Speaking of lakes and monsters.

For fans of Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw, I present Monster (1992). When it comes to Christopher Pike, Remember Me is my favorite book and Spellbound is the goriest, but Monster is the most accessible, scaring readers of all genders and genre preferences. There are few greater first chapters than the one where Angela is enjoying a high school party before her best friend Mary barges in with a shotgun and starts blasting. The excuse for her rampage: Her friends are no longer human.

Plucky Angela is a likable but flawed heroine who starts flirting with the sole survivor of Mary’s wrath, which puts her in the path of danger—and the target of a war-hardened lieutenant who suspects her of being in cahoots with the shooter. We can relate to Angela wanting the attention of the cutest boy in school over her geeky neighbor who can’t hide his crush. We root for her as she courageously investigates strange phenomena in the wooded town, mostly affecting football players and cheerleaders. When the poor girl meets up with a stranger in the woods, we silently scream at her to run.

So many people know Richard Peck for his award-winning children’s books, such as the wholesome A Year Down Yonder and The River Between Us. Few remember he dropped one of the most terrifying novels ever written: Are You in the House Alone? (1976). The title is so bone-chilling, one of my characters in Night of the Mallrats used it for a spooky game.

This nightmare fuel has the latchkey kid backstory you see in R.L Stine’s The Babysitter and movies such as When a Stranger Calls and Black Christmas. It stems from that urban legend of a teenage girl picking up the phone and being taunted by a voice warning her someone is on the way to get her. And has she checked the children in their beds? Only this time, it’s elevated by Peck’s incredible prose.

Gail has a great boyfriend, a sweet babysitting job, and is close friends with the oldest and most illustrious family in their Salem-like community in Connecticut. The town’s past has witches and pilgrims and scarecrows. The present has Gail fearfully staring out of windows after receiving calls from a stranger who warns her that he’s watching her. And she isn’t safe at school, having received horrifying and deranged notes in her locker. In true boomer fashion, not even the school counselor takes her concerns seriously.

After Martha’s father and his new wife take off to Hawaii for a three-week vacation, she’s stuck in her creepy house with a stranger—her slightly older stepbrother Conor. The boy is odd and stoic and dismisses his stepsister’s concerns when she insists someone is in her closet, setting fires, and prank-calling her with death threats. The poor girl’s troubles only escalate after she makes friends with a popular boy named Blake, who tells her he dated a girl that died in Martha’s new bedroom on Halloween, exactly one year ago. After our heroine discovers that the deceased teenager was getting the same phone calls before being stabbed to death, she realizes how serious her situation is, but who can she go to for help if everyone’s a suspect? Not her father. He’s too busy having Mai Tais and Jacuzzi sex with his bride.

Trick or Treat (1989) is a perfect book for teens and adults to read on a windy October night. There’s enough terror here to rival Stephen King if you can remember what it was like to be a helpless teen without a voice. We’re given enough twists to keep us guessing and plenty of descriptive scares. This is not a book I can read when I’m alone. Like Martha, I can feel someone in my closet watching me, hiding just behind my clothes. Waiting to strike.

Bart is the quarterback and king of his new high school, but little do the townsfolk know that he used to be Bart the Brain, a sports-hating nerd who was pushed into football by his overbearing father. If the boy wanted to go back to the way things were, he couldn’t because he learned long ago that his father’s favor is easily swayed by how much he understands you; Bart’s older sister likes to sing and his younger brother is into math, so they’re constantly dismissed by the old man. Marilyn Singer does an excellent job showing these complicated relationships while keeping the mood light. I haven’t even gotten to the part where Bart finally meets someone who accepts the real him: a ghost named Millie living in his house and watching him get dressed.

Yes, the ghostly Millie has been there when Bart is sleeping, she knows when he’s awake. She understands he’s not the person he presents to the world, and this brings them closer as they battle a poltergeist that has taken over the old house. See, Millie didn’t show herself to Bart for a social visit. Over the past week, strange occurrences have been happening to Bart’s family—jam jars exploding, model planes flying, noises in the night—that puts Millie and the other nine ghosts in the house at risk. If Bart’s parents call the ghostbusters, that means Millie and her friends will be obliterated, and this spurs a plot that involves Bart teaming up with dorky paranormal-enthusiast Arnie in secret to rid the home of the poltergeist. If he succeeds, that means his ten spooky roommates will help him and his football team win the championship. Hey, I didn’t say this was Anna Karenina.

Everyone feels sorry for Halley, whose family is being torn apart by a bitter divorce. Everyone but her cousin Brenda. Not only did Brenda’s mother move the teenage girl in so she can avoid the fighting, but Halley has stolen Brenda’s car, her clothes…and her man! Of course, Brenda’s parents are useless, so it’s time for her and her friends to plot Halley’s fake murder to, you know, scare her. Halloween Night (1993) gives us vengeance only R.L. Stine can concoct and because he’s the master of fun horror, you enjoy each surprise and get delicious chills at the end of every chapter. I don’t know how he does it.

Brenda is the wronged party in this book, but Halley has willingly become the high school jezebel, making enemies left and right, which leads to complications when a real murder occurs. There’s also a mystery involving a prowler threatening Brenda and breaking into her room to paint on the walls with blood. Throw in a pesky younger brother and a Luke Perry poster and you have a Gen X sitcom; a quick, easy read that gives you pumpkins and costumes galore. A perfect little treat for Halloween night.