Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Happy Halloween! And as this year Halloween’s falls on a Tuesday, it’s another Top Ten Tuesday, and what a fun chance to highlight some spooky books for Halloween. So for this week’s TTT I’m highlighting my top ten books featuring Ghosts!
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Top Ten Books
Featuring Ghosts
Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower
Genre: Horror – Thriller
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: December 7th, 2018
This book is deliciously creepy and very high tension. It’s Hightower’s debut, and she’s really gone from strength to strength since Whispers, but this book absolutely blew me away when I first read it, and was one of the first indie horror books I got to read and review as an arc. So, a very special place in my heart as well as just being a great read.
Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper
Genre: Horror – Gothic
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: July 9th, 2021
Okay yes I am a little bias with this because I did edit the novel, but I promise it’s still really good. There’s a reason it has a 4.29 rating on Goodreads! That’s a great rating! And Cooper is a great writer who masterfully draws you into this delightfully creepy gothic tale, and those two dogs on the cover are such good boys, it’s worth reading it just for them (and the ghosts. But very much the dogs.)
Silent Key by Laurel Hightower
Genre: Horror – Thriller
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: October 10th, 2023
Yes, another Hightower book, but where Whispers was her first, Silent Key is her latest, and it’s good. It’s kind of spiritually similar to Whispers, yet a very different kind of book. The ghosts here are creepy and it’s never quite clear if they’re around to help or hinder, and like Whispers, Hightower’s skills for writing about motherhood and grief really shine in this.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Genre: Horror – Fantasy
Age: Children’s – Middle Grade
Format: Paperback
Published: September 30th, 2008
Gaiman is a great writer, this book is absolutely delightful, and overall really fun, as we learn about Nobody Owens, aka Bob, who lives in a graveyard being raised by ghosts. What’s not to love?
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
Genre: Horror – Gothic
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
Published: October 5th, 2021
I find myself thinking about this book fairly often. The ‘ghosts’ here are kind of ambiguous and subtle, more following the classic gothic style, and it works so well for it. The ‘haunted’ aspect comes through really well.
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
Genre: Horror – Fantasy
Age: Middle Grade
Format: Paperback
Published: August 28th, 2018
Schwab is one of my favourite writers, and this book is honestly fantastic, for younger readers and young at heart! Cass can see ghosts, which is a bit of a problem when her parents take her to the incredibly haunted city of Edinburgh. Really fun book!
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Genre: Horror – Gothic
Age: Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: October 16th, 1959
A classic. And more ambiguous ghosts! I loved this book when I read it, totally caught up with the story and characters, especially Eleanor. Ugh, my heart ached for her. The Netflix TV series is great, too.
Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions, and Haunted Places of the Battlefield by Mark Nesbitt
Genre: Non-Fiction – Paranormal – History
Age: Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: January 1st, 1991
This is probably the most well written ‘true ghostly encounters’ book I’ve read. There’s a lot of really interesting information here, and it really goes into the history of the area as well as the apparitions. No matter what your feelings are about ghosts, this is a really informative, intriguing book.
Love You to Death by Meg Cabot
Genre: Paranormal – Romance
Age: Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: November 1st, 2000
I picked this up after reading Princess Diaries and after it was more known Jenny Carroll was Meg Cabot – the copy I had was the same cover as here. And I loved it. It must have been one of if not the first paranormal romances I ever read, and it really stuck with me. This and 1-800-Where-R-You were both series I started and never got to finish…maybe I should change that! But either way, this book…well, it was a gateway drug for sure.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Genre: Gothic
Age: Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: January 1st, 1898
Ah, what a classic! I absolutely loved this book when I read it, and I especially liked the ambiguity over what the unnamed narrator sees at the estate. It really stuck in my mind ever since, and I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor for the way it adapted the story. If you want a proper classic ghost story on a chilly autumn or winter’s night, you absolutely cannot go wrong with this one.
As always, if you have read any of these or have any ghost book recommendations for me (any genre!) I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts!
Unwrapping Words 