2023’s New Horror Books

So here we are again–if you made your way over here from the Nightfire site, thank you! It’s nice to see you. This is a slightly unhinged passion project of mine, where I obsessively catalog the year’s new horror fiction. It helps me keep track of what I want to read, and maybe it’ll help you too.

I like my horror inclusive, not exclusive–I take a broad view of what counts as horror fiction. Alongside traditional horror, here you’ll find all things gothic, dark, weird, and thrilling–and, I hope, your next favorite scary book.

Looking for previous years’ lists? You can find those at the Nightfire site: 2020, 2021, 2022. Would you rather look at these lists broken down by month? Right this way. Did I miss something? Let me know here.

Without further ado, here are all the new horror books coming in 2023, featuring an array of slashers, ghosts, vampires, cults, monsters, and all manner of nebulous eldritch terrors.

Please note that publication dates are subject to change, especially considering ongoing worldwide supply chain issues – I’ll be updating the release dates below and adding new books as I hear of any changes, but the publisher’s website will always have the most up-to-date info.

Many titles publishing later in the year don’t have concrete release dates yet – I’ve listed those at the bottom under “Date TBD” – and if the publisher doesn’t have a dedicated page for a book yet, we’ve linked to Goodreads or to the book announcement elsewhere. Descriptions below are adapted from the publisher’s synopsis.

January

  • Abandon, Blake Crouch (Jan 3, Ballantine): A century-old mystery—and a desperate battle to survive—unfold in this newly reissued standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion.
  • The Devil’s in the Flaws: And Other Dark Truths, David Niall Wilson (Jan 3, Crossroad Press): This new collection of stories from USA Today bestselling, multiple Bram Stoker winning author David Niall Wilson presents twenty-stories and a brand new, unpublished novella. This is the first major collection released since his award-nominated Defining Moments, and the subsequent collection Ennui & Other States of Madness.
  • Ghost 19, Simone St. James (Jan 3, Berkley): A woman moves to a town where she becomes obsessed with watching the lives of her neighbors while stuck in a house that refuses to let her leave in this first ever short story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.
  • The Villa, Rachel Hawkins (Jan 3, St. Martin’s Press): From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set at an Italian villa with a dark history, for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware.
  • Bad Cree, Jessica Johns (Jan 10, Doubleday): In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.
  • Devil’s Creek, Todd Kiesling (Jan 10, Cemetery Dance): About fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices—a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god. And like most legends, there’s truth buried among the roots and bones.
  • Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo (Jan 10, Flatiron Books): Wealth. Power. Murder. Magic. Alex Stern is back and the Ivy League is going straight to hell in #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo’s Hell Bent.
  • The Nightmare Man, J.H. Markert (Jan 10, Crooked Lane Books): T. Kingfisher meets Cassandra Khaw in a chilling horror novel that illustrates the fine line between humanity and monstrosity.
  • Ragman, JG Faherty (Jan 10, Flame Tree Press): If you love a great horror tale with ancient mummies, a deluded priest and two oddball cops, then you’re in for a treat…
  • The Things We Do to Our Friends, Heather Darwent (Jan 10, Bantam): She’s an outsider desperate to belong, but the cost of entry might be her darkest secret in this intoxicating debut of literary suspense following a clique of dangerously ambitious students at the University of Edinburgh.
  • Now She is Witch, Kirsty Logan (Jan 12, Harvill Secker): From the snowy winter woods to the bright midnight sun; from lost and powerless to finding your path, Now She is Witch conjures a world of violence and beauty – a world where women grasp at power through witchcraft, sexuality and performance, and most of all through throwing each other to the wolves.
  • Extended Stay, Juan Martinez (Jan 17, University of Arizona Press): Haunting and visceral, Extended Stay uses the language of body horror and the gothic to comment on the complicated relationship between the Latinx undocumented experience and capitalism, the erasure of those living and working on the margins, the heavy toll exacted by memory, and the queasy permeability of boundaries that separate the waking world from the world of dreams.
  • How to Sell a Haunted House, Grady Hendrix (Jan 17, Berkley): New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.
  • In a Lonely Place, Karl Edward Wagner (Jan 17, Valancourt Books): Karl Edward Wagner (1945-1994) has earned a reputation as one of the finest horror writers of the modern era, but his work has been out of print and nearly unobtainable for many years. His seminal volume In a Lonely Place collects eight of his best tales, including “In the Pines,” a classic ghost story evocatively set in the Tennessee woods, “Beyond Any Measure,” an original take on the vampire story, “River of Night’s Dreaming,” a surreal and nightmarish masterpiece inspired by The King in Yellow, and the author’s most famous tale, “Sticks,” a disturbing story thought by many to have been the basis for The Blair Witch Project. This new edition includes all the stories from the original 1983 edition, plus an additional rare tale and the author’s afterword from the Scream/Press limited edition, and features a new introduction by Ramsey Campbell.
  • Tell Me I’m Worthless, Alison Rumfitt (Jan 17, Nightfire): Alison Rumfitt’s Tell Me I’m Worthless is a dark, unflinching haunted house story that confronts both supernatural and real-world horrors through the lens of the modern-day trans experience.
  • What Lies in the Woods, Kate Alice Marshall (Jan 17, Flatiron Books): They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes… but they were liars. For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be. A thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies – and having the courage to face the past.
  • Nightwood, Elana Gomel (Jan 18, Crystal Lake Pub): Ally is a Ukrainian bride who married a wealthy Californian, Carl Morris. Everything is strange in her new home: the shadowy redwoods, the peculiar neighbors, and the mystery surrounding the death of Carl’s first wife. But Ally is determined to leave her own tragic past behind and to be a good wife and a good American. Escaping darkness is not so easy, however. Ally discovers that her house is situated on the borders of Nightwood, where fairy tales become nightmares and nightmares become reality. And the ruler of Nightwood has plans of his own.
  • All Hallows, Christopher Golden (Jan 24, St. Martin’s Press): New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales… but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.
  • Episode Thirteen, Craig DiLouie (Jan 24, Red Hook): From the macabre mind of a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author, this heart-pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined. 
  • HorrorScope: A Zodiac Anthology, ed. H. Everend (Jan 24): It is said that destiny is determined by the stars. The signs of the Zodiac can predict who you’ll love, who you’ll hate, and who you’ll become. But the fates written in the stars are not always kind. Sometimes, they’re terrifying. In Horrorscope, you will find 36 dark fantasy poems and short stories all inspired by the Zodiac Signs. Within these pages, you’ll face killer goats, twisted twins and deadly fishies. Open this book, if you dare, and pray that you weren’t born under a bad sign.
  • AHH! That’s What I Call Horror: An Anthology of ‘90s Horror, ed. Chelsea Pumpkins (Jan 25): Set during the decade of flannel shirts and neon dolphin Trapper Keepers, Ahh! That’s What I Call Horror is guaranteed to be all that and a bag of haunted chips. You won’t need a dial-up connection to reach the beyond in this time-warp to the ‘90s. With undead grunge rock icons, menacing action figures, family sitcoms gone very wrong, and more: these terror tales will return you to the end of the old millennium.
  • Dark Matter Presents: Zero Dark Thirty, ed. Rob Carroll (Jan 31, Dark Matter): Every story published in Dark Matter Magazine is a best-of story to us, and that’s why we had to do something different when choosing stories for the magazine’s first ever trade paperback anthology. Enter Zero Dark Thirty, a curated collection of the 30 DARKEST stories to grace our magazine’s pages during the first two years of publication (2021-2022). These are the most bleak, chilling, downtrodden, upsetting, and straight-up deranged tales the magazine has to offer.
  • The Drift, CJ Tudor (Jan 31, Ballantine): Three ordinary people risk everything for a chance at redemption in this audacious, utterly gripping novel of catastrophe and survival at the end of the world, from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.
  • Vampire Weekend, Mike Chen (Jan 31, Mira): Everything you’ve heard about vampires is a lie. They can’t fly. No murders allowed (the community hates that). And turning into a bat? Completely ridiculous. In fact, vampire life is really just a lot of blood bags and night jobs. For Louise Chao, it’s also lonely, since she swore off family ages ago. But when a long-lost relative uncovers Louise’s true identity, things get dangerous—especially when he asks her for the ultimate favor. One that goes beyond just family… one that might just change everything vampires know about life and death forever.
  • Mooncalves, ed. John WM Thompson (Jan, NO Press): An anthology of weird fiction and stories from the borderlands of horror; a loose theme of unseen influence pervades through the 23 tales. Features original work from Brian Evenson, Lisa Tuttle, Steve Rasnic Tem, Sofia Samatar, and more. (Hardcover only; ebook will release in March)

