13 Road Trip Horror Book Recommendations
Road trips can be a great way to relax.
They bump you out of your everyday routine. Travel at your own pace. See the sights along the way. Stay in tiny out-of-the-way motels and eat at greasy diners.
But, if a horror author is sitting in your passenger seat, you might want to press the pedal to the metal a little bit more, and just get there.
Here are 13 horror books that hit the road running and remind you that all roads lead to … horror?
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Table of Contents
Hunted Highways – Carver Pike, Lucas Mangum, Rowland Bercy Jr
Road trip anthology (3 novellas)
B.I.R.D.S by Rowland Bercy Jr. is a reimagining of Hitchcock’s classic: A group of friends embarks on a cross-country trip, unwittingly stirring a vengeful avian onslaught. Raquel, Robert, Karen, and David face chaos and carnage, learning that appearances deceive, and the price of their actions can be deadly. This bone-chilling tale weaves a narrative of suspense and consequence in a world where one particular conspiracy theory is proven true.
Dracula and the Devil Walk into a Bar by Lucas Mangum: After a team of hunters raid their fortress, Dracula and Lucifer hit the road in search of a new place to call home. They stop at a roadside bar in an unincorporated locale to meet with a vampire named Mina. All three creatures of the night have the potential for violence. And none of them can resist the call of bloodshed. The people in this wood-paneled, neon-lit establishment are about to meet Hell itself.
Road Wrath by Carver Pike: For Melanie and her friends, this fun-filled trip to tour their favorite college campus is about to take a violent and macabre turn. If only they’d kept driving, if only they’d stayed far away from that rest stop, if only they’d been more polite when they encountered the creepy old couple. Now, it’s too late for apologies. Road Wrath is coming.
“The talons caused much deeper wounds than a normal crow should have been able to impart.”
A Black and Endless Sky - Matthew Lyons
Cosmic road trip horror
Siblings Jonah and Nell Talbot used to be inseparable, but ever since Jonah suddenly blew town twelve years ago, they couldn’t be more distant. Now, in the wake of Jonah’s divorce, they embark on a cross-country road trip back to their hometown of Albuquerque, hoping to mend their broken relationship along the way.
But when a strange accident befalls Nell at an abandoned industrial site somewhere in the Nevada desert, she begins experiencing ghastly visions and exhibiting terrifying, otherworldly symptoms. As their journey through the desolate American Southwest reveals the grotesque change happening within his sister, one thing becomes clear to Jonah: It’s not only Nell in there anymore.
Pursued by a mysterious stranger who knows far more about Nell’s worsening condition than they let on, the siblings race to find a way to help Nell and escape the desert before they’re met with a violent, bloody end. But there are far worse things lurking in the desert ahead… some of them just beneath the skin.
“Tonight, something’s different. Tonight, something’s happening.”
The Rules of the Road – C.B. Jones
Road trip horror
Do you ever wonder why it is you sometimes see a single shoe on the side of the road? What happens if you don’t hold your breath when you pass a cemetery? Why should you pay careful attention to that strange speed limit sign, the one that reads 67 MPH?
When an amateur journalist encounters a mysterious radio program while driving alone one late night, he is presented with a set of instructions with potentially fatal consequences.
After escaping, obsession takes hold and he is determined to find out who is behind the broadcast and who else it has affected. His investigation leads him to speak with travelers and truckers, vagabonds and vacationers, models and rock stars, each with their own sinister encounter with the strange program. His search draws him into a world of deadly discovery from which there is no turning back.
So settle down and buckle up. Stay alert for the signs to survive. Do not adjust that dial. Prepare to be a lucky – or unlucky – listener to “The Rules of The Road.” What will the static settle on for you?
“Howdy folks, I’m Buck Hensley, and these are the ‘Rules of the Road’.”
