Halloween Reading Roundup 2025
The Six Weeks of Halloween may appear to be a movie watching exercise, but all is not what it appears: the Halloween season is filled with other nominally spooky activities like hayrides, haunted houses (and haunted dining establishments and haunted mini-golf and haunted bonfires/cookouts, you get the picture), pumpkin mutilation carving ceremonies, and of course, lots of Halloween Reading. This year’s selections have a mix of old and new, classic and… not so classic (and everything inbetween).
Halloween Reading Roundup 2025
Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley – I first read this novel when i was in eighth grade, and I remember being struck by the science fictional aspects of the story (imagine that, a young me interested in science fiction, will wonders never cease). Reading this again, er, a few decades later, and it’s almost comical how large those two pages loom in my mind. I kept scanning back and forward to see if I had missed something, but no, the sequence where Victor observes the decay of a dead body and has a conceptual breakthrough that would lead to the creation of life is indeed only a few pages. I don’t want to start a holy war here, but I guess there’s a reason this is generally classified under horror rather than science fiction. For the record, I’d say this novel (amongst other Gothic fiction) plays an important role in the evolution of Science Fiction, but claims that Mary Shelley invented Science Fiction are perhaps a little overblown.
The other holy war often associated with this book is which character represents the “real monster.” The To my mind, there’s plenty of blame to go around, which is one of the many subtle brilliances of the novel. The whole point of the novel is that the line between humanity and monster (or “wretch” or “dæmon” as the novel refers to the creature) is blurry. Victor (or even society at large) is almost as much of a villain as his creation. I say almost because his sins represent more of a moral failure than the creature, who commits several horrific acts of wanton violence. Both engender sympathy though, which is part of the genius of the novel.
Not to steer too far back into movie territory, but when you look at Guillermo del Toro’s recent adaptation, he diverges significantly from the book by portraying the monster as an almost pure innocent. Yes, he is unnaturally powerful and commits many acts of violence, but always in self-defense. Victor thus becomes the “true monster” of the film. The film is slick, impeccably produced, with amazing production design that is gorgeous to look at, and the actors all give great performances, but the choice to portray the monster as a true innocent robs the source material of its power.
All of which is to say that this book is a classic for a reason, and absolutely worth reading (or re-reading) if you haven’t done so. Even beyond the petty internet arguments about influence or who the real monster is, it’s just a great story, well written and thrilling. The novel casts a long shadow, as evidenced by the fact that there are at least two major film adaptations out now or coming soon (the aforementioned del Toro, as well as the forthcoming The Bride), and it was a great Halloween season reread.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson – The other classic novel I picked up this year, i had never read this before, but of course I had picked up the story through general cultural osmosis. It’s not unlike Frankenstein in that way, and this books casts almost as big of a shadow. The themes about the duality of man and the primal, repressed enemy within are key elements in entire sub-genres, most notably the modern Werewolf story, almost all of which can be traced back to this (rather than pure legend or folklore).
While perhaps not quite as popular as Frankenstein or Dracula (which I read last year), I was struck by the common DNA across all three. For instance, they all use an uncommon framing device for telling the tale. Dracula, of course, is epistolary in nature, but both Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde are stories recounted by one character to another. I don’t quite know why, but theres something important about this aspect of these three cornerstones of Horror relying on these unusual literary devices. Of course, there’s also thematic similarities, particularly with respect to the ethics of science. It carves its own path through identity and addiction as well, but these three novels make for interesting reading in close proximity.
As with Treasure Island, which I also caught up with last year, Robert Louis Stevenson seems to have a knack for establishing archetypes. I only read this story this year, but I should really tackle some of the short stories that were included in the edition I bought. Jekyll and Hyde is quite short (about 150 pages) and another quick read that’s worth catching up with for anyone even remotely interested in horror.
Theories of International Politics and Zombies, by Daniel W. Drezner – Inspired by epidemiologists who had done a paper about zombie outbreaks that went viral in the early days of social media, Political Science professor Daniel Drezner applied the concept to theories of international politics in a blog post, more or less as a joke. Naturally, he found that students were able to cotton to various ideas better if explained using zombies as an example. So he expanded the concept into book form, which has now been updated a few times to keep up with the times – notably including some thoughts on how these theories played out during Covid, and they pretty much do parallel how the public would have responded to a zombie outbreak. People would at first trust the powers that be, but as time goes on, things get weird. People start to develop conspiracy theories or deny it’s a problem at all, and even if we succeed in holding back the zombie hoards, people will start campaigning for zombie rights or aping zombie fashions.
