Six Books to Read, If You Dare

Halloween is just around the corner and dares to scare you. Check out these six tales of horror, both classic and contemporary. All have been adapted into films so you can watch and read and double your scare.

Three Gothic Classics

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Before Edward, Lestat, or Eric and Bill there was the man (formerly), the myth, the legend: Dracula. He appears to be quite the congenial host in his castle... at first.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Like the mythical Sphinx, he is a mixture of parts cobbled together into a terrifying whole. Who is the man, and who is the monster?

The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

The true master of horror! Don’t read this alone on a dark night. Sometimes the greatest horror of all is not a mythical monster, but your own self.

Three Contemporary Horror Tales

It by Stephen King

Coulrophobia is the fear of clown, and for many this is the book that started it all! Pennywise is the scariest clown you will ever see! A group of children confronted an evil force in their small town in Maine. They thought they had won, but the murders of small children have begun, and the children, now adults must return to finally defeat their enemy.

Phantoms by Dean Koontz

Librarian’s note: this was one of the first horror titles that I ever read when I was in Junior High. The fact that I still remember some of gory details of the plot all these years later says something.

Dr. Jenny Paige returns home to her small town home and finds things to be quiet, too quiet. All the residents are dead, but the cause of death cannot be seen...

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

Young Regan, living with her actress mother in Washington D.C., is no ordinary little girl. She is possessed by an ancient demon and her fate is in the hands of a small group of determined people.