All the New Horror Books Coming in August 2023

August’s new horror books include Chinese eco-horror, the tale of a dangerous relic lost in the Portland indie rock scene, DIY home repairs gone very, very wrong, a kaleidoscopic novel about plagiarism, unreality, and youth, a vampire western, tornado plagues, and much more.

These monthly lists are derived from my annual masterlist, but I’ve gotten a good amount of feedback saying the smaller lists are helpful reminders and easier to digest–they can all be found here. And as always, you can view the full 2023 list right here.

August 2023’s new horror books:

• 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.
• Damned If You Do, Alex Brown (Aug 1, 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.
• Dehiscent, Ashley Deng (Aug 1, 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.
• Delicate Condition, Danielle Valentine (Aug 1, Sourcebooks): The Push meets The Silent Patient in a gripping thriller that follows a woman convinced a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens—while the men in her life refuse to believe a word she says.
• The Fiends in the Furrows III: Final Harvest, ed. David T. Neal & Christine M. Scott (Aug 1, Nosetouch Press): A collection of nineteen stories embodying the menacing essence of folk horror. Folk horror fans will uncover in these short stories tales of rampant rural monstrosity and agrarian horror within rustic settings, where dread sinks its roots deep into the earth to bring forth a bountiful crop of unforgettable terrors.
• Revenge Arc, Cat Voleur (Aug 1, Archive of the Odd): Deep web and toxic fandom collide in Cat Voleur’s novella, which combines internet culture, true crime, and the consequences of what we create for a twisting, high-stakes thriller.
• Rubicons: A Freaks Novel, Brett Riley (Aug 1, Imbrifex Books): It’s junior year in Quapaw City, Arkansas. With it comes a new foe that even the Freaks cannot thwart–adulthood. As they ponder what the future will be like with college and careers looming, they must contend with the ever-more-perilous threat of The Team, the shadowy government agency bent on saving the world from supernatural menaces. At the same time, they must face their most dangerous adversary yet, a creature of scales and wings that threatens every life in town—just for starters. New questions arise: can the Freaks achieve a common goal when they no longer agree on precisely what that goal should be? And what happens when they realize they just might be the villains in someone else’s story?
• 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.
• The Woodcutter, Stephanie Ellis (Aug 1, 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.
• Bleak Houses, Kate Maruyama (Aug 3, Raw Dog Screaming Press): The Selected Papers for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena is pleased to present two tales of family misadventures penned by Kate Maruyama. These two novellas present compelling explorations of dark family secrets fearlessly delve into some of today’s most relevant and troubling issues. In Safer, Maruyama explores what parents will do for a child, and what happens to outsiders in unsafe houses, while Family Solstice addresses the dangers of tradition, inheritance and the sins of the father.
• Sloe, Marc Ruvolo (Aug 3, Unnerving): The voice inside Veronica Mattingly’s head urges her to do violent, unspeakable things to the people she loves… it’s not easy to ignore. Returning to rural Kentucky following the suicide of her dissolute brother, she learns she’s not alone in hearing the voice. It’s a voice from the past, one demanding that she act, but is Veronica up for it? Can she exhume the root of this evil and right a historical wrong? What follows is a descent into madness involving ghosts, sacrifice, a reclusive cult, and a decades-old secret that lies at the heart of a mountain. Sloe is a story about family: mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, and the ties that bind us all—even after death.
• The False Sister, Briar Ripley Page (Aug 6, Knight Errant Press): It’s 1994, and Jesse Greer’s troubled older sister, Crys, has run away from home. Shy, socially awkward Jesse assumes that she has returned to her old haunts in the big city — until he discovers Crys’ remains in the woods behind his family’s house. Traumatized, Jesse runs to his parents for help, only to find that Crys has returned home, alive. 
• 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.
