Horror Books to Read for Spooky Season
Looking for a good scare? Check out our list of new stories from familiar voices and prepare yourself for horror like you’ve never experienced it before.
The perfectly twisted word-of-mouth horror phenomenon that set the internet on fire.
When Eamon and his two closest friends, Caroline and Mark, journey to Addington Isle, they hope to explore the island that inspired their favorite book, Winterset Hollow—a timeless tale about a tribe of animals preparing for their yearly end-of-summer festival. But when the trio break into the author’s apparently abandoned estate, they discover that much of what the world believes to be fantasy is real, and that the truth behind their beloved story is darker and more dangerous than they ever imagined. In fact, making it through the final chapter might just cost them everything.
How do you celebrate Barley Day? You run, friend. You run.
This edition features the complete version of the book within the book, Winterset Hollow, as written by Edward Addington!
“Winterset Hollow is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in years … astonishingly powerful and multilayered! It’s like you’re sitting on a log by a pleasant pond, dabbling your toes, and then you see a dark shape in the water…then another … and while you’re holding your breath, suddenly you realize the log you’re sitting on … is … moving!” —Diana Gabaldon, New York Times bestselling author of Outlander
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
The brilliant and scarily relevant short story by Harlan Ellison, an eight-time Hugo Award winner, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and four-time Nebula Award winner
In a postapocalyptic world, four men and one woman are all that remain of the human race, brought to near extinction by an artificial intelligence named A.M. Programmed to wage war on behalf of its creators, the AI has become self-aware and has now turned against all humanity. The five survivors struggle for survival in a vast prison created by A.M. in a deeply personal war between hope and despair.
This edition of this defining story also features a new foreword; exclusive photos and essays by Harlan exploring the story’s history and international success; and a response to the story by an entity that—possibly—is most analogous to A.M. itself.
Quaint Folk is a sharply satirical queer folk horror novel that peels back the idyllic veneer of a seemingly perfect island town to reveal the rot beneath, from Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Bitter Karella.
“The folk horror I always wanted: queer, funny, bloody, and outrageous in the best way.” —Laura Cranehill, author of Wife Shaped Bodies
From the outside, it looks like Jessica has the perfect life. She’s a stay-at-home mom, married to a man with a respectable job, raising a son they adore. Her family is as wholesome as all-American pie. But deep down, Jessica knows there’s something wrong with her; she knows she can’t escape her past.
When her husband’s job has them move abroad, Jessica thinks this is her chance for a fresh start. On the remote island of Hasenhurst, the modern world can’t get in. The people there grow their own herbs, make their own jam, and mind their own business. They believe in folk tales and the power of dreams. They tell visitors, we’re a quaint, quiet people.The right sort of family would do well here.
Jessica is determined to be the right kind of person for a family—and a life—like this. But as she tries to befriend the townsfolk and learn their ways, she soon realizes that beneath the town’s cozy idyll, something sickly-sweet and rotten lays buried …
“To experience Karella’s cheerfully unhinged fiction is to surrender to a spectacularly fierce and uncompromising literary force. Quaint Folk astonished me with its charming, mythical weirdness threaded with genuine moments of pure tenderness. A bold, potent brew of all the best elements of folk and queer horror.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
A woman returns to the mysterious lodge in the woods where she once worked, and to the inscrutable creature that bound her there, in this haunting Appalachian gothic horror from singular voice Jen Julian. Perfect for fans of Alix E. Harrow and T. Kingfisher.
“A mesmerizing and spell-binding tale, beautifully told, that you will not want to end. You, too, will never want to leave Deerhaven.” – Bitter Karella, author of Moonflow
This is the story of Moth, who earned her name working for the Winter Folk.
Every year, the mythical Winter Folk gather at a secret lodge, a place known only as Deerhaven.
Moth was a housekeeper there once. A trusted confidant of Mr. Oslin, the enigmatic master of the house.
But Deerhaven is dangerous. The rules are exacting. The consequences for break them are dire.
Moth has not been allowed back in decades. Still, she feels its call. She will finder her way back. She needs to see him again. No matter the cost.
“The Winter Folk feels like an Appalachian Spirited Away, blending the Blue Ridge with Studio Ghibli, teeming with haints, haunts, and monsters. Jen Julian crafts a tale that feels as if it has been handed down through generations of storytellers, a hauntingly evocative gothic for every campfire.” – Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Devil Inside
★ “Julian creates an emotionally rich blend of the mythical and the mundane in this dark, multigenerational Appalachian horror novel. The denizens of Deerhaven are delightfully terrible in myriad inventive ways, and the worldbuilding as a whole is beautifully executed. It’s an impressive feat.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
★ “An immersive blend of Appalachian gothic, portal fantasy, and dark fairy tale. Like Moth, readers will feel drawn to Deerhaven, whose labyrinthine mysteries aren’t easily solved. Fans of Stephen King’s Fairy Tale . . . will find their time in Deerhaven a bargain worth making.” – Booklist (starred review)
The Mexican board game of Lotería is a game of chance—similar to bingo. However, in Lotería instead of matching up numbers on a game board, players match up images.
There are 54 cards in the Lotería game, and for this short story collection you will find one unique story per card based on a Latin American myth, folklore, superstition, or belief—with a slant towards the paranormal and horrific. In this deck of cards you will find murderers, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. This collection features creatures and monsters, vampires, werewolves and more.
