Anyone with kids in the house knows this is the last weekend to find the costumes, buy the candy, and finalize plans for Halloween.
For the rest of us, especially those who know Halloween isn’t just for children, there is still time to enjoy a dark-and-stormy-night novel before the sun goes down on Thursday.
Dark-side literature is more popular than ever. There are hundreds of scary classics to choose from, and volunteers with the Tucson Festival of Books were happy to recommend some reads that kept them up at night:
“I Was a Teenager Slasher” by Stephen Graham Jones is a slasher story told by the slasher himself. A 17-year-old boy has attended a high school party where a vicious prank went fatally wrong. Now traumatized by what he has seen, Tolly Driver finds himself driven to go on a vengeful killing spree of his own. — Tricia Clapp
“The Bitter End” by Alexa Donne is a young-adult scary story about eight teens stranded in a remote mountain cabin. When people start to die, they know one of them is a killer. Learning which one it is will be the key to survival. Released last week, this twisty whodunit is by an author who will attend the festival in March. — Kathy Short
“The Last House on Needless Street” by Catriona Ward is a multi-layered shocker being likened to “Gone Girl.” In a boarded-up house at the end of a dead-end street in the Washington woods, we meet a young girl who isn’t allowed outside … not after what happened last time. There is a man who drinks alone in front of his TV, and a housecat who loves to nap and read the Bible. An unspeakable secret connects them, and a new next-door neighbor is about to learn what it is. — Kimberly Peters
“Best Hex Ever” by Nadia El-Fassi is a cozy, witchy romance that is perfect for Halloween. It features a witch-baker (there are a lot of those in romance) and the museum curator unlucky enough to fall for her. — Jessica Pryde
“Skeptic in Salem” by Fiona Grace is the story of a Salem podcaster bent on debunking that city’s history of occult … and dismissing the uneasiness surrounding a haunted house that is now for sale. Her mission grows harder when the realtor handling the sale turns up dead. Will Mia be able to prove that things don’t go bump in the night? — Pamela Treadwell-Rubin
“Tiny Threads” by Lilliam Rivera introduces us to a young, fashion-obsessed woman who has landed her dream job working for a famous designer in Los Angeles. Soon, the dream becomes a nightmare, some of it imagined … and some of it deadly real. — Anne Gardner
“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler was a dystopian classic when published in 1993. Set in a someday America, it foresaw the collapse of a society ravaged by climate change. Three years ago, Damian Duffy and John Jennings adapted Butler’s story into a graphic novel set in 2024. The winner of a Hugo Award, this updated “Parable” is disturbingly prescient. — Abra McAndrew
“Slewfoot” by Brom is a tale of magic and mystery in Colonial New England. It is 1666, and a widowed outcast — who needs help and has nowhere else to turn — has come to an ancient spirit called Slewfoot for help. Together, they wage a battle between pagan and Puritan. The book features more than 20 of Brom’s paintings and endpapers. — Ashley Hansen
“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson was first published in 1959 and has been chilling generations of readers ever since. It is the story of four ghost-seekers hoping to experience signs of the occult. Things seem manageable at first, then turn terrifying. Modern audiences know of the book because of the adaptation series on Netflix. — Lindy Mullinax
“The Rabbi and the Twenty-nine Witches” by Marilyn Hirsh is a picture book that follows a wise, old rabbi who decides to rid his town of the witches who haunt the children whenever there is a full moon. — Lori Riegel
“Swallow the Ghost” by Eugenie Montague is an intricate debut novel that traces the impact a violent event has on three different lives, with each interconnected story complicating the “truth.” — Thea Chalow
“Shutter” by Ramona Emerson features Rita Todacheene, a forensic photographer with a unique gift: She sees the ghosts of the victims, and they point her to clues that might otherwise be overlooked. — Margie Farmer
Tucson's Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures is ready for Halloween with its new themed exhibits. From the Addams Family to Jean LeRoy’s Buzzard Creek Ghost Town, there is a lot to see.
The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission prices and other information can be found at theminitimemachine.org. Video by Pascal Albright / Arizona Daily Star
