13 great Canadian books to read this Halloween

It's the perfect time of year for a chilling read! Ghosts, witches and danger abound in these recent tales by Canadian authors.

Yume by Sifton Tracey Anipare

Image | Yume by Sifton Tracey Anipare

Caption: Yume is a novel by Sifton Tracey Anipare. (Dundurn Press)

In Yume, Cybelle works as an English teacher in a small city in Japan. As her contract comes to an end and her mother begs her to come back to Canada, Cybelle isn't sure where she belongs anymore. She faces fear and ostracism on a daily basis — and her life in general starts to get weird. Cybelle finds herself caught up in the clash of yokai (strange apparitions) and humans, and must figure out what's real and what she wants before her life spirals out of control.
Sifton Tracey Anipare is a Ghanaian Canadian writer who has lived and taught in Japan for four years. Yume is her first novel.

The Spirits Up by Todd Babiak

Image | The Spirits Up by Todd Babiak

Caption: The Spirits Up is a novel by Todd Babiak. (McClelland & Stewart, Cooper & O'Hara)

In The Spirits Up, Benedict is an inventor whose clean energy machine has made him a wealthy overnight sensation. His wife, Karen, and teenage daughters, Charlotte and Poppy, are proud of him. But Benedict doesn't realize that Karen is contemplating an affair, Charlotte has a chronic illness and the pressures of Poppy's social circle are getting too much for her. Benedict also holds a terrible secret about his clean energy machine. On Halloween night, an accident starts a series of hauntings — and the ghosts want something from the family.
Todd Babiak is a Canadian author and a screenwriter whose novels include The Empress of Idaho, Son of France, Come Barbarians, The Garneau Block, The Book of Stanley and Toby: A Man. He currently lives in Tasmania.

To See Out the Night by David Clerson, translated by Katia Grubisic

Image | To See Out the Night by David Clerson

Caption: To See Out the Night is a short story collection by David Clerson. (QC Fiction, David Cherniak)

In the short story collection To See Out the Night, insects and jellyfish reveal a predatory world of children's fairy tales, lurking shadows and unrelenting fevers where people are swallowed up by cities and bogs. To See Out the Night celebrates nature and humanity, in all their terrifying glory and blurs the lines between man and beast, and life and death.
David Clerson is a writer from Sherbrooke, Que. and currently lives in Montreal. His debut novel, Brothers, was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation.
Katia Grubisic is a writer, editor and translator. She also translated Clerson's Brothers.

Work for a Million by Amanda Deibert & Eve Zaremba, illustrated by Selena Goulding

Image | Work for a Millions by Amanda Deibert and Eve Zaremba, illustrated by Selena Goulding

Caption: Work for a Millions is a comic by Amanda Deibert and Eve Zaremba, illustrated by Selena Goulding. (McClelland & Stewart)

Work for a Million is a detective noir graphic novel set in the urban 1970s. Helen Keremos, a private detective, is hired by Sonia Deerfield, a rising pop star who has won a million dollar lottery prize and is currently being blackmailed. The two women are drawn closer together through the twists and turns of the blackmailer's dangerous pursuit.
Eve Zaremba is the author of six mystery novels featuring detective Helen Keremos, first introduced to readers in 1978. She was a founding member of the Broadside Collective, which produced a monthly feminist paper in Toronto from 1979 to 1989. Born in Poland, Zaremba emigrated to Canada in 1952 after a stint in the U.K.
Amande Deibert is a comic book and television writer based in Los Angeles.
Selena Goulding is a Canadian illustrator and comic book artist from Vancouver Island, currently living in Toronto. Susanna Moodie was her first full-length graphic novel. Her illustration work has also been showcased in the Dark Horse Comics anthology The Secret Loves of Geek Girls.

Red X by David Demchuk

Image | Red X by David Demchuk

Caption: Red X is a novel by David Demchuk. (daviddemchuk.com, Strange Light)

In the novel Red X, men are disappearing from the gay village in Toronto. Their disappearances are ignored by the police and media, but they rock the community — the same community dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis, police brutality and homophobia. This story unfolds alongside author David Demchuk's own story, as he explores the relationship between queerness and horror and how the scariest monsters that move through his community aren't imaginary.
Demchuk is a writer and a CBC communications officer. His first book, The Bone Mother, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Image | The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Caption: The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a novel by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn. (Simon & Schuster, Sandra Dufton)

Newfound freedom, insecurity, sexual competition — these are the elements Laurie Elizabeth Flynn mixes together in her psychological thriller, The Girls Are All So Nice Here. The book is about two former best friends, Ambrosia and Sloane, who return to their college reunion to learn that they have been targeted by someone who wants revenge for what they did 10 years before.
Flynn is a novelist based in London, Ont. She is also the author of the YA novels Firsts, All Eyes on Her and Last Girl Lied To.

