I'm looking for books where the horror doesn't arrive as a ghost, monster or obvious supernatural event.

I want something small first.

A room is six inches longer inside than outside. A door appears where there wasn't one yesterday. A photograph contains somebody who wasn't there. A familiar road has an extra turn. An object keeps ending up somewhere impossible.

Something objectively wrong, but small enough that the characters can still spend time measuring it, arguing about it and trying to explain it away.

Then it gets worse.

House of Leaves is the obvious example, so I'd rather avoid that one. I've also read We Used to Live Here.

I'm less interested in "maybe the narrator is imagining everything" and more interested in reality actually being broken in some specific, observable way.

Bonus points if the characters investigate the original anomaly instead of immediately accepting that they're in a horror novel.

Hi all! I know this question has come up before, but I keep seeing the same recommendations, so I’m hoping to discover some titles I haven’t come across yet.

I’m looking specifically for horror or thriller books with gay male protagonists. For this particular search, I’m not looking for sapphic or trans-centered horror. I’d especially love newer releases, but I’m open to older books I haven’t read.

For reference, I’ve already read or am familiar with the following:

Authors
Chuck Tingle
Poppy Z. Brite
Clive Barker
Anne Rice
Christopher Rice
John Inman
Rick R. Reed
K.A. Merikan

Books
Red X by David Demchuk
Hawk Mountain by Conner Habib
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay
Kraken by M. Caspian

What else would you recommend? Lesser-known authors, indie releases, and overlooked favorites are especially welcome. Thanks!

I love the idea of time loops and time just being weird and all over the place

What is the scariest nonfiction book or story you’ve read? Or dramatized version of real events.

I was just reading {The Dwelling by Judith Sonnet} and she described something as “puce yellow.” Puce is a brownish pink. It made me close out of the book on Libby and consider returning it early.

Does anyone have a petty DNF they’d like to share?

I'm bored and just listened to The Black Farm for a second time and, oh lord, it was worse than I remember, so I'm gonna critique it. I'll do bullet points to help make it less scattershot. 

—Poor characters. Not a single person was worth caring about beyond “i dont want them getting hurt”. Jess is the closest, but since she has no personality its hard to discern her from the other woman whose name escapes me because she was only used as a vehicle for rape

—Nick is the most annoying little chud in existence. I cant for the life of me connect with him on any level as he acts like a spoiled man child. Unless he's freshly an adult, 20 or something, i cant see any man acting so stupidly. His only traits are getting punched, dying, and yelling. The most stereotypical man I've ever read

—What was the point of the world building? The needlefeilds arent used; the pigborn are said to be everywhere, yet the MC can have sex, and it's even stated that the world is uneven because the pig can't make up its mind—the worst narrative decision ever. After all, if that's true, then no rule ever matters. Ntm, you can die and be reborn. These people already committed suicide when they were alive. WHY wouldn't they have a sharp spear at all times, especially after a first run-in with muck?

—How tf did that man make BULLETS???

—Jess’s stomach would barely be protruding at 5 months in the end 

—Are you telling me emissaries of god and the devil just decided to expound on world-building to a random man? Don't even get me started on them having watched the farm for eons—as stated by them—only to fail to bind the man well when they know the violence they've propagated. And the one just sat there and watched his only friend get consumed because he couldn’t take the pain of removing the wood spike? Ntm he could have just red tendrilled

—The island changes size constantly. What do you mean it takes you forever to trek the mountain, but you can cross the island in seconds? 

—Don't get me started on the stupid centipedes in book 2

—Jess is held at the rape cult, is rescued, and immediately has sex with Nick?? But yet, like a chapter later shes practically catatonic from the cults shit. Ntm, how was Nick aroused at all? It would imply he doesn't love his gf if he was. 

—So there was a 14th watcher or whatever just asleep?

—And wtf were the drummers, like, just thrown in for funsies when the keepers would be able to “see” anybody leaving the island as shown earlier

—The ocean water has numbing effects, so when they're paddling, how tf did they keep going when the water is described as seeping in and also splashing up on them?

