The 33 Best Horror Books of 2024…So Far
Here are the 33 best horror books of 2024…so far. They’re the books I’ve read with the lights on, clutching a clove of garlic in one hand and wooden stake in the other. (Yes, I’m a scaredy cat.) Or they’re the books recommended by my fright-loving friends, the sort of people who drag me to horror movies like Alien: Romulus and Late Night With The Devil and such. They’re the books that make you wish you still had a night light or a teddy bear to clutch in the dark. (Ok, I still have the teddy bear, actually.) They’re also the books embraced by critics and cheered on by fans like you on BookTok and GoodReads and the like.
Since horror comes in all varieties, so do these books. You’ll find short stories and graphic novels, haunted house book, crime novels that slide into horror, vampires (natch) and ghouls and the undead and ancient curses and horror movie tropes a la Scream and–why not?–a cookbook. So let’s get reading! At the head of the Parade are:
The 33 Best Horror Books of 2024…So Far
Courtesy of Scribner, Tor Teen
1. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
2. The White Guy Dies First edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker
What qualifies as the first horror story? Grendel in Beowulf or some other ancient tale? Maybe but I’ll bet the first horror story wasn’t a novel length epic but one told around a campfire. So the short story may be horror in its purest form.
Stephen King knows something about horror (and detective fiction and sci-fi and fantasy and domestic drama…) and he really knows something about the short story. Devotees argue over which sprawling novel is his best but I’ll take the short stories any day. His latest collection of spooky tales is You Like It Darker. When you’re done with that, make sure you read his best collection of all: the four novellas of Different Season.
Short stories are a great way to work into a genre. They make a short, sharp, shocked statement about the talent at hand and how they want to play in this sandbox. Enter The White Guy Dies First, a collection of thirteen (!) pieces edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker. It features acclaimed writers of color like Chloe Gong and Kendare Blake who have a blast putting a spin on haunted houses and creepy diaries and the like, while hopefully giving H.P. Lovecraft fits in the process.
You Like It Darker by Stephen King ($30; Scribner) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The White Guy Dies First edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker ($20.99; Tor Teen) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Del Rey, Amistad
Courtesy of Poisoned Pen Press, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Two Lines Press
3. Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman
4. Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles
5. The Drowning House by Cherie Priest
6. William by Mason Coile
7. Woodworm by Layla Martínez
Oh, the haunted house! It’s a classic mainstay of horror and captures what the genre does so well: takes the familiar and makes it unfamiliar, shadow-filled, scary. Not fair! Here are five spins on the subgenre.
Josh Mallerman of Bird Box fame shares some suburban Incidents Around The House, with eight year old Bella chatting with the unseen presence she calls Other Mama, a spirit that asks her one question over and over: “Can I go inside your heart?”
Donyae Coles places her haunted mansion in Victorian England, where an orphan of a white man and black woman has very few options when offered marriage…only to discover her mysterious husband’s home is pulsing with some evil she alone can confront.
You’re not safe on the west coast: The Drowning House takes place in the Pacific Northwest, where houses sometimes slide into the sea. Then one of the houses comes back.
If this is making you a little fearful about haunted houses, you might want to invest in a home security system, maybe something state of the art? Oops. Mason Coile’s novel William includes a house haunted by its hi-tech AI named William, who quickly develops his own ideas about how to keep you safe.
No, heading to Spain will not keep you safe from haunted houses. In Woodworm, a grandmother and granddaughter go stir crazy in a haunted mansion drenched in the supernatural as well as Catholic guilt (not to mention the menace of inequality), all against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. Igloos? Would igloos be safe? Somehow, I don’t think so.
Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman ($28; Del Rey) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Midnight Rooms by Donyae Coles ($28; Amistad) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Drowning House by Cherie Priest ($16.99; Poisoned Pen Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
William by Mason Coile ($27; G.P. Putnam’s Sons) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Woodworm by Layla Martínez; translated by Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott ($21.95; Two Lines Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The 29 Best Mystery, Thriller and True Crime Books of 2024…so Far
8. Dwellings by Jay Stephens
Comic books have a long and storied history of ghoulish tales. They’re more immediately lurid and yet–maybe?–their very nature as slightly distorted reality makes it a safer way to indulge in creepy doings the way a more immersive novel or movie might not. Jay Stephens revels in the black humor a graphic novel can offer with Dwellings, a book that peeks beneath the surface of wholesome small town Elwich. The cheery exterior makes the demons lurking beneath all the more crazy and funny and freaky. It promises “six twisted tales of adorable horror” and the critical acclaim says it delivers.
