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Horror Books I Can't Stop Thinking About
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items These are the horror books I recommend most — the ones that hit hard, stayed with me, or genuinely creeped me out. You'll find everything from supernatural horror and haunted houses to survival horror, psychological suspense, monster stories, and hor...
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Some links on this page may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them — at no extra cost to you. I only share products I genuinely use or recommend.
The cult classic horror book is difficult to categorize. Psychological horror, haunted house, existential dread, experimental fiction, unreliable narrator? All these and more could describe this story. Some parts of the book have different sizes of fonts and partially blank areas like the text is just sliding off the page. This is a story about a family who live in a house and discover a hallway that shouldn't exist and the father's growing obsession.
House of Leaves (Remastered Full-Color Edition)|Paperback
Required reading in any horror-lover's library. This is not an ordinary horror book – it's about childhood friendship and parents who should protect you but don't. It's also about horrors big and small. Yeah, there's that weird clown everyone talks about but most of the true horrors in this book are done by humans to other humans. My first ever adult fiction book that I read in Middle School and it scared me silly but I couldn't stop. I recently read it again and it still holds up. Probably because it was historical fiction even when published.
It: A Novel
Another difficult to classify book. It spans a lot of genres. It starts with a federal agent protecting a little girl and they're on the run. Then it's Dystopian Horror, but it's written in a literary fiction way. It's survival horror but it's also about a man-made outbreak that turns people into something like vampires but not your typical kind. It was I'm going to try again with this book because I wasn't prepared for around the halfway point and I had to stop.
The Passage: A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)
If you've never read Grady Hendrix books, you should! It's horror but funny, quirky, culturally relevant and smart! This is the story of a women's book club in the 80s the type that takes turns meeting at each other's houses and gossiping as much as they talk about the books. Then a stranger joins their book club. Stuff happens. That's all I'll say.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires: A Novel
One of my favorite horror books of all time. If you like claustrophobic horror, isolation horror, or sci-fi horror set in space, this hits the same nerve — but it’s set miles below the ocean’s surface. Think: airlocks, pressure suits, weird tech, eer...
A pandemic called The ’Gets is spreading on Earth — a kind of supernatural dementia that’s wiping out the population. But don’t worry… we’ve already forgotten those people!
The story opens after the military loses contact with a deep-sea research station where scientists were studying a strange substance that might be the cure. The main character (a veterinarian, not a hero) is sent down to make contact.
Nothing wrong here! Totally normal. Just a haunted trench full of memory-eating goo and trauma hallucinations.
A pandemic called The ’Gets is spreading on Earth — a kind of supernatural dementia that’s wiping out the population. But don’t worry… we’ve already forgotten those people!
The story opens after the military loses contact with a deep-sea research station where scientists were studying a strange substance that might be the cure. The main character (a veterinarian, not a hero) is sent down to make contact.
Nothing wrong here! Totally normal. Just a haunted trench full of memory-eating goo and trauma hallucinations.
The Deep: A Novel|Paperback
A short book “Novella” mannequins come to life and terrorize! But this is Stephen Graham Jones so the writing is excellent and there is plenty of thoughtful character development and more than meets the eye.
Night of the Mannequins (A Tor.com Original)|Paperback
A team of female scientists exploring a mysterious landscape. It's weird and atmospheric, creeping dread, surreal. Pure “WTF is happening?” vibe.
Annihilation: A Novel (10th Anniversary Edition)
An ancient old woman who was executed as a witch wanders from house to house in town. She just shows up in your bedroom or in the kitchen and stays there without moving. This has been happening for centuries. The townspeople are isolated and unable to leave.
HEX|Paperback
Cosmic Horror fiction. This is a story about a woman who finds a door that shouldn't be there. It leads to an impossible space
The Hollow Places: A Novel
This one has stuck with me. The Only Good Indians is about four Blackfeet men, years after something went wrong during an elk hunt. They’ve all tried to move on, but it starts coming back — slow at first, then brutal. And there’s no getting away from...
There’s this constant unease throughout the book. One scene hit me so hard I wanted to reach into the story and stop it. The characters feel real, which makes what happens even worse.
It’s not just about being haunted — it’s about choices, where you come from, and what you carry with you, even if you don’t want to.
If you like horror that sticks with you and doesn’t let go, this one’s worth it.
There’s this constant unease throughout the book. One scene hit me so hard I wanted to reach into the story and stop it. The characters feel real, which makes what happens even worse.
It’s not just about being haunted — it’s about choices, where you come from, and what you carry with you, even if you don’t want to.
If you like horror that sticks with you and doesn’t let go, this one’s worth it.
The Only Good Indians
"Hidden Pictures" hits a few of my favorite horror sub-genres — supernatural horror, psychological suspense, and domestic thriller, all rolled into one. It probably shows up on a lot of “creepy kid” lists, but I didn’t think the kid was creepy. He’s ...
Hidden Pictures: A Novel|Hardcover
Horror fiction novella -- short book. A mother loves her son so much, she brings him back from the dead
Monstrilio
An evil Santa character kidnaps children and tales them to Christmas town. He wasn't anticipating these 2. You can read this book any time of this year. I read it in the middle of summer. It's funny and weird
NOS4A2|Paperback
A housing development in the remote Washington woods is under attack nightly by the “Rainier Sasquatch.” Bigfoot is real! And he’s not here to make friends. But this is no ordinary neighborhood. The residents were handpicked to live in this “green,” ...
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre|Paperback
What do you get when you combine a haunted house with human trafficking? This book. No One Gets Out Alive starts with a woman renting a cheap room in a rundown house because she’s out of options. It’s grim, it’s sketchy, and it only gets worse from t...
No One Gets Out Alive: A Novel
A glamorous woman visits her cousin in a crumbling old mansion and finds gaslighting, decay, and something fungal growing under the surface
Mexican Gothic