13 Spider Horror Book Recommendations
Have you ever walked through a sticky spider web and then spent the next thirty minutes running your hands through your hair to be sure that no spiders are hitching a ride?
Some of us have a visceral reaction to the sight, or even just the thought, of being near a spider.
Arachnophobia is one of the most well-known phobias.
Even though most spiders cannot physically pierce our skin with their fangs, that knowledge doesn’t remove the sheer terror that even the smallest of spiders can evoke. After all, small creepy crawlies fit in small spaces. And what if there are literally thousands of them?
All of this means that spiders are fantastic for horror stories.
Here are 13 spider horror books that are sure to get under your skin. You might want to keep some bug spray handy.
- This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents
The Widow – D.C. Brockwell
Spider horror
Entomologist at the Royal Entomological Society, Aaron Pike is tasked with locating Professor Philip Jackson, a renowned arachnologist, who has gone missing.
Jackson is needed to help investigate a spate of black widow attacks in London. Reluctantly, Aaron takes young assistant Adele with him to Jackson’s home, which has been left derelict for some time.
After visiting Jackson’s lab, Aaron finds out that Jackson hasn’t been seen in months. With the help of Jackson’s former assistant, Celia, Aaron and Adele unearth a shocking secret, experiments that Jackson and disgraced geneticist, Jonas Eckstein, have been conducting in secret on exotic spiders.
Recently widowed urban photographer Zoe Hardcastle visits Abney Park Cemetery where she is bitten by a black widow spider. After a lengthy spell in hospital, Zoe is amazed to find that she is in exceptional shape. Her body is changing, growing stronger. And while she grows in strength, so does her desire to have a baby.
Aaron’s investigation leads him to Aldwych Station, an abandoned subway beneath the streets of London, where he comes face-to-face with pure terror. Nothing could prepare him for what he encounters in the tunnels below – the home of The Widow.
“Another screech made him increase speed, until something latched on to his back.”
Spiderstalk – D Nathan Hilliard
Spider horror
Life hasn’t been kind to Adam Sellars lately.
In the past year he has broken up with his fiancée, barely survived a terrible car wreck, and his brother’s family has vanished while he lay unconscious in the hospital.
Now, he’s a crippled shell going through the motions of life with nothing but the search for his brother to keep him going. But Adam is about to discover that things can still take a turn for the worse. Much worse.
His quest for his lost brother has brushed up against a very dark corner of the world and something has come out of that darkness with an unholy vengeance. He can’t fight it, he can’t hide from it, and not even the police can protect him as his world descends into chaos.
His only hope lies in a mysterious pair of strangers who have appeared out of nowhere with an offer of aid. But they have their own agenda, and his survival may not be their top priority.
Now Adam must keep his wits about him and learn to believe in himself again as events send him on a collision course with a monster more horrific than he ever dreamed possible.
“It’s another spider. It’s even bigger. It’s huge!”
Under Bethel – Hubert L. Mullins
Spider horror
Hundreds have disappeared into the Hole, a passageway hidden under the Highlands of Scotland. After years of ignored recovery wishes, the Hole’s ownership has passed to disgraced heiress Elisabeth Wingate.
Despite her scandalous past, Elisabeth yearns for redemption. Determined to make amends, she offers to finance an expedition to recover the bodies lost within the Hole. But there’s one catch: she insists on joining the caving team.
But they’re not alone down there.
Everything goes wrong in the darkness. Elisabeth is split from her group, thrust into a labyrinth of caverns and inexplicable chambers of carved stone. With dwindling supplies and failing light, she must escape the creatures hiding in the dark.
Before they claim another victim Under Bethel.
“The chittering was everywhere, drawing closer.”
The Web of La Sanguinaire and Other Arachnid Horrors – Ronald Kelly
Spider horror collection
Eight tales of spiders invading your comfort zone and behaving badly.
An old Cajun takes a curious traveler into the dark depths of a Louisiana bayou, in search of a rare species of spider.
A doctor discovers that his increasing forgetfulness is due to an ancient horror lurking in the basement of his house.
