Historical Horror

Horror books that are written about and around historical events (i.e. wars, time periods, trends). Prepare to be scared while learning some history.

Updated December 19, 2023
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This house is haunted
Boyne, John
Paper Book
1867. Eliza Caine arrives in Norfolk to take up her position as governess at Gaudlin Hall on a dark and chilling night. As she makes her way across the station platform, a pair of invisible hands push her from behind into the path of an approaching train. She is only saved by the vigilance of a...
All the blood we share : a novel of the Bloody Benders of Kansas
Bruce, Camilla
Paper Book
A sinister novel based on the real Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers in the old West bound by butchery and obscured by the shadows of American history. The winds shift nervously on the Kansas plain whispering of travelers lost and buried, whispering of witches. Something...
Between two fires
Buehlman, Christopher
Paper Book
"Buehlman...slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors."* The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found an orphan of the Black Death in a Norman village...
Those across the river
Buehlman, Christopher.
Paper Book
Failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife, Eudora, have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family's old estate-the Savoyard Plantation- and the horrors that occurred there. At first, the quaint, rural ways of their new neighbors seem to be...
Vampires of El Norte
Cañas, Isabel
Paper Book
As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters - her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead....
The ghost bride
Choo, Yangsze
Paper Book
Seventeen-year-old Li Lan lives in 1890s Malaya with her quietly-ruined father, who returns one evening with a proposition - the fabulously wealthy Lim family want Li Lan to marry their son. The only problem is, he's dead.
Ring shout
Clark, P. Dj©·l©?
Paper Book
Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror "A fantastical, brutal and thrilling triumph of the imagination...Clark's combination of...
The reformatory : a novel
Due, Tananarive
Paper Book
*Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner * New York Times Notable Book * Locus Award Finalist * Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award * "You're in for a treat...one of those books you can't put down...Due hit it out of the park." --Stephen King ...
Our share of night : a novel
Enriquez, Mariana
Paper Book
"A masterpiece of supernatural horror."--The Washington Post "An enchanting, shattering, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience."--The New York Times (Editors' Choice) ONE OF TIME AND THE ATLANTIC'S TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR * ONE OF THE NEW...
The deep
Katsu, Alma
Paper Book
'Beautifully written, thoroughly absorbing and totally terrifying.' said C. J. TUDOR, bestselling author of The Chalk Man A spine-tingling novel that 'blends psychological thriller and eerie gothic ghost story to create something truly haunting'...
The hunger
Katsu, Alma
Paper Book
__________________ 'Deeply, deeply disturbing' STEPHEN KING Shortlisted for the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards for Best Horror Novel 'It will scare the pants off you' NEW YORK TIMES ____________________ After...
The historian : a novel
Kostova, Elizabeth.
Paper Book
THE SUMPTUOUS INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER. 'A smart retelling of the Dracula story' New Yorker 'Quite extraordinary....Kostova is a natural storyteller....She has refashioned the vampire myth into a compelling contemporary novel, a late-night page...
Lone women : a novel
LaValle, Victor
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Blue skies, empty land--and enough wide-open space to hide a horrifying secret. A woman with a past, a mysterious trunk, a town on the edge of nowhere, and an "absorbing, powerful" (BuzzFeed) new vision of the American West, from the award-winning author of...
The daughter of Doctor Moreau : a novel
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a lavish historical drama reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico. "This is...
Mexican Gothic
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "It's Lovecraft meets the Brontës in Latin America, and after a slow-burn start Mexican Gothic gets seriously weird."--The Guardian   ONE OF TIME'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME * WINNER OF THE LOCUS...
The silent companions : a novel
Purcell, Laura
Paper Book
"[An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book." --Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author Laura Purcell's THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS is now out from Penguin! Some doors are locked for a reason.      ...
Lovecraft country : a novel
Ruff, Matt
Paper Book
Now an HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out) The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this...
The Terror
Simmons, Dan.
Paper Book
The "masterfully chilling" novel that inspired the hit AMC series (Entertainment Weekly).  The men on board the HMS Terror -- part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary...
The death of Jane Lawrence
Starling, Caitlin
Paper Book
***AN INSTANT BESTSELLER!*** Best Books of 2021 · NPR ALA/The Reading List Best Horror 2021 Pick Longlisted for the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement in a Novel, 2021 From the Bram Stoker-nominated author of The Luminous Dead comes...
The uninvited : a novel
Winters, Cat
Ebook
From the award-winning author of In the Shadow of Blackbirds comes a stunning new novel--a masterfully crafted story of love, loss, and second chances. Set during the fear and panic of the Great Influenza of 1918, The Uninvited is part gothic ghost-story, part psychological thriller, perfect...
In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Winters, Cat.
Ebook
  In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary...

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