Looking for a spine-chilling escape this spooky season?
Fear not! Our super(natural) scary curated list contains top-ranked horror books from 2021-2024 is just what you need this fall. From Stephen King’s latest terrifying tales to award-winning masterpieces and must-read recommendations, these horror books for adults are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. Whether you're a seasoned horror aficionado or new to the genre, the list has absolutely the scariest books to keep you up at night, turning page after page in delicious dread.
With high praise from book industry professionals, acclaimed authors like Stephen King, reader review sites and more, there's no doubt you will be hiding under the covers come night fall.
Flip open the cover—if you dare!
16 Horror Books for Adults:
This Thing Between Us
by Gus Moreno
**Named a Best Book by the New York Public Library and NPR**
A Most Anticipated Book of Fall at Buzzfeed, Gizmodo, Tor.com, This is Horror, and CrimeReads
"A surreal excursion into heartache and horror narrated by a man undone by grief . . . Along with allusions to Rod Serling and The Exorcist, there are shades of H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, zombie literature and, at least once, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . . . You don't want to read this book right before bed." --Sarah Lyall, The New York Times Book Review
It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house--who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.
Girl Among Crows
by Brendon Vayo
A 2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal Winner & IPPY Award Silver Medal Winner
Beware the Brotherhood of the Raven
When two boys vanish from her hometown, Daphne Gauge notices uncanny parallels to her brother's disappearance 30 years earlier. Symbols of an ancient Norse god. Rumors of a promise to reward the town's faithful with wealth and power, for a price. She warns her husband that another sacrifice is imminent, but just like last time, no one believes her.
This leaves her with a desperate choice: investigate with limited resources, or give in to the FBI's request for an interview. For years, they've wanted a member of the Gauge family to go on record about the tragedy back in 1988. If she agrees to a deposition now, Daphne must confess her family's dark secrets. But she also might have one last chance to unmask the killer from back then . . . and now.
Diavola
by Jennifer Thorne
USA Today Bestseller | Best Horror Books of 2024 (so far)--Esquire \ Most Anticipated Books of 2024--Goodreads
Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.
It isn't easy when she's the only one in the family who doesn't quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he's practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone--including her blandly docile husband and two kids--falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.
The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails--the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself.
(Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)
Hex
by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
"This is totally, brilliantly original." --Stephen King
The English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel, Hex, from Thomas Olde Heuvelt--a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated talent to watch
Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.
Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.
The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.
You Like It Darker: Stories
by Stephen King
From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.
"You like it darker? Fine, so do I," writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life--both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel "the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind," and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror
by Jordan Peele
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE BRAM STOKER AWARD - FINALIST FOR THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD AND THE LOCUS AWARD - A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Esquire, Chicago Public Library, CrimeReads
A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele's anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and--like his spine-chilling films--its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.
Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.
Looking Glass Sound
by Catriona Ward
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER - A 2023 World Fantasy Award nominee - Best Book of 2023(Vulture) - A Best Horror Book of All Time (Cosmopolitan) - A Best Horror Book of 2023 (Esquire) - An Indie Next Pick - A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Pick!
The author of The Last House on Needless Street, Catriona Ward, delivers a masterful story about friendship and betrayal, dark obsessions, and the impossibility of escaping your own story. "Here's your next obsession." (Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble)
In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow has begun the last book he will ever write.
It is the story about the sun-drenched summer days of his youth in Whistler Bay, and the blood-stained path of the killer that stalked his small vacation town. About the terrible secret he and his companions, Nat and Harper, discovered entombed in the coves off the bay. And how the pact they swore that day echoed down the decades, forever shaping their lives. But the more Wilder writes, the less he trusts himself and his memory.
Where the Dead Wait
by Ally Wilkes
"Haunting...Ominous." --The New York Times Book Review
Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of All the White Spaces.
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace.
Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day's chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens---the man who's haunted his whole life--back home. But when the rescue mission becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he's- done.
Abandonment. Betrayal. Cannibalism.
Mister Magic
by Kiersten White
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Polygon, Chicago Public Library, CrimeReads
Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children's program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.
But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who--or what--the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has.
Because magic never forgets the taste of your friendship. . . .
