The Haunting of Bly Manor is the latest ghost story adaptation from Mike Flanagan and the creative team behind The Haunting of Hill House. The story follows a young teacher who takes a job as a nanny at the titular manor, only to find that there’s a lot more going on at the house than misbehaving children. It’s gothic, it’s horror, it’s suspenseful, it’s romantic – and if it’s your cup of tea, we have several books that we think you’ll also love.
The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
The obvious one first: this is the book that The Haunting of Bly Manor is loosely based upon. While the series fleshes out minor characters and adds new subplots and perspectives, the spirit of the book (pun intended) is largely preserved. The Turn of the Screw is a brilliant gothic ghost story that still chills over 120 years after its first publication.
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The Haunting of Hill House
by Shirley Jackson
Another obvious one, on which Bly Manor‘s Netflix predecessor was based: the same creative team worked on both these series, and it’s one of the quintessential haunted house stories. A paranormal investigator invites guests to spend the summer at Hill House, hoping to run an experiment and find scientific evidence of the supernatural. Obviously things go off the rails and the result is one of the best haunted house stories of the 20th century.
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Collected Ghost Stories
by M.R. James
First published in 1931, this collection contains some of the most memorable ghost stories ever written. Often set in rural areas with travellers encountering haunted houses, landscapes, and all sorts of spirits, this creepy collection is a perfect read for fans of gothic horror. Best read in front of a fire on a dark winter night.
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The Little Stranger
by Sarah Waters
A doctor becomes involved in the lives of a family who own a crumbling Georgian manor, where it seems supernatural events are taking place. A slow burn of a novel, the creepiness and intrigue increases as Sarah Waters skilfully uses a gothic ghost story to examine questions of class and hierarchy.
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The Shining
by Stephen King
Jack Torrance takes a caretaker job at the spooky Overlook Hotel for the winter – once they’re snowed in, he and his family are trapped not only with the ghosts haunting the hotel, but the ghosts in Jack’s head. Its reputation as one of the greatest horror novels of all time is well-deserved. Director Mike Flanagan has a connection with this one as well, having directed the excellent adaptation of King’s Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep.
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The Woman in Black
by Susan Hill
A young lawyer is sent to a rural town to attend to the funeral and affairs of a woman who has passed away. As he goes about his business, it becomes clear that something mysterious is haunting the town and creepy ghost shenanigans ensue. A gothic horror that was first published in the early 1980s, it has also been turned into a successful play, a TV series and a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe that spawned an awful sequel.
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Dark Matter
by Michelle Paver
This novella, set in the 1930s, follows an expedition of four men who embark on a year-long Arctic research expedition. Once at their base in the cold and the dark, tensions between the four begin to spill over, and the narrator begins to suspect that something supernatural is haunting their base. It’s a sinister and creepy read that is all the more effective because you can easily knock it over in a single sitting.
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A Head Full of Ghosts
by Paul Tremblay
This award-winning novel from 2015 takes the gothic haunted house story and grounds it firmly in the context of the early 21st century, with the family at the centre taking part in a reality TV show about their haunted house/possessed daughter. Throwing in lots of nods to not only haunted house stories, but also stories around possession and exorcism, this novel packs an unforgettable punch.
Buy it here
Comments
January 15, 2021 at 11:08 pm
Loved it. Truly a love story with pathos with the ghosts!
September 30, 2021 at 7:57 am
Yes, I did! Thought it wasn’t incredibly scary but a really great story!