Fight Boredom with Exciting Horror Books

You’ve seen book-scented candles, but how about candles that specifically smell like horror books? This candle smells like haunted pages. What exactly does that smell like? You get to choose. Clean cotton? Sea salt and orchid? Cinnamon vanilla? These are all excellent options. And the candle is $20.

Historical gothic horror is always a big yes for me, and this one sounds particularly good. Set in England in 1840, this book follows Orabella Mumthrope, the orphaned daughter of a white man and a Black woman. She didn’t think she would ever get married, but with her uncle’s debts, she has to consider it, especially when she’s approached by a very wealthy and very attractive man named Elias Blakersby. Orabella allows him to sweep her away to his family estate, Korringhill Manor, but home is not what she expected. Everything is falling apart, and the servants seem nervous.

This fast-paced horror novel is anything but boring. When 13-year-old Ben joins a reform program for troubled teens located in a remote camp in the forest, he immediately feels uneasy about the whole setup. There’s something strange about the camp counselors. They all seem a little bit too cheery… as if they’re hiding something sinister. With the help of the boys he meets in his cabin, will Ben be able to uncover what’s really going on?

Let’s honor the true holiday of July and beat boredom with this witchy horror novel. Lucky St. James lives in a tiny apartment in Toronto with her grandmother Stella. One day, she finds something strange in the wall of her apartment: a silver spoon with the image of a witch etched into it and the word “SALEM.” Lucky has no idea that the spoon actually links her to a whole network of witches throughout North America through a front company called VenCo.

Here’s another horror book that had me turning pages quickly, eager to see what would happen next. And I know I’ve talked about a lot of Grady before, but here’s one I maybe haven’t talked up enough, especially because it’s so fun. After Louise’s parents die unexpectedly, she’s forced to go home to Charleston to take care of their affairs. Louise thinks the most difficult part of selling her parents’ home is going to be dealing with her shiftless brother Mark. But neither Louise nor Mark are prepared to face what really awaits them in that house.