Zibby Mag

By Lisa Unger

I have had significant relationships with houses throughout my life: my childhood home in New Jersey; my grandparents’ row house in Brooklyn; the home I share now in Florida with my family and the place where I write every day. That is why in my novels, homes and houses often figure prominently. They are the spaces where we choose to live our lives. Their lights, their walls, their mysterious sounds, and their histories are part of the setting of our everyday. They are alive in a way—entities that demand care, that shelter us, that we adorn and love or hate, that have quirks of personality.

In my upcoming novel, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, the space my characters occupy is a vacation rental. It’s not the intimate relationship my characters often have with the places they reside. But the house has a dark history, a strange host, and some disturbing décor. During the pandemic, I spent some time in places just like it—new, luxuriously appointed, isolated. Not haunted or scary in the least. Because I am a thriller writer and have a paranoid mind by nature, I couldn’t help but wonder about the cabins we rented, the history of the land on which they were built—and whether was it safe to be completely isolated in a house I didn’t really know?

Surely if you visit a house in the woods, you won’t have these same kinds of thoughts. You’ll just relax and enjoy the fire, look out at the stunning view. You’ll feel completely comfortable and safe—unless you read one of these books!

The Shining by Stephen King

I have yet to make a list like this and not include a Stephen King novel. There are a number of his stories in which haunted places figure prominently, but none is as iconic as The Overlook Hotel. The story is probably well known to many of us: Jack Torrance, a down-on-his-luck writer, brings his family to the isolated hotel to be the winter caretaker. What I love the most about The Overlook is that it’s not just haunted. It’s a predator, magically drawing to it a particular kind of prey. Psychic Danny, alcoholic Jack, and the abused Wendy all have wildly different experiences with the hotel and its ghosts, and only one of them becomes its agent of destruction. Save this for your winter rental, when it’s snowing outside, and the wind is wailing.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

All the best hauntings are personal. And so it is for Sethe at 124 Bluestone Road in Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel. In Sethe’s case, her house is haunted by the angry ghost of the daughter she killed in an attempt to save her from a life of slavery. Through flashbacks and monologues, Morrison uses imagery and evocative language to paint a searing portrait of the insidious legacy of slavery and the haunting of trauma and horrific memories. It’s beautiful and painful all at once. I suggest this one for a visit to the South when the moon is full, the leaves are whispering in the breeze, and branches are tapping at your window.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Noemí Taboada receives a frantic note from her newlywed cousin who fears that her new husband is trying to murder her. Noemi, a smart, intrepid, glamorous young socialite, heads out right away to save her. At first, Noemí is not intimidated by the creepy High Place, or its nasty patriarch, or even her cousin’s unpleasant new husband. She doesn’t plan to stay long; she’ll just collect her cousin and be on her way. But High Place has other ideas. Slowly, inexorably, the house with its terrible secrets and ugly history sinks its hooks into her. And the longer she stays, the harder it becomes to leave. Bring this one to the gothic mansion rental you have coming up. What was that noise in the attic?

The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan

Three women arrive at Dark Fell Barn in the English countryside for a girls’ night prior to their husbands’ arrival the next day. All of them are hauling lots of baggage in the forms of secrets, lies, and hidden resentments. And things are off to a rocky start when the welcome gift includes a note claiming one of their husbands has been murdered. What I love most about Macmillan’s atmospheric thriller is the deep characterizations of each woman, the total sense of isolation she creates, and the mysterious property on which Dark Fell Barn sits. It clearly has a history of its own! Save this one for your next visit to the moors, where there’s a strange light blinking off in the distance. And was that a howl?

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

Inspired by the Henry James novel The Turn of The Screw, Ware puts her own twist on a classic tale. When a young woman lands her dream job as a nanny at the Scottish Highlands estate of a wealthy architect, she’s desperate enough for the position that she ignores the tearful warning of one of her charges that “the ghosts” won’t be happy about her arrival. I love how Ware explores the “smart house” system named Happy and all of its high-tech foibles, but then juxtaposes that modernity with good old-fashioned, superstitious dread and thumping haunted house noises. You might save this one for late at night after you’re sure you’ve checked for surveillance cameras in your vacation rental.

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

True-crime writer Wylie Stark retreats to an isolated farmhouse to finish her new book. It might be the perfect escape, except that decades earlier two people were murdered in cold blood and a young girl disappeared without a trace. When a snowstorm bears down, Wylie finds herself snowed in and discovers a lost child in the blizzard. Gudenkauf weaves a tight and twisty double narrative that’s character rich and full of suspense and surprises. The house is both a shelter and a prison of long-buried secrets. And Wylie is the one who is truly haunted. This one is perfect for reading by the fire after you’ve listened to your favorite true-crime podcast. But if you hear someone knocking at the door, don’t answer!

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Lisa Unger is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twenty novels, including Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six (coming November 8), Last Girl Ghosted, and Confessions on the 7:45 — now in development at Netflix, starring Jessica Alba. With books published in thirty-two languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is regarded as a master of suspense. Make sure to listen to her episode on Moms Don’t Have Time to Write for Last Girl Ghosted.