staff pick - Tor/Forge Blog

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!!!! It’s our absolute favorite time of year and we’re excited for candy, costumes, and curling up with a scary book. We wanted some recommendations on what to read and asked the experts what their go-to creepy books are. And by experts, we mean our terrific and terrifying staff. Check out their best Halloween picks here!

Kristin Temple, Associate Editor

My go-to Halloween/Spooky Season read is Stephen King’s IT. Every few years, as the weather starts to cool off, I’ll transport myself back to Derry and watch gleefully as the Losers throw rocks at bullies, face their fears, and save their town. Something about the coming-of-age themes and the epic battle against evil really puts me in the Halloween spirit.

Jordan Hanley, Marketing Manager

Halloween is not only one entire season on the calendar, it is also an entire ~mood~. Working on Nightfire titles means that I get to think about Halloween as others think about Christmas– i.e. all year long! Since I joined the Nightfire team, I first dipped my toe and then completely submerged myself in the horror genre. I’ve been a diehard Constant Reader of Stephen King for as long as I can remember, but luckily for me, I am surrounded by horror fans who have expanded my view of what horror can be.

A few recent Halloween atmospheric reads have been:

The Family Plot by Cherie Priest and Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder.

The Family Plot takes place in a haunted house that bites back. I recently moved and had been hunting down antiques and gently used furniture up and down the Jersey shore. The Family Plot centers around a gold-mine– a house left untouched in the boonies. As I was furniture hunting, I constantly wished I could have been in this house! But without all the horrible things that happen in it.

Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder is a collection of short stories by the author of one of my most anticipated forthcoming Nightfire books. Lucy is an incredibly talented writer, and these fun-sized stories are perfect for curling up on the couch with on a chilly October night.

Julia Bergen, Marketing Manager

I don’t actually have a go-to Halloween book, because I very rarely reread books, I always want something new! So at Halloween I usually pick out something scary/autumnal that I haven’t read yet. I really love Tor.com novellas for this, since they’re quick and can fit into my reading routine, like The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht, or The Atrocities by Jeremy C. Shipp.

Theresa Delucci, Senior Marketing Director

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is a horror classic for a reason and I return to it frequently, but for the last few years I’ve been revisiting its modern spiritual descendant, A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. When the leaves change color and the sky gets gloomy, any falling-apart house in New England could contain a falling-apart family like the Barretts. Is teenager Marjorie very sick or very possessed? Things only get worse and more terrifying and, seen through the eyes of Marjorie‘s clever kid sister Merry, you’re pulled into an ending that’s horrific, heartbreaking, and leaves you wondering what haunts every lonely soul.

Rachel Taylor, Marketing Manager

I’ve never had a go-to Halloween book before, but I’ve found one this year that I know is going to be my new yearly re-read—Slewfoot by Brom. If you loved 2015 film The Witch, this is 1000% the book for you. It’s also filled with some absolutely stunning yet creepy art, which I can’t help but keep flipping back to.

Lizzy Hosty, Marketing Intern

My go-to book for Halloween is any of the Series of Unfortunate Events books. I’ve been periodically working my way through them since I never read them as a kid, but obviously Halloween is the best time to read these creepy stories! I’m also really excited to read Nothing But Blackened Teeth, because I have been rocking the pre-order pop socket, and cannot wait to double that energy but holding the book in one hand and my phone in the other.

Angie Rao, Design

The Monster of Elendhaven!

It’s spooky and dark but also fun and short so you can read it and then eat some candy while you process your feelings.

What book are you most excited to read this Halloween? Let us know in the comments!

a cat, Marketing Coordinator

Title: Choice of the Deathless

This interactive necromantic legal thriller from Max Gladstone has something scarier than skeletons and demons: balancing cost of living, debt, career advancement, and life satisfaction (in addition to many skeletons and demons)! Pay off your loans! Make partner! Find a hot partner (if you want)! DIE! BE REBORN AS A DEATHLESS SKELETON! GO TO WORK ON MONDAY!

My transition into all caps is meant to reflect my all caps love for this game, that you should go play immediately. Also check out Deathless: The City’s Thirst, where after working with other mortal magic practitioners to depose a god, you must take on god’s task of procuring water for a desert city.