All the New Horror Books Coming in March 2024

March’s new horror books include the third and final book in Stephen Graham Jones’ Indian Lake trilogy, a supremely haunted family vacation, historical southern Gothic horror, a contemporary Frankenstein retelling, a new home that comes with a very hungry tenant, and much, 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 2024 list right here. Want an email every time I publish one of these lists? Subscribe here!

March 2024’s new horror books:

• The Canopy Keepers, Veronica G. Henry (Mar 1, 47north): What happens when nature will no longer stand by and accept its destruction? A female fire chief discovers an ancient world rooted with secrets that can save–or destroy–in the newest fantasy by Veronica G. Henry, author of Bacchanal.
• You’re Going to Die Here, Y.M. Miller (Mar 1): When an invitation to The Emerald Resort lands on the floor of five unsuspecting competition winners, they can all barely believe their luck. Five different people. Five different backgrounds. Five people needing escape. When the group of five are thrown into a despicable realm of torture at the hands of The Stranger, what will it take to survive when they’re tested beyond anything they’ve ever experienced before.
• Chicano Frankenstein, Daniel A. Olivas (Mar 5, Forest Avenue Press): An unnamed paralegal, brought back to life through a controversial process, maneuvers through a near-future world that both needs and resents him. As the United States president spouts anti-reanimation rhetoric and giant pharmaceutical companies rake in profits, the man falls in love with lawyer Faustina Godínez. His world expands as he meets her network of family and friends, setting him on a course to discover his first-life history, which the reanimation process erased. With elements of science fiction, horror, political satire and romance, Chicano Frankenstein confronts our nation’s bigotries and the question of what it truly means to be human.
• The Devil and Mrs. Davenport, Paulette Kennedy (Mar 5, Lake Union): The bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure–from the living and the dead.
• Free Burn, Drew Huff (Mar 5, Dark Matter INK): Follow Triple-Six, an institutionalized, lovestruck outcast, as he fights to save the only girlfriend he’s ever had from the reanimated clutches of her undead mother–the infamous pyromaniac serial killer he accidentally freed from Hell. Certain to please fans of Katherine Dunn and Jason Pargin, FREE BURN is a darkly comic and surprisingly emotional horror story like nothing you’ve read before.
• The Haunting of Velkwood, Gwendolyn Kiste (Mar 5, Saga/S&S): From Bram Stoker Award­–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a chilling novel about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban hometown turned into ghosts—perfect for fans of Yellowjackets.
• Headless, Scott Cole (Mar 5, Grindhouse): In the midst of a heat wave punctuated by frequent rainstorms, people are losing their heads. Literally. Not only that, but their bodies are still walking, and attacking others. And to make matters worse, tiny, translucent, maggot-sized worms are falling from the skies like hail. As uncanny violence threatens to take over the city, Linzy, Carter, and Joanna become fast friends and leave for points unknown, hoping to stay alive, hoping to outrun the Headless.
• The Hiding, Alethea Lyons (Mar 5, Brigids Gate): Arcane archivist Harper has always been plagued by dreams of grotesque creatures and bloody deaths. When she bumps into a ghostwalker in the Shambles and has a visceral experience of his execution, she knows it’s a foretelling. Yet fear of the Queen’s Guard stops her speaking out. When her vision indeed comes true, the unusual markings on the ghostwalker’s corpse, combined with his neatly excised vocal cords, send a ripple of terror through York.
• The Invisible Hotel, Yeji Ham (Mar 5, Bond Street): A quietly menacing and profoundly moving exploration of generational trauma, global violence and ancestral memory set in the aftermath of the Korean war, by a virtuosic new voice in fiction. Yewon dreams of a hotel. In the hotel, there are infinite keys to infinite rooms—and a quiet terror she is desperate to escape.
• Island Rule, Katie M. Flynn (Mar 5, Gallery/Scout Press): An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one… for a price. A failed actor on a reality show turns into an unlikely world savior. And much more. Through each of these twelve interconnected stories, Katie Flynn masterfully blends people, places, and even realities. From a powerful and “radiant” (Kassandra Montag, author of After the Flood) new literary voice to be reckoned with, this collection will stay with you after turn the final page.
• Murder Road, Simone St. James (Mar 5, Berkley): A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.
• Pour One for the Devil, Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. (Mar 5, Lanternfish): When Dr. Van Vierlans receives an invitation from Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Horst to give a lecture at her island mansion off the coast of South Carolina, he doesn’t think twice. However, no other historians appear, nor does an audience. Just when his suspicions become difficult to ignore, Mrs. Van der Horst plies him with a sumptuous feast that distracts him from her true motives-which may prove more sinister than anything he’s prepared to imagine.
• Recreational Panic: Stories, Sonora Taylor (Mar 5, Cemetery Gates): Recreational Panic is the fifth short story collection from award-winning author Sonora Taylor. It features both new and previously published works.
