Horror

New and recommended scary books

Updated October 6, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Jackal : a novel
Adams, Erin E.
Paper Book
RECOMMENDED BY GILLIAN FLYNN ON THE TODAY SHOW * A young Black girl goes missing in the woods outside her white rust belt town. But she's not the first--and she may not be the last. . . . "I read this thriller that is Get Out meets The Vanishing Half<...
Coup de gr?e
Ajram, Sofia
Paper Book
Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds himself in an endless, looping station. Determined to find a...
The stars are not yet bells
Assadi, Hannah Lillith
Paper Book
'A heartbreaking and profoundly visionary book.' Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves'The poetic beauty of the writing and a certain swirling Gothic passion and drama bowl the reader along... An unusual, intense, experimental novel' Daily MailIt is the end of the...
Rouge
Awad, Mona.
Paper Book
Cutting teeth
Baker, Chandler
Paper Book
Dead silence
Barnes, S. A.
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2022 by the New York Public Library * One of the Best SFF Books of 2022 (Gizmodo) * One of the Best SF Mysteries of 2022 (CrimeReads) * A GoodReads Choice Award finalist for Best Science Fiction! Titanic meets Event Horizon...
Not a speck of light : stories
Barron, Laird
Paper Book
Named One of the Best Horror Books of the Year by The New York Times, Esquire, NPR, and Paste! It's about to get very dark. Bram Stoker Award-winning author Laird Barron returns to the dark and dreadful with his fifth horror...
19 claws and a black bird
Bazterrica, Agustina María
Paper Book
On hearing her neighbour's body plummet on to her patio, a woman's comfortable life seems to split open. A cab driver's perfectly manicured nails may be concealing grisly secrets. A woman whose partner has left her begins to act out an increasingly deranged set of instructions.In these...
House of cotton
Brashears, Monica
Paper Book
FINALIST for the 2024 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award * NPR BEST BOOK OF 2023 * An enchanting Black Southern gothic debut, perfect for readers of Mexican Gothic... "Fresh, haunting...In her roller-coaster ride of a gothic debut novel, Monica Brashears upends expectations at...
The witch in the well
Bruce, Camilla
Paper Book
Over a hundred years ago, the citizens of F- did something rather bad. And local school teacher Catherine Evans has made writing the definitive account of what happened when Ilsbeth Clark drowned in the well her life's work. The town's people may not want their past raked up, but...
Lost man's lane : a novel
Carson, Scott
Paper Book
A mysterious private investigator embodies the darkness hidden within a small town in this spellbinding thriller that will "make you a Scott Carson fan for life" (Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author). Marshall Miller would've remembered her face even if he hadn...
The Haunting of Alejandra
Castro, V.
Paper Book
Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. But Alejandra is struggling and times of despair, a ghostly vision appears to her, a crying woman in a ragged white gown. When Alejandra begins exploring her family's history, she learns that tragedy...
Vampires of El Norte
Cañas, Isabel
Paper Book
Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda. Nena knows a thing or two about monsters--as the daughter of a rancher in Mexico, her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from...
What kind of mother : a novel
Chapman, Clay McLeod
Paper Book
A New York Times Book Review Best Horror of 2023 selection. "Packed with profoundly unsettling scenes that'll slither under your skin and stay there long after you turn the last page."--Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You Home ...
Memorials : a novel /
Chizmar, Richard,
Paper Book
The New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller about a group of college students encountering supernatural terror while on a road trip through Appalachia--an unforgettable, chilling novel that is "scary and hard to put down. You might be advised not to read it at night" (Stephen King)....
The bog wife : a novel
Chronister, Kay
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AWARDS "A lush, beautifully written novel about trying to be a person in our strange world . . . Pick this one up for its exquisite characterization, decaying settings and a dash of Southern gothic horror." --Kiersten White, The New York Times Book...
Dead of winter
Coates, Darcy
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER JULY 2023 LIBRARYREADS SELECTION From bestselling author Darcy Coates comes Dead of Winter, a remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will teach you to trust no one. There are eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.
A good house for children
Collins, Kate
Paper Book
A scintillatingly sinister folk horror debut.
The spite house
Compton, Johnny
Paper Book
A Best Horror Book of the Year (Esquire)! * A Bram Stoker Award Nominee! * A 2024 Legacy Awards Nominee! * A Finalist for the Reading the West Book Awards! A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and...
The hollow kind
Davidson, Andy
Paper Book
"The Hollow Kind seeps into your subconscious and waits for you in your nightmares." --S. A. Cosby, bestselling author of Razorblade Tears Andy Davidson's epic horror novel about the spectacular decline of the Redfern family, haunted by an...
