Spooky Reads for Halloween

 

Spooky season has arrived, and you might be in the mood for a book that's a bit darker and more atmospheric. Some days, I crave something witchy, while other days, I'm just looking for a good thriller for Halloween—nothing too terrifying. If you feel the same way, I've got you covered! I've linked the titles to my reviews whenever possible.

 

 1.  Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

2.  The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

 

 

3.  A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

4.  The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

 

5.  Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

6.  A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers

 

 

7.  Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris 

8.  The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe 

 

 

9.  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

10.  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 

 

 

 

11.  Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young

12.  The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

 

 

 

13.  The Guest List by Lucy Foley

14.  Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

 

 

 

 

15. Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

 16. The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

17. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto 

18.  The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

 

 

 

 

19. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

20.  Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

 

 

 

21.  Weyward by Emilia Hart

22. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

 

 

 

 23.  The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish by Paula Brackston

24. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

 

25. Play Nice by Rachel Harrison 

26. The Witches of Bone Hill by Ava Morgyn

 

 

 

 

27. Heartless Hunter by Kristin Ciccarelli

28. The Unknown by Riley Sager

 

 On the TBR:

1. Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

2. The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano

 

 

 

3. The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman 

 4. A Witch's Guide to Magical Inn Keeping by Sangu Mandanna 

 

 

 

 

5. Birth of the Witch by Nora Roberts

6. The Witch by Freida McFadden 

 

 

7. A Time of Witches by Madeline Marine 

 

Shop All Books Here:  

Which of these books are also your favorite reads for Halloween? Do you have any recommendations for me? Let me know in the comments below.  

Book Review: Kiss Slay Replay by Rachel Harrison

Pages: 336

Genre: Adult Fiction/Horror

Pub. Date: September 1, 2026

Publisher: Penguin

Source: Personal Copy

Other Books By Author: Play Nice

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

 

 

Goodreads says, "It’s the picture-perfect wedding. The venue is dreamy, the weather is beautiful, love is in the air—and Willa Sullivan is having a bad time. She’s excited to celebrate her best friends finally having the big wedding they’ve always wanted, but this is the first time she’s seen her ex-fiancé in months, and he brought a date. Everything feels off, like she stumbled into an alternate universe. But things start to look up when Willa meets Danny, the groom’s charming and single childhood best friend. When they sneak off together, their rendezvous is interrupted by a masked killer terrorizing the reception. Willa and Danny fight to save the ones they love and survive the night, but the killer is unrelenting. A final girl, Willa is not.

Or is she? She wakes up and it’s the morning of the wedding. She just had the most intense nightmare of her life. Only as the day unfolds, there are some uncanny coincidences that make her question whether it was really a dream, déjà vu, or something more sinister. After a horrifying turn of events, Willa comes to understand that she’s stuck in a loop of carnage and terror that she must learn how to escape or else suffer a fate worse than death—being an eternal wedding guest.

 

 

Willa lives alone in her apartment in Jersey City. Since she broke up with her fiancé, Ravi, things have been kind of depressing. She has a wedding to go to this weekend in the Hudson Valley along with all of her college friends. This should be a fun time to reconnect, but she is dreading it because Ravi will be there. Once she gets to this remote wedding venue that used to be a summer camp, things are a little strange. One awful thing happens after another, and she and her friends die a horrible death. This is the time loop that Willa finds herself in, and after each death, she wakes up back in her bed in Jersey City. Each new scenario brings a different perspective on her breakup, her friendships, and even herself. Readers will be desperate to know whether Willa will ever escape this time loop and what fresh hell awaits her the next day. Rachel Harrison's Kiss Slay Replay isn't as scary as her haunted house story in Play Nice, but it is a fun take on a time loop novel and spooky enough to keep readers flipping the pages. 

 

Many readers will relate to Willa's anxiety about seeing her ex at the wedding and the tension that comes with managing old friendships on such an emotionally charged occasion. Layer on the suspense of the gruesome fate that repeatedly befalls her and her friends, and the stakes feel even higher. Willa’s desperate attempts to escape the time loop raise urgent questions: Why is this happening? What if she refuses to attend the wedding? Can she change the outcome? Is anyone else trapped with her? These mysteries kept me eagerly turning the pages of Kiss Slay Replay.

 

After a while, due to the repetitive nature, some of the horror hijinks became less scary and a little bit silly. Nonetheless, if you like a spooky read in the fall season, Kiss Slay Replay is a good choice if you want something entertaining without scaring you to the point that you can't sleep! Let me know in the comments if you are a fan of Rachel Harrison and if you have read Kiss Slay Replay or plan to this fall.