10 Ghost Stories to Get You in a Spooky Mood

A fantastic blend of Scooby-doo and H.P. Lovecraft, Meddling Kids taps into our childhood memories and gives us what we’ve been waiting for: a grown-up detective club story with science, magic, and, of course, ghosts. In the summer of 1977, The Blyton Summer Detective Club solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster. After that, the club disbanded, and they never saw each other again. So where are they now? Andy, the rugged tomboy, is a wanted criminal on the run. Kid genius Kerri is bartending in New York, has a serious drinking problem, and a cute pup. And Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental asylums. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock who became a hot-shot movie star. There’s just a slight problem. You see, Peter’s been dead for years.

Now a major motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe, this classic ghost story thriller is sure to send chills down your spine. It follows Arthur Kipps, a thriving London solicitor, who is sent to a small town to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. After his arrival, Arthur begins to witness mysterious sounds and images—a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child’s scream in the fog, and, of course, a woman dressed all in black. Nothing could have prepared Arthur for the horrors hidden within the house walls, and as long-buried secrets unfold, he realizes he may never be able to escape

Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 supernatural thriller largely influenced the horror genre, and is now being adapted as a Netflix series. It is the story of a paranormal research team that arrives at the notorious Hill House: Dr. Montague, a professor looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his easygoing assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman who claims to be acquainted with ghosts, and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. Told from Eleanor’s point of view, the book follows her experiences with the supernatural. It’s not long before she discovers the House’s true intentions: to make one of them its own, forever.

Ever seen something you can’t explain? Doubtful of the paranormal? If so, this meticulously researched book is just right for you. As an expert in strange creatures and folklore, Linda S. Godfrey has offered reporting on bigfoots, werewolves, strange energy forms, and other beings for years. Godfrey will capture the attention of even the most skeptical with her scientific approach to the supernatural. Within these pages, you will encounter testimonies of man-to-beast transformations, lizard people, a ghostly invader, wolfmen, and more. Prepare yourself to be shocked by Godfrey’s unbelievable findings in the world around us.

Jack Torrance, reformed alcoholic and struggling writer, is hoping that his new job as the off-season caretaker at the Overlook Hotel will be the fresh start he needs. When the harsh winter weather sets in, strange things start happening in the hotel, and Danny, Jack’s “gifted” son, is the first to realize what’s really going on around him. The hotel feeds on the evils committed on its grounds, and it wants Danny to join its crew of ghostly inhabitants. To do that, it needs to get to Jack first. As Jack is driven into madness, his wife and Danny become increasingly terrified of what he might do.

Colin Dickey embarks on a journey across the United States to shed light on certain parts of our nation’s history that have been repressed – the haunted parts. Dickey visits some of the most haunted places in America, including mansions, prisons, and even burial grounds, to evoke memories from the past our collective nation often sweeps beneath the carpet. Dickey’s curiosity knows no bounds, and in this book, he seeks to answer questions about the relationship between the living and the dead through truth and reasoning – questions that everyone else is too afraid to ask.

In life, not every sin goes unpunished. Four men find themselves terrorized by terrible, realistic nightmares in Peter Straub’s classic bestseller. When horrible things start happening in the small town of Milburn, four members of the Chowder Society—a ghost-story-telling club—are convinced that an old mistake has come back to haunt them. You see, fifty years ago, they were involved in a terrible accident that resulted in the death of a young girl. Now, she’s back, and she wants revenge.

Haunted houses hold a place of honor in the realm of the supernatural. In this collection of real-life spirit-laden structures “Lore” podcast host Aaron Mahnke takes readers around the world on a tour of some of the most haunted landmarks out there.

The quest to uncover and expose the supernatural is quite possibly as interesting as the lore itself. In this technologically advanced day and age, that quest is more interesting and less, well, hokey than ever, as Peter Bebergal demonstrates in his walk through the history of supernatural exploration. As the boundaries of the physical world are forever being tested and toed, so too are the tools that examine them.

For those who like their chills fast-moving but long-lasting, here’s a collection that spans scripture, the Reformation, Scandinavia and more. The Penguin Book of the Undead highlights some of the most chilling tales of all time and proves in one compact package the long tail of supernatural storytelling.