Ghoulish Literary Offerings Just In Time for All Hallow’s Eve

The month of October is the ideal time to catch up on one’s sinister reading material. From the classic cuts to the more contemporary and/or film adapted, the literary offerings in the spooky genre are bountiful. Here’s a few to read under the covers tonight instead of spending your money at a bar and/or strutting the streets like a prostitute.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Before the Brothers Grimm served as the primary source material for most Disney movies, they were whipping up disturbing tales at an enviable rate. Among the titles in this collection are: “The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs,” “The Three Little Men in the Wood” (rife with sexual connotations, yes) and “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids” (again, somewhat sexual, though in a more bestial sense).

The Tell-Tale Heart: The month of October wouldn’t be complete without reading at least one story by Edgar Allan Poe, and if you’re going to choose just one, it should be The Tell-Tale Heart. Exploring the depths of guilt and paranoia as few other stories have, this is among Poe’s true masterworks.

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle always lends his main character, Sherlock Holmes, an abundance of eerie situations in each novel in the series, but The Hound of Baskervilles is unique for its particular emphasis on the macabre. Following Holmes as he investigates a murder allegedly committed by a supernatural hound, this tale is likely to keep you up all night.

The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood may not be known for being a suspenseful author, but the premise of The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian look at the future of women and their sole viability in society as bearer’s of children.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: As Robert Louis Stevenson’s most famous work, this novella is a taut psychological study of the duality within all of us. And yes, it addresses the fact that it’s much easier to give in to the dark side.

American Psycho: Bret Easton Ellis created one of the most horrifying caricatures of American consumerist desire in Patrick Bateman. After you read the book, you should obviously watch the movie so as to feel especially disconnected from reality.

We Need to Talk About Kevin: Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel takes a unique approach to exploring the mindset of a school shooter, Kevin, by telling the story from the perspective of his mother, Eva, who one can only envision as Tilda Swinton.

Dracula: Another classic of the gothic era, Dracula is Bram Stoker’s only work worth reading, and seems more like a warning against having sexual desires than anything else.

The Shining: Although Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick could never see eye to eye on this story (and, indeed, the film is better), this seminal work from the master of the macabre is worth a read.

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre: And, speaking of masters of macabre, this collection of sixteen of H.P. Lovecraft’s most horrifying stories is also a Halloween essential.

Rosemary’s Baby: In addition to proving that you should always listen to your real estate agent when they warn you about a history of murder and witchcraft, Rosemary’s Baby is a lesson in contraception, lest you give birth to the Antichrist.