February

  • Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger, KC Grifant (Feb 2, Brigids Gate Press): In an Old West overrun by monsters, a stoic gunslinger must embark on a dangerous quest to save her friends and stop a supernatural war.
  • Gothic, Philip Fracassi (Feb 3, Cemetery Dance): On his 59th birthday, Tyson Parks—a famous, but struggling, horror writer—receives an antique desk from his partner, Sarah, in the hopes it will rekindle his creative juices. Meanwhile, as Tyson begins to use his new desk, he begins acting… strange. Violent. His writing more disturbing than anything he’s done before. But publishers are paying top dollar, convinced his new work will be a hit, and Tyson will do whatever it takes to protect his newfound success. Even if it means the destruction of the ones he loves. Even if it means his own sanity.
  • Brave New Weird: The Best New Weird Horror of 2022, ed. Alex Woodroe (Feb 6, Tenebrous Press): Meet the Weirdest talent lurking on the cusp of greatness! Discover some new favorite authors! Second guess our decisions! Curse our hubris! We await your anger!
  • Black Dove, Colin McAdam (Feb 7, Soho Press): A deeply imaginative and thrilling novel about grief, single parenting, and the terrifying power of a child’s imagination, dancing on an edge between magical realism and horror, perfect for fans of Stranger Things.
  • The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar, Robin R. Means Coleman and Mark H. Harris (Feb 7, Gallery/Saga Press): A definitive and surprising exploration of the history of Black horror films, after the rising success of Get Out, Candyman, and Lovecraft Country from creators behind the acclaimed documentary, Horror Noire.
  • Don’t Fear the Reaper, Stephen Graham Jones (Feb 7, Gallery/Saga Press): December 12th, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones.
  • Killer, Peter Tonkin (Feb 7, Valancourt Books): A Paperbacks From Hell reissue of the 1979 classic. Five men and one beautiful woman. Marooned on a floating island of arctic ice. Together they had the equipment and skills to fight the freezing cold, the violently savage storms. Then suddenly from the angry seas the jaws of horror opened wide as nature’s deadliest creature rose from the depths — a huge killer whale of enormous intelligence, incredible power, indestructible endurance, ravenous for human prey….
  • The Night Begins, Abigail Taylor (Feb 7, Luna Press): A story of family rituals, southern folklore, and magic set in rural Texas.
  • Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Feb 7, Hogarth): A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the “monumental” (The New York Times) debut novel from the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed—“the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time” (Kazuo Ishiguro)
  • The Path Home, A.J. Pellegrino (Feb 7, Read Furiously): A queer reimagining of the classic Persephone and Hades myth filled with nature, magic, and true love. Bryony has just graduated college, and instead of moving to Brooklyn to start her summer fellowship, she has found herself drawn back to her rural hometown in the Adirondacks. A town where she left behind her feelings for her childhood love, Iris. Upon her return home, Bryony notices that the nature surrounding her hometown is dying and no one will talk about Iris.
  • The Spite House, Johnny Compton (Feb 7, Nightfire): A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making—The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts in Texas Hill Country.
  • Such Pretty Flowers, K. L. Cerra (Feb 7, Bantam): A woman investigating her brother’s apparent suicide finds herself falling for her prime suspect—his darkly mysterious girlfriend—in this Southern gothic thriller that Karen Dionne calls “creepy, compelling, and utterly original.”
  • VenCo, Cherie Dimaline (Feb 7, William Morrow): An incredibly inventive, highly anticipated second adult novel—with witches, magic, and a road trip through America—from Cherie Dimaline, the critically acclaimed author of Empire of Wild. 
  • Wasps in the Ice Cream, Tim McGregor (Feb 7, Raw Dog Screaming Press): Summer 1987: Mark Prewitt’s only priority is to avoid his dad’s new wife and waste time with his friends, but idle nights are the devil’s handiwork. When his friends decide to pull a cruel prank on the reclusive and strange Farrow sisters, Mark regrets caving in to peer pressure. Wanting to make amends, Mark is drawn into the mysterious world of the Farrow girls, finding a kindred spirit in the middle sister, George. She is unlike anyone he’s ever known; a practicing witch who uses folk magic to protect her family. They bond over books, loneliness, and homemade spells. She even invites Mark to join a séance to contact her dead sister, who died under mysterious circumstances. Keeping their relationship secret, Mark learns that living a double life in a town this small is impossible. When the secret is exposed, and his friends plot to punish the witch sisters for stealing one of their own, Mark is forced to choose between these two worlds.
  • The Grief Nurse, Angie Spoto (Feb 9, Sandstone Press): Lynx is a Grief Nurse. Kept by the Asters, a wealthy, influential family, to ensure they’re never troubled by negative emotions, she knows no other life. When news arrives that the Asters’ eldest son is dead, Lynx does what she can to alleviate their Sorrow. As guests flock to the Asters’ private island for the wake, bringing their own secrets, lies and grief, tensions rise. Then the bodies start to pile up.
  • The Whispering Muse, Laura Purcell (Feb 9, Raven Books): At The Mercury Theatre in London’s West End, rumors are circulating of a curse. It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees. But when strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumors are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.
  • The Cage of Dark Hours, Marina Lostetter (Feb 14, Tor Books): The second novel in the epic fantasy trilogy from acclaimed author Marina Lostetter, where the defeat of a serial killer back from the dead has pulled the mask off the myths and magics of a fantastical city.
  • The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, Roshani Chokshi (Feb 14, William Morrow): A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales—the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.
  • Like Real, Shelly Lyons (Feb 14, Ghoulish Books): In Shelly Lyons’s debut novel, Like Real, Vic Moss—kenjutsu hobbyist and clueless Lothario—lets vanity dictate his decision to acquire an experimental new-tech prosthesis that promises to evolve into a seamless, realistic looking hand. Instead, it tears from his body, transforms into his clone, and pursues a relationship with the same woman Vic has in his crosshairs—forcing Vic to kill or be replaced. This mind-bending body horror rom-com is a rollicking Cronenbergian gene splice of Idle Hands and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It’s freaky. It’s fun. It’s LIKE REAL.
  • Monstersona, Chloe Spencer (Feb 14, Tiny Ghost Press): Thelma and Louise meet Godzilla in this queer sci-fi adventure, that will appeal to fans of Erik. J Brown’s All That’s Left In The World and Charlotte Nicole Davies’ The Good Luck Girls.
  • A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Dawidziak (Feb 14, St. Martin’s): A Mystery of Mysteries is a brilliant biography of Edgar Allan Poe that examines the renowned author’s life through the prism of his mysterious death and its many possible causes.
  • The Pledge, Cale Dietrich (Feb 14, Feiwel & Friends): Scream meets Clown in a Cornfield in this young adult horror novel by bestselling author Cale Dietrich featuring a masked killer who targets frat boys.
  • Sing, Nightingale, Marie Hélène Poitras, trans. Rhonda Mullins (Feb 14, Coach House Books): When the curtain rises on Malmaison, it reveals a once-enchanting estate, quietly falling into darkness and ruin, and at the heart of it, a father, one of a long line of fathers who have flourished at the expense of those around them. The silence seems peaceful, but lurking under it is a deep malevolence, scores of ugly and violent secrets kept by cast-off mistresses and abandoned daughters.
  • Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror, ed. Lee Murray & Angela Yuriko Smith (Feb 14, Black Spot Books): From hungry ghosts, vampiric babies, and shapeshifting fox spirits to the avenging White Lady of urban legend, for generations, Asian women’s roles have been shaped and defined through myth and story. In Unquiet Spirits, Asian writers of horror reflect on the impact of superstition, spirits, and the supernatural in this unique collection of 21 personal essays exploring themes of otherness, identity, expectation, duty, and loss, and leading, ultimately, to understanding and empowerment.
  • Bad Omens, Jessica Drake-Thomas (Feb 17, Querencia Press): Bad Omens is a collection of occult and gothic horror poems.
  • Churn the Soil, Steve Stred (Feb 17, Black Void): Two hundred miles north of the town of Basco sits The Border. It’s a quiet, off-the-grid settlement, where the residents have developed a tentative agreement with those that live on the other side of the clearing. But things are about to change forever. As night falls, a teenage girl is brutally murdered as she flees across the clearing. Now, it’s up to Basco PD officers Brown and Reynolds to find her killer. But the truth is far worse than they could possibly imagine, and the more the officers uncover, the bolder the things beyond the clearing grow.
  • Ancient Images, Ramsey Campbell (Feb 21, Flame Tree Press): Tower of Fear is a lost horror film starring Karloff and Lugosi. A film historian who locates a copy dies while fleeing something that terrified him. His friend Sandy Allan vows to prove he found the film. She learns how haunted the production was and the survivors of it still are. It contains a secret about Redfield, a titled family that owns a favorite British food, Staff o’ Life. The Redfield land has uncanny guardians, and one follows Sandy home. To maintain its fertility Redfield demands a sacrifice, and a band of new age travellers is about to set up camp there…
  • The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, Christi Nogle (Feb 21, Flame Tree Press): The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future collects Christi Nogle’s finest psychological and supernatural horror stories. Their rural and small-town characters confront difficult pasts and look toward promising but often terrifying futures. The pieces range in genre from psychological horror through science fiction and ghost stories, but they all share fundamental qualities: feminist themes, an emphasis on voice, a focus on characters’ psychologies and a sense of the gothic in contemporary life.
  • Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff (Feb 21, Harper): In this thrilling adventure, a blend of enthralling historical fiction and fantastical horror, Matt Ruff returns to the world of Lovecraft Country and explores the meaning of death, the hold of the past on the present, and the power of hope in the face of uncertainty.
  • Loteria, Cynthia Pelayo (Feb 21, Agora Books): Award-winning author Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo’s acclaimed short story collection Lotería, now with added illustrations and new bonus stories.
  • Sister, Maiden, Monster, Lucy A. Snyder (Feb 21, Nightfire): Sister, Maiden, Monster is a visceral story set in the aftermath of our planet’s disastrous transformation and told through the eyes of three women trying to survive the nightmare, from Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lucy A. Snyder.
  • Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality, Lindsay Wong (Feb 21, Penguin Canada): From the bestselling, Canada Reads-shortlisted author of The Woo-Woo comes a wild, darkly hilarious, and poignant collection of immigrant horror stories. They’ll haunt and consume you in strange and unsettling ways.
  • Where Darkness Blooms, Andrea Hannah (Feb 21, Wednesday Books): Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.
  • The Writing Retreat, Julia Bartz (Feb 21, Atria/Emily Bestler Books): The Plot meets Please Join Us in this psychological suspense debut about a young author at an exclusive writer’s retreat that descends into a nightmare.
  • The Year of the Storm, John Mantooth (Feb 24, Cemetery Dance): In this haunting, suspenseful novel, John Mantooth takes readers to a town in rural Alabama where secrets are buried deep, reality is relative, and salvation requires a desperate act of faith.
  • Delicious Monsters, Liselle Sambury (Feb 28, Margaret K. McElderry Books): The Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie in this evocative and mind-bending psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.
  • The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, Katie Lumsden (Feb 28, Dutton): A gripping and atmospheric debut that is at once a chilling gothic mystery and a love letter to Victorian fiction.
  • She is a Haunting, Trang Thanh Tran (Feb 28, Bloomsbury YA): A House with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.
  • The Thing in Yellow, D.T. Neal (Feb 28, Nosetouch Press): When The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers was first published in 1895, the collection of short stories went on to become an inspirational classic of the macabre, particularly the stories of supernatural horror tied to the fictional play of the same name, said to drive anyone who reads it to madness and ruination. Nosetouch Press is proud to offer The Thing in Yellow, a stunning collection of thirteen occult short stories inspired by and honoring the ongoing legacy of the weird fictional universe of The King in Yellow. In this collection, fans of this mythos will find supernatural stories of decadent artists, arcane astronomers, occult assassins, debauched revelers, dazzling automatons, secretive cults, and more, all captive to the corrupting, enigmatic, and seductive machinations of the sinister Yellow King.
  • The Disappearance of Tom Nero, TJ Price (Feb, Spooky House Press): A meta-textual horror novelette that blurs the lines between reality and the written word.

