Sweet Sweet Horror: Horror Books for Your Valentine
Love and horror are the perfect couple.
Mix a touch of passion with a twist of obsession and maybe a monster or two, and you have the blossoming romance of a horror story.
Something to send shivers down your spine and make your heart race for all the wrong reasons.
A matchup that will make you question the very nature of love.
Forget the clichéd candlelit dinners, sweetheart chocolates, candy, and teddy bears holding love hearts.
Instead, swipe right on any of these Valentine-based horror books, cozy up by the fire – alone or with a loved one – and fill up on a nice dose of romance accompanied by a side of goosebumps.
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Table of Contents
Dark Valentines – Mark Onspaugh
Valentine horror collection
Unexpected twists on the classic themes of love, loss, passion and horror are included in this bouquet of old and new offerings.
New stories include the timeless romance of “Let My Love Carry Me Home,” a few comedic turns such as “Cupid Versus Dracula” and three new Red Lion fairy tales.
Among the previously published stories are “The Broken Hand Mirror of Venus,” nominated for a prestigious Pushcart Prize, “A Sweet Girl for Todd” a lonely-hearts tale that exposes the dark side of the tanning industry, and the hauntingly heartbreaking “Song of Absent Birds,” which explores the true meaning of love in the post-apocalypse.
Whether intended as a treat for your nearest and dearest or just a delicious indulgence of your own, the thirteen tales of “Dark Valentines” offer a sumptuous feast for readers of new adult fiction.
“Am remaining in Rusty Saw, Nevada for now.”
Heartless – Black Ink Fiction
Valentine horror anthology
Love is a beautiful thing. Full of romance, joy, happiness … murder?
What happens when love goes horribly, gruesomely wrong?
A red wedding, a sacrifice to Saint Valentine, blind dates gone amiss … there are so many ways romance can be twisted.
This anthology, with over 40 international authors, is not for the faint of heart.
So, eat your heart out, baby, before someone else does.
“Here’s to our first date.”
Valentine’s Slay – Matt Shaw
Valentine horror collection
February 14th and my wife is looking at me with hope in her eyes.
She has just given me a card and a bottle of my favourite drink so I presume she is hoping for something similar in return.
I have nothing but the shovel I’m hiding behind my back.
Valentine’s Day is a joke. A day made up, no doubt, by people who sell cards and flowers. A way of conning us out of our money as we feel duty bound to “prove our love” for one another.
Well, this collection is not about proving love. This collection of stories is all about sour, bloody, violent love.
They say love hurts. They’re not wrong.
“It’s a thin line between love and hate.”
Valentine – Tom Savage
Valentine serial killer horror
Jillian Talbot has it all: a beautiful home in New York’s Greenwich Village, a string of bestselling suspense novels, a handsome and adoring lover.
She has something else, too. A silent stalker. A secret admirer who sends her pink, heart-shaped messages, with an unmistakable threat in blood-red letters. His motives are as cryptic as the name he goes by: Valentine. But his intentions are deadly clear.
He has stalked other women in the past, and he has killed them. Now he’s ready to add Jill to his list, to carry out the punishment he has chosen for her, retribution for a long-ago crime that only he remembers.
For Valentine, vengeance will be complete. For Jill Talbot, the terror has just begun. Wherever she runs, he will find her. And soon she will meet him on his terrible day of judgment.
His triumphant day. Her darkest day.
Valentine’s Day.
“Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Valentine’s Day Collection: A Cup of Murder – Linette King
Valentine horror collection
This collection of love stories follows a series of love stories from hell.
You may or may not make it out alive.
Ready or not … Here comes love.
“Although we shared a lot of everyone’s business at the table, we never spoke about ourselves.”
Blood Dance: Valentine – A.R. Von
Valentine supernatural horror
Valentine’s Day is just not what it seems.
Two friends long ago discovered their deep dislike for the lovey-dovey holiday.
When a party leads them to a bloody fun house and a demon that’s been around since the dawn of time, they discover Valentine’s Day holds much more meaning than frilly hearts, love and chocolates.
“Be mine 4 ever.”
Dread Blossoms – Thomas D. Lawrence
Valentine ghost horror
Greg had no idea that the flowers he bought for his fiancée would blossom into a terrifying bouquet of fear when he made the innocent purchase.
At a lavish Valentine’s Day celebration, the petals are doused with alcohol, setting off a sequence of horrific and unexplainable occurrences.
Greg finds himself at the center of a murder investigation and tries to untangle the convoluted threads of this paranormal tapestry with the aid of Kevin Voland, a wealthy man with secrets of his own.
“A vengeful bloom.”
The Taxidermist's Lover – Polly Hall
Modern gothic horror
One stormy Christmas, Scarlett recalls the ebb and flow of a yearlong love affair with Henry, a renowned taxidermist.
