There’s something deliciously irrational about haunted houses. We know better than to go inside, right? The peeling wallpaper, the creak that sounds suspiciously like a whisper, the door that’s always a little too eager to shut on its own—those are all red flags. And yet, we walk in anyway. Because deep down, we want to believe the place remembers us.
Haunted house stories aren’t just about the ghosts. They’re about regret and guilt and love that refuses to stay buried. They’re about homes that hold grudges and wallpaper that hums with memory. Sometimes the house mourns. Sometimes it hungers. And sometimes, terrifyingly, it does both.
What I love most is how these books dare us to stay. To keep reading even when the lights flicker. To turn the page even when our brain is yelling “No-o-o!” These stories know things about us. They are very familiar with the parts of us that are drawn to the dark hallway, the closed attic, the secret door under the stairs. We want to know what’s behind these things… even if we’d rather not.
In this list, you’ll find haunted houses built from every kind of fear. There are crumbling manors where grief seeps through the floorboards. There are sleek suburban homes where the horror hides in plain sight, disguised as comfort. There are books that make you question what home really means and whether we ever truly leave the places that shaped us.
So pour yourself a drink, turn on one too many lamps, and settle in. These haunted house novels don’t just go bump in the night, they knock politely, welcome you in, and make sure you’ll never get comfortable again.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Notoriety: National Book Award Finalist
Four seekers arrive at the notorious Hill House to investigate its supernatural phenomena, but Dr. Montague's experiment in fear soon reveals that the house itself may be alive. Eleanor Vance, the psychologically fragile protagonist, becomes increasingly entangled with the house's malevolent presence, leading to one of literature's most chilling explorations of psychological terror. Jackson's masterpiece defined the modern haunted house genre and continues to influence horror writers decades later, establishing the template for houses that are not merely haunted but fundamentally evil.
Get The Haunting of Hill House eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get The Haunting of Hill House Audiobook on Libros.fm
Hell House by Richard Matheson (1971)
Notoriety: Author received World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement (1984), Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement (1991)
Called "the Mount Everest of haunted houses," Belasco House has witnessed unimaginable depravity and violence, with previous investigations ending in murder, suicide, or insanity. When a wealthy publisher commissions a physicist and two mediums to prove the existence of life after death, they face 72 hours in the most terrifying location in supernatural literature. Stephen King proclaimed it "the scariest haunted house novel ever written," and its unflinching approach to sex, violence, and psychological horror signaled a darker, more visceral era for the genre.
Get Hell House eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get Hell House Audiobook on Libros.fm
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (1977)
Notoriety: Approximately 10 million copies sold, spawned massive film franchise
Based on the alleged experiences of the Lutz family at 112 Ocean Avenue, this controversial bestseller chronicles 28 days of paranormal terror following the DeFeo family murders. From mysterious green slime oozing down staircases to demonic presences and supernatural cold spots, the book captured America's imagination despite ongoing debates about its truthfulness. Whether fact or fiction, The Amityville Horror became a cultural phenomenon that defined 1970s supernatural horror and established the "based on true events" haunted house narrative.
Get The Amityville Horror eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get The Amityville Horror Audiobook on Libros.fm
Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco (1973)
Notoriety: Cult classic status, adapted into influential 1976 film
The Rolf family accepts an impossibly cheap summer rental at a decaying Victorian mansion with one strange requirement: they must provide meals for the reclusive elderly Mrs. Allardyce, who lives upstairs but never shows herself. As Marion becomes obsessed with the house and its antique furnishings, the mansion slowly rejuvenates itself while draining the life from its inhabitants. Marasco's atmospheric psychological horror influenced countless works that followed, exploring how houses can seduce and consume those who enter.
Get Burnt Offerings eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
Notoriety: Bestseller, cult classic with devoted following
This experimental masterwork tells the story of a family who discovers their house is larger on the inside than the outside, containing an ever-expanding labyrinth that defies physics and sanity. Presented as a found manuscript analyzing a fictional documentary, the novel itself becomes a physical maze with text running in multiple directions, footnotes that spiral into madness, and pages that must be rotated to be read. Danielewski created an immersive, terrifying experience that transcends traditional narrative, making the book itself feel like a haunted object.
Get House of Leaves eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009)
Notoriety: Man Booker Prize Shortlist, Shirley Jackson Award Nominee
Dr. Faraday returns to Hundreds Hall, the decaying English country estate where his mother once worked as a maid, to treat a member of the aristocratic Ayres family in post-WWII Britain. As he becomes entangled with the family's decline, mysterious supernatural occurrences plague the house—or are they manifestations of psychological distress and class resentment? Waters crafts an ambiguous, literary ghost story that explores whether the haunting is paranormal or the product of human desperation and obsession.
Get The Little Stranger eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get The Little Stranger Audiobook on Libros.fm
The Good House by Tananarive Due (2003)
Notoriety: Acclaimed for pioneering African American horror, part of author's award-winning body of work
Marie Toussaint's ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest carries a dark legacy of healing magic that comes at a terrible price. When her great-grandson Corey discovers Grandma Marie's book of spells and performs a ritual without proper protection, he opens the door to Papa Legba's wrath and unleashes malevolent spirits. Due weaves Vodou tradition, African American gothic horror, and multigenerational family trauma into a terrifying tale where the house becomes a conduit between the human world and dangerous spiritual realms.
