A dark night, a storm, an old house, a desolate location. Old stories that carry a warning, ancient wisdom. Superstitions and secrets, strange noises in the forest, old gods, and the rituals performed to appease them. These are some of the elements of folk horror that lend it its chilling atmosphere of dread and foreboding.
The term ‘folk horror’ was first used to describe films such as The Wickerman (1973), set in rural Britain. But fear and reverence of the supernatural have been passed down through communities on all continents, throughout history, in ancient folklore and spiritual practices. Here are some of the creepiest and most chilling folk horror books you’ll ever read.
From Classics To New Releases: Folk Horror Books For Every Reader
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Child abuse, death, sexual content, suicide, medical content (Most violence off-page)
A doctor with a fascination with the occult experiments on a young woman he ‘rescued’, with disastrous results. He lobotomises her in the hope that it would enable her to see ‘the great god Pan’, but soon after, strange and sinister events follow. This Pan isn’t the flute-playing, fun-loving deity of Greek myth, so much as the Devil himself.
Hailed as one of the first writers of ‘weird tales’ along with Edgar Allan Poe, much of this Welsh author’s work has roots in folklore and the occult, and influenced later authors such as Lovecraft.
At the time of publishing in 1894, The Great God Panwas considered immoral and decadent due to its violent and sexual content. While it's a product of its time, full of misogyny, classism, and racism, it's also a true classic of the folk horror subgenre.
The Afterdark by E Latimer
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Death, body horror, toxic friendship, physical abuse, addiction, child abuse, homophobia, emotional abuse
This YA dark academia horror contrasts the danger lurking outside with the dark secrets within. Latimer combines sapphic romance, an eerie setting, and psychological horror into a compelling story.
Surrounded by a forest, Northcroft is an elite boarding school in America’s Pacific Northwest. During the day, it seems normal, but at night, once the bells toll, the doors must be shuttered against the dark, as the forest changes and horrors emerge in the Afterdark.
Evie and Holland share a growing attraction for one another, but they’re both hiding secrets. When something outside in the Afterdark calls to each of them, they have to decide whether they will resist the summons or give in and embrace the darkness.
(Note: apparently, the audiobook version adds extra elements of creepiness to the atmospheric tension!)
Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Ohno
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Animal cruelty, animal death, murder, gore, supernatural possession, physical abuse, emotional abuse, mental illness, suicide, abortion, teenage death (off-page), pregnancy
This story from Nuzo Ohno, the ‘Queen of African horror’, follows eleven-year-old Nigerian girl Bata, whose near-death experience turns her completely white and leaves her suffering from vivid nightmares. But the horrors she dreams of are real, and Bata is being possessed by spirits as she sleeps.
During an attempted exorcism, Bata finds herself in Ibaja-La, a realm where ghost-brides dwell: those from every culture who died tragically before their wedding day. Some are peaceful, but some want vengeance.
Bata is given secret powers and returns to the land of the living, where she must protect her family, especially her cousin, who is about to be married, if she can survive a murderous attack from the ghost-bride who used to be betrothed to her groom.
More a family drama than a supernatural folk horror tale, this book offers a compelling take on the home life, culture, and society of a small Nigerian town.
Where Devils Sing by Xan Kur
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Animal death, animal cruelty, blood, suicide, child abuse, alcoholism, domestic abuse, racism
This YA folk horror novelfrom Punjabi-American author Xan Kur sets the mystery of a teen’s disappearance against a backdrop of sweltering Summer heat in a small Georgia town.
Every thirteen years, the cicadas emerge from the ground with their maddening, incessant screaming; every time they re-emerge, thirteen townspeople disappear. But only from Carrion, the poor side of town, and never from the affluent Lake Clearwater community.
Four teens from Carrion, whose lives are more intertwined than they first realise, investigate the mysterious disappearance of one of their friends. They uncover dark secrets and power politics involving an urban legend of three demon brothers who appear to desperate people, offering them their deepest desires at a devastating cost.
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Animal cruelty and animal death, torture, violence, colonisation, grief, suicidal thoughts, sexual content, death of a parent
A dark, atmospheric tale of the fear of the unknown, and a woman taking back her power. New England, 1666: Agitha is an outsider, an Englishwoman sent to a small Puritan village in Connecticut to marry a stranger.
