The Most Spellbinding Books About Witches

Once the costumes are ready and the candy corn brownies are made, there's only one thing left to do to celebrate Halloween: Curl up with a spooky book. While vampires and werewolves certainly make for great (if a bit terrifying) characters, don't overlook books about witches. Ranging from fiction to nonfiction, these narratives all have one thing in common: They feature strong, defiant women, and the tight-knit communities that sustain them.

Read enough witch books and you may want to become one yourself, which happened to Alex Mar when she was researching her nonfiction work Witches of America. If that path happens to spark your interest, try Witchery: Embrace the Witch Within, an introduction to spells, altar-making, and more. Or, perhaps you'd rather read about women learning to harness their powers, like the Owens sisters in Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic or Sunny Nwauze in Akata Witch. In that case, also consider coming-of-age stories found in YA fare like The Year of the Witching, or adult books like Anne Rice's bestselling Lives of the Mayfair Witches series. Tweens brave enough can read Roald Dahl's famously scary book, aptly titled The Witches. And, yes, there are even witch books for babies.

Set across time and space, from Salem to New Orleans, these stories are nothing short of captivating.