Haunted Reads and Peculiar Places
Published on September 29, 2026
By Catherine L.
September draws to a close.
The witching hour is nigh.
Are you prepared for Scary on the Prairie?
This October, the library will host our third annual Scary on the Prairie adult program series. We'll have a horror writing workshop, a writing contest, a book discussion, a murder mystery night, and a live podcast recording with Screams from the Basement for the public to attend.
This year’s theme: Haunted Places.
As your resident connoisseurs of creepiness, each member of the programming team has shared a recommendation for 1) a book about a haunting, and 2) a place—a favorite of theirs, and perhaps a favorite of ghosts.
Catherine
Book: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Set in a haunted prison for boys in 1950s segregated Florida.
Place: The Davis-Horton House in San Diego, CA. This 1850 saltbox-style house is now a museum; previously, it’s been a private residence, a military officers’ barracks, and a makeshift hospital for desperate patients during various epidemics. When I visited here on a ghost tour, my possibly energetically-sensitive husband (we half-jokingly say he has “the light”) inexplicably started crying!
Kim
Book: Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
Set in the Finch House—an abandoned and infamous haunted house at the end of a dark prairie road in rural Kansas.
Place: The Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, IA. In 1912, a gruesome octuple murder occurred here—and it remains unsolved. After many years as a home to various Villisca families, two historians purchased the house in 1995. They restored it to the original 1912 layout (no electricity or plumbing!) to make it the Villisca Axe Murder House. It now offers house tours and overnight stays. Since then, numerous visitors and ghost-hunting researchers have reported “unexplained phenomena.”
Sam
Book: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Set in 1950s Mexico in a decrepit countryside manor.
Place: Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA. This cemetery is not only the last stop for some of Hollywood’s finest, but also a space where you can attend author visits and movie screenings! When I toured there, I experienced a peaceful, well-cared for resting place for people to visit loved ones who have moved beyond the veil. The big, shady trees and uniquely beautiful monuments made it a fun place to visit and connect with its residents.
Photo by KatieRound, shared with Creative Commons license.
Ben
Book: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Set in a haunted IKEA-esque furniture store called ORSK.
Place: Deadwood, SD. While the entire town may not be considered haunted, plenty of locations within it—including Mount Moriah Cemetery, the Bullock Hotel, and Saloon No. 10—are rumored to house the ghosts of Deadwood’s Wild West past. While I’ve never personally had a ghostly experience here, the town’s bloody history makes it easy to see how so many people claim to have witnessed the paranormal. If you want a unique spooky experience, visit Broken Boot Gold Mine on the edge of town!
Claire
Book: A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Set in a North Carolina home haunted by a not-so-sweet grandmother.
Place: The Argyll region of the Scottish Highlands, particularly Glencoe—a beautiful landscape marred by an infamous massacre on February 12, 1692. A government plot to bring the Highland clans in line behind King William resulted in the recorded murder of 38 men, women, and children—in addition to an unknown number of deaths related to exposure in the freezing winter conditions of the mountains.
Shelly
Book: We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Set in a secluded old house in the remote Pacific Northwest.
Place: The Necropolis in Glasgow, Scotland—an eerily beautiful garden cemetery full of statues and tombstones dating back to the 1820s. It has a rich history of supposed hauntings, including recent ghost sightings of a lady in white and a young boy. There are countless stories of this place, both supernatural and non. In the 1950s, children from the area filled the necropolis hunting a vampire. While I’ve never seen a ghost there, it is a visually stunning place with historical significance. If you are a Whovian, it also has a good number of spooky angel statues and reliefs.