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Horror Book Favs: Scary & Eerie 🦇
24
items The perfect reads for when you're all cozy in your bed at 3 in the morning, and you just want something creepy and chilling to add to the mood. Psychological horror, classics, retellings of classic horror stories, queer and neurodivergent rep, and mo...
Sections
7
psychological horror
atmospheric horror
short stories
vampire stories
queer horror
horror classics
psychological horror
read this because it got a lot of praise on social media and i really liked the cover, and when i saw the blurb mention this having midsommar vibes, i was sooo seated. and i'm so glad i picked it up! we follow the main character, mary, as she's going...
Mary: An Awakening of Terror
100% a page turner, i couldn't help but keep on reading to uncover the terrifying mystery of this book. the perfect horror read since it's psychological horror (my fav). it's best to go into reading this book knowing as little as possible about it, b...
The Last House on Needless Street
t kingfisher is just so amazing at writing horror, i have to include this. the story follows kara, who discovers a portal in a hole in her uncle's house, and becomes obsessed with its mysteries and hauntings. the writing was wonderful and i really en...
The Hollow Places
atmospheric horror
starting the list off right with my favourite horror novel of all time, from one of my favourite authors. you'll definitely enjoy this if you enjoyed the tv show which was inspired by the novel, as i love the show myself. i generally adore haunted ho...
The Haunting of Hill House
a super underrated little book, this was genuinely so creepy and i read it for the first time in my bed at 3am, which was just a great decision on my part. we follow the story of louise, who is taking care of her sick and dying husband edward, and sh...
Helpmeet
i mainly enjoyed this as much as i did because the creepy vibes were immaculate, and i really like the setting - an eerie island called lute, where seven people on the island die every seventh summer. in exchange for this sacrifice, the residents liv...
Lute
one of my favourites of all time, in the sense that i love this book so much i often feel the need to gatekeep it from the world and keep it to myself. one of my favourite eerie atmosphere novels ever, the story follows nine women working together at...
Strega
another shirley jackson masterpiece that you're guaranteed to enjoy if you like the haunting of hill house. the atmosphere is so good, as usual with this author. it's so unsettling in such an intriguing way, i love rereading this so much. we follow t...
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
another book i didn't expect to enjoy the way i did, so it's a pleasant surprise. it's both a scary and emotional story, which is a combination i can appreciate for sure. the story is set in cape disappointment, which is supposedly haunted. when mere...
They Drown Our Daughters
short stories
a collection of thirteen horror stories, when you want some shorter horror reads, or maybe you want to read one at a time. the writing is really good, and i enjoyed the elements of queer horror here. i also like that the author wasn't afraid to exper...
Parallel Hells
another collection, this one comes from an author who has one of my favourite writing styles ever, and who is a master of writing super intimate and emotional pieces. her writing is sooo gorgeous, and that's evident here too. she explores a variety o...
Her Body and Other Parties
a very popular collection, especially on booktok, and i understand why it's so beloved 100%. it's also more quirky horror than anything, like the story in which a girl is obsessed with the human heart in a super strange, eerie way. some stories inclu...
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
a collection of stories that are creepy in that very specific haunting way, you could even say an enchanting way. this impressively creative gothic collection covers a variety of themes: bodies, love, desire, obsession, revenge, isolation, queerness,...
salt slow
this short story collection consisting of eleven horror tales, and all of them are connected to each other through small details. though every story seems normal at first, the creepiness settles in gradually. the writing was really good, which is exa...
Revenge
a wonderful collection / anthology of arctic horror stories, all from different authors so there's a wide variety of writing styles here. it's super interesting and we learn more about mythology and various legends. the stories are great for fans of ...
Taaqtumi
vampire stories
an underrated classic of vampire literature, this gothic novel is super important for vampire books and it was actually written 25 years before dracula. it's focused on the relationship between laura and carmilla, where laura is a young woman who bec...
Carmilla
a wonderful gothic vampire novel that follows marion, a girl trying to escape poverty when she sees a strange ad - the house of hunger is looking for a bloodmaid. she is accepted and arrives at the house, where she meets countess lisavet, and becomes...
House of Hunger
queer horror
an amazing story and a gorgeous cover, this was the first book i read by andrew joseph white, and i've since read all his work because i loved this novel. this queer horror story follows benji, a sixteen year old trans boy who has escaped from the cu...
Hell Followed with Us
another great story from andrew joseph white and yet another gorgeous cover. this one is a combination of gothic horror and historical fiction, and the story is set in a world inhabited by spirits and mediums. we follow silas, a trans autistic guy wh...
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
lee mandelo is generally a great horror author and that really shows here, since i didn't really expect to like this the way i did. the story follows andrew, who is investigating the mysteries behind the death of his best friend eddie. he finds out m...
Summer Sons
horror classics
you might recognise this from the very famous movie adaptation, which i actually watched before reading the book, though that's unusual for me. this is such a masterful piece of psychological horror, i really liked the atmosphere and the writing styl...
Rosemary's Baby
an absolute classic in the horror genre and such a quick but entertaining read, the story focuses on a man who is stranded on an island, and a man living on the island called general zaroff proposes a game to him, where he is hunted by general zaroff. it's a very interesting story about how the hunter becomes the hunted, and despite being...
The Most Dangerous Game
retellings / re-imaginings
this story made me become a big fan of t kingfisher's work, it's such a great horror read. it's a retelling of poe's the fall of the house of usher, which is a story i looove, so i'm super glad this re-imagining worked so well. the story follows alex...
What Moves the Dead
a super eerie story inspired by the sleepy hollow, focused on the legend of the horseman, which everyone knows about but not many seem to actually believe in it. we follow ben's life at sleepy hollow, when he finds a body in the forest, leading him t...
Horseman