While horror movies can be fun to watch, I feel like they just can’t compare to reading about things that go bump in the night. Why is that?

I personally believe it’s because the images conjured up inside your own head are automatically tailored to fit what you as an individual find most disturbing—morphing each scare into a deliciously creepy experience that’s essentially custom-made.

That being said, there are some tried-and-true tropes that tend to regularly pop up in horror novels, no matter who is writing (or reading) them. So if you decide to pick up a scary book to celebrate the Halloween season, chances are you’ll run into at least a few of these.

Stranger comes to town
Somebody brand new moving into the neighborhood? Prepare yourself for something truly evil. And rest assured that the location of said neighbor has no influence on the matter whatsoever.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if it’s a kindly elderly neighbor who shows up in the protagonist’s big-city apartment complex or a nice young family with kids who moves into the rural farm a few miles down the road—those strangers are bad news. Sometimes the stranger immediately gives off unsettling vibes, but often the first couple of encounters with them are completely innocuous. But you, dear reader, already know better.

Haunted houses
The classic horror novel trope leads our unassuming main characters to a house that is so clearly and obviously haunted, it’s a wonder that anyone ever sets foot past the threshold.

Most of the time, the protagonists have some compelling reason to enter: Their family has just moved in, someone has dared them to, they have to retrieve something that is inexplicably located there and only there—you get the idea. Regardless, you better believe that each and every person who goes inside is going to get hardcore haunted (and, let’s be honest, probably straight-up murdered).

Ancient artifacts
Ooh, mysterious strange object! (Note: Often found in a haunted house; see above). Let’s pick it up and mess with it! Or maybe just outright steal it!

This popular trope has a person or group discovering some ancient artifact that is usually foreign to them—thus they have no idea of the underlying cultural or religious associations with that object that would immediately alert them to the fact that it 1.) is sacred, 2.) should not be disturbed, 3.) will inevitably kill you in a very creative way.

Dismal weather
I believe it is an unwritten rule that nothing horrific in books ever happens on a pleasantly mild, sunny day. A crisp autumn day with blue skies and beautiful color-changing leaves? Nope. A crisp autumn day with plenty of rain, fog, and/or the occasional thunderstorm just as the sun is beginning to set and it’s getting dark? Now we’re talking. There’s just something about having Mother Nature match the ominous mood of a book that makes the action that much more threatening.

Isolated locations
While scary stuff can certainly happen in a bustling metropolis, that location tends to pale in comparison to horror authors’ preference for out-of-the way settings. Think a girls’ weekend at a remote cabin in the woods, a dilapidated mansion on a hill, or an abandoned mental hospital. Even plain old suburbia, while not completely isolated, can provide just enough of a “we’re in trouble and there’s no one to turn to” kind of feeling that gives readers the unmistakable impression that everyone is on their own.

Splitting up
Why, oh why, do characters in scary novels always feel like the best approach to confronting a threatening situation is to go their separate ways? Yes, they’ll certainly cover more ground (which may be helpful if they’re looking for, say, a way out of some creepy building), but it also means they’ll certainly die. Alone. And will therefore be unable to warn anyone else in the group that there is a serial killer/monster/ghost on the loose. As soon as one or more people split off from the main group, you can be sure that some sort of gruesome death is imminent.

Getting lost
A child getting lost on the way home. A newly married couple mistakenly taking the wrong turn down a country road. A teenager taking a shortcut through the woods. What do these scenarios have in common? The characters who get lost will likely meet their final doom fairly quickly. If you ever find yourself as a protagonist in a horror novel, you better hope you’re carrying a map.

Cursed media
This last trope is a fairly recent one, in which the book’s protagonist finds some sort of cassette/movie/book/social media post that turns out to curse the viewer or reader. This is a uniquely modern trend that could possibly represent people’s underlying fear and mistrust of advancing technology. Or maybe it’s just a cool new way to scare people. Either way, VHS tapes have never felt so terrifying.

Andrea Moran lives outside of Nashville with her husband and two kids. She’s a professional copywriter and editor who loves all things books. Find her on LinkedIn.