Here are 7 books that Ghoster fans have personally recommended if you like Ghoster. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Wicked

Oliver Douglas Author Of Corpora Caledonia Vol. 1

From Oliver's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Oliver's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

Wicked needs no introduction but if you think the book is the same as the musical, think again! The musical takes the bare bones and that's it. Wicked, the book, is closer to something like Game of Thrones. It's high fantasy with interesting characters and an Oz where Elphaba is less magical than is believed. It's a tale about how easy it is to do good and yet be seen as evil due to the manipulations of true evil. It doesn't shy away from real issues that are still prevalent in the real world today.

By Gregory Maguire ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Wicked as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An astonishingly rich re-creation of the land of Oz, this book retells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, who wasn't so wicked after all. Taking readers past the yellow brick road and into a phantasmagoric world rich with imagination and allegory, Gregory Maguire just might change the reputation of one of the most sinister characters in literature.


If you love Ghoster...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Book cover of Laura

Oliver Douglas Author Of Corpora Caledonia Vol. 1

From Oliver's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Oliver's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

It's a classic murder mystery. While most murder mysteries focus on the whodunnit, Laura also focuses on the lead detective and him slowly falling for the victim as he learns more about the type of person she was. With this, it changes him as a person too and it has a fabulous cast of characters you want to love and hate.

By Vera Caspary ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Laura as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the doorway of an elegant New York apartment, blood seeps over silk negligee, over polished wood floors and plush carpet: a beautiful young woman lies dead, her face disfigured by a single gun shot.

But who was Laura? What power did she hold over the very different men in her life? How does her portrait bewitch even Mark McPherson, the hard-bitten detective assigned to find her murderer?

One stormy night, Mark's investigation takes an unexpected turn...


Book cover of The Exorcist

Oliver Douglas Author Of Storm

From my list on horror stories for character-focused readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved character-focused stories long before I loved horror, which is saying something, because I’ve loved horror for a long time. It’s my belief horror is at its best when a storyteller focuses on the characters, as it adds a new dimension to the scare and forces the audience to worry about the characters. Anyone can do a jump scare; they’re not hard, but a well-crafted character that amplifies the horror is more difficult, and that’s why it’s so special when it works. It’s why authors like Stephen King and William Peter Blatty are timeless – their stories are character-first.

Oliver's book list on horror stories for character-focused readers

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

This book revolutionized the possession subgenre.

I love how the story isn’t a typical paint-by-numbers possession and doesn’t go straight into the belief of a demonic presence. The author focuses on building the varying characters up before the exorcism begins, and I enjoy how Reagan is treated by doctors first, worried she’s ill due to family stress.

My favourite part of The Exorcist is how much focus is given to the exorcism once it starts. Plenty of other exorcism stories may only use the exorcism as a quick fix in the third act, but William Peter Blatty made it an integral part of the story.

By William Peter Blatty ,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked The Exorcist as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Father Damien Karras: 'Where is Regan?'
Regan MacNeil: 'In here. With us.'

The terror begins unobtrusively. Noises in the attic. In the child's room, an odd smell, the displacement of furniture, an icy chill. At first, easy explanations are offered. Then frightening changes begin to appear in eleven-year-old Regan. Medical tests fail to shed any light on her symptoms, but it is as if a different personality has invaded her body.

Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest, is called in. Is it possible that a demonic presence has possessed the child? Exorcism seems to be the only answer...

First published…


If you love Jason Arnopp...

Book cover of The Last Whaler

The Last Whaler by Cynthia Reeves,

This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to…

Book cover of The Woman in Black

Oliver Douglas Author Of Storm

From my list on horror stories for character-focused readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved character-focused stories long before I loved horror, which is saying something, because I’ve loved horror for a long time. It’s my belief horror is at its best when a storyteller focuses on the characters, as it adds a new dimension to the scare and forces the audience to worry about the characters. Anyone can do a jump scare; they’re not hard, but a well-crafted character that amplifies the horror is more difficult, and that’s why it’s so special when it works. It’s why authors like Stephen King and William Peter Blatty are timeless – their stories are character-first.

Oliver's book list on horror stories for character-focused readers

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

A chilling horror in a small fictional English village.

I love The Woman in Black because it’s more than a ghost story; it’s also a story about love and the connection between family. I’ve read it twice and what I love the most about it is the ambience Susan Hill creates with her well-crafted sentence structure.

There’s a lot of focus on Arthur Kipps, the protagonist, and his life before and after the haunting of Eel Marsh, but it’s not only him the story cares about. The Woman in Black herself is a mystery and has a tragic backstory that turns her from a full-on villain to a sympathetic one.

By Susan Hill ,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked The Woman in Black as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

The classic ghost story from the author of The Mist in the Mirror: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town.
 
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford—a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway—to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow’s house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business…


Book cover of Carrie

Oliver Douglas Author Of Storm

From my list on horror stories for character-focused readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved character-focused stories long before I loved horror, which is saying something, because I’ve loved horror for a long time. It’s my belief horror is at its best when a storyteller focuses on the characters, as it adds a new dimension to the scare and forces the audience to worry about the characters. Anyone can do a jump scare; they’re not hard, but a well-crafted character that amplifies the horror is more difficult, and that’s why it’s so special when it works. It’s why authors like Stephen King and William Peter Blatty are timeless – their stories are character-first.

