Teenagers often groan at “classics”, but gothic novels are the exception. They have monsters, secrets and cliffhangers, and many of today’s horror films come straight from them. Every book below is free in Pagine, so a whole Halloween reading list costs nothing.

Start short: one-evening reads

  • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820): a funny, eerie tale with a famous chase scene.
  • The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886): a short mystery about a man with two selves. Great for discussing good and evil.
  • Short stories to look for: “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe (1843), “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs (1902) and “The Canterville Ghost” by Oscar Wilde (1887), which is funny rather than frightening.

The big gothic novels

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818): she began it as a teenager. A creature, a creator and the question of who the real monster is.
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897): told in letters and diary entries, which makes it feel like a found-footage story.
  • The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1910): mystery and romance under the Paris Opera House.
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902): a detective story with a supernatural mood.

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Make it a Halloween book club

Pick one short story and one novel. Read the short one aloud together on Halloween night, then give everyone two weeks for the novel. Good discussion questions:

  • Who is the real monster in the story, and why?
  • How does the author build suspense?
  • What would this story look like as a film made today?

Free Halloween writing prompts work for older students too.

Halloween science and history for Grades 9–12

Prefer non-fiction? Pagine Originals for high school connect Halloween with real science: The Fungus That Steers Ants, The Immortal Jellyfish, Glow-in-the-Dark Chemistry, Ghost Particles and The Year Without a Summer, the cold, stormy year in which Frankenstein was written.

These books were written for adults in the 1800s. Some passages are slow and some ideas are dated, which makes for good discussion. Preview anything you are unsure about.

Read these gothic classics free in Pagine, on the web or in the app.

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