• Thirst, Marina Yuszczuk, trans. Heather Cleary (Mar 5, Dutton): Across two different time periods, two women confront fear, loneliness, mortality, and a haunting yearning that will not let them rest. A breakout, genre-blurring novel from one of the most exciting new voices of Latin America’s feminist Gothic.
• What Grows in the Dark, Jaq Evans (Mar 5, Mira): A contemporary horror from debut author Jaq Evans, perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay and pitched as The Babadook meets The Blair Witch Project. When phony spiritualist Brigit Weylan returns to her hometown to assist in a case that eerily mirrors her sister’s death sixteen years prior, she must finally face her long-suppressed trauma and the secrets she’s been running from — because something has waited a very long time for Brigit to come home.
• Mecha-Jesus and Other Stories, Derwin Mak (Mar 8, Brain Lag): From distant stars to a Cocoa Beach Hooters, Derwin Mak’s short fiction takes readers through tales of mystery, wonder, and horror. Ethnic traditions meld with fantastic visions in these twelve stories about memory fabric, eldritch gods during the Salem witch trials, and of course, Mecha-Jesus, Japan’s very own android kami.
• Empire of the Damned, Jay Kristoff (Mar 12, St. Martin’s): From the New York Times bestselling author of the Nevernight Chronicle, Jay Kristoff, comes the much-anticipated sequel to the #1 international bestselling sensation Empire of the Vampire.
• One Eye Opened in That Other Place, Christi Nogle (Mar 12, Flame Tree): One Eye Opened in That Other Place collects Christi Nogle’s best weird and fantastical stories. The collection focuses on liminal spaces and the borders between places and states of mind. Though you might not find a traditional portal fantasy here, you will travel across thresholds and arrive at other places and times that are by turns disquieting, terrifying, and wonderful. Get up close with the local flora and fauna, peruse the weird art exhibits and special shows, and consider taking a dip in the mossy, snail-filled tank of water. Make sure to bring your special glasses.
• Tender, Beth Hetland (Mar 12, Fantagraphics): A psychological thriller about a woman obsessed with her vision for a picture-perfect, curated life. Chicago cartoonist and educator Beth Hetland’s graphic novel debut is a brilliant psychological thriller that tears down the wall of a genre — body horror — so often identified with male creators. Heady and visceral, Tender uses horrific tropes to confront women’s societal expectations of self-sacrifice despite those traditional roles often coming at the expense of female sexuality and empowerment.
• Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories (Mar 12, Two Lines Press): A boy explores the abandoned house of a dead fascist. A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink. A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas. The mountain fog is not what it seems. Kermit the Frog dreams of murder. In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr. Kit Maude), Claudia Martinez (tr. by Julia Sanches and Johanna Warren) and Mónica Ojeda (tr. Sarah Booker and Noelle de la Paz), horror infiltrates the unexpected, taboo regions of the present-day psyche.
• The Werewolf at Dusk: And Other Stories, David Small (Mar 12, Liveright): The Werewolf at Dusk is Small’s homage to aging–gracefully or otherwise. The three stories in this collection are linked, Small writes, “by the dread of things internal.” In the title story, an adaptation of Lincoln Michel’s much-loved short, the dread is that of a man who has reached old age with something repellant–even bestial–in his nature. The specter of old age also haunts the semi-autobiographical story “A Walk in the Old City,” with its looming spiders and cascading brainmatter–a dreamscape that gives way to the ominous environs of 1930s Berlin in the final story, a reinterpretation of Jean Ferry’s “The Tiger in Vogue.” As fluid as manga and rife with unsettling imagery, The Werewolf at Dusk affirms Small’s place as a modern master of graphic fiction.
• Asylum, Sarah Hans (Mar 14, Raw Dog Screaming): Ashleigh and her little family of misfits are on the run, searching for a new home where they can rest and finally get clean. The police hot on their heels, they flee to the abandoned asylum at the top of the mountain, thinking it’s the perfect starting point for their long road to recovery. They’re ready for this. They long for their new life. The asylum is in disrepair with no running water or electricity. It does provide shelter, but maybe they are not alone in seeking it. If only they’d considered that the darkness they had run to might be even more shadowed than the one they were running from.
• Droplets, Paul Lubaczewski (Mar 14, St. Rooster Books): A new collection of short stories from award-winning author Paul Lubaczewski. The forgotten early tries of God to make sentient beings, zombies, cannibals, down-on-their-luck glam rockers, all of them are hiding inside the pages of this collection, waiting to waylay the unprepared. From ghouls to cults to the source of our madness, it’s all in there. Includes “Blackout,” a never-before-published tale of curses and bloody murder. All of our sadness, all of our madness, it all falls in droplets.