Get The Good House eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get The Good House Audiobook on Libros.fm
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (2023)
Notoriety: New York Times Bestseller, film rights acquired by Legendary Entertainment
After their parents' sudden death, estranged siblings Louise and Mark must return to their Charleston childhood home to settle the estate—but their mother's disturbing puppet collection has other plans. What begins as family drama over inheritance transforms into nightmare horror as Pupkin, a sinister puppet, manifests their mother's grief, resentment, and unresolved trauma into something murderous. Hendrix expertly balances genuine scares with emotional depth, exploring how childhood wounds and family dysfunction can quite literally haunt us.
Get How to Sell a Haunted House eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get How to Sell a Haunted House Audiobook on Libros.fm
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (2010)
Notoriety: Shirley Jackson Award Nominee for Best Novel
In 1937, poverty-stricken scientist Jack Miller joins an Arctic expedition to escape society, traveling to the abandoned settlement of Gruhuken in Svalbard. As the polar night descends and expedition members depart for various reasons, Jack finds himself increasingly isolated in a desolate cabin haunted by something that died badly and refuses to rest. Paver's epistolary novel combines historical detail with visceral supernatural horror, creating an atmosphere of crushing dread where the frozen landscape and the haunted structure become equally terrifying.
Get Dark Matter eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get Dark Matter Audiobook on Libros.fm
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (2023)
Notoriety: World Fantasy Award Nominee for Novel, Locus Award Nominee for Best Horror Novel, Audie Award Shortlist
Opal lives in Eden, Kentucky, a dying coal town dominated by the exploitative Gravely Power company, desperately trying to secure her younger brother's future. When she accepts a position as maid at the mysterious Starling House—a gothic mansion shrouded in legend and connected to the town's reclusive 19th-century author E. Starling—she discovers the house protects the town from literal nightmares. Harrow blends gothic horror with anti-capitalist themes and environmental justice, creating a house that is both sanctuary and battlefield.
Get Starling House eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get Starling House eBook or Print Book on Libros.fm
Bag of Bones by Stephen King (1998)
Notoriety: Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, Locus Award Nominee
Bestselling novelist Mike Noonan retreats to his lakeside Maine cabin, Sara Laughs, after his wife's death, only to discover the house harbors secrets about a vindictive ghost and a century-old injustice. King masterfully interweaves grief, supernatural vengeance, and a custody battle into a multilayered narrative where past atrocities refuse to stay buried. The house itself becomes a character, manifesting psychic phenomena and horrifying visions that force Mike to confront both personal trauma and the town's racist history.
Get Bag of Bones eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get Bag of Bones Audiobook on Libros.fm
The Elementals by Michael McDowell (1981)
Notoriety: Cult classic rediscovered by contemporary horror readers
Two wealthy Alabama families vacation at their adjacent Victorian beach houses on an isolated Gulf Coast barrier island, but a third abandoned house sits between them, slowly being consumed by an encroaching sand dune. Something malevolent inhabits the sand-filled structure, and it hungers. McDowell crafts Southern gothic horror with an oppressive atmosphere, where the titular elementals represent forces far older and more alien than traditional ghosts, making this overlooked masterpiece terrifyingly unique.
Get The Elementals eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (2015)
Notoriety: Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
When 14-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins exhibiting disturbing behaviors, her desperate family agrees to document her alleged possession for a reality TV show called "The Possession." Twenty years later, Marjorie's younger sister Merry recounts the events that destroyed their family and their suburban home. Tremblay brilliantly deconstructs possession and haunted house tropes through multiple narrative layers, questioning whether the horror was supernatural, mental illness, or manufactured for entertainment, making the reader complicit in the family's exploitation.
Get A Head Full of Ghosts eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get A Head Full of Ghosts Audiobo
The Shining by Stephen King (1977)
Notoriety: Cultural phenomenon, widely considered one of greatest horror novels
Recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance accepts a winter caretaker position at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado's Rocky Mountains with his wife Wendy and psychically gifted son Danny. The hotel's violent history—murders, suicides, mob connections—has soaked into its walls, and as winter storms cut them off from civilization, the Overlook awakens and wants Danny's supernatural "shining" ability. King's exploration of addiction, domestic violence, and inherited trauma created an iconic haunted location that transcends the traditional house setting.
Get The Shining eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get Th Shining Audiobook on Libros.fm
This House is Haunted by John Boyne (2013)
Notoriety: Acclaimed bestselling author's gothic horror novel
Eliza Caine accepts a governess position at Gaudlin Hall in remote Norfolk after her father's death in Victorian England, only to discover the house harbors supernatural phenomena and the two children in her care know more than they're telling. Boyne, bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, crafts a classical gothic tale with modern psychological depth, channeling Henry James's The Turn of the Screw while creating his own atmospheric nightmare of isolation and spectral terror.
