Tag: 2024

All the New Horror Books Coming in May 2024

May 2024’s new horror books, featuring titles from Hailey Piper, Lindsay King-Miller, Stephen King, ‘Pemi Aguda, Christina Henry, Alan Baxter, and more!

May’s new horror books include zombies at Pride, a haunted houseplant, an undead fox, a California cult, a whaling town with a dark secret, 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!

May 2024’s new horror books:

  • The Dark Violinist, Lauren Chambers (May 1, Paper Cuts Publishing): Sebastian Ramirez is a young violinist, haunted by his father’s mysterious death and plagued with terrifying religious visions. When the esteemed orchestra conductor John Brownstone takes the young musician under his wing, Sebastian must reject God’s plan and leave behind everything he knows. As the challenge to succeed his father puts pressure on Sebastian’s fragile mind and history begins to repeat itself, the price of greatness may be too high to pay.
  • The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow, Hailey Piper (May 1, Rooster Republic): Ever since the death of Natalie’s father, her family has found themselves caught in a series of bizarre experiences of their own. Unexplainable, irrational, and yet all too real. Has a demon latched onto Natalie’s soul? Or are her family’s circumstances bound up in the aftermath of her dead father? The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow collects the original 2018 Natalie Glasgow novella along with six all-new interconnected stories following Margaret, Natalie, her family, and their entanglements in their haunted pasts and ghostly futures.
  • Undead Folk, Katherine Silva (May 1, Strange Wilds): Beyond the smoke-choked skies of an apocalyptic United States, a woman travels the desolate railroad tracks of a small town in search of revenge and a quiet place to settle. Her only companion is an undead fox: animated with backwoods herbal magic and the soul of a middle-aged father who died before the world fell into darkness. Undead Folk is a short, harrowing tale of sacrifice, loss, and damnation.
  • Whispers of Apple Blossoms, Brett Mitchell Kent (May 1, Lethe): An elderly widow who believes her late husband is haunting her houseplant must confront the reality that something much worse may be at play… and has been for longer than she could ever have expected in this literary horror debut from Brett Mitchell Kent.
  • The Ill-Fitting Skin, Shannon Robinson (May 3, Press 53): The Ill-Fitting Skin is layered with surreal story telling but remains an extraordinarily realistic read, in the sense that even the most solid realities of life-and death-tend to blur and shimmer at their raw edges. The talkative bird that nests in a woman’s womb is as real as the “previous tenant.” The love of a mother for her uncontrollable son is as real as the wildness that is in her too. The women of The Ill-Fitting Skin are real women-who work and grieve and create and destroy, who love and do not love, whether at the roll of the dice or because “the pages are paths, and you will have to choose among them.”
  • Marked for Sorrow, Y.M. Miller (May 3, D&T): Charlotte and Oliver are those 1 in 4. They’ve known what it is to experience baby loss. Every pregnancy they’ve conceived, they’ve lost. There’s no reasoning to it, but Charlotte’s body cannot stay pregnant. It’s killing the couple – Oliver treads on eggshells around his wife and Charlotte cannot bear to see her husband grieving in the quiet of his office. What is it going to take to have a baby or is this cycle of pain destined to continue?
  • The Harvest, Diego Rauda (May 6, RIZE): After a nightmare about a disembodied, skinless head calling him from under the bed, Daniel woke with a jolt, but managed to fall asleep again with little effort. He was used to these hellish visions– while asleep. Now the visions have started to cross over to his waking life, and it’s game over. As he tries to bury the feeling that he’s being stalked by an unseen force, one of his closest friends takes their own life in front of Daniel, but only after blaming him and ” the dragon he carries.” While he races to elucidate a mystery that recedes before him, the people closest to Daniel continue to die in perverse circumstances. Against his better judgment, Daniel follows the thread which connects these deaths in order to discover the truth.
  • Ghostroots, ‘Pemi Aguda (May 7, Norton): Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Aguda’s stories unfold against a spectral cityscape where the everyday business of living–the birth of a baby, a market visit, a conversation between mothers and daughters–is charged with an air of supernatural menace. In “Breastmilk” a new mother’s inability to lactate takes on preternatural overtones. In “24, Alhaji Williams Street” a mysterious disease wreaks havoc with frightening precision. In “The Hollow,” an architect stumbles on a vengeful house.
  • Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror, ed. Lindy Ryan (May 7, Black Spot Books): New and exclusive short stories and poems inspired by bad mothers from some of today’s fiercest women in horror. Featuring Rachel Harrison, Gwendolyn Kiste, Kristi DeMeester, and Kelsea Yu, edited by Lindy Ryan with a foreword by Sadie “Mother Horror” Hartmann.
  • Perfect Little Monsters, Cindy R. X. He (May 7, Sourcebooks Fire): Someone has murdered the queen bee of Sierton High School. All the dead girl’s friends are suspects. And each one has a reason for wanting her to die.
  • Supplication, Nour Abi-Nakhoul (May 7, Strange Light): A hallucinatory literary horror novel set deeply in the consciousness of a woman exploring a changed and frightening world.
  • When the Devil, Emma E. Murray (May 7, Shortwave): In When the Devil, Libby finds salvation in a new sapphic partner, homebrewed poison, and facing a God she no longer believes in.
  • The Z Word, Lindsay King-Miller (May 7, Quirk): Packed with action, humor, sex, and big gay feelings, The Z Word is the queer Zombieland you didn’t know you needed. A propulsive, funny, emotional horror debut about a found family coming together to fight corporate greed, political corruption, gay drama, and zombies.
  • His Unburned Heart, David Sandner (May 9, Raw Dog Screaming): His Unburned Heart, tells the story of Mary Shelley’s quest to retrieve her husband’s heart from his publisher. History tells us that Percy Shelley was cremated, though his heart failed to burn, but the rest of the details are lost to time. Sandner has channeled Mary Shelley herself to share the story with us.
  • 41: An Autobiography, J.D. Buffington (May 12, Anuci Press): J.D. Buffington’s 41: An Autobiography tells the story of growing up at the end of the 20th century in the United States and becoming an adult in the 21st. Here are his thoughts on life, his mother’s, how those shaped him into an author of horror and science fiction, and how it led him to his family, all amidst a firestorm of politics and pandemics.
  • The House That Horror Built, Christina Henry (May 14, Berkley): A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets in the captivating new novel from the national bestselling author of Good Girls Don’t Die and Horseman.
  • Howls from the Scene of the Crime: An Anthology of Crime Horror, ed. Jessica Peter & Timaeus Bloom (May 14, HOWL Society): An illustrated collection of 22 new short stories of transgressions and lawlessness laced in blood, secrets, and occult compulsions. Co-edited by HOWLS members Jessica Peter and Timaeus Bloom, with a foreword written by Bram Stoker Award® winning crime horror author, Cynthia Pelayo.
  • My Darling Dreadful Thing, Johanna van Veen (May 14, Sourcebooks): If the dead can wake and walk among us, how can we know what is truly real? Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth—strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries—is the light of Roos’ life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos’ backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection. Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable. Then, someone is murdered. Poor, alone, and with a history of ‘hysterics’, Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she’ll have to prove who—or what—is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.
  • The Red Grove, Tessa Fontaine (May 14, FSG): The Red Grove is a special place, protected. Some say a spell was cast by the community’s founder, Tamsen Nightingale. Some say the mountain lions who stalk the nearby hills guard its mysteries and its people. Some say the mighty redwoods keep them safe. The debut novel by the acclaimed author of The Electric Woman, Tessa Fontaine’s The Red Grove is an exploration of the legacies of violence, the price of safety, and the choices we make to protect what we love.
  • The Witches of Bellinas, J. Nicole Jones (May 14, Catapult): A dreamy California Gothic about a woman who moves to the mysterious town of Bellinas to save her marriage, only to be swept up in a hedonistic cult that isn’t what it seems.
  • Woodworm, Layla Martinez, trans. Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott (May 14, Two Lines Press): For fans of Mariana Enriquez and Fernanda Melchor, Layla Martinez’s debut novel with its grisly, mystical vision of justice for an unjust world, announces a terrifying new voice in international horror. In this lush translation by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott, Layla Martinez’s eerie debut novel is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun. Described by Mariana Enriquez as “a house of shadows and women made of vengeance and poetry,” this vision of a broken family in our unjust world places power in the hands of the eccentric, the radical, and the desperate.
  • The Backwards Hand: A Memoir, Matt Lee (May 15, Curbstone): Told in lyric fragments, The Backwards Hand traces Matt Lee’s experience living in the United States for more than thirty years with a rare congenital defect. Weaving in historical research and pop culture references, Lee dissects how the disabled body has been conflated with impurity, worthlessness, and evil. His voice swirls amid those of artists, criminals, activists, and philosophers. With a particular focus on horror films, Lee juxtaposes portrayals of fictitious monsters with the real-life atrocities of the Nazi regime and the American eugenics movement. Through examining his struggles with physical and mental health, Lee confronts his own beliefs about monstrosity and searches for atonement as he awaits the birth of his son.
  • Lost in the Garden, Adam S. Leslie (May 16, Dead Ink): Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it. And Antonia — poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather. So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever. And as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe. Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable – you are about to join the privileged few who come to understand exactly why we don’t go to Almanby.
  • Kosa, John Durgin (May 17, Darklit Press): In a secluded mansion hidden away from the outside world, young Kosa lives under the strict and overpowering rule of her enigmatic mother. For Kosa, the rules set by Mother are the guiding principles of her life, shaping her beliefs and actions. She has been sheltered from the truth about the world beyond the confines of their home, conditioned to fear the darkness and malevolence that supposedly lurks outside. In this dark and captivating tale, Kosa’s journey unravels the intricacies of control, the strength of one’s convictions, and the true nature of the world beyond the shadows. The choices she makes will not only determine her fate but also influence the fate of those around her.
  • The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls, Angela Sylvaine (May 21, Dark Matter INK): The Dead Spot. A corner drenched in shadow. An earthquake’s epicenter. The part of a roller coaster ride where the car rounds the final curve and all force dissipates, leaving those trapped beneath the safety bar feeling sick and hollow. The Dead Spot is a heart-wrenching collection of seventeen stories where lost girls and women live and die, where they laugh, cry, and disappear from view around that final curve. This is the debut short story collection from the author of Frost Bite and Chopping Spree.
  • The Lamplighter, Crystal J. Bell (May 21, Flux): The nineteenth-century whaling village of Warbler is famous for its lucky ship figureheads–and infamous for people disappearing into the nightly fog. In this murky locale, the lamplighter is synonymous with safety and protection, and it’s a position Temperance assumes when her father is found hanging from one of the lampposts. When a girl disappears after two lamps go out, Tempe’s ability to provide for her mother and younger sister hangs in the balance. She scrambles for answers, hindered at every turn by the village authorities’ call for her removal. As more villagers vanish under her watch, Tempe discovers unsettling truths. But her warnings of a monster are ignored, even by her own family. Now she must follow the light out of her own fog of despair, as she faces the choice to look the other way or risk speaking out and possibly dooming herself and her sister to be among the lost.
  • Mazi, Koji A. Dae (May 21, Ghost Orchid): When Silvena and her boyfriend take a vacation at an isolated mountain villa in Bulgaria, she gets the unsettling sense she is being watched by the knots in the house’s wooden walls. Her boyfriend tries to distract her with their usual BDSM games, but Silvena’s hallucinations only worsen when she encounters a local woodcutter who takes an unusual interest in her. Could his presence be somehow linked to her delusions? The debut novella from Koji A. Dae, author of Scars that Never Bled, Mazi is a seductive erotic horror tale inspired by the author’s experiences using kink to deal with mental health issues and the bitter, sometimes isolating winter of the Balkan Mountains.
  • We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures, ed. Rob Costello (May 21, Running Press Kids): An empowering cross-genre YA anthology that explores what it means to be a monster, exclusively highlighting trans and queer authors who offer new tales and perspectives on classic monster stories and tropes.
  • You Like It Darker, Stephen King (May 21, Scribner): From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER. “You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.
  • Find Him and Kill Him, Cody J. Thompson (May 23, Black Rose Writing): Filled with revenge, murder, twists and turns, Find Him and Kill Him mixes horrifying elements into a sick and twisted coming-of-age tale. A road-trip novel dripping with suspense, tragedy, familial bonding and of course, lots of blood.
  • Blood Covenant, Alan Baxter (May 24, Cemetery Dance): What should have been an easy bank heist for James Glenn and his crew goes violently wrong, forcing them to flee, blood-stained and angry. Luckily, they stumble onto a remote lodge that doesn’t open for another month. A perfect place to lie low until the heat’s off. Except it’s occupied. The Moore family, just arrived to prepare for the season, are taken hostage by the criminals, but not without bloodshed. And when blood gets spilled, something ancient notices. Something malevolent. Something ravenous.
  • Cursed Shards: Tales of Dark Folklore, ed. Leanbh Pearson (May 27, IFWG Publishing): We’ve all heard childhood fairy tales and hearthside stories passed from generation to generation warning us of unseen dangers lurking in the dark forest, the glimpse of a future in watery reflections and to be wary of objects and people offering impossible gifts. The Fae are ageless beings dwelling between light and shadow, stalking the moonlit nights and wielding powerful gifts and curses. Welcome to Cursed Shards, a collection of dark fantasy stories inspired by folklore, legends, fairy tales and mythology. Ten authors spin ten different tales ranging from deserts, icy mountains and dark forests to legendary warriors to the mythical Fae. 
  • Flawless Girls, Anna-Marie McLemore (May 28, Feiwel & Friends): Tautly written, tense, and evocative, this is a stunning YA novel by award-winning and critically acclaimed author Anna-Marie McLemore.
  • Necrotek, Jonathan Maberry (May 28, Blackstone): From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, NecroTek is a gripping sci fi thriller full of ghosts, Gods, and a battle for the soul of humanity.
  • The Rictus Grin and Other Tales of Insanity, Erica Summers (May 28, Rusty Ogre): A collection of eleven terrifying horror stories by extreme horror author Erica Summers.
  • Shadows in the Stacks: A Horror Anthology, ed. Vincent V. Cava, James Sabata, & Jared Sage (May 28, Shortwave): Shadows in the Stacks is a new horror anthology, published in cooperation with Spirited Giving to benefit the Library Foundation SD. 50% of proceeds from pre-orders will go to pay authors, while the other 50% will go to the Library Foundation SD, after release day, 100% of proceeds from sales go to the Library Foundation SD.
  • Feral, Bryan Alaspa (May 29, Unveiling Nightmares): For Garland, the move to California is just what his family needs to finally find comfort and success. After years of failed businesses, this may be their last chance. However, making the journey across the dangerous Sierra Nevadas is potentially deadly business in the 1800s. Little does Garland know that his son is having ominous dreams about their trip and that something lurks deep within the woods. The long trek becomes harder and more difficult, taking longer than promised. Soon, the entire train of wagons, horses, and people is trapped in the mountains. Then, the snow comes and buries them. As a small party sets off for rescue, no one knows that the thing within the woods that has been calling to the children is ready. Beneath the snow, as the travelers fight off starvation, a true nightmare starts—an ancient nightmare with sharp teeth that affects the children. Now, the screaming starts, and the true horror begins.
  • From the Belly, Emmett Nahil (May 30, Tenebrous): A prophetic sailor extracts a still-living man from the belly of a whale aboard his near-mutinous whaling vessel, and as their relationship deepens, horrifying accidents begin to plage the ship and its crew.
  • Revelations in Black, Carl Jacobi (May, Valancourt): Though sometimes overshadowed by his contemporaries like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard, Carl Jacobi (1908-1997) was one of the finest American writers of pulp horror tales of the first half of the 20th century. Revelations in Black, originally published by the legendary Arkham House as a limited edition in 1947 and long out of print, contains 21 of his best stories, originally published in pulp magazines like Weird Tales. As a bonus, this new edition features an additional seldom-seen Jacobi tale, “Rails of the Yellow Skull”, and a new introduction by Luigi Musolino.

