This month we’ve brought you the best of the best when it comes to scary video games, TV shows, and movies, but my personal favourite way to interact with horror is through dead trees. Or, something simulating dead trees, at least.
A good scary book can suck you in in a way that no other medium can, providing a deep dread that allows your imagination to run wild without showing too much. There’s no jump scares, no loud musical stings to make you feel scared, though also no fun and impressive cinematography to help sell the vibe. It’s really up to you to get invested.
Still, reading about the impending sense of doom the typical horror protagonist works surprisingly well, especially since you need to choose to keep reading. You can’t just shut your eyes and wait until the screaming stops (I suppose you could just skip a few pages but… where’s the fun in that?).
So, in honour of the impending Halloween festivities, I want to share the best horror books I’ve read this year. Enjoy!
1. The Fisherman: A Novel
- Author: John Langan
- Genre: Cosmic Horror, Folk Horror
- Release Date: 30 June, 2016
A slow burn, for sure, The Fisherman is one of the best pieces of horror media I’ve ever seen, regardless of medium. It’s a twin tale of loss, despair, and the lengths to which someone will go to be happy again. There is a bit of ‘dead wife syndrome’ running through the first half of the book, but it actually serves a purpose beyond making our main character, Abe, just another sad man.
Abe is a widower, and after time and turning to booze to stem to the pain he finds solace in fishing. It gives him something to focus on and engage in during his bouts of depression, and it even ends up being the catalyst to a new friendship with his co-worker, Dan. See, Dan lost his wife much more recently, and is currently in the grips of grief. Abe sees an opportunity to bond, and perhaps help this man cope, and so the two begin fishing together.
But, rather out of the blue, Dan brings up a unmarked fishing spot known as Dutchman’s Creek that he wants to scope out. Why? Well, you’ll find out as you read, and I really don’t want to spoil what happens. You’ll learn the history of Dutchman’s Creek, as well as who or what “Der Fisher”, or The Fisherman, really is.
2. Bone White
- Author: Ronald Malfi
- Genre: Folk Horror, Mystery
- Release Date: 25 July, 2017
If snowy, isolated towns surrounded by dense woodland and mountainous terrain creep you out, and you don’t like feeling like you’re being watched by something in the tree line (who does?), Bone White is going to feel like exposure therapy. Set in the Alaskan town of Dread’s Hand, Bone White follows Paul Gallo as he tries to figure out what happened to his brother: a year ago, Paul’s brother Dany went missing in the woods surrounding Dread’s Hand, and following a mass murder in the town, the locals aren’t giving anything up apart from their general disdain for outsiders.
But something about the town is off. There’s a whole bunch of wooden crosses erected in the fields around Dread’s Hand, like crucifixes that have fallen to the side, and Paul is sure there are shapes moving in the dark – and strange sounds coming from the woods. Still, he needs to know what happened to his brother, and so he dives deep into the mystery of Dread’s Hand.
Bone White is a fantastically written story of horror, mystery, and suspense that kept me guessing: even when you think you know what’s going to happen, there’s enough questions left that you just can never be sure where it’s heading. For maximum scares, rent out a cabin in the woods before you read.
3. The Croning
- Author: Laird Barron
- Genre: Body Horror, Cosmic Horror
- Release Date: 1 May, 2012
A well-known book in the horror lit scene for good reason, The Croning tells a fragmented tale of familial deception, cult sacrifice, and the terrifying truths that are perhaps better to forget. Donald Miller, an academic and renowned geologist, has led a largely successful life alongside his anthropologist wife Michelle, but has also suffered periods of memory loss which are getting worse.
But as old truths are dug up, and something vast and old is unleashed, Donald will learn the truth of his wife, his family, and the world that he’s been living in. The story skips around various periods of Donald’s life, which can make it a bit hard to follow at times, but by the end you’ll have the whole picture and will understand just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
The Croning is a fantastic example of cosmic horror, if that’s your jam, and is more than willing to pull back the camera and show you the vastness of what is at stake.
4. Aching God
- Author: Mike Shel
- Genre: Dark Fantasy, Body Horror
- Release Date: 9 April, 2018
Most horror books tend to be based in a world relatively close to our own, to make the events relatable and, therefore, more horrifying. But there’s plenty of horror to be had in the more fantastical, and Aching God proves it. A dark fantasy story of fallen kingdoms, deep tombs and a former knight’s PTSD, Aching God asks what would happen if a world already on the brink saw a great and terrible evil unleashed.
Auric Manteo is a retired adventurer who made his living diving into the dead tombs of the long-dead Busker empire, facing off against the creatures that stalk its graves in order to return with riches. But something in his final journey broke him, and he left the Brotherhood he called home. Now, that something is calling him back, invading his dreams, and has cursed his former Brotherhood to ruin. Manteo must rise from his self-imposed exile to face the evil he never understood, and it knows he’s coming.
