Top 10 spookiest haunted house novels

Lisa Zhuang is an intern at Electric Literature. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Emory University and currently resides in mid-Missouri.

At Electric Lit she tagged ten of the creepiest haunted house novels, including:

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

An homage to Henry James’ 1898 The Turn of the Screw, Ruth Ware’s The Turn of the Key kicks off with a nanny’s letter from prison arguing her innocence in a child’s death. It all begins when said nanny signs up for a too-good-to-be-true job at refurbished Victorian smart home, where she gets paid an excessive salary for taking care of three seemingly angelic children and a baby. However, as the days wear on, the smart home begins acting up, playing music at odd hours of the night, and the children—particularly trouble child Maddie—prove to have disturbing agendas of their own. Though modern in setting, the novel’s gothic heritage evokes a familiar spook, complete with creaky floorboards, poisonous gardens, and creepy children that earn it a spot on our top ten list.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Turn of the Key is among Jason Rekulak's six creepy novels involving childcare.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrilling reads that blend folklore & horror

Allison Epstein earned her MFA in fiction from Northwestern University and a BA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. A Michigan native, she now lives in Chicago, where she works as an editor. When not writing, she enjoys good theater, bad puns, and fancy jackets.

She is the author of historical novels including A Tip for the Hangman, the newly released Let the Dead Bury the Dead, and the forthcoming Our Rotten Hearts.

[My Book, The Movie: A Tip for the Hangman; The Page 69 Test: A Tip for the Hangman; Q&A with Allison Epstein; My Book, The Movie: Let the Dead Bury the Dead; The Page 69 Test: Let the Dead Bury the Dead; Writers Read: Allison Epstein]

At CrimeReads Epstein tagged six of her "favorite books that delve deep into folklore for their twists and turns, with truly terrifying results." One title on the list:

The Witch of Tin Mountain, by Paulette Kennedy

This dual-timeline historical thriller features one of my favorite horror tropes: the rural town has a suave new preacher, and the narrator does not trust him. The book opens in 1931 with Gracelynn Doherty, a woman who provides healing magic and small spells to her Depression-era Arkansas town. But the arrival of the new preacher sends Gracelynn’s grandmother into terror-stricken illness. Because Granny has seen this smooth-talking holy man before, and surely he should have aged by now… Haunting, atmospheric, and fast-paced, this is ideal October reading.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five mothers in SFF who are dynamic, multi-dimensional characters

Lilith Saintcrow was born in New Mexico, fell in love with writing during second grade, and has continued obsessively ever since. She currently resides in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her children, dogs, cat, and a library for wayward texts.

Her new novel is The Salt-Black Tree.

At Tor.com Saintcrow tagged five of her favorite "books in which mothers are allowed to be whole human beings." One title on the list:

Karrakaz — The Birthgrave Trilogy by Tanith Lee

It’s no secret I’m a huge Tanith Lee fan. The gorgeous prose and arresting images are only part of the fascination; Lee’s work never shied away from shark-filled psychological depths. In the Birthgrave trilogy, Karrakaz is never reduced to “just a mother”, even in the last two books when the product of her unwilling union with an absolutely horrid, controlling psychopath of a conqueror is ostensibly the protagonist. Not only that, but Tathra—the woman Karrakaz leaves her infant son with for a variety of reasons—is a whole person as well, never degraded into the “saintly mother” trope even if she is clearly thrilled to be a mother.

Karrakaz starts from literal nothing, makes her way in a world where nearly everyone she meets wants to kill or control her, and her heroine’s journey is both classic and groundbreaking. She also wields a mean bow, carries powers beyond human imagining, and finally reaches self-understanding with the help of a psychic spaceship.

Lee did not have to go so hard as an author, but she always did. I like to think Karrakaz takes a page out of her creator’s sheer stubbornness.

The entire trilogy is laden with examinations of trauma, misogyny, women wresting bodily autonomy and agency wherever they can, and the cost of power both political and personal. Through it all, Karrakaz is a driving force even when she’s not present, and her choice to opt out of motherhood is explored unflinchingly.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five historical mysteries featuring unforgettable, unconventional women

Ritu Mukerji was born in Kolkata, India, and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. From a young age, she has been an avid reader of mysteries, from Golden Age crime fiction to police procedurals and the novels of PD James and Ruth Rendell. She received a BA in history from Columbia University and a medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She completed residency training at the University of California, Davis and has been a practicing internist for fifteen years. She lives in Marin County, California, with her husband and three children.