Please note: where possible, I’m using Bookshop affiliate links. If you click through and order something from Bookshop, I’ll get a couple bucks – think of it as a tip if you find these lists useful!

It’s the B&N Preorder Sale, Charlie Brown!

For a limited time, Barnes & Noble members can get 25% off their pre-order of Horror For Weenies!

Today through Friday (April 19th), Barnes & Noble is running their semi-annual preorder sale – B&N Rewards members get 25% off all pre-orders, and Premium members get an additional 10% off physical books. If you haven’t preordered Horror For Weenies yet and you’re a B&N Rewards member, now is your time!

Preorder Horror For Weenies now

And if you need help filling your cart, naturally I have a few more suggestions for you:

  • Ghostroots, ‘Pemi Aguda (May 7): Aguda’s debut collection is a haunting, beautiful, hauntingly beautiful set of stories set in Nigeria.
  • The Z Word, Lindsay King-Miller (May 7): I’m calling it now, The Z Word is one of the best books of 2024. Do not miss the boat on this electrifying queer zombie novel.
  • youthjuice, E. K. Sathue (June 4): A buzzy debut about a young woman working at a skincare company with a sinister secret.
  • Cuckoo, Gretchen Felker-Martin (June 11): Felker-Martin’s newest is set at a conversion camp with something very, very evil at its heart.
  • The Eyes Are the Best Part, Monika Kim (June 25): An unforgettable tale of rage, hunger, and serial murder.
  • Midnight Rooms, Donyae Coles (July 2): A Black woman in Victorian England marries the heir to a crumbling estate in this debut from Coles.
  • The Nightmare Box and Other Stories, Cynthia Gómez (July 9th): A queer, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist story collection set in Oakland.
  • I Was a Teenage Slasher, Stephen Graham Jones (July 16): A new standalone slasher novel from living horror legend SGJ.
  • It Came from the Trees, Ally Russell (July 30): Ally Russell’s debut middle grade novel is chilling, thrilling, and full of heart.
  • Stay on the Line, Clay McLeod Chapman (July 30): Chapman is an auto-buy for me (as he should be for you), and this spooky novelette about a grieving town is already sending chills up my spine.
  • House of Bone and Rain, Gabino Iglesias (August 6): New Gabino Iglesias is always cause for celebration – this one’s about a group of Puerto Rican teens who vow to take revenge on the people who murdered one of their mothers.
  • A Mask of Flies, Matthew Lyons (August 6): Brutal, blood-soaked crime-horror about a bank robbery gone wrong and a desperate attempt to survive a shapeshifting nightmare creature.
  • The Unmothers, Leslie J. Anderson (August 6): A brilliant folk horror debut about a small town’s troubled relationship with the Thing in the Woods.
  • So Thirsty, Rachel Harrison (September 10): Harrison’s newest is about two friends who find themselves drained and changed after a wild night out – vampires are back, baby!
  • This World is Not Yours, Kemi Ashing-Giwa (September 10): I’m so intrigued by this novella about a messy polycule on a haunted planet, and I’m gonna need you to click through and look at the terrifying cover for this one right now.
  • Devils Kill Devils, Johnny Compton (September 24): Compton’s follow-up to The Spite House follows a woman whose guardian angel unleashes a particular kind of hell on her life.
  • The Bog Wife, Kay Chronister (October 1): A dreamlike, folk horror-inflected novel about an insular family in rural West Virginia who care for a mysterious bog.
  • Coup De Grâce, Sofia Ajram (October 1): NB to fans of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi: you want this book and you want it right now.
  • This Cursed House, Del Sandeen (October 8): A Southern gothic debut about a Black woman who takes a job with a cursed family in 1960s New Orleans.
  • American Rapture, CJ Leede (October 15): Leede’s follow-up to Maeve Fly is a bloody, horny, deliciously sacrilegious post-apocalyptic road trip.
  • All the Hearts You Eat, Hailey Piper (October 15): Nobody’s doing it like Hailey Piper, man. This coastal small-town gothic novel is full of ghosts and folklore.
  • Dead Girls Don’t Dream, Nino Cipri (November 12): You had me at “Voynich Woods.”

