25 Great Horror/Thriller Novels I've Read This Year

As of midnight of 20/10/2026, the 'Childhood Scares' competition will be closed wherever you are. 11:59pm in your country will therefore be your last chance for submission.

Welcome to Halloween and thank you for taking the time throughout 2026 to witness as I delved deep into various genres - most of them having something to do with psychological thriller/horror. If you've been around long enough then you'll probably remember when I was obsessively reading the British Library Crime Classics series and the Tales of the Weird. This year has been more about rekindling myself with books that make me genuinely happy and that of course means: lots of horror. A focus on making myself well again after a crippling few years has meant that things are finally in motion - where they will go exactly, I cannot say. I remain positive about the future but honestly, I just wanted to share with you some of my favourite horror and thriller novels of the year because they have made me especially happy.

25 Great Horror/Thriller Novels I've Read This Year

In no particular order...

Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang

Funny and sardonic - Julie Chan is Dead is one of those rare horror novels which will make you both laugh and sit there with a certain amount of dread.

Read Julie Chan is Dead if you enjoyed:

• The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim

• Night Bitch by Rachel Yoder

Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry

Absolutely devastating, this book is about a mother's ultimate choice and what that means for the rest of her family. Oh, and also her perfect son has made a horrifying mistake that colours everyone's life in a shade of deep black.

Red Saving Noah if you enjoyed:

• The Good Samaritan by John Marrs

• Brother by Ania Ahlborn

Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell

Folk horror mixed with the dynamics of a sibling relationship and hinging on the edge of the seasons, this book will both leave you breathless with woodland atmosphere and terrified of what goes on inside the minds of others.

Read Honeysuckle if you enjoyed:

• The Lamb by Lucy Rose

• Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths

The Mad Wife by Meagan Church

As Lulu descends deeper into the hands of a psychological illness, she becomes obsessed with a neighbour. In her narration though, who are you going to believe when she commits what could be - the ultimate act of intrusion...

Read The Mad Wife if you enjoyed:

• Mrs March by Virginia Feito

• The Devil and Mrs Davenport by Paulette Kennedy

Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths

A fantastic folk horror with an air of mystery, a dead woman brings out a mass hysteria that we can see referred to in the stories of old. Terrifying and psychological, this book is one of the greatest novels I have read all year...

Read Greater Sins if you enjoyed:

• Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell

• Bog Queen by Anna North

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

A fun super-charged zombie-apocalypse novel that bleeds out its heart into brilliant atmospheric and psychological writing - even I was surprised I loved something so left-field.

Read One Yellow Eye if you enjoyed:

• John Dies at the End by David Wong

• Itch! by Gemma Amor

Bog Queen by Anna North

Yet another great folk horror I was able to pick up. When a corpse of a woman is found for some reason, there's a huge search to find out who she was and what she's doing there. Before something bad happens...

Read Bog Queen if you enjoyed:

• Greater Sins by Gabrielle Griffiths

• Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley

The House Beyond the Woods by Natasha Vale

Based on an infamous murder of old, this book blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction as it creates a story about life inside the house before and after a family was hacked to death.

Read The House Beyond the Woods if you enjoyed:

• The Back Bedroom by Gregg Olsen

• I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

This claustrophobic number is one of the most experimental yet readable horror novels of the last decade. Terrifying and dark, it definitely gives you the existential kind of dread.

Read Coup de Grâce if you enjoyed:

• A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman

Gothictown by Emily Carpenter

When Billie and her family move into their new house, she thinks she's going to have the life of her dreams - but things turn into a nightmare pretty quickly. As you can imagine, this horror novel has a lot more to offer than simply a haunted house, a lot more indeed...

Read Gothictown if you enjoyed:

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

• Keep it in the Family by John Marrs

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

When a child finds a new "friend", things can be great. Imaginary friends are normal for small children. But not this one... not one who is probably going to hurt her. And are we sure it's imaginary at all?

Read Incidents Around the House if you enjoyed:

• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

• It by Stephen King

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck

Dystopian and endless, this piece of horror fiction messes with the mind. What happens when you're trapped in hell is definitely a question. But this version of hell is filled with dread, terror and the most existential tasks you could think of.

