As a self-proclaimed scaredy-cat, it’s strange that I love horror novels so much. I balk at haunted houses in the fall, I have to read the synopses of horror movies on Wikipedia rather than see them in theaters, and don’t get me started on my weird childhood fear of the announcer voice in the mattress warehouse commercials. Yet it’s a rare month where I don’t read a horror novel.
Maybe it’s because I can shut the cover anytime my imagination starts to get too overactive. Or perhaps it's that when the words are on a page, I can see what the horror really is: a metaphor for grief, for societal issues, or simply an atmosphere the story is trying to convey. In recent years, horror has become one of my top three most-read genres, and new releases tend to be my favorites and 2026 is shaping up to be an exemplary year for horror.
Some of the best writers out there have new horrifying tales hitting shelves this year, and it was so difficult to pick just one per month for this blog. The stories I have chosen to include in this list delve into some of my favorite horror subgenres, such as botanical and gothic horror. Some even blend genres, often utilizing supernatural or sci-fi twists, and include my more niche favorite tropes like “The House Isn’t Really Haunted, It’s Actually Your Trauma Freaking You Out” and “No One Remembers That Borderline Creepy TV Show But You.”
So flip the pages of this creepy little calendar I’ve made for you and get ready to add some new horror books to your TBR!
Make Space At The Top Of Your TBR For These New Horror Books
JANUARY 2026
Kicking off the year with a queer botanical horror that will make your skin crawl.
On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Murder, Violence, Child Abuse, Racism, Incest, Cannibalism, Slavery, Vomit, Child Death (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
On Sundays She Picked Flowers is surprising, dark, and at the same time heartfelt. Originally a self-published debut, this Southern Gothic horror played like a movie in my mind the entire time I was reading it.
Fleeing an abusive home, Jude makes a home in a dilapidated structure deep in the woods. The descriptions of the woods and the plants Jude comes to learn and cultivate are unparalleled. You can almost smell the loam on the forest floor—and perhaps the things buried beneath it?
Even the house is a character here— one Jude has to placate in ways involving both housework and invocation. The story spans the years Jude spends away from her childhood home, never quite escaping it.
As Jude finds companionship with a woman who also ends up at the house, the story unfurls into one exploring trauma, healing, recovery, and monsters (both human and very much not), and I promise you won’t be able to stop reading this book once you pick it up.
FEBRUARY 2026
Get inspired by cursed fairytales and feral children.
Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Child abuse, Murder, Blood, Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Gun violence, Pedophilia (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
Catriona Ward is very good at making you feel uneasy. The Last House on Needless Street, which was published in 2021, became a bit of a cult classic, and I’ve gobbled up every horror release of hers since.
Her most recent novel, Nowhere Burning, is a supernatural horror which draws inspiration from Lord of the Flies and Peter Pan, and in which the whimsical premise quickly turns macabre.
One night, Riley leads her brother Oliver to the abandoned ruins of a ranch once owned by a movie star-turned-murderer to find a place among the kids who call it home. But the Nowhere Kids have strange and dangerous ideas about what it takes to become one of them, and soon Riley and Oliver are left questioning if they escaped one hell for another…
I couldn’t get enough of how this story plays with time, narration, and points of view. Nothing beats when completely different-sounding storylines and character voices coalesce into a clever way in which they’re all interconnected, and that’s exactly what you’ll find in this novel.
MARCH 2026
A heart-wrenching is-this-house-really-haunted horror about parenthood and madness.
You Did Nothing Wrong by CG Drews
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Child abuse, Gore, Blood, Stalking, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Vomit (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
Known for their dark YA fantasy/horror blended stories, CG Drews’ first adult release is a page-turning exploration of both home and relationships. Nothing beats when a haunted house might not really be haunted (or at the very least the haunting is not what you or the characters thought), and the house that haunts these pages feels like a beautiful trap.