Spin a Black Yarn: Novellas
by Josh Malerman
Five harrowing novellas of horror and speculative fiction from the singular mind of the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box, featuring the World Fantasy Award finalist "Half the House Is Haunted"
AN ESQUIRE AND LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Josh Malerman is a master weaver of stories--and in this spine-chilling collection he spins five twisted tales from the shadows of the human soul:
A sister insists to her little brother that "Half the House Is Haunted" by a strange presence. But is it the house that's haunted--or their childhoods?
In "Argyle," a dying man confesses to homicides he never committed, and he reveals long-kept secrets far more sinister than murder.
A tourist takes the ultimate trip to outer space in "The Jupiter Drop," but the real journey is into his own dark past.
In "Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer(TM)," a trendy married couple buys the latest home gadget only to find themselves trapped by their possessions, their history . . . and each other.
And in "Egorov," a wealthy old cretin murders a young man, not knowing the victim was a triplet. The two surviving brothers stage a savage faux-haunting--playing the ghost of their slain brother--with the aim of driving the old murderer mad.
Red River Seven
by A J Ryan
Internationally bestselling fantasy author Anthony Ryan - writing as A. J. Ryan - delivers a nerve-shredding thriller in which seven strangers must undertake a terrifying journey into the unknown.
Seven strangers. One mission. Infinite horror.
A man awakes on a boat at sea with no memory of who or where he is. He's not alone - there are six others, each with a unique set of skills. None of them can remember their names. All of them possess a gun. When a message appears on the onboard computer - Proceeding to Point A - the group agrees to work together to survive whatever is coming. But as the boat moves through the mist-shrouded waters, divisions begin to form. Who is directing them and to what purpose? Why can't they remember anything?
Ring Shout
by P Djèlí Clark
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 2021 Nebula Award Winner | Locus Award Winner | Hugo Award Finalist
A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist
IN AMERICA, DEMONS WEAR WHITE HOODS.
In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.
Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.
Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?
The Reformatory
by Tananarive Due
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner and a New York Times Notable Book
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Shirley Jackson Award
"You're in for a treat. The Reformatory is one of those books you can't put down. Tananarive Due hit it out of the park." --Stephen King
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
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie's journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Howls From the Dark Ages: An Anthology of Medieval Horror
by Christopher Buehlman - P L McMillan - Solomon Forse
Uncover the secret annals of untold history in these eighteen medieval manuscripts. Each tortured scribe will bring you face to face with ancient horrors lurking in cursed castles, wild woodlands, haunted hamlets, and mysterious monasteries.
Including a lineup of authors both established and emerging, HOWL Society Press presents the first-ever anthology of historical horror from the medieval period, fittingly introduced by the writer who arguably started it all: Christopher Buehlman, author of the medieval horror epic Between Two Fires.
Cursed Bunny: Stories
by Bora Chung - Anton Hur
FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE
A wildly original debut from a rising star of Korean literature--surreal, chilling fables that take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and the reign of big tech with absurdist humor and a (sometimes literal) bite. Pre-order YOUR UTOPIA, the new book written by Bora Chung and translated by Anton Hur, coming February 2024!
From an author never before published in the United States, Cursed Bunny is unique and imaginative, blending horror, sci-fi, fairy tales, and speculative fiction into stories that defy categorization. By turns thought-provoking and stomach-turning, here monsters take the shapes of furry woodland creatures and danger lurks in unexpected corners of everyday apartment buildings. But in this unforgettable collection, translated by the acclaimed Anton Hur, Chung's absurd, haunting universe could be our own.
Manhunt
by Gretchen Felker-Martin
#1 Best Book of 2022 (Vulture) - A Best Horror Novel of All Time (Cosmopolitan) - One of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 (Esquire, Library Journal, Paste, and CrimeReads) - A Top 10 Horror Debuts of 2022 (Booklist) - A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Horror - A Best Book of 2022 (Tor.com) - A Best SFF Book of 2022 (Gizmodo) - A Top 25 Most Influential Works of Postwar Queer Literature (The New York Times Style Magazine).
"A modern horror masterpiece." --Carmen Maria Machado
Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate.
Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren't safe.
After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics--all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.