Need even more suggestions? The 2024 new releases list has you covered.

All the New Horror Books Coming in April 2024

April 2024’s new horror books, featuring titles from Adam Nevill, Hailey Piper, V. Castro, Nick Medina, Eric LaRocca, Sarah Langan, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, and more!

April’s new horror books include a YA anthology of Black final girls, alien horror, monster romance, a centuries-old Aztec vampire, a haunted cemetery worker, 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!

April 2024’s new horror books:

  • Changes in the Land, Matthew Cheney (Apr 1, Lethe): A vast park in a remote corner of New England founded by a 19th-century robber baron has still been maintained by the two families living there for generations—a strange place, a wild place, where dignitaries such as Theodore Roosevelt once hunted big game. Adams Park has remained unchanged for a century. It is a place that inspires the curiosity of others if they even know its existence. But the families have secrets, and nothing remains unchanged forever. In this thrilling novella by acclaimed author Matthew Cheney, the land has desires of its own.
  • All the Fiends of Hell, Adam Nevill (Apr 2, Ritual Limited): All The Fiends of Hell is a novel of alien horror from the four times winner of the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.
  • The Black Girl Survives in This One, ed. Desiree S. Evans & Saraciea J. Fennell (Apr 2, Flatiron): A YA anthology of horror stories centering Black girls who battle monsters, both human and supernatural, and who survive to the end. Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.
  • Cataclysm, Tiffany Meuret (Apr 2, Spaceboy): When the United States collapses into post-apocalyptic ruin, The Woman flees her suburban home. Chronicling her life from the first shock to building and ruling a dieselpunk fiefdom, her mind deteriorates, and she obtains a nuclear weapon. One hundred years later, a boy feeds her journals to an AI to answer lingering questions about his heritage. When the AI becomes sentient, weaving its own stories about The Woman and what her final moments might have been, the boy must confront a deranged power just like the person it was created to emulate. Told through journal entries, Cataclysm is a story of how unrepentant rage permeates generations.
  • Cranberry Cove, Hailey Piper (Apr 2, Bad Hand): Bram Stoker Award-winning author Hailey Piper joins Bad Hand Books with a supernatural crime novella. What’s been happening at Cranberry Cove? It’s unspeakable. It’s unspoken. Emberly Hale is about to take a dark journey inside the derelict hotel—and inside her own past—to find out the horrible truth.
  • Phantom Limbs: Dissecting Horror’s Lost Sequels and Remakes, Jason Jenkins (Apr 2, Encyclopocalypse): Based on the popular Bloody Disgusting web column of the same name, Phantom Limbs takes a look at intended yet unproduced horror sequels and remakes – extensions to genre films we love, appendages to horror franchises that we adore – that were sadly lopped off before making it beyond the planning stages. Here, writer Jason Jenkins chats with the creators of these unmade extremities to gain their unique insights into these follow-ups that never were, with the discussions standing as hopefully illuminating but undoubtedly painful reminders of what might have been.
  • The Psychographist, Carson Winter (Apr 2, Apocalypse Party): The Hoyers are an American family. Two parents, two kids, a house they can’t afford, and a deep desire for more. When the black-clad, seemingly omniscient Mr. Cormorant comes to town, it seems that they might finally be able to cash in on their American Dream. You see, Mr. Cormorant is a psychographist-an expert in consumer personas. And Mr. Cormorant is testing a Product. And Mr. Cormorant has selected the Hoyers for a simple task-test the Product. Live with it. Breathe it in. Abide by its demands. In return? Riches. The cost? Immeasurable. The Psychographist is a disturbing novel of consumption, advertising, focus groups, and the decisions that define us.
  • Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (Apr 2, DAW): Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell.
  • This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances, Eric LaRocca (Apr 2, Titan): A brand-new collection of four intense, claustrophobic and terrifying horror tales from the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.
  • No One is Safe!, Philip Fracassi (Apr 5, Lethe Press): Fourteen stories of macabre, pulpy terror; a book filled with futuristic noir mysteries, science fiction thrillers, alien invasions, and old-school horror tales that will keep you up late into the night. Inside these covers, you’ll discover haunted dream journals and evil houses, birthday wishes gone wrong, a neighborhood cat that cures any disease, a flesh-eating beach, and mysterious skeletons on a hidden moon base. You’ll meet wise-cracking detectives, suburban vampires, murdered movie stars, and monsters of the deep. And remember—don’t get too attached to the characters you’ll meet on these pages because there’s no holding back in this book. Anything can happen, and no one is safe. Featuring an introduction by Ronald Malfi.
  • Trailer Park, C.D. Kester (Apr 5): Sometimes blood isn’t family, and family isn’t blood. The boys at Los Hermanos Trailer Park are no strangers to a good urban legend. The legends and reality collide when they begin to notice strange activity with Val Rosen in the trailer down the street. As times grow harder Richie, Jose, Frankie, and Roberto are getting sucked into some things that they probably shouldn’t. Sometimes that’s the way that it goes when you’re passing the time with your brothers in the trailer park.
  • A Better World, Sarah Langan (Apr 9, Atria): The author of Good Neighbors, “one of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia I’ve ever read” (NPR), returns with a cunning, out-of-the-box satirical thriller about a family’s odyssey into an exclusive enclave for the wealthy that might not be as ideal as it seems.
  • Bless Your Heart, Lindy Ryan (Apr 9, Minotaur): A crackling mystery-horror novel with big-hearted characters and Southern charm with a bite, Bless Your Heart is a gasp-worthy delight from start to finish. It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi—the original vampire—are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.
  • The Garden, Clare Beams (Apr 9, Doubleday): The discovery of a secret garden with unknown powers fuels this page-turning and psychologically thrilling tale of women yearning to become mothers and the ways the female body has always been policed and manipulated, from the award-winning author of The Illness Lesson.
  • The Gathering, C.J. Tudor (Apr 9, Ballantine): A detective investigating a grisly crime in rural Alaska finds herself caught up in the dark secrets and superstitions of a small town in this riveting novel from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.
  • Ghost Station, S.A. Barnes (Apr 9, Nightfire): A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.
  • Grey Dog, Elliott Gish (Apr 9, ECW Press): A subversive literary horror novel that disrupts the tropes of women’s historical fiction with delusions, wild beasts, and the uncontainable power of female rage.
  • The Last Phi Hunter, Salinee Goldenberg (Apr 9, Angry Robot): Ambitious Phi Hunter and perpetual lone wolf, Ex, finds his road to glory interrupted when a heavily pregnant runaway enlists his help to escape through the ghost-infested forest… The Last Phi Hunter is a mythic dark fantasy, equal parts smart, exhilarating, and delightfully fun.
  • The Murmurs, Michael J. Malone (Apr 9, Orenda Books): A young woman starts experiencing terrifying premonitions of people dying, as it becomes clear that a family curse known only as The Murmurs has begun, and a long-forgotten crime is about to be unearthed…
  • Myrrh, Polly Hall (Apr 9, Titan): A woman searching for her birth-parents unlocks the secrets of her horrific past, as she tries to stop the goblin within in this kaleidoscopic dark psychological horror about identity and belonging, with a dread-inducing climax you will never forget. Perfect for fans of Eric LaRocca, Daphne du Maurier and Catriona Ward.
  • The Underhistory, Kaaron Warren (Apr 11, Profile): People come to visit my home and I love to show them around. It’s not the original house of course. That was destroyed the day my entire family died. But I don’t think their ghosts know the difference. Sinister and lyrical, The Underhistory is a haunting tale of loss, self-preservation and the darkness beneath.
  • Ink Vine, Elizabeth Broadbent (Apr 12, Psychotoxin): Lower Congaree calls Emmy a whore. It doesn’t help that she’s a stripper. Worst of all, she likes girls better than guys, and in a town like Lower Congaree, bi girls are smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Emmy’s mother tells her to stay out of the swamp. People disappear back there, she says, and the ones who come back are never the same again. But Emmy doesn’t listen. In the woods, no one calls her names or expects her to have sex for money. When she meets a pretty girl back there—one who kisses her, who listens, who sees her for who she is—Emmy quickly becomes entangled. But there’s something strange about the beautiful Zara. Maybe even something dangerous
  • The Count, David-Jack Fletcher (Apr 15, Slashic Horror): When Sam’s ex, Danny, winds up gutted beyond recognition, Sam has no memory of where he was at the time. He can only remember the strange comfort of his new house. The endless ticking of a clock he can’t find. The bloody knife he woke up holding the morning Danny was killed. He begins to feel the ticking inside him, feeding a darkness he’s long ignored. It compels him to take what he wants, regardless of the price. When he begins to act on his bloodlust, the ticking leads him to the death of a loved one. The clock begins to point to more of Sam’s friends and family, begging for their blood. Fuelled by a deep desire to feed, and compelled by the power of the ticking clock, how far will Sam go to get what he wants?