Elodie met Bren, who whisked her and her young son to his family mansion to live happily ever after. But that wouldn’t be much of a story now, would it? When Elodie’s son insists that something is living in the walls of the house, and Elodie begins to see and experience evidence that he might be right, things start to take an unexpected turn. If only Bren would believe her, and if only her son would behave. But with neither of them doing what she needs them to do, the tension keeps building until the breathless, bloody conclusion.
Part thriller and part horror, You Did Nothing Wrong paints a complex and messy picture of parenthood that’s realistic in many ways (if you don’t count some of the crazy things happening around the house).
The characters are complicated and, at times, downright unlikeable, which only adds to the suspense. This is one of those books that I finished and had to sit in silence for a while to process what I’d just read. I also slept with the light on for a few nights afterward. Just in case…
APRIL 2026
Horror and time travel: a combo you didn’t know you needed.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Self-harm, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Mental illness, Suicide, Animal death, Gore, Domestic abuse, Suicidal ideation, Murder, Child death, Violence, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Trafficking, Bullying (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
If you like reading books that have you gripping the pages and screaming (at least internally) “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!”, Japanese Gothic will be the perfect book for you. Expect to question if what’s happening is real or just in the characters’ heads.
This novel follows two characters: a young man fleeing a terrifying incident in modern-day New York who’s on his way to his father’s home in Japan, and a female samurai in the 1800s, who just happen to share the same house across time and space.
With interstitials of a mysterious myth told amongst captivating chapters, you’ll have to wait until the very end to find out how these two stories and characters truly intertwine and relate with one another.
In the meantime, you’re in for an unflinching look at the effects of a samurai’s mentality (in the Author’s Note, Baker points out that “the history of Japan and the samurai is anything but virtuous, and to paint the samurai as heroes…would be a disservice”) and a well-crafted spiral of madness and violence as these two messed up kids try to figure out what’s happened and what’s to come.
MAY 2026
It’s almost summertime cult season!
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Miscarriage, Death, Pregnancy, Confinement, Self-harm, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
Can it really be a list of horror books without a story involving a cult? Sarah Gailey’s latest release is here to provide a slow, creeping descent into cultish madness. I love the way cult stories can explore the grief of trauma and loss that a character might be experiencing, as well as twist the need for community in ways that reveal the dark side of opening ourselves up to other humans.
In this book, Celia, desperate for a place to belong, travels to Kindred Cove (the perfect name for the birthplace of a cult, if I’ve ever heard one) for its annual Salt Festival, which promises healing and transformation.
The horror in this story builds gradually: everything the people from Kindred Cove say seems pretty normal, if a little odd. But as secrets begin to unravel (the synopsis’ reference to an “impossible, ever-growing reef” was what really sold me on the story), a darker purpose behind the community’s actions emerges.
A character-driven story that feels a lot like Midsommar in mood and scope, Make Me Better is a great island-cult psychological horror novel that's perfect for warmer summer days or atmospheric winter nights.
JUNE 2026
Cracking open a utopic ideal of freedom: if it doesn’t include everyone, it isn’t freedom... Or a utopia.
Our Sister’s Keeper by Jasmine Holmes
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Racism, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Slavery, Miscarriage, War, Gun violence, Hate crime (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
Dystopian stories played a strangely large role in my middle and high school reading days, and they remain a genre I enjoy exploring. There's nothing quite like when a perfect-seeming scenario proves to be anything but ideal, as the layers of what’s going on and/or who's pulling the strings are gradually revealed. In Our Sister’s Keeper, the utopia is historical rather than futuristic, but that makes the truth about what’s really going on even heavier.
This story opens with Thea and her husband moving into a community where Jim Crow segregation laws can’t reach. If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.
Soon, Thea starts to see horrifying visions of dead and dying Black people while in crowded spaces. But her husband and all the other Black men of the town feel free for the first time in their lives, so shouldn’t she just put up with it?
The book’s second POV shows the other side: Marah is cursed with a gift for absorbing other people’s traumas and spends her days making East Cobb the utopia it pretends to be.
Experiencing this story from the perspective of these two women makes for a compelling read, and as a whole, the novel features some characters you want to shake by the shoulders and others you want to lend a shoulder to lean on.
