Five frightful reads that needn’t wait for Halloween

Author Stephen Graham Jones loves a good, scary read. When he’s not terrifying the masses with his own works like “The Only Good Indians,” “Mapping the Interior” or his latest, “My Heart Is a Chainsaw,” he’s enjoying something sinister.

During a recent interview, Jones revealed he was about to dive into S.A. Crosby’s latest, “Razorblade Tears,” having already devoured the author’s previous novel, “Blacktop Wasteland.” He also revealed that Jack Ketchum’s “The Girl Next Door” is the scariest thing he has ever read.

“A horror book reviewer I knew called me and said, ‘Hey, can I mail you this book?’ ” Jones recalled. “My answer to that is always yes. She said, ‘Good, because I can’t have this in my house anymore; it’s too evil.’ And she was right. That book crawls inside your head and lays eggs. Since she gave it to me, I’ve read it 13 times to figure out how it does what it does and I haven’t figured out what Jack Ketchum did in that book, but it’s an amazing novel and really disturbing.

It’s not supernatural, there are no werewolves … It’s just people being people and it’s terrifying.”

Here are four other reads that Jones recommends if you’re looking for a good fright:

“THE ILLUSTRATED MAN,” BY RAY BRADBURY » Jones said that from this collection, the story “The Veldt” gets him every time. “There are doors better left closed,” he said. “Because they’re hungry.”

“IT,” BY STEPHEN KING » “Sewer drains aren’t just where the water goes when it rains,” he said. “Little boats go there, too. And we’re all aboard.”

“EXPERIMENTAL FILM,” BY GEMMA FILES » “There’s horror in the media we consume, and it can consume us,” he said.

“COME CLOSER,” BY SARA GRAN » “Demons are real,” he insists. “Take the test to see if you’ve got one.”