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Many of us are not thrilled about approaching the doorstep of winter, but this time of year affords a unique perspective to our lives. I remember playing football in my backyard at the edge of a Pennsylvania forest and stopping, as the sun had almost set, to peer into the gathering shadows of the woods. I wondered if I just saw something move in the tree-filled murk. While there would obviously be nothing there (or was there?), my curiosity has always been piqued by tales of the unknown, the undiscovered, the untold or the unseen.

I’ve long been attracted to the idea that there is more to reality than what we already understand: providing an escape into the “What if?” mindset. Accordingly, books about topics that extend beyond the normal - generally termed “paranormal” - have appeared often in my hands: I enjoy the feeling of vulnerability caused by not truly understanding what is out there tempered against the pure thrill of discovery. As I mentioned before, this time of the year is my favorite time to indulge in this type of book. In honor of the Halloween season, here are some books that could provide a different, albeit terrifying, perspective to our normal humdrum lives.

Those Across the River

by Christopher Buehlman

A young writer and his fiancé move into a house deep in the Georgia forests in the 1930’s. He intends to write about a nearby plantation that was witness to unspeakable savagery during the Civil War, leading to an arcane ritual that must be performed every year in the nearby town. The town members consider stopping the ceremony, a decision that could have profound ramifications on their peaceful, and terror-free lives. Laugh-out-loud humor, snappy dialogue, a relatable main character, and a slow-but-steady reveal of menace show the deft hand of the author, an impressive first novel.

The Ritual

by Adam Nevill

Four amateur British hikers lose their way in a vast, primordial swath of Swedish forest near the Arctic Circle. Further decreasing their chances of surviving their ordeal, something is following them in the ancient woods, and it’s hungry. Nevill ratchets the creep factor up to 11 at some expense to the depth of his characters, but his seemingly crockpot-paced plot hits the frying pan without warning.

The Amityville Horror

by Jay Anson

A family moves into a house with a recent violent past and suffers increasingy strange experiences with a malevolent entity that could destroy them all. Or it's an embellished tale that was created out of whole cloth for some notoriety. This book kept me up all night when I read it: I was too terrified to put it down. The back story of this book is almost as fascinating as the narrative itself.