The reformatory : a novel
Due, Tananarive
Paper Book
A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. 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. Gracetown, Florida
The paleontologist : a novel
Dumas, Luke
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER 2024 ITW Thriller Award Winner Esquire "Best Horror Books of 2023" Pick A haunted paleontologist returns to the museum where his sister was abducted years earlier and is faced with a terrifying and murderous spirit in this...
And then she fell : a novel
Elliott, Alicia
Paper Book
A Globe and Mail "Best Book of 2023"; a Most Anticipated Book Pick by Good Morning America, Bustle, CrimeReads, Electric Literature, Debutiful, Ms. Magazine, The Nerd Daily, and Paste A mind-bending, razor-sharp look at...
A Sunny Place for Shady People
Enriquez, Mariana.
Paper Book
A delicious, diabolical collection of short stories, from the International Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Our Share of Night
Luckenbooth
Fagan, Jenni
Paper Book
Featured in Damian Barr''s picks for 2021 Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2021 Chosen as one of the Best Books of 2021 in the Telegraph ''If this addictive slice of Edinburgh Gothic isn''t on all prize lists, there is no justice.<...
Cuckoo
Felker-Martin, Gretchen
Paper Book
Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body. It wears your skin. In the summer of 1995, seven queer kids abandoned by their parents at a remote conversion camp came face to face with it. They survived--but at Camp Resolution, everybody...
Just like home
Gailey, Sarah
Paper Book
A Best Horror Novel of All Time (Cosmopolitan) * WINNER of the 2023 British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel * One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 (Vulture, Paste, NPR, and Teen Vogue) * A Belletrist Book Club pick! Just Like Home<...
The house of last resort : a novel
Golden, Christopher
Paper Book
The next high concept horror novel from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden. Across Italy there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them,...
A haunting on the hill
Hand, Elizabeth
Paper Book
'Scary and beautifully written, imbued with the same sense of dread and inevitability as Jackson's original' NEIL GAIMANDiscover the landmark first novel ever to return to Hill House, officially authorised by the Shirley Jackson estate.'It's so vivid, full of totemic menace and with a...
So thirsty
Harrison, Rachel
Paper Book
A woman must learn to take life by the throat after a night out leads to irrevocable changes in this juicy, thrilling novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Black Sheep. Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn't need a...
Starling house
Harrow, Alix E.
Paper Book
How to sell a haunted house
Hendrix, Grady
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Wildly entertaining."-The New York Times "Ingenious."-The Washington Post New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that...
Natural beauty : a novel
Huang, Ling Ling
Paper Book
Our narrator is the youngest student at the Conservatory. She produces a sound from the piano no one else does, employing a special technique she learned from her parents - also stunningly talented musicians - who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her...
House of bone and rain
Iglesias, Gabino
Paper Book
For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe's grandmother's refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo's mom has been shot dead. We're...
The book of witching
Jess-Cooke, Carolyn
Paper Book
A mother must fight for her daughter's life in this fierce and haunting tale of witchcraft and revenge from the author of A Haunting in the Arctic. Clem gets a call that is every mother's worst nightmare. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Erin is unconscious in the hospital...
Bad Cree : a novel
Johns, Jessica
Paper Book
I was a teenage slasher
Jones, Stephen Graham
Paper Book
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A community driven by oil and cotton - a town where everyone knows everyone else's business. Tolly Driver, seventeen, a good kid with more potential than application, exists on the outskirts with his best friend, Amber. They navigate the hellscape of the teenage...
The fervor : a novel
Katsu, Alma
Paper Book
In an internment camp in Idaho in 1944, American-born Meiko Briggs and her daughter Aiko dream of their home in Seattle and the safe return of Meiko's husband who is away with the Air Force. A sickness starts to spread amongst those in the camp and though it starts as a minor cold it triggers...
Night's edge
Kerin, Liz
Paper Book
"Complex and fully realized, Kerin's vampire apocalypse has a palpable beating heart."--Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six Night's Edge by Liz Kerin takes a bite out of vampire lore in this blood-soaked novel about the darkest...
The Djinn waits a hundred years
Khan, Shubnum
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE "Rich and swoony...an ambitious delight, with rich characters and some exceptionally lovely writing...This is the start of a major career." -- The New York Times Book Review AN INDIE NEXT PICK A LIBRARY...
The salt grows heavy
Khaw, Cassandra
Paper Book
Myths are full of lies. This is not one of them. Fleeing the downfall of an empire, a mermaid and her plague doctor companion escape into the eerie shadows of a wintery forest. Amongst the bark and snow they are drawn into ancient games for ageless children - a murderous hunt of blood and sacrifice...