The horror here has real historical precedent, which can be a sobering shift from a haunted house or supernatural novel that you zoom through in one night, flinching at every noise or shifting shadow.
JULY 2026
The new summer romp: queer absurdist horror.
Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle
The new summer romp: queer absurdist horror
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Gore, Murder, Blood, Cancer, Confinement, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Abandonment (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
If you haven’t read a Chuck Tingle horror book yet, I beg you do. Also known for his cheeky erotica novellas/short stories, Tingle’s horror novels are full of gruesome imagery and deep, exploratory metaphors. You might pick up one of his novels for the ridiculous-sounding premises, but you’ll stay for the sincere and well-crafted characters.
Described as Drive meets Beetlejuice, Fabulous Bodies tells the story of influencer/grave robber Poppy, who’s tasked with delivering the body of deceased rockstar and queer icon Eddie Michaels to the medical examiner’s office. But then Eddie wakes up, and now Poppy has a newly reawakened corpse to reckon with.
Tingle’s novels often veer into absurd and madcap territory, but there’s a heartfelt core to every single one of them. I'm beyond excited to read this “blood-soaked night of carnage and fabulous entertainment,” and I’ll be first in the signing line when it's released (side note: if you ever find yourself able to attend an author event where Tingle is present, do so. Never has horror been so interactive and uplifting).
AUGUST 2026
What if the horror is something you can’t even remember?
The Burn Line by Jonathan Sims
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers - not yet complete for this title. Please do your own research once the book is published):
Death, Gore, Violence, Confinement, Drug use, Vomit (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
My first-ever podcast experience was “The Magnus Archives,” which a family member recommended. In hindsight, an episodic horror story was an interesting choice as an introduction to podcasts, but it means that the slow-building horror and existential dread of that series are something I think back on in a... weirdly fond way?
When I heard that the creator of said podcast had a psychological horror novel releasing this year, I immediately put it on my TBR (and sent a screenshot to the family member who recommended the podcast).
In this story, five people witness a horrifying event on the London Underground and survive to tell the tale. Only, none of them can remember what actually happened. Everyone’s memory is a blank slate, and they each begin to experience lost time, missing friends, and the impression that something hungry and terrifying is right behind them.
Few things top a story where you discover things as the characters do, and a terrifying supernatural mystery sounds just creepy enough to zoom through during a few summer nights. A weird conspiracy board to track my theories about the details of what happened on those train tracks might not be necessary, but I’ll use it anyway once I get my hands on this one.
SEPTEMBER 2026
There’s nothing quite as horrifying as Old Hollywood and inherited family trauma.
Mazywood by Tananarive Due
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers - not yet complete for this title. Please do your own research once the book is published):
Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Stalking (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
The Reformatory (published in 2023) is a hallmark of incredible historical horror, so when I got approved for an ARC of Due’s Fall 2026 release, I was so excited that I literally jumped up and down.
The titular Mazywood is an idyllic cabin in the snowy woods near Mount Shasta owned by famous actress Mazelle Washington, established as a place where Black folks could enjoy the ski slopes without fear of persecution. But in the current day, it’s in disrepair. And Johnny’s memories of living with his grandmother are less than rosy. Add to that the sounds of something shifting around beneath the snow outside and a mounting horror that Johnny, his wife, and his daughters are not alone in these isolated woods.
Tananarive Due is particularly gifted at developing a sense of dread in her writing. A forgotten item on the side of the road, a suspiciously lovely moment between family members, and even a well-placed mannequin make taut scenes all the more harrowing.
The relationships between characters are carefully crafted, making the horror all the worse because it’s happening to real-seeming people that you’ve come to care about.
This book’s release is perfectly timed for the turn towards cooler weather. I’d suggest you don’t read it while alone in a cabin in the woods…but maybe that’s also the perfect location to experience it?
OCTOBER 2026
When it’s all in their head…and now it’s in yours, too.
Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers - not yet complete for this title. Please do your own research once the book is published):
Drug use, Gun violence, Transphobia, Child abuse, Sexual assault (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
A slightly niche trope that I adore is when a book opens with a character telling you that the story you’re about to hear is a “true” story told to them by someone else. The meta-narrative setup lends weight to such a story right from its opening lines.