An ungrateful nephew inherits his aunt’s home, which is supposedly infested by brown recluse spiders.
Three boys spend the afternoon at a horror double-feature matinee, unaware of what’s taking place outside.
A surgeon’s discovery of spiders inside human bodies leads him to an abandoned jail cell in a West Texas town.
A family’s summer trip to the beach unearths traces of legendary gold… and the creatures that protect it.
A teenage girl’s infatuation with an online friend lures her to a traveling carnival and the back booth of a sideshow tent.
A nostalgic stop at an aged roadside attraction provides a family with an adventure of a lifetime, until their only source of escape comes to a screeching halt.
“The pale light revealed an entire nest of the spider, great and bulky…”
Arachnophobia – K. Lucas
Spider horror
How many spiders can a human body contain?
When a small earthquake hits a cave near the town of Rock Creek, only one person leaves the underground alive. Desperate, she seeks help in the forested rural area, trying to warn the first people she runs into, but nobody heeds her words.
Nobody believes in spiders feeding on an entire group of strong, healthy young men and women.
And when the night falls, the spiders exit the cavern, and creep upon the unsuspecting town.
The first warnings come – strange noises coming from inside the walls, movement in the shadows, an increase in spider sightings – and subtle, itchy bites.
By the time the good people of Rock Creek realize it’s not an ordinary spider infestation they’re facing, they’re on the brink of being overrun. Anyone could become the next victim.
The whole town is going to become the next victim, unless they find a way to stop the spiders.
But how does one stop thousands of small hungry creatures, with the big ones lurking in the dark?
“She felt a thousand little legs crawling all over her body…”
Eight – WW Mortensen
Spider horror
Deep in the Amazon lies the solution to the global energy crisis – a mysterious source of power that will end our dependency on oil.
It’s not the only discovery.
When entomologist Rebecca Riley receives a series of strange photographs from expedition leader and former partner, Ed Reardon, she finds herself heading to Brazil to join the team of scientists assembling there. She hasn’t seen Ed for more than a year, and their relationship hadn’t ended well.
But his revelation is impossible to ignore.
What she uncovers is beyond imagination: strange statues in the jungle, a ruined city built by the refugees of a lost Pacific continent, and a terrifying new species.
She knows this is no ordinary animal. When the team is attacked, the mission becomes a desperate race for survival, and Rebecca must confront a crippling childhood phobia she’d thought long dead and buried.
An ancient enemy has awakened, one whose very existence has implications for all of humankind, and the planet itself.
“A scurrying across the roof echoed inside the cabin, and a dark blur streaked past the right-rear window.”
Spidersight – Tirzah M.M. Hawkins
Spider horror
Have you met Fred? He’s the imaginary friend of 5-year-old Missy. Except that Missy insists to everyone that Fred is real. No one believes her until Fred starts doing horrible things.
Missy seems like any other 5-year-old except that she believes that she sees spiders that no one else can. Her parents are only mildly worried because every 5-year-old has a big imagination.
But bad things start happening wherever Missy goes. People start dying.
“A soft, fur-covered leg reaches out and strokes the little girl’s long blonde hair.”
Infestation – Matt Shaw
Apocalypse spider horror
The Fringed Ornamental tarantula has been known to cause a coma to some of the people it has bitten.
The Chinese Bird Spider, known for its extreme aggression, has caused at least one infant death and has a venom which kills 50% of the lab mice it was tested on.
The Mouse Spider and the Sydney Funnel-Web spider – both tiny – can bring down a full-sized adult if an anti-vemon isn’t administered quickly enough.
The Brown recluse spider, and the Chilean recluse – both extremely venomous with their bites causing necrosis; dying tissue at the site of the bite with potential for the wound to grow up to ten inches.
The Black Widow, the Redback… Killers. And even if you don’t die you can expect swollen lymph nodes, headaches, fevers, nausea and tremors, seizures and even comas and respiratory failure.
The Six-Eyed Sand spider – one of the most venomous spiders in the world – one bite and you bleed from your skin, orifices – even your eyes – and there is no anti-venom. Even when there is anti-venom, though, it doesn’t mean you’re safe.