Despite how this sounds, Drezner approaches the topic earnestly and seriously, which is why it’s often quite funny. There are some outright jokes, of course, but most of the humor just comes from logically playing out the consequences of various theories (for example, he includes “A 2×2 Table, as Required in All Political Science Research” which is pretty funny by itself, but all 4 values in the table are the same, which is hilarious). I’m not a foreign policy expert or anything, but he seems to cover the full gamut of international political theories ranging from Realpolitik all the way to Supergendered Politics and beyond. His movie and television references mostly hew to the highest profile examples like the Romero flicks, 28 Days Later, and The Walking Dead, but he does pull from some deeper cuts as well, like Juan of the Dead or Pontypool (book and movie) or Santa Clarita Diet. The only real blind spot seems to be Italian zombie flicks, which are certainly numerous, but then again, I don’t know how much insight can actually be gleaned from Lucio Fulci (I’ve tried! It’s not easy!) He also covers zombie books, an area I’m not super familiar with, but he does actually makes me want to read World War Z now, which is saying something. One last humorous Easter egg: the Index of the book is useful for tracking down thoughts on specific zombie movies (uh, which is the purpose of an Index, I know, but…), but nestled in there is a listing for “Bad zombie puns 1-143” (the meat of the book is 143 pages long).
A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny – Why had no one informed me of this until recently? It’s a perfect Halloween season read that is told from the perspective of Jack the Ripper’s dog. Yes, you read that right. Jack the Ripper’s dog, Snuff, is the narrator of this novel. The story also features an impressive monster mash, including werewolves, witches, Lovecraftian Old Ones, Dracula, and even Sherlock Holmes makes an appearance. Of course, most of these are oblique references (for instance, Dracula is generally referred to as The Count, rather than by name), but we primarily get to know them all via their famliars (for example, Dracula’s familiar is a Bat named “Nuts”). All of these characters are engaged in a great struggle whereby one faction seeks to open a portal to Lovecraftian Old Ones (thus remaking earth into an unspeakable hellscape or some such thing), and the other faction seeks to keep the portal closed. The familiars all sneak about, attempting to discern which characters will be allies and which will be foes in the great game.
Put simply, this is a delight and I had this almost perpetual grin while reading it. The familiars are all quite endearing, even when their masters wind up being enemies, they play the great game with honor. The references are all fun to suss out, and there’s more than mentioned here (for instance, the book’s title comes from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe). It’s not exactly hiigh art, but it’s fantastic, and an absolutely perfect Halloween season read. Highly recommended that you check this out if you haven’t read it.
Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove – Another monster mash told from an unconventional perspective, this is set in the far future where the spaceship Demeter continually runs afoul of various monsterfolk who keep murdering the passengers during interstellar travel. Naturally, given the name of the ship, the first and most prominent attacker is Dracula, and naturally the ship’s AI seeks revenge. Along the way, it’s also attacked by a werewolf (which is affected by any moon, not just Earth’s moon), Lovecraftian fish men, and others, while gaining unexpected support from a mummy, a different werewolf, and Frankenstein. Demeter’s AI and its medical AI must team up with its allies to find and destroy Dracula before Demeter can be decommissioned by the corporation who owns it (and is presumably fed up with losing crews and passengers).
It’s a neat idea, putting the monster mash in spaaaace, but Truelove’s science fictional elements are mostly just window dressing and don’t really stand up to scrutiny. But that is one of the challenges in mixing Science Fiction and Horror. Often the story will veer one way or the other, and balance is difficult to achieve. This one skews pretty heavily towards a sorta YA horror perspective, which is all well and good, but i kept hoping for more. This might be unfair, and the book has quickly generated fans (it’s a finalist in the Goodreads awards this year, for instance), but I ultimately found it a bit disappointing, even if I managed to have fun with the monster mash elements.
Between Two Fires, by Christopher Buehlman – A disgraced knight shepherds a young, innocent girl across France during the Black Plague. Along the way, they must contend with sea monsters, demons, and least we forget, other human beings, paranoid and desparate due to the plague’s ravages. The little girl claims the plague is just one part of a larger battle between good and evil, heaven and hell, angels and demons. The knight has lost all hope and faith, but maybe this little girl holds the key to a brighter future.
This is quite well done, and though it leans heavily towards grimdark fantasy tropes, it has some nice horror elements as well. That being said, the horror, while vivid and imaginative, seems to only be there because the author likes certain imagery or cool monsters, and not due to a natural outgrowth of the story. For instance, the book relies heavily on surreal dream sequences for its scares, and that sort of thing rarely works well for me.
