Your Next Read After The Witch: Five More Books for Halloween
By J.E. Rowney, psychological thriller author
You’ve closed The Witch. Now what?
The best next book depends on which part of Freida McFadden’s novel stayed with you. Was it Pemberton itself? The Massachusetts autumn? The 1692 story? The question of whether any of it was real? This post offers five pathways, one for each, so you can follow the thread you liked most.
There are no spoilers for The Witch here. I only refer to what’s in the publisher’s description. The other five books are summarised from their official blurbs too, and I’ve noted where each one parts company with McFadden’s novel.
Affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy a book through one, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Haven’t read it yet?
The Witch publishes on 6 October 2026. Julia Barlow, out of work and out of a home, goes to Pemberton, her family’s seventeenth-century estate in rural Massachusetts. A clock stops at 3:41 a.m. every night, the lights flicker and a voice cries for help outside her door. Her research leads to an ancestor executed for witchcraft in 1692. Come back here when you’ve finished.
Get The Witch by Freida McFadden
Pathway 1: if the house got under your skin
Read next: Mischief Night by J.E. Rowney
Pemberton is a house that takes a woman with nowhere else to go. So is Lucy’s, in Mischief Night, my own Halloween thriller.
The narrator’s flat has flooded, and her sister has given her a home for October. The guest room is lovely. The house rules are not. She’s asked to help prepare a Halloween attraction, and her chores start to look like a clean-up: the blood that’s supposedly fake, the rug that has to go to the tip, the husband who’s supposedly on holiday.
Where it parts company: no historical timeline and no witchcraft. The secrets here belong to a living family, and they’re told across 31 dated chapters you can read one per day of October.
Follow pathway 1: Mischief Night
Pathway 2: if you want to stay in a Massachusetts October
Read next: The Halloween Stranger by Shade Owens
Stay in the state, move to the present day. Cedar Hill, Massachusetts, sells itself as Salem’s Sister and lives for its Harvest Festival. Claudia Rowan, recently divorced and running the festival, rents her spare room to a woman who unsettles her from the moment she arrives.
Where it parts company: it’s a novella of around 30,000 words, according to its listing, and the threat is a stranger in the house rather than the house’s history.
Follow pathway 2: The Halloween Stranger
Pathway 3: if the 1692 story was your favourite part
Read next: Salem’s Rise by Rektok Ross
If the idea of old power and old families hiding old rituals hooked you, this has it in abundance. Salem’s Fall is a New England town steeped in occult tradition, run from behind the scenes by a secret society called the Veil. Jacqueline enrols at its elite university to find her missing brother and is drawn into the Rites, a competition few survive.
Where it parts company: it’s set entirely in the present, and it’s a dark romantic thriller, so a relationship with Silas Blackhollow is central. Choose it for gothic power games rather than historical fiction.
Follow pathway 3: Salem’s Rise
Pathway 4: if “magic or madness?” kept you guessing
Read next: The 31st: Mora’s Day of Terror by Franklin Christopher
The publisher of The Witch sells it on ambiguity. Franklin Christopher takes a related question, how much of the horror is in your own head, and pushes it into the mirror. Sixteen-year-old Mora Manning is harsh about what she sees in her reflection. On Halloween night, the reflection seems to answer.
Where it parts company: the author is clear it’s a supernatural psychological thriller, so it leans further into the uncanny. The protagonist is a teenager, the story unfolds across 31 timestamps on a single Halloween, and it ends on a cliffhanger.
Pathway 5: if you wanted someone to pay
Read next: Halloween House Murder by Chris Colmenero
The publisher describes The Witch as a story about women whose voices refuse to stay silent. If that left you wanting a woman who acts rather than waits, Betty the Butcher takes justice into her own hands. She punishes a man organising dog fights, then hosts a Halloween charity party at her haunted mansion.
Where it parts company: it’s a revenge novella with a wry, macabre voice and a vigilante heroine. It’s a standalone, though the author recommends Christmas Market Murder first.
Follow pathway 5: Halloween House Murder
Can’t choose a pathway?
Take the one with the longest life. Mischief Night and The 31st are both built to run through October, so either will keep you company from now until the 31st.
Looking for broader McFadden-style recommendations? Read Six books to read around Halloween if you love Freida McFadden, or my year-round list of thrillers for McFadden fans.