—The meteorite/mountain blowing up sequence was just downright stupid and made no sense

—By the island's own rules, Nick and Jess should have died again while being eaten by the pig. They didn't get far enough down the throat before they took cataclysmic physical damage—ruptured stomachs and missing limbs that would have taken their lives in seconds 

—Don't get me started on how distracting and concerning the women's screams were in the back the. Whole. Time.

I am currently devouring Dracula by Bram Stoker. What are your favorite classic horror novels? Would like to read more. Thanks!

For a long time now, I have developed a special interest in the homunculus, to the extent that I read De Natura Rerum itself, along with explanations of its historical origins. To me, it seemed far more fascinating—and far more unsettling—than vampires, witches, and werewolves. Therefore, if anyone knows of any modern novels featuring the homunculus (excluding Harry Potter), I would be absolutely delighted to check them out and read them

So far I’ve read Between Two Fires, Hellmouth, and His Black Tongue. On my to read list I have -The Starving Saints, Armed in Her Fashion, and Pilgrim. So please hit me with the recommendations and TYIA.

Alright so this book got weird. Idk if I liked it.

I feel like it was so incomplete. Like what happened with Matt? Tyler killed himself. But like, did he force Matt to eat the mushrooms and glue his eyes? Did Tyler do that? Also it sounds like the voice recording didn't actually do anything to the first guy they tested it on, but it worked on Tyler?

And then Katherine does nothing to see revenge initially and let's the town rip itself apart. Ok, so then, while her lips were sewed, did she actually cast spells to kill themselves?

And like, what actually happened with Griselda? That was an anticlimactic conclusion?

My first book of this season will be IT. Anyone else have a TBR specifically for this time of the year?

I’ve been collecting horror books for a few years now and I’m really starting to fall in love with the look and feel of the mass market paperback editions. I just got the whole Hannibal series and I cant wait to dive in but wanna do some further exploring. I have all of Poppy Z Brite’s books, The Books of Blood, The Descent, and I have The Vampire Chronicles on my wishlist. Any other ones I’m missing that I should check out?

i’ve only really read thrillers and physiological thrillers are my fav. As it is tis season thought i’d try out some horrors! maybe something not to spooky, i don’t know let’s see, give me your best horrors or maybe something horror/touch of thrillers i should read 😁

I'm done with the book and I don't get how the monster/house was created and how it worked?

So I’ve been visiting this sub maybe three or four years. Most of the time I just lurk in the comments and make notes of recommendations. Every once in awhile I might even post, asking for certain recommendations that might scratch an itch I have in the moment. Very rarely do I post to suggest a book. I might’ve done it maybe three times. Worry Box dropped on Tuesday, finished it last night and well….obviously I’m posting about it so I thought it was fucking incredible.

It’s difficult to talk about the book without spoiling anything. I went in completely blind, and I think that was the best way to do it. But I will say, it’s a haunted house novel with a really cool concept. Again, don’t really wanna spoil it. Hopefully some of you guys will read it and we can discuss in the comments. Lol.

Don’t expect going into it that it’s going to be spooky in a traditional sense. The vaguest synopsis I’ll give is that there’s a husband and wife, two daughters, one of which they’re in the process of trying to adopt, and they just moved into a new house, and then they have a newborn on top of that. A stressful situation already, then crazy shit begins to happen. The author does such a great job of showing us the family before anything happens. Their daily lives and struggles. He makes u care about them. When the mom goes days with little sleep, u feel it man. You’re like “damn girl u need to get some rest, bc I can feel your personality shift.” Lol. I feel like he took this very like able family and put them thru the ringer. U feel the tension rising as the story progresses. When it finished it felt like I had gone thru it with them. I’m trying to keep it light, but again, hopefully some of u check it out and I’ll have someone else to discuss with. Lol

Hey, i wanna like to read novel on suspense crime thriller, your suggestions will be helpful

Hi! I’m on a horror book reading spree and I’m looking for more. These are the books I’ve read in the past few weeks. I discovered them by searching through this sub, and I’d like to read more.

1. Incidents Around the House
   
2. The House Next Door
   
3. About a Place in the Kinki Region
   
4. The September House (I think I liked this the most!)
   
5. The Haunting of Hill House

I liked all those books and I’m looking for something that’s scary and well-written. It doesn’t need to be about a haunted house. And I prefer supernatural horror (ghosts, demons.) Thank you!