Get This House is Haunted eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Get This House is Haunted Audiobook on Libros.fm
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (2017)
Notoriety: Critically acclaimed literary horror
Newlyweds Julie and James flee their old life and James's gambling addiction for a suspiciously affordable Victorian house in a small town, but the house immediately begins to exert its influence. Walls breathe, rooms multiply, and mysterious stains appear as the couple's grip on reality loosens. Jemc writes literary horror that prioritizes psychological disintegration over jump scares, exploring how houses can amplify relationship dysfunction and personal demons into something tangibly monstrous.
Get The Grip of It eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon (2019)
Notoriety: USA Today Bestseller from acclaimed horror author
Helen and Nate build their dream home on rural Vermont land with a dark history—it's a former execution site where Hattie Breckenridge was hanged as a witch in 1924. Helen becomes obsessed with incorporating artifacts from the property's past into the house's construction, inadvertently creating a beacon for spirits. McMahon weaves dual timelines, exploring witch trials, vengeance, and how physical structures can trap and channel historical trauma across generations.
Get The Invited eBook or Printed Book on Bookshop.org
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
Notoriety: Jackson's final novel, considered masterpiece of psychological horror
Eighteen-year-old Merricat Blackwood lives in near-isolation with her sister Constance and their ailing Uncle Julian in the family mansion, shunned by villagers who believe Constance murdered most of the Blackwood family with poisoned sugar six years earlier. When a cousin arrives threatening their carefully maintained routine, Merricat will do anything to protect her sister and their home. Though more psychological thriller than traditional haunted house, the Blackwood estate embodies gothic isolation, familial madness, and the house as refuge-turned-prison.
Get We Have Always Lived in the Castle eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell (2017)
Notoriety: Bestseller, winner of WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award
Newly widowed and pregnant Elsie moves to her late husband's crumbling estate, The Bridge, where she discovers hidden wooden figures called "silent companions"—17th-century folk art painted to look like people—sealed in a locked room. As the companions multiply and Elsie's grip on sanity deteriorates, she uncovers the estate's connection to witch trials and a family curse. Purcell's debut gothic horror became a word-of-mouth sensation for its atmospheric dread and genuinely creepy antagonists.
Get eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James (2012)
Notoriety: RITA Award for Best Paranormal Romance
Sarah Piper takes a temporary job assisting ghost hunters investigating the spirit of Maddy Clare, a violent entity haunting a barn on a remote English estate in 1920s post-WWI England. The ghost harbors rage from brutal violations, and she'll only communicate through women. St. James blends historical mystery, gothic atmosphere, and romance into her supernatural investigation, creating a haunted location that serves as both crime scene and memorial to gendered violence.
Get The Haunting of Maddy Clare eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon (2014)
Notoriety: New York Times Bestseller
In 1908 Vermont, Sara Harrison Shea documents strange events in her diary before her murder; in the present day, teenager Ruthie discovers the diary when her mother disappears from their farmhouse on the same property. McMahon connects timelines through a remote house built on land where the boundaries between living and dead grow dangerously thin. The novel explores resurrection folklore, the lengths parents will go to for their children, and how locations can trap the desperate choices made there.
Get The Winter People eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
Slade House by David Mitchell (2015)
Notoriety: Bestseller by acclaimed literary author of Cloud Atlas
Every nine years since 1979, someone enters Slade House—a mysterious dwelling accessed through a small black iron door in a narrow alley—and never returns. Mitchell structures the novel as interconnected novellas spanning decades, each featuring different victims drawn to the house by its immortal, soul-devouring inhabitants. The acclaimed literary author brings his signature narrative complexity to genre horror, creating a house that exists slightly out of phase with reality, haunting across time.
Get Slade House eBook or Print Book on Bookshop.org
And there you have it—the dark corridors, whispering walls, and flickering chandeliers of my haunted house book tour have officially creaked to a close. If you’re reading this with all the lights on, congratulations—you’ve survived. If you’re reading it by candlelight in a drafty old house where the floorboards definitely just sighed... well, you might want to finish quickly.
There’s something magnetic about haunted houses, isn’t there? They lure us back like a front porch light to a lost moth. We tell ourselves we’re here for the suspense or the beautiful prose, but deep down, we’re testing the edges of our own fear. These stories remind us that the scariest ghosts don’t always rattle chains or lurk in the attic—sometimes they live quietly, in the spaces between memory and regret.
And yet, for all their chills, haunted house books are strangely comforting. They whisper that even the most cursed spaces can hold a story worth telling. They make us appreciate our own creaky floorboards and flickering bulbs, grateful that the shadows in our hallway are (probably) just the cat. Probably.
So go ahead—stack your nightstand with these spectral tales. Let one more ghost story follow you to bed. Just don’t be surprised if the next house you move into introduces itself by name.
If you’ve enjoyed your stay at the Haunted Imagination Inn, pack your garlic and wooden stakes because our next stop is a little bloodier. Up next in the Halloween Book series: “Bite-Sized Reads: The Vampire Books You Can Sink Your Teeth Into.” Bring a mirror—just in case.
|
|
|
Comments