In autumn, there’s nothing better to read than a gripping ghost story, and I’ve read so many that it’s hard to come across a setup that feels fully original. Layla by Colleen Hoover really fits the bill. With a premise that’s chilling and twisty, this is one you’ll want to add to your TBR list this fall.

I know Hoover’s work is considered very hit or miss for the dark themes in some of the relationships she writes, and having read two of her books now, I can see why. The thing to keep in mind is that they aren’t really romance-based – they’re thrillers. There can be taboo topics, and for that reason I’d recommend researching authors like Hoover before diving in. That said, she’s extremely popular on BookTok (especially for her book Verity, which you can find my review of [here]).

Leeds is a musician in a band that isn’t very well known, and he meets Layla while playing her sister’s wedding at a luxurious bed-and-breakfast in Kansas. Their relationship kicks off at full speed, and he knows right away that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. The only obstacle comes when he makes their relationship public on Instagram, and a stalker from his past decides that if she can’t have him, no one can.

I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but months after a traumatic encounter with that stalker, Leeds takes Layla back to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met in hopes of rekindling their now struggling relationship. While there, he learns that the people closest to us may not be who they seem, and his entire worldview is shaken – especially as ghostly occurrences begin to unfold.

Admittedly, this one started off a little slow for me – probably because it opens as more of a romance, and that’s not the vibe I usually enjoy. But once the creepiness began to seep in through the cracks of their crumbling relationship, I was hooked. With so many wildly unpredictable twists, I kept changing my view of Leeds – sometimes feeling sympathetic, sometimes despising him. By the end, I’ll leave it up to you to decide where you land.

This book doesn’t just have an unreliable narrator, it has unreliable… everyone.

If you want a story that will keep you up at night trying to piece together what the heck you just read, definitely give this one a shot. It carries the same eerie vibes as Verity, but with a completely different setup. Creative, imaginative, and bone-chilling, Layla makes a fantastic Halloween read for anyone who’s ever felt both skeptical and curious about the paranormal.