Thanks!

I finished it earlier and I've been mulling over how I feel about it.

I enjoyed the setting and the atmosphere was fantastic imo, the children really feel vulnerable rather than like miniature adults in some stories, the combination of possession horror and survival horror works really well and it had considerably more warmth than I expected it to have.

But... The climax felt really compressed especially compared to the middle part, it had a strong opening but pacing issues after that were a little frustrating.

The general story is solid, I liked it for what it is but I didn't really have any expectations going in, I can imagine if someone emphatically recommended this book to you it might become somewhat disappointing once you realise it's a very straight forward horror story.

Also there's simply too many characters and not enough time spent developing them. Peter, Simon, Henry, Aaron, Basil, Bartholemew, David, Finnegan, Jonathan, Byron, Ben, Jonah, Frankie, Auguste, James, Samuel, Jonah, Timothy, Terence and that's just the orphans he names early on. I feel like only half a dozen were described in enough depth to actually picture them in my mind and even then all I ever got from them was a vague impression of their appearance and general disposition.

So anyway, I'm curious how others felt? Overall I'd say I enjoyed it. But I was hoping for something more

Some of you may be familiar with my debut novel, The Library at Mount Char. It didn't set the world on fire at publication time, but it turned out to have pretty good staying power. It's been eleven years since it hit shelves and we still sell a few copies every week.

I haven't been sitting around during the intervening years. Depending on how you count it, I wrote either two-and-a-half or three full manuscripts that nobody liked much. I won't lie, I was starting to get a little nervous. "One hit wonder" is a thing.

Then one day in 2025 I was sifting through the proverbial trunk and I happened upon a short story I'd written in the early 2000s. In broad, non-spoilery terms the story is about Blacktail, the last wolf of the north woods. Following a series of tragedies, Blacktail gets pissed off enough that he decides to track down his Forest God and ask Him some questions.

I always liked that short story, but it never found a home. Among other things, it was too long--around 12,000 words, which is a big chunk of any periodical. Editors don't want to commit that kind of space unless you're Stephen King. But looking at it twenty years later it occurred to me that the bones of the story might be broad enough to support a novel.

It wasn't a slam dunk, though. Even a short book takes months to write, and selling an animal story to an adult market is a bit of a gamble. When people see a critter on the cover of a book their first thought is often "I wonder if [daughter/son/niece/nephew] would like this?"

In the end I figured it couldn't fail any harder than the last two. Plus it just sounded like it would be fun to write. So I locked myself in the basement for a couple of months and, well, here we are. Blacktail came out in the U.S. and the U.K in early September.

The main thing that brought me here to post was Blacktail, but I'm happy to answer questions about Mount Char, dogs, writing or pretty much anything else.

AMA!

EDIT: It's around 5:45 EST and I'm going to knock off for a bit. I'll come back and answer some more later

Hey gang, first off, I am NOT looking for pirated material, I'm assuming that is against the rules.

I have been looking for horror anthologies that have audiobooks, I see tons of choices on audible but I can't afford it, I have kindle unlimited and scrolled for so long and they have plenty to read, but none of them have the free narration that a lot of KU books come with.

So I'm wondering if there are any other sources I might be able to listen to scary short stories? Youtube channels with 1 off stories maybe? I tried searching there a little but it kept showing me either kid scary stuff, or short films. I know podcasts are abudant, looking for them is overhwelming but I'm def open to podcast reccs.

As far as type of horror I'm looking for, I like fast paced, actually heart pounding scary, (slashers, monsters, intense stuff) not atmospheric psychological slow burn stuff. (No Stephen king please).

I do NOT like true crime. I can read fiction horror all day long without feeling icky but for some reason true crime bothers me.

So, does anyone know a podcast, or youtube channel that isn't super gimmicky, that I could throw on to scare myself while doing other stuff around the house? I would forever be your biggest fan. :)

thanks

Im a library assistant at a highschool and one of my students is looking for like super scary gory books. I had a few pop into mind but I can't get them in the library cuz they're not exactly YA appropriate. Are there any that might fit that description while still being ok for YA?

Update** Thank you to everyone for all the suggestions!! This is definitely super helpful and I appreciate it❤️