This October\u2019s spooky season has Dr Jenny DiPlacidi, a lecturer who specialises in Gothic Studies, asking staff and students what their favourite scary books are. Whether it\u2019s Gothic, horror, true crime or non-fiction, our students and staff have been putting together a list of some of the creepiest, most spine-tingling books we\u2019ve read for this All Hallows\u2019 Eve. Our top picks for your nightmare needs:<\/p>\n
Dr Jenny DiPlacidi suggests The Buffalo Hunter Hunter<\/em> (Titan Books, 2025). This is an intense, powerful contemporary Gothic written by Stephen Graham Jones, a Blackfeet Native American author, who has crafted a chilling, historical horror set in the breathtaking Montana landscape. In the modern day timeline, the reader follows an English professor as she becomes immersed in her ancestor\u2019s diary, a discovered manuscript that tells of a series of gruesome murders gripping his small Montana town in 1912. We are plunged into the region\u2019s bloody past in this visceral exploration of the lasting trauma of the horrors and violence committed against indigenous peoples in the West. This is one of the best works of Gothic literature I have read in years!<\/p>\n Caroline Fraser\u2019s non-fiction book Murderland<\/em> (Fleet, 2025) is Dr Sara Lyons\u2019 pick. This is an in-depth study on the prevalence of serial killers in America in the 1970s that takes Ted Bundy as the key case study. Fraser\u2019s comprehensive exploration of environmental pollution and poisoning and its effects on violence and predation is compelling and terrifying. Fraser simultaneously maps out murders geographically and environmentally, demonstrating the proliferation of murders around regions that were particularly plagued with environmental catastrophes and pollution from mining, smelting and the industrial plants and facilities attached to this industry. Meticulously researched and with compelling writing and bone-chilling true crime details, you will never look at serial killers, maps or factories the same again.<\/p>\n PhD student Chama Oulichki recommends Tananarive Due\u2019s novel The Reformatory <\/em>(Titan Books, 2023), a terrifying story based on the real-life Dozier School for Boys in Florida where Due\u2019s uncle Robert Stephens died when he was 15. This novel explores the lasting horror of systemic racism in America and the hauntings that linger in the wake of violence and abuse. Imprisoned in the reformatory, Robert sees the ghosts of those who were tortured and killed there, uncovering the history of terrors hidden within the building, committed by those in positions of authority and power. Due\u2019s novel solidifies her place as a leading writer of contemporary horror and demonstrates why Black Horror is such a powerful genre for political critique.<\/p>\nMurderland<\/em><\/strong> by Caroline Fraser<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Reformatory<\/em><\/strong> by Tananarive Due<\/strong><\/h3>\n