Halloween Book Club Picks (With Questions)

Why it works for a group: Short, endlessly debatable, and the ambiguity fuels a full evening.

• ✦Is Hill House haunted, or is Eleanor? Where does the book land for you?
• ✦How does Jackson make you feel dread without ever showing a ghost?
• ✦Why do you think Eleanor wants so badly to stay?

Why it works for a group: Gothic atmosphere with a lot to unpack about family, power, and colonialism.

• ✦How does High Place itself function as a character?
• ✦Noemí starts out as a socialite. What changes her, and when?
• ✦Which gothic conventions does the book keep, and which does it flip?

Why it works for a group: An October classic, and great for groups with mixed horror tolerance.

• ✦What does the carnival offer people, and what does it cost them?
• ✦Will and Jim want different things from growing up. Who did you relate to?
• ✦Charles Halloway’s answer to evil is laughter. Does that land for you?

Why it works for a group: Witchy without the gore: the cozy pick for the club that doesn’t do scary.

• ✦How do Sally and Gillian each try to escape the family name?
• ✦Is the magic in this book a gift or a burden?
• ✦Book vs. movie: what did each get right?

Why it works for a group: Public domain, so it’s free for everyone, and it’s the root of the genre.

• ✦Who is the real monster: Victor or the creature?
• ✦What does Victor owe the thing he made?
• ✦How is the novel different from the pop-culture Frankenstein you expected?

Why it works for a group: Contemporary literary horror. The group that wants something new will argue about it for hours.

• ✦How does the book use horror to talk about guilt and consequences?
• ✦Whose perspective hit hardest, and why?
• ✦How did the ending change how you read the first chapter?