Autumn Reading List: Haunted by a House
28 stories where the house is a character in and of itself.
There’s the slightest of chills in the air and new Florence & the Machine music on my Spotify which can only mean one thing – autumn is coming. And with autumn comes the urge to read spooky, unsettling, dark, and gothic books (I personally have that urge all year round but I understand the seasonality of these things).
Over the next several weeks, I’m going to be sharing lots of book recs of my favorite types of spooky autumnal books. Starting today with a trope I truly love – the concept of being haunted by a house.
There are few literary devices I love more than a haunted house. It’s a metaphor for grief! A metaphor for emotional stagnation! A metaphor for an unhappy childhood or marriage! For trauma, for mental illness, for abuse! The very walls are angry with you!
Anyways, without further ado, here are 28 books that I love that feature a haunted house that feels like a character in and of itself.
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1. We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Charlie and Eve are a young queer couple who flip houses, and just scored a killer deal on a beautiful Victorian house in a great neighborhood. One evening, while Eve is at the house alone, she hears a knock at the door. A man is standing on the doorstep with his family – he claims to have lived in the house as a child, and asks if he could maybe show his kids around while they are in the neighborhood. Reluctantly, Eve agrees.
As soon as they step foot in the house, strange things start to occur. The youngest daughter goes missing, a ghost apparition appears in the basement, and Eve starts to notice new features and fixtures of the house that she hadn’t seen before. When Charlie suddenly disappears, Eve starts to lose her grasp on reality, while the house contorts itself into new configurations and the family of strangers make themselves at home.
2. The September House by Carissa Orlando
When Margaret and Hal purchased their dream Victorian home for a shockingly good price (red flag) they couldn’t believe their luck. But once they moved in, it became clear why the asking price was so low. Their home had been the scene of many crimes over the years, including a grisly ax-murder in the 1800s. Ghosts of the former inhabitants roam the house, varying from helpful and friendly to downright terrifying. And every September, leading up to the anniversary of the murder, the hauntings skyrocket in intensity. The walls drip blood, the ghosts are omnipresent, and something very, very wrong is lurking in the basement.
Hal wants to sell the house immediately, but Margaret is steadfast – this is her house now, and she’s not going to let a few former inhabitants ruin that for her. When Hal finally has enough and disappears, Margaret’s daughter comes to stay. They hadn’t told Katherine anything about the hauntings, and her previous visits had been brief enough to hide the house’s more spooky quirks, but now September is halfway over and it’s becoming harder and harder to keep it under wraps…
3. A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Sam is looking forward to spending some time at home with her mother. Sam’s brother had called not long before, saying he was worried about their mom, and asking Sam to check in on her. When Sam arrives at her childhood home in North Carolina, she’s greeted with a shell of her usually vibrant and talkative mom. The walls of their home have been painted a sterile white color, Sam’s mother is jumping at shadows and talking to things only she can see, and Sam finds a jar of what appear to be human teeth buried in the garden. Sam’s ready to get to the bottom of whatever has come over her mother – but some secrets desperately want to stay buried in the family rose bushes.
4. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
This book is a memoir organized in a super creative way. The author tells the story of an abusive relationship using the format of ghost stories and haunted houses. Each chapter tells a different part of their story using different horror tropes, with the dream house as an overlaying structure. It’s innovative, heartbreaking, and very different than the other books on this list, but definitely worth the read.
5. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
This is our first house on the list that isn’t haunted by ghosts, but rather memories and trauma. Camille, a journalist fresh out of a stay at the psych ward, is tasked with returning to her small hometown to cover the shocking murder of two pre-teen girls. Now stuck in her childhood bedroom in her family’s overbearing Victorian mansion, Camille is losing sense of time and place, her grip on sanity wavering as she is forced back in close quarters with her estranged, neurotic mother and the enigmatic and spoiled 13-year-old half-sister she barely knows. You’ve probably already read this or seen the incredible limited series starring Amy Adams, but just in case you haven’t, I would definitely recommend this if you enjoy psychological thrillers and aren’t too squeamish.
6. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
I read this at a very formative age in my AP English class and boy did it stick. If you somehow haven’t been assigned this short story as required reading, it follows a woman who has been confined to her bedroom by her husband following the birth of her child and seems to be suffering from psychosis, claiming that there is another woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper in her room.