At CrimeReads Mukerji tagged five historical mysteries that "feature an unforgettable heroine who challenges societal expectations with verve. And each showcases a setting, be it a physical place or historical period, that is so evocative it is like a character itself." One title on the list:

An Incomplete Revenge, Jacqueline Winspear

Maisie is a private investigator and psychologist in post WWI London, with an intriguing past. As a young servant, her gifts are recognized by her employer and she attends Cambridge. Her studies are interrupted by the advent of war and it is her searing experience as a volunteer nurse that forges her character. As the series progresses through the inter-war years and on to WWII, it is Maisie’s compassion and intelligence that draw the reader back every time. This novel is one of my favorites: it set in rural Kent during the hop picking harvest. An old friend asks Maisie to investigate a series of mysterious fires and petty crimes. As always, there is a well-plotted story, highlighting a fascinating aspect of history.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels for "Something Is Killing the Children" fans

Tobias Carroll is the managing editor of Vol.1 Brooklyn. He is the author of the short story collection Transitory and the novel Reel.

At Tor.com he writes:

There’s a lot to like about the comic book series Something Is Killing the Children, beginning with its ominously-named protagonist Erica Slaughter and proceeding from there. The series—written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera—follows Erica, part of a secret society of monster hunters, as she deals with terrifying eldritch beings around the country. A Hollywood Reporter article published earlier this year called it “one of the biggest titles not published by DC or Marvel”—and announced that a Netflix adaptation is in the works.

Carroll tagged five novels in which "you may find monsters of mysterious origin and secret societies abounding with internal tensions—or some combination of both." One title on the list:

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez

I’ve raved about this book in this space before, and I’m going to do it again here. Our Share of Night has plenty going on—including allusions to a host of real-life atrocities that took place in Argentina in the second half of the 20th century. But Enríquez adds another element to that—a cult-like secret society that utilizes people with psychic abilities to give themselves power. The power dynamics both within and surrounding this group propel much of the tension of this novel, which begins with a father and a son on the run from the group that seeks to use both of them for its own ends.

Of the Order—the secretive organization in this novel—Enríquez said in an interview, “They are related to power in general, so whatever the politics are, they are near them. They are transnational, let’s say.” That power allows for a kind of omnipresence, but it also creates a fraught power dynamic—one that makes for gripping reading.

Read about the other entries on the list at Tor.com.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 allegories

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, from where he hosts their weekly podcast. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016, and was chosen by The Guardian as a Fiction Pick for 2016 and was a book of the year for The Observer, The Irish Times, The Millions and 3:AM Magazine. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian.

At the Guardian Biles tagged ten of his favorite "allegories, from classics that defined the form (and our view of the world), to surreal and unsettling parables and contemporary masterpieces." One title on the list:

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

This Pulitzer-winning novel manages the near-impossible feat of combining a stark and powerful allegory with realistic characters that the reader takes to heart. Beginning with the premise that the Underground Railroad was literally that, a subterranean network of trains that spirited enslaved people to freedom, the story follows Cora, one such escapee, through “different states of America”, as Whitehead described them when I interviewed him in 2017. That evening he also spoke about the importance of striking the delicate balance between allegorising and historical reality: “Before I started deforming reality, I wanted to get it straight, to testify for my family members who went through it 100 years ago, and for other slaves. I wanted to get it straight before changing things around.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Underground Railroad is among Andrew Ridker's seven novels that defined the Obama era, Andrea Wulf's top ten books about unlikely revolutionaries, Chris Mooney's six intelligent, page-turning, genre-bending classics, Rachel Eve Moulton's top ten literary thrillers, Nathan Englander’s ten desert island books, Greg Mitchell's top ten escapes in literature, and President Obama's summer 2016 reading list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books featuring home invasions

Nolan Cubero is a writer and director originally from Louisville, Kentucky. He studied linguistics at Brooklyn College and is currently a law student at UCLA School of Law. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.

Shadow Drive is his first novel.

At CrimeReads Cubero tagged seven "books that feature home invasions, but not necessarily just the kind where people break in and threaten your life, but also the kind where they sneakily intrude into your home and then slowly make you question everything." One title on the list:

The Personal Assistant by Kimberly Belle

Even though Kimberly Belle’s previous novel, My Darling Husband, is actually about a home invasion, I find The Personal Assistant to be a more terrifying look into what could happen when someone you don’t really know comes into your home. In My Darling Husband, a masked intruder is threatening to ruin the main character’s life, but in The Personal Assistant, it’s someone the main character Alex has personally invited into the home. Even though Alex’s personal assistant isn’t wearing a mask, she feels somehow more elusive, more mysterious. And because Alex gave her personal assistant full access to her home and life, she was also given the potential to completely ruin Alex’s life. And it’s those two things that really make home invasions scary: the mystery surrounding the intruder’s desires and their almost unlimited potential to ruin your life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sixteen new books by Indigenous authors

Eliza Browning is an intern at Electric Literature.