• Blackout, Carlos E. Rivera (Mar 15, Slashic Horror): Thirty years ago, Freddie Parham did the unthinkable. In the depths of the infamous Vanek House, he sacrificed six lives to unknown dark forces. Now an inmate at a mental health facility, Freddie has become the servant of Martha Lange, the leader of a dark, local cult. Bringing to life the monstrosities Freddie paints on his canvas, he sets out to perform the Ritual of the Four Nights, which will awaken the entity sleeping beneath the town of White Harbor. Elsewhere in town, Peter Lange and his friends are gathered at a local bar, when a mysterious figure from their past puts the group in mortal danger. They must uncover where the key to it all lies. Is it in their experiences inside the Vanek House? In the “safe place” where two of the group began a secret love affair? In the crawlspace beneath Peter’s home, where his greatest fears still live? An inexplicable blackout devours White Harbor. The blue moon rises. The First Night has begun.
• The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times, Rob Costello (Mar 15, Lethe Press): A lost boy under the spell of a seductive killer suffers the cut of betrayal while on the hunt for blood. The dead son of an abusive horror novelist returns from the grave to tell his father what really happened the night he died. A headstrong girl determined to seduce her ex-boyfriend discovers what being trapped in the closet really means. An ex-child star desperate for a comeback meets a sinister stranger who reveals the terrible price of attaining his heart’s desire. These stories will snatch the reader by the wrist, pull them close, and whisper bitter truths into the ear.
• In Excess of Dark, Red Lagoe (Mar 15, Darklit Press): What if every terrible thing imagined came true? Every fleeting, nightmarish thought a reality? For grief-stricken Karina, her newfound ability to turn her worst daydreams into palpable truths has sent her into a downward spiral of depression and guilt. Coupled with the appearance of an enigmatic shadow figure and visions of her dead family, she grapples to maintain her sanity while desperately attempting to harness her abilities and reunite with her loved ones.
• Mouth, Joshua Hull (Mar 15, Tenebrous Press): After a stranger leaves him a secluded property, Rusty suddenly finds himself the sole caretaker of a strange mouth in the ground. Like, an actual monstrous mouth filled to the brim with teeth. His bizarre situation is further complicated by the nosey Abigail, a quirky, nineteen year old wannabe filmmaker. Together, the odd pair set out to discover the origins of the mouth and the hidden history of its former owner, setting in motion an outlandish scheme that could endanger them all. Mouth is Harold and Maude by way of Guillermo del Toro… with a splash of James Gunn and Roger Corman.
• Price Slashers, Chisto Healy, Michael R. Collins, & Erica Summers (Mar 15, Slashic Horror): Three novellas, each answering the same prompt: Melissa comes running out of a grocery store covered in blood… The Survivor: A detective meets his match in this extreme body horror novella when body parts start appearing on the streets of New York. A serial killer is on the loose, can the detective reveal their identity before more lives are lost? Nothing is Hidden, Only Unseen: The staff at Price Slashers face otherworldly creatures in this extreme cosmic novella, where nothing is as it seems. Exploring a deadly dimension, the staff are faced with their own fears. Are their fears really what’s killing them, though, or is something far more sinister at play? Those Baby Blues: In this extreme psychological novella, a new mother suffers from a recently-diagnosed mental illness, convinced her newborn is evil. As she and her sister shop for groceries, she uncovers hidden messages around the store. Is it all in her mind, or must she put an end to things once and for all?
• The Devil’s Rite, Dan Shrader (Mar 18, Unveiling Nightmares): Ever since Brian turned 10 years old, his life has been plagued by the mysterious visitation of the Tree Man. This traumatic event has left him with vivid nightmares and countless unanswered questions. Now, as he prepares to leave the psychiatric facility, his main focus is on unraveling the truth behind that fateful night. Reunited with his estranged sister, Brian delves deeper into the string of murders that have occurred. He can’t help but wonder if the Tree Man is a real supernatural being or if there are sinister individuals behind these events. With a burning desire to uncover the truth, Brian embarks on a search to unravel the secrets that shroud his past in a world he had forgotten.
• A Botanical Daughter, Noah Medlock (Mar 19, Titan): Mexican Gothic meets The Lie Tree by way of Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley in this delightfully witty horror debut.
• Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, ed. Sofia Ajram (Mar 19, Ghoulish): A manifestation of ecstasy, heartache, horror and suffering rendered in feverish lyrical prose. Inside are sixteen new stories by some of the genre’s most visionary queer writers. Young lovers find themselves deliriously lost in an expanding garden labyrinth. The porter of a sentient hotel is haunted within a liminal time loop. A soldier and his abusive commanding officer escape a war in the trenches but discover themselves in an even greater nightmare. Parasites chase each other across time-space in hungry desperation to never be apart. A graduate student with violent tendencies falls into step with a seemingly walking corpse.