7. The Likeness by Tana French
Have I waxed poetic about Tana French here yet? I truly think she’s one of the best living crime writers. Her Dublin Murder Squad series is phenomenal, and this is book #2. The series is loosely connected, so you could read them out of order or on their own and still get the full effect, minus some side character easter eggs. In this particular novel, Cassie, a former undercover narcotics agent turned detective on the murder squad, is called to the scene of a crime – a woman found stabbed to death in an abandoned cottage. What’s striking about this case is that the woman looks almost identical to Cassie, and had been using her former alias as her own. Now Cassie must go undercover once more to discover the truth of what was happening in the crumbling mansion full of enigmatic university students, and what really happened to Alexandra Madison the night she was killed.
8. The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li
The family of a former movie star turned recluse gather at her mansion to hear the reading of her will. Her two daughters expect they will inherit the sprawling California estate where they grew up, but at the last minute, it’s revealed that their mother instead left the house to a long-estranged relative. Both families move into the house in an effort to stake their claim on what they feel is rightfully their inheritance. But it seems like the house has ideas of its own. The sisters are plagued by visions and specters as they attempt to piece together the events of the last few weeks of their mother’s life, and uncover long-buried secrets.
9. The House Where Death Lives Anthology
This is an entire anthology of contemporary short stories that center around haunted houses. What more could you want?
10. This Cursed House by Del Sandeen
Twenty-seven-year-old Jemma is looking to escape her life in 1960s Chicago (and the spirits that follow her around) and is thrilled to be offered a job by a wealthy family in New Orleans. She’s surprised when she arrives at their home to discover that they are not at all what she expected, and even more shocked when the family reveals that they are cursed – and they believe that she is the one that can break it.
11. Weyward by Emilia Hart
Spanning five centuries, this book tells the story of three women in the same family, in the same house, during different time periods. All of them are mistreated by men – and all three of them uncover a hidden source of power in themselves. In 1619, Altha is accused of witchcraft following a tragic death in her small village. In 1942, Violet is trapped at her family’s crumbling estate, left to the whims of her cruel and uncaring father, and a handsome, mysterious new visitor. And in 2019, Kate flees her abusive boyfriend in London for a rundown cottage left to her by a great-aunt she barely remembers. Across the centuries, the Weyward women pass down their knowledge, saving each other right when it’s needed most.
12. How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
I adore Grady Hendrix, and all of his spooky, bizarre plots. In this one, Louise gets word that her parents have died, and now she must leave her husband and daughter behind to return to her childhood home, bereft with grief, to prepare to sell the house. She doesn’t want to deal with her brother, who still lives in her hometown, can’t keep a job, and resents Louise’s success. And she definitely doesn’t want to deal with the hordes of stuff (and creepy dolls) that are packed into her family home. But it seems that the house has other ideas for the two siblings, and will not accept its fate without a fight.
13. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
This is a retelling of the classic Edgar Allan Poe story, The Fall of the House of Usher. In this version, our narrator, Alex, arrives to find the house is overtaken by strange, unidentifiable fungi and possessed wildlife, centering on a dark, pulsing lake in the center of the grounds. Madeline Usher, Alex’s childhood friend, sleepwalks and speaks in strange tongues, and her brother is afflicted by a mysterious case of “nerves.” Together with a mycologist (mushroom scientist, thank you Lemony Snicket for teaching me that at age 12) and a doctor, Alex must unravel the secrets of the house of Usher before it’s too late for everyone.
14. Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez
Ingrid always felt mousy, meek, and anxious next to Mayra, her loud, brash, fearless childhood best friend. Though it’s been years since the two have spoken, when Mayra calls late one night with an invitation to a weekend getaway at a house in the Everglades, Ingrid spontaneously accepts. She makes her way into the heart of Florida, the gaping maw of the Everglades swamp hiding all manner of creatures intent on swallowing her whole.
