We at Five Books consider the shortlists for the annual Bram Stoker Awards an excellent source of horror novel recommendations. Every year, the members of the Horror Writers Association—an international collective of authors and publishing professionals—nominate new work for consideration in a number of different literary forms, from screenplays and anthologies to short stories and even poetry. Here, we will be focus on the 2026 shortlist of the best new novels, but we do recommend horror fans take the time to peruse the full list of nominees and category winners, available here.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls: A Novel by Grady Hendrix
• King Sorrow by Joe Hill
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner

In November 1994, three girls visit their local movie theatre to see an obscure film.

Only one of them is ever seen again. Thirty years later, still haunted by the disappearance of her sister and best friend, Val McQueen uncovers the terrifying urban legend behind the last film they watched together and its sinister, otherworldly origins.

It’s a thrilling neo-noir ode to movie magic, bringing cosmic horror to the beloved and classic cursed movie genre.

Hailey Piper is the Bram StokerⓇ Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, A Light Most Hateful, The Worm and His Kings, No Gods for Drowning, and other books of horror.

Old Post - https://lemmy.world/post/18490552

On a remote island in the Canadian wilderness, five elderly volunteers from different walks of life are given a tantalizing offer: to stall their biological clocks or even reverse them, restoring their lost youth. The chance to put death on pause—forever, perhaps. The remarkable secret lies in the high-tech harnessing of an ancient and extraordinary biological agent…one with no conscience, yet possessed with a single-minded purpose that has helped it persist for eons: the will to survive. The dark heart of unbridled human ambition finds its apex in an unholy experiment that now tests the limits of both creator and subject, eclipsing all bounds of morality and sanity….

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/242977939-the-dorians

Book Review: The Dorians by Nick Cutter - https://bibliosanctum.com/2026/05/24/book-review-the-dorians-by-nick-cutter/

✨A CHILLING TALE OF HOW VENTURING TOO FAR INTO SPACE CAN SHATTER THE HUMAN MIND.✨

What if the ego were not the solid psychic structure it appears to be here, in the safety of Earth?

🚀 Aboard the Persephone, the crew will discover that the real dangers of deep space are nothing like anything found on threats that invade the mind, erode identity, and distort reality itself.

This is a warning to all of a warning of an unimaginable fate, a silent threshold that must never be crossed and a godlike presence waiting beyond eons of darkness, hidden in the frozen confines of Pluto.🐙 Perfect for readers of cosmic horror, space horror, psychological horror and the Cthulhu Mythos: a Lovecraftian descent into madness, chaos and the unfathomable.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/58775498.Quico_Vicens_Picatto

https://bsky.app/profile/quicoarts.bsky.social

“I don’t fear death... but they do.”

Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there.

But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost… until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland.

The Haar.

To some it brings redemption… to others, it brings only madness and death. What macabre secrets lie within… The Haar.

Romantic and deranged, The Haar is a gore-soaked folk horror fairy tale from David Sodergren, author of The Forgotten Island and Maggie’s Grave.

goodreads

Reviews

The Haar: Where Monsters Heal and Humans Haunt - mindonfirebooks

If you’re searching for the Best Horror Books to Read in 2026, this curated list brings together the most chilling, thought-provoking, and unforgettable stories of the year. From gothic nightmares and supernatural mysteries to psychological terror and cosmic horror, 2026 is packed with books that push the boundaries of fear. Carefully curated by Storizen, this selection highlights nine standout titles that blend eerie atmospheres, gripping narratives, and deeply unsettling themes. Whether you enjoy slow-burning dread or heart-pounding scares, these books promise to keep you hooked—and haunted—long after you turn the final page.

• A Box Full of Darkness — Simone St. James

• Wolf Worm — T. Kingfisher

• Japanese Gothic — Kylie Lee Baker

• Abyss — Nicholas Binge

• The House That Eats the Dead — Max Doty

• The House Built on Alligator Bones — Sophia Huneycutt

• The Truth of Carcosa — Jacob Rollinson

• Nowhere Burning — Catriona Ward

• The Butcher of Nazareth — David Scott Hay

The barriers between worlds are breaking down.

People, planes, an entire military base—all have gone missing, transported to an ever-changing cosmic kaleidoscope where they’re hunted, haunted, recruited, and cursed, trapped in time and terrorized by forces they can’t comprehend.

