"Spooky" Audiobook Recs 🎧

   

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

"Spooky" Audiobook Recs

The prompt for this week's Top Ten Tuesday was a Fall Freebie. I decided to pick out some of the "spooky"/horror audiobooks I have enjoyed over the years. Horror is not a genre that I listen to a lot so I added in a couple "spookier" fantasy books.

1. The Wizards of Once series by Cressida Cowell

 

narrated by David Tennant 

    - Cressida Cowell is famous for writing the middle grade series How to Train Your Dragon, which became a very success movie series. I have not read any of those books, but I do adore her writing in this series. This is also middle grade and the audiobooks are phenomenally narrated by David Tennant. David is one of my all-time favorite actors and narrators and I love how he creates voices for each of the characters in this story. These are not horror books, though they might be considered spooky to a younger reader. 

2. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

 

narrated by Simon Vance 

    - Simon Vance is another audiobook narrator whose narration I always enjoy when I listen to his work. He did a wonderful job creating the voice for Louis' story. It is such a thought-provoking book. I have been a fan of the movie with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise for a very long time and am incredibly happy I finally picked the book up last year. It is a great book. 

  

3. Slade House by David Mitchell 

 

narrated by Thomas Judd and Tania Rodrigues

    - Probably the most creepy and eerie book on this list. It is a strange book that is a collection of short stories that are all connected by the Slade House and the Grayer twins. Each section of this book is narrated by a different character and the stories build off of each other in clever ways. Every nine years, people are led into the Slade House by various means and never come out again.

David Mitchell's eerie writing kept me intrigued to see what would happen next and I loved the interlocking narrative. He is a writer I have been wanting to read for years. I'm glad I chose to read this book. It is an interesting take on a ghost/haunted house story and I enjoyed the elements of that throughout. As the book continues on though, it becomes so much more. I look forward to checking out his other books especially The Bone Clocks, which I heard this is connected to. Both narrators do a wonderful job narrating the various characters' perspectives throughout the book. 

 

4. The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

 

narrated by Susan Dalian

    - I know this novella will not be for everyone but I highly enjoyed this unsettling and eerie take on mermaids. 

 

5. A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

narrated by Eliza Foss and Jennifer Pickens

    - It wouldn't be a "spooky" book list for me if I didn't include at least one T. Kingfisher. I haven't read many of her more scarier works, though I plan on rectifying that next month. A Sorceress Comes to Call definitely has some of its creepy moments. I love how she blends in horror with her humor. This is the perfect blend of both for me. The audiobook for this novel is great!

6. Lewis Barnavelt series started by John Bellairs and completed by Brad Strickland (Books 1-12) 

narrated by George Guidall

 - I started the Lewis Barnavelt series back in 2024 with The House with a Clock in Its Walls and read the next three books in the series. This month, I read the rest of the books in the series and highly enjoyed most of them. There are a few later on in the series which I didn't like but I'm glad I read them all. 

George Guidall was a perfect narrator for Lewis, Uncle Jonathan, Rose Rita, and Mrs. Zimmerman's story. My favorites are The House with a Clock in Its Walls, The Ghost in the Mirror, and The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer. These are middle grade horror and they do get creepy at times. 

 

  

Others I Would Like to Check Out

 

Here are some of the audiobooks I would like to listen to in the near future. 

7. Dracula by Bram Stoker

narrated by a full cast including Tim Curry, Alan Cumming, Katherine Kellgren, Simon Vance, etc.   

    - Dracula is one of my all-time favorite books horror books ever and I have been meaning to listen to this version of the book for a very long time. It has many of my favorite narrators along with some great actors doing roles. I think it would be an entertaining way of experiencing a story I love with all my heart, especially with Tim Curry. If you are interested in reading Dracula, I definitely recommend picking up Daily Dracula which was edited by Matt Kirkland. I read through it last year and highly enjoyed it.

8. King Sorrow by Joe Hill

narrated by a full cast including Ari Fliatkos, Kate Mulgrew, Ian Shaw, etc.

 - King Sorrow has been on my TBR ever since I first heard about it last year. I love Faustian bargain based stories and this one sounds so intriguing to me. Also this is a dark academia story which sounds perfect to me. I have never read a Joe Hill book but I would like to check this one out. It is quite long though. 

 

9. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

narrated by Dan Stevens 

 

    - Another one of my favorite horror novels is Frankenstein and I would love to listen to the version of it read by Dan Stevens. 

 

 

 

10. Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

narrated by January LaVoy

    - January LaVoy is a great audiobook narrator and I believe she will bring a lot to what sounds like a great story. It is about the decadents of Baba Yaga who is a witch from Slavic folklore who lives in a house with chicken legs which is able to move. The book sounds like a dark twisted fairy tale which I'm hoping to get to next month.