When she finally ends up at the ancient farmhouse, she finds Mayra to be almost exactly like she remembers from childhood. The reunion is marred by the arrival of Benji, Mayra’s new and oddly unsettling boyfriend who is intent on being the perfect host. But Ingrid sleeps like the dead in the labyrinthine house, where time seems to stretch and compress until she can’t remember much of her life outside of the lush, leafy forest that surrounds the property…
15. The Invited by Jennifer McMahon
Married couple Helen and Nate decide to abandon suburbia and build a new home on 44 acres of rural land. When Helen learns of the land’s dark past, she becomes obsessed with the story of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there over a century ago. As a way to pay homage to the three generations of Breckenridge women who met their gruesome fates on this land, Helen begins sourcing artifacts that she can incorporate into her new home – a beam from the old schoolroom, a mantle from a farmhouse, etc. But as the construction progresses, it’s clear she’s invited in some unwanted entities that are intent on seeing her end up the same way as Hattie.
16. Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie
This book is an epistolary novel told through fragments of recordings, internet postings, journal entries, and other ephemera. It tells the story of husband and wife paranormal investigators who have finally found the ghost hunter holy grail – they’ve been granted access to the Paranormal Research Foundation, a crumbling mansion that was the scene of many bizarre experiments and encounters in the 70s. It is famously haunted, and no other paranormal team has been allowed to film or investigate there before. As the team gets further into the house and uncovers more about what went on there in the 70s, the dream job morphs into a nightmare.
17. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A classic for a reason. The Haunting of Hill House follows a team of four people, led by paranormal researcher Dr. Montague, who are set upon investigating the strange happenings at Hill House, a secluded mansion. Over the course of their investigation, all four inhabitants of the house experience paranormal and unexplained phenomena, though it seems to be affecting Eleanor the most. The others start to believe she is the cause or catalyst for the increased activity, or that she is making things up that the others aren’t witnessing. As the house’s power grows, the group is pushed to a breaking point.
18. A Good House for Children by Kate Collins
Orla is an exhausted young mother who is feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated in her life. When her husband announces that it’s time to move out of their apartment in the city and that he’s found a proper family home in Dorset, she goes along with it because she lacks the energy to disagree. Once the family moves into the isolated mansion, though, Orla starts to feel unsettled. She hears disembodied voices, footsteps, doors opening and closing on their own, and worst of all, her young son has an alarming new imaginary friend.
Forty years earlier, another young woman has moved into the same mansion to be a live-in nanny for a wealthy family. And just like Orla, Lydia too hears and sees strange things in the house. Both woman begin to fear for the safety of the children in the house, but their fears are dismissed as hysterical and irrational.
Told in dual timelines, this book gives me a lot of the same vibes as The Yellow Wallpaper. Dealing with themes of motherhood, madness, and the value of a woman’s work.
19. Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
This one is a FASCINATING premise. Another house haunted more by memories than actual ghosts, but this story follows Vera’s homecoming at her mother’s request. Vera reluctantly agrees to return to her childhood home, where her serial killer father had secretly buried the bodies of his victims decades before. When she arrives, she’s surprised to find that her mother has allowed a so-called artist to move into the guest house on their property. He gives Vera weird vibes, but he swears he’s not the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting. There might be more going on here than simple skeletons in the closet of this infamous crime scene.
20. Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan
Francine has lived her entire life in the seclusion of her family’s rambling estate in the countryside. While no other living soul resides there, Francine is far from alone – her home is host to several ghosts her are her friends and companions. But when Francine’s sister returns to their ancestral home after years away, she comes with a story that could upend everything Francine has believed to be true. It turns out that her family had a dark past, one that she may have had a hand in, and confronting this truth could jeopardize everything she holds dear in life.
21. When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
Mira left her segregated small town the first chance she got, leaving behind the spirits that haunt the Woodsman plantation, and the terrifying things she witnessed there. But a decade later, her best friend is getting married and Mira must return to her hometown. Celine, her best friend, is having her wedding at the old Woodsman plantation, which has been transformed into a luxury event venue and resort for wealthy white folks to steep themselves in a white-washed version of history. For all its renovations, the plantation house remains a macabre and tasteless monument to its violent history – most of the waitstaff are black, the “entertainment” includes horrifying reenactments of the violence the slaves endured, and the drinks are all named after twee antebellum references. But the ghosts of the slaves who were tortured at this plantation are angry, and ready to seek their revenge on the partygoers making light of their suffering.
