50+ Creepy Reads Inspired by My Favorite Scary Movies

I have a hard time finding good modern books that scare me. (Novels, that is–goodness knows there’s enough terrifying nonfiction out there to keep a person from ever sleeping again.) And because I have a hard time finding enough of them to make a list, it’s difficult for Goodreads to put a recommended reading list together for me.

I have less trouble finding scary movies. And I wondered what would happen if I asked ChatGPT to create my very own reading list based on the kinds of scary movies I enjoy. So I fed it my list of favorites and had it create me a personalized reading list inspired by those particular movies.

First it broke down the themes and tropes in those movies into different categories. Then it started selecting books by those categories that it thought would appeal to me based on what I already enjoy and its vast knowledge of exactly what is in all of those books and all of those movies. Here’s what it came up with (plus a line or two from me for each one to entice me back on my next book-buying binge).

(Please note: This post contains affiliate links to the books that you can purchase from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you.)

Gothic & Haunted House Stories

1. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell: A Victorian ghost story involving a locked door and a creepy wooden figure that looks suspiciously like the main character and inexplicably terrifies everyone in the house.
2. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland: A dark modern Faerie tale about sisters who mysteriously disappeared long ago and came back wrong.
3. The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry: When people go missing in a creepy little town, one person has visions of a monster dragging them down the street.
4. Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand: When some friends stay in a gothic mansion, one of them disappears inside, never to be seen again.
5. Hell House by Richard Matheson: Four strangers visit a creepy old mansion in Maine with the goal of proving there is life after death.
6. The Elementals by Michael McDowell: Two families return to a decrepit Victorian house that has terrified them since they were children and may have been the cause of several mysterious deaths.
7. The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates: The main character inherits a huge house well known to be haunted. A classic haunting.
8. Pet Sematary by Stephen King: I just read this one not long ago and loved it, so I can see this is already on the right track.
9. Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco: Behind a locked door in the mansion a couple rents for the summer is a mysterious old woman no one ever sees. Is there something else otherworldly behind that door?
10. The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons: A Southern gothic about the creepy house next door that seems to change everyone who stays in it.
11. Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell: An entire small Alabama town is haunted in this story of revenge.
12. The House of Lost Souls by F. G. Cottam: A haunted house drives everyone who visits into madness.
13. Ghost Story by Peter Straub: Four old men swap stories and revisit a horrible mistake they made in their past that haunts them still.

Cosmic & Weird Horror

1. The Fisherman by John Langan: The creek in the woods is the stuff of legend and may be more than it appears.
2. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: As it sounds a gothic tale set in an isolated mansion in 1950s Mexico.
3. A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman: Two teenagers in love discover a house at the bottom of a lake where someone might be home.
4. Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes: I’m a little skeptical here because I tried to read Ghost Station by the same author and quit when I was just past the halfway point and yet to be scared.
5. The Sentinel by Jeffrey Konvitz: Strange goings-on in a creepy apartment building and the strange tenants within.
6. The Keep by F. Paul Wilson: Two forms of evil in an isolated Transylvanian castle–that of this world, and that of another. This one is the first book in a series.
7. Floating Dragon by Peter Straub: Basically the same description as above, except this time in a small American town rather than a Transylvanian castle.
8. The Dark Half by Stephen King: A writer stages the death of his pseudonym, setting into motion a series of actual, grisly homicides.
9. Phantoms by Dean Koontz: This is another one I have already read and loved, so it’s two for two now.
10. Watchers by Dean Koontz: A man on a solo walk through dark woods is stopped by a golden retriever in his path who refuses to let him go any farther. Something evil lies beyond.
11. Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child: Something non-human is savagely killing museum visitors inside secret rooms. The first book in a series.
12. In Silent Graves by Gary Braunbeck: A recent widower encounters a disfigured man who attacks him and leaves a gruesome surprise in his home. These events lead him on a search that may prove his wife was not who or what he thought she was.
13. The Ceremonies by T. E. D. Klein: A grad student finds a secluded small town (named Gilead, for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale) to spend his summer in, catching up on some gothic literature for school. But the deceptively serene place is hiding unimaginable evil.

