15 Bone-Chilling New Horror Books for Halloween

American Rapture

Leede (Maeve Fly) masterfully eases readers into a taut horror plot in her standout sophomore outing, which works both as an nail-biting apocalyptic tale and as an empathetic look at the impact of being raised in a harshly restrictive environment. Sophie and her twin, Noah, grew up in Wisconsin, raised by devout Catholics who frightened the children when they were only five by telling them that “God, Jesus, demons, and the Devil are always watching [and] they all know our every thought.” Their parents’ chance discovery that Noah has a magazine with a cover photo of two men kissing, leads to his being banished to “a spiritual sanctuary for families afflicted with challenged children,” and Sophie blames herself for not protecting him. As Sophie matures, she finds herself mocked by schoolmates for her sexual naivete. Meanwhile, a deadly virus that drastically increases the libidos of those infected spreads to the Midwest from the Northeast, and after Sophie gets dramatic proof that it has reached her small town, she must embark on a desperate flight for survival. Leede does a fantastic job putting readers in the head of her wonderfully flawed and recognizably human lead. Add in plenty of page-turning suspense, and this proves hard to put down. (Oct.)

The Devil by Name

Rosson’s stellar sequel to 2023’s Fever House maintains that book’s artful combination of chilling postapocalyptic worldbuilding and fully developed characters. Five years ago, “most of the world suddenly started devouring each other” after hearing “The Message,” a communication that American president Preston Yardley had intended to target only the populations of enemy countries. The aural weapon transformed those who heard it into bloodthirsty zombie-like beings dubbed the fevered. To get the outbreak under control, Yardley allies the federal government with Terradyne Industries, launching a harsh initiative to restore order. Hopes for a reversal of the apocalypse may lie with Naomi Laurent, a French woman rumored to somehow have gained the ability to reverse the effects of The Message and make the fevered human again. The search for Laurent is interwoven with the narratives of several other characters, including John Bonner, a security officer for Terradyne, and Katherine Moriarty, who tends to her son even after he becomes one of the fevered. Rosson’s sophisticated plotting manages to toggle between these perspectives without ever slackening the tension. This is literary horror at its finest. (Sept.)

Catherine the Ghost

A companion to Wuthering Heights much in the way that Wide Sargasso Sea is a companion to Jane Eyre, this brilliant retelling from Koja (Dark Factory) whisks readers to the wild English moors but shifts the focus from romantic relationships to a familial one. The narration alternates between the ghost of Catherine Linton, nee Earnshaw, who longs for Heathcliff and yearns to be let back into her former home, and her daughter, Catherine Linton the younger, who, having never known her mother, is newly widowed and living at Wuthering Heights. Those familiar with Brontë’s original work will recognize this as the novel’s later period, set six months after narrator Nelly first recounts the tale to Heights visitor Lockwood. Koja digs deeper into this period, keeping an admirable constancy to the tone of Brontë’s novel while giving greater voice to the two Cathys and their turbulent mother-daughter relationship. Ghost-Catherine’s sections are surreal, disconsolate depictions of her frustration and desire, while Catherine’s show her to be a capable, self-possessed young woman. Fans of the original will be thoroughly impressed. (Oct.)

Memorials

Bestseller Chizmar (Gwendy’s Button Box, with Stephen King) wows in an immersive and über-creepy novel that pays subtle homage to horror classics ranging from the works of H.P. Lovecraft to The Blair Witch Project. In 1983, three students in an American Studies class at Pennsylvania’s York College—Billy Anderson, Troy Carpenter, and Melody Wise—plan to make a documentary about roadside memorials in Pennsylvania’s Appalachian region, an area where, as their professor warns, “if you look hard enough... you’ll find the impossible.” Chizmar gradually ratchets up a palpable feeling of unease through an accumulation of small unsettling moments. The classmates’ vehicle passes a biker who’s smiling through a face masked by blood. Troy begins to worry that someone is spying on them, a paranoia that’s heightened when video shot by Billy reveals a stranger lurking in the shadows. The discovery that a cryptic symbol has been drawn on several of the memorials to accident victims increases the group’s worries that they’ve stumbled into something dangerous—fears that prove all too justified. Chizmar pulls no punches on the way to a thoroughly satisfying finale, creating a literate horror novel that will remind some of T.E.D. Klein’s The Ceremonies. It’s a tour de force. (Oct.)

