13 Apocalypse Horror Book Series to Read on Sleepless Nights
Is this the way the world as we know it ends?
If everything went belly up tomorrow, would you want to survive?
Would it be better to die in the first wave or struggle for hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades to survive?
We all like to think we’d be one of the survivors. Most of us have had at least one conversation with friends or family about who we’d want on our apocalypse team. The thing that apocalypse horror stories make clear is that, most times, who’s on your team is out of your control. You have to make do with what you get.
These thirteen apocalypse horror book series are all about survival. We get zombies, plagues, vampires, supernatural elements, nuclear devastation, what happens in the first thirty days, what happens hundreds of years later, and even some zombie cows.
They all have too much story to tell in just one book.
Because why wouldn’t you want to stretch out your apocalypse?
Contents
1. Safe Haven (2017)
By Christopher Artinian
“The light of morning crept into the grey room. The candles had burned through the night, and their wicks were flickering wildly. Each movement could be the last.”
Safe Haven is a zombie apocalypse horror series of 9 books. Rise of the Rams is the first book in the series.
The planet has succumbed to a virus. Those who die from the infection return as savage predators hell-bent on spreading the virus to the rest of the human population.
The UK and Ireland are the last hold-outs, but when the infrastructure supporting their self-imposed quarantine collapses, it’s everyone for themselves.
With the city’s streets overrun by the dead, Mike and Emma take their younger siblings and set off to find their last remaining relative in the far north-west of Scotland. As they travel, they encounter other survivors – but who can they trust?
Will they ever find a safe haven?
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.52 | Amazon: 4.60 | Goodreads: 4.44
2. The First 30 Days (2019)
By Lora Powell
“A large red sign hanging over the pharmacy advertised flu shots. Glancing back at the girl, I wondered if I should fork over the cash and get one. I never had before, but I really couldn’t afford to miss any work, and the news stations were calling this year’s flu an epidemic.”
The First 30 Days is a zombie apocalypse series of 2 books. The First 30 Days is the first book in the series.
No one could have guessed that the vaccine that was supposed to save lives would take them instead. Once the death toll started to climb, it took less than a day for the world to change forever.
When Bri’s roommate suddenly develops a taste for human flesh, Bri is trapped in her upstairs bathroom, unable to comprehend the horrors that she sees through the small window. That limited view of the outside world doesn’t begin to show Bri just how much danger she’s going to be in when she finally escapes her home.
The zombie apocalypse is a strange time to be alive. The dead walk and eat the living, but they’re not the most dangerous thing this new world has to offer. There are other survivors out there. And not all of them can be trusted.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.46 | Amazon: 4.30 | Goodreads: 4.07 | LibraryThing: 5.00
3. Capital Falling (2019)
By Lance Winkless
“A massive blast hits, the wall on my right exploding. The force blasts me sideways off my feet, and I’m hitting the ground hard, covered in rubble. My head is spinning, ringing.”
Capital Falling is a plague apocalypse horror series of 6 books. Capital Falling is the first book in the series.
Former SAS soldier Andy Richards is no stranger to horrors, but no training could ever have prepared him for the nightmare unfolding at home. While a viral epidemic hammers London, Andy finds himself trapped in the epicentre, forced to protect his family.
In an ultimate game of survival, he leads a small group of survivors, including his young daughter, toward refuge, as he searches for his missing son.
With the infected displaying brutal, inhuman behaviour and caught up in a climate of martial law, no one can be trusted. Old connections may help to unravel this mystery virus, but the resultant hellscape means Andy and his group meet danger at every turn.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.34 | Amazon: 4.40 | Goodreads: 4.28
4. Dead South (2020)
By Zach Bohannon
“The zombie stood around five-foot-seven, several inches shorter than Jon, who measured just over six feet tall. But the thing, only a number of yards away from Jon and the tree, was as wide as a house. It walked alone, so although it wouldn’t be easy to take down, Jon could be selective about how he wanted to do it.”
Dead South is a zombie apocalypse horror series of 8 books. Dead South is the first book in the series.
Three years after an incurable virus spread and turned most of the population into mindless, cannibalistic creatures, the world is a barren place. Society is broken, and most who remain have banded together in small camps and communities.
Jon South is not like most. After losing his wife and son nearly two years into the pandemic, Jon now wanders the country roads and woods of rural Tennessee, a vigilante taking his revenge out on the undead monsters that took his family from him. He lives alone and plans to die alone, sooner rather than later.