• Blood on Satan’s Claw: or, The Devil’s Skin, Robert Wynne-Simmons (Aug 8, Unbound): Beware the buried skull underfoot and watch out for children with fur on their backs… Blood on Satan’s Claw is widely regarded as part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of cult classics which gave birth to the film genre that would become known as folk horror. Along with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, it found new ways to terrify audiences using elements of superstition and folklore. Now, fifty years after its release, readers can experience the unearthing of this terror in the film’s first official novelisation: a compelling and frightening retelling of the fate of unfortunate villagers sacrificed by their own children as devil worship infiltrates their rural existence. Written by the film’s original screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons and featuring haunting new illustrations from Richard Wells, it is an atmospheric and defining cult classic in the making.
• 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.
• Looking Glass Sound, Catriona Ward (Aug 8, 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.
• 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.
• Pet, Catherine Chidgey (Aug 8, Europa Editions): A suspenseful new psychological thriller from the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlisted and Dublin Literary Award shortlisted author of Remote Sympathy. Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine’s sense that something isn’t quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Justine must decide where her loyalties lie. Set in New Zealand in the 1980s and probing themes of racism, misogyny and the oppressive reaches of Catholicism, Pet will take a rightful place next to other classic portraits of childhood betrayal and psychological suspense: Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping among them.
• The Vein, Steph Nelson (Aug 8, Dark Matter INK): It’s 1989 and failed detective, Syl Dixon, has returned to her childhood home in Pate, Idaho, to sell the old place she grew up in, back before her grandma mysteriously disappeared. But when the shriveled corpse of a local man is discovered inside the old silver mine the town was built around, Syl is unexpectedly asked to help investigate. She’s reluctant, but something about the town has unnerved her from the start, and she can’t help but feel that her grandma’s disappearance is connected somehow. Once on the case, she learns that the mystery behind the man’s death goes deeper than the old mine where his corpse was found, and involves an evil that has plagued the town for nearly a century.
• Whalefall, Daniel Kraus (Aug 8, MTV Books): The Martian meets 127 Hours in this “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.
• An Unholy Triquetra: Celtic Fairy Tales, Jason Parent, Curtis M. Lawson, & William Meikle (Aug 11, Crystal Lake Publishing): Three unique voices in today’s horror bring you new takes on an old power that threatens to reshape our world. Celtic legends are reborn within these pages, with fresh stories guaranteed to spark nightmares in the vein of Grimm’s pre-Disneyfied fairy tales.
• Sasquatch, Baby!, Bethany Browning (Aug 12): You’ve never seen a custody battle like this. After her posh Napa Valley friends cut her off for committing an unspeakable betrayal, Tabitha Eggs retreats to the redwood forests of Del Norte County, California to drink herself to death. But when she stumbles over two decomposing corpses near her new home—among a growing list of other frightening, unexplainable experiences—she believes that walking into a raging wildfire is preferable to whatever waits in the woods. Her plans are foiled when she’s kept alive by a curious Sasquatch (who adores salad dressing and is overjoyed by luxury body wash), and they create a bizarre and everlasting union.
• Bride of the Tornado, James Kennedy (Aug 15, 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.
• 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.
• A Guest in the House, Emily Carroll (Aug 15, First Second): In Emily Carroll’s haunting adult graphic novel horror story A Guest in the House, a young woman marries a kind dentist only to realize that there’s a dark mystery surrounding his former wife’s death.
• 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.
• Vampires of El Norte, Isabel Cañas (Aug 15, Berkley): Vampires and vaqueros face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda.
• A Good Man, P.J. McIlvaine (Aug 18, Bloodhound Books): Decades after a brutal childhood trauma, a famous novelist finds his life shattered once again, in this unsettling psychological mystery thriller.