Old Soul

Barker (The Incarnations) delivers a sweeping work of literary horror that spans the globe yet remains distinctly itchy beneath the skin. Strangers Jake and Mariko meet at an airport in Japan and, over the course of their brief conversation, uncover a disturbing connection between the recent deaths of their loved ones. The autopsies of both victims revealed that their organs were “the wrong way round” and both encountered a mysterious woman shortly before their deaths. The details of these encounters lead Jake on an international investigation piecing together testimonies from others who have met the enigmatic woman whose presence, he discovers, can be linked to countless deaths across centuries and continents. Driven by guilt and curiosity, he races to uncover her true nature, even as the woman, always one step ahead, sets her sights on her next victim. Barker weaves an eerie and suspenseful narrative, alternating between Jake’s present-day pursuit and haunting flashbacks of the woman’s victims. The slow-burning tension and lush, atmospheric prose build a creeping sense of dread that lingers long after the final page. Fans of both the deeply personal speculative horror of Carmen Maria Machado and the subtle, character-driven mystery of Haruki Murakami will be enthralled. (Jan.)

Incidents Around the House

Bestseller Malerman (Bird Box) offers some predictable yet still-eerie scares in this horror novel, which is told from the perspective of eight-year-old Bela, who first introduces herself saying good night to her Daddo and Mommy, before sharing that, after they leave her bedroom, “Other Mommy” emerges from her closet. Malerman gradually reveals more about Other Mommy, a thing with eyes that migrate around her head, who repeatedly asks Bela if she can “go into her heart” and talks of what Bela understands as “carnations” and readers will quickly realize is reincarnation. Bela’s parents initially treat the existence of Other Mommy as a joke, but then her father notices a foul smell around the house. As Other Mommy increases her pressure campaign on Bela and becomes more active at different times of day, and in different places, Daddo and Mommy frantically search for answers and a way to eliminate the threat, even as fissures form in their marriage. Bela’s naive narrative voice is the book’s best feature, freshening up the familiar story beats and enhancing the creeping sense of dread. Malerman’s fans will want to check this out. (June)

This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances

These four dreamy and gut-churning stories from LaRocca (Everything the Darkness Eats) offer glimpses of the horrors people visit upon those they love. In the title story, a woman returns home following the death of her beloved father to take care of her estranged mother—and she discovers something terrifying in the attic that’s spent years waiting to make itself known. “Seedling,” a meditation on grief, follows two men in mourning who both sprout little black voids all over their bodies. In “All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn,” a man searching for the perfect knife to give his husband strikes a deal with an unorthodox shop owner: rather than pay for the knife, the man must endure a small cut—with bizarre and horrific outcomes. “Prickle” features two old friends who meet at the park to play the eponymous game, which centers around an escalating series of shocking offenses to strangers and culminates in a truly unforgivable act. Though these stories sometimes struggle to pay off on their harrowing buildups, LaRocca’s refusal to go for the expected resolution lends the collection a wonderful feeling of unpredictability. Readers searching for visceral horrors need look no further. (Apr.)

I Was A Teenage Slasher

Bestseller Jones (the Indian Lake trilogy) again riffs on 1980s slasher movies in this indulgent bloodbath. Tolly Driver witnesses a massacre at a high school party at the hands of Justin Jones, an undead classmate who died during a vicious prank gone awry. Having gotten infected with a couple drops of Justin’s blood, and reeling from a near-death experience stemming from his peanut allergy, Tolly finds himself driven by the urge to go on a murder spree of his own. He dons a mask and slashes his way through his small Texas town. Only his childhood friend, final girl Amber Dennison, serves as a tether to the scared and fragile kid he was before the killing began. Will she be able to stop the slaughter once and for all? The story has a clear love for the splashy slasher films that inspired it, and Jones does a great job of landing the plot’s gorier excesses as the bodies pile up. Unfortunately, chaotic plotting undercuts the story’s tension and narrator Tolly’s many tangents make the pacing somewhat start-and-stop. Still, fans of meta horror will find a lot to love as Jones remixes well-worn tropes with glee. Agent: BJ Robbins, BJ Robbins Literary. (July)

