Horror Lit - Books Reviews, News and Discussions

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24173962

(...)Cosmic horror generally revolves around humanity's contact with an Eldritch Abomination: a being so incomprehensible that merely laying eyes on it is enough to drive a person to the brink of insanity. In many cases, those who have seen the creature are the lucky ones, because they've already cracked. The folks who haven't met it yet must live in constant fear of first contact, which lends cosmic horror stories a delicious ramp of terror that lies in wait. (...)

books:

• The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher
• Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria
• Beneath by Kristi DeMeester
• Blindsight by Peter Watts
• Dead in the Water by Nancy Holder
• The Croning by Laird Barron

https://screenrant.com/horror-books-coming-out-2025-list/

2025 is shaping up to be a great year for horror readers, with a number of exciting new releases hitting shelves over the next year. There are enough of them to keep the scares coming all 12 months, and they span a wide range of story types and tropes. There's truly a horror novel for every type of reader, with a good mix of debut authors and big names adding to the lineup. (...)

Books mentioned in the article:

• Witchcraft For Wayward Girls
• At Dark, I Become Loathsome
• Listen To Your Sister
• They Bloom At Night
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
• Blood On Her Tongue
• Senseless
• When The Wolf Comes Home
• The Staircase In The Woods
• Never Flinch
• The Bewitching
• Lucky Day
• 8114
• Nowhere Burning
• King Sorrow

Heavy Oceans by Tyler Jones is a psychological crime novel that explores family bonds under extreme circumstances. The story follows Jamie Fletcher, a new father, who travels to Hawaii to reconnect with his estranged brother, Eric. After a violent incident, they find themselves on a fishing boat facing cosmic horrors as a sinkhole opens beneath them. The narrative blends survival and existential dread, though some character arcs feel unresolved by the end. Overall, it offers a gripping mix of family drama and deep-sea terror.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217339057-heavy-oceans

https://fanfiaddict.com/review-heavy-oceans-by-tyler-jones/

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

https://readjumpscares.com/2025s-new-horror-books/

Here are all the new horror books coming in 2025, featuring an array of slashers, ghosts, vampires, cults, monsters both human and otherwise, and all manner of nebulous eldritch terrors.

The definition of scary changes from person to person. For some, it might be ghosts and haunted houses. For others, serial killers. For still others, the most frightening things are the ones that go bump in the night, unseen.

Despite the width of this spectrum, what unites all lovers of horror is the thrill that horror novels inspire within us: that universal sensation of your heart thumping out of your chest, as cold sweat breaks on your forehead when you turn the page.

To create this list, we went to the darkest, most ghostly corners of the literary world. Without further ado, here are the 100 best horror novels of all time — it's safe to say that we hope they'll keep you up at night. Happy reading!

https://books2read.com/Unfathomable

Step into the unknown with Songs of the Unfathomable, a haunting collection of cosmic horror stories that explore the fragile border between human understanding and the vast, merciless forces of the universe. Through five chilling tales, author Callum Matthews masterfully conjures realms where time and space unravel, and humanity's place in the cosmos is stripped bare. From the depths of alien...

https://bsky.app/profile/talesofdespair.com

Coming soon from Titan Books is Secret Lives of the Dead by Tim Lebbon, author of The Silence. His latest novel is a dark folk horror tale of a deadly family curse, crime, and murder. Dread Central is excited to exclusively reveal the cover for the upcoming novel, as well as an excerpt to give you a taste of Lebbon’s new piece of horror.

King has a vast catalog of books to choose from that could take a horror lover years to get through, yet some may be searching for other horror authors that can reproduce the same magic as King. Fortunately, there are lots of writers in the horror scene who are publishing incredible books that are just as creepy as any standard King book. On top of that, some of these authors are King collaborators, giving them an even greater connection to the horror legend. All in all, these authors are worth checking out for those readers who love being scared.

Stephen King’s next novel has been announced and detailed by Entertainment Weekly this afternoon. The outlet reports that King’s Never Flinch will be released on May 27, 2025.

EW details, “Never Flinch features intertwining storylines — one about a killer on a diabolical revenge mission and another about a vigilante stalking a feminist celebrity speaker.”

Of particular note, frequent King character Holly Gibney will return in the new novel!

Here’s the official plot synopsis: “When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to ‘kill thirteen innocents and one guilty’ in ‘an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,’ Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22134494

Blindsight is a unique kind of first-contact novel. Its focus is not on humanity’s first meeting with an alien civilization, but rather that this civilization is highly intelligent, yet lacks consciousness.

• What if intelligence can thrive without consciousness?