March

  • The Eater of Gods, Dan Franklin (Mar 1, Cemetery Dance): Dan Franklin’s debut supernatural thriller is a tale of grief, of loneliness, and of an ageless, hungry fury that waits with ready tooth and claw beneath the sand.
  • Hospital, Han Song (Mar 1, Amazon Crossing): A twisted, wildly imaginative tale of one man’s mysterious illness and his journey through a dystopian hospital system.
  • Mothered, Zoje Stage (Mar 1, Thomas & Mercer): From the USA Today bestselling author of the international sensation Baby Teeth comes a claustrophobic psychological thriller about one woman’s nightmarish spiral while quarantined with her mother.
  • Every Woman Knows This, Laurel Hightower (Mar 3, Death Knell Press): Dive in for Hightower’s most beloved short stories, all brought together in one collection which includes five brand new tales. Navigate the stormy waters of womanhood with caution as you are about to experience the horrors that every woman knows.
  • The Shadow Galaxy, J. Dianne Dotson (Mar 3, Trepidatio): Among these pages, Dotson captures the longing, regrets, and dreams of those living by the sea, such as in “One Evening in Fogvale.” In “RODER,” a young woman risks her life to help find a robot who captured her heart. “Topaz Sundered” explores an exoplanet mining expedition gone horribly wrong. In “The Queen and the Mountain Laurel,” a young Appalachian girl teaches her father an important lesson with the help of mountain spirits. The poem “Obsidian” eviscerates with raw pain from betrayal. Dotson weaves these and many other tales and poems of mysticism, exploration, horror, pain, nostalgia, and wonder, for no shadow can exist without light.
  • The God of Endings, Jacqueline Holland (Mar 7, Flatiron): By turns suspenseful and enchanting, this breathtaking first novel weaves a story of love, family, history, and myth as seen through the eyes of one immortal woman.
  • A Man Among Ghosts, Steven Hopstaken (Mar 7, Flame Tree Press): After a near-death experience, David finds himself haunted by ghosts in the old Victorian house he is renovating. These tortured souls beg for his help and offer him protection from a demonic presence that wants David dead for a crime he doesn’t remember committing. Even more surprising, he soon learns these are spirits of people who are not yet dead. Is this real, is he hallucinating, or is someone trying to drive him insane? As his paranoia ramps up, he discovers the truth is even more bizarre. The haunting won’t stop until he kills a man named “Fitz.”
  • Monstrilio, Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Mar 7, Zando): Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses—though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care—threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
  • My Dear Henry: A Jekyll & Hyde Remix, Kalynn Bayron (Mar 7, Feiwel & Friends): In this gothic YA remix of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, a teen boy tries to discover the reason behind his best friend’s disappearance—and the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic stranger—in misty Victorian London.
  • The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories, Eric LaRocca (Mar 7, Titan): A beautifully crafted, devastating short fiction collection from the Bram Stoker finalist and author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes. Includes an introduction from acclaimed bestselling author Chuck Wendig.
  • XCRMNTMNTN, Andrew Hilbert (Mar 7, Ghoulish Books): THIS IS NOT A PORNOGRAPHY. When a pile of shit from space lands near a renowned filmmaker’s set, inspiration strikes. Take a journey up a cosmic mountain of excrement with the director and his film crew as they ascend into madness led only by their own vanity and obsession. This is a nightmare about creation. This is a dream about poop. This is a call to arms against vowels. This is XCRMNTMNTN.
  • Feed Them Silence, Lee Mandelo (Mar 14, Tordotcom): Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future.
  • A Manual for How to Love Us, Erin Slaughter (Mar 14, Harper Perennial): A debut, interlinked collection of stories exploring the primal nature of women’s grief—offering insight into the profound experience of loss and the absurd ways in which we seek control in an unruly world.
  • The Memory Eater, Rebecca Mahoney (Mar 14, Razorbill): A teenage girl must save her town from a memory-devouring monster in this piercing exploration of grief, trauma, and memory, from the author of The Valley and the Flood.
  • Piñata, Leopoldo Gout (Mar 14, Nightfire): A Head Full of Ghosts meets Mexican Gothic in Piñata, a terrifying possession tale by Leopoldo Gout.
  • Suburban Monsters, Christopher Hawkins (Mar 15, Coronis): The house at the end of the block with the overgrown lawn. The darkened store window in a forgotten corner of the shopping mall. The colorful characters of a children’s TV show. What dark secrets do they hide? From award-winning author Christopher Hawkins come thirteen tales of the horrors lurking right next door.
  • Beasts of 42nd Street, Preston Fassel (Mar 17, Cemetery Dance): From the award-winning author of Our Lady of the Inferno comes another tale of New York in the Bad Old Days: A saga of murder, bloodshed, and betrayal set against the backdrop of Times Square at the height of its decadence and depravity.
  • Imago and Other Transformations, Erica Ruppert (Mar 17, Trepidatio Publishing): In the twenty-one stories in Imago and Other Transformations there is faith, found and lost again. There are eldritch horrors and profane rituals. And there are characters caught in circumstances they thought they could control. A woman discovers the cost of the magic to resurrect her lost child. A husband struggles against hungry, old gods to win back his missing wife. A child wields a dangerous power his mother had long hoped to harness for her own. Plagues spread. Cities crumble. And the world that ends for some still goes on…
  • Sleep Alone, J.A.W. McCarthy (Mar 18, Off Limits Press): For the past six years, Ronnie has worked selling merch for a perpetually touring band. Late nights, sweaty clubs, dingy motel rooms, endless roads—as rough as it’s been, there is no other way of life for this band of hungry succubi leaving bodies in their wake. Until she meets the enigmatic Helene. Helene is just as restless, just as lonely, and just as full of secrets. With Helene in tow, Ronnie and the band make their way across the Pacific Northwest, trying to outrun not only their mistakes, but the mysterious disease stalking the band, a disease that devours succubi from the inside out. The hunger is as endless as the road, but maybe Ronnie doesn’t always want to sleep alone
  • A Dark Corner, Celia Dale (Mar 21, Valancourt Books): First published in 1971, Celia Dale’s A Dark Corner is a chilling work of domestic horror that shows how true evil often lurks closer than we think, perhaps even just behind our neighbor’s lace curtains…
  • A Helping Hand, Celia Dale (Mar 21, Valancourt Books): First published in 1966, Celia Dale’s A Helping Hand is a chilling work of psychological terror that explores the true evil that often lurks just behind a respectable façade.
  • Lone Women, Victor LaValle (Mar 21, One World): Blue skies, empty land—and enough room to hide away a horrifying secret. Or is there? Discover a haunting new vision of the American West from the award-winning author of The Changeling. Told in Victor LaValle’s signature style, blending historical fiction, shimmering prose, and inventive horror, Lone Women is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—and a portrait of early twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen.
  • Muckross Abbey and Other Stories, Sabina Murray (Mar 21, Black Cat): From a twisted recasting of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, to an actor who dies for his art only to haunt his mother’s house, to the titular “Muckross Abbey,” an Irish chieftain burial site cursed by the specter of a flesh-eating groom—in this collection Murray gives us painters, writers, historians, and nuns all confronting the otherworldly in fantastically creepy ways. With notes of Wharton and James, Stoker and Shelley, now drawn into the present, these macabre stories are sure to captivate and chill.
  • The Shoemaker’s Magician, Cynthia Pelayo (Mar 21, Agora Books): A fabled lost movie. An increasing body count. How much do you risk for art? The second book in Pelayo’s Chicago Saga, following Children of Chicago.
  • The Strange, Nathan Ballingrud (Mar 21, Gallery/Saga Press): 1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt’s gang who have stolen her mother’s voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance. At once evoking the dreams of an America explored in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and the harder realities of frontier life in Charles Portis True Grit, Ballingrud’s first novel is haunting in its evocation of Anabelle’s quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world accompanied by a domestic Engine, a drunken space pilot, and the toughest woman on Mars.
  • Soft Targets, Carson Winter (Mar 22, Tenebrous Press): Two tragedy-obsessed office workers discover that reality itself is fluid and choose to test its boundaries with increasing violence.
  • Abnormal Statistics, Max Booth III (Mar 23, Apocalypse Party): Suburban decay, familial horror, bleak lullabies. Abnormal Statistics is the debut story collection from Max Booth III. Bad times are waiting for you. Featuring 10 reprints and 3 stories original to this collection (including a brand-new novella called “Indiana Death Song”).
  • The Seething, Ben Monroe (Mar 23, Brigids Gate Press): A family’s relocation looked like a chance to relax and regroup—but as they settle into their new home, teenage Kimmie Barnes’ special senses make her the target of something primordial, evil, and utterly malign.
  • Chlorine, Jade Song (Mar 28, William Morrow): In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies… a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.
  • Greymist Fair, Francesca Zappia (Mar 28, Greenwillow Books): The villagers of Greymist Fair know that the woods are a dangerous and magical place, and that they should never set foot off the road. But when a young tailor discovers a body, her search for the culprit reveals even more strange and dark happenings around her town. From acclaimed author Francesca Zappia, Greymist Fair is a suspenseful and inventive YA murder-mystery infused with magic and inspired by the lesser-known fairytales of the Brothers Grimm.
  • A House With Good Bones, T. Kingfisher (Mar 28, Nightfire): A haunting Southern Gothic from a bestselling master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family.
  • In Nightfall, Suzanne Young (Mar 28, Delacorte): In the quaint town of Nightfall, Oregon, it isn’t the dark you should be afraid of—it’s the girls. The Lost Boys meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this propulsive novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Treatment.
  • The Keep Within, J. L. Worrad (Mar 28, Titan): Set hundreds of years after the events of Pennyblade, a theatre manager/bastard brother of the king deals with rumours of a very real folktale murderer and a building whose very existence corrupts the minds of those who see or hear about it.
  • White Cat, Black Dog, Kelly Link (Mar 28, Random House): Seven ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world, from one of today’s finest short story writers—MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble.