• Fervor, Toby Lloyd (Mar 19, Avid Reader): A chilling and unforgettable story of a close-knit Jewish family in London pushed to the brink when they suspect their daughter is a witch.
• Forgotten Sisters, Cynthia Pelayo (Mar 19, Thomas & Mercer): A city’s haunted history and fairy-tale horrors converge for two women in an addictive novel of psychological suspense by a multiple Bram Stoker Award-nominated author.
• Rainbow Black, Maggie Thrash (Mar 19, Harper Perennial): For readers of Donna Tartt and Ottessa Moshfegh comes a brilliant, deliriously entertaining novel from the acclaimed author of Honor Girl. Rainbow Black is part murder mystery, part gay international fugitive love story—set against the ’90s Satanic Panic and spanning 20 years in the life of a young woman pulled into its undertow.
• Shadow of the Hidden, Kev Harrison (Mar 19, Brigids Gate Press): It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s too late? From Kev Harrison, author of The Balance and Below, journey with Seb, Oz and Deniz across ancient North African cities as they seek to banish the Shadow of the Hidden.
• A Voice Calling, Christopher Barzak (Mar 19, Psychopomp): From Shirley Jackson award winning author Christopher Barzak comes an obsessive tale of a family haunted by a very terrible house.
• The Woods All Black, Lee Mandelo (Mar 19, Tordotcom): The Woods All Black is equal parts historical horror, trans romance, and blood-soaked revenge, all set in 1920s Appalachia. Mandelo’s novella explores reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, the terrors of small-town religiosity, and the necessity of fighting tooth and claw to live as who you truly are.
• The Pressure, Bryan Wayne Dull (Mar 22, Anthropolis Publishing): Something happens to Trevor when the weather changes. He’s not himself for those few hours that could lead to several days. He becomes angry and violent, but this time it’s different The weather today will be the fiercest winter storm in Ohio since 1978. While people prepare to survive the storm, the Wendts prepare to survive their son’s pain and rage, but it will be worse than they could ever imagine.
• The Angel of Indian Lake, Stephen Graham Jones (Mar 26, Saga/S&S): The final installment in the most lauded trilogy in the history of horror novels picks up four years after Don’t Fear the Reaper as Jade returns to Proofrock, Idaho, to build a life after the years of sacrifice—only to find the Lake Witch is waiting for her in New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones’s finale.
• Dead Girls Walking, Sami Ellis (Mar 26, Amulet): A shocking, spine-chilling YA horror slasher about a girl searching for her dead mother’s body at the summer camp that was once her serial killer father’s home–perfect for fans of Friday the 13th and White Smoke.
• Diavola, Jennifer Thorne (Mar 26, Nightfire): Jennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.
• Lost Man’s Lane, Scott Carson (Mar 26, Emily Bestler Books): A teenager explores the darkness hidden within his hometown in this spellbinding supernatural thriller from bestselling author Scott Carson that proves why its author has been hailed as “a master” by Stephen King and one who consistently offers “eerie, gripping storytelling” by Dean Koontz.
• Monsters We Have Made, Lindsay Starck (Mar 26, Vintage): A poignant and evocative novel that explores the bounds of familial love, the high stakes of parenthood, and the tenuous divide between fiction and reality. Both literary and suspenseful, Monsters We Have Made confronts the terrors of parenthood and examines the boundaries of love. Most importantly, it reminds us of the power of stories to shape our lives.
• The Skinless Man Counts to Five and Other Tales of the Macabre, Paul Jessup (Mar 26, Underland): In Jessup’s latest collection, there are ghosts and butterflies, serial killers and dying stars, mermaids and monsters. You will find death cults, sewer elves, the apocalypse of youthful fervor, card games that require blood sacrifices, and self-immolation as an expression of devotion. Paul Jessup’s fiction eviscerates, shatters, and slurps the marrow from the bones of the world.
• Stitches, Junji Ito & Hirokatsu Kihara (Mar 26, VIZ): A tumor shaped like a man’s face slowly moves across a woman’s body. The sea shoots glowing balls into the sky, much to the distress of beachgoers. And a girl dressed up for a holiday has no eyes, no nose, nothing–her face is a total blank. Hirokatsu Kihara pens true stories of unsolved mysteries, stitched together with page after page of Junji Ito’s original illustrations in this collection of nine eerie tales and a bonus manga story.
• Against Fearful Lies, Vivian Moira Valentine (March, Blue Fortune Enterprises): The sequel to Beneath Strange Lights.
• Hollow Girls, Jessica Drake-Thomas (Mar, Cemetery Dance): Twenty-four years ago, two girls went into the woods. Only Olive returned, with no memory of what happened. Something lives in the woods, in the caves beneath them. Something old, and hungry. Now, they’re awake again. They have taken Olive’s father.

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