But after coming to the aid of strangers, Jon learns that he might have been fighting the wrong monsters all along.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.17 | Amazon: 4.30 | Goodreads: 4.04
5. Bitter Cold Apocalypse (2021)
By T.W. Connor
“The deer continued in its frantic circle, its path slowly shifting toward a large tree at the edge of the clearing. We watched in silence, too shocked by what we were seeing to comment further. The deer never paused or slowed its crazed run – until it collided head-first with the trunk of the tree.”
Bitter Cold Apocalypse is a survival apocalypse horror series of 2 books. Bitter Cold Apocalypse is the first book in the series.
\Newly-weds John and Angie are on a hunting trip when an EMP plunges the nation into darkness. They quickly discover that their truck is inoperable and the wild animals are acting weird, becoming more hostile and dangerous by the hour.
They must fight not only the elements on their way home to reunite with Angie’s daughter, but avoid the growing chaos and nefarious forces that are closing in on them.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.17 | Amazon: 4.20 | Goodreads: 4.13
6. Life of the Dead (2016)
By Tony Urban
“The setting sun provided just enough of an orange glow for Wim to see that the streets were clear of zombies. Well, ones up and walking anyway. The bodies of over four dozen men and women littered the small grid of streets that made up his hometown. He’d killed them all.”
Life of the Dead is a zombie apocalypse horror series of 5 books. Hell on Earth is the first book in the series.
Wim Wagner is content to live apart from society, isolated on his farm, as he tends to his animals and ignores the world around him, until his livestock begins to die and zombies invade his property.
Bundy is serving a prison sentence for illegal firearms when his prison transport van drives head-first into the zombie apocalypse.
Homeless war veteran Aben just wants a ride somewhere south where the weather is warm and the cost of living is cheap. Instead he ends up handcuffed to a toilet while the world dies around him.
As a plague sweeps across the world and reanimates the dead, Wim, Bundy, Aben, and fellow survivors battle to stay alive at all costs.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.12 | Amazon: 4.30 | Goodreads: 4.06 | LibraryThing: 4.00
7. The Passage (2011)
By Justin Cronin
“Before she became the Girl from Nowhere – the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years – she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy. Amy Harper Bellafonte.”
The Passage is a vampire apocalypse horror series of 3 books. The Passage is the first book in the trilogy.
This is the story of Amy – abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions.
As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Special Agent Brad Wolgast risks everything to save her, but he can’t stop society’s collapse.
As Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.11 | Amazon: 4.40 | Goodreads: 4.04 | LibraryThing: 3.89
8. Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (2011)
By Shawn Chesser
“Quick reflexes helped him avoid the attack. All in one motion he spun around and buried the axe under Ted’s sternum directly into his heart. It had no effect. The thing he used to call his friend kept clawing for his face.”
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is a zombie apocalypse horror series of 15 books. Trudge is the first book in the series.
For Cade Grayson, husband, father, and former Delta Force operator, that one warm sunny Saturday in July began like all the others before, and none since.
With his daughter and wife away, Cade hopes his immediate future holds nothing but an easy chair, Mariners on the tube, and paring down a to-do list a mile long.
But his life is forever changed when news breaks of a clash in downtown Portland between soldiers from the Oregon National Guard and hundreds of anarchist protesters suddenly turned violent and, by one anchor’s account, blood-thirsty and cannibalistic. As the first waves of injured arrive at hospitals, it becomes apparent that a deadly new disease had been unleashed.
Cade begins begins an impossible 3,000 mile journey to find his wife and daughter.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.06 | Amazon: 4.20 | Goodreads: 3.91 | LibraryThing: 4.06
9. The Four Horsemen (2021)
By Laura Thalassa
“They came with the storm … The world lit up like it was on fire, and there they were – four great beasts of men astride their terrible steeds.”
The Four Horsemen is a supernatural apocalypse horror series of 4 books. Pestilence is the first book in the series.
Pestilence, War, Famine, Death. The four horsemen have come to earth to end us all.
When Pestilence comes for Sara Burn’s town, one thing is certain: everyone she knows and loves is marked for death. Unless, of course, the horseman is stopped, which is exactly what Sara has in mind when she shoots the unholy beast off his steed.
Too bad no one told her Pestilence can’t be killed.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 4.03 | Amazon: 4.30 | Goodreads: 3.92 | LibraryThing: 3.86
10. The Alt Apocalypse (2018)
By Tom Abrahams
“The ash was everywhere. It was layers thick on the ground. It coated buildings, dusted door handles. It clouded the sky. The ash, which seemed to drift and hover as much as it fell, offered an opaquely gray view of the world. No blue in the sky, no purple sunrises over the San Gabriel Mountains, no orange- and red-hued sunsets on the Pacific horizon. Just gray.”