April

  • Kill Radio, Lauren Bolger (Apr 1, Malarkey Books): When Rachelle unearths her ex’s handmade crystal radio, violence and terror reign in the form of hellhounds, shadow figures, and finally, possessions. Enter smooth, dark-eyed James Carroway. He offers her protection she’s quick to accept despite her apprehensions. When James reveals he’s a warlock in search of the crystal radio that caused these supernatural events, Rachelle explains it belonged to her son’s estranged father, Chad. They realize it played a part in Chad’s possession. Their only option is to find Chad and learn about the origins of the radio before more of her family are killed. Or worse, taken. Rachelle has to risk losing the people she loves (again) to make it stop.
  • House of Cotton, Monica Brashears (Apr 4, Flatiron): A stunning, contemporary Black southern gothic novel about what it means to be a poor woman in the God fearing south in the age of OnlyFans. Sharp as a belted knife, this sly social commentary cuts straight to the bone. House of Cotton will keep you mesmerized until the very last page.
  • Hunt for Eden’s Star, D.J. Williams (Apr 4, Wander): A coming-of-age teen is thrown into a world of ancient secrets when he discovers a supernatural artifact that protects a weapon of mass destruction. With the help of a diverse group of friends (including some badass female heroines), he embarks on a global adventure, seeking the truth about his sister’s death, and uncovers two clandestine, societies waging an epic war that threatens the future of civilization. D. J. Williams’s suspenseful, page-turning style whisks readers into a wildly exciting, supernatural adventure that grabs hold of the imagination and never lets go.
  • The Insatiable Volt Sisters, Rachel Eve Moulton (Apr 4, MCD x FSG): Told from the perspectives of four flawed, fascinating women, The Insatiable Volt Sisters is a lush, enthralling fable about monsters real and imagined. From the unbounded imagination of Rachel Eve Moulton, the critically acclaimed author of Tinfoil Butterfly, comes another eerie, terrifying exploration of family and legacy: Will the Volt sisters inherit the horrors of their past or surpass them?
  • The Last Heir to Blackwood Library, Hester Fox (Apr 4, Graydon House): In post–World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library and must untangle its powerful secrets… Lush, atmospheric and transporting, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library is a skillful reflection on memory and female agency, and a love letter to books from a writer at the height of her power.
  • Linghun, Ai Jiang (Apr 4, Dark Matter): Follow Wenqi, Liam, and Mrs. in this modern gothic ghost story by Chinese-Canadian writer and immigrant Ai Jiang. Linghun is set in the mysterious town of HOME, a place where the dead live again as spirits, conjured by the grief-sick population that refuses to let go.
  • Natural Beauty, Ling Ling Huang (Apr 4, Dutton): Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost.
  • Paradise-1, David Wellington (Apr 4, Orbit): An electrifying novel perfect for fans of science fiction and horror, Paradise-1 follows two agents from the United Earth Government as they investigate the complete disappearance of humanity’s first deep space colony. 
  • The Scourge Between Stars, Ness Brown (Apr 4, Nightfire): Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars is a tense, claustrophobic sci-fi/horror blend in the vein of Alien and Event Horizon.
  • Nightfall & Other Dangers, Jacob Steven Mohr (Apr 7, JournalStone): A flyboy volunteers for a suicide mission with a copilot from beyond the stars. A painter’s body is possessed by a malevolent force to render a likeness of its hellish beloved. Hundreds of adults mysteriously drown themselves along a one-mile stretch of beach. Two bandits mistakenly steal a severed head—and inherit a nightmare. These and more are the narratives within Nightfall & Other Dangers: stories of ecstasy and terror, memory and madness. Quietly apocalyptic, intimately brutal, and above all else devilishly frightening, this is the beginning of the Nightfall, from which there is no reprieve of dawn.
  • They Hide: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark, Francesca Maria (Apr 7, Brigids Gate Press): A new short story collection exploring beloved horror tropes.
  • Harvest House, Cynthia Leitich Smith (Apr 11, Candlewick): NSK Neustadt Laureate and New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith delivers a thrilling cross-genre follow-up to the acclaimed Hearts Unbroken.
  • One or Several Deserts, Carter St Hogan (Apr 11, 11:11 Press): Queer, strange, grotesque: eight intimate fictions give voice to bodies at the margins as they yearn and claw at their own flesh. Some of these bodies flicker in and out of reality; some find rebirth in a sentient disease; some consume the bowels of their lovers; others wrestle with sexual awakening at the hands of a giant stone in the wide American prairie. Bristling with defiance, cruel but tender, One or Several Deserts bends reality with a logic all its own.
  • Agony’s Lodestone, Laura Keating (Apr 14, Tenebrous Press): Laura Keating’s debut novella wraps you in its weird, cold embrace, blending elements of found footage horror, fraught family drama, and a creepy-ass Canadian wilderness where time and space just won’t sit still.
  • The Helios Syndrome, Vivian Shaw (Apr 15, Lethe Press): When Devin Stacy, a freelance necromancer, though the National Transportation Safety Board considers him an insightful contingency communication specialist, investigates a plane gone missing under weird circumstances, he finds himself haunted by a dead pilot. Can Stacy figure out the mysteries of both the ghost and disappearance before another flight full of passengers faces peril? Vivian Shaw’s new novella offers thrills and chills, cinematic and necromantic.
  • Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror, ed. Lor Gislason (Apr 18, Ghoulish Books): Bound in Flesh brings together 13 trans and non-binary writers, using horror to both explore the darkest depths of the genre and the boundaries of flesh. A disgusting good time for all! Featuring stories by Hailey Piper, Joe Koch, Bitter Karella, and others. Edited by Lor Gislason.
  • The Cherished, Patricia Ward (Apr 18, HarperTeen): For fans of White Smoke, The Hazel Wood, and Wilder Girls comes an original, hypnotizing horror thriller in the vein of Midsommar,as one girl inherits a mysterious house from her estranged grandmother—and a letter with sinister instructions.
  • Collage Macabre: An Exhibition of Art Horror (Apr 18, Future Dead Collective): Through these eighteen stories, dread is the medium of choice, winding its way through each unsettling and terrifying tale about human creation, the artistic follies and triumphs we imbue with so much meaning. You will find artists and audiences alike grappling with confrontations beyond their comprehension, works that require more than careful consideration—sometimes a little bit of blood is necessary. Art is alive if you are. Inside these pages you will be asked to open yourself up like a wound and expose your mind to the darker side of our oeuvre.
  • Dark Matter Presents: Monstrous Futures, ed. Alex Woodroe (Apr 18, Dark Matter): The future is now, and it’s not what we were promised. The optimistic science fiction of old was wrong. Progress is not linear, technology creates as many problems as it solves, and the concept of a better tomorrow has become an abstraction that is in no way guaranteed. When looking at the future now, we no longer ask what is possible. We wonder how will we cope. Contained within this anthology are 29 never-before-published works by supremely talented authors. Brace yourself for the all too real horrors of what could very well be our terribly monstrous futures.
  • Games for Dead Girls, Jen Williams (Apr 18, Crooked Lane Books): Exploring the fine line where supernatural ends and real human monstrosity begins, Games for Dead Girls is a haunting, dark read from award-winning author Jen Williams. In the vein of Jennifer Hillier and Alex North, and told in alternating timelines, a ritualistic game turns deadly for two young girls, but it will be years before they must face the true horrors of their past.
  • The Haunting of Alejandra, V. Castro (Apr 18, Del Rey): A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona in this ravishing and provocative literary horror novel about motherhood, family legacy, and self-discovery.
  • The Marigold, Andrew F. Sullivan (Apr 18, ECW Press): In a near-future Toronto buffeted by environmental chaos and unfettered development, an unsettling new lifeform begins to grow beneath the surface, feeding off the past.
  • Sisters of the Lost Nation, Nick Medina (Apr 18, Berkley): A young Native girl’s hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe’s reservation lead her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut. Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.
  • The Vile Thing We Created, Robert P. Ottone (Apr 18, Hydra): Robert P. Ottone’s The Vile Thing We Created is a terrifying vision of parenthood in the tradition of Ira Levin and Thomas Tryon.
  • The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Tananarive Due (Apr 18, Akashic Books): Due’s second collection of stories range from horror to science fiction to suspense. From the mysterious, magical town of Gracetown to the aftermath of a pandemic to the reaches of the far future, Due’s stories all share a sense of dread and fear balanced with heart and hope. In some of these stories, the monster is racism itself; others address the monster within, or other universal struggles set against the supernatural or surreal. All of them are written with Due’s trademark attention to detail and deep characterization. In addition to previously published work, this collection contains brand-new stories, including “Rumpus Room,” a supernatural horror novelette set in Florida about a woman’s struggle against both outer and inner demons.
  • Even the Worm Will Turn, Hailey Piper (April 22, Off Limits Press): Four years after the events of The Worm and His Kings, Donna Ashton ekes out a life far removed from her troubled past, only to be abducted one December night by a monster in man’s skin. Held prisoner by operatives of a clandestine research facility and drugged into a sickened state, each day brings questioning and punishment. Escape should be possible when Donna faces only mortal hands this time, but the more she sees, the worse her mind splinters with horrific understanding. This facility has punched a hole in space and time. Within it lie secrets mankind should never know of a darkness beyond the universe, the legacy of the almighty Worm, and revelations behind Donna’s ordeal four years ago which now might get her killed.
  • Ascension, Nicholas Binge (Apr 25, Riverhead): A mind-bending speculative thriller in which the sudden appearance of a mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leads a group of scientists to a series of jaw-dropping revelations that challenge the notion of what it means to be human
  • Death of a Bookseller, Alice Slater (Apr 25, Scarlet): A disaffected bookseller develops a dangerous obsession in this dark and twisty debut. A darkly funny suspense novel, Death of a Bookseller raises ethical questions about the fervor for true crime and how we handle stories that don’t belong to us.
  • The Intruders, Brian Pinkerton (Apr 25, Flame Tree Press): Something strange is taking place in the small town of Engles, Indiana. Greg Garrett returns home from a business trip to discover his wife and children have disappeared. More people begin to vanish without a trace. The skies produce a substance that doesn’t look like natural rain. Aggressive swarms of insects attack without warning. And late at night, residents are haunted by ghosts desperate to reveal the secrets of their existence but unable to speak. Engles is undergoing a terrifying transformation that could threaten all of civilization – who is this unseen enemy? What is their mission?
  • This Delicious Death, Kayla Cottingham (Apr 25, Sourcebooks Fire): Four best friends, one music festival, and a cooler filled with human organs: this summer is about to get gory. ​​​Jennifer’s Body fans will clamor for this new sapphic horror standalone from New York Times bestselling author Kayla Cottingham.
  • The Merry Dredgers, Jeremy C. Shipp (Apr 25, Meerkat Press): Seraphina Ramon will stop at nothing to find out the truth about why her sister Eff is in a coma after a very suspicious “accident.” Even if it means infiltrating the last place Seraphina knows Eff was alive: a once-abandoned amusement park now populated by a community of cultists. Follow Seraphina through the mouth of the Goblin: To the left, a wolf-themed roller coaster rests on the blackened earth, curled up like a dead snake. To the right, an animatronic Humpty Dumpty falls off a concrete castle and shatters on the ground, only to reform itself moments later. Up ahead, cultists giggle as they meditate in a hall of mirrors. This is the last place in the world Seraphina wants to be, but the best way to investigate this bizarre cult is to join them.
  • Neverest, T.L. Bodine (Apr 25): Neverest is a survival thriller with a hint of the supernatural that will appeal to fans of Ally Wilkes’ All the White Spaces and Amy McCulloch’s Breathless.
  • A Sleight of Shadows, Kat Howard (Apr 25, Gallery/Saga Press): Return to Kat Howard’s Alex Award–winning world begun in An Unkindness of Magicians, about a secret society of power-hungry magicians in New York City.
  • Our Own Unique Affliction, Scott J. Moses (Apr 26, DarkLit Press): Our Own Unique Affliction is the story of Alice Ann, a dejected immortal who longs for her life in the sun. Navigating guilt, loss, family, meaning, murder, and all that comes with the curse of living forever. An existential bleak, quiet until it’s not, hallucination on duality, rife with fangs, empathy, blood, and grief.
  • October Animals, Nicholas Day (Apr 30, Rooster Republic Press): Four teenage friends—Lizzie Bat, Owl, Spider, and Kat—live in the riverside city of October, Illinois. Lizzie Bat, still grieving the loss of her father and at odds with her mother, plans to rob the town’s Halloween store the night of October 31st, and intends to use the money to escape to a new life. And, her friends are all too eager to help. But their scheme threatens to tear the friends apart as they find themselves in the path of supernatural forces and monstrous local legends: haunted houses; doppelgängers; grave robbing; ghosts and vampires; monsters in the river and, even worse, monsters in the home.
  • The Massacre at Yellow Hill, C. S. Humble (Apr, Cemetery Dance): The Miller and Ptolemy families are pitted against mundane and supernatural forces in this Weird West adventure. Family struggles, heart-stopping gunfights, and nightmare creatures from dark realms abound in this award-winning novel from C.S. Humble.
  • Voice of the Stranger, Eric Schaller (Apr, Lethe Press): Eric Schaller’s second collection of edgy and weird fiction draws inspiration from well-known fairy and folktales. Readers who enjoy their darkness and horror from a literary perspective will find much to enjoy in this book.

May

  • Conjuring the Witch, Jessica Leonard (May 2, Ghoulish Books): There are witches in the woods. These are the words the reverend of the Lilin Assembly of Our Lord repeats to his parishioners each week. Steve and Nicole Warby think it’s just a metaphor, until Nicole takes a walk in those woods and comes back changed. Something came out of them with her, and the simple small-town life they’ve always known is forever altered when they discover the dark secrets buried deep and those intent on keeping them there. Fearing for his wife’s sanity, and his own comfortable status in the church, Steve is unsure if he wants to help or ignore the problems. The reverend believes there are witches in the woods, and he thinks Nicole is only the most recent. Conjuring the Witch is a dark, haunted story about what those in power are willing to do to stay in power, and the sins we convince ourselves are forgivable.
  • The Ferryman, Justin Cronin (May 2, Ballantine Books): From the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting standalone novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia—where the truth isn’t what it seems.
  • The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw (May 2, Nightfire): From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a dark and deliciously twisted mermaid tale.
  • We Don’t Swim Here, Vincent Tirado (May 5, SourceBooks): Bronwyn is only supposed to be in rural Hillwoods for a year. Her grandmother is in hospice, and her father needs to get her affairs in order. And they’re all meant to make some final memories together. Except Bronwyn is miserable. Her grandmother is dying, everyone is standoffish, and she can’t even go swimming. All she hears are warnings about going in the water, despite a gorgeous lake. And a pool at the abandoned rec center. And another in the high school basement. Anais tries her hardest to protect Bronwyn from the shadows of Hillwoods. She follows her own rituals to avoid any unnecessary attention—and if she can just get Bronwyn to stop asking questions, she can protect her too. The less Bronwyn pays attention to Hillwoods, the less Hillwoods will pay attention to Bronwyn. She doesn’t get that the lore is, well, truth. History. Pain. The living aren’t the only ones who seek retribution when they’re wronged. But when Bronwyn does more exploring than she should, they are both in for danger they couldn’t expect.
  • Beleth Station, Samantha Kolesnik & Bryan Smith (May 9, CLASH): Authors Samantha Kolesnik and Bryan Smith present two unique tales of brutal terror in this novella duo featuring Kolesnik’s A Night to Remember and Smith’s The Gauntlet. Set in the same town and in a shared universe, Smith and Kolesnik present two sides of the same sordid coin as we follow lovebirds Nick and Krista into the heart of Beleth Station, where corruption and depravity reign.
  • Graveyard of Lost Children, Katrina Monroe (May 9, Poisoned Pen Press): Baby Teeth meets The Invited in a haunting story of the sometimes-fragile connection between a woman’s sense of self and what it means to be a “good” mother.
  • A Hunter Called Night, Tim Waggoner (May 9, Flame Tree Press): A sinister being called Night and her panther-like Harriers stalk their quarry, a man known only as Arron. Arron seeks refuge within an office building, a place Night cannot go, for it’s part of the civilized world, and she’s a creature of the Wild. To flush Arron out, she creates Blight, a reality-warping field that slowly transforms the building and its occupants in horrible and deadly ways. But unknown to Night, while she waits for the Blight to do its work, a group of survivors from a previous attempt to capture Arron are coming for her. The hunter is now the hunted.
  • Our Hideous Progeny, C.E. McGill (May 9, Harper): Historical fiction with a dark twist in the spirit of Circe, Ariadne, and Mexican Gothic, Our Hideous Progeny is a brilliant revisiting of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein that unfolds with a fresh, provocative, queer twist.
  • All the Dead Lie Down, Kyrie McCauley (May 16, Katherine Tegen Books): The Haunting of Bly Manor meets House of Salt and Sorrows in award-winning author Kyrie McCauley’s contemporary YA gothic romance about a dark family lineage, the ghosts of grief, and the lines we’ll cross for love.
  • Court of the Undying Seasons, A.M. Strickland (May 16, Feiwel & Friends): When a teen girl is forced to attend a vampire school, she must decide whether to blend in or cling to her humanity in this dark YA fantasy from author A.M. Strickland.
  • A Long Time Dead, Samara Breger (May 16, Bywater Books): A lush Victorian romance, drenched in blood and drama, about the lengths two women will go to secure a love that cannot die.
  • No One Will Come Back for Us (and Other Stories), Premee Mohamed (May 16, Undertow): Premee Mohamed’s debut collection of contemporary cosmic horror and dark fantasy heralds the arrival of a new and vibrant voice on the cutting edge of modern speculative fiction.
  • What Happened Was Impossible, E. F. Schraeder (May 16, Ghoulish Books): Everyone knows the woman who escapes a massacre is a final girl, but who is the final boy? What Happened Was Impossible follows the life of Ida Wright, a man who knows how to capitalize on his childhood tragedies… even when he caused them.
  • The Devil’s Pocketbook, Ross Jeffery (May 23, DarkLit Press): Erik and Lara are in mourning for their daughter, who was born “incompatible with life.” To get away from their suffocating grief and the ever-present shadow of their daughter, and desperately trying to recover their increasingly rocky relationship, they take a trip to the seaside town of Polperro, in Cornwall. But no sooner have they arrived then they realize that their grief cannot be so easily eluded. Drawn to the waters, Erik and Lara discover a large mermaid’s purse, and inside: the miracle child they could never have. Scylla. Is the young girl a gift from the sea? A dangerous shared delusion? Or something even more sinister? As reality slips away from the couple, they begin to realise they are contending with forces as powerful as the undertows of the ocean, and just as inescapable.
  • Killing It, Mike Bockoven (May 23, Polis Books): From the twisted and imaginative mind of Mike Bockoven, author of the cult classic Fantasticland, comes a wholly original and witty new novel of terror. Since the late 1980’s, The Square has been one of the most important clubs in New York for the alt-comedy scene. But before that it was something much darker, and is now a place where evil lingers, waiting for a chance to spill blood. After a night of killing on stage, four comics find themselves in a desperate situation as the spirits of the past come out to play, and a fight for laughs becomes a fight for survival in the most unlikely of places.
  • The Untimely Undeath of Imogen Madrigal, Grayson Daly (May 23, Nosetouch Press): Set in the fictional island city of Lenorum, the novel focuses on Maeve, who is a member of the Sisterhood of Good Death—a religious order whose mission is to help the dead transition toward their next life. A random cemetery encounter with the mysteriously murdered poet, Imogen Madrigal, who has somehow returned from the dead, thrusts Maeve into solving Imogen’s year-old murder, and, in the process, come to terms with what it means to live a good and fulfilling life.
  • Pet Peeves, Nicole Goux (May 25, Avery Hill Publishing): In this horror graphic novel, the new dog that aspiring musician Bobbie has adopted is cute, but also stealing her life. This debut solo graphic novel from breakout author Nicole Goux explores the struggles of a young artist – haunted not only by debt and society, but by more sinister (though adorable) canine forces.
  • The Alchemy of Moonlight, David Ferraro (May 30, Page Street Kids): When Emile’s aunt declares he must marry or be disowned for being gay, he runs away to hide as a servant in Count Montoni’s mansion. In their service, Emile tends to the family who all suffer a strange affliction on the full moon. And after overhearing suspicious family arguments, he finds a body on the estate, drawing the attention of a handsome doctor as well as the count’s charismatic nephew, Henri.
  • Beware the Woman, Megan Abbott (May 30, Putnam): By the “master of thinly veiled secrets often kept by women who rage underneath their delicate exteriors” (Kirkus Reviews), Beware the Woman is Megan Abbott at the height of her game.
  • The Briars, Stephanie Parent (May, Cemetery Gates): A gothic haunted house story transplanted to an S&M dungeon, in which two sex workers battle an increasingly vengeful ghost.
  • Dead Meat, Kyle Wright (May, Journalstone): A splatter noir novella.
  • Hungers As Old As This Land, Zachary Rosenberg (May, Brigids Gate Press): A new western horror novelette.
  • The Scarlet Boy, ​Arthur Calder-Marshall (May, Valancourt Books): First published in 1961, Arthur Calder-Marshall’s haunted house novel The Scarlet Boy is a gripping story of suspense that will keep readers turning the pages.
  • This World Belongs to Us: An Anthology of Horror Stories about Bugs (May, From Beyond Press): From Beyond Press is launching with a bang—or a squirm, or the sound of too many legs skittering in the dark. This World Belongs to Us is an anthology of horror stories about bugs, writ large—we’re not scientists, so spiders and slugs and scorpions (oh my!) are in here too.

