SSoP Podcast Episode 73 — Halloween: About 31% More Gothic than Normal

SSoP Podcast Episode 73 — Halloween: About 31% More Gothic than Normal

Friday, 10 October, 2025

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In no particular order, here is an incomplete list of some awesome things about Spooky Season: bats, witches, vampires, scary ghost stories, sad ghost stories, funny ghost stories, werewolves, dogs in Halloween costumes, tiny candy bars, full-size candy bars, caramel corn, bobbing for apples, a chill in the air, staying up late to watch scary movies, dressing as your alter-ego, dressing as your hero, dressing as your monster, looking at other people’s costumes, shuffling around in crunchy leaves, spooky music, haunted houses, orange things, purple things, black things, and the poem ‘The Raven.’

In this episode, we take a virtual tour around the globe to atmospheric and historic destinations to celebrate Halloween. We find out if coffin races are a real thing, get into the OG New England vampires, and celebrate the history of the largest nighttime gathering in the United States. (Spoiler: There are costumes involved.)

Then we recommend five books worthy of adding to your Spooky Season celebration: a cozy story of witchy friendship set in upstate New York, a haunted house story with a heroine who refuses to leave, a modern riff on a classic mystery trope set on Halloween, a horror novel for the Covid era, and a mashup of ghost story, family saga, and travelogue set in Italy.

transcript

Read the full transcript of Halloween: About 31% More Gothic than Normal.

Cackle
Cackle

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The September House
The September House

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The September House
The September House

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Daisy Darker: A Gripping Psychological Thriller With a Killer Ending You'll Never Forget
Daisy Darker

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Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

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Diavola
Diavola

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other books we mentioned

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other cool stuff we talked about

Perhaps you’d like to listen to an eerie Halloween soundtrack while you dig into these links.

 

halloween 101

Transylvania, Romania

Books: If you can’t make it to Transylvania in person, you should (obviously) read Dracula by Bram Stoker; the audio is excellent. Or Mel’s favorite: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, aka the one about vampire librarians and bad-ass readers.

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Sleepy Hollow, New York, USA

Books: If you haven’t read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, please remedy that situation immediately. The audiobook narrated by Tom Mison, the actor from the TV show Sleepy Hollow, is fantastic. But there are also a bunch of free versions on YouTube; this is a good one:

For a very atmospheric literary trip to that part of New York, Mel also loves the novel The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. It begins as a tale about a mythological monster in the lake and evolves into a story about genealogy and secrets and the kind of monsters who walk on two legs. It’s loaded with fall vibes and the heroine Willie is awesome.

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York, England, UK

The York Ghost Merchants shop in the Shambles.
Our ghosts posing in shop's diorama in the shop — and one of the charmingly spooky portraits on the walls.

Books: It’s worth noting that if you go to York, you’re only about 90 minutes from the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. You could take a walk on the moors to Top Withins, the farmhouse that inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. You can visit the Parsonage and stroll in the very creepy cemetery out front, and take a Haunted Haworth Ghost Tour.

If you can’t get to York in person, there are plenty of books set in Yorkshire with the perfect fall vibe. A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George is her first Inspector Lynley book — there are 21 now, all great. In this one, there’s an unsettling mystery at the Gothic and maybe haunted Keldale Abbey. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a literary Gothic thriller set at the crumbling Angelfield estate on the moors. And of course, you can always go to the OGs: Wuthering Height and Jane Eyre. They’re pretty hard to beat.

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two truths and a lie

Statement 1: In Colorado, they have coffin races.

Statement 2: There’s a folklorist in New England who’s been exhuming suspected vampires for decades. He says, ‘This is the tip of the iceberg.’

Statement 3: The largest nighttime parade in the United States was started by a self-proclaimed witch.

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Cackle by Rachel Harrison

The September House by Carissa Orlando

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

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Congratulations! You made it to the end. Here are your rewards:

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finally…

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In this episode, we revel in that delicious tingle up the back of the neck, courtesy of the undead, that reminds us we're alive. Plus, candy, bonfires, costumes, and books. SO MANY BOOKS that celebrate Halloween.
We get it: No one, including us, needs to listen to 'Master Mash' again. Tune into this playlist for 13 unusual, atmospheric, and super-fun Halloween-inspired songs that will put you in the mood for candy and costumes.
We've selected our favorite literary vampires according to a very sharply honed list of criteria. They're all remarkable versions of this ancient creature, and they populate stories worthy of their dangerous charms.
The only thing better than reading a scary story is when someone TELLS you a scary story. Light a candle, grab someone you trust to share the terror, and let these stories creep you out in the very best way.
Stoker's Dracula is the OG vampire: intelligent, cunning, and even a little sexy. But you do not want that bad boy visiting your bed chamber! Simmer a big pot of this delicious, vampire-repelling magic.
The poet's atmospheric poem blurs the divide between memories and haunting. He casts the 'harmless phantoms' — who glide by our sides and sit at our fires — as silent visitors, forging our connection to the beyond.
In addition to social-climbing tendencies, scarecrow-like appearance, and ability to annoy the dead and undead, Ichabod Crane is also known for gluttony. With a sweet-and-spicy cake like this, who can blame him?!
This weekend, indulge in all things Dracula. Read the novel! Listen to the audio dramatization! Put on the play! Along the way, you'll armchair travel to Romania, Hungary, Whitby, London, and more with a fanged friend.
Oh, Carmilla! She's beautiful and slinky and, perhaps, not as innocent as she seems. Which makes this vampire story a suspenseful, atmospheric romp through dark bedrooms, chilly drawing rooms, and misty mountains.
These brilliant short story collections are brimming with delightfully eerie tales of ghosts, goblins, demons, witches, vampires, and the other dark things that come to visit us in the nightmare deep of the night.
Roasted pumpkin seeds are a rite of passage at Halloween time, and this recipe elevates the seasonal standard to something truly spectacular. The perfect crunchy go-along to this delightfully creepy horror novel.
In honor of what would have been American artist Edward Gorey's 95th birthday, we invite you to creep into his gleefully macabre world of Victorian manor houses, elegant characters, with plenty of murder and mayhem.
This fantasy-adventure-with-heart from Silvia Moreno-Garcia has been out of print — we're thrilled about this new, updated edition. You'll be transported to gritty Mexico City with unusual, unforgettable heroes.
Ghost stories are a combination of melancholy and euphoria, vividly contrasting the joy of being alive with the grief and permanence of loss. The best ones, like 'Pine,' deliver genuine emotion along with the scares.
Poor Frankenstein! (The 'monster,' not the doctor.) The poor creature deserves kindness and a hot breakfast to start the day. Like this savory bread pudding from 'A Gothic Cookbook.' It's monstrously delicious.
For centuries, witches were painted with a black brush, punished for being all a woman shouldn't be: powerful, mysterious, untamed, seductive. But aren't those words really a compliment of the highest order?
The American poet Dorianne Laux weaves a spell with her word witchery, infusing this poem with humanity, light, and sorrow. Forget jump scares and unwelcome things that go bump in the night. This is a gentle ghost.
Poe's shadowy view of the world is as irresistible as it is spooky, due to his ability to weave a dark spell of words. In this poem, the winged messenger of the title is the only solace for our broken-hearted narrator.
If you love tormented characters, crumbling mansions, mysterious happenings, and weather that almost seems to be sentient, congratulations! You are officially invited to join our 'Give Us All the Gothic Novels' club.
In this show, we're excited about two books: The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley and Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Then Mel explains what she means when she says the magic word 'Gothic.'

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