My list of the best Halloween books
Oct. 29th, 2011 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kestrellThis list is going up on Green Man Review later, but I wanted to get it out in case anyone is looking for some Halloween books to read on what should be a cold and stormy New England night. At the end is a short list of free audiobooks.
Here is my list of the best Halloween stories ever. My requirements were that the story be set on Halloween or, alternatively, at harvest time, and that the story be worth rereading numerous times.
1. _The Halloween Tree_ by Ray Bradbury (1972)
Ray Bradbury is widely considered to be the master of Halloween stories, and has been writing stories set on or around Halloween since his story "Homecoming" was published in 1946. Since then, Bradbury has created a literal host of characters which he refers to as "the autumn people." Although many readers might recommend the more nostalgic _Something Wicked This Way Comes_ (1962) or the more horrofic "The October Game" (1948), I consider _The Halloween Tree_ to be the perfect Halloween book. Not only is the story set on Halloween, but it offers an overview of Halloween traditions through the centuries. Most of all, however, this book is the perfect blend of childhood wonder and shivery spookiness, all wrapped up in Bradbury's exquisite poetic prose, making it a wonderful read aloud book, whether the setting is a children's party or a get-togethre with friends.
2. _The Best Halloween Ever_ by Barbara Robinson (2004)
Another great read-aloud book, this one is more funny than creepy and more obviously aimed at kids. It features the Herdmans, a family of juvenile delingquents who are the terror of Woodrow Wilson School. When the adults decide to cancel trick or treating in favor of an entirely safe, planned school event, it looks like this will be the worst Halloween ever, but the Herdmans have other ideas...
3. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving (1820)
I've previously written at length about this story
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_irving_sleepyhollow.html
I still reread this story every Halloween, and particularly enjoy Irving's descriptions of the landscape, which itself provides so much of the character and atmosphere of this story.
4. _Fire and Hemlock_ by Diana Wynne Jones (1975)
This is my favorite Diana Wynne Jones book and, like _Tam Lin_ by Pamela Dean (1991), it is based upon the Child Ballad of "Tam Lin"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_Lin
which is also set on Halloween and features a young woman determined to rescue her lover from the Queen of Elfland.
5. _Lavender Green Magic_ by Andre Norton (1977)
Another fantasy book based upon an old folk song, _Lavender-Green Magic_ is about Holly, a young black girl who moves with her family to a small Massachusetts town and discovers a way into a magical labyrinth. This book is a pure delight which manages to weave togethre a wonderful fantasy story, a serious theme, and even some recipes at the back for the budding, as it were, herbalist.
6. _The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy_ by Penelope Lively (1971)
Twelve year old Lucy has returned to the small English town of Hagworthy after a five year absence, but discovers that the children with whom she used to play have changed, most of all Kester, who is treated as a misfit by the rest of the town. When the vicar decides to stage a performance of an old harvest ritual, Kester and the other boys involved in the ritual begin to act strangely, and only Lucy perceives the danger to Kester.
Readers who have enjoyed Alan Garner's _The Owl Service_ (1967)
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_garner_owlservice.html
may wish to pick up this book, as it evokes the same eerie, mysterious sense of myth being reenacted in a modern setting.
7. "October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman (2006)
Originally included in Gaiman's collection, _Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders_, Gaiman dedicated this story to Ray Bradbury, and it is a very worthy homage, as Gaiman captures the essence of autumn and the spirit of Halloween tales.
8. _A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centurie_ by Lisa Morton (McFarland & Company, 2008)
For those readers who are intrigued by the folkloric and early literary roots of Halloween, this anthology is a delight. It includes stories such as Sir Walter Scott's version of the Tam Lin ballad, Robert Burns's poem "Halloween," along with such nonfiction writings as Sir James G. Frazer's "The Hallowe'en Fires" from The Golden Bough.
9. _Pork Pie Hat_ by Peter Straub (1999)
The title character of this novella is a jazz musician who is being interviewed by a graduate student on a Halloween night in New York City and, during the interview, the musician tells the interviewer about an incident which happened to him forty years before, on another Halloween night in Mississippi, an incident which still haunts him.