Many of these legends existed long before their European counterparts—passed throughout the Americas via word of mouth, collected just like the tales the Brothers Grimm. These are indeed fairy tales—Latin American fairy tales—but with a horrifying slant.
Surviving the massacre is just the beginning in this razor-sharp summer-camp slasher with a bloody twist from horror master Craig DiLouie.
“The Summer Fun Massacre swings back and forth like a bladed, unstoppable pendulum, gory slasher tale to eerie mystery and back again.” —New York Times bestselling author Peter Clines
★ “A horror revelation.” – Library Journal (starred review)
It’s 1992, and in the heat of Texas, camp Summer Fun rests by a crystalline lake surrounded by a shady forest. The counselors have set out the kayaks, prepped the kitchens, and refurbished the cabins. Now, on the night before camp begins, a bonfire and the teenage counselors’ rites of passage await.
But the camp has a horrifying history. In the ’80s, there was a massacre that left a sole survivor. One final girl. The killer never caught.
Deputy Tom Bailey is always on edge this time of year. There are rumors that the woods are haunted. That the killer might one day return. Tom has deeply personal ties to the ’80s massacre, and those ties have plagued his dreams.
Then Tom gets a call reporting bloodcurdling screams coming from the camp. The real nightmare is just beginning . . . .
“DiLouie finds horror’s heart still beating beneath the cabin floor. An invigorating reminder that nothing ever really ends … unless you break the cycle.” — Andrew F. Sullivan, author of The Handyman Method
“Urban legends, a summer camp, teens in peril, and a seemingly unstoppable killer, Craig DiLouie’s latest is a brutal exercise in nostalgic horror from an author at the top of his game. Fans of the camp-bound slashers of yesteryear will lose their minds.” —Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Sour Candy and Kin
★ “An exciting and original slasher featuring a terrifying folk horror twist that will drive fans to sign up for the promised second session of Summer Fun Camp in droves.” — Booklist (starred review)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets The Breakfast Club in this thrilling horror novel by the bestselling author of Clown In a Cornfield—now with a new forward by Stephen Graham Jones.
“One of the most talented and engaging voices of horror fiction’s newest wave.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You Home
It’s 1988 and two best friends—one departing for college, one destined for bad boy townie life—decide to have a final video night before their friendship changes forever. Billy and Tom’s plan is perfect. They’ve got pizza and beer, and Tom even managed to convince his girlfriend, Darcy, to bring a friend, Billy’s neighbor and crush, Rachel. But what they don’t know is that there’s an invasion underway.
Across the street, Rachel’s sister, Rhonda, was one of the first to turn. A slithering, chitinous evil has overtaken her body and mind, and she’ll do anything to spread the alien infection. Blood, sex, rock and roll, invaders from outer space, and tender perspectives on teen male friendship: Video Night is one cult classic that has it all!
“The writing moves like a greased torpedo, compulsively readable as it rockets through your brain.” —Fangoria
“Hit that first chapter. It’ll hook you, and the next time you look up, you’ll have swallowed the book. It’ll be nesting inside you like a seed, like an egg, like an invasion.” —Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of My Heart Is a Chainsaw
When Claire’s fiancé mysteriously dies of an unknown neurological illness, she’s prepared to sink back into the lonely life she lived before. Orphaned by a freak boating accident in her childhood, she never expected to find connection like she did with Elias, anyway. Their relationship wasn’t perfect—his coldness, his secrets, his strange aversion to the ocean—but what relationship is?
When Elias’s family reaches out—his incredibly wealthy family, from whom he was estranged—and invites Claire to a three-day wake at Harrow Point, their family home on a private island, Claire is given the chance to find family again. To belong to something, just like she’s always wanted. Just like Elias knew she was desperate to have.
Even if that family is a little strange. Even if their coastal home stirs up memories of the accident that killed her parents and sister. Even if Ash, Elias’s older brother, seems insistent on Claire leaving as soon as possible.
As she dives deeper into the world of Harrow Point, she will uncover the nature of her own traumatic connection to the ocean. There is something swimming in the bowels of Harrow Point, and it is hungry…
It’s gamers versus ghosts in this pulse-pounding novella from the USA Today bestselling author of Clown in a Cornfield.
“Cesare is a true master of fast-paced, fun, balls-out, over-the-top fear fiction, and those narrative talents are on full display in this video-arcade-set gore-o-rama ghost novel. –FANGORIA
It’s 1989, and Robby Asaro is making FunCave Arcade’s pizzas when his sleeve is caught on the pizza oven conveyor belt, and he dies a brutal death. But that wasn’t the end for Robby, who is now a friendly ghost watching over the gamers of the arcade.
Fast forward to 2014, and this retro video arcade is still going strong as teens flock to both the new games on the main floor and the old classics on the second. What they don’t know is that FunCave is now haunted by the man who died there in the 1980s. Robby cares about the regulars, especially Tiffany Park. When Robby tries to protect Tiffany from a bully, his first kill has unintended consequences as he absorbs his victim’s hate and rage. He can’t help what he does next as more bodies pile up and the patrons of the arcade are trapped inside.
Blood and ectoplasm fly in this new edition of the nostalgic slasher from the incomparable award-winning and bestselling author Adam Cesare.
“Adam Cesare solidifies himself as the Herschell Gordon Lewis of horror lit with Zero Lives Remaining, a dizzying fizz of kinetic energy, corn syrup blood and guts, and an added dab of pathos to warm our eviscerated hearts.” -Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters