Embrace spooky this Halloween

I wholeheartedly embrace Halloween, not for its commercial and tacky aspects but because, like many other Western festivals, Halloween has a long and fascinating history and I can’t resist a dark and mysterious story.

Halloween traces its origins back to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain – pronounced ‘sow-in’ in Gaelic. Originally, it marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter in Ireland, and the following day (1 November) would mark the ancient Celts’ new year.

Later known as All Hallows Eve, the festival was considered to be a time when the boundaries separating the spiritual world and the real world were stripped back, allowing ghosts, spirits and fairies to cross over on that night.

So, to celebrate the spooky season, here are some of my favourite stories by the master of horror, Stephen King.

Salem’s Lot. I’m a sucker for a good vampire story (pun intended😊). Set in the small town of Jerusalem’s (Salem’s) Lot, we follow writer Ben Mears, who has returned to the Lot after 25 years to write a novel about the abandoned and very creepy Marsten House. No one ever sees the new owner of the house, Kurt Barlow, and the death of a 12-year-old boy and disappearance of his brother are the start of a spate of disappearances and malaise to hit Salem’s Lot, which quickly becomes overrun by, you guessed it, vampires.

Pet Sematary. As someone who has buried some of our beloved family pets in the backyard, this story literally gave me the creeps. Dr Louis Creed moves to the town of Ludlow with his wife Rachel and two young children, Ellie and Gage along with Ellie’s cat. He becomes friends with his elderly neighbour, who shows him a pet cemetery in the woods maintained by local children. When Ellie’s cat is run over, he buries it in the cemetery, but the cat returns from the dead. Then his young son is also killed on the busy highway, and against the advice of his neighbour, Louis buries his son in the pet cemetery. You can see where this is going …

IT. My husband suffers from Coulrophobia, or a fear of clowns, so it’s probably a good thing he’s never read King’s novel, IT. In 1958, a group of young friends, known as the Losers, searched for an evil creature, preying on children, in the sewers beneath the city of Derry. Twenty-eight years on, children are once again being murdered and the seven adults reunite to do battle with the monster in the sewers once more, resurfacing memories they’ve suppressed for almost thirty years.

On my To Be Read pile for this Halloween is local, Aussie author Camille Booker’s gothic mermaid tale, The Woman in the Waves. Keep following my Facebook and Instagram pages for an upcoming review.

And don’t forget my own Australian gothic novel, Bad Country, which explores the haunting connection between people and place. Bad Country is available from my website, select indie bookshops and online – go to the link on my Books page for more. The sequel, Bad People, is getting close, and I’ll be sharing some exciting news soon.

I’d love to know what stories give you goosebumps. Happy Halloween everyone.