7 Scary Ghost Stories to Read this Halloween

Are you looking for some scary ghost stories to read during the month of October? Or maybe spooky is your vibe all year long, I won’t judge.

I’m an avid reader and studied literature in university, and I love sharing my best book and story recommendations with fellow readers. Today, I’m here to help you out with some less commonly known, scary ghost stories to read, all of them written by classic authors.

Some of the authors on this list will be familiar to those who love all things macabre — you’ll find a couple of the best Edgar Allan Poe stories, for example. But other writers on this list might surprise you.

These spooky short stories can be enjoyed alone, though to really get into the Halloween spirit, why not gather with your close friends and family around a hearth or campfire and read them aloud to each other? Extra s’mores to the reader with the most atmospheric voice.

Don’t forget to pin this post so you can reference it this year and for Halloweens to come.

Whenever possible, I recommend buying books at local bookshops or through Bookshop.org, because shopping there puts the profits right into the hands of indie bookstores all over the country.

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“The Phantom Coach” by Amelia Edwards

Scary ghost stories and gothic novels were all the rage in Victorian England. If you want to read a quintessential Victorian-era ghost story, start with this 1864 story by Amelia Edwards. It’s full of all the crucial elements: exaggerated horror, dramatic prose, and lots of foreshadowing.

In the spooky short story, an Englishman hunting alone finds himself lost in the eery English moors with both night and a snowstorm moving in. The story follows his wanderings, desperate to get home to his wife lest she worry about him. But as he should know, in Victorian spooky ghost stories, there’s no creepier place to be than a deserted moor, and accepting a ride from a passing coach might be an instinct to second guess.

“This coach,” I said, “is in a deplorable condition. The regular mail, I suppose, is under repair?”

He moved his head slowly, and looked me in the face, without speaking a word. I shall never forget that look while I live. I turned cold at heart under it. I turn cold at heart even now when I recall it. His eyes glowed with a fiery unnatural lustre. His face was livid as the face of a corpse. His bloodless lips were drawn back as if in the agony of death, and showed the gleaming teeth between.

 The words that I was about to utter died upon my lips, and a strange horror — a dreadful horror — came upon me.

You can read “The Phantom Coach” for free online here or purchase this collection of Victorian ghost stories.

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“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe

Creeping people out since 1827, nobody quite embodies the macabre like Edgar Allan Poe, and no list of spooky short stories is complete with at least one of his disturbing tales. “This”The Cask of Amontillado” is a scary short story featuring a classic unreliable narrator who takes his family motto rather seriously: “Nemo me impune lacessit,” Nobody insults me without impunity.

“The Cask of Amontillado” is a story about cold, calculated revenge. Don’t be surprised if, after reading this scary story, you find its imagery cropping up in your dreams or if you find yourself suddenly rather hesitant to enter a friend’s basement.

And speaking of basements, is it any wonder Poe had such a morbid fascination with them when his Philadelphia home where he wrote this story had this for a basement?

You can read this spooky short story for free online here or by purchasing Poe’s collected works.

“The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier

Sure, maybe you’ve watched the Alfred Hitchcock film and think you know everything there is to know about “The Birds.” But if you haven’t read the scary short story that inspired it, you don’t know what you’re missing.

It’s not just that the plot of “The Birds” is entirely different in the Daphne du Maurier story than in the film. Reading “The Birds” is a vividly sensory experience unlike any other. In this spooky short story, du Maurier plunges the reader into the protagonist’s every sensation… the wetness of his hands, the chill of the winter wind, the sounds of a thousand flapping wings.

It’s just an excellent piece of writing that’ll give you goosebumps in all the best ways. And if you thought “Winter is coming” came from Game of Thrones, think again:

Perhaps, thought Nat, a message comes to the birds in autumn, like a warning. Winter is coming. Many of them will perish. And like people who, apprehensive of death before their time, drive themselves to work or folly, the birds do likewise; tomorrow we shall die.

“The Birds” by daphne du maurier

You can read “The Birds” for free online here, or purchase a book of her spooky short stories, Don’t Look Now.

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Related: Looking for more book recommendations? Check out the top 10 books I read in 2020.

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“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf

Only about two pages long, “A Haunted House” is a relatively short spooky story, but one best digested slowly.You might even reread a few times to capture all of its layered meanings. Virginia Woolf’s “A Haunted House” tells the tale of a couple living in a home haunted by the ghosts of a couple who once lived there but have since passed on.

“Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting,”

the opening of “a haunted house” by virginia woolf

Though the narrator never actually sees the ghosts, the house is full of their presence. This spooky ghost story manages to be both unsettling and peaceful, as the ghosts, rather than bearing any ill will toward the home’s living occupants, merely wish to recapture the feeling of being alive. Still, you’ll never hear a door creak again without wondering if it’s a ghost coming by for a visit.

“A Haunted House” should definitely be on your list of scary ghost stories to read this Halloween. You can read this very short story for free online here. It also appears in Virginia Woolf’s short story collection, Monday or Tuesday.

Related: did you know that Edith Wharton wrote an entire collection of ghost stories? It’s one of the lesser-known facts you should know about the underrated writer.

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“The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe

One of Edgar Allan Poe’s lesser-known scary short stories (but among the most disturbing), “The Black Cat” is a Jungian nightmare. Poe plunges you into the psychological horror of the narrator, a naturally gentle man whose excessive drinking leads him into cycles of violence, shame, and more gruesome violence.

Without giving too much away (it’s best read with fresh eyes and no spoilers), this scary story takes us back to the cellar. The dreaded, creepy, infamous cellar. Yep, you guessed it… this is another story Poe wrote while living in Philadelphia, in a home that might win a “creepiest basement in the world” award).

“The Black Cat” is a must-read to put on your list of spooky short stories. You can read it online for free. Or, find “The Black Cat” and other spooky tales to keep you up at night in the following collection. Finally, my personal favorite: purchase the short story in a coloring book form, and color in black cats as you read this classic horror tale.

Related: If you’re a book lover who’s a fan of ghost stories, make sure you check out the Omni Parker Hotel in Boston. Supposedly, the ghost of Charles Dickens is one of the many ghosts that haunt the historic hotel.

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“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson

Alright, it’s technically a poem, but this poem by Emily Dickinson is worth including on a list of spooky short stories, because it’s sure to unsettle you a bit.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to attend your own funeral, perhaps from the inside of the casket, and while still alive, then this is the poem for you. If you haven’t, well, you’re about to be plunged into what that would feel like when you read this short, rhythmic poem.

Although Emily Dickinson is not known for being a writer of scary stories, she occasionally tapped into her darker side in writing. You can read this poem for free below or check out a collection of her works on Bookshop or Amazon.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading – treading – till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum –

Kept beating – beating – till I thought

My mind was going numb –

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason broke,

And I dropped down, and down –

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing – then –

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“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is perhaps the King of scary ghost stories. Washington Irving is considered by some to be America’s first author, not because he was the first one to write, but because he was the first to gain international fame for writing, in part due to this spooky short story.

Longer than the other spooky ghost stories on this list, it’s really more of a novella, but “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” shouldn’t take more than an hour to get through.

Tip from one reader to another: don’t give up on it. The bulk of this classic spooky story is spent describing the seemingly un-scary narrator’s background and modest present circumstances, but the big, thrilling payoff is all in the ending.

It’s this story that has made Sleepy Hollow one of the best Halloween destinations period, but most especially for book lovers.

I hope you found something in this list of seven scary ghost stories to excite your fancy and put you in the mood for All Hallow’s Eve.

Tell me, what are your favorite spooky short stories? Pin this and come back to it when you’re ready to read!