Horror readers have been waiting all year, and it’s finally here. Fall. It’s the season where horror reigns supreme. So, of course, we have been blessed with an abundance of new horror releases hitting shelves non-stop all season long. I know we all want to read them all, but if you’re looking for the horror books that need to move to the top of your Creepy Reads TBR, below are this season’s best new horror releases.
The Unhaunting by Micaiah Johnson (Putnam)
Kicking off the scariest season of the year is this Southern Gothic hanted house novel from award-winning author Micaiah Johnson. Abernathy House was built at the end of the Civil War in Mississippi. It was meant to be a sanctuary, a place where tragedy would never happen. At first, the house feels like the perfect place for Avery and his friends to heal all their wounds. But Abernathy House doesn’t repel terrible things. It absorbs them. It turns out living a charmed life comes at a cost.
Carrying by Samantha Josephs (Putnam, October 6)
Samantha Josephs’ debut body horror novel follows Martha; she’s the ideal housewife, living in Los Angeles with her wealthy, adoring husband Leon. No one, not even Leon, knows Martha is a trans woman. Leon wants to expand their family, so Martha has to go to extremes to hide the truth, even faking miscarriages. Then a strange illness leads Martha to seek out experimental treatments. And that’s how the impossible happens: Martha becomes pregnant.
What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Bindery, October 6)
From the author of The Mean Ones and Such Lovely Skin comes this delightfully creepy biological survival horror story. Seventeen-year-old Petra is an underground guide who is forced to go on a rescue mission to rescue her best friend Jade from The Void, a chasm that is overrun with monsters and carnivorous plants. As a guide, Petra has delved into The Void before, but she has never dared to go beyond the upper levels. Now she must go far beyond where she feels safe, and she has no idea what she will find there.
Off the Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga, October 13)
The Only Good Indians is one of my favorite horror novels of all time, so I am so excited to return to this story with this sequel, set five years after the events of the first novel. Nate Yellow Tail, one of the survivors of the massacre on the Blackfeet reservation, wants to repatriate the bones of a young Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution that abused Indigenous children. But when the boy’s bones are unearthed, Nate also unearths an evil spirit.
Rottenheart by Kat Dunn (Zando, October 13)
Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone reimagined the classic vampire novel Carmilla. Now her latest is a sapphic Victorian-era retelling of Hamlet. When Odette’s artist mother, Lydia, suddenly and mysteriously dies, Odette’s aunt Claudine steps in and takes complete control over the household. That’s when Lydia’s ghost starts stalking around the house, claiming she’s been murdered and asking her daughter to take revenge.
Needlemouth by K-Ming Chang (Simon & Schuster, October 20)
Beastiary author K-Ming Chang’s new surreal horror novel blends Taiwanese folklore and body horror. When three cousins, Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy, spend the summer together at their late grandmother’s house, Cindy is terrorized by a needle-mouthed demon who places strange objects in her mouth in the night. To help their cousin find peace, the three girls must hunt down and kill the demon’s vampiric father.
The Turning of Sally-Mae by Nuzo Onoh (Titan, October 20)
From the Queen of African Horror comes this historical horror novel set in 1886. After an assault that leaves her pregnant and afraid, eighteen-year-old Sally-Mae Jenkins vows to get vengeance. She leaves Texas and flees to a remote Nigerian village to give birth to her twin boys. The Python-Goddess, Asata, wants the twins dead. Meanwhile, the death-giver spirit, Aja-Mmọ, wants the twins to serve her. For Sally-Mae, the boys become powerful weapons of revenge.
Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun (Hogarth, October 27)
Jane Schoenbrun is the acclaimed director of surrealist horror movies, including one of my personal favorites, I Saw the TV Glow. Her films explore our fascination with media, and her debut novel has a similar vibe. So if you like her movies, you’ll want to check this out. Spanning three timelines and three eras, this novel follows the story of a content moderator and two teens investigating a reality-bending broadcast network hidden in television static.
Welcome Home, Mariam by Sanchita Mitra (Page Street, November 10)
Sanchita Mitra’s psychological gothic horror novel tells the story of Miriam, a woman who wakes up with no memory of who she is and where she’s come from. She’s placed in the care of a couple who claim to be her parents and is welcomed into a community that seems to know everything about her. But she doesn’t recognize any of them. At night, she is haunted by strange nightmares and sees the walls moving. Where did she really come from, and who are these people who claim to know her?
Pinfeathers by Christina Henry (Berkley, November 17)
The new novel from Christina Henry, a favorite among thriller and horror readers alike, blends family drama with body horror. Nora Pacetti is a stay-at-home mom who discovers a feather growing out of her baby Olivia’s arm. While her husband wants to take Olivia to the doctor immediately, Nora senses that this strange transformation is something to keep hidden from the outside world. And when doctors, specialists, and strangers start to show a concerning amount of interest in Olivia, Nora worries something is going terribly wrong with her daughter.
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