This wretched valley
Kiefer, Jenny
Paper Book
2024 Bram Stoker Award®️ Nominee for Superior Achievement in a First Novel "A hallucinatory nightmare of a novel that blends adventure, horror and historical fiction, and isn't shy about violence or strangeness."--New York Times "If you love...
The eyes are the best part
Kim, Monika
Paper Book
My Sister, the Serial Killer meets Boy Parts, this literary feminist howl-of-a-debut is going to crawl right under your skin...Ji-won's life is in disarray. Her father's affair has ripped her family into mouli-like shreds, leaving her to piece her mother, her sister and their crappy...
You like it darker : stories
King, Stephen
Paper Book
NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 HORROR BOOK OF 2024 WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR HORROR "" background-color:="">FINALIST FOR THE 2025 LOCUS AWARDS "Stephen King knows You Like It Darker<...
A house with good bones
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
A Barnes & Noble Best Horror Book of 2023 A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family. "Mom seems off."<...
The haunting of Velkwood
Kiste, Gwendolyn
Paper Book
Winner of the 2025 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel Finalist for the 2025 Shirley Jackson Award From Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes an "emotionally devastating, character driven ghost story" (CrimeReads) about...
We used to live here
Kliewer, Marcus
Paper Book
Lone women : a novel
LaValle, Victor
Paper Book
Maeve fly
Leede, CJ
Paper Book
A USA Today bestseller! Winner of the Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award * Winner of the Splatterpunk Award for Best Novel * A Bram Stoker Award Nominee * One of Esquire's Best Horror Books of the Year * An Indie Next Pick!...
The book of love
Link, Kelly
Paper Book
'A dizzying dream ride you will never forget' LEIGH BARDUGO 'An astonishing, gorgeous novel' HOLLY BLACK 'An incredible achievement' CASSANDRA CLARE FROM PULITZER-PRIZE FINALIST KELLY LINK *Time Magazine's 100 Must-Reads of 2024* ...
Incidents around the house : a novel
Malerman, Josh
Paper Book
"Simply put--and I do not say this lightly--Incidents Around the House is the most purely effective horror novel I have ever read."--Neil McRobert, Esquire A chilling horror novel about a haunting, told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled...
The woods all black
Mandelo, Lee
Paper Book
The Woods All Black is equal parts historical horror, trans romance, and blood-soaked revenge, all set in 1920s Appalachia Leslie Bruin is assigned to the backwoods township of Spar Creek by the Frontier Nursing Service, under its usual mandate: vaccinate the flock,...
Our hideous progeny
McGill, C. E.
Paper Book
'Compelling and utterly absorbing... an artfully crafted debut' SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN, author of PANDORA 'A gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue' JESS KIDD, author of THE NIGHT SHIP 'A wonderful book; dark, passionate, multi-layered' JOANNE...
Indian burial ground
Medina, Nick
Paper Book
All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on - just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her - things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend's apparent suicide brings...
The militia house : a novel
Milas, John
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize Nominated for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Award "An extraordinary novel about the quiet and not so quiet horrors of war." --Roxane Gay Stephen King meets Tim O'Brien in John Milas's...
Graveyard of lost children
Monroe, Katrina
Paper Book
"The best kind of story-one that will both break your heart and scare the hell out of you." -Jennifer McMahon, New York Times bestselling author for They Drown Our Daughters ONCE SHE HAS HER GRIP ON YOU, SHE'LL NEVER LET YOU GO. At four months...
Silver nitrate
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers. ...
Blood like mine
Neville, Stuart
Paper Book
A New York Times Best Horror Fiction of the Year Selection * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Horror * A Parade Best Horror Books of the Year Selection "A gruesome, action-packed monster novel about a mother and daughter with a terrible secret, on the run from...
The September house
Orlando, Carissa
Paper Book
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street - for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price - they couldn't believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former...
Sacrificial animals
Pedersen, Kailee
Paper Book
When their father calls them to tell them he is dying, Nick and Joshua rush back to their Nebraskan childhood home, Stag's Crossing, hoping for a deathbed reconciliation with the man who raised them. But their return sparks memories of their childhood, and their father--Carlyle--a ruthless, violent...
Haunt sweet home
Pinsker, Sarah
Paper Book
On the set of a kitschy reality TV show, staged scares transform into unnerving reality in this spooky ghost story from multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Sarah Pinsker. A Most Anticipated Pick for Library Journal | Polygon | CrimeReads | Screen Rant...
