Acquired Taste – Clay McLeod Chapman
Horror collection
A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace, and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one.
From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, 25 short stories that take universal fears of parenthood, addiction and political divisions and makes them uniquely horrific.
The Burial Tide – Neil Sharpson
Folklore horror
A woman who can’t remember her death.
On an eerily quiet island off the coast of Ireland, a woman with no memory claws her way out of her grave and back to life. But not everyone welcomes the return of Mara Fitch.
An island with a terrible secret.
Inishbannock. Where strange misshapen figures watch from the trees and the roads are covered in teeth. Where two brothers gamble for nothing, the doctor only treats one patient, and the pub owner speaks in riddles. Where a poet loses and finds his soul. And a man without a heart claims he’s the key to unlocking Mara’s secrets.
A past that refuses to stay buried.
As Mara returns to her life on this upside-down island, her memories begin to leech their way back to the surface. The more she remembers, the more the village will do anything to stop her.
But the sea remembers it all.
Coffin Moon – Keith Rosson
Vampire horror
It’s the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon is all sleet and neon. Duane Minor is back home after a tour in Vietnam, a bartender just trying to stay sober; save his marriage with his wife, Heidi; and connect with his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, now that he’s responsible for raising her. Things aren’t easy, but Minor is scraping by.
Then a vampire walks into his bar and ruins his life.
When Minor crosses John Varley, a killer who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon, Varley brutally retaliates by murdering Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. What’s left of their splintered family is united by only one desire: vengeance.
So begins a furious, frenzied pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From grimy alleyways to desolate highways to snow-lashed plains, Minor and Julia are cast into the dark orbit of undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men transfixed by Varley’s ferocity. Everyone’s out for blood.
Dusk – Amy Cross
Ghost horror – Book 1 of The Haunting of London
Night is falling and London is about to be plunged into terror. As Patrick and Judy Schnitzler arrive in the city to search for their runaway daughter, they have no idea that they’re about to be dragged into a nightmare from which there might be no escape.
Patrick and Judy soon split up so that they can cover more ground. Patrick quickly thinks he’s found a clue, and he finds himself at an abandoned warehouse that hides many secrets. By the time he understands the true horror lurking in the warehouse’s darkness, however, will he be too late to get away?
Meanwhile Judy is lost in the streets of the city. She soon encounters a strange and enigmatic young woman who seems to know her way around the dark and twisting streets. Heading toward the river, they witness something hideous emerging from the water. Just how many ghosts are there in London, and what happens when they all emerge at once?
The Exorcist’s House: Resurrection – Nick Roberts
Supernatural horror – Book 3 of The Exorcist’s House Universe
An unrelenting battle against evil, where a mother’s love is tested by the darkest forces imaginable.
Christmas Eve,1999: A brutal tragedy occurs during Midnight Mass at the newly built church on Sunny Branch Way.
Nora Hill, a woman still haunted by her past, suspects this isn’t just a random act of violence, but the omen she’s been dreading.
As shocking visions continue to plague her, Nora is determined to protect her daughter, Maren, and bring some semblance of peace to their fractured lives, hoping to find her own happiness again.
But no matter how far they run or how much time passes, it becomes clear that some demons refuse to let go.
The Haunting of William Thorn – Ben Alderson
Gothic horror
William Thorn had his life all planned out, until he discovered his long-term boyfriend Archie in bed with another man. Distraught, William kicks him out of their home, where tragedy strikes when Archie is killed instantly in a car accident.
Riddled with guilt, William is shocked to learn that he’s inherited a manor in the quaint village of Stonewall, left to him in Archie’s will. He leaves the city with plans to make a new start for himself, but is surprised by the rundown state of the manor, and the unwelcoming villagers who want him gone. His only ally is Edward, a seemingly friendly local with secrets of his own.