• What if there is nothing special about self-awareness?

• What if it is just evolutionary dead weight, bound to disappear soon?

The idea rests on machine metaphors for life and mind, which strike this columnist as profoundly mistaken.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48484.Blindsight

Blindsight Sci-fi Short Film - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkR2hnXR0SM

The Horrible Truth About Consciousness | Blindsight

It’s been another massive year for horror, whether we’re talking about film, TV, or books. On that note, the literary world is teeming with spine-tingling graphic novels, nonfiction books, and unsettling novels to keep you busy this Halloween season and beyond.

books mentioned in the article:

• Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath
• David Cronenberg: Clinical Trials by Violet Lucca
• Horror Movie: A Novel by Paul Tremblay
• House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias
• I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
• Influencer by Adam Cesare
• Monsters, Movies and Me – True Tales of My Journey Into Cult Horror Films by Frank Dietz
• Pay the Piper: A Novel by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
• The Queen: A Novel by Nick Cutter
• Terrifier 2: The Official Movie Novelization by Tim Waggoner

Additionally, the article highlights two new books related to John Carpenter's films:

• Escape Artists Vol. 1: Escape from New York Interviews by Andreas Johansson
• Escape Artists Vol. 2: Escape from L.A. Interviews by Andreas Johansson

Curdle Creek By Yvonne Battle-Felton

Nether Station By Kevin J. Anderson

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21340577

As readers and writers, there are many immediate images that we conjure when imagining the weird tale.

Jeff and Ann VanderMeer from their site Weird Fiction Review give an excellent overview and definition of the Weird and by association the weird tale:

“As a twentieth and twenty-first-century art form, the story of The Weird is the story of the refinement (and destabilization) of supernatural fiction within an established framework but also of the welcome contamination of that fiction by the influence of other traditions, some only peripherally connected to the fantastic.” (...)

Books suggested:

• The King in Yellow By Robert W. Chambers

• Zothique: The Final Cycle - By Clark Ashton Smith

• The Great God Pan By Arthur Machen

• The House on the Borderland By William Hope Hodgson

• The Horla and Others By Guy de Maupassant

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18950890

The balancing point of “cozy Lovecraftian horror” is going to be subjective. It needs to at least work as a weird tale on its own; it needs to be a part of or allude to the Mythos in a way that the readers can recognize and respond to. Jose Cruz’ four elements of Familiarity, Sensuousness, Distance, and Fun are all important—but three of those, at least, are typical of most Mythos stories by default. Readers rarely identify with finding our great-great-great-grandma was a Deep One or Ape Princess, or experience the anxiety of living in the attic room of a witch house and dealing with an extradimensional rodent infestation when they really should be focusing on their finals. The Fun aspect of cozy horror is probably the trickiest and most argumentative aspect of the whole business.

That being said, I believe “On Safari in R’lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera” (2020) by Elizabeth Bear stands out as a very good representation of cozy Lovecraftian horror. The overall shape of the narrative is intensely familiar: how many scions of Innsmouth (never mentioned under that name) have come back home, in how many different variations? Yet the way the story is told is relatively light and novel: a fifty-something female physics professor with tenure and a penchant for sushi. A perfect setup for any number of funny-because-its-true comments about the lives of women in academia.

...

It is the kind of good, clean fun that you can have when you learn to stop worrying and love the Lovecraft Mythos—and it managed to do it without naming Deep Ones, without running across a copy of the Necronomicon, and only mentioning Miskatonic Univeristy once and in regards to a failed graduate thesis in genetics. If the rules at play seem to owe a little more to the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game than Lovecraft’s original, then at least Bear has the good sense not to recapitulate the entire Mythos, August Derleth style. She gives just enough lore to keep things moving, and no more.

https://lithub.com/10-works-of-literary-horror-you-should-read/

Like all genres, literary fiction included, horror is a watery one. What makes something horror? What makes something literary? No one can say exactly. (...) I suppose my idea of literary horror is similar to the “suggestive horror” that Brian Evenson discusses during an interview at The White Review: “The notion of a more suggestive horror, which raises the spectre of an insidiously elusive reality, is much more frightening than a lot of what gets called horror, and more realistic than what gets called realism.”

Book suggested:

• The Changeling by Victor LaValle
• Last Days by Brian Evenson
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• .Piercing by Ryu Murakami
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
• After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
• Blood Crime by Sebastià Alzamora
• Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Horror books teachings.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20741287

This post is all about 23 must-read Cosmic Horror Books, you need to read as soon as possible!