June

  • The Inconsolables, Michael Wehunt (Jun 1, Bad Hand Books): Wehunt’s second short fiction collection, after Greener Pastures.
  • All the Sinners Bleed, S.A. Cosby (Jun 6, Flatiron): New York Times bestselling and Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author S. A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed is a Southern gothic novel about the first Black sheriff in a small Southern town, and his hunt for a killer.
  • Boys Weekend, Mattie Lubchansky (Jun 6, Pantheon): From the award-winning cartoonist and editor of The Nib, a hilarious trans-“final girl” horror graphic novel about a bachelor party gone very, very wrong.
  • Everything the Darkness Eats, Eric LaRocca (Jun 6, CLASH): An insidious darkness threatens to devastate a rural New England village when occult forces are conjured and when bigotry is left unrestrained.
  • Killingly, Katharine Beutner (Jun 6, SoHo Crime): Based on the unsolved real-life disappearance of a Mount Holyoke student in 1897—a haunting novel of intrigue, longing, and terror, perfect for fans of Donna Tartt and Sarah Waters
  • Maeve Fly, CJ Leede (Jun 6, Nightfire): A provocative debut that is both a blood-soaked love letter to Los Angeles and a gleeful send-up to iconic horror villains, CJ Leede’s Maeve Fly will thrill fans of Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart is a Chainsaw and Caroline Kepnes’ You series.
  • The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark, Warren Wagner (Jun 6, Ghoulish Books): In The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark, an HIV positive gay man must leave the relative safety of his cabin in the woods to brave the zombie apocalypse and find the medication he needs to stay alive.
  • Relentless Melt, Jeremy P. Bushnell (Jun 6, Melville House): Stranger Things meets the Golden Age of detective fiction in a rollicking supernatural detective thriller that introduces Artie Quick, a sales assistant at Filene’s in Boston, who moonlights as an amateur detective.
  • Maddalena and the Dark, Julia Fine (Jun 13, Flatiron): For fans of My Brilliant Friend and Mexican Gothic, a novel set in 18th-century Venice at a prestigious music school, about two girls drawn together by a dangerous wager.
  • The Puzzle Master, Danielle Trussoni (Jun 13, Random House): Reality and imagination collide when an expert puzzle-maker is thrust into an ancient mystery—one with explosive consequences for the fate of humanity—in this fantastical thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Angelology.
  • The Book of Denial, Ricardo Chávez Castañeda, illustrated by Alejandro Magallanes, translated by Lawrence Schimel (Jun 20, Enchanted Lion Books): The uncommon and exceptional design of this book and its richly expressive illustrations combine with an elegantly phrased text and poignant narration to tell a horrific yet moving story that returns us to a lost history and reminds us that the worst terror of the human being is ourselves.
  • The Devil’s Playground, Craig Russell (Jun 20, Knopf): A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist. This is the breakout from Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect.
  • The Edge of Sleep, Jake Emanuel and Willie Block with Jason Gurley (Jun 20, St. Martin’s Press): What if the whole world fell asleep… and didn’t wake up again? The morning after Independence Day, Santa Mira, California, is so quiet that night watchman Dave Torres can hear the ocean from miles away. Traffic signals blink from red to green over empty intersections. Storefronts remain locked up tight. Every radio station whispers static. And all over town, there are bodies, lying right where their owners left them. Dead right where they slept. Dave—along with his ex-girlfriend, Katie, his best friend, Matteo, and Linda, a nurse he’s just met—struggle to unravel the mystery before sleep overtakes them all. Except the answer to the mystery might lie in the one place that frightens Dave most: His twisted, unnerving dreams. Now Dave and his friends must straddle the liminal boundary between life and death as they fight to save everyone they’ve ever loved—and to keep their eyes open. Because if any of them falls asleep now, it will be the last thing they ever do.
  • Fresh Dirt From the Grave, Giovanna Rivero (Jun 20, Charco Press): Six tales of a dark beauty that throb with disturbing themes: the legitimacy of revenge, incest as survival, indigenous witchcraft versus Japanese wisdom, the body as a corpse we inhabit. Rivero’s stories pierce the reader like a wound, but in the end also offer possibilities of love, justice and hope. Told with a fierce and fragile lyricism that probes the abysses of the human soul, in Fresh Dirt From the Grave Giovanna Rivero reworks the boundaries of the gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual, folk tales, sci-fi and eroticism.
  • Night’s Edge, Liz Kerin (Jun 20, Nightfire): Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge is a sun-drenched novel about how monstrous we can be to the ones we love most. Having a mom like Izzy meant Mia had to grow up fast. No extracurricular activities, no inviting friends over, and definitely no dating. The most important rule: tell no one of Izzy’s hunger – the one only blood can satisfy. But Mia is tired of being her mother’s keeper. She’s in her twenties now and secretly longs for a life of her own. One where she doesn’t have to worry about anyone discovering their terrible secret, or breathing down her neck. When Mia meets rebellious musician Jade she dares to hope she’s found a way to leave her home – and her mom – behind. It just might be Mia’s only chance of getting out alive.
  • Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories, Agustina Bazterrica, trans. Sarah Moses (Jun 20, Scribner): From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica (Tender is the Flesh), this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica’s vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways—often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In “Roberto,” a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman’s neighbor jumps to his death in “A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound,” and in “Candy Pink,” a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps.
  • The Only One Left, Riley Sager (Jun 20, Berkley): Bestselling author Riley Sager returns with a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.
  • Where Echoes Die, Courtney Gould (Jun 20, Wednesday Books): Two sisters travel to an isolated Arizona town to investigate its connection to their mother’s death, but uncover more than they bargained for in this supernatural thriller from the author of The Dead and the Dark.
  • The Wicked Unseen, Gigi Griffis (Jun 20, Underlined): The new girl in town is having trouble fitting into a community that believes there’s a secret Satanic cult conducting rituals in the woods. When her crush goes missing, she starts to wonder if the town’s obsession with evil isn’t covering up something far worse. Perfect for fans of Fear Street!
  • You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight, Kalynn Bayron (Jun 20, Bloomsbury YA): At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game… but can you survive the night? This heart-pounding slasher by New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron is perfect for fans of Fear Street.
  • Order, Mark Barber (Jun 27, Zmok Books): When two Holy Order knights return from a failed crusade, they find themselves dragged into a new war against an even deadlier foe.
  • Cold, Black, & Infinite: Stories of the Horrific and Strange, Todd Keisling (June, Cemetery Dance): A new short story collection from Todd Keisling.
  • House of Rot, Danger Slater (June, Tenebrous Press): A psychedelic splatter tale in which a pair of newlyweds move into a haunted apartment and soon find themselves unable to leave.
  • The Inconsolables, Michael Wehunt (June, Bad Hand Books): Michael Wehunt’s latest collection of short fiction, the long-awaited follow-up to his acclaimed debut Greener Pastures.
  • Life Support, Elton Skelter (June, D&T Publishing): A new psychological horror novel.
  • The Woodcutter, Stephanie Ellis (June, Brigids Gate Press): A tragic accident, shrouded in mystery, leads to a family reunion in the hidden village of Little Hatchet, located in the smothering shadow of GodBeGone Wood, the home of the mythical Woodcutter and Grandma. Alec Eades rediscovers his bond with GodBeGone Wood and the future his father agreed to years ago as nefarious landowner Oliver Hayward schemes to raise money for the village by re-enacting part of the Woodcutter legend. Old wounds are re-opened and ties of blood and friendship are tested to the extreme when the Woodcutter is summoned and Grandma returns.