  • Eye of the Ourobouros, Megan Bontrager (Apr 15, Quill & Crow): When guilt-stricken park ranger Theodora Buchanan gets too close to the truth of her sister Flora’s strange disappearance, the Federal Bureau of Reality intervenes to ensure that the otherworldly answers she finds never see the light of day…
  • Skin That Screams, Thomas Stewart (Apr 15, Unveiling Nightmares): You ever wonder why it can be so uncomfortable to be in your own skin? You think maybe it has something to do with how you look in the mirror? Could it be that you’ve eaten too much? Maybe you’ve even gotten yourself in quite the predicament, letting yourself get hurt… Whatever the case, though, one thing is certain, all flesh has a story, and it’s screaming it!
  • Bad Dreams in the Night, Adam Ellis (Apr 16, Andrews McMeel): Like a graphic novel version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this collection of original horror tales is packed with urban legends, terrifying twists, and delightfully haunted stories by one of the biggest stars in webcomics. Each story will make you scream for more!
  • The Harrowing, Kristen Kiesling, illustrated by Rye Hickman (Apr 16, Abrams): In award-winning author Kristen Kiesling and illustrator Rye Hickman’s YA graphic novel The Harrowing, a psychic teen hunts potential killers until she discovers the boy she loves is her next target.
  • The House at the End of Lacelean Street, Catherine McCarthy (Apr 16, Dark Matter Ink): Claudia Dance boards a bus at midnight, destination Lacelean Street. No luggage, not even a coat, despite the icy rain that penetrates her clothing. Like her fellow passengers, she has no clue as to why she is leaving. In fact, she remembers nothing about her past. The answers she seeks can only be found in the red-brick house at the end of the road, but the price she must pay for those answers is substantial.
  • Immortal Pleasures, V. Castro (Apr 16, Del Rey): An ancient Aztec vampire roams the modern world in search of vengeance and love in this seductive dark fantasy from the author of The Haunting of Alejandra.
  • Indian Burial Ground, Nick Medina (Apr 16, Berkley): A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation.
  • The Long Hallway, Richard Scott Larson (Apr 16, University of Wisconson Press): Growing up queer, closeted, and afraid, Richard Scott Larson found expression for his interior life in horror films, especially John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, Halloween. He developed an intense childhood identification with Michael Myers, Carpenter’s inscrutable masked villain, as well as Michael’s potential victims. In The Long Hallway, Larson scrutinizes this identification, meditating on horror as a metaphor for the torments of the closet.
  • Lord of the Feast, Tim Waggoner (Apr 16, Flame Tree): Twenty years ago, a cult attempted to create their own god: The Lord of the Feast. The god was a horrible, misbegotten thing, however, and the cultists killed the creature before it could come into its full power. The cultists trapped the pieces of their god inside mystic nightstones then went their separate ways. Now Kate, one of the cultists’ children, seeks out her long-lost relatives, hoping to learn the truth of what really happened on that fateful night. Unknown to Kate, her cousin Ethan is following her, hoping she’ll lead him to the nightstones so that he might resurrect the Lord of the Feast – and this time, Ethan plans to do the job right.
  • Sanctuary, Valentina Cano Repetto (Apr 16, CamCat Books): Sibilla Fenoglio wants nothing more than to live with her husband in this run-down, derelict watermill. Uninhabited since the Renaissance after a mysterious disaster befell the previous owners, the mill requires extensive repairs. But there is something frightening about the mill. Repairs are violently undone, half-seen figures begin stalking Sibilla through the grounds, and haunting echoes of the previous owners’ lives infiltrate the present. As the disturbances grow more vicious and her husband more secretive, she realizes that she and her child are in danger.
  • Weird Black Girls: Stories, Elwin Cotman (Apr 16, Scribner): From Philip K. Dick Award finalist Elwin Cotman, an irresistibly unnerving collection of stories that explore the anxieties of living while Black–a high-wire act of literary-fantastical hybrid fiction.
  • Withered, A. G. A. Wilmot (Apr 16, ECW Press): After the tragic death of their father and surviving a life-threatening eating disorder, 18-year-old Ellis moves with their mother to the small town of Black Stone, seeking a simpler life and some space to recover. But Black Stone feels off; it’s a disquieting place, one that’s surrounded by towns with some of the highest death rates in the country. It doesn’t help that everyone says Ellis’s new house is haunted. And Ellis has started to believe them: they see pulsing veins in the walls of their bedroom and specters in dark corners of the cellar. They soon discover Black Stone, and their house in particular, is the battleground in a decades-long spectral war, one that will claim their family — and the town — if it’s allowed to continue.
  • Living in Cemeteries, Corey Farrenkopf (Apr 19, JournalStone): A young cemetery worker in Cape Cod must visit his family’s ghosts to learn about his own fate before he’s able to fully live his life.
  • The Demon of Devil’s Cavern, Brennan Lafaro (Apr 20, Darklit Press): Six months after the death of Noose Holcomb, Buzzard’s Edge rests in an uneasy quiet, but can a town that resonates with such hatred remain peaceful for long? Dark forces conspire to chase Rory Daggett and his mute adopted daughter, Alice, into exile, framed for a crime they didn’t commit. With a new sheriff and a notorious killer for hire tracking their every move, the two must choose between starting a new life and saving the soul of the town that betrayed them.
  • All Things Seen and Unseen, RJ McDaniel (Apr 23, ECW Press): All Things Seen and Unseen follows Alex Nguyen, an isolated, chronically ill university student in her early 20s. After a suicide attempt and subsequent lengthy hospitalization, she finds herself without a job, kicked out of campus housing, unable to afford school, and still struggling in the aftermath of a relationship’s dissolution. Hope comes in the form of a rich high school friend who offers Alex a job housesitting at her family’s empty summer mansion on a gulf island. Surrounded by dense forest and ocean, in the increasingly oppressive heat of a 2010s summer, Alex must try to survive as an outsider in a remote, insular community; to navigate the awkward, unexpected beginnings of a possible new romance; and to live through the trauma she has repressed to survive, even as the memories — and a series of increasingly unnerving events — threaten to pull her back under the surface.
  • The Day of the Door, Laurel Hightower (Apr 23, Ghoulish): Three grieving siblings confront their manipulative mother after learning of her participation in a popular paranormal television show designed to dramatize the most traumatic day of their childhood, pitched as The Haunting of Hill House meets A Head Full of Ghosts.
  • First Light, Liz Kerin (Apr 23, Nightfire): First Light, the riveting sequel to Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge, is about seizing a brighter future by confronting the shadows of our past. It’s been nine months since the catastrophe in Tucson sent Mia fleeing from her home. But she’s not running away from the darkness—she’s running toward it, obsessively pursuing the man who gave her mother a thirst for blood and destroyed their lives. But when Mia finds the monsters she’s been hunting and infiltrates a secret network of fugitives, she discovers she might have been their prey all along. To escape their clutches, she’ll have to reckon with her mother’s harrowing past and confront a painful truth: that they might be more alike than she ever imagined.
  • The Obscene Bird of Night, José Donoso, trans. Megan McDowell (Apr 23, New Directions): Narrated in voices that shift and multiply, The Obscene Bird of Night frets the seams between master and slave, rich and poor, reality and nightmares, man and woman, self and other in a maniacal inquiry into the horrifying transformations that power can wreak on identity. Now, star translator Megan McDowell has revised and updated the classic translation, restoring nearly twenty pages of previously untranslated text that was mysteriously cut from the 1972 edition. Newly complete, with missing motifs restored, plots deepened, and characters more richly shaded, Donoso’s pajarito (little bird), as he called it, returns to print to celebrate the centennial of its author’s birth in full plumage, as brilliant as it is bizarre.
  • The Redemption of Morgan Bright, Chris Panatier (Apr 23, Angry Robot): A woman checks herself into an insane asylum to solve the mystery of her sister’s murder, only to lose her memory and maybe her mind. From the subversive voice behind The Phlebotomist comes a story that combines the uncanny atmosphere of Don’t Worry Darling with the narrative twists of The Last House on Needless Street.
  • Oracle, Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Apr 30, 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.
  • Different Faces, Rory Say (Apr 31, Dim Shores): Five stories from a rising voice in the weird/horror field, Rory Say.
  • Meet Me in the Middle of the Air, Eric Schaller (Apr, Lethe Press): Dark Miracles. Black Comedies. In an astonishing debut collection of short stories, Eric Schaller invites you to unlock the gates of horn, ascend the bridge of sighs, and meet him in the middle of the air. There you’ll encounter Edgar Allan Poe cavorting with Marilyn Monroe; intimate insects and blood-red roses; apes and automata; and urban witches, parasites, and zombies. Explore the secret nightlife of the Oscar Wildes. Join the Sparrow Mumbler onstage. March in the menagerie of madness and mayhem. Just don’t look down because all that’s holding you aloft is… air.

