13 Animal Horror Novels to Sink Your Teeth Into

Dogs and crocodiles and bears, oh my

Real life animals make fantastic monsters for horror stories because it’s easy to imagine ourselves in those everyday situations that suddenly aren’t so everyday.

What if your dog is planning your demise? What if the shy forest creatures that live around you suddenly decide they really don’t like you? What if an ancient creature that we thought was extinct, or didn’t even know existed, is really really hungry?

We have a bit of a mixture in this list, from the expected – dogs and crocodiles and bears – to the unexpected – kangaroos, ancient sea creatures, and bigfoot.

Most horror fans will already know of some of these books.

Keep reading to discover ones that you may not know about and then go and read them.

Predators – Michaelbrent Collings

Predators is a thriller horror story in which the monsters are some of Africa’s most fearsome animals.

What could go wrong with an African safari? It’s all safe, isn’t it?

Evie Childs hoped the all-expense-paid trip to Africa would give her a chance at adventure. Maybe it would even let her forget a past that haunts her, and find safety from her abusive husband.

But when her safari tour group is kidnapped, Evie’s adventure turns into a nightmare. Evie and the rest of the survivors must travel across the harshest, most dangerous environment on Earth. No food. No water. No communications.

A pack of Africa’s top predators have smelled the blood of the survivors, and will not stop until they have fed. Because in this place, you can be either prey or predator.

“No, the worst was not the blood, not the screams or the death. It was the laughter. It began an instant before the hunt became a slaughter. A cackling, hungry bark of a laugh. The laugh became two, then five, then ten, then twenty…”

Ferocious - Jeff Strand

Ferocious is a zombie horror story in which the monsters are forest animals.

Some animals are scary enough when they’re alive, let alone when they’re dead.

Rusty Moss has raised his niece Mia since she was a baby. Now she’s almost eighteen and he’s worried that the life he’s given her – living off the grid in a cabin deep in the woods – is holding her back from her full potential. But that angst gets pushed aside when the undead forest animals arrive.

At first, it’s just a squirrel, shockingly violent and almost impossible to kill. Followed by a grizzly bear, also aggressive and resilient, even to point-blank shotgun blasts to the face.

Now the cabin is surrounded by all manner of zombie creatures. Rusty and Mia have no way to call for help. The truck that could take them to safety is three miles away, stuck in the mud.

But Rusty and Mia have their courage. They have their wits. And, most importantly, they have an axe and a fully fuelled chainsaw.

“Finding dead animals out here was rare. Nature cleaned itself up pretty quickly. That said, finding a dead deer would have elicited no more than an “Oh, that’s interesting,” except for the sheer carnage on display. This wasn’t how animals died in the wild.”

Night Terror – Russ Tilton

Night Terror is a thriller horror story in which the monsters are genetically-altered baboons. This is the first of four books in the Genetic Investigations Team series.

We just keep tinkering with things we shouldn’t tinker with, don’t we?

Isolated on a remote river. Hunted by weaponized animals. Will anyone make it out alive?

It had been a rough five years for Memphis Police Officer Jake Jessup. Blaming himself for the death of two partners, a divorce, and almost losing his job, the three-day canoe and kayak trip in the Ozarks sounded like the perfect way to reconnect with family and friends, and to put old demons to rest. What he found instead was a new set of demons, only these were real and deadly.

“Rocks clattered behind him. He spun around and saw something on the trail fifty feet from the cave entrance. He peered at it, then his eyes went wide. He clawed at his rifle strap. A shadow fell across him, and something slammed onto his shoulders, knocking him to the ground.”

The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles is a supernatural mystery horror story in which the monster is a massive dog.

Keep an eye out for ghost dogs next time you’re walking on the moors.

When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a family curse.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson turn their minds to solving the mystery of the legend of the phantom hound before Sir Charles’ heir comes to an equally gruesome end.

“…standing over Hugo, and plucking at his throat, there stood a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon. And even as they looked the thing tore the throat out of Hugo Baskerville…”

The Roo – Alan Baxter

The Roo is an Australian thriller horror story in which the monster is a kangaroo.

Have you seen the physique of a fully-grown adult male kangaroo? If not, look up some pictures on the internet now. Then you’ll understand why you don’t mess with kangaroos.

Something is wrong in the small outback town of Morgan Creek. A farmer goes missing after an argument in the pub. A teenage couple fail to show up for work.

When Patrick and Sheila McDonough investigate, they discover the missing persons list is growing. Before they realize what’s happening, the residents of the remote town find themselves in a fight for their lives against a foe they would never have suspected.

And the dry red earth will run with blood.

“The roo turned to face him. Its chest was twice as broad as John’s and he was a big man. Deeply muscled under its red fur, its shoulders rounded balls of thick meat, even its biceps put John’s own to shame. It leaned forward, and flexed, like a parody of Mr Universe.”

Crocalypse – David Wood and Alan Baxter

Crocalypse is a thriller horror story in which the monster is a crocodile. This is the third book in the Sam Aston Investigations series.

Crocodiles look prehistoric and are efficient killing machines. You really don’t want to mess with one of any size, let alone a ‘gargantuan’ one.

When an old friend calls for help, Sam Aston returns to the hometown he tried to leave behind. It soon becomes apparent there is something loose in the rainforest, and everybody wants a piece of it.

Sam and adventure television show host, Jo Slater, find themselves in a race against local criminal elements, environmental extremists, and mysterious mercenaries to find the creature before it kills again.

Sam enlists the aid of his old rival, park ranger Rusty Crews, and Ned King, a naturalist with a flair for self-promotion, who would like nothing better than to find the perfect main attraction for Crocalypse, his new bio theme park.

