Wednesday Addams' Reading List
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Time to read 4 min
Got the same deliciously dark vibe as the infamous Wednesday Addams?
Wednesday Addams is the undisputed queen of dark academia — a master of deadpan wit, gothic charm, and an affinity for all things eerie and intelligent. If she ever handed you a reading list, you’d expect it to be laced with poison, stitched in black lace, and packed with unsettling brilliance. So we’ve taken the liberty of compiling one for her — and for anyone who shares her taste for the beautifully bleak.
These books are dripping with twisted plots, morbid humor, philosophical despair, and characters who straddle the fine line between genius and madness. They're the kind of stories that sip absinthe by candlelight, whisper secrets in graveyards, and smile sweetly before delivering a psychological gut punch.
And don’t worry: if any of these characters break your heart, we’ll bring the nail gun.
Now, let’s descend into the shadowy corners of literature, where the pages are inked in dread and beauty — and every story feels like it was written by darkness.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
by Shirley Jackson
If Wednesday Addams had a literary kindred spirit, it might be eighteen-year-old Merricat Blackwood. After most of her family is mysteriously poisoned, Merricat lives in eerie isolation with her sister, performing strange rituals and guarding their crumbling estate. When a greedy cousin arrives to disrupt their dark harmony, Merricat’s quiet menace turns feral.
Whether by witchcraft or willpower, she’ll protect what’s hers. Wednesday would savor every unsettling detail—this book isn’t just gothic, it’s Addams Family gothic.
The Prince
by Niccolò Machiavelli
Few books match Wednesday Addams' cold-blooded clarity quite like The Prince. Machiavelli’s legendary guide to power is ruthless, pragmatic, and entirely uninterested in sentiment — perfect for someone who prefers strategy to sincerity.
Written by a Florentine diplomat who’d seen empires rise and fall, this political manual is packed with lessons in manipulation, control, and the art of ruling with an iron fist (preferably in a velvet glove).
Wednesday would undoubtedly appreciate its central question: is it better to be feared than loved? You can guess her answer.
Perfume
by Patrick Süskind
This isn’t just a novel — it’s an olfactory descent into madness, murder, and obsession. In 18th-century France, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with an extraordinary sense of smell and an utter disdain for humanity. Naturally, he chooses to use his gift to create the world’s most intoxicating perfume — distilled from the scent of young women.
A tale of bloodlust, isolation, and perverse beauty, Perfume is the kind of book Wednesday Addams would inhale with quiet reverence. Its loathing for humanity? Icy perfection. Its sensual grotesquery? Irresistible.
After all, who better to appreciate a meditation on scent, death, and decay than someone who finds beauty in the macabre?
The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Alan Poe
by Edgar Alan Poe
If there’s a literary godfather to Wednesday Addams’ worldview, it’s Edgar Allan Poe. Brooding, brilliant, and utterly unafraid to peer into the abyss, Poe’s tales of madness, death, and the supernatural read like bedtime stories in the Addams household.
This book is a mausoleum of poetic gloom and psychological horror. For Wednesday, this isn’t just reading material — it’s soul food.
Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
“Sometimes... dead is better.” Honestly, that could be Wednesdays' life motto. In this book, a seemingly peaceful Maine countryside becomes the setting for one of the most disturbing meditations on death, grief, and what happens when you refuse to let go.
A quiet path through the woods, a secret cemetery for beloved pets, and something much older — and far darker — buried beyond. It’s unsettling, supernatural, and soaked in dread.
For Wednesday, this is a cautionary tale about why you should respect the dead — and never trust a resurrection.
American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
If Wednesday Addams ever took an interest in modern horror with a satirical edge, Patrick Bateman would catch her morbid curiosity — though she’d find him painfully predictable.
American Psycho is a razor-sharp, blood-soaked takedown of capitalism, vanity, and the empty horror of perfection. Beneath the slick suits and dinner reservations lies a psychopath unraveling in real time — and Ellis makes sure you witness every brutal detail with a grin that’s just a little too wide.
This is the moral rot in a man who has everything and still chooses violence.
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
Written by a teenage girl surrounded by poets, storms, and death — Wednesday Addams would already be intrigued. But it’s the story itself that earns Frankenstein a permanent place on her shelf.
Victor Frankenstein, obsessed with creating life, reanimates a creature from stolen corpses... only to recoil in horror at what he’s done. Abandoned and unloved, the “monster” turns on his maker — and the result is one of literature’s most chilling tragedies.
Wednesday would admire its bleak beauty, its commentary on isolation, and the poetic justice of a creation haunting its creator. It's not just a horror classic — it's a gothic revenge fantasy. And she’d read it with a smile.
My Best Friend's Exorcism
by Grady Hendrix
Friendship is eternal... unless your best friend gets possessed by a demon. Set in 1988, this wickedly fun blend of The Exorcist and Beaches follows Abby as she battles puberty, peer pressure, and possibly the devil himself after her bestie Gretchen starts acting very off post-skinny-dip.
It’s got demonic possession, teen drama, 80s nostalgia, and just enough gore to keep Wednesday Addams turning pages with glee. Because nothing says "BFF" like an exorcism in a high school gym.
Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier
A haunted mansion, a dead wife who refuses to fade, and a second bride slowly unraveling? Wednesday would eat this gothic classic for breakfast.
Rebecca drips with dread, jealousy, and psychological torment as the timid new Mrs. de Winter arrives at Manderley — only to find herself living in the long shadow of the flawless, now-dead Rebecca. From the eerie Mrs. Danvers to the slow-burn unraveling of secrets, this is obsession at its most refined.
Wednesday would appreciate the quiet madness, the elegant menace, and the reminder that the dead never really leave.
