Are You a Halloweenie?

I don’t know if it’s a side effect of my profession or something gained with age, but in recent years I have become obsessed with Halloween. I love decorating in black and purple twinkle lights, making Pinterest boards full of costume ideas, and stalking various home and craft stores in July on the haunt (buh-dum-tsch) for early releases of Halloween décor. What don’t I love? Scary things - for I am a Halloweenie. I’m one of those who loves the season but prefers to avoid all things horror. While you’re making displays with Stephen King, Stephen Graham Jones, and Cassandra Khaw, remember us, the scaredy cats, and consider recommending titles like the ones I detail below.

Spook-tacular Halloween Themes

A major element of the Halloween season is the haunted house. I love the idea of a haunted house, but with friendly and/or crime solving ghosts, not the kind with jump scares and gore. Group outings to the local haunted house called something like “Terror Nights” or “Scare Shack”? Hard pass. Pleasant ghost tours of an old manor with a complimentary cup of hot cider? Sign me up! So, if you lean more towards my end of the spectrum, you may enjoy Witches Get Stuff Done, a rom-com with a ghost butler, by author Molly Harper. If romance isn’t your thing, check out Be My Ghost, a cozy mystery series starter by Carol J. Perry, with a bonus doggy side kick. Or maybe you have folks who enjoy creepy and a little spooky without being an utterly terrifying, hide-the-book-in-the-freezer (IYKYK) kind of story, then you may prefer someone like Grady Hendrix, whose squeamish descriptions are balanced with a lot of humor. If you’re looking for the vibes of a dark and stormy night or ghost stories around the campfire, try the atmospheric horror of Darcy Coates, or the gothic historical fantasies Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg.  

Monsters are another major Halloween theme. From vampires and werewolves to cryptids and murderous dolls, there’s something to scare everyone. But what if you’d rather befriend a bloodsucker than run from one? My Roommate Is a Vampire by Jenna Levine is a rom-com where the heroine finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment with a roommate who has a secret. Did a cryptid commit the murder, or was it a man in a monster mask? Find out in Annelise Ryan’s A Monster Hunter Mystery series, starting with A Death in Door County. Or maybe you’ve been wondering what it would be like if Ikea was haunted? Grady Hendrix makes this list again with his 2014 debut, Horrorstor, packaged like an actual retail catalog.  

Cozy mystery authors love Halloween the way Hallmark romance movies love Christmas. From haunted libraries to murder at the apple orchard, a spooky theme can make a cozy mystery even cozier. Many of these tales arrive mid-series, but if you want a Halloween cozy that’s also a series starter, check out Foul Play at the Fair by Shelley Freydont, Caught Dead Handed by Carol J. Perry, or Death Overdue by Allison Brook.

And if you’re thinking, “but I want it all!,” then you need The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth – a humorous fantasy-mystery genre-bender about a group of magic detectives, including a ghost in a cat costume, trying to find a serial killer, featuring witches, trolls, vampires, and more, plus LGBTQIA+, disability, and medical condition representation. Along the same lines, BookTok favorite Olivie Blake is re-releasing Masters of Death – about a vampire realtor trying to sell a haunted mansion who must solve the ghost’s murder with the help of a variety of supernatural beings.

Have fun this Halloween season - and try taking a walk on the mild side!

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For more book display and recommendation ideas, check out the following lists in our Virtual Book Display section of our High Interest Complimentary Lists:  

For more haunted house and monster titles, be they terrifying or tame, check out Haunted Houses and Vampires and Werewolves and Monsters, Oh My!

For more Halloween-themed Cozy Mysteries, check out Cozy and Nosy: Halloween Cozies

For more witch-themed titles, check out Hot Trend Alert: More Witches in Fiction.

And for more exciting horror stories, head back to the High Interest Complimentary lists and select Genre Fiction, where you can find New and Popular Horror and Diverse Horror.