The Alt Apocalypse is an apocalypse horror series of 5 books. Ash is the first book in the series.
This series, which can be read in any order, features the same core characters in each complete story. But every book puts them into a new, alternate apocalypse: a nuclear holocaust, an earthquake, a flood, a wildfire, a hurricane, a plague, and even zombies.
Different heroes emerge in each novel. Different characters survive and perish. If a character dies in one book, they’ll be back in the next. In the end you’ll unwind the loose thread that connects every character and every stand-alone story.
In Ash, four college friends, an ex-con, a lonely fry cook, and a secretive group of prepared civilians battle to survive in southern California after a series of nuclear attacks.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 3.94 | Amazon: 4.20 | Goodreads: 3.95 | LibraryThing: 3.67
11. Apocalypse Cow (2013)
By Michael Logan
“The man in the sharp blue suit stood atop a wooded hill, dangling an expensive pair of leather shoes from one hand, and watched grey smoke belch from the burning abattoir below. A dozen figures in white biohazard outfits ringed the grubby old building, flame-throwers and automatic weapons pointed casually at the ground.”
Apocalypse Cow is a comedy zombie apocalypse horror series of 2 books. Apocalypse Cow is the first book in the series.
When scientists accidentally unleash an experimental bioweapon that transforms Britain’s animals into sneezing, bloodthirsty zombies, three misfits become the unlikely hope for salvation.
As Britain begins a rapid descent into chaos and ministers blame international terrorists, Lesley stumbles upon evidence that the government is behind the outbreak. In her bumbling pursuit of the truth, she crosses paths with Terry and Geldof, and together they set out to escape a quarantined Britain with the evidence and vital data that could unlock a cure for the virus.
Standing in the way are rampaging hordes of animals, a ruthless security agent and an army ready to shoot anybody with a case of the sniffles.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 3.76 | Amazon: 4.30 | Goodreads: 3.64 | LibraryThing: 3.34
12. The Last Survivors (2014)
By T.W. Piperbrook and Bobby Adair
“The disorganized horde of them was almost a mile down the slope, reeking a putrescence the boy could smell despite the direction of the breeze. Rot got into the misshapen, boney masses on their skulls and spines, making the creatures smell like decaying animals. They weren’t dead, though. They were more than alive enough to chase a man down, eviscerate him, and feast on his entrails.”
The Last Survivors is a dystopian horror series of 6 books. The story is set 300 years after the fall of civilization. The Last Survivors is the first book in the series.
Three hundred years after the fall of society, the last fragments of civilization are living in the ruins of the ancient cities in almost-medieval conditions. Technology has been reduced to legend, monsters roam the forests, and fear reigns supreme.
The wind-borne spores are spreading, disfiguring men and twisting their minds, turning them into creatures that threaten to destroy the townships. Among the townsfolk, political and religious, dissension is spreading.
Through it all, a mother must protect her son.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 3.70 | Amazon: 4.20 | Goodreads: 3.71 | LibraryThing: 3.19
13. Whiteout (2020)
By Flint Maxwell
“If you don’t know already, the world has ended, and it all started with that lone snowflake. Even if I had been paying attention when it fell, what would I have thought of it? I don’t know; it’s hard to say. Northeast Ohio is home to all sorts of odd weather.”
Whiteout is a supernatural apocalypse horror series of 5 books. The Snow is the first book in the series.
After a tragic accident at work, all Grady wanted was an escape, and he finds it with two of his closest friends. Together, the three of them travel south to Prism Lake for the upcoming holiday, where they plan on spending the sunny weekend drinking, grilling, and relaxing.
But when a series of monstrous blizzards cover the eastern United States in snow, knocking out communications and making the roads impossible to drive on, they realize their weekend of fun could turn into a lifetime of survival.
Because there’s something out there besides the cold.
Average Star Ratings out of 5 for the First Book in the Series
Average: 3.62 | Amazon: 4.10 | Goodreads: 3.84 | LibraryThing: 2.93
Published: 8 November 2022
Related Posts
Standalone Apocalypse Horror Books
If standalone apocalypse horror books are more your thing, try some of these.
- The Stand (1978) by Stephen King
- World War Z (2007) by Max Brooks
- Swan Song (1987) by Robert McCammon
- The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy
- Cell (2006) by Stephen King
- The End of the World Running Club (2017)
- Alone for the Apocalypse (2016) by Ike Hamill
- Appleseed (2022) by Matt Bell
- The Cabin at the End of the World (2019) by Paul Tremblay
- Odds Against Tomorrow (2014) by Nathaniel Rich
This Design
Available on clothing, homewares, accessories, notebooks