“If the stalwart archeologist was troubled, it could only be something serious. She pushed closer behind Dave to see better. Ihara’s light panned back and forth across what looked like a rough statue of a gargantuan crocodile stretched out across a plinth hewn from native stone.”

Wood Ape – C.G. Mosley

Wood Ape is a thriller horror story in which the monster is bigfoot.

If bigfoot’s shoe size is reflective of his height, then you probably don’t want to come face to face with him.

Dunn is your typical sleepy southern town. Its residents are friendly, and everyone knows everyone.

When the Schrader family moves into town they are welcomed, but slowly realize that everything is not what it seems.

For there is another resident of Dunn, a terrifying presence that lives within the shadows of the forest. It watches the Schraders with a sinister interest and unquenchable thirst for blood.

“Cliff stopped in his tracks and whipped his head around in the direction of the sound. It was a ripping sound, but he couldn’t place exactly what was being ripped. He turned his head back in the direction of his truck and something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to go to it quickly.”

Bear – Van Allen

Bear is a thriller horror story in which the monster is a grizzly bear.

They may look cuddly, but here’s a grizzly bear ruining someone’s vacation.

A young couple hopes to rekindle their flailing relationship in a remote mountain cabin. Their get-away from the city quickly turns into a desperate fight for survival when they run into a vicious killing machine, a natural predator.

“First thang, you better know grizzly bears kill people often enough and when they kills people, that ain’t no accident or no tragedy. That’s nature. You city boys like comin’ out here dickin’ around in bear country with yo fancy boots and yo fancy guns and yo fancy dreams causes you ain’t got no respect for nature’s boundaries.”

Hell Hound – Ken Greenhall

Hell Hound is a drama horror story in which the monster is a bull terrier dog.

If only we knew what our dogs were actually thinking. Maybe we could avoid situations like this.

‘What are the possibilities of my strength? That is a thought I have never had before. What if some morning as the old woman stood at the head of the staircase she were suddenly to feel a weight thrusting against the back of her legs? What if she were to lunge forward, grasping at the air, striking her thin skull against the edge of a stair? What would become of me if she were found unmoving at the bottom of the stairway?’

Such are the thoughts of Baxter, a sociopathic bull terrier on the hunt for the perfect master, as he contemplates the demise of his first victim.

The basis for the acclaimed 1989 film Baxter, Ken Greenhall’s utterly chilling and long-unobtainable Hell Hound (1977) has earned a reputation as a lost classic of horror fiction.

“Such an unlikely looking animal. A bull terrier, her daughter had said: a recognized breed. Why would anyone want to perpetuate such ugliness? A head like a hatchet. Malevolent blue eyes, too small and misplaced.”

Sea Hunters: Shonisaurus – William Meikle

Sea Hunters: Shonisaurus is a thriller horror story in which the monster is an ancient sea monster.

John Seton is a sea monster hunter. When he takes on a job for an exclusive yacht club in South East Asia he expects it to be a simple one. It’s only one beastie after all.

But all too soon John and his crew discover that they are in big trouble.

An ancient terror from the deep has risen, and is out for blood.

Who knows what monsters are hiding in the sea? There’s a lot of room down there.

“It had only been twenty miles from where we sat; the girl had gone swimming off the stern of the yacht… and gone missing. What they found floating behind them a few minutes later was too small and in too many bits to identify … While they were scooping what was left of her out of the water, something hit the yacht, hard, from below.”

Globster – DiVitto Kelly

Globster is a thriller horror story in which the monster is a huge sea creature.

Another sea monster but I couldn’t go past the name of this book.

After a fierce storm, a mysterious creature the size of a rhino washes up, apparently dead, on the shores of Seal Cove, an isolated coastal town in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

The carcass is transferred to a large vacant pool at the nearby defunct college where marine biologist Michael Keating hopes to decipher what it is.

However, when the creature emerges from its dormant stage, it transforms into something monstrous.

“A bulbous shape bared a gaping maw full of thin, razor sharp teeth. It snorted, then bore down on Ross like a charging rhinoceros. All Ross could do was raise his arms to block the oncoming assault.”

Cujo – Stephen King

Cujo is a psychological horror story in which the monster is a St Bernard dog.

Huge rabid dog. Not one of my favorite Stephen King’s but still…

Cujo is a huge Saint Bernard dog, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. Then one day Cujo chases a rabbit and ends up in a cave full of rabid bats.

Cujo falls sick. Very sick. The gentle giant who once protected the family becomes a vortex of horror inexorably drawing in all the people around him.

“And then a new screaming, this one closer than the nightwind outside brought him back to staring wakefulness again … That thin sound, so high that perhaps only dogs and small boys awake in the night could have heard it. His closet door swung open slowly and steadily, a dead mouth opening on darkness inch by inch and foot by foot.”

Animal Kingdom – Iain Rob Wright

Animal Kingdom is a zombie horror story in which the monsters are zoo animals.

We forget how dangerous zoo animals can be, but we probably shouldn’t.

Joe takes his son Danny to the zoo. Everything is going great until a bizarre snake attack sends everybody running for cover. A horrific scene, and one Joe’s poor son is unlikely to ever forget.

But the terror has only just begun. The snake attack is only the first incident in an unstoppable catastrophe. Something is causing animals attack, to think, to thirst for blood.

Joe will need to overcome his fear quickly if he has any chance of keeping his son alive, because nowhere is safe anymore and help isn’t coming.

“The snake handler was struggling with the huge reptile around his shoulders. The animal had coiled its way around his ribcage and was tightening.”

Published: 28 November 2022