Dwellings by Jay Stephens ($34.99; Oni Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Del Rey, Berkley
9. Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
10. So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
11. We Love The Nightlife by Rachel Koller Croft
Where do you stand on vampires? I never buy the “oh, living forever is a curse” argument because everyone seems to make it so strongly. Plus, vampires must be very well read. Here are three vampire tales with women at the fore.
Lucy Undying is the untold story of one of Dracula’s first victims. Lucy Westenra is doomed to live forever, spending centuries fleeing from the Count and searching perhaps…for love? Doesn’t she deserve love? When she finds it with Iris, the heir to a poisoned fortune from a wellness empire (very 21st century), will she seize it? Or will Dracula seize her, again?
In So Thirsty, our hero Sloane Parker is turning another year old and dealing with an unfaithful husband. So a weekend getaway with her best mate seems just the ticket. Then mysterious strangers give them a wild night with a bite and Sloane is cursed, cursed I say. Though really, maybe it’s not so bad?
We Love The Nightlife captures the disco era of 1979 London and shows clubbing is the perfect gig for vampires: sleep all day and party all night! Amber accepts the promise of eternal life from the much older (much much older) Nicola. Some 50 years later Amber thinks maybe she’d like to spend a little time on her own. So Nicola makes the only sensible suggestion: let’s open our own nightclub!
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White ($28.99; Del Rey) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison ($29; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
We Love The Nightlife by Rachel Koller Croft ($29; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
12. The Rocky Horror Cookbook by Kim Laidlaw
“It’s just a jump to the left. And then a step to the right. With your hands on your hips, you bring your knees in tight.” Now that’s a terrible start to a recipe. But if you’re already humming the melody to “Time Warp” then this is the cookbook for you. Now I was suspicious of such a tie-in; surely it’s just a quickie rip-off? But you can’t accuse them of rushing it out. After all, The Rocky Horror Picture Show came out in 1975, just about the time Amber and Nicola met for the first time. (Pay attention! See We Love The Nightlife above!) And Kim Laidlaw enjoys good reviews from readers and critics for her other pop culture cookbooks, like ones pegged to Emily In Paris and especially The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was a smash hit. Besides, we can always use inventive new ways to cook and serve a hot dog and if this doesn’t include some sort of recipe for Dr. Frank N. Furter, then Laidlaw missed the boat. The cookbook is blessed by the original stage show’s creator Richard O’Brien, who wrote the forward.
The Rocky Horror Cookbook by Kim Laidlaw ($27; Running Press Adult) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Random House Trade Paperbacks, Random House
13. Fever House by Keith Rosson
14. The Devil By Name by Keith Rosson
In this duology by Keith Rosson, it begins in Portland, Oregon. Some muscle for the local mob stumbles across a severed hand, a totem that causes most anyone near it to commit spasms of violence. Across two books, this leads to a faded rock star, her dutiful son, a worldwide pandemic caused by a phone call (“Where were you when the Message came through?”) and maybe the end of humanity. Whew. Stephen King says they are “exciting, suspenseful, horrifying and written at a flurry-of-punches pace. Read them now and you can thank me later.” And if that’s not enough for you, maybe you’re the monster.
Fever House by Keith Rosson ($18; Random House Trade Paperbacks) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Devil By Name by Keith Rosson ($30; Random House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Union Square & Co., Tor Nightfire, Holiday House
15. Now, Conjurers by Freddie K?lsch
16. Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
17. Take All Of Us by Natalie Leif
18. Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Why do minorities (soon to be the majority in terms of population!) and others out of power in society embrace horror and other outre genres? Isn’t it a world where you’re targeted and stalked by unseen powers that inexplicably have it in for you even though you’ve done nothing wrong other than exist so why…oh! Got it. You’ll find women and people of color and queers all over this list because their work is so good. Horror lets everyone face their fears and that’s better than pretending those fears don’t exist or have no reality. Here are some LGBTQI offerings.
Freddie K?lsch offers up Now, Conjurers. Not only are queer teens outcasts in their town. They’re also the only ones standing against a demon that might destroy everyone. In this case, they’re not hunted because they’re queer. So it’s like Buffy The Vampire Slayer but no subtext needed. It’s a new era, folks.
Author Chuck Tingle has a name perfect for an adult film star (or someone doing ASMR videos). But he’s the writer behind books written under various pseudonyms. As Tingle, he enjoyed great acclaim for a horror novel set at a gay conversion camp. Titled Camp Damascus, it announced Tingle as a serious talent. Now he’s given his latest novel Bury Your Gays an even scarier setting: Hollywood. Our hero is on top of the world with an Oscar nomination and hit streaming series. But his bosses want him to pull the tired ploy of killing off major gay characters for the season finale. (A move so common it’s a cliche fans moan about online.) Oh and maybe worse, the demonic creatures he dreamed up for his B-movie scripts have come to life and are stalking him. Worse than agents! Maybe.