Oliver's book list on horror stories for character-focused readers

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

This is my all-time favourite book.

I own two physical copies – one paperback and a special edition hardback that released for a recent anniversary. It’s Stephen King’s debut, but you wouldn’t know it since he was already so comfortable with his writing and understanding his voice. I love that the story isn’t told through conventional means but using news reports and journals.

Carrie White is a character I can relate to, not because I secretly have powers – I don’t, I promise – but because she is the oddball, the type of person who doesn’t fit in. She’s the exaggerated poster child of why bullying is bad, but the book holds one very special message at its core – what does it cost to be nice?

Carrie is shown throughout as this sweet and simple girl who longs for connection, and we see the slow breakdown of her character…

By Stephen King ,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Carrie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Stephen King's legendary debut, about a teenage outcast and the revenge she enacts on her classmates, is a Classic. CARRIE is the novel which set him on the road to the Number One bestselling author King is today.

Carrie White is no ordinary girl.

Carrie White has the gift of telekinesis.

To be invited to Prom Night by Tommy Ross is a dream come true for Carrie - the first
step towards social acceptance by her high school colleagues.

But events will take a decidedly macabre turn on that horrifying and endless night as she
is forced to exercise her…


Book cover of The Monk

Oliver Douglas Author Of Storm

From my list on horror stories for character-focused readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved character-focused stories long before I loved horror, which is saying something, because I’ve loved horror for a long time. It’s my belief horror is at its best when a storyteller focuses on the characters, as it adds a new dimension to the scare and forces the audience to worry about the characters. Anyone can do a jump scare; they’re not hard, but a well-crafted character that amplifies the horror is more difficult, and that’s why it’s so special when it works. It’s why authors like Stephen King and William Peter Blatty are timeless – their stories are character-first.

Oliver's book list on horror stories for character-focused readers

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

This is one of the most controversial books of all time.

It was written by a nineteen-year-old and is shocking in all of the best ways. At first, I thought it was a slow read, but as I progressed through the story, it dawned on me that it was by design and the author focused on his character work above all else.

Without the focus on his characters, the ending would fall flat, but I love the last half of the book. It’s a fascinating concept that is even more fascinating to peel back. 

By Matthew Gregory Lewis ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Monk as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'He now saw himself stained with the most loathed and monstrous sins, the object of universal execration ... doomed to perish in tortures the most severe'

Shocking, erotic and violent, The Monk is the story of Ambrosio, torn between his spiritual vows and the temptations of physical pleasure. His internal battle leads to sexual obsession, rape and murder, yet this book also contains knowing parody of its own excesses as well as social comedy. Written by Matthew Lewis when he was only nineteen, it was a ground-breaking novel in the Gothic Horror genre and spawned hundreds of imitators, drawn in…


If you love Ghoster...

Book cover of White Picket Fences

White Picket Fences by Kyle Ann Robertson,

Tina Edwards loved her childhood and creating fairy houses, a passion shared with her father, a world-renowned architect. But at nine years old, she found him dead at his desk and is haunted by this memory. Tina's mother abruptly moved away, leaving Tina with feelings of abandonment and suspicion.

Raised…

Book cover of The Last Days of Jack Sparks

Oliver Douglas Author Of Storm

From my list on horror stories for character-focused readers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve loved character-focused stories long before I loved horror, which is saying something, because I’ve loved horror for a long time. It’s my belief horror is at its best when a storyteller focuses on the characters, as it adds a new dimension to the scare and forces the audience to worry about the characters. Anyone can do a jump scare; they’re not hard, but a well-crafted character that amplifies the horror is more difficult, and that’s why it’s so special when it works. It’s why authors like Stephen King and William Peter Blatty are timeless – their stories are character-first.

Oliver's book list on horror stories for character-focused readers

Oliver Douglas Why Oliver loves this book

Jack Sparks isn’t a pleasant man.

He’s the type of protagonist to elicit an eyeroll and hope he gets his just desserts, and yet Jason Arnopp created such an exciting world that challenged the protagonist and reader alike. I remember wanting nothing but bad things to happen to Jack due to his attitude, but Jason’s writing also endeared him to me.

I soon found myself loving this ridiculous man with a skeleton or two in his closet that helped explain the man he became. It’s such a trippy book and not once did I understand where it was going – which I loved!

By Jason Arnopp ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Last Days of Jack Sparks as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'MAGNIFICENT' Alan Moore
'I COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN' Ron Howard
'CHILLING AND UTTERLY IMMERSIVE' M. R. Carey

It was no secret that journalist Jack Sparks had been researching the occult for his new book. No stranger to controversy, he'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed.

Then there was that video: forty seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet was posted from his own YouTube account.

Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed - until now.

'Fascinating, hilarious, disturbing, exciting and surprising as…


Book cover of Wicked
Book cover of Laura
Book cover of The Exorcist

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