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All the New Horror Books Coming in March 2024

March 2024’s new horror books, featuring titles from Stephen Graham Jones, Gwendolyn Kiste, Cynthia Pelayo, Lee Mandelo, Jennifer Thorne, and more!

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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All the New Horror Books Coming in February 2024

February 2024’s new horror books, featuring titles from Kelly Link, Tyler Jones, T. Kingfisher, Sunny Moraine, Tim Lebbon, and more!

February’s new horror books include a body-swap YA thriller, home-invasion horrors, a shopping mall horror anthology, a novella about connection in a world where eye contact makes you homicidal, something in the permafrost, 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!

February 2024’s new horror books:

  • Almost Surely Dead, Amina Akhtar (Feb 1, Mindy’s Book Studio): A psychological thriller with a twist, Almost Surely Dead is a chilling account of how one woman’s life spins out of control after a terrifying–and seemingly random–attempt on her life.
  • We Ate the Dark, Mallory Pearson (Feb 1, 47North): Four women investigating the haunting murder of their friend discover more than they ever imagined in a terrifying novel about good and evil, love and death, and the spaces between.
  • Below, Stuart Lee (Feb 2, Austin Macauley): Drawing inspiration from a chilling, real-life enigma of an airline crash in the Gulf of Mexico, this thriller plunges deep into the heart of the southern U.S. What dark secrets did the passenger on the ill-fated flight harbor, and what unspeakable terror was he transporting? Dive into a tale where every twist beckons a haunting question, pulling you deeper into the mystery.
  • A Cut Below: A Celebration of B Horror Movies, 1950s-1980s, Scott Drebit (Feb 2, McFarland & Company): Horror films have been around for more than 100 years, and they continue to make a large impact on popular culture as they reflect their contemporary zeitgeist. Between the mid-1950s and mid-1980s, drive-in theaters were at their peak of popularity, and each decade brought forward new challenges and themes. This book explores 60 B horror films, divided into 12 fun and uniquely-themed categories. Chapters discuss how the Atomic Age, the Vietnam War, the women’s liberation movement and other current events and social issues affected these films. Films covered include Willard, The Fly, Santa Sangre and many more.
  • Very Dark Thoughts, Kyle Harrison (Feb 2, Velox Books): Step into the shadowy corridors of NoSleep sensation Kyle Harrison’s Very Dark Thoughts. A scientist analyzes audio from Mars that reveals mysterious screams. A young man takes a haunted plane flight. An unsettling life-sized doll hides a sinister secret. A man races against time to solve a series of twisted puzzles in a sadistic escape room. An arctic excavation unleashes an attack from an alternate dimension. A man seeks a supernatural wandering campfire in the woods. The tales in this collection serve as grim reminders that often the most terrifying horrors aren’t waiting in the shadows but lurking within our own minds.
  • Turn Up the Sun, Tyler Jones (Feb 5, Dark Room Press): Three brand new novellas from Tyler Jones, author of Midas, Heavy Oceans, Almost Ruth, Criterium, and Burn the Plans (one of Esquire’s “Best Horror Books of 2022”). In Turn Up the Sun, Hazard, the eccentric drug dealer from Criterium, is horrified to discover he has a doppelganger who appears at the scene of a grisly murder. In Stridor, a pediatrician is not only haunted by her mistakes, but stalked by them. In Sidewinder, a young musician receives a custom, otherworldly guitar pedal.
  • Dinner on Monster Island, Tania De Rozario (Feb 6, Harper Perennial): In this unusual, engaging, and intimate collection of personal essays, Lambda Literary Award finalist Tania De Rozario recalls growing up as a queer, brown, fat girl in Singapore, blending memoir with elements of history, pop culture, horror films, and current events to explore the nature of monsters and what it means to be different.
  • The Holy Terrors, Simon R. Green (Feb 6, Severn House): Six people locked in a haunted hall. Cameras watching their every move. And then someone dies . . . This first in a spine-tingling new paranormal mystery series from New York Times bestselling British fantasy author Simon R. Green will make you doubt your judgement – and believe in ghosts!
  • Mantis, Erica Summers (Feb 6, Rusty Ogre): From the demented author of Vanity Kills & Bad God’s Tower comes a profane, blood-soaked, laugh-out-loud novel full of guts, gore, and good times. A religious, comedic-horror blend of Dogma and From Dusk Til Dawn recommended for fans of Chuck Wendig and Christopher Moore.
  • Nightwatching, Tracy Sierra (Feb 6, Pamela Dorman Books): A razor-sharp thriller about a mother forced to the breaking point when her life and the lives of her children are threatened by an intruder.
  • Out of Body, Nia Davenport (Feb 6, Balzer & Bray): A high-stakes, propulsive YA thriller with a body-swap twist thoughtfully exploring themes of friendship and identity, perfect for fans of Tiffany D. Jackson.
  • The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster, John O’Connor (Feb 6, SourceBooks): From the shrouded forests of the Pacific Northwest to off-the-wall cryptozoological conventions, one man searches high and low for the answer to the question: real or not, why do we want to believe? Perfect for readers of Bill Bryson and Douglas Preston and with sharp wit and an adventurous spirit, this heartfelt exploration of a cornerstone of American folklore unpacks why we believe in the things that we do, and what that says about us.
  • Your Shadow Half Remains, Sunny Moraine (Feb 6, Nightfire): The Last of Us meets Bird Box in Sunny Moraine’s Your Shadow Half Remains, a post-apocalyptic tale where eye contact causes people to spiral into a deadly, violent rage. Riley has not seen a single human face in longer than she can reckon. No faces, no eyes. Not if you want to survive. But when a new neighbor moves in down the road, Riley’s overwhelming need for human contact makes her throw caution to the wind. Somehow, in this world where other people can mean a gruesome, bloody death, Ellis makes her feel safe. As they grow closer, Riley’s grip on reality begins to slip and she can no longer fight her deepest desires. All Riley wants to do is look.
  • Those Who Live in Darkness Volume 1, Dan Shrader (Feb 8): These six bone-chilling stories delve into darkness, catering to macabre enthusiasts and those in search of pleasures not of this world. These tales will captivate and thrill while offering a glimpse into the eerie and mysterious. Towers Valley, the darkest of towns, surrounded by the Robin Hood Hills, is home to some of the most chilling and perplexing horrors throughout history. Prepare to unleash chaos in this nightmarish realm, a true embodiment of Hell on earth. This is a repository of dark secrets where the living endures endless torment and the dead flourish.
  • Cymbals Eat Guitars, Josh Hanson (Feb 10, Black Hare Press): Three friends take their punk trio into a remote mountain town for an unplanned stop on their Farewell Tour. When the show is interrupted by a catastrophic train derailment, the little resort town is transformed into a landscape of terror, and the three friends must fight for survival against a populace turned suddenly monstrous. But there is more than the infected to worry about, as one of the three carries a dark secret that will test the group’s love, loyalty… and very survival.
  • Widow of the Blood, Rebecca Henely-Weiss (Feb 11): Aster, once one of nine brides of a master vampire, now finds herself aimless and destitute after his death. Through an app for vampires and their willing prey, Aster agrees to meet a cool, mysterious woman at her childhood mall for a date, but they both may have more than blood (and sex) on their minds…
  • Records of the Hightower Massacre, L. Andrew Cooper & Maeva Wunn (Feb 12): HC3, the Hightower Course Correction Center, “recruits” LGBTQ+ people to participate in a program that will help them get the jobs they need to survive in the dystopic conditions of AMCONS City, center of a post-American territory run by a fascistic military. All they have to do is adopt cisgender, heterosexual identities. Ash, who is black, non-binary, and asexual, meets Aubrey, a white, trans, gay man, at a job fair where they face rejection after rejection… until they get recruited. They wind up in a converted slaughterhouse where the people in charge use brutal conditioning methods as well as the ghastliest forms of torture and murder imaginable to “help” newly recruited prisoners. While the terrors are intense, characters propel the story: Ash and Aubrey form a core of friends within the program who resist and, eventually, learn to fight back.
  • Among the Living, Tim Lebbon (Feb 13, Titan): From the New York Times bestseller and author of Netflix’s The Silence comes a terrifying horror novel set in a melting Arctic landscape. Something deadly has lain dormant for thousands of years, but now the permafrost is giving up its secrets…
  • The Bedmakers, Chad Lutzke & John Boden (Feb 13, Crystal Lake): After two elderly men tire of their homelessness in downtown Chicago 1979, they hop a train in search of work out west. But before their last stop, a traumatic event in an empty train car steers their once-hopeful journey into a path of chaos filled with deceit, murder, grave robbing, and dormant secrets.
  • The Book of Love, Kelly Link (Feb 13, Random House): In the long-awaited debut novel from bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.