July

  • Those We Drown, Amy Goldsmith (Jul 1, Delacorte): An ocean-drenched, atmospheric horror debut. Liv’s best friend disappears on their first night aboard their dream semester-at-sea program—but is he really sick, like everyone says, or is something darker lurking beneath the water?
  • At the End of Every Day, Arianna Reiche (Jul 4, Atria): In this haunting debut novel—perfect for fans of Iain Reid, Jeff VanderMeer, and Julia Armfield—a loyal employee at a collapsing theme park questions the recent death of a celebrity visitor, the arrival of strange new guests, her boyfriend’s erratic behavior, and ultimately her own sanity.
  • A Good House for Children, Kate Collins (Jul 4, Mariner): The dazzling debut novel from Kate Collins—a feminist gothic mystery spanning decades, in the vein of Mexican Gothic and The Essex Serpent.
  • Starve Acre, Andrew Michael Hurley (Jul 4, Penguin): An atmospheric and unsettling story of the depths of grief found in an ancient farm in northern England, soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.
  • The Absolutes, Molly Dektar (Jul 11, Mariner Books): A moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric Gothic novel about a young woman’s affair with an Italian aristocrat that leaves her spiraling in the face of love, danger, and obsession.
  • The After-Death of Caroline Rand, Catherine Cavendish (Jul 11, Flame Tree Press): A chilling dark fantasy, in the slipstream of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
  • The Beast You Are, Paul Tremblay (Jul 11, William Morrow): A haunting collection of short fiction from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club, A Head Full of Ghosts, and The Cabin at the End of the World.
  • Boys in the Valley, Philip Fracassi (Jul 11, Nightfire): The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies, by way of Midnight Mass, in Boys in the Valley, a brilliant coming-of-age tale from award-winning author Philip Fracassi.
  • Burn the Negative, Josh Winning (Jul 11, Putnam): Thirty years hiding from her past. Eight deaths still unexplained. One haunted horror film. Nowhere left to run.
  • The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi (Jul 11, Gillian Flynn Books): A darkly comic, speculative debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost.
  • The Ecstasy of Agony, Wrath James White (Jul 11, CLASH): The heavyweight of hardcore horror returns with ten hard hitting new short stories and seven brutal epic poems exploring the darkest soul of humanity and the cruelty of life without pulling punches.
  • The Militia House, John Milas (Jul 11, Henry Holt): Stephen King meets Tim O’Brien in John Milas’s The Militia House, a spine-tingling and boldly original gothic horror novel.
  • A Moonlit Path of Madness, Catherine McCarthy (Jul 11, Nosetouch Press): After the death of her mother, Grace Morgan inherits a longcase clock with a broken moon dial and a house by the sea in Wales. But those are not all she inherits, for the curse that befalls her family line refuses to relinquish its grip. It tells the story of a young woman haunted by events in her family’s past. Set in the early 20th century, the novel opens in Vermont, then moves to the seaside parish of Newport on the West Wales coast, where the supernatural lurks in the moonlit shadows.
  • The Screaming Child, Scott Adlerberg (Jul 11, Ghoulish Books): A mystery horror novel told by a grieving woman working on a book about an explorer who was murdered in a remote wilderness region, only to get caught up in a dangerous journey after hearing the distant screams from her own vanished child somewhere in the woods.
  • Sucker, Daniel Hornsby (Jul 11, Anchor): Bad Blood meets Succession in this sharp-toothed satire of Silicon Valley and the 1 percent, in which the black-sheep son of an industrial tycoon starts working for a tech pioneer who’s running a biomedical startup selling nothing less than immortality, only to uncover the horrifying truth at the heart of her sublime promises.
  • Whisperwood, Alex Woodroe (Jul 11, Flame Tree Press): When curious nomad Anna hears about Whisperwood, a town that’s not on any maps, that nobody goes to, and nobody comes from, she sees an opportunity to hide from her violent witch-hunting ex. But not everything is peaceful in the isolated community. A vanishing town, a gruesome funeral rite, an emergency field surgery—these surprises and more test Anna’s resolve. Prevented from leaving the frontier settlement by folk magic she doesn’t understand, Anna lends helping hands everywhere she can, but quickly finds that investigating the forest too closely could end up being the last thing she does.
  • Camp Damascus, Chuck Tingle (Jul 18, Nightfire): From beloved internet icon Chuck Tingle comes a searing and earnest horror debut about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.
  • A Guide to the Dark, Meriam Metoui (Jul 18, Henry Holt BYR): The Haunting of Hill House meets Nina LaCour in this spine-chilling horror YA about the ghosts we carry with us.
  • Silver Nitrate, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Jul 18, Del Rey): From the New York Times bestselling 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.
  • Unquiet, E. Saxey (Jul 18, Titan Books): An intrepid young woman journeys across Victorian London and beyond in search of the truth behind the presumed death, and reappearance one icy evening, of her brother-in-law, in this gripping and mysterious gothic horror.
  • Her Little Flowers, Shannon Morgan (Jul 25, Kensington): Readers of Eve Chase, Kate Morton, and Anita Frank will devour this bewitchingly atmospheric, melancholy modern ghost story set in the lush hills of England’s Lake District. There, a solitary women’s quiet life spent in her crumbling ancestral manor house with the company of a child’s ghost is dramatically interrupted when her estranged sister returns to share a horrific story of cruelty and desperation from decades earlier…
  • House of Roots and Ruin, Erin A. Craig (Jul 25, Delacorte): A modern masterpiece, this is a classic Gothic thriller-fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Erin A. Craig, about doomed love, menacing ambition, and the ghosts that haunt us forever.
  • Infested, Angel Luis Colon (Jul 25, MTV Books): The Taking of Jake Livingston meets Cemetery Boys in this YA ghost story about a Puerto Rican teen’s battle with a malevolent spirit targeting his apartment building and the all-too-real horrors of gentrification.
  • The Legend of Charlie Fish, Josh Rountree (Jul 25, Tachyon): As an unlikely found-family flees to Galveston, a psychic young girl bonds with an enigmatic gill-man: Charlie Fish. With vivid imagery, evocative storytelling, and uncanny wit, Josh Rountree enters the fine tradition of Texan storytellers, as he wades into the waters of True Grit by way of The Shape of Water.
  • Their Vicious Games, Joelle Wellington (Jul 25, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers): A Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren’t just high, they’re deadly, in this searing thriller that’s Ace of Spades meets Squid Game with a sprinkling of The Bachelor.
  • The Village at the Edge of Noon, Darya Bobyleva, translated by Ilona Chavasse (Jul 25, Angry Robot): Everything you were afraid to find out about the heat of noon and grandma’s old tales comes together in this English language debut of an award-winning and bestselling young Russian writer.
  • Dehiscent, Ashley Deng (Jul, Tenebrous Press): Ashley Deng’s Dehiscent takes place in a climate-collapsed near-future China in which a young girl seeks out the source of her ancestral home’s unnatural protection.
  • Here in the Night: Stories, Rebecca Turkewitz (Jul, Black Lawrence Press): A new story collection about ghosts, and queerness, and uncertainty, and all manner of hauntings.
  • Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic, Tobi Ogundiran (Jul, Undertow): Stories of magic, wonder, and delicious darkness.

August

  • The Apology, Jimin Han (Aug 1, Little, Brown): In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come. Part ghost story and part family epic, The Apology is an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian.
  • The Bonus Room, Ben H. Winters (Aug 1, Quirk): A creepy-crawly page-turner about a horrifying home infestation that will get all the way under your skin, from New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-winning author Ben H. Winters.
  • The Fiends in the Furrows III: Final Harvest (Aug 1, Nosetouch Press): The third entry in Nosetouch’s folk horror anthology series.
  • Wild Spaces, S.L. Coney (Aug 1, Tordotcom): Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life meets H. P. Lovecraft in S. L. Coney’s Wild Spaces, a foreboding, sensual coming-of-age story in which the corrosive nature of family secrets and toxic relatives assume eldritch proportions.
  • 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Aug 8, Page Street): For every reader who has excitedly wandered over to their local bookstore’s horror section only to find a few measly shelves with books you’ve already read by authors you’ve already heard of, this book is for you! Sadie Hartmann, better known as “Mother Horror” online, has put together the ultimate list of must-read novels, without a single repeat author, so you can confidently build up your TBR list.
  • Bridge, Lauren Beukes (Aug 8, Mulholland Books): A grieving daughter’s search for her mother becomes a journey across alternate realities in this wildly entertaining, reality-bending thriller from the author of The Shining Girls.
  • The Handyman Method, Andrew F. Sullivan & Nick Cutter (Aug 8, Gallery/Saga Press): When a young family moves into an unfinished development community, cracks begin to emerge in both their new residence and their lives, as a mysterious online DIY instructor delivers dark subliminal suggestions about how to handle any problem around the house. The trials of home improvement, destructive insecurities, and haunted house horror all collide in this thrilling story perfect for fans of Nick Cutter’s bestsellers The Troop and The Deep.
  • The Last One, Will Dean (Aug 8, Atria): When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing. And so is everyone else. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.
  • Mister Magic, Kiersten White (Aug 8, Del Rey): 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 #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide.
  • Mosaic, Catherine McCarthy (Aug 8, Dark Hart): When a stained glass artist embarks upon the restoration of a church window, her personal demons are put to the test when she unveils a conspiracy to reawaken a cosmic force.
  • All These Sunken Souls, ed. Circe Moskowitz (Aug 15, Chicago Review Press): The stories in this anthology of Black horror explore horror through a blend of genres—from the thoughtful to the terrifying—as the reader wanders farther and farther from reality. All These Sunken Souls tackles a genre that historically has tokenized and exploited Black characters and opens discussion on how horror translates into the time we live in.
  • Dead Ends, Marc E. Fitch (Aug 15, Flame Tree Press): Four lives are thrown into chaos after a disturbed young man sets fire to an abandoned house with a chilling history, setting off a chain of events rooted in paranoia, powerlessness, desperation and tragedy that will ultimately converge in a day of horror.
  • Fever House, Keith Rosson (Aug 15, Random House): When a dangerous relic with devastating powers goes missing in the streets of Portland, a former rock star and her son must race against time to uncover its secrets—or risk the destruction of humanity—in this thrilling masterpiece of horror.
  • The Lonely Lands, Ramsey Campbell (Aug 15, Flame Tree Press): The latest bestseller from the ultimate craftsman of the dark fantastic, Ramsey Campbell. Joe Hunter has begun to adjust to the loss of his wife when he hears her calling from beyond, “Where am I?” His urge to help leads him into her afterlife, which is made up of their memories. Even the best of those is no refuge from the restless dead, and Joe can only lure them away from her. Soon they begin to invade his everyday life, and every journey he makes to find her leaves him less able to return. When her refuges turn nightmarish he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep her safe…
  • Spin a Black Yarn: Novellas, Josh Malerman (Aug 15, Random House Worlds): Five harrowing, all-new novellas overflowing with horror, imagination, and moving portrayals of humanity—from the mind of the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.
  • Bride of the Tornado, James Kennedy (Aug 22, Quirk): Stephen King’s The Mist meets Twin Peaks in this mind-bending horror-thriller about a Midwestern town engulfed by a mysterious plague of tornadoes every generation.
  • Colossus, Ryan Leslie (Aug 22, Parliament House): Economics professor Clay West has always explained the world through the lens of his profession. But after his girlfriend Carla takes Dying Wish—a drug that supposedly reveals the nature of reality moments before it claims your life—Clay is devastated. None of his mathematical models can explain Carla’s actions. Distraught, Clay joins a mission into the dark emptiness of space. But when the ship begins to malfunction, Clay and the surviving crew members suspect there’s more to the mission than they’ve been told. They’ve been lied to, and they’re drifting into dead space. Clay’s memories of Karla haunt him even more than the ship’s chaos, and there’s something wrong with his memories: he has too many. The ship’s Al tells Clay his false memories are a normal side-effect of hibernation, but to Clay, the memories suggest something far more insidious. He’s been on this ship before…
  • Looking Glass Sound, Catriona Ward (Aug 22, Nightfire): From Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street, comes another mind-bending and cleverly crafted tale about a group of friends struggling to come to terms with the horrors of their past.
  • The Woodkin, Alexander James (Aug 22, CamCat Books): After secrets and betrayal shatter his marriage, Josh Mallory seeks solace on the Pacific Crest Trail, in the mountains of Washington. On the trail, he’s just another hiker. On the trail, he can outrun the memories. When wild animals destroy his food, Josh detours through a small mountain town. Missing hiker posters hang in the windows, and residents won’t look him in the eyes, let alone speak to him or help him. Trapped on a mountain ridge beneath a full moon and desperate for help, Josh moves on, only to encounter a mysterious group who call themselves the Woodkin. Hoping for food, shelter, and rest until he can hike back home, he soon realizes that he may never leave the mountain alive.
  • Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror & Delight, ed. Shelly Page & Alex Brown (Aug 29, Wednesday): A YA Horror anthology exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales. The anthology takes place on the same Halloween–during a blue moon, no less–and explores a night where anything is possible.
  • Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas (Aug 29, Berkley): Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.
  • The Once Yellow House, Gemma Amor (Aug, Cemetery Dance): A new novella from Gemma Amor.
  • A Red Winter in the West, C.S. Humble (Aug, Cemetery Dance): The second in Humble’s weird Western trilogy.
  • What Happened At Hawthorne House, Hadassah Shiradski (Aug, Brigids Gate Press): A new gothic horror novella.