22. The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin
Another classic “let’s buy a dilapidated Victorian mansion with a checkered past and renovate it!” story. Therapist and self-help author Sarah has just purchased a gorgeous home in the perfect tree-lined neighborhood for a steal – just because it happened to be the scene of a murder. But she’s certain that a new project is exactly what she needs to fix her failing marriage, and maybe make some money on the side – home reno bloggers are all the rage right now. But a series of accidents, threatening notes, and disembodied footsteps in the attic make it clear that this house has more secrets than she thought. And as Sarah begins to unravel the house’s history, it becomes clear that she’s in danger as well.
23. Model Home by Rivers Solomon
The three Maxwell siblings grew up as the only black family in an upper-middle-class gated suburb outside of Dallas. As soon as they moved in, strange and unsettling events started to occur. But their mother was unwilling to abandon her slice of the American dream just because of some pesky ghosts, regardless of how traumatic it might be for her three children. As adults, the siblings, Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle, escaped the house of horrors, leaving their parents to live there all alone. When they receive news of their parents deaths, the trio are forced to return to the scene of their childhood trauma to piece together what happened to their family, and what has grown and festered in the house since they’d left.
24. Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Opal, a high school dropout and part-time cashier, is determined to give her younger brother a better life, one that takes them far away from the dying small town of Eden, Kentucky. Eden is known for exactly two things – comically bad luck, and a reclusive author who disappeared under mysterious circumstances a century ago, leaving only her crumbling and haunted mansion behind. Ever since childhood, Opal dreamed of this estate, known as Starling House. When she gets the opportunity to visit it in real life, two things are immediately clear – there is something very wrong in this house, and somehow it involves her.
25. The Resting Place by Camilla Sten
Another more crime-tinged than supernatural, this book follows the story of Eleanor, a woman who lives with face-blindness, the inability to discern people’s facial features. When she walks in on the scene of her grandmother’s murder, she comes face to face with the killer – which does her absolutely no good. Now she lives in fear, never knowing if the killer will return to silence her, and if she would even recognize them if they did. Then she receives a call from her lawyer. Eleanor’s grandmother, a cruel and vindictive woman, has left her the family estate, a looming mansion tucked away in the Swedish woods, housing a terrible secret for over fifty years. As Eleanor, her boyfriend, aunt, and lawyer begin to piece together the secrets hidden in the old estate, she begins to regret ever stepping foot there.
26. If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You by Leigh Stein
This book comes out next week (August 26th) but I was able to read an advanced copy thanks to NetGalley and boy did it deliver. I devoured it.
Dayna is 39, unemployed, and has just been dumped by her boyfriend via a Reddit r/amitheasshole post. At her wit’s end, she agrees to take a job offer from a man she hasn’t spoken to in twenty years. If she can help Craig turn his crumbling, mid-century mansion into a thriving (and profitable) TikTok hype house, he can raise the money to restore his family’s home back to its former glory, and Dayna can reclaim her career after years of aimlessness and underemployment. There’s only one problem: Becca, a teenaged tarot influencer, has vanished from the house after amassing a huge following on the platform, and Craig refuses to let Dayna investigate her disappearance.
When they receive the opportunity for a life-changing marketing campaign, Dayna hatches a plan to find Olivia (and fulfill her brand collaboration contract) behind Craig’s back. But just as Dayna experience twenty years before as a much younger woman, this house has a bizarre effect on some people. And by the time they find Becca, it might be too late for all of them.
27. Devil House by John Darnielle
Gage Chandler is a down-on-his-luck true crime author, with one smash hit bestseller under his belt, followed by a series of disappointments. When he gets the chance to move into a dilapidated Californian mansion that was the scene of two grisly murders during the height of the Satanic Panic, it feels like fate offering him a leg up in his career. But as he starts to dig into the story of the murders, and the tenuous connection he has to the town (his childhood best friend lived there for a while), the lines between fact and fiction start to blur, and Gage is forced to examine elements of his past and his own work that loom larger than ever.
28. Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
A horror story told from the perspective of 8-year-old Bela, whose family is being terrorized by an entity in their home known as Other Mommy. Everyday, Other Mommy asks Bela the same question: “Can I go inside your heart?” And Bela understands that if she doesn’t say yes soon, her family is going to start to pay the price.
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this list is so so so for me i literally copied and saved it to my notes app, just to always have it on hand 🤍 thank you very much for writing this!!!