The casual acceptance (by some) of varied sexual orientations, neurodivergence and the physically challenged is just one clue that author Natalie Leif is capturing life today as it’s lived for teens in the YA novel Take All Of Us. Pity about the virus that’s infecting so many, creating the (briefly) undead and tearing apart Ian and his (secret) boyfriend Eric. (Yes, secret. I didn’t say everything was perfect.) And did Eric abandon Ian amidst the latest panic? Weren’t they meant to be? Before Ian got all undead, that is. It’s complicated.
If you’re a queer teen, nothing seems scarier than parents who force you into a gay conversion camp. That’s the horrifying prospect faced by a group of kids in 1995. But the truth is somehow far worse. They make it out alive but 16 years later they need to go back to Camp Resolution and end the nightmare once and for all, for the sake of other kids…and the world. Yeah, it’s that bad.
Now, Conjurers by Freddie K?lsch ($19.99; Union Square & Co.) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle ($26.99; Tor Nightfire) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Take All Of Us by Natalie Leif ($19.99; Holiday House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin ($18.99; Tor Nightfire) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Silvana Editoriale book cover images
19. The World of Tim Burton
What’s this? What’s this? I can’t believe my eyes! It’s a peek into the mind of director Tim Burton, back on top with Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice after years of projects that didn’t quite score. (Though really, his live action Dumbo for Disney is excellent! Check it out.) Tied to an exhibition of his artwork, this coffee table, gift-worthy book offers up sketches and storyboards and drawings from Burton’s entire life, stretching from his childhood to his early short “Frankenweenie” right up to the blockbusters of today.
The World of Tim Burton ($35; Silvana Editoriale) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Zando–Gillian Flynn Books; Quirk Books; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
20. The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee
21. The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller
22. So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky
Since we gave the gay guys their own roundup, here’s one for the queer women facing and (hopefully) defeating the monsters within and without. Often, the best work in a genre is done by those seen by some as outsiders, as on the fringes. Here's proof.
In The Dark We Know, bisexual Isa reluctantly returns to the small town where she never fit in. But her abusive dad is dead and Isa will make a quick pit stop to collect the inheritance. That is, until Mason–the best friend she left behind when escaping–tells her life really is cursed where they grew up. A dark menace feeds on the misery of children and won’t stop unless they defeat it. Sometimes you can leave the darkness behind but it’s even better when you return to end it for good.
In The Z Word a zombie apocalypse is threatening a Pride rally in San Lazaro, Arizona and that is not acceptable to Wendy. She’s got enough on her plate when her ex is hooking up with Wendy’s friends (ugh!) and the virus or whatever is ruining everything. So Wendy and a rag-tag group of outsiders like drag queen Logan and a pizza delivery stoner and yes, Wendy’s ex among others team up to end this and save Pride.
It’s safe to say Stephen King is a touchstone for most of the writers on this list. Author Jill Baguchinsky gives a queer, feminist spin to King’s The Mist with So We Became Witches. Friends are trapped on a secluded island off the coast of Florida by a mist…and more importantly by the secrets and buried trauma each of them has been hiding. It’s group therapy combined with female friendship empowering the hunted to become the hunter.
The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee ($19.99; Zando–Gillian Flynn Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller ($16.99; Quirk Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
So Witches We Became by Jill Baguchinsky ($18.99; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of S&S/Saga Press, Berkley
23. The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
24. Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina
25. I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
The finale of a spookily scary trilogy, The Angel Of Indian Lake is an ode to slasher movies that goes much deeper than jump cuts and cheap thrills. It's an audacious reimagining of the American West, a look at small town America worthy of Stephen King (him again!) and -- yes -- so frightening that reviews compare it to a chainsaw. And not just because the first book is titled My Heart Is A Chainsaw. Why wait for the movie or miniseries? At least you can read with the lights on.
Stephen Graham Jones is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana and his work–like the novel The Only Good Indians–explore Indigenous history and folklore. Haunted Indian burial grounds were a lazy trope long before the film Poltergeist but now we can read books by Indigenous writers like Graham Jones and those who approach Indigenous myths and folklore with respect. Author Nick Medina is a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana and he too deepens our appreciation for the real stories and peoples behind the cliches. With Indian Burial Ground, the Native Americans are front and center. Noemi wants only to leave the Reservation and make a fresh start when her boyfriend dies by suicide. But did he really? Her Uncle Louie feels obliged to return and together they take on the family dynamics, buried trauma and supernatural forces poised to overwhelm them all.