Before long, she is widowed and then accused of witchcraft by the fearful townsfolk. But Agitha comes from a line of cunningfolk, women with a special understanding of the natural and supernatural world. She makes a deal with an ancient spirit of the forest known as Slewfoot, half-man, half-goat, considered by some as a saviour and others as a devil.
A clash between the Pagan wildfolk and the Puritan colonists ensues, which threatens to destroy them all. This story asks the question, which monsters are worse: those who dwell in the woods, or those who claim righteousness but hide their sins in shadows?
This book includes over two dozen gorgeous artworks by the author, which add to the reader’s immersion into this sinister and unforgiving world.
Song of the Red Squire by C.W. Blackwell
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Death, gore, mental illness, alcoholism, physical abuse, grief, sexual content
This novella is an atmospheric folk horror with a dash of noir thriller. Set in the bucolic Ashe County, North Carolina, in 1949, the book opens with Charlie, an inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, travelling to record heirloom apple varieties. He’s expecting an easy assignment, but out of the train window, he sees something awful and immediately swallows a handful of pills.
Charlie didn’t survive WWII unscathed, and we can’t tell if he’s really seeing horrors or if they are the product of an unstable mind. When he follows a mysterious woman deep into the Blue Ridge Mountains, he finds an old village whose inhabitants still follow unsettling old-world customs to ensure a bountiful harvest. For apples this good, the devil must be fed…
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Animal death, gore, death, racism, alcoholism, drug abuse, addiction. Emphasis on the warning of animal cruelty and death for this one.
Ten years ago, four Blackfeet friends committed a terrible transgression while hunting elk, and now the past has come back to haunt them... Or rather, hunt them. A terrifying supernatural entity is bent on revenge, seemingly unstoppable. These men aren’t bad people, but the crime they committed created a shapeshifting spirit of vengeance, which has already claimed one of their number and is relentlessly tracking the others.
Jones, a Blackfeet himself, has crafted a violent story of vengeance that explores where cultural identity and living in the wider society clash, and the cost of breaking tradition. This book is brutal, fast-paced, and visceral, but it also has some humor and hope.
The Haar by David Sodergren
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Gore, body horror, violence, grief, sexual content, self-harm, forced institutionalization, animal death
Widowed Muriel McAuley has lived all her life in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven, and intends to die there too. But overseas developers are buying up the entire area, evicting residents and planning to raze the village to build a seaside resort.
It seems like there is no stopping ‘progress’ until the coastal mist, the Haar, rolls inland, bringing with it a grotesque creature, offering horror and madness, and gruesome death to the soulless capitalists.
This folk horror fairytale has sentimental and bittersweet moments amongst the body horror and gore. The elderly protagonist is strong-willed and compassionate, the evil is all too human (if a little caricatured), and the romance is both bizarre and heartwarming.
Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley
Content Warnings (may contain spoilers):
Animal cruelty, child death, animal death, gore, murder, mental illness, blood, injury detail, body horror
This book is a chilling tale of grief and loss, obsession and madness, and murder and the occult.
At Starve Acre, their house on the moors, Juliet and Richard cope with the sudden death of their young son Ewan in different ways. Juliet seeks guidance from the Beacons, occultists who claim to be able to make contact with the dead and through whom Juliet hopes to anchor the spirit of Ewan.
Richard begins to dig in the barren ground near the house in search of the roots of the legendary Stythwaite oak. Local folklore holds that it was a hanging tree for murderers whose crimes were out of character, committed under the urging of the sinister spirit Jack Grey.
It turns out that before his death, Ewan had been committing cruel acts of violence against other children and small animals, saying Jack Grey made him do it. This adds guilt to the weight of his parents’ grief. When Richard finds the roots and unearths some rabbit bones, he brings them inside in a box, and soon things start to spiral.
The setting is bleak and dreary, the atmosphere tense and unsettling, and the sorrow chokes everyone involved. Juliet and Richard disagree on whether the cause and solution are spiritual or psychological in nature, and ultimately, the ending offers horrific answers.
Which of these chilling reads will you be adding to your TBR pile? No need to save them all for spooky season; these are great for any time you want to indulge in a creepy, atmospheric tale of horror. Happy reading!
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