Odd Adventures with Your Other Father - Norman Prentiss
Supernatural road trip horror
Because one of her fathers died when she was very young, much of Celia’s family knowledge comes from stories her surviving father narrates: road-trip adventures from the mid-80s that explore homophobia in a supernatural context.
As she considers these adventures (a rescue mission aided by ghostly hallucinations; a secluded town of strangely shaped inhabitants; a movie star with a monstrous secret), Celia uncovers startling new truths about her family’s past.
“The better beginning is to tell when I first learned about Jack’s special gift…”
The Toll – Cherie Priest
Southern gothic road trip horror
Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon and have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car.
Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177…
“The bridge’s far-side landing was distant and overgrown, and the scenery wobbled and wavered.”
The Suicide Motor Club – Christopher Buehlman
Vampire road trip horror
1968. They hunt on the margins of an America in turmoil, on the wide new highways and in small, forgotten towns.
Using their powerful, big-block cars as weapons, they cause horrific accidents, feed on the carnage, then hurtle back into the dark.
Killing their prey and wiping the minds of those they meet, they remain faceless, hidden; until one woman survives the wreck that kills her family and carries the memory of their shining eyes and their teeth with her on a cross-country odyssey of revenge.
“That car was death, driven by the dead.”
Lost Highways – D. Alexander Ward (editor)
Road trip horror anthology
It’s dangerous out there…on the road.
The highways, byways and backroads of America are teeming day and night with regular folks. Moms and dads making long commutes. Teenagers headed to the beach. Bands on their way to the next gig. Truckers pulling long hauls. Families driving cross country to visit their kin.
But there are others, too. The desperate and the lost. The cruel and the criminal. Theirs is a world of roadside honky-tonks, truck stops, motels, and the empty miles between destinations. The unseen spaces. And there are even stranger things. Places that aren’t on any map. Wayfaring terrors and haunted legends about which seasoned and road-weary travelers only whisper.
But those are just stories. Aren’t they? Find out for yourself as you get behind the wheel with some of today’s finest authors of the dark and horrific as they bring you these harrowing tales from the road.
“Henry couldn’t bear to think of the thing back there, moldering under her blue wool blanket, as Marianne.”
Road of Bones – Christopher Golden
Supernatural road trip horror
Surrounded by barren trees in a snow-covered wilderness with a dim, dusky sky forever overhead, Siberia’s Kolyma Highway is 1200 miles of gravel packed permafrost within driving distance of the Arctic Circle. A narrow path where drivers face such challenging conditions as icy surfaces, limited visibility, and an average temperature of sixty degrees below zero, fatal car accidents are common.
But motorists are not the only victims of the highway. Known as the Road of Bones, it is a massive graveyard for the former Soviet Union’s gulag prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of people worked to death and left where their bodies fell, consumed by the frozen elements and plowed beneath the permafrost road.
Fascinated by the history, documentary producer Felix “Teig” Teigland is in Russia to drive the highway, envisioning a new series capturing Life and Death on the Road of Bones with a ride to the town of Akhust, “the coldest place on Earth”, collecting ghost stories and local legends along the way. Only, when Teig and his team reach their destination, they find an abandoned town, a catatonic nine-year-old girl, and a pack of predatory wolves, faster and smarter than any wild animals should be.
Pursued by the otherworldly beasts, Teig’s companions confront even more uncanny and inexplicable phenomena along the Road of Bones, as if the ghosts of Stalin’s victims were haunting them. It is a harrowing journey that will push Teig beyond endurance and force him to confront the sins of his past.
“Official maps referred to it as R504. It wasn’t much of a road.”
Carrying the Dead – Juliet Rose
Psychological road trip horror
Six months after the sudden loss of an unplanned pregnancy, Hannah Moore is almost ready to think about living again. That is until one fateful day when a reckless, young motorcyclist changes the course of both their lives forever.