At the start of Public Access Afterworld, the narrator writes to us as an inpatient at a youth rehabilitation center. The “true” story they’ve been told comes from a fellow patient, describing episodes from a television show that doesn’t exist. When the narrator starts to believe the show exists, too, a creeping horror begins to seep in at the story’s edges.
The book spans decades, moving from the 80’s through to the present day as it introduces characters who experience the mysterious transdimensional channel known as Public Access Afterworld.
The best way I’ve seen someone describe this sci-fi horror is as “a Black Mirror & Doctor Who crossover episode.” The television comparison is apt, not only because of the concept of the mysterious show within the story but also because this is a debut novel by the writer and director of the utterly fantastic I Saw the TV Glow horror film, so writing about haunted queer media is right in their wheelhouse.
NOVEMBER 2026
As fall turns to winter, what was lost is sometimes found again.
Clear Water by Gabrielle Lucille Fuentes
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers - not yet complete for this title. Please do your own research once the book is published):
Grief, Addiction, Substance abuse, Death (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
Is it weird to say “I enjoy grief horror”? I find the horror genre to be so effective at illustrating what grief can feel, sound, and even taste like. Whether it manifests as the supernatural or presents itself as a deep psychological metaphor, horror can reveal aspects of grief unlike any other genre.
After helping a girl wearing white who then disappears, Alma discovers a phenomenon happening in her town. These shrouded visitors are not the same girls gracing the missing persons posters plastered about town, but they do bring up memories and connections between the disappearances and what happened to Alma’s sister, who passed away when they were in high school.
This book is full of lush, lyrical writing, and even the mist-shrouded scene on the cover suggests a looming descent into winter, where we might brood on people and events long past.
It promises to be an exploration of what happens when those in authority overlook the most vulnerable in their community, and I look forward to seeing how one character’s grief might lead to greater change in this story once the novel is published.
DECEMBER 2026
As a treat, end the year with some queer gothic vampires.
Possession Island by Sarah McCarry
Standalone
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers - not yet complete for this title. Please do your own research once the book is published):
Bullying, Death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Self-harm, Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse (Note: This list doesn't include all content warnings. Please do your own research before reading this book.)
I doubt I could even count the ways that this book is very much for me and my horror tastes. “Queer gothic thriller” was enough of a genre description, but add to that well-crafted fictional media (the novel takes its name from a fictional novel within the story about female vampires) and 90’s nostalgia? Give it to me yesterday. It also happens to be set in the Pacific Northwest, where I live, so I never stood a chance.
In this story, Angela returns from college only to have her childhood friend pass away. Grieving, she teams up with a high school nemesis to discover Mo’s killer, unearthing secrets of both their families and the town itself.
I love a book-within-a-book trope, and this story inserts excerpts from Angela’s mothers wildly popular vampire book to underscore the eerie happenings in the present day.
I'm all set to love this one, and I can’t wait to read it at the end of this year (or when my ARC request comes through, whichever comes first!)
Well, that really was a calendar full of new horror books exploring everything from grief and historical allegories to haunted television shows and dead rockstars coming back to life!
Something I love about this genre is that there truly is something for everyone, even when you might think there isn’t. Bet you haven’t heard of the “cozy horror” subgenre. And there are always a few “slasher” novels released each year that pay homage to the classics. While this list doesn’t cover every subgenre out there, I hope this list helps you add a few more titles or at least authors to your radar, TBRs both physical, mental, and digital, and perhaps even your ARC request lists.
Feel free to chat with me on The Nest about what you love to read when it’s dark outside (or perhaps in the full light of day, with every lamp turned on for good measure). Happy reading!
All book cover images are sourced from Goodreads/Storygraph.
This article was commissioned and paid for by OwlCrate.
Where mentioned books are available from the store, they may be linked for convenience.
The titles featured have been selected and recommended by the author of this blog,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or endorsements of OwlCrate.
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