What frightens you, tingles your spine, gives you that isolating sense of dread?

For some, it’s monsters — grotesque creatures that are unnatural yet unnervingly human. For others, it’s the supernatural — old ghost tales and haunted mansions with dark, decrepit pasts. Other terrors take more realistic roots — true crime legends and psychological fears that often blur the lines between fiction and reality.

“Everyone is scared of something,” says Rachel Stewart, English PhD student and horror literature aficionado. “We are drawn to it, and we want to explore it — even if we don’t want to face our fears.”

With the Halloween season approaching, here is a quick list of books Stewart recommends to give you the chills.

Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley and Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker

They’re the classics. I would recommend them to everyone because of their longevity and the interesting things going on there.”

The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson

People know her name, but maybe they haven’t actually delved into her or read her work, which is older but still very accessible and still holds up very well.”

Uzumaki (1998) by Junji Ito

Junji Ito writes incredible horror, and it’s visual because it’s manga — like a graphic novel. The whole series deals with spirals, which you don’t immediately think is a very terrifying thing, but the ways he makes the spiral an analogue to so many different things is fascinating. I would not recommend it if you have a weaker stomach because it’s very gruesome and very visual horror, but it’s incredible.”

Annihilation (2014) by Jeff VanderMeer

It’s science fiction, but I would also call it horror because it deals with body horror and the science fiction of you becoming nature and your body mutating as a result of nature, which I think is really interesting.”

Her Body and Other Parties (2017) by Carmen Maria Machado

It’s a very modern short story collection that deals a lot with feminist and queer horror, and it’s fantastic. I think that might be my go-to because that’s what I think is the most accessible. It’s newer stories, so that would be my No. 1 recommendation if you want to dip your toes into horror.”