Diavola

Family drama, unspoken resentments, and something far more sinister simmer—but never reach a boiling point—in this lackluster ghost story from Thorne (Lute). Black sheep Anna Pace travels to Italy for a family vacation with her parents and adult siblings prepared to deflect and endure their judgments. As an unmarried, unambitious artist in her 30s, there’s no shortage of criticisms for the other Paces to throw her way. Anna weathers her sister’s need for control and her mother’s nagging comments, but as signs of a haunting appear around the villa they’re renting, the vacation devolves into one disaster after another. To make matters worse, when the Pace family looks into the history of the villa, they open some doors better left closed. Thorne paints in broad gothic strokes, incorporating all the major elements of the genre, from the spooky architecture to the blood and romance, but leaving things disappointingly underdeveloped. Anna’s snarky voice initially balances the darker elements but becomes grating as the story goes on. Eventually, her characterization descends into cliché: she’s smart enough to make everyone around her jealous, and though she’s supposedly unattractive, many of the male (and female) side characters lust after her. Seasoned genre fans will be disappointed. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jane Grinberg Literary. (Mar.)

Bodies to Die For

Brand’s sharp debut sets a murder mystery amid the cutthroat world of fitness influencers. Gemma Jorgenson is a model, bodybuilder, and personal trainer with half a million Instagram followers. After placing second in the national Bikini Olympia competition several years in a row, she’s confident she can finally take gold, boosting her following and potential brand deals in the process. Her path becomes clearer when Bianca Summers, who regularly stands between Gemma and the trophy, turns up dead in her hotel room. Gemma’s mixed feelings about Bianca’s murder give way to full-blown fear when more Bikini Olympia contestants are killed. Meanwhile, software engineer Ashley Sherma, who’s been yo-yo dieting since the fourth grade, has her life changed when she meets the charismatic and eccentric Lydia Wright, founder of the Fat Activist movement, which seeks to reduce the stigma around being overweight. Ashley puts her dark web skills to work for the organization, but soon learns its aims might be less liberatory than Lydia first let on. In short, punchy chapters that alternate perspectives between Gemma and Ashley, Brand—herself a former bodybuilder—sets the two women on a deliriously entertaining collision course. The mix of top-notch suspense and gleeful social satire makes this sing. Agent: Jackson Keeler, Inkworks Entertainment. (June)

We Used to Live Here

A young couple’s house-flipping hobby turns dangerous in Kliewer’s devilish debut. Eve Palmer is alone in the remote Pacific Northwest mansion she and her girlfriend, Charlie, are renovating, when she hears a knock on the door. She opens it to find the Faust family: patriarch Thomas; his wife, Paige; and their three severe-looking children. Thomas explains to Eve that he used to live in the house and would like to show his family around. Despite her misgivings, Eve invites them in, privately hoping the more forthright Charlie will arrive and interrupt the nostalgia tour. When Charlie does show up, a heavy snowstorm follows her, stranding everyone. What begins as mildly uncomfortable grows full-tilt terrifying as one of the Faust children goes missing, Thomas starts calling Eve “Emma,” and Charlie seems to transform into a different person entirely. Kliewer nods to the book’s origin as a series of Reddit posts by supplementing the main narrative with “documents” examining the paranormal “Old House” phenomenon (which posits certain abandoned buildings connect to a paranormal force), transcripts from subjects who’ve experienced it, and internet conspiracy theories about its legitimacy. Stringing the whole thing together is Kliewer’s gift for atmosphere and wicked sense of humor. This is a winner. Agent: Liz Parker, Verve Talent & Literary. (June)