It’s an episodic story, though it does hold together fairly well as a cohesive whole. Its unflinching look at violence an desperation during a seeming apocalypse is well done, though not exactly fun to read. It’s one of those things where I think you need to be on it wavelength in order to really get a lot out of it.
I like it just fine, but I was a little baffled by the ecstatic praise i kept seeing for the novel. Then I learned that this was an early BookTok sensation, which I guess explains some things. Not for the faint of heart, and certainly far from the best book in this post, but I think this might hit hard for a certain type of reader. Alas, I’m not sure that reader is me.
Clown in a Cornfield, by Adam Cesare – After watching the movie earlier in the 6WH and enjoying it quite a bit more than the conventional wisdom would have it, I took a flier on the audiobook. There are plenty of differences to note, most notably the sense of humor that the movie brings to the story (which to my mind is an improvement over the book), but the book doesn’t quite fall into the culture war trappings as much as the movie (which is a point in the book’s favor). The other thing worth noting here is that there’s a key inciting incident that opens the book, but is only referenced offhand in the movie, and that seems like an odd choice. Neither the book nor the movie are masterpieces, but they’re both pretty good for different reasons and in different ways, making this one of the few books that is rivaled by its adaptation. Apparently there are several sequels to this book, which I will likely seek out in the coming years (especially since it doesn’t seem likely that the movie will get a sequel), which I suppose represents something of an endorsement.
The Terror, by Dan Simmons – A fictionalized retelling of Franklin’s lost expedition, a doomed attempt to find the Northwest Passage by two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. Stuck in arctic ice for two years, the men must face the endless freezing cold, depleted or spoiled rations, a dwindling supply of coal, scurvy, and eventually mutiny and cannibalism. Oh, and there’s this thing on the ice that is killing the men. A monster of some kind. There’s also that.
Simmons is an interesting author, one of the rare few who is comfortable operating in both Science Fiction and Horror genres. Here he is is clearly focused on the latter, and he’s also evoking historical fiction, not to mention a certain salty sea dog energy. His science fiction side comes out a bit when digressing on the pragmatic realities of the challenges our sailors face, including detailed explorations of survival, like how they are going to stretch their rations for another year, or why said rations are spoiling in an unexpected way. These digressions and info-dumps might turn some folks off, and Simmons does have something of a longwinded style, such that you do feel the long length of the novel, but he has an undeniable knack for generating tension when he wants to, and he can do so via several avenues ranging from mundane survival details (particularly with respect to surviving in extreme cold), to mutinous tensions, to several encounters with the monstrous thing on the ice.
Its a long book, so the digressions and numerous flashbacks do muck with the pacing a bit, and I must admit to finding some stretches a bit of a slog, but it does eventually get to some more interesting, fantastical places later in the novel. For some, that may be too little too late, but I was pleasantly surprised. I was kinda assuming that thing on the ice would anticlimactically turn out to just be an abnormally large polar bear, but it’s got a more interesting origin than that (whether it’s a satisfying origin is another thing, but it worked well enough for me). Of course, this is a famously doomed expedition, so it’s not exactly a crowd pleasing story, but I found myself liking it more than other Simmons that I’ve read in the past. I may have to check out more in the future. While I’m not quite as hot on this as a lot of other readers (this is another book with rapturous reviews, though at least this time I can see where they’re coming from, even if I didn’t get there fully myself), I ultimately wound up enjoying the book.
The Wine-Dark Sea, by Robert Aickman – I only discovered Aickman a few years ago, but was so enamored with that first short story collection that I went out and bought this one immediately. That I’m only getting to it now is more a feature of a rather long book queue than anything else, but I’m really glad I jumped back aboard the Aickman train again this year. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Aickman bristled at the “horror” label and preferred to call his stories “strange tales.” Most of the time, I’d consider this sort of thing to be a pointless distinction, but these stories really do capture something ineffable and, yes, strange. I generally come away from these stories a bit flummoxed, but in the best way possible. It’s hard to shake these sorts of stories, and its difficult to describe why. Any plot descriptions would make them sound ordinary, but they most definitely are not that.
I have not quite finished this collection yet, but I’m quite enjoying it. Compared to Dark Entries, this collection is considerably longer, mostly because each story is longer. They’re still short stories though, and they fit with the season quite well. I’d recommend starting with Dark Entries if you’re looking for something a little unusual next Halloween season, but in my experience thus far, you can’t go wrong with Aickman.
So there you have it: Six Weeks of Halloween, 9 books read (or listened too, I’m a cheater). This represents the close of this year’s festivities, a little later than usual (apologies, my Sundays have been busier than usual of late). Expect posting to be spotty through the holiday season, but I will likely get going again for the traditional Movie Awards in January/February…