However, it’s not only the villagers who are averse to his presence. A malevolent spirit roams the manor, one that seeks to drive William out for good. But when he uncovers the heartbreaking tale of two men in love in the 1920’s, William strives to find peace for the spirit, ending the haunting once and for all.
House of Idyll – Delilah S. Dawson
Cult horror
Angelina Yves is a struggling singer/songwriter offered the chance of a lifetime to join the experimental luxury compound sponsored by the most famous band in the world, Black Idyll.
With her every need accommodated, she finally has the time and space to perfect her music.
Her muse? Reclusive rock star Jesper Idyll, who lives up to her every high school daydream.
But this paradise has a haunted underbelly heralded by screaming horses, mysterious figures in the night, and dreams too twisted to be real.
When people start to disappear and Jesper’s ex turns up dead and hideously mutilated, Angelina begins to suspect that something malevolent lurks behind the cult that’s grown around the band.
Hurt People Hurt People, Volume 1 – Narrowed Eye Books
Horror anthology
Hurt is a cycle.
It is said that those who have experienced pain are more likely to inflict pain on others. Within these pages are four examples of the perpetual nature of trauma, and of horrific acts which breed human monsters.
A disgraced med student continues practicing surgery outside of the operating room.
A disfigured woman attempts to overcome her pain with horrifying results.
A working mom learns that running from her past only makes it more dangerous.
A ballet dancer tries to escape the trauma that shadows her.
As one tale bleeds into the next, and suffering begets suffering, they’ll each learn the true meaning behind the old adage: Hurt people HURT people.
Lakegrave School for Young Women – Lauren Carter
Sapphic dark academia horror
Here, we do not care where you are from or who you are. We care that you are women. And we care about your minds.
Lakegrave is unlike any other school. Hidden in the mountains of Scotland, it only accepts one bright woman per specialist subject. With no teachers and no curriculum, the self-taught establishment offers its students the tools to expand their skillsets to then go onto being masters in their fields.
When Raven and her cousin Rowan are accepted, they are excited to refine their crafts and converse with fellow classmates.
That is until students go missing.
Some come back but they are not as they once were. Something is off about them. Something is misplaced.
When fellow student Esme wants to investigate and invites Raven to join, they uncover that there’s much more to the school than they thought with chilling secrets kept tucked away in its history. But with ghosts stirring and the cohort decreasing, will any of them make it to graduation?
Marrow – Samantha Browning Shea
Witch horror
The day Oona was kicked out of her mother’s coven, she gave up on her dreams of harnessing the witchcraft that was her birthright. Years later, she’s carved out an ordinary life with her husband, though she is filled with a longing she can barely name. If she could only become a mother, then, according to island lore, she will come into her magic.
But after years of being unable to carry a pregnancy to term, Oona begins to feel desperate. Without the money to seek medical treatment, she decides she must return to the rugged, windswept island where she was raised, and to her dark, enigmatic mother, a witch who gives childless women the chance to become mothers.
Oona returns under the cover of anonymity, hoping for an answer. But, despite a celebrity clientele and a long wait-list, there are dark forces at work on the island, and as her time there grows more harrowing, the truth threatens to come to light. How far will Oona go to access the power her mother commands?
Play Nice – Rachel Harrison
Haunted house horror
A woman confronts the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home.
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents’ messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.
After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.
Save the Cat® Writes Horror – Jamie Nash
How to write horror
Veteran horror screenwriter and novelist Jamie Nash leads us into the shadows of Blake Snyder’s legendary Monster in the House genre, and sheds light over the secrets to crafting truly terrifying tales.
A guide to writing and delivering blood-chilling films and novels using the world’s most successful storytelling method, including:
A deep dive into horror’s core ingredients – Monster, House, and Sin – with subtypes, examples, and tools to help you design your own diabolical tale.
The mad science of turning Save the Cat!’s 15 beats into a horror story that builds tension, sharpens scares, and leaves your audience squirming.
How to balance Scares, Gross-outs, and Dread to torment your audience flawlessly.