  • The Briar Book of the Dead, A.G. Slatter (Feb 13, Titan): Set in the same universe as the acclaimed All the Murmuring Bones and The Path of Thorns (one of Oprah Daily’s Top 25 Fantasy Novels of 2022), this beautifully told Gothic fairy tale of ghosts, witches, deadly secrets and past sins, will be perfect for fans of Hannah Whitten and Ava Reid.
  • Deprivation, Roy Freirich (Feb 13, Meerkat Press): On a razor’s edge between speculation and reality, Freirich’s psychological horror Deprivation tracks the spread of the next epidemic–insomnia. Over a week, as sleeplessness engulfs a New England summer resort island, the hapless Chief of Police struggles to keep order, a blurry doctor searches for the cause and the cure, and a teenage girl competes with her friends in an online game: who can stay awake the longest? Impaired judgment spirals into delusions, the island is cut-off, and hysteria descends into mob rule and murder.
  • An Education in Malice, S. T. Gibson (Feb 13, Orbit): Sumptuous and addictive, An Education in Malice is a dark academia tale of blood, secrets and insatiable hungers from S.T. Gibson, author of the cult hit A Dowry of Blood.
  • Here Comes the Sun, Justin M. Woodward (Feb 13, Death’s Head Press): There had been talk of monsters around the small, quiet town of Fort Whipple for some time before the evening of the brutal massacre. First it was the livestock. Dead, shriveled bodies lined the fields, drained of their blood. But when human bodies begin falling from the sky, a dark protector of sorts is dispatched to minimize the casualties.
  • The Hollow Dead, Darcy Coates (Feb 13, Poisoned Pen Press): When Keira first woke alone in a strange forest, she remembered only two things: that she could speak with the dead, helping them move on from the mortal world, and that sinister mask-wearing men were hunting her. She had no idea what she’d done to earn their hatred or what dangerous secrets she may have uncovered. Until now. Peeling back layer upon layer of the mystery surrounding her origins, Keira has finally learned that the strange masked men work for Artec, an organization profiting off spectral energy produced by hundreds of chained, tormented souls. Their goal is to spread their macabre cemeteries across the world, using the agony of the dead to extend their power and reach-and only Keira and her loyal group of friends can stop them. But there are still mysteries to uncover in Keira’s foggy memories, and as she prepares to fight for the souls of the tormented dead, what she doesn’t know about her own past may come back to haunt her.
  • I Can See Your Lies, Izzy Lee (Feb 13, Dark Hart Books): Fin’s reality is crumbling. Her husband has abandoned her, she’s now a single mom to a nine-year-old daughter, her Los Angeles home is sweltering, and she’s being haunted by disturbing hallucinations that make life a waking nightmare. Are the visions a product of stress, trauma, psychosis, or something else? The answers to those questions become more clear when Fin starts digging up dark secrets connected to her mother’s cold-case disappearance, a once-rising actress who mysteriously vanished in 1979. Will Fin slowly unravel the truth? Or will it remain hidden forever beneath the glitz and glamour of illusion?
  • No Transfer, Stephen Walton (Feb 13, Valancourt): At the ultra-prestigious Modern University, only the cream of the crop are accepted, and those who graduate are virtually guaranteed powerful and high-paid positions.  Drinking and sex are allowed, and even encouraged, and everything students need — from classrooms to restaurants to shopping and bars — is self-contained inside the university’s 50-story high-rise tower.  But there’s a catch.  Once you start, you can’t drop out or transfer to another school.  And behind its glossy exterior, the university has a terrible secret, a macabre and horrible way of ensuring its students perform to the best of their ability.  When one young student, Gary Fort, witnesses the unspeakable truth of the school’s “Self-Discipline Plan,” he decides to fight back, and the suspense builds until the book’s chilling conclusion . . .
  • Projections, S.E. Porter (Feb 13, Tor): Love may last a lifetime, but in this dark historical fantasy, the bitterness of rejection endures for centuries.As a young woman seeks vengeance on the obsessed sorcerer who murdered her because he could not have her, her murderer sends projections of himself out into the world to seek out and seduce women who will return the love she denied–or suffer mortal consequence. A lush, gothic journey across worlds full of strange characters and even stranger magic.Sarah Porter’s adult debut explores misogyny and the soul-corrupting power of unrequited love through an enchanted lens of violence and revenge.
  • Those Who Dwell in Mordenhyrst Hall, Catherine Cavendish (Feb 13, Flame Tree): When Grace first sets eyes on the imposing Gothic Mordenhyrst Hall, she is struck with an overwhelming sense that something doesn’t want her there. Her fiancé’s sister heads a coterie of Bright Young Things whose frivolous lives hide a sinister intent. Simon, Grace’s fiancé, is not the man she fell in love with, and the local villagers eye her with suspicion that borders on malevolence. Her friend, Coralie, possesses the ability to communicate with powerful spirits. She convinces Grace of her own paranormal gifts – gifts Grace will need to draw deeply on as the secrets of Mordenhyrst Hall begin to unravel.
  • The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden (Feb 13, Del Rey): During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale.
  • What Feasts at Night, T. Kingfisher (Feb 13, Nightfire): Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure in this follow-up to Kingfisher’s bestselling novella What Moves the Dead.
  • In the Valley of the Headless Men, L.P. Hernandez (Feb 14, Cemetery Gates): Nahanni National Park is one of last truly wild places on earth. Accessible only by plane, and only when the weather cooperates, it’s the perfect place for estranged brothers Joseph and Oscar to have an adventure following the death of their mother. Gillian, Joseph’s first love, invites herself along in the spirit of friendship. The park is much more than beautiful. It’s mysterious, with legends of giants and hidden, prehistoric animals. And among its few visitors, an outsized number of violent deaths inspire its second, more seductive name. While dreaming of the future, the group finds themselves confronted by the past. Far from home and far from help. In the Valley of the Headless Men.
  • Next of Kin, Elton Skelter (Feb 14, Lethe Press): Even the worst of us need someone to come home to. And Jacob Mallory is the worst of all. Jake, a thrill-seeking psychopathic serial killer, has lived under the radar for years, operating within the city of New York, making kill after kill and emboldened by his lack of capture. But Jake has one big surprise coming his way. When he gets a call from the hospital to pick up a vulnerable patient, one who claims that Jake is his emergency contact, he feels like he’s won the lottery. But is there more to Nathan McGuire than meets the eye? And will this supposedly vulnerable young man make or break the city’s most notorious uncaught killer? 
  • Pyramidia, Stephanie Sanders-Jacob (Feb 15, Slashic Horror Press): Harriet hates pyramid schemes—they’re predatory and destroy relationships. So she’s horrified when she moves to a town overrun with them. It doesn’t help that her rental is haunted, her friend has gone missing, and she’s gotten wrapped up in a multi-level marketing scam that may be run by literal vampires. With the help of an oafish gym teacher and the woman she loves, Harriet is forced to scale the pyramid, wooden stake in hand.
  • These Things Linger, Dan Franklin (Feb 15, Cemetery Dance): From the author of the acclaimed The Eater of Gods, These Things Linger is a twisting and unforgiving novel of desperation, depression, heritage, and of other hungry, vicious things. 
  • Question Not My Salt, Amanda M. Blake (Feb 16, Crystal Lake): Sierra’s first American Thanksgiving promises to be unforgettable when her college roommate, Zoe, invites her to the Samuels family feast. But as the ten-hour banquet unfolds, it becomes clear this is no ordinary holiday gathering. With everyone bound by a chilling rule—eat and drink exactly as served, and enjoy it, or face dire consequences—the traditional celebration quickly takes a dark and macabre turn. Will Sierra survive the Samuels’ sinister hospitality or become part of a feast far more horrifying than she could have ever imagined?
  • The Bad Ones, Melissa Albert (Feb 20, Flatiron): New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert returns with a supernatural horror novel about four mysterious disappearances in a town haunted by a sinister magical history. An arresting, crossover horror fantasy threaded with dark magic, The Bad Ones is a poison-pen love letter to semi-toxic best friendship, the occult power of childhood play and artistic creation, and the razor-thin line between make-believe and belief.
  • Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors (Feb 20, From Beyond Press): Your favorite suburban hangout has transformed into a site of unimaginable terror in Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors. Killer escalators, murderous mall-walkers, suburban cannibals, and more inhabit this new collection of horror and dark sci-fi stories about one-stop shopping gone wrong. Featuring stories by Connor Boyle, Liam Burke, Pines Callahan, Anjum N. Choudhury, Wendy Dalrymple, Cassandra Daucus, Jude Deluca, Coyote Dembicki, Derek Des Anges, Cyrus Amelia Fisher, Lor Gislason, Eirik Gumeny, Ria Hill, Rick Hollon, Somto Ihezue, Wan Phing Lim, Angela Liu, Avra Margariti, J.A.W. McCarthy, Bram Stoker Award winner Christi Nogle, Jennifer Lee Rossman, and J.R. Santos.
