Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Spooky Halloween Reading Book Picks

Darren Shan - Lord Loss - Published by HarperCollins - March 2005
Grubbs Grady hates history and ballet, and loves bacon, rats and playing tricks on his squeamish older sister. When he opts out of a weekend family trip, he never guesses that he is about to take a terrifying journey to the heart of darkness. Hungry demons and howling werewolves haunt his waking nightmares...and threaten his life.

Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book - Published by Bloomsbury - October 2009
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family . . . 

Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Published by Quirk - June 2011
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.
It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows. 

Robert Westall - The Scarecrows - Published by Bodley Head Children's Books -  March 1981
In a brooding story about jealousy, hatred, murder, and love, Simon is outraged that his mom plans to remarry. He can't bear the way she and his sister seem to have forgotten his late father. Overwhelmed by hatred, he seeks solace in a nearby abandoned water mill. But another, powerful hatred lingers within its walls. And it is about to be unleashed.

 

Chris Priestley - Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Published by Bloomsbury - September 2007

Uncle Montague lives alone in a big house and his regular visits from his nephew give him the opportunity to relive some of the most frightening stories he knows. But as the stories unfold, a newer and more surprising narrative emerges, one that is perhaps the most frightening of all.