September

  • Apparitions, Adam Pottle (Sept 5, Dark Hart): A Deaf teen held captive for years and never taught language is institutionalized in a prairie psychiatric facility, where he must confront the horrors of ableism with another Deaf teen who happens to be an aspiring cult leader.
  • Damned If You Do, Alex Brown (Sept 5, Page Street Kids): Queer Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Filipino folklore in this horror comedy about a high school stage manager who accidentally sells her soul to a demon.
  • Grave Expectations, Alice Bell (Sept 5, Vintage): How do you solve a murder when the ghost of a 17-year-old keeps telling you you’re doing it wrong? Claire Hendricks is a hapless 30-something true crime fan treading water in the gig economy working as a medium. When she is invited to an old university friend’s country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along. In fact, Sophie rarely leaves Claire’s side, because she’s been haunting her ever since she was murdered at the age of 17.
  • Holly, Stephen King (Sept 5, Scribner): Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.
  • Rainbow Filth, Tim Meyer (Sept 5, Ghoulish Books): Rainbow Filth is a weirdo horror novella about a small cult that believes a rare psychedelic substance can physically transport them to another universe.
  • Schrader’s Chord, Scott Leeds (Sept 5, Nightfire): After his estranged father’s mysterious death, Charlie Remick returns to Seattle to help with the funeral. There, he discovers his father left him two parting gifts: the keys to the family record store and a strange black case containing four ancient records that, according to legend, can open a gate to the land of the dead. When Charlie, his sister, and their two friends play the records, they unwittingly open a floodgate of unspeakable horror. As the darkness descends, they are stalked by a relentless, malevolent force and see the dead everywhere they turn. With time running out, the only person who can help them is Charlie’s resurrected father, who knows firsthand the awesome power the records have unleashed. But can they close the gate and silence Schrader’s Chord before it’s too late?
  • The September House, Carissa Orlando (Sept 5, Berkley): A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.
  • The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Andrew Joseph White (Sept 5, Peachtree Teen): New York Times bestselling author Andrew Joseph White’s explosive gothic horror, set in an alternate Victorian England where mediums control the dead.
  • There’s No Way I’d Die First, Lisa Springer (Sept 5, Delacorte): A spine-tingling contemporary horror novel that follows a scary-movie buff as she hosts an elaborate Halloween bash but soon finds the festivities upended when she and her guests are forced to test their survival skills in a deadly game, from debut author Lisa Springer.
  • Black Sheep, Rachel Harrison (Sept 12, Berkley): A cynical twentysomething must confront her cultish family in this fiery, irreverent novel from the national bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.
  • Hemlock Island, Kelley Armstrong (Sept 12, St. Martin’s Press): Laney Kilpatrick has been renting her vacation home to strangers. The invasion of privacy gives her panic attacks, but it’s the only way she can keep her beloved Hemlock Island, the only thing she owns after a pandemic-fueled divorce. But broken belongings and campfires that nearly burn down the house have escalated to bloody bones, hex circles, and now, terrified renters who’ve fled after finding blood and nail marks all over the guest room closet, as though someone tried to claw their way out… and failed. When a crew visits the island to investigate, there are tensions and secrets, whispers in the woods, and before long, the discovery of a hand poking up from the earth. Then the body that goes with it… But by that time, someone has taken off with their one and only means off the island, and they’re trapped with someone—or something—that doesn’t want them leaving the island alive.
  • Monstrous, Jessica Lewis (Sept 12, Delacorte): Forced to spend her summer in her aunt’s strange small town, a teen girl discovers dark secrets hidden in the woods. From the author of Bad Witch Burning comes another pulse-pounding novel perfect for fans of Supernatural and Lovecraft Country.
  • No Child of Mine, Nichelle Giraldes (Sept 12, Poisoned Pen Press): Essie Kaur, a fiercely independent woman whose only soft spot is her husband, Sanjay, never imagined herself as a mother. It was never a part of the plan. But then she finds out she’s pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something she barely recognizes, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, slowly becoming a stranger, and the house begins to whisper. As Essie’s pregnancy progresses, both her and Sanjay’s lives are warped by a curse that has haunted her family for generations, leaving a string of fatherless daughters in its wake. When she’s put on bedrest, Essie trades the last aspects of her carefully planned life for isolation in what should be a welcoming home, but she isn’t alone. There’s something here that means to take everything from her…
  • Promise, Christi Nogle (Sept 12, Flame Tree Press): Promise collects Christi Nogle’s best futuristic stories ranging from plausible tech-based science fiction to science fantasy stories about aliens in our midst: chameleonic foils hover in the skies, you can order a headset to speak and dream with your dog, and your devices sometimes connect not just to the web but to the underworld. These tales will recall the stories of Ray Bradbury, television programs such as Dark Mirror and The Twilight Zone, and novels such as Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin or Under the Skin by Michael Faber. They are often strange and dreadful but veer towards themes of hope, potential, promise
  • The Promise of Plague Wolves, Coy Hall (Sept 12, Nosetouch Press): Two plagues ravage a village: smallpox, and a scourge of occult origin. The investigation uncovers an act of conjuration that has drawn a spirit and its brood of changelings from the earth.
  • What Kind of Mother, Clay McLeod Chapman (Sept 12, Quirk): A modern Southern Gothic horror about a palm reader who becomes involved in a mind-bending missing-child case with a shocking twist you won’t see coming.
  • What Stalks Among Us, Sarah Hollowell (Sept 12, Clarion): From Sarah Hollowell, author of A Dark and Starless Forest, comes a spine-tingling, deliriously creepy YA speculative thriller about two best friends trapped in a corn maze with corpses that look just like them.
  • Never Whistle at Night, ed. Shane Hawk and Theodore Van Alst, Jr. (Sept 19, Vintage): A bold, clever, and sublimely sinister collection of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and gritty crime by both new and established indigenous authors that dares to ask the question: “Are you ready to be un-settled?”
  • Red Rabbit, Alex Grecian (Sept 19, Nightfire): Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter’s Little Heaven, Red Rabbit is an epic adventure of luck and misfortune, where death is always just around the bend. Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bonafide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward Rabbit. Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that witch, or die trying.
  • Black River Orchard, Chuck Wendig (Sept 26, Del Rey): A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.
  • Knock Knock, Open Wide, Neil Sharpson (Sept 26, Nightfire): Knock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.
  • The Black Lord, Colin Hinckley (Sept, Tenebrous Press): A weird tale of a broken family forced to confront an unspeakable terror from their past after their infant son vanishes from his crib.
  • Dark Woods, Deep Water, Jelena Dunato (Sept, Ghost Orchid Press): A dark fantasy novel inspired by Slavic folklore.When Elisya tries to elope with a tournament champion and ruins her chances of a lucrative match, her father forces her into a betrothal with the unappealing lord of a desolate castle. Desperate to escape this marriage, she accidentally invokes a curse that turns the castle into a lethal trap. Those who cross its gates fall prey to the Goddess of Death. Now Elisya is trapped too: surrounded by monsters and struggling to keep a grip on her own morals.
  • Skin Thief, Suzan Palumbo (Sept, Neon Hemlock): Palumbo’s first collection of short fiction.