And another acclaimed work of horror from Stephen Graham Jones. Director Michael Mann’s 1986 film Manhunter marked the first screen presence of Hannibal Lecter (played by Brian Cox of Succession fame). It’s very good and one twist in particular is chillingly effective. A serial killer is on the loose (not Lecter) and maybe two-thirds of the way through the film we suddenly spend time with him and see the world through his eyes. He’s lonely and confused and capable of some desire for human connection and to our horror, for a moment, we empathize with him and see how cruel and capricious the world seems from his twisted point of view. The novel I Was A Teenage Slasher doubles down on this, telling the entire story from the point of view of a 17 year old kid cursed to kill for revenge. Set in a small Texas town in 1989, it’s lovingly immersed in the slasher movie culture of the 1980s and very, very violent. But sweet, too? I can’t wait to check it out.
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones ($28.99; S&S/Saga Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Indian Burial Ground by Nick Medina ($28; Berkley) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones ($29; S&S/Saga Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The Best Books Inspired By Greek Myths Of 2024…So Far
Courtesy of Berkley, William Morrow, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
26. A Haunting In The Arctic by C.J. Cooke
27. Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
28. The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington
A grab bag of acclaimed and fun-looking horror books that didn’t quite fit anywhere else. C.J. Cooke offers up a ghostly ship with A Haunting In The Arctic. Read it and if you love it then you’ll also want to dive into The Terror by Dan Simmons, another great haunted ship novel which was also made into an excellent miniseries which can be found on Amazon, Netflix and Shudder, among other streamers.
Author Paul Tremblay proves again with Horror Movie that going into the dark woods to make a scary film inevitably riles up the supernatural. It's Blair Witch meets the auteur theory and me, I've always preferred the studio system. This story offers one good reason why.
But watching horror movies? That’s just good prep for dealing with horror and a maniac on the loose, as we learned in Scream. Author Joelle Wellkington has similar meta-fun with her novel The Blonde Dies First in which tees mess with a Ouija board (not a good idea). But this time the “blonde” aka Devon? No, she’s not dying first.
A Haunting In The Arctic by C.J. Cooke ($18; Berkley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay ($30; William Morrow) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington ($19.99; Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
29. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris
The graphic novel My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is not a horror story. Well, it deals with the Holocaust and maybe murder and life for a ten year old girl in Chicago in the late 1960s. So yes, life is scary. Part Two is just out and like Part One, it’s one of the most acclaimed books of the year (not just among graphic novels, by the way, though that would be acclaim enough to make it worth checking out). The draw here for you, however, is that our ten year old hero Karen Reyes is an obsessive fan of horror films and the entire book is a gorgeous homage in style and form to classic horror films, monster movies, comic books and the like.
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two by Emil Ferris ($44.99; Fantagraphics) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Tor Nightfire, Mulholland Books, Hell’s Hundred
30. A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons
31. House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
32. Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville
Crime doesn’t pay. Oh, you think it will, thanks to one last score and that’s it! Or because you’ve come up with the perfect crime, a plan that simply can’t go wrong. But if you get away with it, something, somewhere will make you pay. Enter the crime novel crossed with horror.
In A Mask of Flies, a bank robbery goes awry and Anne must flee to her family’s isolated cabin deep in the woods with a wounded partner and a cop as hostage for companions. Then she finds some strange relics. Then her partner dies and they bury him. Then he knocks on the door and asks to be let back in….
In House of Bone and Rain, a revenge tale goes awry in Puerto Rico. Five friends vow justice for the killing of one of their moms. That means taking on the top crime lord of Puerto Rico. And all-out war gets a lot worse when spirits ride in on a hurricane, ready to feast on the chaos and bloody mindedness already at work.
In Blood Like Mine, a mother and daughter are on the run from a grisly secret. A serial killer is on the loose. And Special Agent Marc Donner of the FBI is tracking down the killer as all three of their paths converge in the foothills of Colorado.
A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons ($28.99; Tor Nightfire) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias ($29; Mulholland Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville ($29.95; Hell’s Hundred) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
33. Read At Your Own Risk by Remy Lai
Take the illustrated, handwritten entries of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and give them a horror twist. Clever! Remy Lai has fun with this spooky story of a little girl haunted by a creature. It’s summoned by a stupid ritual called Spirit of the Coin which obviously isn’t real and won’t work. And then it does. The subverting of the hugely popular diary-like genre is quite effective. The notes say it’s suitable for kids at least roughly age 8-12. But if I read this at age ten it would have FREAKED ME OUT so you know, expect them to come into your room that night and ask to sleep with you. Just saying. Maybe read it first yourself? But read at your own risk.
Read At Your Own Risk by Remy Lai ($13.99; Henry Holt and Co.) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org