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive

DiLouie (Episode Thirteen) remixes classic horror tropes into a harrowing thriller set in 1988. Middle-aged Max Maurey, known for his series of low-budget Jack the Knife slasher films, is appalled that audiences are cheering and laughing at the violence in his latest sequel. He feels like a hack, but his seedy producer, Jordan Lyman, won’t let Max explore his true artistic ambitions. He’s inspired, however, when he encounters Sally Priest, an aspiring actor who believes, like Max, that “horror is only horror if it’s real.” At an estate sale for a reclusive director, Max buys the camera that recorded the infamous film Mary’s Birthday, which ended in tragedy when the actors were sliced to bits by a disabled helicopter. Despite the message scrawled on the case (“Never use this camera”), Max decides to try it out—and discovers that people he points the camera at die gruesomely. It’s just the kind of truth he’s been searching for in his work, so he sets out to make a movie that will upend cliché, casting Sally as his final girl. The cursed object set up feels familiar, but readers will be pulled in by the morally twisted characters and serpentine plot. Film buffs will especially enjoy this paean to ’80s slasher films and the people who love them. Agent: David Fugate, Launchbooks Literary. (June)

Youthjuice

If The Picture of Dorian Gray were set at a contemporary Goop-esque “wellness and lifestyle” brand, it might read something like Sathue’s satirical, gory, and delectable debut. Sophia Bannion, 29, is the newest creative hire at Manhattan’s Hebe, a beauty and wellness company run by the freakishly beautiful Tree Whitestone and named for the Greek goddess of youth. From the jump, Sathue makes readers aware that something sinister is behind the façade of perfection at Hebe, and as Sophia becomes more enmeshed in Tree’s inner circle, that something slowly comes into focus. In this horror story examining the social pressures on girls and women, the only fault is how on-the-nose some of the symbolism is (“We bathed in their blood to stay young” goes the opening line). Nonetheless, as Sophia’s past comes to light and Hebe’s dark side is revealed, readers will be on the edges of their seats waiting to find out the truth. It’s a certifiable page-turner. (June)

Rest Stop

This grimy survival horror novella from Cassidy (Nestlings) careens along with anarchic glee, following Abe Neer, the bassist for noise-metal duo Darwin’s Foëtus, as he fights for his life in a godforsaken public bathroom. Abe is en route to his cantankerous grandmother’s deathbed when he veers off the highway to visit an out of the way rest stop called Trumbull Farms Snake and Spider House. He winds up trapped in the tiny, filthy bathroom by an unseen assailant as a series of crawling horrors slither in through the vent. Haunted by memories and flights of imagination as he fights off the creepy crawlies, Abe struggles to keep his wits—especially after he catches a glimpse of the thing on the other side of the door, a masked figure covered in googly eyes that wants to devour him completely. The splatterpunk plot hits the ground running and maintains incredible tension throughout with fearlessly disgusting horror beats and a twist readers will never see coming. One part Stephen King’s Desperation and one part Green Room, this is like a perfectly satisfying gas station hot dog—greasy, made of surprisingly complex components, and viscerally rewarding. Agent: Alec Shane, Writers House. (Oct.)

The Black Orb

Debut author Kim explores the existential horror of isolation in this chilling and enigmatic apocalyptic novel. Jeong-su, a rising young office manager, is the first to encounter the mysterious, floating black orbs that relentlessly absorb his fellow Seoul citizens. As residents flee in a panic, Jeong-su tries to connect with friends and family while evading army patrols, religious cultists, bands of looters, and the ever-rising tide of black orbs. Eventually, trapped in an abandoned store, he and a fellow refugee question all that society has taught them—including the value of conformity and toxic masculinity—as they struggle to avoid being pulled into the void by the voracious orbs. Kim’s universe is uncaring and unsparing, whether it’s the orbs or fellow humans who are administering the harsh lessons. The key to survival is to find someone with whom to share and divide the pain, offering a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak world. This is sure to win Kim fans. Agent: Barbara Zitwer, Barbara J. Zitwer Agency. (Feb.)