Reporter Clare Mulroy shares bookish news and recommendations.
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Clare Mulroy | Books Reporter
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Happy Thursday, booklovers!
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I love when my current read matches the season. And with Halloween almost here, I want to help you pack your TBR with spooky, atmospheric books.
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Every year around Halloween, USA TODAY movie critic (and resident horror aficionado) Brian Truitt surveys 10 authors with new horror novels to ask what they consider the scariest books ever. This year, he also asked Stephen King. And what scares the guy who can scare pretty much anyone?
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“You can be afraid for your body, and you can be afraid for your mind – the Lovecraftian thing where you see something that’s so horrible, it blows your mind right out like a candle. But the idea that you would be afraid for your soul, that’s a big deal,” King told Truitt.
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Want to celebrate Halloween with a new book? We have recommendations from both new and veteran horror authors.
Black Lollipop, Getty Images/iStockphoto
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🎃‘The Other’ by Thomas Tryon: This 1971 psychological horror novel follows identical twin teenagers living on a New England farm, one of them kind and gentle, the other sadistic and monstrous.
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🦇‘Trad Wife’ by Sarah Langan: This novel follows a journalist digging into the dark truth about a trad wife influencer. King called it “the best horror novel of 2026.”
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🧟♂️‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding: A surprising pick from the author who brought us scary clowns in sewers, but King says it’s Jack’s fight to keep from “descending into savagery” that freaks him out most. “Those conflicts really scare me, when the characters are good enough that you immerse yourself in the story. That's what I really want for readers is for them to, in a way, forget that they're holding a book,” King said.
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Sophia Bush opens up about her recent marriage to Ashlyn Harris, becoming a stepmother and how exploitation on "One Tree Hill" shaped her.
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Sarah J. Maas' long-awaited next ACOTAR book is here. Readers are booked and busy while they dig into their copies of "A Court of Splintered Harmony."
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Who knows Halloween reads better than horror authors? We asked 10, from Sarah Langan to China Miéville, to name the scariest books they've read.
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Christopher Lloyd writes about making "Back to the Future," working with Jack Nicholson and dealing with addition in his new memoir "In My Own Time."
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The top-selling titles each week provides book lovers with the most accurate snapshot of what people are reading.
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