10 Psychological Horror Books To Make You Feel Unsettled

The Haunting of Hill House is a real classic in this genre. It’s a story of four people, led by Dr. John Montague, an investigator of the paranormal, who come to a haunted house to experience something supernatural.

Upon arrival, they’re expecting something minor, but soon they experience a wide range of inexplicable events, most of which seem to point in the same direction and involve one of the women, the reserved and insecure Eleanor. At first, the others suspect that she’s behind everything, but soon it turns out that it’s quite the opposite as the house slowly begins to take over her.

This book is still very popular, many decades after its release, and it’s definitely written in a way that resonates with modern readers. The characters and their dynamics are carefully built, combined with the atmospheric setting, and Jackson masterfully depicts the protagonist’s slow descent into insanity in a way that chills you to the bone.

Ghost Story is another classic, published towards the end of the 1970s. This novel follows a group of elderly men who meet regularly to tell ghost stories.

After a series of mysterious events, including the death of one of the friends, and the appearance of a young woman who brings back uncomfortable memories from the past, they decide to invite Don Wanderley to the town, the nephew of the now deceased fifth member and a suspense writer, hoping that he can help them investigate what’s going on.

Soon, it turns out the ghost stories they were telling one another were not as fictional as they seemed, and they also begin to discover disturbing connections between them.

This book is very creepy, blending the supernatural with psychological suspense, and it goes on to show the significance of the stories we tell and how the past will always come back to haunt you.

If you’re into reading horror stories or even just reading in general, then you must have heard of Stephen King at some point. His books are incredibly popular, and he is widely considered a master of psychological horror, having written The Shining.

Published in 2008, Duma Key is King’s more recent novel that tells the story of a man who moves to the mysterious Florida island and begins painting as therapy, only to discover that his paintings have evil powers. His paintings depict events he has no way of knowing about, and soon it turns out that everyone who buys them dies shortly after. Throughout the book, he also meets some of the locals, and it becomes clear to him that something is very wrong on the strange island.

Duma Key isn’t necessarily frightening right from the beginning, but it’s definitely unsettling, and the kind of story where you just keep wondering what will happen next. There’s a slow, subtle build-up, and the result is a deeply disturbing yet equally fascinating novel.

This novel by the famous Scottish writer Iain (M.) Banks tells the story of Frank, a teenager who lives with his father on a Scottish island. Frank has quite an eccentric family, to say the least. His mother abandoned them long ago, his father is a hippie anarchist, and his brother, Eric, was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Frank isn’t any better. He is violent and twisted, and most likely a psychopath.

The story begins with news of Eric’s escape from the psychiatric hospital, and him being on his way home. For Frank, the prospect of Eric’s return is both scary and exciting. As he prepares for his brother’s arrival, we get a glimpse into the boys’ troubled past and why they turned out this way.

This is a dark and disturbing story, but, in a strange way, it is also a grotesque coming-of-age narrative you just can’t look away from. The depiction of violence in The Wasp Factory is very graphic, so it is definitely not for everyone.

House of Leaves is said to be many things at once, but it’s definitely a book with some typical horror elements. It’s not necessarily scary in the traditional way, but it messes with your brain and stays with you for a long time.

A lot happens in this book. There’s a storyline about a weird house that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, building on some traditional horror tropes, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, as there’s so much more going on.

Full of footnotes, fake references to non-existent works and people, and a bunch of different narrators, this is a story within a story (within a story), usually labelled a satire of academia and occasionally a love story.

The typography and layout are also insane, and some may find it challenging to get through, but since its release in 2000, it has become a cult classic. If you’re interested in metafiction that gives you existential dread, this is definitely for you.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things deserves a prize for being one of the most disturbing meet-the-parents stories ever. The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, Jake's girlfriend, who meets his parents for the first time in a faraway place.

The evening gradually grows increasingly uncomfortable both inside and outside the family home, and the story ends with an incredible plot twist that I won't spoil.

Throughout the story, Reid finds the perfect balance of suspense and absurdity, capturing the frightening thing that is the human psyche in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time, even if you have no idea what’s going on.

If this title sounds familiar, it’s probably because of the movie adaptation directed by the legendary Charlie Kaufman, which came out in 2020. If you haven’t watched it yet, I recommend reading the book first!

This book is by a Native American author from the Blackfeet tribe, and it presents a story with heavy social commentary that not only explores the Indigenous experience but also scares you to death in the process.

The Only Good Indians follows four men who are haunted by something they did many years ago: they killed an elk on sacred ground, and now it seems that a mysterious entity wants revenge.

This is probably the closest to the slasher genre on this list, but it’s much more ambitious than what you would normally expect. It has mystery, questions of identity and heritage, and the burden of a past (and past sins) you can never really get rid of, all embedded in an intriguing cultural context. It’s both dreadful and disturbing, yet an incredible story you shouldn't miss.

Diavola is a relatively recent take on the haunted-house trope, combined with family drama, set during a vacation in Italy.

Anna has always been the black sheep of the family, so being on holiday with them already feels like a nightmare. Things become more unsettling when she starts hearing strange noises coming from the house, discovers a locked room, and begins having nightmares that haunt her. After a while, it seems the house's atmosphere starts to affect the whole family.

This story has many Gothic horror elements in a modern setting with a particular focus on family dynamics. It’s definitely scary, but not to an extent that overshadows the real toxicity between the family members. This is a relatively slow-paced story that’s also a lot funnier than most of the other books on this list, with a set of insufferable characters that you love to hate.

Horror Movie, as the title implies, is a story about the making of a movie, or rather, two of them. The story centers on a 1993 arthouse horror film made by a bunch of young filmmakers that ended in disaster, with only one cast member surviving. Only three scenes were ever released, but of course, the movie became a cult classic.

Many years later, Hollywood execs think it would be a great idea to do a reboot (of course, they do). We get a new set of characters and the surviving member of the original group, who helps them with a cursed script that starts to take over their actual lives.

Horror Movie is very meta. The lines between what is real and what isn’t become increasingly blurred in this book, and this, along with its unique format, makes it a great choice for lovers of horror movies or anyone looking for a disorienting psychological horror book that will make them question everything. 

Mexican Gothic tells the story of Noemí Taboada, a socialite from Mexico City who, after receiving a strange letter from her cousin Catalina regarding her new husband, Virgil Doyle, and the dreary mansion they live in, asks for help and decides to travel to the town of El Triunfo to investigate in person.

In El Triunfo, Noemi meets the English Doyle family, and everybody seems to behave in a weird way, not to mention the haunted mansion. As Catalina’s health continues to worsen, Noemi is determined to find out what’s really going on.

Mexican Gothic has been one of the most popular horror novels of recent years, and for good reason. Moreno-Garcia nails both the Mexican and the Gothic parts, depicting life in Mexico during the 1950s in a narrative that also addresses serious issues such as colonialism, traditions, and class disparity, making it not only terrifying but also an incredibly interesting piece of historical fiction.