Several people have suggested a brilliant new idea for Halloween: Give a scary book this Halloween. You don’t have to give a book to every trick-or-treater, but maybe get a few books for the special people in your life… or maybe those who just need a good venture into the dark.

Don’t forget about used book stores as a potential place to get some books that are less expensive. AND don’t forget that you can give someone the gift of appreciating some Canadian horror and remind them that we can write some really great spooky stories and terrifying tales.

Here are just a few great Canadian horror, dark fantasy, paranormal romance, or monstrous novels that you can give out, read to people who need a good scare, or read for your own pleasure:

Vampires:

Tanya Huff – Blood Books series

Nancy Kilpatrick – Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead

Nancy Kilpatrick – Evolve 2: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead

Nancy Kilpatrick – Vampiric Variations

Nancy Baker – Blood and Chrysanthemums

Nancy Baker – A Terrible Beauty

Nancy Baker – The Night Inside

Liz Strange – The Embrace of Life and Death

Drew Hayden Taylor – The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel

Michael Rowe – Enter, Night

Werewolves:

Kelly Armstrong – Bitten

Sparkle Hayter – Naked Brunch

Zombies:

Corey Redekop – Husk

James Marshall – Zombies Versus Fairy Featuring Albinos

Tales of Terror and the Supernatural:

Kelly Armstrong – Women of the Otherworld (series)

Charles de Lint – Mulengro

Ian Rogers – Every House is Haunted

Ian Rogers – SuperNOIRtural Tales

DD Barant – The Bloodhound Files series

Lydia Peever – Pray Lied Eve

Mark Leslie (editor) – Campus Chills

Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell (editors) – Tesseracts Thirteen: Chilling Tales of the Great White North

Don Hutchinson (editor)- Northern Frights (series)

Sean Moreland, Aalya Ahmad (editors) – Postscripts to Darkness (series)

These are just a few of the incredible Canadian tales of darkness (and I know I am forgetting a lot of them with this list). What’s your flavour of monster, your favourite taste of darkness? Take a long sip before the horrors of winter.