Cats in Horror: 13 Horror Book Recommendations
Cats.
Cute and cuddly? Or clever and dangerous?
Cats have built a reputation for being independent and aloof. They may be small and easily overlooked, but they still have a predator’s heart and mind. They also have speed, slashing claws, and sharp fangs in their arsenal.
Cats in horror can be heroes or villains, or sometimes a bit of both, just like in real life. After reading these 13 horror books, you might want to watch your back when the cats are out to play.
“In ancient times, cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”
– Terry Pratchett
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Table of Contents
The Thirteen Black Cats of Edith Penn – Sean McDonough
Witch cat horror
What potion can restore a young girl’s invalid mother to full health? What spell would give a bullied teenager the power to strike back against her tormentors?
Edith Penn knew. If you believed the stories whispered around town, there wasn’t anything that the old witch couldn’t do for the right price.
But that’s all over now. Edith Penn is dead. Buried. Forgotten.
But something is alive in the small town of New Birmingham. Something that only grows stronger every day. The dying here has only just begun, and nobody can say when it’s going to end.
Nobody except for the thirteen black cats of Edith Penn.
“They were not stopped. They were not noticed.”
The Last House on Needless Street – Catriona Ward
Supernatural horror
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.
A young girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time.
A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory.
A house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible.
An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
“Today is the anniversary of Little Girl With Popsicle.”
Cat's Cradle – William W. Johnstone
Supernatural cat horror – Book 1 of Cat
No one knew where she had come from. A scrap of a girl clinging to a black cat with eerie yellow eyes. A lost child or an orphan, maybe. It was a miracle she had survived on Eden Mountain at all.
Strange things began to happen in placid Ruger County, bizarre killings that the police couldn’t solve. Horrifying accidents that the people couldn’t comprehend. An insatiable beast was stalking their intimate hideaways, their swimming holes – and their children.
No one noticed how quickly the little girl’s pale cheeks turned pink with health. How her frail body filled out with sleek, lithe muscles and feline grace. And no one noticed that at night her innocent blue eyes turned an eerie, evil yellow.
“The old cat was tired. Tired of it all.”
Clowders – Vanessa Morgan
Supernatural cat horror
The secluded, picturesque town of Clervaux, Luxembourg, is home to more cats than people.
For years, tourists have flocked to this place – also known as “cat haven” – to meet the cats and buy cat-related souvenirs.
When Aidan, Jess and their five-year-old daughter, Eleonore, move from America to Clervaux, it seems as if they’ve arrived in paradise. It soon becomes evident, though, that the inhabitants’ adoration of their cats is unhealthy.
According to a local legend, each time a cat dies, nine human lives are taken as a punishment. To tourists, these tales are supernatural folklore, created to frighten children on cold winter nights. But for the inhabitants of Clervaux, the danger is horrifyingly real.
Initially, Aidan and Jess regard this as local superstition, but when Jess runs over a cat after a night on the town, people start dying, one by one, and each time it happens, a clowder of cats can be seen roaming the premises.
Are they falling victim to the collective paranoia infecting the entire town? Or is something unspeakably evil waiting for them?
“She’s here,” Camille said. “She’s coming for me.”
The Cat Came Back – Matthew Cash
Psychological cat horror
Darren Johnson has had a bad run of things, his girlfriend has left him and he’s fast becoming a gibbering drunk.
A pang of inebriated sympathy plucks at his heart strings when he sees a persistent little fella equally down on his luck. He invites him in, maybe it’s the companionship they both need to get through their bad times.
Things go from bad to worse and it all seems due to the cat that came in from the cold.
Is this cat the cause of pushing Darren down the last few rungs of life’s ladder so he hits rock bottom, or just bad luck? Is this cat an ordinary feline or a living curse, the demonised demigod from ancient lore and folk songs?
Whatever it is, no matter what the odds, there’s one thing Darren soon learns, the cat always comes back.
“Turning as quickly as his inebriated body would allow, he saw a ragged, scruffy grey cat staring at him.”
The Black Cat Bookshop – E.M. McConnell
Supernatural cat horror
An entity was born into smoke and rage, a destructive force that was bound into a Bookshop, sentient, feral, and hungry.
It offers knowledge and power, enough to fulfil their wildest dreams, but there is always a price.
Payment will always be due.
“It’s a bookshop that will give you whatever you need. At a price.”
Pet Sematary – Stephen King
Supernatural cat horror
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true.
Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing… as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets.
Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations.
A blood-chilling truth is hidden there, one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better.
“That’s one mean road, all right.”