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

Image | Rivka Galchen

Caption: Rivka Galchen is the author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch. (Sandy Tait, Harper Perennial)

The story begins in 1618, in the German duchy of Württemberg. Plague is spreading and the Thirty Years' War has begun. In the small town of Leonberg, an illiterate widow named Katharina Kepler is accused of being a witch. Katharina is known by her neighbours for her herbal remedies and the success of her children — enough to make anyone jealous. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is a story of how a community becomes implicated in collective aggression and hysterical fear is a tale for our time. It illuminates a society and a family undone by superstition, the state and the mortal convulsions of history.
Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch is a finalist for the 2021 Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.
Rivka Galchen is a Canadian American writer. She is also the author of the novel Atmospheric Disturbances and the short fiction collection American Innovations. She lives in New York City.

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu

Image | Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto

Caption: Shadow Life is a comic by Hiromi Goto. (First Second Press)

In the graphic novel Shadow Life, 76-year-old Kumiko is placed in a long-term care home by her daughters. It's not what Kumiko wants and she breaks out and takes refuge in an apartment she keeps secret from her children. She finds the pleasure in simple, daily life, but Death's shadow haunts her. Kumiko is ready to fight for the life she's built herself, but how long can she fight back?
Hiromi Goto is a writer and editor from British Columbia. Her novels include Chorus of Mushrooms, Half World and Darkest Light. Shadow Life is her first graphic novel.
Ann Xu is an American illustrator.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Image | Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

Caption: Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a novel by Cassandra Khaw. (Raincoast Books, Cassandra Khaw)

In the thriller Nothing But Blackened Teeth, the foundations of an abandoned mansion rest on the bones of a bride — and the walls are packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep the bride company. While it seems to be the perfect venue for thrill-seeking friends to celebrate a wedding, their night quickly becomes a nightmare as secrets are exposed and relationships are tested. And lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride who gets lonely down there in the dirt.
Cassandra Khaw is an author, game writer and former scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal. Their first novella, Hammers on Bone, received a British Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the Locus Award.

Hell's Flaw by Lovern Kindzierski, illustrated by John Bolton

Image | Hell's Flaw by Lovern Kindzierski, illustrated by John Bolton

Caption: Hell's Flaw is a comic written by Lovern Kindzierski, left, and illustrated by John Bolton, right. (Renegade Arts Entertainment)

Hell's Flaw is the fifth book in Lovern Kindzierski's Shame series. In Hell's Flaw, Hope must deal with the corruption of a good friend. But that's not her only challenge: she might have to fight monsters as she tries to find her way back to the Cradle.
Lovern Kindzierski is a Winnipeg-based comic writer whose past work includes Underworld and the Shame trilogy.
John Bolton is a British cartoonist and illustrator.

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Image | Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Caption: Velvet Was the Night is a novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. (Del Ray, Martin Dee)

Set in the 1970s in Mexico City, Velvet Was the Night follows a secretary named Maite who lives to read the latest issue of Secret Romance. She escapes into stories of passion and danger, ignoring the student protests and political unrest that consume the city. When her next-door neighbour, Leonora, a beautiful art student, disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite searches for her and uncovers her secret life as a student radical and dissident. Eccentric criminal Elvis, at the request of his boss, is also looking for Leonora. As Maite and Elvis come closer to finding out the truth behind Leonora's disappearance, they can no longer escape the danger that threatens to consume their lives.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Canadian writer born and raised in Mexico. She's the author of novels Mexican Gothic, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Signal to Noise, Certain Dark Things and The Beautiful Ones. She has previously won the Goodreads Readers Choice Award, the Copper Cylinder Award and Aurora Award.

Ghost Lake by Nathan Niigan Adler

Image | Ghost Lake by Nathan Adler

Caption: Ghost Lake is a novel by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler. (Submitted by Nathan Adler, Kegedonce Press)

Nathan Niigan Adler's book collects 13 stories from a connected cast of characters as they encounter the mysterious around Ghost Lake. Among the stories, Tyler, Clay and Dare are faced with answering a ghostly debt, Zaude seeks answers to her brother's suspicious death and Aanzheyaawin haunts the northern Ontario reserve with vengeance in her spirit.
Adler is an Ojibwe Jewish author and a member of Lac Des Milles Lacs First Nation. His previous book was the horror novel Wrist. He won the 2021 Indigenous Voices Award for published prose in English fiction for Ghost Lake.

Stillwater by Chip Zdarsky and Ramón K. Pérez

Image | Chip Zdarsky, Stillwater, Ramon K. Perez

Caption: Stillwater is a comic book series by Chip Zdarsky, left, and Ramón K. Pérez, right. (zdars.co, Image Comics, Submitted by Ramón K Pérez)

In the comic Stillwater, Daniel is summoned to a mysterious, unheard-of town called Stillwater after receiving a letter of inheritance from his great-grand-aunt's estate. He discovers that the town is a place where no one can die — a quirk with surprising consequences for its residents.
Chip Zdarsky is a comic book writer and illustrator born in Edmonton and based in Toronto. The creator has worked on books such as the award-winning Sex Criminals, Kaptara, Jughead, Howard the Duck, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, Afterlift and Daredevil. He was a finalist for best writer at the 2021 Eisner Awards.
Ramón K. Pérez has won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards for his work as a cartoonist and illustrator. His artwork can be seen in comics like Jane, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre, The Amazing Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl and The All-New Hawkeye.