13 horror books experts say will actually scare you

Book Club

Local authors, booksellers, and librarians share the terrifying reads they can’t forget.

With the countdown to Halloween ticking down, we asked Boston’s horror experts — from best-selling author Paul Tremblay to Boston Public Library staff — to share the books that truly terrified them. Their picks around the world and explore themes of classism, transphobia, and revolution, but every one of them delivers the kind of horror imagery and unsettling plot points that will make you shiver long after you’ve turned the last page.

Our five horror experts include New York Times best-selling local author Paul Tremblay, known for “A Head Full of Ghosts,” “The Cabin at the End of the World,” and “Horror Movie: A Novel”; and Gary Goshgarian, Northeastern University Professor Emeritus of English who taught horror fiction for 40 years and wrote nine novels under the pen name Gary Braver, including “Elixir,” “Choose Me,” and “Flashback.” We also tapped Ryan Clark, the “Queen of Scream” and horror bookseller at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire, along with Boston Public Library horror enthusiasts Kris Luca, a generalist librarian at the Brighton branch, and Jay Colbert, the library’s special projects cataloger.

“Penguin Books just reissued three of the most important and influential books of the 1980s and it includes a new foreword from Grady Hendrix. When I first read these game-changing stories they were a revelation. Filled with soaring imagination and horrifying (yet beautiful) grotesqueries, Barker’s stories have never been more important nor more prescient. This reissue includes the sublime “In the Hills, the Cities,” (if you want to read me talk more about this story go to Den of Geek) a story that I wouldn’t dare try to summarize for fear of ruining the beautifully terrifying experience. You’ll be a different person after you read it, which is what the best horror stories do.” – Paul Tremblay

“A delightfully gruesome slasher set at a wellness retreat. This novel is as gory as it is funny. If you’re a fan of the Scream franchise, do yourself a favor and pick this one up immediately. McAuley does not disappoint.” – Ryan Clark

“[It’s] not only the most famous vampire story ever written but is an outstanding piece of writing. Although not the first vampire tale written, the novel established all the now familiar vampiric elements—the Count’s need for blood, female victims becoming Dracula’s vampire brides, his transmogrification into bats and wolves, his apocalyptic mission to take over the human race, and the only weapons are Christian symbols, etc. But the book also dramatizes his misogynistic disdain for the ‘The New Women’—females who opposed subjugation to male Victorian norms.” – Gary Goshgarian

“If your favorite rock star invited you to his definitely-not-a-cult artist’s commune to fulfill your dream of writing and recording an album, wouldn’t you go? Of course you would. You might even ignore the glaring red flags, the missing people, the screaming horses, and the drug induced nightmares. After all, you’re living the dream…right?” – Ryan Clark

“I devoured this book, where the real estate market is cutthroat and every coveted house comes with a ghost. Linghun asks what we give to grief, and what does grief give us in return?” – Kris Luca

“John is one of my favorite writers and he never fails to deliver deep dread while reinventing genre tropes and literary modes. John pulls apart tropes and familiar characters from film and literature, Frankenstein Monster’s them together to shows you why you are still afraid and will always be afraid. The title novella to the collection is the closest thing to a found footage film in book form. It’s strange, smart, obsessive, and so damned creepy.” – Paul Tremblay

“From another one of my favorite writers, this novel is her towering achievement. Spanning the decades before and after Argentina’s dirty war, the story focuses on a medium who attempts to prevent a generationally wealthy family from exploiting his son in their brutal quest to achieve immortality. An epic in every sense of the word, it’s relentless, and filled with truly dread-inducing, shocking moments. I’ve already read this book three times and recently got a tattoo of the book cover on my tricep. Did I mention that I like this book?”- Paul Tremblay

“One of his best. Brilliantly dramatizes the mental demise of a medical doctor who refuses to accept the death of his child and who yields to a dark power to bring him back from the dead.” – Gary Goshgarian

“The only thing the world loves more than a beautiful, strong woman is her downfall. ‘Play Nice’ is a brilliant and vibrant take on the classic haunted house novel. It pulses neon, it bleeds black, it pokes at bruises and reopens old wounds. It examines the way we perceive women, especially when they say things we don’t want to believe or act differently than we want them to. This is Rachel Harrison’s best, scariest, most fun book yet, and it’s going to stick with me for a long time.” – Ryan Clark

“Set in Boston and centered on a Kennedyesque politician who will do anything to save his daughter from terminal cancer including making a Faustian Bargain with the devil himself.” – Gary Goshgarian

“This is an (explicitly) queer reimagining of the voyage of the Demeter from Dracula. Dracula is one of my all-time favorite books and stories in general, and the passage on the Demeter has got to be some of the scariest fiction ever printed. This reimagining wrestles with feelings of having shame over ones queerness, how it can make us feel like worse than monsters.” – Jay Colbert

“A must-read for Southern Gothic fans! Sandeen wonderfully illustrates the crushing atmosphere of the Duchon family home, and layers of secrets keep the suspense high and the pages turning.” – Kris Luca

“This book made me uncomfortable because of what it made me enjoy. It’s an examination of violence and what counts as violence, in the context of violent state repression.” – Jay Colbert