven had vowed to return to Derry if IT should ever reappear. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that summer return as they prepare to do battle with the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers once more.
Horror Level: Ten out of ten on the horror skulls Richter scale, this one has every level of frights imaginable. Famous for a good reason.
Did I miss your favorites? Tell me below!
*please note I did link to affiliate products through Amazon, though I *only* linked to items I have personally purchased. 