I picked up a copy of We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson last week at the library:

It is a Gothic masterwork, and the speculation it allows around the psychopathology of Merricat and the townsfolk who hate her and her sister and uncle is irresistible.

Even though I didn't choose it with the intention of kicking off any kind of Halloween-y creepy reading list, now that I've started The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, it seems I've inadvertently waded into Gothic waters. Atwood is incredible, but I'm in the mood for something a little more straightforward. So I've made it official: my next book will be It by Stephen King. I was a voracious King reader as a high-schooler. And a copy of Salem's Lot I found in a call room nightstand once got me through a snowy, slow call night as a resident. I left the book there when I finished, and I have wondered many times since how many residents at Deaconess Medical Center have found that same book and killed a couple hours with it. I know, I know, that King is hardly literary. His is not necessarily the kind of reading that increases empathy, but since It is currently crushing it (see what I did there?) at the box office and in critical reviews, it's time.

Assuming I can get through It's 900+ pages in the next few weeks, what other creepy-crawly books should I attack before All Hallow's Eve?