Obsessed with his taxidermy creatures, she pushes him to outdo his colleague and world-famous rival in a crescendo of species-blending creativity.
Scarlett will not be able to avoid a reckoning with her own past as Henry’s inventions creep into her own thoughts, dreams, and desires.
“Words can be the most damaging of all things; they have life, power, intensity.”
Sleeping With the Monster – Anya Martin
Horror collection
Twelve women. Twelve horrors disguised as love.
A teenage girl faces the consequences of wishing her dog could live forever.
A romantic college student wakes a gargoyle in Paris
A lonely woman finds her house infested with insects.
An American jazz singer confronts her lover who has committed terrible war crimes as he descends into madness in post-WW2 Germany.
A couple experiences H.P. Lovecraft’s Resonator machine via found footage from the Velvet Underground.
An actress reveals the true story of Bride of Frankenstein involving the preserved brain of Karl Marx’s daughter in 1923 London.
“When dogs have bad dreams, it’s because of the Evil Man.”
Phantasma – Kaylie Smith
Dark fantasy horror
Welcome to Phantasma. There are only two rules to the game: Stay alive. And don’t fall in love.
When Ophelia’s sister disappears, there is only one way to save her. Ophelia must enter Phantasma, a deadly contest inside a haunted mansion, and claim its prize: a single wish.
Phantasma is a maze of twisting corridors and lavish ballrooms, of demons and temptations. Ophelia will face nine challenges, each more dangerous than the last. There can only be one winner, and the other contestants will stop at nothing to eliminate their rivals.
Every day the house creates new monsters. But just as Ophelia’s fears threaten to overwhelm her, a mysterious stranger offers her a bargain.
Charming, arrogant and infuriatingly attractive, Blackwell claims he can guide her through the lethal trials ahead. All he asks in return is ten years of her life.
Ophelia knows she shouldn’t trust him. Blackwell doesn’t seem dangerous, but appearances can be deceptive. Worse still, she feels a dark and irresistible attraction drawing them closer and closer.
Her life is on the line. But in Phantasma, the only thing deadlier than losing the game is losing your heart.
“The Devil had a wicked mouth and a voice as smooth as bourbon.”
Unbury Carol – Josh Malerman
Western horror
Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. She has died many times . . . but her many deaths are not final: They are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days.
Only two people know of Carol’s eerie condition. One is her husband, Dwight, who married Carol for her fortune, and, when she lapses into another coma, plots to seize it by proclaiming her dead and quickly burying her alive.
The other is her lost love, the infamous outlaw James Moxie. When word of Carol’s dreadful fate reaches him, Moxie rides the Trail again to save his beloved from an early, unnatural grave.
And all the while, awake and aware, Carol fights to free herself from the crippling darkness that binds her, summoning her own fierce will to survive. As the players in this drama of life and death fight to decide her fate, Carol must in the end battle to save herself.
“I’ve died before, John. Many times.”
Heart Shaped Box – Serenity Rayne and Odette Morgenstern
Gothic horror
My roommates pale blue eyes vex me, they haunt my dreams almost to the point of madness.
I’ve been in love with him since we were kids, sadly I’ve been friendzoned my entire life.
I watch him sleep and dream about the day he will see me.
That is till the day I finally snap. It’s the quiet ones that you need to worry about.
One way or another, his heart will be mine.
“Every night the same vision haunts my dreams.”
Dark Valentine – Eleanor Merry (editor)
Flash fiction anthology
Blood is bright crimson
Your lips have turned blue
Best keep both eyes open
Because we are coming for you
Valentine’s Day isn’t all love, fun and games. Flash horror Valentine’s stories from a ton of talented authors. From dark and disturbing, morbid humor or guts and gore; these stories have it all.
“A promise is a promise. And I am coming to collect.”
Paper Valentine – Brenna Yovanoff
Ghost horror
The city of Ludlow is gripped by the hottest July on record. The asphalt is melting, the birds are dying, petty crime is on the rise, and someone in Hannah Wagnor’s peaceful suburban community is killing girls.
For Hannah, the summer is a complicated one. Her best friend Lillian died six months ago, and Hannah just wants her life to go back to normal. But how can things be normal when Lillian’s ghost is haunting her bedroom, pushing her to investigate the mysterious string of murders?
Hannah’s just trying to understand why her friend self-destructed, and where she fits now that Lillian isn’t there to save her a place among the social elite. And she must stop thinking about Finny Boone, the big, enigmatic delinquent whose main hobbies seem to include petty larceny and surprising acts of kindness.
With the entire city in a panic, Hannah soon finds herself drawn into a world of ghost girls and horrifying secrets. She realises that only by confronting the Valentine Killer will she be able move on with her life – and it’s up to her to put together the pieces before he strikes again.
“She smiles, and her face reminds me of a skull.”
Updated: 14 February 2025
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