5 Books to Read if You Love Hocus Pocus

I love October. I love Halloween. And guys, I really love Hocus Pocus.

It’s hard to resist a campy movie, and a campy movie about Halloween is right up my ally. The Sanderson Sisters are interesting as far as witches go, and these days its fun to see evil witches. All the characters always make me laugh, and who can resist a musical number? Oh yes, I love Hocus Pocus. My husband is always exasperated when I make him watch it every year.

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about recommending books to read around Halloween. Most of them are creepy or scary, which honestly isn’t really my thing. I don’t like Haunted Houses or creepy spider lawn decorations at Halloween. I like silly pumpkins, witches flying into trees, and some good old-fashioned smiling ghosts. So I thought I would put a list together of books you might like to read if you prefer the silly side of Halloween.

1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman

While having absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, Stardust definitely fits the bill of being fun, campy, and a little supernatural. The witches aren’t the main part of the story, but make excellent villains.

Confession: I haven’t read any of Neil Gaiman’s other books. *gasp!!!!!* However, I know there are some that are more Halloween-y, but I gather they’re more creepy as well.

2. Nighty Nightmare by James Howe

If you follow my blog regularly, you probably know I’m a huge fan of the Bunnicula series. They’re great for kids, about a 3rd or 4th grade reading level, and very funny, but I still get a kick out of them as an adult too. Nighty Nightmare is especially great for Halloween time as it’s written as a fireside scary story about the origins of the vampire rabbit. I would highly recommend reading it aloud with your kids the week or so leading up to Halloween.

3. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes novels much more than the short stories. They are more fleshed out a read like actual mystery novels. The Hound of the Baskervilles has a kind of broody, spooky vibe, but not enough to actually scare the reader. These days it comes off very campy, which was perfect for me. A great October read.

4. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

I admit, this is one of my all-time favorite books, so I would probably be recommending it to you anyway. I think the dichotomy of well-researched history and the absurd idea that Honest Abe hunted vampires is hilarious. Though I don’t find myself actually laughing out loud, the whole thing is so ridiculous that I just smiled the whole time. And I love that Grahame-Smith’s vampires were, you know, EVIL.

If you like that sort of thing, many of my friends LOVED Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which would also make a fabulous Halloween read.

5. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson

If you like classic monster stories, this is a good choice. I find most people haven’t read it. If you don’t know whether or not you like classic monster stories, this one is nice and short and could be a great place to test the waters. After all, if you hate it, you’ve only wasted 100 pages or so. Robert Lewis Stevenson is a master yarn-weaver, and this is a fun one.