Dani Dennison, Sally Owens, Kat Harvey, Marnie Piper. These are just a few iconic Halloween movie characters viewers associate with the spookiest holiday. You might love Dani because she’s nostalgic or Sally because she’s magical or Marnie because she’s rebellious. Whatever the reason, these characters have captivated viewers and made our love for these movies grow. There’s a Halloween read to pair with each unique character. So, depending on which character is your favorite, we created a fall reading list worthy of these timeless characters, for you to read now or even after spooky season ends.
If your favorite character is Dani Dennison from Hocus Pocus:
Watching Hocus Pocus as a kid, it was hard not to want to be just like Dani Dennison. Not only did she have the best Halloween costume, but she was also headstrong and brave enough to stand up to three witches and had the best cat/protector. We fell in love with Binx alongside her and cried at the end when he moved on. If you want a ghostly protector of your own, You’re The One That I Haunt by Katie Jung is a good Halloween read. It features a ghost who can’t rest until he resolves his unfinished business, much like Binx, and the young woman who has to help him.
Synopsis:
Libby Lakoski has two major problems. First, she’s secretly in love with her best friend, Carter Coldwell, and second, he’s marrying someone else. Carter’s the only person who has ever made Libby feel chosen, and sure, his fiancee is a British diamond heiress, but Carter and Libby have years of shared history and longing looks between them. Not to mention, Libby is the only person Carter trusted enough to tell about the dark magic that plagues his family.
But then a third and related problem presents itself—or, himself. Trip Coldwell is Carter’s handsome, smart, flirtatious cousin who also happens to be… a ghost. Trip’s “unfinished business” is to break the Coldwell curse, but the solution hinges on Libby encouraging Carter to allow his wedding to proceed. Unfortunately, Libby is the only person who can see Trip, and her objective is the exact opposite. Can Libby put aside her pining for Carter and work with his hot and not-quite-living cousin to save both men?
As they follow a trail of clues across New York City, Libby finds herself questioning just how much Carter reciprocated her friendship, feeling perplexed by a growing attraction to Trip, and fantasizing about actually touching him. With the countdown to the wedding in full swing, Libby must choose between saving the Coldwells and holding tight to her own happily ever after.
Available Now via Penguin Random House. Order here.
If your favorite character is Sally Owens from Practical Magic:
Sally Owens is doomed in love. An ancestor scorned by a lover casts a spell that anyone unlucky to fall in love with an Owens will die. The curse, along with the prejudice aimed at her for being a witch, has made Sally turn her back on magic. But when she opens her heart to it, she’s not only able to become a powerful witch. She can save her sister too. Like Sally, the main character in Alexandra Bellefleur’s novel, Damned If I Do, guards her heart. She’s as headstrong as Sally is complicated.
Synopsis: Effie MacLeod is no stranger to making desperate decisions, but making a deal with Lucifer himself—sacrificing her soul to save a loved one—has got to be her most monumental. Several hundred years into her tenure as a demon, Effie’s found herself engaged to Belphegor, a handsome, seductive, and successful Prince of Hell. It’s not a love match, but it’ll do. There’s just one teensy-tiny little problem: She’s still bound to her sixteenth-century Scottish husband. While Effie casts her human life aside, Finn has been reincarnated through several lifetimes.
Effie must convince Finn to renounce their age-old vows in order get the Office of Infernal Internal Affairs off her back. The kicker? When she finds him in this lifetime, Finn doesn’t remember anything, but he refuses her request for a divorce.
Annoyed to be stuck with him in small-town Georgia until she can persuade Finn to abandon their marriage, Effie must convince him that yes, she does want to get on with her devilish shenanigans despite the physical pull she feels toward him. As they get closer in hopes of recovering his lost memories, Effie can’t help but notice murmurings of her deeply buried feelings resurfacing. But while all’s fair in love and war, that’s not the case in Hell—and Lucifer may have his own reasons for wanting to keep Finn and Effie apart for the rest of eternity.
Available now via Penguin Random House. Order here.