Read A Short Stay in Hell if you enjoyed:

• Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

• The Long Walk by Stephen King

Saltwash by Andrew Michael Hurley

Strangers are frightening at times but when our main character meets a man he's been wanting to meet for a long time, all of a sudden he starts to feel uneasy about the other people in the area. And he has a good reason for the feeling...

Read Saltwash if you enjoyed:

• Bone Harvest by James Brogden

• The Terror by Dan Simmons

The Amish Wife by Gregg Olsen

Based on a true story of a vicious murder, this book creates a whole different atmosphere out of true crime. One in which we understand the abject terror at hand...

Read The Amish Wife if you enjoyed:

• The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

The Book of Witching by C.J Cooke

Witches, the distant past and a truly gothic atmosphere, CJ Cooke is proving to be one of the ones to watch out for when it comes for descriptive horror writing. This book is no different...

Read The Book of Witching if you enjoyed:

• The Gathering by CJ Tudor

• The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy

The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb

A classic that was made into a film that would terrify me as a child, this book was one of my favourites of the year as it blends horror and thriller together in a form of psychological tension that will keep you up at night...

Read The Night of the Hunter if you enjoyed:

• The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

• Hekla's Children by James Brogden

Bone Harvest by James Brogden

Cults, the War and a mysterious animal named 'he who eats the moon'. If you love folk horror like I do, it's going to be difficult staying away from this novel which is, as the kids say, pure nightmare fuel...

Read Bone Harvest if you enjoyed:

• Children of the Corn by Stephen King

• Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley

Serenity Falls by C.J Tudor

Nightmarish and uncanny, this Disney-city of terrors comes alive with an ice-cream truck in the middle of the night and a bunch of weird drownings and murders. Do not be fooled by appearances...

Read Serenity Falls if you enjoyed:

• The Unknown by Riley Sager

• The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

The Unknown by Riley Sager

Review coming soon...

Cultish and horrifying, an isolated island may not be the only problem for our characters, there's so much more to be scared of...

Read The Unknown if you enjoyed:

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

What the Hell Did I Just Read? by David Wong

Review coming soon...

Wacky and fun, this book is what happens when you tell the people who made The Hangover to write an episode of the X-Files. A brilliant, terrifying and hilarious endeavour and part of the series including John Dies at the End...

Read What the Hell Did I Just Read? if you enjoyed:

• One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

• Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

Possession by Peter James

Review coming soon...

When a woman thinks her son has come home, she is shocked to learn he died in a car accident before he was able to. So who is she seeing in her house because it's definitely not her son...

Read Possession if you enjoyed:

• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

• Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Revival by Stephen King

Review coming soon...

An author so great he has 'King' in his name. The lord of horror returns with a book that feels creepy at first and then bursts with existential dread and abject terror. So, a usual Tuesday for Stephen King...

Read Revival if you enjoyed:

• Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Survivor by James Herbert

Review coming soon...

After a plane crash, there are no survivors - except one man who goes on to live out nightmares every single day as he tries to discover what happened and why he lived. Tensed up with survivor's guilt, he pieces this together as a strange force goes on a murderous rampage around the crash site in Eton.

Read The Survivor if you enjoyed:

• The Only One Left by Riley Sager

• Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

Fawn by C.N Vair

Review coming soon...

Probably the best folk horror written in the last year. Fawn tells a 'good for her' story with a horrifying twist that nobody was prepared for but everyone hoped would happen. Atmospheric and dark, it teems with animal and forest delights in the modern day.

Read Fawn if you enjoyed:

• Carrie by Stephen King

• A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers

Child Possessed by David St. Clair

Review coming soon...

This 'based on a true story' novel is one of those that oozes atmosphere. Hard to put down and totally captivating, it is a frightening roller coaster of sorrow and terror...

Read Child Possessed if you enjoyed:

• The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

• Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson

Conclusion

I hope you've enjoyed my Halloween list of great horror/thriller novels I have read in the last year and I genuinely hope you check some of them out. Likewise, if you have any recommendations for me, don't be afraid to write them below!