Aching God is the first of a series, called the Iconoclast’s trilogy, and by the end of the book I really did want more. Thankfully, there is more, and I’m halfway through its sequel, Sin Eater, as we speak.
5. The Worm and His Kings
- Author: Hailey Piper
- Genre: Cosmic Horror
- Release Date: 15 November, 2020
Quite a bit shorter than the others on the list, The Worm and His Kings is a novella-sized dive into the depths of cosmic horror. Don’t let the shorter length fool you though, The Worm goes deep into its mythos and peels the curtain just far enough back to show you more than enough. Author Hailey Piper went on to write two follow-ups, and I’ve added them to my reading list.
Monique is living rough in New York City, 1990, when her girlfriend Donna vanishes in the night. At first distraught, Monique begins investigating when there are rumours of more women disappearing – being taken by something in the old subway tunnels – and finds much more than she bargained for.
Due to its length, The Worm and His Kings is quite a bit faster than most cosmic horror stories, which tend to savour the act of withholding the truth from you. Here, the revelations come thick and fast, and by the end, you, Monique and Donna will never be the same again.
6. Paradise-1
- Author: David Wellington
- Genre: Sci-Fi Horror
- Release Date: 4 April, 2023
I wrote about Paradise-1 a month or so ago for our Staff Favourites when I was still in the midst of reading it, and I have to say that by the end of the book it had cemented itself as a really fun ride. Probably less pure horror than something like The Croning or The Fisherman, Paradise-1 is instead a fast-paced sci-fi story that leans heavily into horror as a sub-genre. Somehow, it manages to weave action, mystery, and suspense into what is a pretty hard sci-fi story about AI, colonising new planets, and dealing with the unknowns of the universe.
Special Agent Alexandra Petrova, Dr. Zhang Lei, and pilot Sam Parker head out into the darkness of space on a routine mission to Paradise-1: there, Petrova is to check in on her retired mother, the former director of Firewatch, the security detail she works for. When they wake out of cryosleep, however, things are immediately bad: the ship is under attack, and is stranded in orbit above the planet alongside hundreds of other drifting ships. The trio will have to band together with the ship’s AI and Rapscallion, a robot that can regenerate itself through 3D printing, to get to the bottom of why they’ve been stranded, what is happening on the planet, and why they were actually sent to Paradise-1.
There is some pretty gory body horror that felt a bit gratuitous, if I’m honest, but it wasn’t enough to slow the book down. There’s a sequel launching in November of 2024, Revenant-X, that will follow up the crew’s mission, so keep an eye out.
7. Clown in a Cornfield
- Author: Adam Cesare
- Genre: Slasher
- Release Date: 25 August, 2020
With a name like that, you probably already know what you’re getting yourself into. Clown in a Cornfield reads somewhere between a young adult novel and a traditional slasher movie, with teen angst, dismemberment, and creepy clowns galore. It’s a much simpler story than some of the other, more ‘serious’ books on the list, but Clown in a Cornfield (much like Paradise-1) is an easy read, flows quickly, and is more than happy to give its principle characters the tools to fight back against the giggling menace stalking their town. If you’re not into slower, more deliberate stories, this one will keep you entertained from start to finish.
Quinn Mayfield has been dragged to the small town of Kettle Springs by her doctor dad, who jumped at the opportunity to move to a new city: the pair are haunted by the recent death of Quinn’s mother, and are looking forward to the new start. Quinn soon finds herself in with the ‘bad’ kids, however, led by Cole Hill, prank YouTuber and rich kid, and is labelled as a degenerate by the town’s older, more conservative adults.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, people start dropping like flies when the town’s mascot clown Frendo turns up and starts killing kids left and right. What’s going on, and why does a town have a clown mascot? You’ll have to read to find out, but don’t expect any grand, M. Night Shyamalan-style twists here: you came for a clown in a cornfield, and you’re damn well gonna get it.
But Wait, There’s More!
While these are the best books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year, there are plenty of spooky reads I haven’t had to time to get to yet. While I can’t vouch for these stories personally, I’ve heard very good things.
- Diavola: A family vacation to Italy goes wrong, both because of inter family drama, and because they seemingly aren’t alone.
- We Used to Live Here: A couple that has recently moved into a new house is approached by a family that ‘used to live here’, and would like to enter the house and reminisce. Predictably, some scary shit goes down from there.
- Incidents Around The House: A haunted house novel told from the perspective of a little girl whose family becomes the target of a figure she calls ‘Other Mommy’. No thank you.
- Boys in the Valley: “The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies”. A bunch of kids live in a Catholic orphanage, and something dark takes an interest.