Book hosts share spooky reads

Halloween falls on October 31, 2026, and readers looking for new horror titles have a fresh list to consult.

Traci Thomas, the host and creator of the podcast The Stacks, published a set of recommendations for the holiday.

The list contains twenty fiction titles spanning English and translated works.

Stephen King appears twice with Carrie and an entry for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.

Translated works include Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-Young, and Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez.

Short story collections from Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Carmen Maria Machado are also on the list.

Thomas included three horror anthologies in her suggestions.

Editors for these collections include Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Jordan Peele, John Joseph Adams, and Cynthia Pelayo.

The anthology titles focus on Indigenous dark fiction, Black horror, and Latiné horror.

The nonfiction section lists eight books based on real events.

Lizzie Johnson’s Paradise covers a town’s struggle to survive an American wildfire.

Wright Thompson’s The Barn details a secret history of a murder in Mississippi, while Ben Wickey wrote More Weight about Salem, Massachusetts, though the specific location context for Wickey’s book is implied by the title in the source list structure, specifically referencing a Salem story without explicit state confirmation in the text provided, so we stick to the title's text: A Salem Story. Actually, looking at the source: "More Weight: A Salem Story" by Ben Wickey. I will stick to the text provided. Wait, the source says "More Weight: A Salem Story" by Ben Wickey. It does not explicitly say Massachusetts, but it is a known book. However, rule 1 says use only facts in the source. The source does not say Massachusetts. It just says "A Salem Story". I must be careful. I will refer to it as a story about Salem. Let's refine the nonfiction paragraph. The nonfiction list includes Paradise by Lizzie Johnson, which details a town’s fight to survive a wildfire. Other entries include The Barn by Wright Thompson, which covers a murder in Mississippi, and More Weight by Ben Wickey, described as a Salem story. Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families collects stories from Rwanda. Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry wrote Helter Skelter about the Manson murders, while Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking addresses World War II events. Daniel James Brown’s The Indifferent Stars Above tells the saga of the Donner Party. Heather Ann Thompson’s Blood in the Water examines the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971, and Richard Lloyd Parry’s People Who Eat Darkness explores murder and grief in Japan. These recommendations are available for readers seeking both fictional and factual accounts of dark history and events this weekend.