Must-Read New Horror, From Light Scares to Nightmare Fuel

Dubbed “your favorite horror writer’s favorite horror author” by Book Riot’s own Liberty Hardy, Brian Evenson has made a name for himself as a genius and giant in the weird fiction space. Like every other Evenson collection — A Collapse of Horses, anyone? — Good Night, Sleep Tight is a must-read new horror book.

Melting faces. Dissolved girls. Birds who once were women. Mariana Enriquez’s signature liminality comes shining through in this new collection bursting with vivid images and unforgettable characters. A Sunny Place for Shady People has garnered oodles of praise from the most prestigious literary reviewers. It’s the book to be seen reading this fall.

If you loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, you’re going to want to pick up a copy of TRVE CVLT. This game book casts you as the drummer for the black metal band Abyss. Recently invited back into the fold, you’ve got the chance to take the stage with your old bandmates. But does the lead singer really want to let bygones be bygones, or is something more sinister behind his olive branch?

In this experimental horror novel, a young man contemplating suicide finds his plans interrupted when he exits the subway train into a giant, meandering station with seemingly no end. Coup de Grâce is a must-read for fans of House of Leaves, or anyone looking to find horror’s next big voice.

Navajoland’s paranormal secrets are revealed in Stanley Milford, Jr.’s The Paranormal Ranger. Here, Milford recounts his experiences as a Navajo Ranger tasked with investigating Bigfoot, skinwalkers, creatures capable of draining whole herds of sheep of their blood, and more. This memoir is perfect for fans of Unsolved Mysteries and Evil.

This new novel from the author of The Deep follows the three Maxwell siblings — Ezri, Eve, and Emanuelle — as they journey back, in the wake of their parents’ untimely deaths, to the majority-white Dallas suburb where they grew up. The siblings remember how strange and sinister their lives were back then. Truth be told, they don’t want to go back. But their parents may have succumbed to the same dark forces the siblings encountered in childhood, and that they cannot abide.

Cast as a “modern gothic punk remix of…Wuthering Heights” in publisher copy, Catherine the Ghost follows the spirit of Cathy Earnshaw as she tries to connect with her daughter, the recently widowed Catherine Linton, from beyond the grave.

When Ivory, a trans woman, discovers the body of a town council member’s transgender daughter on the shore, she sets out to unravel the mystery. But it doesn’t take long for the dead girl to start showing up wherever Ivory goes. Was Cabrina’s death foul play, or merely a tragic accident? After all, Cape Morning is a quiet town, the kind of place where bad things happen to other people…right?

After she saves her betrothed cousin from a ghost-bride — the vengeful spirit of her fiancé’s ex — Bata finds herself in Ibaja-La, the land of the ghost-brides, where she’s imbued with special powers to help her defeat other dangerous spirits. Back in the realm of the living, however, Bata’s powers prove difficult to control, and she’ll have to master them if she wants to save the people she loves.

Containing 25 off-kilter stories set in the liminal space between land and sea, The Off-Season is a must-read new horror book for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Laird Barron. This is daylight horror at its finest, and you’re going to want to pick up your copy ASAP.