A light most hateful
Piper, Hailey
Paper Book
Three years after running away from home, Olivia is stuck with a dead-end job in nowhere town Chapel Hill, Pennsylvania. At least she has her best friend, Sunflower. Olivia figures she'll die in Chapel Hill, if not from boredom, then the summer night storm which crashes into town with a...
Fever house : a novel
Rosson, Keith (Novelist)
Paper Book
"Exciting, suspenseful, horrifying, and written at a flurry-of-punches pace. Read Fever Housenow."-STEPHEN KING A small-time criminal. A has-been rock star. A shadowy government agency. And a severed hand whose dark powers threaten to destroy them all.
Tell me I'm worthless
Rumfitt, Alison
Paper Book
Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends Ila and Hannah. Since then, things have not been going well. Alice is living a haunted existence, selling videos of herself cleaning for money, drinking herself to sleep. She hasn t spoken to Ila since they went into the...
Middle of the night : a novel
Sager, Riley
Paper Book
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend--and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines...
This Cursed House
Sandeen, Del.
Paper Book
A young woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: they're under a curse 'A sinister and beautifully rendered Southern Gothic, This Cursed House explores the real-life horrors of...
Monstrilio: a novel
Sm?ano Cr?dova, Gerardo
Paper Book
"Heartfelt, bizarre, and unexpected. . . . At once a novel about family and love, a creepy tale that questions what it means to be human, and a celebration of queer stories, Monstrilio is as shocking as it is profound, and as humorous as it is thoughtful." ―Gabino Iglesias, The...
Sister, maiden, monster
Snyder, Lucy A.
Paper Book
Humanity has been irrevocably changed by a virus that radically alters its victims...yet life goes on. Three women must band together to try to survive. Erin and Savannah are helping usher in the new world, while Mareva has been burdened with a very special task ― one she's too...
Murder Road
St James, Simone.
Paper Book
Last to leave the room : a novel
Starling, Caitlin
Paper Book
Last to Leave the Room is a new novel of genre-busting speculative horror from Caitlin Starling, the acclaimed author of The Death of Jane Lawrence. The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research...
Do what Godmother says
Stratton, L. S.
Paper Book
An ELLE "Best Mystery and Thriller Book of 2024" A modern-day writer and a Harlem Renaissance artist are connected by a painting with a deadly secret in this gripping dual-timeline gothic thriller.    ...
The cliffs
Sullivan, J. Courtney
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers "A stunning achievement, and J. Courtney Sullivan's best book yet. Sullivan weaves a...
Diavola
Thorne, Jennifer
Paper Book
Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family...
Bury your gays
Tingle, Chuck
Paper Book
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill...
The empusium : a health resort horror story
Tokarczuk, Olga
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER! A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR "A folk horror story with a deceptively light and knowing tone ... elegant and genuinely unsettling." -The New York Times Book Review The Nobel Prize winner's latest...
Horror Movie: A Novel
Tremblay, Paul.
Paper Book
Instant New York Times bestseller! A chilling twist on the "cursed film" genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World. In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, ...
Pink slime
Trías, Fernanda
Paper Book
A port city is in the grips of an ecological crisis. The river has filled with toxic algae, and a deadly 'red wind' blows through its streets; much of the coast has been evacuated as the wealthy migrate inland to safety, leaving the rest to shelter in abandoned houses as blackouts and food shortages...
Black river orchard : a novel
Wendig, Chuck
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A small town is transformed when seven strange trees begin bearing magical apples in this masterpiece of horror from the author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents. "This masterful outing should continue to earn Wendig comparisons to...
Lucy undying
White, Kiersten
Paper Book
'Hypnotic and razor-sharp.' AVA REID 'A mesmerizing saga...' CHLOE GONG 'The best retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula I've read...' RIN CHUPECO 'Lucy Undying is a gothic masterpiece.' ERIN A. CRAIG -------- In this...
Mister Magic
White, Kiersten
Paper Book
Who is Mister Magic? Former child stars reunite to uncover the tragedy that ended their show - and discover the secret of its enigmatic host - in this dark supernatural thriller from the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide. 'A suspenseful, spooky tale...
Where the dead wait
Wilkes, Ally
Paper Book
"Haunting...Ominous." --The New York Times Book Review A "wonderfully chilling" (Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author) polar gothic about a Victorian explorer in search of his lost shipmate-and redemption-from the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of...
Midnight is the darkest hour : a novel
Winstead, Ashley
Paper Book
From the critically acclaimed author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Last Housewife comes Midnight is the Darkest Hour, gothic Southern thriller about a killer haunting a small Louisiana town, where two outcasts-the preacher's daughter and the boy from the wrong side...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.