13 Witchy Books to Get You Ready for Spooky Season
Oct 20 2022
Double double toil and trouble! Are you looking for books that give you the fall feeling this season? Fable has curated a list of the most magical books out right now, ranging from Hocus Pocus wholesome to the wicked ways of Macbeth.
You can’t talk about witches without mentioning Alice Hoffman’s iconic 1995 book, Practical Magic. After the death of their parents, the Owens sisters move in with their eccentric aunts and discover a generational curse has been placed on the family. Set in coastal Massachusetts, Gillian and Sally have grown up as outcasts their entire lives. Soon enough, the sisters learn of the generational curse that has been placed on the Owens family’s love life, making one sister eager to escape while the other stays behind. But when tragedy strikes, Gillian and Sally are bound together again, and this time with magic between them. 
The year is 1880, two years after the Salem Witch Trials and Adelaid Cane and Eleanor St. Clair have left their pasts to open a tea shop catering to Manhattan’s high society ladies, specializing in cures, palmistry, potions--and in guarding the secrets of their clients.
When a young woman named Beatrice comes in, her appreciation for the shop leads to an indisputable apprenticeship. However, Adelaid and Eleanor quickly discover that Beatrice herself can do things beyond the ordinary. She sees things no one else can see. She hears voices no one else can hear. Objects appear out of thin air, as if gifts from the dead. Has she been touched by magic or is she simply losing her mind? And Adelaid and Eleanor cannot help but wonder if her powers can be their next business opportunity.
While the Outlander series may not scream “witchy” at first glance, this series is brimming with magic and mystery. It’s 1945, and Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743. Traveling through time, Claire meets one James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. The latter shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. 
We’re bringing it back to Ancient Greece with our next book. Circe was Miller’s highly anticipated second book after the success of Song of Achilles. Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father, Helios, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
This YA, dark academic, witchy book centers on sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews, who wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack on her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so-called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
This is the perfect book if you’re looking for an action-packed, diverse, and truly magical story of self-discovery and what it means to be magic. 
If the title didn’t give it away already, this book is about the dead! Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up loose ends before leaving. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian so they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave. 
Continuing the dark academia theme, "Ninth House" is a perfect combination of chaotic academia with sinister spells. Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s first-year class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. 
In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed, and her home is destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.
But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.
When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?
Dark academia, vampires, and time travel. Fans of Outlander will appreciate the historical accuracy of 17th-century England in this paranormal romance. Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. 
Bustling with magic and elite private school drama, this four-book series follows Blue Sargent’s graveyard encounter with Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that encompasses three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die (think Practical Magic). She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore. 
For fans of Harry Potter, Akata Witch offers a fresh and inventive take on one unexpected hero’s adventure with the occult.Readers are transported to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged into the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha form the youngest-ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?
Sutherland’s eery little book shocked readers with its Grimm-like fairytale. Equal parts horror and magical realism, this book follows the strange seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.
Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind.
Our final recommendation is for all those nostalgic for the witches of Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown. This sweet and heartwarming story is about one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon. Mika knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches, so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone, and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic.
13 Witchy Books from the Fable Catalog
"Practical Magic" by Alice Hoffman
(first published July 1, 1995)
You can’t talk about witches without mentioning Alice Hoffman’s iconic 1995 book, Practical Magic. After the death of their parents, the Owens sisters move in with their eccentric aunts and discover a generational curse has been placed on the family. Set in coastal Massachusetts, Gillian and Sally have grown up as outcasts their entire lives. Soon enough, the sisters learn of the generational curse that has been placed on the Owens family’s love life, making one sister eager to escape while the other stays behind. But when tragedy strikes, Gillian and Sally are bound together again, and this time with magic between them. "The Witches of New York" by Ami McKay
(first published October 8, 2016)The year is 1880, two years after the Salem Witch Trials and Adelaid Cane and Eleanor St. Clair have left their pasts to open a tea shop catering to Manhattan’s high society ladies, specializing in cures, palmistry, potions--and in guarding the secrets of their clients.
When a young woman named Beatrice comes in, her appreciation for the shop leads to an indisputable apprenticeship. However, Adelaid and Eleanor quickly discover that Beatrice herself can do things beyond the ordinary. She sees things no one else can see. She hears voices no one else can hear. Objects appear out of thin air, as if gifts from the dead. Has she been touched by magic or is she simply losing her mind? And Adelaid and Eleanor cannot help but wonder if her powers can be their next business opportunity.
"Outlander" by Diane Gabaldon
(first published June 1, 1991)While the Outlander series may not scream “witchy” at first glance, this series is brimming with magic and mystery. It’s 1945, and Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743. Traveling through time, Claire meets one James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. The latter shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives. "Circe" by Madeline Miller
(first published April 10, 2018)
We’re bringing it back to Ancient Greece with our next book. Circe was Miller’s highly anticipated second book after the success of Song of Achilles. Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father, Helios, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus."Legendborn" by Tracey Deonn
(first published September 15, 2020)This YA, dark academic, witchy book centers on sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews, who wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack on her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so-called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
This is the perfect book if you’re looking for an action-packed, diverse, and truly magical story of self-discovery and what it means to be magic. "Cemetery Boys" by Aiden Thomas
(first published September 1, 2020)If the title didn’t give it away already, this book is about the dead! Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up loose ends before leaving. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian so they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave. "Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo
(first published October 8, 2019)
Continuing the dark academia theme, "Ninth House" is a perfect combination of chaotic academia with sinister spells. Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s first-year class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?
Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. "The Hacienda" by Isabel Cañas
(first published May 3, 2022)In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed, and her home is destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.
But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.
When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?"A Discovery of Witches (All Souls, #1)" by Deborah Harkness
(first published December 27, 2011)Dark academia, vampires, and time travel. Fans of Outlander will appreciate the historical accuracy of 17th-century England in this paranormal romance. Deep in the stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. "The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1)" by Maggie Stiefvater
(first published September 18, 2012)Bustling with magic and elite private school drama, this four-book series follows Blue Sargent’s graveyard encounter with Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that encompasses three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die (think Practical Magic). She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore. "Akata Witch" by Nnedi Okorafor
(first published April 14th, 2011)For fans of Harry Potter, Akata Witch offers a fresh and inventive take on one unexpected hero’s adventure with the occult.Readers are transported to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged into the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha form the youngest-ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?"House of Hollow" by Krystal Sutherland
(first published April 6, 2021)Sutherland’s eery little book shocked readers with its Grimm-like fairytale. Equal parts horror and magical realism, this book follows the strange seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats.
Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind."The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches" by Sangu Mandanna
(first published August 23, 2022)Our final recommendation is for all those nostalgic for the witches of Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown. This sweet and heartwarming story is about one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon. Mika knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches, so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone, and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.
But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. Find fantasy and horror reading book clubs and book recommendations on Fable
In a world struggling with cognitive dissonance and toxic behaviors on social media, we believe that a reading habit delivers digital nutrition. Our platform ensures that our community members can reap the general health benefits of reading and the mental well-being benefits of reading books on our platform.Fable community members enjoy the many benefits of reading while making deeper human connections with other readers. Start by exploring our exceptional book recommendations from some of the world’s great tastemakers. Each Folio covers an important theme, and some of our Folio curators include LeVar Burton, Paulo Coelho, Wolfgang Puck, and Jasmine Guillory.Discover great spooky recommendations on Fable!
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