_Pork Pie Hat_ combines Halloween, sorrow, fear, and jazz in a perfect harmony, each element of the story illuminating the others. In addition, Pork Pie Hat offers one of the best explanations of Halloween to be found in literature: "Most people will tell you growing up means you stop believing in Halloween things--I'm telling you the reverse. You start to grow up when you understand that the stuff that scares you is part of the air you breathe."
If you want to find a copy of _Pork Pie Hat_, Cemetery Dance Publications came out with a hardcover in 2010, but the story is also anthologized in both of the collections listed in the next item of this list.
10. _Halloween_ edited by Paula Guran (2011)
Prime Books recently published this wonderful anthology of stories set on Halloween. It not only includes Peter Straub's novella _Pork Pie Hat_, but other modern horror classics such as "Conversations in a Dead Language" by Thomas Ligotti, "Three Doors" by Norman Partridge, "Hornets" by Al Sarrantonio, and H. P. Lovecraft's "Halloween in a Suburb," among many others. The paper version of this collection also includes Ray Bradbury's _The Halloween Tree_ although, for copyright reasons, the story is not included in the ebook version.
Another collection of stories set on Halloween is
_October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween_ edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish (Cemetery Dance 2000, Roc 2002).
This collection includes fiction stories by such writers as Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark, and Dean Koontz, along with nonfiction writings by many horror writers regarding their favorite Halloween memories, which range from the spooky to the hysterically funny (such as Tom Piccirilli's story about wandering around the historic Stanley Hotel, made famous as the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's The Shining, with his dog, the Amazing Criswell).
This amazing collection also includes an Overview of Halloween Films by Gary A. Braunbeck and the "Reader's Guide to Halloween Fiction" by Stefan Dziemianowicz, which includes titles both classic and obscure.
11. _Black Light_ by Elizabeth Hand (1999)
The epigraph of this book is taken from Arthur Machen's "The White People," one of the influences which helps shape Elizabeth Hand's uncanny landscape of Kamensic, a small village in upstate New York populated by artists and actors. Lit, or Charlotte, is a teenage girl growing up in the late 1970s, impatiently waiting for the day when she can leave her small town in which teenagers seem to have an unusually high mortality rate, until one Halloween, when her infamous godfather, a movie director who seems followed by scandal wherever he goes, returns to throw the ultimate Halloween party...
12. "All Souls" by Edith Wharton (1937)
A mysterious and ambiguous story in which it is not entirely clear that anything supernatural actually occurs, which does not get int heway of this story possessing its own eerie atmosphere. For more ghost stories by Edith Wharton, see _The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton_ (2009).
13. _All Hallows Eve_ by Vivian Vande Velde (2006)
The stories in this book are aimed at a YA audience, and all feature teenagers who become ensnared in supernatural happenings which occur on Halloween. Vande Velde is a master when it comes to writing creepy stories for a younger audience, and she manages to deliver stories which are both smart and shivery.
If these thirteen stories are not enough for you, here are few more offerings which for one reason or another I felt didn't quite make the top thirteen, but are still suitable for the season.
1. "Hallowe’en in a Suburb" by H.P. Lovecraft
YouTube reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suiNydNTzO4
_Halloween and Other Seasons_ by Al Sarrantonio (2008)
Al Sarrantonio has written a number of horror stories set on Halloween, some of which are included in this book which I previously reviewed
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_va_horroromnibus_oct2008.html
but the stories are more gory than the rest of the stories included in the list above.
"All Hollows" by Walter de La Mare
It may not take place on Halloween, but it could have, and it certainly fits the mood.
BBC production narrated by Richard E. Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFVh7fjGaMg
"The Man Whom the Trees Loved" by Algernon Blackwood
Something about the way in which the trees in this story are portrayed as both sinister and capable of sentience seems to evoke trees in autumn
Project Gutenberg etext
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11377
LibriVox audiobook
http://librivox.org/the-man-whom-the-trees-loved-by-algernon-blackwood/
Here is my list of the best Halloween stories ever. My requirements were that the story be set on Halloween or, alternatively, at harvest time, and that the story be worth rereading numerous times.
