Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She can be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.
Have you ever wondered how to get really, really scared? How to see real ghosts? How to survive a horror story? How to sell a haunted house? How to fake a haunting? Horror books have lots of different titles and tell a wide range of stories meant to thrill and chill. But lately, it seems like a lot of horror novels are hoping to clue us in on how to do scary things. Here are a few how-to horror novels that are super fun reads sure to scare.
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Have you ever wondered how to sell a haunted house? This is the question Louise asks herself when faced with her family home in Charleston. After her parents die under mysterious circumstances, she and her brother Mark have to get the home ready for sale. But the house they grew up in is filled with much more than childhood memories. And despite their conflicts with one another, Mark and Louise will have to work together to clear this house of the evil forces that don’t want to leave.
How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold
I have always thought that if I were in a horror story, I would not make it to the end. But if you’re trying to survive, here’s a book that might clue you in on what to do. Mortimer Queen, a widely celebrated horror author, has died. Now seven authors have been invited to his house to potentially win his inheritance. But it won’t be easy. All of these authors have a history with Queen, and all of them will have to come face-to-face with that history through a treacherous maze before they can reach the prize.
How to Fake a Haunting by Christa Carmen
Coming out on October 7 is How to Fake a Haunting, a novel about a woman desperate to be rid of her alcoholic husband… at any cost. Lainey Taylor knows her husband Callum is a danger to her and their daughter Beatrix, and so she comes up with a plan. She will stage a fake haunting to scare Callum out of the house for good. But what Lainey doesn’t know is how impossible it is to truly control a haunting. And the scares that start off as fake suddenly become very, horrifyingly real.
Sadly, there aren’t any “how to” horror titles by authors of color that I could find, but here are some titles in other genres you might enjoy: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair, How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee, and How to Cure a Ghost by Fariha Róisín.
The Fright Stuff
Ready for some thrills and chills? Sign up to receive the latest and greatest from the world of horror.
For more horror reads, prepare for fall scares with these new YA horror novels, and add these fall horror releases to your TBR.
Happy reading!
English (US) · 