If your favorite character is Kat Harvey from Casper:
Kat Harvey is less than thrilled following a move to Whipstaff Manor in Maine. Not that she has a choice. Her ghost therapist father is hired to exorcise the haunted mansion. Though she’s not a believer when they first move to the crumbling mansion, she understands her dad’s desperation to contact her late mom in the afterlife. If you’re skeptical of the paranormal like Kat or if you love the idea of moving into a haunted mansion, the aptly titled How To Renovate A Haunted House by Jenny L. Howe is perfect for Halloween.
Synopsis:
Amity Callaway is sick of being known as the weird girl. As annoyed as she is that her recently divorced mom just moved them across the country to the tiny, quirky town of Harlow’s Rest, Massachusetts, it could be the fresh start she needs.
Until Amity discovers their absolute disaster of a new house is supposedly haunted.
Theo Hargrave, amateur ghost hunter and son of the local general contractor, is a true believer. When he shows up on their property with his EMF reader in hand, Amity is ready to debunk all his theories. She’s definitely not staring at the small scar through his eyebrow or his ridiculously soft lips.
But even Amity can admit their home renovation is doomed. Nothing is going right, from the paint that refuses to dry to the fixtures that keep coming loose. So Amity and Theo strike a deal—his family’s construction expertise for her help investigating the house’s supernatural secrets. Even scarier than ghosts, though? Amity’s growing feelings for Theo.
Available now via Penguin Random House. Order here.
If your favorite character is Marnie Piper from Halloweentown:
In Halloweentown, young viewers loved meeting Marnie as she discovers not only that magic is real but that there’s a whole witchy town. The protagonist in Disenchanted by Lucy Jane Wood is not as thrilled with her magic as Marnie is to discover she comes from a long line of witches but she does live in a town where magic begins to run rampant. Fun and cozy, just like the movie, this is a lighthearted and sweet Halloween read.
Synopsis: Sage Hemlock has no interest in embracing her witchy side. Magic has betrayed her before, bringing nothing but heartache, and she will not let something so foolish happen again.
Instead, Sage has thrown herself into her work and studies, running the local museum and largely preferring the company of her library and her cat to other humans. Her one goal is to fly under the coven’s radar so that she can finally shed her blasted powers forever.
But when a strange historical book accidentally sets off a curse, Sage’s quiet small-town life is suddenly overrun and magic is running rife. A beanstalk grows in her garden, and her friend and coworker Casimir starts to look an awful lot like a handsome prince. Fairy tales are coming true. . . .
Now, with the threat of the coven on her tail, Sage must confront the magic she’s always denied to solve the mysteries of the book and save everyone she’s come to love from being lost to a fairy tale forever. The question is, can she finally learn to be her own happily ever after?
Available now via Penguin Random House. Order here.
If your favorite character is Needy Lesnicki from Jennifer’s Body:
Needy lives a pretty normal life until her best friend, the titular main character, Jennifer, turns into a succubus after an emo boy band. Needy’s life is upended by the supernatural. Like Jennifer’s Body, I Hope This Email Finds You In Hell is a great Halloween read. It’s funny, with an enticing mix of horror, thriller and romance rolled into one.
Synopsis: After her parents’ death, twenty-seven-year-old Brie has mastered the art of compartmentalization to survive her mind-numbing routine as a receptionist at a life insurance company. But when she accidentally catches her hot, uptight boss, Luke, performing an exorcism on Debra from accounting, her carefully ordered world implodes.
Swearing Brie to secrecy, Luke reveals he’s from a line of demon hunters and that demonic activity is spiking. But when her emotional support coworker vanishes, Brie is determined to find her. With nothing left to lose, she convinces Luke to let her join his rescue mission.
The problem? Their destination is hell. And the entrance is in Times Square.
Now Brie and Luke must navigate a corporate underworld of monsters and bureaucratic nightmares while racing to save their colleague and repair a tearing veil between worlds. All before their growing feelings become irrelevant and hell claims them forever.
Available now via Penguin Random House. Order here.
Brianna Robinson is a book publicist and Sarah Lawrence College alum. She lives in New York with too many books and two enthusiastic dachshunds. You can find her on twitter @blrobins2.