October

  • Beholder, Ryan La Sala (Oct 3, Scholastic): From Ryan La Sala, author of the tantalizingly twisted The Honeys and riotously imaginative Reverie, comes a chilling new contemporary fable about art, aesthetic obsession, and the gaze that peers back at us from behind our reflections.
  • Bloom, Delilah S. Dawson (Oct 3, Titan Books): A sweet sapphic romance takes a deadly dark turn in this sharp-as-a-knife novella with the slow build menace of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber—from a New York Times-bestselling author hailed by Chuck Wendig as “a storyteller working at the top of her class.”
  • The Daughters of Block Island, Christa Carmen (Oct 10, Thomas & Mercer): In this ingenious and subversive twist on the classic gothic novel, the mysterious past of an island mansion lures two sisters into a spiderweb of scandal, secrets, and murder.
  • The Dead Take the A Train, Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey (Oct 3, Nightfire): Nationally bestselling authors Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw have teamed up to deliver a dark new story where Neil Gaiman meets Jessica Jones with magic, monsters, and mayhem. The Dead Take the A Train is a high-octane cocktail of Khaw’s cosmic horror and Kadrey’s gritty fantasy—shaken, not stirred.
  • Edenville, Sam Rebelein (Oct 3, William Morrow): An unsettling, immersive, and wildly entertaining debut novel from an exciting new voice in horror for fans of Paul Tremblay and Stephen Graham Jones.
  • The Forest Demands Its Due, Kosoko Jackson (Oct 3, Quill Tree Books): When the murder of his classmate at an elite boarding school seems to be forgotten overnight, Douglas must confront centuries of secrets in the school’s past and a vengeful creature in the forest surrounding the campus in this dark paranormal thriller pitched as Witch Haven meets A Lesson in Vengeance.
  • Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories, Audrey Niffenegger (Oct 3, Scribner): Selected and introduced by the bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry—including Audrey Niffenegger’s own stunning illustrations for each piece—this is a “spine-tingling” (Chicago Tribune) collection of some of the best ghost stories of all time.
  • A Haunting on the Hill, Elizabeth Hand (Oct 3, Mulholland Books): From three-time Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and Nebula Award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever authorized novel to return to the world of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House: a suspenseful, contemporary, and terrifying story of longing and isolation all its own.
  • Let Him In, William Friend (Oct 3, SourceBooks): A darkling tale of tragedy, hauntings and sexual desire, Let Him In is a novel of a father’s love for his struggling daughters, and a widower’s growing love for a woman after his wife’s death. With smart, gothicky touches and a large and generous challenge to our assumptions of what and who constitutes a modern family, it explores both the limits we’ll go to for our children and the sunken taboos of grief – of how erotics can still exist, and can even be life giving, after suffering loss.
  • My Darling Girl, Jennifer McMahon (Oct 3, Gallery Books): The New York Times bestselling author of the “otherworldly treat” (People) The Drowning Kind and The Children on the Hill returns with a spine-tingling psychological thriller about a woman who, after taking in her dying, alcoholic mother, begins to suspect demonic possession is haunting her family.
  • The Pale House Devil, Richard Kadrey (Oct 3, Titan Books): A gripping, snappy creature feature from the master of horror noir about two detectives—one dead, one living—hired by an embittered old landowner to banish a bloody cosmic monster from his ancestral home, perfect for fans of Cassandra Khaw, Charles Stross and Lucy A. Snyder.
  • Becoming the Boogeyman, Richard Chizmar (Oct 10, Gallery): The terrifying sequel to the acclaimed New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling novel Chasing the Boogeyman, which was hailed as “genuinely chilling and something brand-new and exciting” (Stephen King) and “unforgettable” (Harlan Coben).
  • Brainwyrms, Alison Rumfitt (Oct 10, Nightfire): From Alison Rumfitt, the author of Tell Me I’m Worthless comes Brainwyrms, a searing body horror novel of obsession, violence, and pleasure. When a transphobic woman bombs Frankie’s workplace, she blows up Frankie’s life with it. As the media descends like vultures, Frankie tries to cope with the carnage: binge-drinking, fucking strangers, pushing away her friends. Then, she meets Vanya. Mysterious, beautiful, terrifying Vanya. The two hit it off immediately, but as their relationship intensifies, so too does Frankie’s feeling that Vanya is hiding something from her. When Vanya’s secrets threaten to tear them apart, Frankie starts digging, and unearths a sinister, depraved conspiracy, the roots of which go deeper than she ever imagined. Shocking, grotesque, and downright filthy, Brainwyrms confronts the creeping reality of political terrorism while exploring the depths of love, pain, and identity.
  • Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind, Molly McGhee (Oct 10, Astra House): A debut novel about a man behind on his student loan payments who takes a job auditing the dreams of white collar workers, flagging their anxieties and preoccupations for removal, a tender, startling, and riotous reckoning with the emotional and psychological toll of late-stage capitalism.
  • Last to Leave the Room, Caitlin Starling (Oct 10, St. Martin’s Press): The new novel from the author of The Death of Jane Lawrence.
  • Let the Woods Keep Our Bodies, E. M. Roy (Oct 10, Ghoulish Books): Leo Bates knows what’s behind every corner in her hometown of Eston, Maine, where she’s lived her whole life. Some bad memories and grief for her late parents, sure, but nothing dangerous. Nothing unexplainable. All of that changes when her girlfriend Tate goes missing, and the lead detective on the case blames Leo for the disappearance. Haunted by self-doubt, Leo can only watch as the town she thought she knew deteriorates around her. She is forced to confront the painful truth about her parents, this town, and her relationship if she is to survive the following onslaught of conspiracies, cryptic monstrosities, and whatever is hiding in the woods where Tate was last seen. The familiar becomes strange the longer you look at it. Leo navigates a broken sense of reality, shattered memories, and a distrust of herself in order to find Tate and restore balance to Eston—if such a thing ever existed to begin with.
  • A Light Most Hateful, Hailey Piper (Oct 10, Titan Books): The Return meets Bunny by way of The Loop when a woman must find her loved ones and escape a small town awash in a storm of madness and monsters.
  • Too Scared to Sleep, Andrew Duplessie (Oct 10, Clarion Books): From debut author Andrew Duplessie, a terrifying collection of teen short horror stories—and accompanying videos—that will keep you up long into the night! Perfect for fans of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
  • The Infested, Renee Lake (Oct 14, Hansen House)
  • Oracle, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Oct 17, Nightfire): From international bestseller Thomas Olde Heuvelt comes Oracle, a supernatural thriller where an omen from our past threatens the return of ancient forces that will change the world forever. The novel heralds the return of Robert Grim, the fan-favorite cult-hero from Olde Heuvelt’s breakthrough novel HEX.
  • Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Lilah Lawson and Lauren Emily Whalen (Oct 17, Sword and Silk): A Macbeth-inspired novel about an all-female rock band in Georgia. When their manager and one of their bandmates die mysteriously, they’re left wondering: are we next?
  • Here Lies Olive, Kate Anderson (Oct 24, Flux): When 16-year-old Olive summons a spirit to answer her questions about death, she meets Jay, a hitchhiking ghost trapped in the woods behind the poorhouse where he died. In exchange for Olive’s help finding his unmarked grave, Jay agrees to come back from the other side and leave a sign of what comes next. Meanwhile, someone–or something–is targeting Olive’s classmates, and the longer Jay is around, the more serious the attacks become. Olive and her maybe-nemesis, maybe-crush Marisol must team up to free Jay’s spirit before he becomes a shade–a malevolent spirit unable to move on–and the attacks turn deadly.
  • Twice Lost, Phyllis Paul (Oct 24, McNally Editions): Who could have been so cruel as to do away with poor Vivian Lambert? And why oh why couldn’t she just stay dead? Equal parts The Turn of the Screw, Picnic at Hanging Rock, and gothic thriller, Twice Lost was admired by such authors as Elizabeth Bowen, Rebecca West, and John Cowper Powys—yet the strange, haunting novels of Phyllis Paul are themselves a mystery with no simple solution. Virtually lost to time even before her death, her novels have been out of print for more than fifty years, and fetch fantastic prices in the rare book trade.
  • Nestlings, Nat Cassidy (Oct 31, Nightfire): Nat Cassidy is at his razor-sharp best again with his horror novel Nestlings which harnesses the creeping paranoia of Rosemary’s Baby and the urban horror of Salem’s Lot set in an exclusive New York City residential building.
  • Pre-Approved for Haunting: And Other Stories, Patrick Barb (Oct 31, Keylight Books): In this new collection, Patrick Barb explores themes of family found and lost, media consumption and the dangers of runaway nostalgia, the supernatural in our lives, and the impact of violence in both the long- and short-term.
  • The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Oct 31, Gallery/Saga Press): 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.
  • Deal of the Day, Michael Seidlinger (Oct, CLASH): Scream meets Battle Royale when a group of authors are cast into the cutthroat world of publishing, each determined to get that big advance no matter what or who they have to destroy.
  • Midas, Tyler Jones (Oct, Earthling): A macabre mix of There Will Be Blood and Pet Sematary, set in an unsettling version of the Old West, in which a former preacher mourning the death of his son discovers a cave containing a dark power that can transform anything into gold–a discovery that puts him on a collision course with a violent cult leader.
  • Postehaste Manor, Jolie Toomajan and Carson Winter (Oct, Tenebrous Press): A gleefully unsettling, unabashedly Weird vision of one of the most celebrated trope in horror: the Haunted House.
  • Sundown in San Ojuela, Matthew Olivas (Oct, Lanternfish Press): When the death of her aunt brings Liz Remolina back to San Ojuela, the prospect fills her with dread. The isolated desert town was the site of a harrowing childhood accident that left her clairvoyant, the companion of wraiths and ghosts. Yet it may also hold the secret to making peace with a dark family history and a complicated personal and cultural identity. Setting out on the train with her younger sister Mary in tow, she soon finds herself hemmed in by a desolate landscape where monsters and ancient gods stalk the night. She’s relieved at first to find that her childhood best friend Julian still lives in San Ojuela, but soon realizes that he too is changed. Haunted. Yet she’ll have no other choice than to seek out his help as the darkness closes in.

November

  • Gorgeous Gruesome Faces, Linda Cheng (Nov 7, Roaring Brook): Squid Game meets Wilder Girls in this debut YA sapphic horror that follows a disgraced teen idol who comes face to face with the demons of her past in a glittering, cutthroat K-pop competition.
  • Saint Grit, Kayli Scholz (Nov 14, Ghoulish Books): One brooding summer, Nadine Boone pricks herself on a poisonous manchineel tree in the Florida backcountry. Upon self-orgasm, Nadine conjures a witch that she calls Saint Grit. Pitched as Gummo meets The Craft, Saint Grit grows inside of Nadine over three decades, wreaking repulsive havoc on a suspicious cast of characters in a small town known as Sugar Bends.
  • Godly Heathens, H.E. Edgmon (Nov 28, Wednesday): Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in the tiny town of Gracie, Georgia. Known for being their peers’ queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who’s a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn. But even Enzo doesn’t know about Gem’s dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how the hell does Willa Mae Hardy? The strange new girl in town acts like she and Gem are old companions, and seems to know things about them they’ve never told anyone else.
  • The Best Horror of the Year Volume 15, ed. Ellen Datlow (Nov, Nightshade): The next installment of Datlow’s venerable best-of anthology.
  • Winter Harvest, Ioanna Papadopoulou (Nov, Ghost Orchid): A stand-alone feminist mythology retelling which explores Demeter’s place in the Dodecatheon and her harsh and painful life as she becomes a chthonic Goddess, linked with both death and life. The novel combines various myths about Demeter, shaped like a fantasy novel which focuses on Demeter as a female goddess, struggling to fit into the patriarchal status quo of Olympus while she is constantly changing her identity in an attempt to find her place in the world and what it means to be female.

December

  • Dazzling, Chikodili Emelumadu (Dec 5, Abrams): A Nigerian girl makes a dangerous bargain with a spirit to bring back her dead father. A boarding school student finds herself heir to the magical and traditionally male Leopard Society. Their destinies and their choices alike set their paths on a dangerous collision course.
  • The Paleontologist, Luke Dumas (Dec 5, Atria): 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 chilling novel from the author of A History of Fear—perfect for fans of Simone St. James and Katy Hays.
  • Where the Dead Wait, Ally Wilkes (Dec 5, Atria): An eerie, atmospheric Polar Gothic following a Victorian explorer in search of his lost shipmate and his own redemption—from the author of the “vivid, immersive” (The Guardian) horror novel All the White Spaces.
  • The Light of a Black Star, C.S. Humble (Dec, Cemetery Dance): The third in Humble’s weird Western trilogy.
  • Lumberjack, Anthony Engebretson (Dec, Tenebrous Press):

Date TBD

  • Cruel Angels Past Sundown, Hailey Piper (spring, Death’s Head Press): A novel-length splatter Western from Hailey Piper.
  • Greyhowler, Sarah Day (spring, Underland Press): A debut dark fantasy novella billed as A Psalm for the Wild-Built meets The Fifth Season.
  • Heavy Oceans, Tyler Jones (spring, DarkLit Press): The Mist meets Succulina in a vicious fisherman’s tale of a world flipped upside down in a fever dream of strange discoveries, blood, and mayhem.
  • Haunted Reels: Stories from the Minds of Professional Filmmakers (summer, Dark Matter Lit): In April 2020, with the world facing imminent lock-down, a group of filmmakers started a virtual support group of sorts. Once a week, this group of diverse voices would assemble and tell each other stories. Haunted Reels is the collection of those stories.
  • Riding the Nightmare, Lisa Tuttle (summer, Valancourt Books): Over a fifty-year career, Lisa Tuttle has earned a reputation as one of the greatest modern authors of horror and weird fiction. Her most recent collection, The Dead Hours of Night, was a finalist for the Stoker Award, and now she is back with a new collection of twelve unsettling tales, several of them never previously collected, including the long out-of-print and hard-to-find tale ‘The Dragon’s Bride’.
  • So, Who’s Courage?, Rachael Crosbie (summer, Bullshit Lit)
  • The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories, Rebecca Hirsch Garcia (fall, ECW Books)
  • Bear Season, Gemma Fairclough (tbd, Wild Hunt Books): Jade Hunter, a PhD student from Manchester, goes missing in Alaska in 2016 and all suspicion turns to reclusive survivalist Ursula Smith. No body has been found but Ursula is convicted of murder, nonetheless. Two years later, Jade’s doctoral thesis is leaked online and investigative journalist Carla Young digs into Jade’s disappearance but more importantly, what brought the young student to Alaska in the first place. A dark fairy tale told in found texts and shifting points of view and reliability.
  • The Burning Child of Bantry, Hanna Nielson (tbd, Wild Hunt Books): Avery is roped into her eccentric aunt’s wedding in Sligo filled with nosy locals and photo-bombing tourists, but things take a turn when a mysterious accident befall the guests. With nothing else to lose, Avery heads down to County Cork at the invitation of a landlady who promises jobs a plenty, but what Avery finds instead are secrets, rumors, and the death of child that still haunts the village more than a century later.

Did I miss something? Do you or someone you love (or hate, I don’t know your life) have a book coming out in 2023?

Let me know

8 thoughts on “2023’s New Horror Books”

  1. Gratitude meets frustration in this brief comment. Gratitude for the AWESOME list(!); Frustration with the often anemic publisher summaries that attempt to leverage two other (often better) works instead of being descriptive. “X meets Y in…” doesn’t give anyone the feels anymore and is just f’ing weak work.

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    1. I feel your pain! But having fairly recently worked on the other side of the equation here, I can say that there’s a lot of time and deliberation (and multiple levels of approvals) that go into the publisher copy, and in such a crowded marketplace, sometimes you really have to focus in on the elevator pitch because you might only have a few seconds to get someone’s attention. But I very much relate because as a consumer, it really does fail to spark joy a lot of the time.

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  2. Thank you for doing this! I’ve been obsessed with this list since I discovered it two years ago and had a small panic when I didn’t see it on Nightfire for 2023. I’m grateful you’re continuing it on your own space. I work for an independent bookstore and run the horror section so I visit this list monthly to make sure all of the titles I can get are ordered! I hate to miss stuff and this helps me keep my finger on the horror pulse over here. Thanks again!

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    2. Thank you for compiling this list, it’s a really helpful resource. Bookmarked this page so I can make sure I don’t miss out on any titles I’m looking forward to this year.

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  4. So happy you’re still going with this, you’re a lifesaver!! Use these lists every year to keep up to date with what I want to put on hold at the library. Thanks for all the work!

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