Psychological & “Something’s Off” Horror

1. The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay: A stranger approaches a child staying in a remote cabin in the woods with her parents to inform her that she is going to help him save the world.
2. Come Closer by Sara Gran: When strange things start happening in a woman’s life, all signs point to demon possession.
3. I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir: In an isolated Icelandic village, three friends restoring a rundown house begin to experience strange phenomena.
4. The Grip of It by Jac Jemc: A couple buys a haunted house situated between a lake and a forest and terrifying events ensue.
5. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon: This inspiration for Stephen King’s Children of the Corn places a couple in a 19th-century home in a small New England town, expected to participate in sinister old traditions.
6. The Other by Thomas Tryon: A case of good and evil in identical twins.
7. The Bad Place by Dean Koontz: Horrific things are happening to the main character in his sleep, which leave their evidence on him in the morning.
8. The Cipher by Kathe Koja: When a strange hole appears in a storage shed, the main character’s girlfriend things it would be fun to see what’s down there.
9. Song of Kali by Dan Simmons: A man becomes entangled with a cult in a bleak Indian city.
10. The Ruins by Scott Smith: Friends on a Mexican vacation journey into the jungle to find a missing man and stumble upon an ancient ruins site where horror lurks within.
11. Replay by Ken Grimwood: A man gets the opportunity to live his life over and over again, making different choices each time.

Folkloric, Witchy, & Rural Unease

1. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher: A woman cleaning out her recently-deceased grandmother’s house finds an old journal that describes a colony of strange beings living in the woods. After dismissing it as fiction, she begins to find evidence proving it is all true.
2. Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom: In Colonial New England, an ancient spirit awakens and joins forces with a young outcast.
3. The Nesting by C. J. Cooke: Two young girls and their nanny in Norway find evidence that their mother’s death wasn’t what they believed.
4. The Reddening by Adam Nevill: A woman moves to the coast to escape past trauma, only to find new horrors.
5. The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher: A woman finds portals to various alternate realities where evil creatures lurk.
6. The Tribe by Bari Wood: Mysterious events 35 years apart and involving a concentration camp may be connected.
7. Mystery Walk by Robert R. McCammon: Two young men encounter a harrowing being known as the Shape Changer.
8. Bag of Bones by Stephen King: A man lost in his grief visits his family’s isolated summer home and encounters evil forces.
9. Black Creek Crossing by John Saul: After a teen discovers that her new home is the site of a double-murder and that no one has lived there since, strange events begin to occur.

Ghosts, Hotels, & Liminal Spaces

1. Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis: After a girl’s father is attacked, she is sent to live in a creepy little town full of strange events and people stalking her.
2. The Spite House by Johnny Compton: A family on the run answer an ad to live in a very haunted house in exchange for recording everything that happens within.
3. Rooms by Lauren Oliver: A family moves into a house where a presence from beyond the grave begins to communicate with their teenage son.
4. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes: I watched the miniseries based on this on Apple+ and thoroughly enjoyed it!
5. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James: A third one I have read and loved, so of the three here I’ve already tried, it’s definitely doing a good job sussing out my taste.
6. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski: I’ve been meaning to read this one for years. I’ll have to get around to it sooner than later. I love Poe’s haunting album based on the book! “Spanish Doll” in particular.
7. Koko by Peter Straub: Four Vietnam vets embark on a quest to find a killer from their past. The first book in a series.
8. Shadowland by Peter Straub: In a house hidden deep within the Vermont woods, two young magician’s apprentices live in horror.
9. Lost Boy, Lost Girl by Peter Straub: A boy goes missing while seeking out a house that may be inhabited by a serial killer and the ghost of a young girl.