Last week, I recommended some great books with monsters/creatures at the centre of the story but not everyone is into those kinds of stories so if you’re more of an atmospheric person, check out these books!

Plot: Starling House is odd and ugly and fully of secrets, just like its heir. Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but it might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden, and it feels dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.  But she isn’t the only one interested in the house, or the horrors and wonders that lie beneath it. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it. She’ll have to dig up her family’s dark past and let herself dream of a brighter future. She’ll have to go down, down into Underland, and claw her way back to the light.

Probably my favourite book that I read this October. A really interesting look at the haunted house trope. Definitely, a more lowborn horror where the emphasis is on the atmosphere, the setting, the characters over the jump scares.

Plot: Autumn Albert can see the dead – much to her annoyance. But when her dad dies in mysterious circumstances, he’s the one ghost who doesn’t appear. A curious instruction in his will sends Autumn to Imber, the storm-soaked island of his a place marked by tight-lipped locals, strange stacks of witchstones – and even fewer ghosts. Soon Autumn is ensnared in a dark and twisty mystery, which must be unravelled before the sea rises up and history is doomed to repeat itself …

A kid’s book that had me on the edge of my seat. When I heard that it had strong elements of The Wicker Man I was super intrigued but nervous. The Wicker Man is creepy as hell and I enjoyed seeing those elements creep into this novel. Those last couple of chapters were intense!

Plot: Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business. But the last weekend of the season, Charity’s co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity’s role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend Bezi hope to survive the night, they’ll need figure out what this killer is after. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?

One of my favourite books from my very unsuccessful 30 books in 30 days challenge but this book had all the highs and lows and jump scares that you expect from any good horror book or movie!

Plot: Behind a Broken Smile brings together 21 uncanny stories of the beauty and horror that lie at the heart of everyday life. From the childish pleasure of clowns and dolls, to the simple scent of flowers or the tang of the sea drifting on the breeze, what brings joy to one can bring terror to another. 

I read this short story collection when I was on the jury for the Best Collection category for the British Fantasy Awards. This book was genuinely sooo creepy that loads of the stories followed me around after I had finished the collection!