• The Hunger and Other Stories, Charles Beaumont (Aug 18, Valancourt Books): When The Hunger and Other Stories (1957) appeared, it heralded the arrival of Charles Beaumont (1929-1967) as an important and highly original new voice in American fiction. Although he is best known today for his television and film scripts, including several classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, Beaumont is being rediscovered as a master of weird tales, and this, his first published collection, contains some of his best. Ranging in tone from the chilling Gothic horror of “Miss Gentilbelle,” where an insane mother dresses her son up as a girl and slaughters his pets, to deliciously dark humor in tales like “Open House” and “The Infernal Bouillabaisse,” where murderers’ plans go disastrously awry, these seventeen stories demonstrate Beaumont’s remarkable talent and versatility.
• Charwood, Josh Schlossberg (Aug 21, Madness Heart Press): After joining the Tenders, a band of backwoods activists claiming to solve climate change by burning trees for energy, Orna Tannenbaum falls in with Rowan, their odd yet charming leader. But when she uncovers what the Tenders are really up to in the forest, she must apply the ancient wisdom of her culture to battle dark forces threatening to gain a foothold in our world. An ecological Jewish folk horror novel 5,783 years in the making.
• 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…
• The Nightwalker, Thomas Tessier (Aug 22, Valancourt Books): A classic of contemporary horror whose many admirers have included Stephen King and Peter Straub, Thomas Tessier’s novel The Nightwalker (1979) has been recognized as one of the finest werewolf stories ever written. This edition includes an afterword by the author.
• No Guilt of Bloodshed, John Baltisberger (Aug 22, Dead Sky Publishing): 1859 Malechai ben Pallache, a Ukranian Jew and soldier of fortune who has made his way through the world fueled by blood and pain has been enlisted to hunt down Dragan, the bastard priest who kicked off the pogroms before fleeing to California. But the profane holy man has more than blood on his hands, he has also stolen a box that holds terrible evil. Brodie is infested with hungry demons and dangerous men, gold and vice drawing in the worst that humanity or demonkind have to offer, all standing between Malechai and the priest. But, he does not travel alone. Joined by a succubus of terrible power and the silent golem Mishpat, Malechai will stop at nothing to find Dragan and bring his twisted reign to an end. What follows is a blood-drowned, hatred-fueled battle of wills, bullets, and mutilation that will forever stain the ground of Brodie California.
• The Quiet Ways I Destroy You, Jessica McHugh (Aug 22, Apokrupha Publishing): Paying homage to the 155th anniversary of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, 2x Bram Stoker Award Nominee Jessica McHugh’s The Quiet Ways I Destroy You examines Alcott’s timeless literary brood through 155 pieces of cosmic horror blackout poetry and celebrates the unapologetic & ever-evolving symbiosis of sisterhood, feminine rage, and the joyful vengeance that spreads in women’s whispers.
• Riding the Nightmare, Lisa Tuttle (Aug 22, 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’.
• 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.
• What Happened At Hawthorne House, Hadassah Shiradski (Aug 25, Brigids Gate Press): In 1926, nine-year-old Rosalyn invents a new game to play with the girls she shares a dormitory with in the Hawthorne House Orphanage. Revolving around a Royal Court, their make-believe game quickly becomes a way to gain some measure of control in their unhappy lives. But when the rules start changing and the stakes start rising, nothing is safe, and Rosalyn finds that she’s willing to get her hands dirty in order to be the Queen. Rosalyn will do whatever it takes to wear the crown. All that’s left is to take it.
• I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, Jamison Shea (Aug 29, Henry Holt): From debut author Jamison Shea comes I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, a slow-burn YA horror that lifts a veil on the institutions that profit on exclusion and the toll of giving everything to a world that will never love you back.
• 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.
• The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark, Warren Wagner (Aug 29, 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.
• Sign of the Slayer, Sharina Harris (Aug 29, Entangled): Full Metal Alchemist meets Vampire Diaries in this fun and clever dark academia series…

Author: Emily Hughes

Emily C. Hughes wants to scare you. Formerly the editor of Unbound Worlds and TorNightfire.com, she writes about horror literature and curates a list of the year's new scary books. Her first book, Horror For Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch, will hit shelves in September 2024 from Quirk Books. You can find her writing elsewhere in The New York Times, Vulture, Tor.com, Electric Literature, Thrillist, and more. Emily lives in crunchy western Massachusetts with her husband and four idiot cats. View all posts by Emily Hughes