1. Monster by Christopher Cunningham

2. A Song for the Void by Andrew C. Piazza

3. A Lush and Seething Hell by John Hornor Jacobs (Author), and Chuck Wendig (Introduction)

4. Periphery by Michael Winter

5. Violent Wonder by Fredrick Niles

6. Tales from Brackish Harbor by Cassandra L. Thompson

7. By the Light of Dead Star by Andrew Van Wey

8. Dead Sea by Tim Curran

9. Tales From the Gas Station by Andrew Van Wey

10. Suburban Monster by Christopher Hawkins

11. You Shall Never Know Security by J.R. Hamantaschen

12. Coffinwood by Aaron Beardsell

13. Dead Shift by John Llewellyn Probert

14. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

15. What Lurks Beneath by Ryan Lockwood

16. Cthulhu Reloaded by David Conyers

17. What Lurks Beneath by Eddie Generous

18. Let Sleeping Gods Lie by David J. West

19. Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey

20. Kraulaak by S.R. Marks

21. Shadow over Odiome by Seth W. James

22. Terror at Twll Du by J.S. Douglas

23. The Recluse by David Barker

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18035169

Powerful. Brutal. Bursting at the seams with cosmic horror, ennui, violence and self-annihilation. There are many ways to describe Laird Barron’s latest collection, NOT A SPECK OF LIGHT: Stories (Bad Hand Books, 370 pp., paperback, $19.99), but superb works just fine.

A murderer recounts his most memorable kills and how his victims have haunted him in “The Glorification of Custer Poe.” In “Joren Falls,” a retired couple learn to live with the hungry abomination that dwells in their attic. “The Blood in My Mouth” follows a man whose partner will do anything to see her dog again, even if it means delving deep into the supernatural.

Recurring elements across the 16 tales in this collection — space as a threatening place full of monsters; Alaska as the cold, unforgiving backdrop where death lurks at all times; violence as the answer to most questions — give it a pleasing sense of cohesion. Barron’s work is where eldritch horrors and unflinching brutality collide with poetry. “Not a Speck of Light” proves Barron belongs on the Mount Rushmore of dark speculative fiction.

The five books are:

• Not a Speck of Light by Laird Barron
• The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottir
• Incarnate by Richard Thomas
• Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror, translated and edited by Xueting C. Ni

“With this debut novella, Ajram delves into shadowy liminal spaces, allowing readers to guide the main character deeper into a nightmarish labyrinth with no escape.”

Vicken’s plan is to throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and say goodbye to everything. Seems fitting after a life of nothing but depression and pain. But when he steps off the subway, he is soon caught in an endless, looping station.

Determined to escape, Vicken explores the corridors and rooms in the station. No matter how many hallways he goes through, or vast cathedral-esque rooms, the exit is nowhere to be found.

The more he explores, the more Vicken is convinced that being trapped in his strange new prison isn’t an accident. And while walking through the shadows, he comes to realize that he almost certainly is not alone. (...)

Full Article

We’re coming into my favorite time of year, and if you’re a horror fan like me, you’re probably just as excited as I am for the autumn months. Of course, we read horror all year around, but there’s something about reading horror in the fall that just hits different. They don’t call it spooky season for nothing, after all! And in fall 2024, we’re getting so many exciting new horror reads to get us through our favorite season.

There’s so much good horror coming out this September. It was hard to narrow it down to just ten titles to share with you. Included in this list are some of my most anticipated horror novels of the whole year. Along with some classic scary things like ghosts and vampires (a whole lot of vampires), September is coming through with fresh new horror concepts you’ve never read before. Scary horror video games. A violent world with no fear. A home improvement show with a spooky twist. The list goes on.

Every book on this list deserves to be on your TBR this season. So grab a PSL, put up your creepy Halloween decorations, enjoy the cool breeze and the changing leaves outside, and most importantly, pick up these horror books as soon as they hit shelves. (...)

Here are eight great weird horror novels to lean into that feeling of being unsettled for no discernable reason.

• Chlorine by Jade Song
• Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang
• We Spread by Iain Reid
• Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
• The Fisherman by John Langan
• Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
• Bunny by Mona Awad

https://screenrant.com/horror-books-terrifying-not-scared-easily/

Summary

• These 10 horror books, including The Hunger and The Troop, are sure to send chills down your spine with their gripping plots and terrifying imagery.
• The authors, like Stephen Graham Jones and Grady Hendrix, craft intense atmospheres with their details and sensations, immersing readers in chilling stories.
• With novels like Pet Sematary and Tender is the Flesh, readers will be haunted by themes of resurrection and inhumanity long after turning the final page.