A man afraid of flying boards a never-ending flight. An online paranormal show’s investigation takes a bloody detour. A woman on the run is recruited by a mysterious corporation with nefarious plans. An army guard fights for his life when the military opens a doorway they can’t close.

In An Hour Before Dark, Larry Hinkle returns to the Trail with ten interconnected tales that deepen the mystery while expanding the mythos.

Watch your step on the Trail. It will be dark soon.

Goodreads

Review- https://richardschiver.com/2026/02/24/new-release-an-hour-before-dark-by-larry-hinkle/

https://bookgooseblog.substack.com/p/an-hour-before-dark-larry-hinkle

Are you in the mood for a delightful fever dream? For a read that leaves you wondering what, exactly, just happened? For something you feel compelled to finish even as the events or characters become less and less real-feeling? If so, the list below includes some of the most compelling and surreal horror novels.

They contain end-of-the-world madness, normalized cannibalism, and a haunted house narrative like you’ve never read before! Those not up your alley? How about a trippy drug that opens portals into another realm or a children’s TV show that all but disappeared from anyone’s memory except for the kids who acted on it? Whether you like a full surreal fever dream or something more grounded with some surreal elements, one of these novels will be just right.

• Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

• Model Home by Rivers Solomon

• Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

• Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito

• Negative Space by B.R. Yeager

• Mister Magic by Kiersten White

When a supply ship delivers its final cargo to the isolated fishing community of Krelløy, forty-seven souls find themselves cut off from the mainland - and from the world they once knew. What begins as an eerie weather anomaly soon reveals itself as something far more profound, as the very fabric of their reality begins to unravel.

Stefan, a Slovak expatriate working at the local fish processing plant, and his wife Linnet, a Kenyan nurse who crossed continents for love, must navigate not only their community's fracturing bonds but also the increasingly alien landscape of their Arctic home. As neighbors vanish into the fog and those who remain undergo disturbing transformations, the couple faces an impossible choice: flee into treacherous waters or witness the complete metamorphosis of everything they hold dear.

From the first impossible sound that echoes across the island to the final moments of human connection, Krelløy is a haunting exploration of love, isolation, and the boundaries of human comprehension. Blending cosmic horror with intimate human drama, this literary thriller asks what it truly means to remain yourself when the world itself is forgetting how to be.

Review - Michal Polgár On The Beauty of Catastrophe Where the Arctic Silence Ends, Something Else Begins

Goodreads

https://www.michalpolgar.com/

To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”

When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199757490-incidents-around-the-house

Review: https://thehorrorbookshelf.com/2024/03/07/book-review-josh-malerman-incidents-around-the-house-2024/

https://www.criminalelement.com/book-review-incidents-around-the-house-by-josh-malerman/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240760509-the-writhing-verdant-end

An ailing community traverses a chasm of nightmare animal amalgams to reach the lush paradise beyond. Lovers in a plant apocalypse fight for survival and search for meaning in the face of immeasurable loss. Reunited friends resurrect an extinct bird through grisly sacrifices that bring about unexpected consequences.

The Writhing, Verdant End collects weird ecological horror stories by Corey Farrenkopf (author of Living in Cemeteries and Haunted Ecologies), Tiffany Morris (Green Fuse Burning), and Eric Raglin (Extinction Hymns), exploring the awe, terror, and strangeness of the natural world in dire times.

An apocalyptic world turned into a pitch-black sea of nothingness, but smuggler Rosi and her crew of survivors aren't alone. Something hungry lurks below...

Driving a logging truck through the Romanian mountains, smuggler Rosi and her crew come across a radio signal that hints at impending doom. As the world goes completely dark, their truck becomes a vessel sailing across a sea of nothingness.

But they’re not transmissions trickle in through the radio from similar isolated islands across the country, from amateur radio hobbyists and police cars and customs facilities.

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239100137-the-night-ship

Grimdarkmagazine review - https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-night-ship-by-alex-woodroe/

More review - Gemmabookshelf - https://gemmasbookshelf.wordpress.com/2026/02/03/the-night-ship-by-alex-woodroe-random-things-book-tour/

We’ve picked out five psychedelic horror novels that will leave you feeling stunned—and possibly wanting more.

• Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

• Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud

• The Cipher by Kathe Koja

• A Feast of Putrid Delights by Valentina Rojas

• Negative Space by B.R. Yeager

There are some genuinely great horror retellings coming out this year that you should consider preordering and/or adding to your library hold list. And never fear about waiting. You’re going to be treated to a couple of recommendations for books you can pick up right now.

• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
• The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
• This Wretched Beauty by Elle Grenier (Feiwel & Friends, February 17)
• Mrs. Jekyll by Emma Glass (Union Square & Co., April 7)

(( Paywalled - use a "read only" addon like Reader View for firefox))

Forget October and Halloween; winter is the perfect season to read these spine-tingling wintry horror books.

The nights are long. You’re staying bundled up with the shades drawn. You might be alone…or are you? Forget October and Halloween; it’s winter that’s the perfect season to read horror. Lucky for you, we’ve picked out eight spine-tingling wintry horror books for your reading pleasure below.

• Near the Bone by Christina Henry

• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

• The Hunger by Alma Katsu

• Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

• The Prey by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

• Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories

• Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes

I’ve got my Top 10 Anthologies and my Top 10 Collections of 2025 for you. These are in no particular order, except for the number 1 spots, and I’m including links for the books for you in case you’re interested in checking them out.

Anthologies

10 Horror Tales from Wales

Halloweird

Timeless: A Horror Anthology Through the Ages

Great British Horror 10: Something Peculiar (edited by Black Shuck Books)

Darkness Beckons (edited by Mark Morris)

Pretend You Don't See Her (Kandisha Press)

Fever Dreams (edited by Mark Morris)

New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural Volume 3 (edited by Stephen Jones)

The End of the World As We Know It (inspired by Stephen King’s The Stand)

Stories from the Motel Sick

Collections

A Graveside Gallery by Eric J. Guignard

Fever Dreams of a Parasite by Pedro Iniguez

Shadows and Whispers by Michael Jess Alexander

Fearsome Creatures by Aliya Whitely

Unquiet Waters by Thana Niveau

Scorpion Girl by Janeen Webb

Broken on the Inside by Phil Sloman

Managing and Other Lies by Willow Heath

Great Robots of History by Tim Major

Into Wrack and Ruin by Benjamin Kurt Unsworth

When a character that you created becomes so embraced by the public at large that it manages to warrant a biography all its own, you know you created something that will stand the test of time – such is the case for author Thomas Harris and his monstrously evil cannibal, Hannibal Lecter.

Most know the good doctor from his film recreation, most notable in the highly acclaimed THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and while it was the film that certainly solidified Hannibal as a full-blown cultural icon, there is so much more to tell before Anthony Hopkins donned that famous face guard.

Author Brian Raftery has done all the legwork and takes us on a deep dive not only into the literary and film credits of the character, but also a fascinating look at author Thomas Harris, a rather reclusive and perhaps eccentric creative whose fascination with serial killers and fine dining spawned one of the smartest, most deranged characters ever to grace a page or film cell.

Starting with his first novel, BLACK SUNDAY, it was obvious that Harris was a talent like no other before him, but it was RED DRAGON, the first appearance of Hannibal, that cemented him as a bona fide best-selling author. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS sent the publishing world spinning. He followed that up with two more ventures into the land of the cannibal with HANNIBAL and HANNIBAL RISING.

Raftery takes us behind the scenes of Harris’s unique writing style, the long stretches of research and traveling that Harris would spend between novels. [...]

The horror revival continues! And it’s so damn hard to narrow down my favorites, which is why this list has twenty titles. There are epic historicals, cutting satires, folk horror, religious horror, cultural reckonings, and so much more.

• Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McCauley
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Captive by Kit Burgoyne
• Crafting for Sinners by Jennifer Kiefer
• The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson
• Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
• Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin
• rekt by Alex Gonzalez
• Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield
• The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi
• Dark Sisters by Kristi Demeester
• The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw
• My Ex, The Antichrist by Craig DiLouie
• When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
• Feeders by Matt Serafini
• Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
• I’ll Quit When I’m Dead by Luke Smitherd
• You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White
• Galloway’s Gospel by Sam Rebelein
• Old Soul by Susan Barker

Every month, io9 compiles a list of the new sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books coming out that we think will excite our readers the most. As we started looking back on all the pages and pages that hit bookshelves in 2025, we dreamed up a fun spin on the annual “Best Books of the Year” lists you start to see everywhere in December.

io9 reached out to current sci-fi, fantasy, and horror authors that we admire and asked them to name which sci-fi, fantasy, or horror book (or books, as the case may be) they loved the most this year.

Read on for the responses we got, and you’ll no doubt be beefing up your personal reading list with these glowing recommendations. Thanks to all the writers who helped us out—be sure to check out their books, too!