1. _The Halloween Tree_ by Ray Bradbury (1972)
Ray Bradbury is widely considered to be the master of Halloween stories, and has been writing stories set on or around Halloween since his story "Homecoming" was published in 1946. Since then, Bradbury has created a literal host of characters which he refers to as "the autumn people." Although many readers might recommend the more nostalgic _Something Wicked This Way Comes_ (1962) or the more horrofic "The October Game" (1948), I consider _The Halloween Tree_ to be the perfect Halloween book. Not only is the story set on Halloween, but it offers an overview of Halloween traditions through the centuries. Most of all, however, this book is the perfect blend of childhood wonder and shivery spookiness, all wrapped up in Bradbury's exquisite poetic prose, making it a wonderful read aloud book, whether the setting is a children's party or a get-togethre with friends.
2. _The Best Halloween Ever_ by Barbara Robinson (2004)
Another great read-aloud book, this one is more funny than creepy and more obviously aimed at kids. It features the Herdmans, a family of juvenile delingquents who are the terror of Woodrow Wilson School. When the adults decide to cancel trick or treating in favor of an entirely safe, planned school event, it looks like this will be the worst Halloween ever, but the Herdmans have other ideas...
3. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving (1820)
I've previously written at length about this story
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_irving_sleepyhollow.html
I still reread this story every Halloween, and particularly enjoy Irving's descriptions of the landscape, which itself provides so much of the character and atmosphere of this story.
4. _Fire and Hemlock_ by Diana Wynne Jones (1975)
This is my favorite Diana Wynne Jones book and, like _Tam Lin_ by Pamela Dean (1991), it is based upon the Child Ballad of "Tam Lin"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_Lin
which is also set on Halloween and features a young woman determined to rescue her lover from the Queen of Elfland.
5. _Lavender Green Magic_ by Andre Norton (1977)
Another fantasy book based upon an old folk song, _Lavender-Green Magic_ is about Holly, a young black girl who moves with her family to a small Massachusetts town and discovers a way into a magical labyrinth. This book is a pure delight which manages to weave togethre a wonderful fantasy story, a serious theme, and even some recipes at the back for the budding, as it were, herbalist.
6. _The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy_ by Penelope Lively (1971)
Twelve year old Lucy has returned to the small English town of Hagworthy after a five year absence, but discovers that the children with whom she used to play have changed, most of all Kester, who is treated as a misfit by the rest of the town. When the vicar decides to stage a performance of an old harvest ritual, Kester and the other boys involved in the ritual begin to act strangely, and only Lucy perceives the danger to Kester.
Readers who have enjoyed Alan Garner's _The Owl Service_ (1967)
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_garner_owlservice.html
may wish to pick up this book, as it evokes the same eerie, mysterious sense of myth being reenacted in a modern setting.
7. "October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman (2006)
Originally included in Gaiman's collection, _Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders_, Gaiman dedicated this story to Ray Bradbury, and it is a very worthy homage, as Gaiman captures the essence of autumn and the spirit of Halloween tales.
8. _A Hallowe'en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centurie_ by Lisa Morton (McFarland & Company, 2008)
For those readers who are intrigued by the folkloric and early literary roots of Halloween, this anthology is a delight. It includes stories such as Sir Walter Scott's version of the Tam Lin ballad, Robert Burns's poem "Halloween," along with such nonfiction writings as Sir James G. Frazer's "The Hallowe'en Fires" from The Golden Bough.
9. _Pork Pie Hat_ by Peter Straub (1999)
The title character of this novella is a jazz musician who is being interviewed by a graduate student on a Halloween night in New York City and, during the interview, the musician tells the interviewer about an incident which happened to him forty years before, on another Halloween night in Mississippi, an incident which still haunts him.
