Derby Book Festival Recommends: Spooky Season

The team offer their recommendations on the theme "spooky season".

Amy - Shared Reading Volunteer and Support Officer: Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel

Giving Up The Ghost is Mantel’s memoir, written in 2003, before she found immense fame and was granted a CBE (in 2006) and later made a Dame (in 2014). Not a conventionally spooky read, but there are ghosts wafting throughout this book. It’s a gorgeous read and although it’s not fiction, it’s very sensuous. It feels even more poignant now that Mantel has passed away, and gives an insight into her thoughts about her body, her illness and her family.

Sarah - Festival Trustee: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is not a traditional ghost story, but it is one of the most haunting novels in English literature. It delves into the darker side of human nature and readers find themselves immersed in a chilling and unsettling atmosphere with a sinister and twisted protagonist.

This Gothic masterpiece is set on the desolate Yorkshire moors and the isolated windswept landscape perfectly mirrors the inner turmoil of the central characters. The titular home, Wuthering Heights, is described as a dark, oppressive, and forbidding. You can almost hear the howling wind and feel the chill creeping through the cracks of the old house.

Although Wuthering Heights is not technically a ghost story, it features one of literature’s most famous spectral moments. In one of the book’s most eerie scenes the narrator encounters a ghostly figure at her window, desperately trying to get in. Her wailing and scratching at the glass is the stuff of nightmares.

The entire novel is infused with a sense of lingering spirits, as if the dead never truly leave. But the real terror comes not in ghosts or supernatural forces, but in the capacity of humans to harm each other.

Vanessa - Children and Young People's Co-ordinator: Zombierella by Joseph Coelho

Children's Laureate 2022-2024, Joseph Coelho's books are always an absolute delight. His playful use of language is beautiful in this gothic retelling of the classic tale. There is plenty of challenging vocabulary and I love the way that he doesn't shy away from using complicated language with children. Zombierella is full of twisted fairy tale fun, keeping many of the original elements of Cinderella, but making them macabre. The book features beautiful Illustrations by Freya Hartas that add to the meaning of the tale. And a bonus, if you like this one, there are another two in this fabulously creepy, 'Fairy Tales Gone Bad' series, Frankenstiltskin and Creeping Beauty.

The story is introduced by the librarian of fairy tales gone bad, 'This gory story has bugs and bogeys, slimy surprises, and more than a spot of revenge. And, yes... I'm afraid dear sweet readers, that there is DEATH'

If you have a child that loves a gory tale, then this book is for them. If you have a reluctant older reader, then this book is for them as the 'verse' style of writing makes it a quick read. The illustrations make it accessible to even younger readers with an adult reading it to them. However, this book contains a zombie, a vampire, dead animals and Death herself, so it is not for every child.

If you are on the lookout for something with just a 'touch' of spooky, then I highly recommend 'VLAD, The Fabulous Vampire', by Flavia Z.Drago, a beautifully illustrated tale of being true to yourself.

Rose - Shared Reading Strategic Lead: Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power had me hooked from the start, perfect for eerie autumn nights with the wind howling outside. This chilling tale follows a group of girls quarantined at their school after a mysterious infection warps their bodies in terrifying ways. When Byatt goes missing, Hetty is willing to risk everything—breaking quarantine and facing the unknown lurking beyond the fence—to find her. Creepy, unsettling, and impossible to put down!

Keith - Festival Chair: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

It’s not so much the castle-home setting, though it contributes atmosphere, but rather the deeply troubled, unpredictably unbalanced and sinisterly polite characters in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle which renders it, on my reading, such a spooky novel. The plot centres on 18-year-old Merricat, who lives with her sister Constance, who the reader learns has been acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, and her Uncle Julian. The first part of the narration provides the quotidian life detail of an odd and isolated trio in their family home, which is unsettling enough, but the reader’s unease then goes off the scale upon the arrival of the disruptive cousin Charlie and Merricat’s and Constance’s defensive campaign to preserve at all costs the home life they have created. Returning to the book to write this entry brings back the memory of dread as I progressively turned the pages of what is a slim novel, not much longer than a novella.

Maddie - Festival, Office and Shared Reading Administrator: Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

Dark Matter was my introduction to horror fiction, so will always hold a special place in my heart. More than that, it set the bar incredibly high for all the books that follow as I desperately try to recreate the incredible feeling of reading Michelle's Pavers masterful take on the English Victorian Ghost Story.

An expedition to the Arctic Circle is beset by misfortune, leaving Jack in the bitter position of having to overwinter at the deserted frozen settlement - alone. No surprises for guessing that it is absolutely, horrifyingly haunted.

It's a swift read (especially if, like me, you get so scared that you have to stay up all night to finish it!) and is filled with uncompromising dread, profound sadness, remarkable scene-setting and a relentless, pounding horror that compels you to press on to the gut-wrenching conclusion. For an extra layer of spookiness I highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by the great Jeremy Northam.

What books would you recommend? Have you read any of the books on this list? We'd love to hear your thoughts! Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter and follow us across social media!