The Brazilian Wandering Spider – thought to be THE most venomous spider according to the Guinness World Records. One bite from this and even the anti-venom being administered isn’t a sure way of keeping you alive. It’s still possible you’ll die.
What do these have in common, other than the fact they’re all spiders? All of them are tame in comparison to this new, aggressive species which is fast wiping out the country.
“I’ve never been a fan of spiders.”
Red Inside – Bridgett Nelson
Splatter spider horror
Bethany can’t wait for the end of her hospital shift. Four glorious days of relaxation await. Secretly, she’s most excited about the fun-filled nights reveling in an unexpected flirtation with her co-worker, Michelle.
Thoughts of her long, cozy weekend vanish, however, when Francisco Delgado is admitted to her floor from the emergency room. Delgado, a man who came into contact with an unknown arachnid species in South America, and who now has something… squirming… beneath his skin.
Initially a medical curiosity, the case rapidly turns into a full-on body horror nightmare, one with eight legs, a deadly set of fangs, and the ability to spread through the hospital at a terrifying pace.
Trapped inside the building under a rifle-enforced quarantine, Bethany, Michelle, and the rest of the staff must do whatever it takes to survive the grisly night, defending their patients against an unstoppable menace. One who seeks out the weakest prey.
“So far, I’d been unable to find the arachnid I was searching for, which was unfortunate…and peculiar.”
What Hides Within – Jason Parent
Psychological spider horror
Leading a routine life, Clive’s world is jolted when a chattering spider, a creature of supernatural horror, takes up residence inside his psyche.
As a series of unexplained deaths befall his once-quiet town, Clive grapples with a chilling possibility: could this tiny intruder be orchestrating the terror?
Racing against time, he’s ensnared in a treacherous game of cat and mouse with a keen detective hot on his trail. Friends morph into suspects, and the lines between reality and nightmarish fantasy blur.
To save himself and those he cherishes, Clive must confront an ancient evil lurking in the shadows of his mind.
“In his haze, Clive wondered if Dr. Landenberg could hear the voice echoing throughout his skull.”
Violet Eyes – John Everson
Spider horror
Their bites are more than deadly…
The small town near the Everglades was supposed to offer Rachel and her son a fresh start. Instead, it offered the start of a nightmare, when an unknown breed of flies migrated through the area, leaving painful bites in their wake.
The media warned people to stay inside until the swarm passed. But the flies didn’t leave. And then the radios and TVs went silent.
That’s when the spiders came. Spiders that could spin a deadly web large enough to engulf an entire house overnight. Spiders that left stripped bones behind as they multiplied.
Spiders that, like the flies, sought hungrily for tender flesh… through Violet Eyes.
“The creatures crisscrossed back and forth across his entire room, running down skeins of web as they added more.”
Night Weaver – Brian Berry
Spider horror
Grant, Oregon, 1986
There’s an old house that is the center of many speculations and whispers from the folks back in town.
This house was the center of an atrocious occurrence that left many of the animals in the area dead, some dissolved.
Then one day, it all just seemed to go away; forgotten as if nothing happened.
But, this time, instead of the locals’ pets disappearing, two kids go missing, and the town is in an uproar.
For Sheriff Jim Kirby and Deputy Justin McAtee, they’re about to face a horror no amount of bug spray or boot heels can prevent.
“…that scream wasn’t the gimmick of some foolhardy prank, but terror.”
Hatched - Jason R. Davis
Apocalypse spider horror
How does the zombie apocalypse begin?
It is the morning hours in the small town of Hammond and, as the town wakes up it finds that there is something spreading…
Something that is not seen until it is too late because by then, you are already infected.
At that point, they have already… Hatched.
“As a kid, anytime one would bite him, he would always break out in a rash. On more than one occasion, he had to be rushed to the hospital because of a bad reaction to the venom.”
Published: 27 September 2024
Subscribe
Horror-themed clothing, notebooks, homewares, and accessories
