October 2025 List of the Month: Ghost Stories That Thrill Us

The thrills of a good ghost story—the chills down the spine, the jump scare at an unexpected reveal, the gloomy sense of impending danger—are one of the pleasures of this season! Our October 2025 List of the Month is devoted to the Ghost Stories That Thrill Us.

Each member may add ten titles. Please only downvote titles which are not ghost stories.

For a complete list of topics covered so far in our project, please see the new section for Lists of the Month on the Zeitgeist page

We would welcome suggestions for future lists. Please add them here, and we will keep them in mind, going forward.

Scary stories don't particularly interest me, so most of mine have ghosts but aren't horror.

>2 Aquila: I was just saying to Zeph that I read mostly gentle/friendly ghost stories! But there are a few spooky ones I really want to get to at some point, when I can work up the nerve. I don't read (or watch) a lot of horror.

One of mine also isn't a ghost story, but it's similar to the way Scooby Doo stories aren't ghost/monster stories, so I think it belongs and won't be challenged.

Since "thrill" doesn't have to mean "scare" or "fright", I think any story with a ghost fits the list description. Though the specific mentions lean toward horror, I'm interested in the other ways ghosts can be imagined.

Most of my favourites aren't novels but short stories.

>5 elenchus: That's fair. My description does lean toward the frightening, but I agree that thrill has many meanings.

>1 AbigailAdams26: Thank you for this! I try to spend the entire month of October each year reading and listening to things that scare me just enough that I get a mild case of the willies, but I can still get to sleep at night.

Y'know, I don't think I've really read/watched/(etc) a lot of things that can be considered "ghost stories". So this list will be helpful in getting myself to check out more :p

Are the Harry Potter novels by Joanne K. Rowling or Pet Sematary by Stephen King also ghost stories?

I am going to have to list two of my favourites:

The Turn of the Screw by Hanry James and Dracula by Bram Stoker.

<10> Aren’t vampires proscribed?

>11 abbottthomas:. Vampires should always be proscribed, they've clotted the cultural landscape for far to long. I mean, look at how they made me mix metaphors! Insidious creatures and always late on the rent.

Can I remove a title that I added? If so, how?

Thanks! This is a fun list!

>12 SomeGuyInVirginia: Yes. If you hover over the green "On your List" button, you'll see it shows the option to Remove. Just click on the button to do this.

@AbigailAdams26, I noticed the collection should-be-read-in-schools on @Elanna76's profile page, and that struck me as something that would make a really good List of the Month.