One terrible, momentary decision ends his life at Hannah’s unwitting hands, sending her down a spiral she can’t find her way out of. Even a brief stint in the mental hospital does not release Hannah from that which insists on haunting her waking moments, and the nightmares telling a hard, painful truth she isn’t ready yet to face. At every turn, Hannah sees the dead motorcyclist, flesh hanging off his decomposing frame, and thinks she hears her deceased baby crying in the night.
Through a new friendship with Buzzy, a healthcare worker at the mental hospital, Hannah learns her nightmares carry a sinister message embedded in ancient culture. She comes to the realization she must take a trip to Mexico to discover the meaning of her visions.
Through this journey, Hannah uncovers a thread to her past and a horrible secret that bridges the gap between the deaths of her baby and the motorcyclist.
“The thing about that day, it was beautiful. Sunny, clear. The leaves were changing and Hannah was mesmerized by the vibrant colors around her as she drove.”
Last Exit – Max Gladstone
Cosmic road trip horror
When Zelda and her friends first met, in college, they believed they had all the answers. They had figured out a big secret about how the world worked, and they thought that meant they could change things.
They failed. One of their own fell, to darkness and rot.
Ten years later, they’ve drifted apart, building lives for themselves, families, fortunes. All but Zelda. She’s still wandering the backroads of the nation. She’s still fighting monsters. She knows: the past isn’t over. It’s not even past.
The road’s still there. The rot’s still waiting. They can’t hide from it anymore. Because, at long last, their friend is coming home. And hell is coming with her.
“When the worst of the bleeding stopped, Zelda hitchhiked back to the Bronx to say that she was sorry.”
Tinfoil Butterfly – Rachel Eve Moulton
Supernatural road trip horror
Emma is hitchhiking across the United States, trying to outrun a violent, tragic past, when she meets Lowell, the hot-but-dumb driver she hopes will take her as far as the Badlands. But Lowell is not as harmless as he seems, and a vicious scuffle leaves Emma bloody and stranded in an abandoned town in the Black Hills with an out-of-gas van, a loaded gun, and a snowstorm on the way.
The town is eerily quiet and Emma takes shelter in a diner, where she stumbles across Earl, a strange little boy in a tinfoil mask who steals her gun before begging her to help him get rid of “George.” As she is pulled deeper into Earl’s bizarre, menacing world, the horrors of Emma’s past creep closer, and she realizes she can’t run forever.
“Ray told me about the ghost towns in these Black Hills. Abandoned buildings from the gold rush that still stand, stubborn.”
Fear is the Rider – Kenneth Cook
Supernatural road trip horror
A young man driving from Sydney to Adelaide for work decides to take a short detour into the desert. He turns his hatchback on to a notoriously dangerous track that bisects uninhabited stone-covered flats. Out there, under the baking sun, people can die within hours.
He’s not far along the road when a distraught young woman stumbles from the scrub and flags him down. A journalist from Sydney, she has just escaped the clutches of an inexplicable, terrifying creature.
Now this desert-dwelling creature has her jeep. Her axe. And her scent…
“Don’t leave your car,” they’d told him, “don’t leave your car whatever happens. The sun’ll kill you in two hours.”
Motherless Child – Glen Hirshberg
Vampire road trip horror
It’s the thrill of a lifetime when Sophie and Natalie, single mothers living in a trailer park in North Carolina, meet their idol, the mysterious musician known only as “the Whistler.”
Morning finds them covered with dried blood, their clothing shredded and their memories hazy. Things soon become horrifyingly clear: the Whistler is a vampire and Natalie and Sophie are his latest victims. The young women leave their babies with Natalie’s mother and hit the road, determined not to give in to their unnatural desires.
Hunger and desire make a powerful couple. So do the Whistler and his Mother, who are searching for Sophie and Natalie with the help of Twitter and the musician’s many fans.
“She met him on a Monday. Her heart stood still. At the time, she was sure his did, too. Of course she turned out to be right about that.”
Published: 27 October 2024
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