Why knowing your horror’s heartbeat – Slow Burn vs. Relentless – changes everything,
How to use the Dread-O-Meter to engineer spine-tingling scenes with precision.
How to build memorable horror characters – from first-to-die victims to final girls and guys – while exploring how their flaws, choices, and arcs mirror deeper fears and social truths.
Plus: real case studies, scarecraft tools, career advice, and a comprehensive analysis into what makes the genre tick (and bleed).
Whether you’re a screenwriter, novelist, or seasoned horrorhound, Save the Cat! Writes Horror will help you write the kind of story that lingers long after the lights go out.
Still Waters Rot – Charlene Mattson
Ghost horror – Book 2 of Haunting British Columbia
Zandra Corshire knows ghosts exist.
But with no one to talk to about it, save those who were also deeply involved in nasty events in the past, she keeps her fears stuffed deep inside and focuses on her career as a health and wellness coach and part-time accountant.
When she is invited to stay to a mansion turned spa and resort based in the mountains and lakes west of Lillooet, she feels the pull back to nature like she hasn’t before. The mansion is lovely and Zan thinks this might be just the place to start healing over the deep wounds her past experiences have left her with.
Until an overnight trip results in the death of one guest and the resort is cut off from the outside world by means unknown. Staff begin to disappear, people are attacked by forces unknown, and her new friends are drawn into the same horrifying haunting she endures. Zan knows that she has to make her past right, but some wounds are not so easily healed, especially those which have lain dormant and ignored for so long.
And some ghosts are not so easily put to rest.
They Fear Not Men in the Woods – Gretchen McNeil
Survival horror
When Jen Monroe hears her father’s remains have been found, she returns home to disprove his death, only to find the forests of rural Washington are hiding something ancient and dangerous.
Seven years ago, Jen Monroe left behind her hometown of Barrow, Washington after her father, a forest ranger passionate about protecting old trees from the aggressive logging business that runs their small town, vanished seemingly into thin air. She vowed never to return, until she gets a text from her estranged mother. Her father’s remains have been found.
It seems impossible to Jen who has always believed her father is still alive, and she returns home, determined to find out what really happened. When her ex-boyfriend proposes a camping trip into the woods in her father’s memory, it feels like the opportunity Jen had been hoping for: to find her father. To find the truth.
But what she finds lurking in the forest may be deeper, darker and deadlier than she could have ever imagined. And it has no intention of letting her leave.
We Are Always Tender with Our Dead – Eric LaRocca
Small town horror – Book 1 of Burnt Sparrow
The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence, a senseless tragedy that can never be undone.
While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage boy named Rupert Cromwell is forced to confront the painful realities of his family situation.
Once relationships become intertwined and more carnage ensues as a result of the massacre, the town residents quickly learn that true retribution is futile, cruelty is earned, and certain thresholds must never be crossed no matter what.
Wesham Grimoire – Ashley Lister
Supernatural horror
Five thieves break into Wesham Manor, where the Wesham Grimoire lurks amongst its many secrets. Most of the thieves are looking for loot.
One of them is looking to retire. One of them is looking for the Wesham Grimoire. All of them are going to be disappointed.
When Angels Bleed – John Ashley
Extreme horror
Jason Baker is wanted for murder – and when they inevitably find the other bodies, he’ll be wanted for seven of them. On the run with nowhere good to hide, he comes across a strange dirt road on the side of the highway with a farmhouse at its end. Strange not because it looks any different than it should, but because it calls to him like his soul’s lost love.
Over the three decades he’s been trapped there, Benjamin Parker has seen a lot of monsters show up at his farm, each one guilty of the same unthinkable sin. The farm attracts them like flies to rot from all different places, all different periods of time.
And it never lets them leave.
You Weren’t Meant to be Human – Andrew Joseph White
Sci-fi horror
Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.
Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant, and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost, Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.
