Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford A slippery, fever-dream of a novel. Unsettling, puckish, and brilliantly written, it’s an absolute one-off. A group of young cousins gather at Aunt Frankie’s house in upstate New York. They see something from a window moving from the treeline to a shed and Abi, only three goes outside, and the others follow. There are ‘Intermezzos’ giving some of the history of the family and Beezy the matriarch and how she died. At the end there is some kind of resolution but just enough to leave me thoroughly unsettled. Highly recommended.

The Echoes by Evie Wyld This is so beautifully written, unsettling and vivid. Max is dead but moves through the house where his girlfriend, Hannah and he lived, watching her as she grieves and time leaps on without him. We also learn about Hannah and Max when he was alive, and all the things she kept from him. And then we travel further back to when Hannah lived in Australia and the trauma her family wrought upon her. It returns full circle at the end in a very lovely way.

You Like it Darker by Stephen King Twelve creepy, weird and brilliant short stories. My favourites tended to be the longer ones: Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream (Danny dreams that he discovers a person, murdered and buried behind a gas station, and his dream is true); Rattlesnakes (a man befriends his neighbour – a mad but harmless woman who pushes a stroller around with, supposedly her dead twins in it); and Slide Inn Road (a family take a wrong turn in their car and are apprehended by two men who terrorise them). Plenty here to get your teeth into and keep you up at night.

North Woods by Daniel Mason This is ghost-light. Beginning in the 1760s, lovers flee a community to live in a New Hampshire cabin. And from there we meet the occupants of the property through the ages and even into the future. We meet an apple farmer and his two daughters who die in extraordinary ways; a man hunting for a slave; the doctor of a man with schizophrenia who lives in the house and many more. The most perfect vignettes of human life and the nature that surrounds them and how all histories leach into each other, leaving traces behind. I was sad to say goodbye to every character. 

Thin Air by Michelle Paver A brilliantly chilling ‘classic’ ghost story that I loved just as much as Paver’s Dark Matter. Here, five men are climbing Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas in 1935, following in the footsteps of a doomed expedition from 1906. Stephen Pearce joins the group at the last minute as the doctor, and brother of climber, Kit. As the group climb higher, Stephen begins to experience odd apparitions which he, even as the doctor, can’t put down to altitude sickness. If you’re looking for novel in the English ghost-story tradition, this is it, and I loved it. I listened to this via XigXag, excellently read by Daniel Weyman.

Old Soul by Susan Barker Not so much ghosts but plenty of scares. After a chance meeting at an airport between Jake and Marika, they realise their loved ones died in similar and disturbing circumstances, both linked by a mysterious woman. Jake sets out to find other people who have suffered the same way, and as well as a present-day story, we read the testimonies which Jake gathers, gradually leading to the mysterious woman and an even greater force. There are many creepy ideas and moments in this novel which had my skin tingling, and the writing is great. Definitely a book to put on your list if you enjoy literary horror.