  • Island Witch, Amanda Jayatissa (Feb 20, Berkley): Inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, award-winning author Amanda Jayatissa turns her feverish, Gothic-tinged talents to late nineteenth-century Sri Lanka where the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village.
  • Lies That Bind, April Yates & Rae Knowles (Feb 20, Brigids Gate): Lorelei Keyes and Adele Hughes are content, if not entirely happy, running a sham seance business in the English tourist town of Matlock Bath. Lorelei’s business savvy and Adele’s gift for mimicry provide for their needs, but the customers are not the only ones deceived. When a mysterious newcomer, Viola, uncovers a secret, .the couple finds their quiet life upended. Viola pulls them onto a transatlantic crossing bound for Adele’s homeland of New York, and the turbulent seas without are nothing compared to the treachery within. Lorelei and Adele face the end of their romance for certain, and may stand to lose much more than that if they cannot discern Viola’s true intentions and rediscover what drew them to one another in the first place.
  • My Throat an Open Grave, Tori Bovalino (Feb 20, Page Street): Labyrinth meets folk horror in this darkly romantic tale of a girl who wishes her baby brother away to the Lord of the Wood.
  • Webster, Amanda Desiree (Feb 20, InkShares): In the summer of 1974, in a derelict Rhode Island mansion called Trevor Hall, a team of scientists taught American Sign Language to a chimpanzee. They affectionately christened their subject “Smithy.” His official name was Webster. The Smithy Project ended in tragedy, some believing that a dark presence inside Trevor Hall had been disturbed. Webster was acquired by CSAM, a research lab in California run by the iron-fisted Manfried Teague. CSAM had a reputation for sullen staff, gloomy conditions, and cruel experiments. Despite this, two of Webster’s original researchers, Jeff Dalton and Ruby Cardini, followed him west, determined to look after their friend. But another entity followed the chimp as well, and in the waning years of the 1970s, “Webster” became synonymous with a menagerie of inexplicable events, strange social movements, curious legal cases, and chilling courtroom testimonies. All were haunted by the question left unanswered at Trevor Hall: Had Webster not only bridged the gap between man and animal, but between this world and the next?
  • Eynhallow, Tim McGregor (Feb 22, Raw Dog Screaming Press): ORKNEY ISLANDS, 1797 – Agnes Tulloch feels a little cheated. This windswept place is not the island paradise her husband promised it to be when they wed. Now with four young children, she struggles to provide for her family while her husband grows increasingly distant. When a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage, Agnes and the other islanders are abuzz with curiosity. Who is this wealthy foreigner and why on earth would he come to Eynhallow? Her curiosity is soon replaced with vexation when her husband hires her out as cook and washerwoman, leaving Agnes with no say in the matter. Agnes begrudgingly befriends this aristocrat-in-exile; a mercurial scientist who toils night and day on some secret pursuit. Despite herself, she’s drawn to his dark, brooding charm. And who is this Byronic stranger sweeping Agnes off her feet? His name is Frankenstein and he’s come to this remote isle to fulfill a monstrous obligation.
  • Bored Gay Werewolf, Tony Santorella (Feb 27, Atlantic): Juno Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven meets a Jim Jarmusch movie. A directionless college-dropout deals with sexuality, minimum-wage jobs, lunar cycles, toxic masculinity and the everyday perils of life as a modern werewolf.
  • The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed (Feb 27, Tordotcom): At the northern edge of a land ruled by a merciless, foreign tyrant lies a wild, forbidden forest ruled by powerful magic. Veris Thorn—the only one to ever enter the forest and survive—is forced to go back inside to retrieve the missing children of the Tyrant. Inside await traps and trickery, ancient monsters, and hauntings of a painful past. One day is all Veris is afforded. One misstep will cost everything.
  • Ghost Island, Max Seeck (Feb 27, Berkley): On a secluded island, homicide detective Jessica Niemi must investigate a drowning that is tied to a frightening ghostly legend in this riveting new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Hunter.
  • A Haunting in the Arctic, C.J. Cooke (Feb 27, Berkley): A deserted shipwreck off the coast of Iceland holds terrors and dark secrets in this chilling horror novel from the author of The Lighthouse Witches.
  • King Nyx, Kirsten Bakis (Feb 27, Liveright): Set in November 1918 on the opulent, castle-like island estate of an eccentric millionaire, Claude Arkel, this atmospheric, compellingly readable novel reimagines the life of Anna Filing Fort–whose husband, Charles Hoy Fort, was the most famous “anomalist” of the early twentieth century. Settling in as guests on Prosper Island, the young couple find themselves quarantined in a shabby outpost far from Mr. Arkel’s mansion–from which, they learn, three girls have gone missing. After she encounters a figure in the woods that may be the ghost of her long-lost friend Mary, Anna resolves to find out who Mr. Arkel really is, and what has become of the missing girls. A contemporary feminist tale with the mood and mystery of a classic gothic novel, King Nyx reintroduces readers, twenty-five years after her acclaimed debut, to one of our most astonishingly imaginative storytellers.
  • Mewing, Chloe Spencer (Feb 27, Shortwave Publishing): Vixen would sell her soul to get into the Bleach Babes and, if she isn’t careful, she might just get what she wants. One of the most exclusive influencer co-ops in LA, the Bleach Babes live and work together in one big house where they have it all: popularity, talent, and beauty. Their leader? Supermodel Margo, a woman as sinister as she is sexy. After Margo agrees to take Vix under her wing—and into her bed—Vixen moves in and begins hustling. Success comes hard and fast, but the glitz and glamor comes with a price that may cost her her sanity… and her life.
  • Moon of the Turning Leaves, Waubgeshig Rice (Feb 27, William Morrow): In this gripping sequel to the award-winning post-apocalyptic novel Moon of the Crusted Snow, a brave scouting party of hunters and harvesters led by Evan Whitesky must venture into unknown and dangerous territory to find a new home for their close-knit but slowly starving Northern Ontario Indigenous community more than a decade after a world-ending blackout.
  • My Name Was Eden, Eleanor Barker-White (Feb 27, William Morrow): In this edge-of-your-seat psychological debut, a mother’s experience with Vanishing Twin Syndrome triggers disturbing changes in her teenage daughter, perfect for fans of The Push and The Undoing.
  • Tender Beasts, Liselle Sambury (Feb 27, Margaret K. McElderry): After her private school is rocked by a gruesome murder, a teen tries to find the real killer and clear her brother’s name in this psychological thriller perfect for fans of The Taking of Jake Livingston and Ace of Spades.
  • Tomorrow’s Children, Daniel Polansky (Feb 27, Angry Robot): Tomorrow, the funk descends on Manhattan, a noxious cloud which separates the island from the rest of the world and mutates the population. Some generations on, the surviving population exists amid the rubble of modernity, wearing our cast-off clothing, worshipping celebrities as dim gods and using emojis in place or written language. The Island exists in a state of uneasy peace, with each neighborhood an independent fiefdom, protecting itself with scrap metal spears and Molotov cocktails. But something new has come to the Island, the first tourist in centuries, and this uneasy equilibrium is about to shatter…
  • Violent Faculties, Charlene Elsby (Feb 27, CLASH): A philosophy professor tests the limits of the soul and body by performing dehumanizing experiments on unwilling subjects, after the department is closed due to budget cuts.
  • Writhe, Erica Summers and H. M. Wohl (Feb 27, Rusty Ogre): Writhe is a hyper-violent, extreme horror novella and is not intended for the faint of heart. This gory splatterpunk tale is brought to you by the twisted real-life sisters behind Vanity Kills, Bad God’s Tower, and The Illuminator Saga.
  • Soulless Lonesome, Dan Shrader (Feb 29, Unveiling Nightmares): In the early days of 1984, all of Benjamin’s hard work mysteriously vanishes soon after his best friend/business partner goes missing on New Year’s Day. Faced with limited options and no other way out, he makes a choice that will forever change his fate. With his business on the brink of collapse, an unusual agreement is struck, sealed not only with ink but also with a promise of one’s soul. Soon, he finds himself caught up in a web of abductions, inexplicable suicides, and even murders! As if caught in a twisted game, he realizes the unseen forces manipulating his every move for the Leap Year.
  • Bruises on a Butterfly, Chad Lutzke (Feb, Cemetery Dance): A young boy runs away from his abusive home to live in the fort he’s built in the middle of a Michigan cornfield. But when a cosmic discovery late one night warps reality into a mutating nightmare, it’s up to loyal friends to fix what they can… and bury what they can’t. A dark coming-of-age tale that melds Color Out of Space with Stand by Me.
  • The Winslow Sisters, Michael Aronovitz (Feb, Cemetery Dance): Serial killer Michael Leonard Robinson murdered thirteen college coeds in early 2018, impaling them on flagpoles and leaving them on highway construction jobsites for the purpose of “haunting the dawn rush hour.” Police called him “The Scarecrow Killer,” until he revealed in an otherwise cryptic note left for police on March 13th, 2018, that he thought of his “dolls” more as “sculptures.”