_Pork Pie Hat_ combines Halloween, sorrow, fear, and jazz in a perfect harmony, each element of the story illuminating the others. In addition, Pork Pie Hat offers one of the best explanations of Halloween to be found in literature: "Most people will tell you growing up means you stop believing in Halloween things--I'm telling you the reverse. You start to grow up when you understand that the stuff that scares you is part of the air you breathe."
If you want to find a copy of _Pork Pie Hat_, Cemetery Dance Publications came out with a hardcover in 2010, but the story is also anthologized in both of the collections listed in the next item of this list.
10. _Halloween_ edited by Paula Guran (2011)
Prime Books recently published this wonderful anthology of stories set on Halloween. It not only includes Peter Straub's novella _Pork Pie Hat_, but other modern horror classics such as "Conversations in a Dead Language" by Thomas Ligotti, "Three Doors" by Norman Partridge, "Hornets" by Al Sarrantonio, and H. P. Lovecraft's "Halloween in a Suburb," among many others. The paper version of this collection also includes Ray Bradbury's _The Halloween Tree_ although, for copyright reasons, the story is not included in the ebook version.
Another collection of stories set on Halloween is
_October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween_ edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish (Cemetery Dance 2000, Roc 2002).
This collection includes fiction stories by such writers as Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark, and Dean Koontz, along with nonfiction writings by many horror writers regarding their favorite Halloween memories, which range from the spooky to the hysterically funny (such as Tom Piccirilli's story about wandering around the historic Stanley Hotel, made famous as the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's The Shining, with his dog, the Amazing Criswell).
This amazing collection also includes an Overview of Halloween Films by Gary A. Braunbeck and the "Reader's Guide to Halloween Fiction" by Stefan Dziemianowicz, which includes titles both classic and obscure.
11. _Black Light_ by Elizabeth Hand (1999)
The epigraph of this book is taken from Arthur Machen's "The White People," one of the influences which helps shape Elizabeth Hand's uncanny landscape of Kamensic, a small village in upstate New York populated by artists and actors. Lit, or Charlotte, is a teenage girl growing up in the late 1970s, impatiently waiting for the day when she can leave her small town in which teenagers seem to have an unusually high mortality rate, until one Halloween, when her infamous godfather, a movie director who seems followed by scandal wherever he goes, returns to throw the ultimate Halloween party...
12. "All Souls" by Edith Wharton (1937)
A mysterious and ambiguous story in which it is not entirely clear that anything supernatural actually occurs, which does not get int heway of this story possessing its own eerie atmosphere. For more ghost stories by Edith Wharton, see _The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton_ (2009).
13. _All Hallows Eve_ by Vivian Vande Velde (2006)
The stories in this book are aimed at a YA audience, and all feature teenagers who become ensnared in supernatural happenings which occur on Halloween. Vande Velde is a master when it comes to writing creepy stories for a younger audience, and she manages to deliver stories which are both smart and shivery.
If these thirteen stories are not enough for you, here are few more offerings which for one reason or another I felt didn't quite make the top thirteen, but are still suitable for the season.
1. "Hallowe’en in a Suburb" by H.P. Lovecraft
YouTube reading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suiNydNTzO4
_Halloween and Other Seasons_ by Al Sarrantonio (2008)
Al Sarrantonio has written a number of horror stories set on Halloween, some of which are included in this book which I previously reviewed
http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_va_horroromnibus_oct2008.html
but the stories are more gory than the rest of the stories included in the list above.
"All Hollows" by Walter de La Mare
It may not take place on Halloween, but it could have, and it certainly fits the mood.
BBC production narrated by Richard E. Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFVh7fjGaMg
"The Man Whom the Trees Loved" by Algernon Blackwood
Something about the way in which the trees in this story are portrayed as both sinister and capable of sentience seems to evoke trees in autumn
Project Gutenberg etext
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11377
LibriVox audiobook
http://librivox.org/the-man-whom-the-trees-loved-by-algernon-blackwood/
