A Few of My Favorite October Stories

(A version of this post appeared in The Faerie Review in 2022)

‘Tis the season for ghosts and goblins, misty graveyards, and haunted houses. When long summer days are overtaken by autumn darkness there’s nothing like curling up with a good October story, so in honor of Halloween month, here are a few of my favorites:

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

No one writes October stories quite like Ray Bradbury. The celebrated fantasy and horror author famously loved Halloween month, a fondness he indulged in books like The Halloween Tree, The October Country, and my personal favorite, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Reading Bradbury’s dark fantasy about a sinister traveling carnival spreading evil in a small Illinois town is like falling into a dream. The story is told in prose that’s more like poetry, rich with the warm hues of autumn and a deep hypnotic dread.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Written like a classic Victorian ghost story, this Gothic tale embraces requisite tropes of the genre: an isolated house shrouded in fog and ruin, a mysterious figure lurking in a graveyard, phantom cries that can only be heard at night. Wrapped in a Christmas memory, the story does take a while to warm up, but once the haunting begins it pulls you along in a slow luxury of terror. A perfect October read.

“Children of the Corn” by Stephen King (from short story collection Night Shift)

The 1984 movie adaptation of Stephen King’s classic October story was a favorite of mine as a teenager. I loved it so much, when my high school sweetheart said he had family in the little town of Salix, Iowa, where part of the movie was filmed, I immediately suggested a road trip. Unlike the film, the short story is bereft of sentiment and does not end well for our main characters. This version is as much a grim portrayal of a failing marriage and the cruelties we become capable of inflicting on those with whom we’ve fallen out of love as a story of supernatural evil.

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

This absolute gem of a young adult novel is set in winter but is 100% an October story. Suma, with her hazy, languid prose, skillfully weaves a tapestry of missing teenage girls whose stories haunt the main character, Lauren, in ghostly visions and terrible dreams. Lauren becomes further estranged from her real-life relationships as she’s pulled deeper into the psychic mysteries of these lost girls. A mesmerizing story with a shock of an ending that somehow works.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” Ah, what better first line to lure a reader into the sublime gothic nightmare that is Rebecca? Fraught with mystery and dread, this slow burn of a novel settles into your bones like the chill of autumn itself. The isolation and fear that Daphne du Maurier creates for her unnamed protagonist, and the bleak, ominous atmosphere of the estate of Manderley where she is haunted, combine to grip the reader in a dark and gloomy embrace. Pure October horror.

Enjoy the season, everyone, and happy reading!