Please note: where possible, I’m using Bookshop affiliate links. If you click through and order something from Bookshop, I’ll get a couple bucks – think of it as a tip if you find these lists useful!

All the New Horror Books Coming in January 2024

January 2024’s new horror books, featuring titles from Jenny Kiefer, Christopher Golden, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Chad Lutzke, Ellen Datlow, and more!

January’s new horror books include deadly rock-climbing trips, mysterious voices, creepy puppets, sinister taxidermy, mossy books, cyberpunk body-swapping, a new home too good to be true, 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!

January 2024’s new horror books:

  • The Curse of Eelgrass Bog, Mary Averling (Jan 2, Razorbill): Dark secrets and unnatural magic abound when a twelve-year-old girl ventures into a bog full of monsters to break a mysterious curse.
  • Eye of a Little God, A. J. Steiger (Jan 2, Severn House): After losing his delivery job – the last thing binding him to an empty life – Eddie Luther, veteran and drifter, drives into the snowy woods with a bottle of sleeping pills. But instead of eternal silence, Eddie hears a whisper inside his damaged ear: Help me. He follows the call and finds a cryptic journal filled with loneliness and longing, a journal whose words seem written for him alone. Guided by the clues in its pages, he embarks on a journey into a shadowy world beneath the small town of Devil’s Fork, Nebraska – a world where girls become cats, televisions whisper prophecies, and only those cast out of society can see and use magic . . . Or maybe Eddie’s sanity is slipping. All he knows for sure is that he’s falling in love with someone he’s never seen, someone who may be more than human – and who will change everything he thinks he knows about the world and his place in it.
  • Rabbit Hole, Kate Brody (Jan 2, Soho Crime): A twisty, sexy debut exploring the dark side of true crime fandom and the blurry lines of female friendship, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, My Favorite Murder, and Fleabag.
  • Cold, Drew Hayden Taylor (Jan 9, McClelland & Stewart): A tragic plane crash that leaves two women stranded and fighting for their lives kicks off this sweeping and hilarious novel from award-winning writer Drew Hayden Taylor that blends thriller, murder mystery, and horror with humor and spectacle.
  • The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, Shubnum Khan (Jan 9, Viking): Rebecca meets Fatima Farheen Mirza in this sweeping, gorgeously atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years prior. Sublime, heart-wrenching, and lyrically stunning, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twined beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging.
  • Star Shapes, Ivy Grimes (Jan 9, Spooky House Press): Kidnapped from downtown Birmingham, Alabama, and taken to the country, our protagonist is pretty irked. Rather than ask for a ransom, her captors make her feed animals and read dusty books. She is unnerved by the growing realization that something weirder is afoot, and it all ties back to a book of strange constellations known simply as Star Shapes. People look to the stars to read the future, but sometimes the stars conceal stories from the past.
  • Stone Gods, Adam Golaski (Jan 9, NO Press): This new collection of strange stories marks Adam’s long-awaited return to horror, following the now cult-classic Worse Than Myself (Raw Dog Screaming, 2008). Stone Gods features 15 stories of lives and places set askew.
  • 12 Hours, L. Marie Wood (Jan 11, Raw Dog Screaming): The cabbie only remembers taking a break, pulling over in an alley to catch both his breath and the sunrise. His windshield shatters, and two people dash away. He tries to scream, to move, but his neck won’t turn. He can only stare at the cab’s dirty ceiling. Finally, a deliveryman calls the cops. Surely, they’ll arrive soon, but we’re pinned in place right along with him as he tries to puzzle it all out. In this second installment of the CSAP novella series, award-winning author L. Marie Wood uses her descriptive powers to bring us fully into one incident in a person’s life, and hold us there, transfixed, until we see it all, crystal clear.
  • Master of Rods and Strings, Jason Marc Harris (Jan 12, Crystal Lake): Jealous of the attention lavished upon the puppetry talents of his dear sister—and tormented by visions of her torture at the hands of the mysterious Uncle Pavan who recruited her for his arcane school—Elias is determined to learn the true nature of occult puppetry, no matter the hideous costs, in order to exact vengeance.
  • Ambrosia, Hamelin Bird (Jan 16, Piper House): When Travis Barnes returns home following the unexpected death of his mother, leaving his career with the Seventh Naval Fleet, he hopes to begin a new chapter in life. Unbeknownst to him, a series of impossible coincidences soon draws the attention of the Bureau, a fringe government agency formed from the rubble of Projects Monarch and Stargate. But when Lola Agnew, the Bureau’s genetically-altered ringleader-along with her erudite headhunter, Drexl Samson-confront him with a clandestine force with powers beyond this world, Travis must face a forgotten secret from his past. His partner Tara Fitzgerald, meanwhile, has secrets of her own, and when the couple are pushed to their limits, they must join together to overcome the darkness… In the tradition of the classic speculative fiction of Richard Matheson, Ira Levin, and Ray Bradbury, Hamelin Bird’s Ambrosia is a genre-defying deep dive into the mysterious and uncanny.
  • The Best Horror of the Year Volume 15, ed. Ellen Datlow (Jan 16, Nightshade): From Ellen Datlow—“the venerable queen of horror anthologies” per the New York Times—comes a new entry in the series that has brought you thrilling stories from Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, the best horror stories available.
  • A Drop of Venom, Sajni Patel (Jan 16, Rick Riordan Presents): Circe goes YA in this unapologetically feminist retelling of the Medusa myth steeped in Indian mythology, a YA epic fantasy addition to the Rick Riordan Presents imprint.
  • Greyhowler, Sarah Day (Jan 16, Underland Press): Rhia is a Courier, a transient messenger who freely travels the land without calling any town or port home. The job suits her, for in a land ruled by the Temple, it is difficult to find your own way, especially when you have a Talent. Rhia’s is water, and when she arrives in distant Cerretour to deliver a message, she finds a village wracked with suffering. The well is dry. It hasn’t rained. The only person who can save these villagers is missing. At night, a strange creature prowls the prairie. The villagers have a name for it: greyhowler.
  • A Place for Vanishing, Ann Fraistat (Jan 16, Delacorte): A teen girl and her family return to her mother’s childhood home, only to discover that the house’s strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.
  • This Wretched Valley, Jenny Kiefer (Jan 16, Quirk): This trip is going to be Dylan’s big break. Her geologist friend Clay has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan’s boyfriend Luke, Dylan is going to document her achievement on Instagram and finally cement her place as the next rising star in rock climbing. Seven months later, three bodies are discovered in the trees just off the highway. All are in various states of decay: one a stark, white skeleton; the second emptied of its organs; and the third a mutilated corpse with the tongue, eyes, ears, and fingers removed. But Dylan is still missing—and no trace of her, dead or alive, has been discovered. Were the climbers murdered? Did they succumb to cannibalism? Or are their impossible bodies the work of an even more sinister force? This dread-inducing debut builds to a bloodcurdling climax, and will leave you shocked by the final twist.
  • Unbound, Christy Healy (Jan 16, Blackstone): For fans of Hannah Whitten and Rebecca Ross, Unbound is a gender-bent reimagining of the classic tale of a monstrous beast and the beauty determined to tame it, set against the lush backdrop of Irish mythology and folklore.
  • Where You End, Abbott Kahler (Jan 16, Henry Holt): From bestselling nonfiction author Abbott Kahler comes a spellbinding fiction debut inspired by true events: an unusual form of amnesia upends the lives of identical twins, forcing them to face the indelible, dangerous shadow of the past.
  • An Affinity for Formaldehyde, Chloe Spencer (Jan 19, Grindhouse Press): Lou, a queer woman, returns to her hometown to stop her grandmother from marrying Lou’s childhood best friend. She hasn’t visited in several years, and she and her best friend have yet to make peace with the death of his sister. When Lou discovers her grandmother’s obsession with taxidermy, she attempts to leave, but her grandmother has a sinister plan in store for Lou. She won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
  • Flesh Communion and Other Stories, Holly Rae Garcia (Jan 19, Easton Falls Publishing): In these stories, a cult’s demise reveals previously hidden atrocities; nightmares have someone questioning their reality; a woman clings to memories when her partner has dementia; a deadly virus renders all animals off limits for human consumption; an alien abduction brings pain to some and sadism to others; three wise men follow a star, hoping to end an apocalypse; a portrait photographer reaches her breaking point; a rougarou attacks two girls in a swamp; a werewolf defies the odds and finds love until the inevitable happens; an innocent tea party turns sinister; and more…
  • Grasshands, Kyle Winkler (Jan 19, JournalStone): Everything wrong with the world is wrong with books. When overworked assistant Sylvia Hix finds a strange moss smothering the library books, there’s little to worry about. But when patrons start eating it, gaining direct knowledge of the books, then losing their minds—Sylvia has deep problems. Sylvia is haunted by the moss, because it’s somehow connected to a horrific creature from her childhood. A creature she once named Grasshands and has since forgotten. Stopping Grasshands from decaying the town’s mind, the library’s books, and the slow rot of time is the only job now available to her, whether she wants it or not. A novel of biblio-horror, body horror, and melancholic friendship, Grasshands is ready for check-out. Get your library card ready.
  • One Must Go, Alex Reid (Jan 19, Wicked House): Every year a new group is chosen. Every year there must be a sacrifice. A laughing, drunken god picks three middle school children for his deadly ritual. Two may live as long as they pick one in their group to be given to the dead. Sam an angry child who feels abandoned, along with his best friend Benjamin who fears Sam more than anything else, meet Maggie who is no stranger to death. Sam sees an opportunity in the horror to get back at those who have wronged him, he grows cruel and violent. Someone must be picked. Whether it is through bargaining, treachery, or bloodshed. One must go.
  • The Last Immortal, Natalie Gibson (Jan 23, BHC Press): Lady Ramillia Winmoore has suffered gaps in her memory her entire life. This darkness has proven to be a blessing until the day she awakens strapped to an examination table at the West Freeman Asylum for Lunatics. Imprisoned for the gruesome murder of her parents, she is forced to endure years of torture until salvation arrives in the form of a benefactor named Sir Julian Lawrence. Betrothed to her through an arranged marriage, Julian helps her gain freedom. In this chilling gaslight-era Gothic horror novel where paranormal powers are bred and collected, friends and foes are not always what they seem when immortality is at stake.
  • Scissor Sisters, ed. April Yates & Rae Knowles (Jan 23, Brigids Gate Press): 21 tales of sapphic villains. Featuring the work of Hatteras Mange, Anastasia Dziekan, Ariel Marken Jack, Maerwynn Blackwood, Avra Margariti, Grace R. Reynolds, Evelyn Freeling, Hailey Piper, T.O. King, M.S. Dean, Chloe Spencer, Mae Murray, L. R. Stuart, Alex Luceli Jiménez, Cheyanne Brabo, Luc Diamant, Alyssa Lennander, Anya Leigh Josephs, Lindz McLeod, Caitlin Marceau, and Shelly Lavigne.
  • Womb City, Tlotlo Tsamaase (Jan 23, Erewhon): This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.
  • Cryptopolis & Other Stories, Robert Guffey (Jan 24, Lethe Press): Last week, did you tell your best friend why the King of Cryptopolis has gone insane and why he ordered his guards to behead him? Do you know the secret of the black magician Aleister Crowley—how he wrote of the moonchild, an ethereal spirit to be placed in a barren womb? Have you ever heard of Arson Hoover and the Worldwide Church of Appliantology? If you answered no to any of these, you’re clearly misinformed about the newest collection of dark and fantastical stories by Robert Guffey. How would you even survive Casual Day at work? When the tattoos begin to pile up on your flesh like unlucky cars drawn to an accident on the freeway, don’t come crying to me—I am just the back cover of a book, after all—but look for the answers inside me, inside Guffey’s head, which I have chopped off and bound in paper.
  • Hunted Highways (Dark Tide #12), Rowland Bercy Jr., Carver Pike, & Lewis Mangum (Jan 26, Crystal Lake): Embark on a journey into terror, where every mile is marked by suspense and horror. These three horror novellas transform travel into a treacherous adventure where the next stop could be your last.
  • The World He Once Knew, Micah Castle (Jan 26, Fedowar Press): Jay has been uploaded into a new body to investigate why the transporter ship Candlemass went dark fourteen days ago. After the ship’s owner gives him the rundown of the assignment, he’s quickly ushered on board. In the halls of the derelict vessel, Jay discovers black sludge coating the inner hull, leading him to a container in the Cargo Bay. If only he could have stopped there. As Jay digs further, he’s thrown into a psychological maelstrom of the ship’s and, more importantly, his own history and what led him to be uploaded in the first place.
  • The Visitor: A Horror Short, Rebecca Henely-Weiss (Jan 27): Like many who live in the woods, recent widow and new mother Mrs. Grob prepares a meal, waiting for a visitor that she hopes never comes. Then she hears a knock at the door…
  • Bone Pendant Girls, Terry S. Friedman (Jan 30, CamCat): Andi Wyndham has been able to communicate with spirits since she was a kid. When a bone pendant carved into the likeness of a girl’s face calls to her at a gem show in Pennsylvania, she can’t resist buying it and a sister piece. When she discovers the girls are missing runaways and the pendants made of human bone, Andi is drawn into a mystery that will force her to confront her gifts, her guilt, and the ghosts haunting her.
  • The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories, Joanne Anderton (Jan 30, Brain Jar Press): In The Bone Chime Song & Other Stories, Joanne Anderton explores the darkness and the beauty of humans caught on the fringes and pushed to the very edge of the abyss. Enter worlds where terrible secrets are hidden in a wind chime’s song, where crippled witches forge magic from scrap, and the beautiful dead dance for eternity. With deities built from circuits and wires, sacrificial drought-ridden towns, and artists who dabble in bone and decay, every story plots a course from the gothic to the fantastic and winds its way back again.
  • The Book of Denial, Ricardo Chávez Castañeda & Alejandro Magallanes, trans. Lawrence Schimel (Jan 30, Enchanted Lion): From award-winning Mexican author Ricardo Chávez Castañeda and the visionary Mexican designer Alejandro Magallanes comes a horror story and ghost story that is both daringly and beautifully told in word and image. There are stories so terrible that we tremble to hear even a whisper of them. Even more terrible, some of them are true. This is one such story, a story of our deepest inhumanity—one that confronts the history of violence against children, and through its young narrator attempts to find a way out. A horror story and ghost story told as much through art as through text, The Book of Denial is an antidote to our collective silence. By uplifting storytelling as a means of understanding the past and shaping the future, it is also—improbably—a beacon of hope.
  • The Doomsday Archives: The Wandering Hour, Zack Loran Clark & Nick Eliopulos (Jan 30, Zando): The first in a spine-tingling middle-grade adventure series that’s Goosebumps meets Stranger Things following three friends who discover that the eerie urban legends they’ve been obsessively collecting may not be just make-believe . . .
  • The House of Last Resort, Christopher Golden (Jan 30, St. Martin’s Press): When American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi buy a home in the nearly-abandoned Italian town of Becchina, it feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years… and how many people died in the strange chapel inside. While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina… something stirs.
  • Midnight on Beacon Street, Emily Ruth Verona (Jan 30, Harper Perennial): A suspenseful and entertaining debut thriller—and love letter to vintage horror movies—in which a teenager must overcome her own anxiety to protect the two children she’s babysitting when strangers come knocking at the door.
  • What Hides in the Cupboards, Cassondra Windwalker (Jan 30, Unnerving Books): Following a traumatic accident, ceramic artist Hesper Dunn trades life in Chicago for the enchanted deserts of New Mexico. But not all is quaint, and it’s far from what it seems. There’s a mystery buried deep in the heart of her new home. Love, guilt, and grief demand that Hesper remain within the haunted pueblo. To free herself, she must free the trapped spirits…but the creatures lurking in the shadows are not what they appear. Hesper dares to wade through the murky fog of tragedy to uncover the truth. A truth that will be harder to handle than she ever dared imagine.

Please note: where possible, I’m using Bookshop affiliate links. If you click through and order something from Bookshop, I’ll get a couple bucks – think of it as a tip if you find these lists useful!