Cat Magic – Whitley Strieber
Witch cat horror
Some people in Maywell, New Jersey, commute to New York. Some are working on a lab project that will change the world if it is allowed to succeed.
And some people are witches.
Amanda Walker is not a witch, yet. She’s an artist, looking for work, unaware that someone has a desperate need for her, a dark plan that may require Amanda to enter death itself.
If she is allowed to live long enough to make the choice.
Amanda’s tale is far stranger than she knows. It is ancient beyond memory. In times of great change it must be relived, in all its fear and hope, its wisdom and its passion.
One of those times is now.
“If the thread was pulled, it would bring the cat back to Stone Mountain…”
The Cats – Nick Sharman
Supernatural cat horror
A giant Doberman pinscher lay in a bloody heap, its unseeing eyes still glazed with astonished terror.
A young dropout on an acid trip smiled at the animals that were ripping his flesh from his bones, until he realized that this was really happening.
What was left of a kindly old lady lay beside the shattered saucer of milk she had intended to put on the ground.
All over the vast city it was happening, and no one seemed able to stop them – the police, the army, the scientist.
Cat after cat was infected by the ferocious fever that for the first time made them the masters of man.
“Free the cats. They had to be free.”
Cat Out of Hell – Lynne Truss
Comedy cat horror
Alec Charlesworth finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called “Wiggy” and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him.
It takes a while for Alec to realize he’s not gone mad from grief, that the cat is actually speaking to Wiggy, and that much of what we fear about cats is true. They do think they’re smarter than humans, for one thing. And, well, it seems they are!
What’s more, they do have nine lives. Or at least this one does. Roger’s older than Methuselah, and his unblinking stare comes from the fact that he’s seen it all.
And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths.
“Blood was now spurting in all directions, and the almighty purr was deafening.”
Tails of Wonder and Imagination – Ellen Datlow (editor)
Sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, horror cat anthology
More than forty stories in which cats are heroes and stories in which they’re villains; tales of domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, cats transformed into people. And yes, even a few cute cats.
Stories by Stephen King, Carol Emshwiller, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, Dennis Danvers, Theodora Goss, Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George R. R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Joyce, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Marshall Smith, and many others.
“…Hobart knew his cats weren’t gods but loved them anyhow.”
To Summon a Hellcat – R.P. Wood
Supernatural cat horror – Book 1 of Hellcat Saga
Waylon Geddes, mayor of the small mining town of Sweetwater, is facing his first mayoral opposition in years. As the build-up to the re-election comes closer, two outsiders arrive into town who will forever change the landscape of Jefferson County, West Virginia.
Deep within a forested grove a few dozen miles away, three sisters unknowingly conjure up an ancient demon with a stolen bit of spellwork. Their casting goes awry, and the devilish hellcat Ferys is unleashed upon the world to spread havoc and destruction in His wake.
Waylon is forced to contend with a series of mysterious murders in his otherwise peaceful town, and endure the hardships both from the vindictive sheriff’s department and his own duties as mayor.
As a respite from the stress, Waylon adopts an adorable and malnourished stray cat on his way home from work. His life, and the lives of those he serves will forever be changed from that moment forward.
“The orange-red cat scampered off, turning back only once to look knowingly at the sisters in their moment of agony.”
Claws – Ricky Sides
Creature feature cat horror
Alcorn Pet Food Corporation is working with an experimental cat food laced with hormones and appetite enhancers. The special food causes cats to add muscle, gain weight, and exhibit extremely aggressive behavior.
When an employee threatens to expose the pet food as a threat to public safety, she finds herself out of work, her home ransacked, and all her carefully gathered proof missing.
Meanwhile, animal rights activists release the cats involved in the testing because they are scheduled to be euthanized. These bigger, stronger, and more aggressive animals begin to prey on small game in the area.
Then the ravenous cats turn their attention to people. Lovers, runners, hunters, dogs, deer, rabbits, normal cats, and even motorists begin to fall victim to the predations of these enhanced felines.
An unemployed scientist, a small special ops team, a grieving father, a chief of security, and a homeless veteran join forces to try to prevent a catastrophe.
When a murderer steals the secret formula that created the menace and sells it to eight foreign enemies of the United States, the stakes suddenly get a lot higher, because the most deadly biological weapon ever created has just been released.
The genie is out of the bottle and the world will never be the same. To make matters worse, the scientist discovers that the first-generation offspring will be even bigger and more aggressive, and then they learn that the food also affects dogs and rats.
“…pound for pound, cats are the most deadly pet mankind has domesticated on a large scale … when cats attack, they can do so in a frenzy that’s almost too fast to follow with the naked eye.”
Published: 17 January 2025
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