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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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...
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.
The reformatory
Due, Tananarive
Paper Book
A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephen Jones as he's sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.
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
From the acclaimed and award-winning author of The Hunger comes an eerie, psychological twist on one of the world's most renowned tragedies, the sinking of the Titanic and the ill-fated sail of its sister ship, the Britannic. Someone, or something, is...
The hunger
Katsu, Alma
Paper Book
As featured in The New York Times Book Review Summer Reading Issue "Supernatural suspense at its finest...The best thing about The Hunger is that it will scare the pants off you."--The New York Times Book Review "Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to...
The historian : a novel
Kostova, Elizabeth.
Paper Book
A brilliant and gripping tale set to become an international bestseller. When a young girl discovers an ancient and disturbing book in her father's library, she re-opens a dark chapter in his past. Her father turns out to be an expert on the real Vlad the Impaler. He also happens to believe -...
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
'You don't read this book so much as surrender to it. A dark and heady swoon' THE GUARDIAN 'As rich is suspense as it is in lush '50s atmosphere' ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to...

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