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
A Dickensian ghost story from the bestselling author of The Heart's Invisible Furies and A Ladder to the Sky "A wonderfully creepy novel...magnificently eerie." --The Observer This House Is Haunted is a striking homage to the classic...
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
His extraordinary debut, Those Across the River, was hailed as "genre-bending Southern horror" (California Literary Review), "graceful [and] horrific" (Patricia Briggs). Now Christopher Buehlman invites readers into an even darker age--one of temptation and corruption, of war in heaven...
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
Now a Netflix Mandarin original drama premiering January 2020  From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger, a Reese's Book Club pick, Yangsze Choo's stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with...
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
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
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a...
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 : a novel
Simmons, Dan.
Paper Book
The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in...
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
Winters, Cat
Paper Book
Set during the fear and panic of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, The Uninvited is part gothic ghost-story, part psychological thriller, perfect for those who loved The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield or The Vanishing by Wendy Webb. Twenty-five year old Ivy...
In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Winters, Cat.
Paper Book
  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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