This post contains affiliate links to Bookshop.org. If you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Your support helps sustain independent bookstores and keeps this blog going.
Dare to Read: 2025 Horror Must-Reads
If you’re looking to feed your nightmares, 2025 is shaping up to be a standout year for horror. From eerie small towns to creeping cosmic dread, this year’s releases prove the genre is alive, well, and more unsettling than ever. Whether you prefer psychological horror, gothic atmospheres, or full-blown monster mayhem, these 13 new books will have you double-checking your locks and sleeping with the lights on.
Hot Wax by M.L. Rio
The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for suburban quiet—until her father’s sudden death drags the past back into the present. In a cross-country road chase filled with the pulse of rock & roll, she must reconcile who she was with who she’s become. Fame, family, and identity bleed into something sharp and dangerous.
Bad Things Happened in This Room by Marie Still
Willow’s life has become a fever dream: time slips, rooms whisper, and the garden hides carved threats. As her only friend, Sarah, vanishes, Willow must confront whether the prison is built of walls or of her own mind. Exploring grief, motherhood, and delusion, this novel blurs the boundary between reality and madness.
You Weren’t Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White
An uncanny terror where bodies and identities twist beyond recognition. What if your reflection isn’t yours, and what waits beneath your skin is something else entirely? Expect body horror, chilling transformations, and an identity crisis you won’t see coming.
A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig
Vast landscapes hide deep wounds in this novel, where isolation isn’t just physical, it’s psychological. In a vast, lonely landscape, the wind carries whispers. Somewhere between isolation and the open horizon, horrors begin to take shape, and the land itself may remember more than the living want it to.
What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
Alex Easton doesn’t want to return to America, especially not to spend time in an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia that’s rumored to be haunted. But when an old friend, Dr. Denton, begs for help to find his missing cousin—who disappeared inside that very mine—Alex has no choice. Stepping into the dark, they’ll need to confront what horrors hide in the deep, decaying shafts, and what it means to be a sworn soldier in a place where the earth itself seems alive.
Widow’s Point: The Complete Haunting by Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar
A haunting found-footage–style novel from bestselling author Richard Chizmar and his son W.H. Chizmar, Widow’s Point follows thrill-seekers trapped inside a long-abandoned lighthouse with a deadly past. Built in 1838 and marked by decades of mysterious deaths, murders, and disappearances, the Widow’s Point Lighthouse has stood sealed since 1988—until now. Told across two terrifying timelines, this ghost story proves that some places are never meant to be disturbed.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians, this chilling historical horror novel follows Good Stab, a Blackfeet warrior seeking justice for a massacre that left 217 of his people dead. Told through a discovered 1912 diary and confessional interviews spanning his unnaturally long life, Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a tale of revenge, blood, and the haunting legacy of the American West.
The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Hidden in the forest, a staircase beckons with promises of something beyond. Once climbed, there’s no guarantee you’ll get back to the world you came from.
During a camping trip, five friends stumble upon a mysterious staircase deep in the forest—one climbs up and never returns, and the staircase vanishes. Twenty years later, it reappears, drawing the friends back to uncover the fate of their lost companion…and the terrifying secrets that lie beyond.
The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Cañas
In 1765, plague drives Alba Diaz and her family to an isolated Mexican silver mine—but safety is fleeting. As strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions take hold, Alba realizes something demonic has awakened within her. With danger growing, she must rely on Elías, the one man she shouldn’t trust, to confront the dark force consuming her.
Fiend by Alma Katsu
Alma Katsu brings her historical horror mastery to the modern world in Fiend, a chilling tale of the Berisha family, whose immense wealth is powered by a dark, ancient evil. As the family’s carefully controlled fortune begins to unravel, long-held secrets and rivalries come to the surface, and the “blessing” they’ve relied on may prove to be a deadly curse.
The October Film Haunt by Michael Wehunt
A decade after a chilling night at a cult horror film’s graveyard shoot, Jorie Stroud has tried to leave the horror fandom behind—but a mysterious videotape and obsessed fans pull her back into a deadly game. As the enigmatic director prepares a new “sequel,” Jorie may be the final girl, forced to confront supernatural terror and the twisted boundaries of truth, obsession, and fandom.
The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt
On this land, past wrongs root themselves deeply, and home might be where the horror lives. Emily Hauk moves to a rural Nebraska farm seeking a fresh start after her mother’s death—but the property hides a dark past. Women have died here, girls have vanished, and strange occurrences escalate daily: moving barns, eerie music, blood in trucks, and screams that aren’t natural. To make the farm her home, Emily must uncover its terrifying secrets before whatever haunts the cornfields claims her, too.
There’s Something Wrong in Hugo Creek by Lumen Reese
On a remote Texas farm, Alice Haney seeks vengeance after her family is brutally attacked by the Hugos, who have ruled Hugo Creek with fear for decades. Cut off from the world and surrounded by rumors of a ghostly figure known as the Bleeding Woman, Alice must navigate a town steeped in violence and dark secrets to uncover the truth and survive the deadly legacy that haunts Hugo Creek.
Conclusion
Horror in 2025 is alive, bold, and terrifying in all the best ways. From haunted lighthouses and cursed farms to supernatural possessions and dark family secrets, these 13 books prove that there’s still plenty to keep readers up at night. Whether you’re a fan of psychological terror, historical horror, or chilling modern thrillers, this year’s releases offer something to haunt every kind of horror enthusiast. So light a candle, lock your doors, and dive in—these stories are waiting to creep under your skin.
Discover these books and more on Bookshop.org. Every purchase supports independent bookstores and helps keep this blog running, too.
Other Book Recs:
Love what you’re reading here? Support the blog and fuel my next cozy reading session by buying me a coffee.
Notes from the Shelf 
Leave a comment