She tagged sixteen top "new works by and about Native North American writers," including:

Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie

Syd Walker is an archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who protects Rhode Island’s indigenous past after escaping her hometown in rural Oklahoma. Haunted by a long-ago night of violence, Syd’s sister Emma Lou suddenly vanishes just as a skull is discovered near the former crime scene. Syd finally returns home, refusing to let her sister’s disappearance be ignored like the cases of so many missing Indigenous women. The deeper she digs, the more she discovers about cases of missing Indigenous women going back decades, forcing her to expose the darkness at the heart of the town’s history.

Read about the other entries at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten super scary books

Jeff Somers is the author of Writing Without Rules, the Avery Cates series, The Ustari Cycle, Lifers, and Chum (among many other books) and numerous short stories.

In 2016 at B&N Reads he tagged ten creepy Halloween books to get you in the Halloween spirit, including:

White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi

This complex, sensational modern classic of horror layers on several themes and narrative voices—including, unusually for a story that’s in part about a haunted house; the house itself. When a house declares it can only be as good as the people who inhabit it, you know you’re in for a dark ride. Twin sisters Miranda (who suffers from a compulsion to eat non-edible things) and Eliot come to the house in an unhappy way—and the story will absorb you, and scare the pants off of you.

Read about the other entries on the list.

White is for Witching is among Soraya Palmer's seven top ghost stories by Black women writers and Daisy Johnson's seven best scary books of recent years.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top demon & possession novels

Jennifer McMahon is the New York Times Bestselling author of twelve suspense novels including The Winter People and Promise Not To Tell.

[The Page 69 Test: Promise Not to Tell; The Page 69 Test: Island of Lost Girls; The Page 69 Test: Dismantled; The Page 69 Test: The One I Left Behind]

She's written about ghosts, serial killers, shape shifting monsters, an evil fairy king, a kidnapping rabbit, a terrifying swimming pool, and more.

McMahon's newest novel is My Darling Girl.

At CrimeReads she tagged nine favorite demon and possession novels, including:

The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper

Professor David Ulman is an authority on demonic literature—his area of expertise is Paradise Lost. But he’s a non-believer. At least until a trip to Venice where he sees impossible and horrific things, including his beloved daughter Tess falling from the roof of the hotel into the Grand Canal after whispering, “Find me.” Is Tess really dead? Or has she been captured by a demon, and it’s now up to David, with all his extensive knowledge, to find her and rescue her. This is every parent’s worst nightmare amped up to the max, because this isn’t just any abductor we’re talking about here—this is a demon! This is a smart, page-turning thriller that will have you believing, too.

The Demonologist is among Luke Dumas's eight top novels about the devil.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books featuring an unlikely alliance with a ghost

Courtney Smyth (they/them) is a chronically ill writer of stories, both long and short, from Dublin, currently living in the West of Ireland. They have had a number of short stories published in Paper Lanterns Literary Journal, and appeared in The Last Five Minutes of a Storm anthology. They have been writing about ghosts, demons and murders since they were ten and have no plans to stop.

Smyth's debut adult fantasy murder mystery is The Undetectables.

At Tor.com they tagged five books featuring an unlikely alliance with a ghost, including:

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

Listen, if I was the ghost of a problematic billionaire who then had a vampire real estate agent come in and try to sell the house I was murdered in from underneath me, I too would be both furious and dramatic about it. Tom Parker (THE FOURTH!) just wants to know why he died, and he certainly doesn’t want anyone living in his house. With Tom’s repeated attempts to thwart Viola Marek (the aforementioned vampire), she hires medium (and godson of Death) Fox D’Mora to help her get rid of Tom. I mean, help him move on to the afterlife. But when demons, a few angels, and a godling turn up, it soon becomes clear that much bigger things are at play, forcing Tom to decide whose side he’s actually on. And also, why do all the Tom Parkers in his family die such a horrible death?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five must-read books for dog lovers

At the Amazon Book Review Seira Wilson tagged "five books celebrating wacky, wonderful dogs and the human-canine bond that is unlike any other," including:

Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro

I’m not going to lie, you may need a box of tissues nearby for this one, but it’s so worth it…. Piglet is the story of how a tiny blind, deaf, pink puppy was rescued by a veterinarian and her family and how this very special member of their household became an inspiration to thousands via social media. Piglet’s journey from his emergency rescue from a hoarder home to the happy little dog with an infectious enthusiasm for life that he is today, demonstrates the healing power of love, empathy, and kindness.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Miriam Parker indisputably best dogs in (contemporary) literature, Lorna Wallace's eleven best dogs in post-apocalyptic books and films, Clive D.L. Wynne's five best books on how dogs love people, Vanessa Armstrong's five SFF books with dogs as key characters, Claudia Dey's six favorite instances of dogs in literature, Brian Boone's six best fictional dogs, Cliff McNish's top ten dogs in children's books, Ben Frederick's eleven essential books for dog lovers, Alice-Azania Jarvis's reading list on dogs, and Jill Ciment's ten top dog stories.

--Marshal Zeringue