Let’s face it: horror is no longer content with merely startling you. It wants to crawl under your skin, throw a cocktail party in your trauma, and leave glittery footprints of existential dread on your hardwood floor.
This year, the genre is shaking things up with murderous cookbooks, haunted ex-boyfriends, and sentient architecture. What a time to be alive (or undead). Below are ten unmissable horror novels published in 2025, each more delightfully unhinged than the last.
Pack your crucifixes and cancel your plans: these are not books to read lightly.
1. My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie
My Ex, the Antichrist opens with Ian, a man nursing the wounds of a breakup that stole his peace, his dog, and apparently, his soul. Because his ex? She’s the literal Antichrist.
What begins as a biting satire of romantic dysfunction spirals into a cosmic horror tale laced with infernal charm, demonic therapy sessions, and a familiar who talks like he’s auditioning for a stand-up special.
This is horror with whiplash: one moment you’re laughing at a sarcastic demon, the next you’re questioning the metaphysics of guilt and free will. DiLouie blends spiritual dread with emotional vulnerability, crafting a story that’s equal parts apocalyptic and oddly tender. Think Good Omens meets Her, but with more brimstone and less closure.
Why we recommend it: Sometimes horror hits hardest when it’s wrapped in heartbreak and sarcasm. DiLouie delivers a story that’s as emotionally raw as it is infernally absurd, perfect for readers who like their demons charming and their protagonists emotionally wrecked but still standing.
2. The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt
You know the setup: woman inherits a crumbling farmhouse, moves in, and things go sideways. But Chelsea Conradt doesn’t do tropes; she dismantles them. Emily arrives in rural Texas expecting quiet. What she gets is a house that whispers, mold that mutters, and neighbors who behave like they’ve already buried something in the backyard.
The prose is feral, the pacing claustrophobic. This isn’t just haunted-house horror, it’s the slow realization that you might belong to something monstrous and not even know it. Conradt’s storytelling is soaked in dread and sun-bleached paranoia, perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians and The Last House on Needless Street.
Why we recommend it: This isn’t just haunted-house horror, it’s dread in daylight, paranoia in the pantry, and the creeping suspicion that the real curse is community. If you’re into slow-burn psychological tension with a rural twist, this one will get under your skin and stay there.
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3. Smile for the Cameras by Miranda Smith
Hollywood loves a comeback. Miranda Smith prefers a body count. When a former child star returns for a reunion documentary, she expects awkward nostalgia and maybe a paycheck. Instead, she gets cryptic fan mail, a rising death toll, and a camera crew that never stops filming, even when it should.
Smith’s psychological horror is razor-sharp, told through fractured timelines and eerie found-footage transcripts. It’s Night Film meets The Final Girl Support Group, with a dash of influencer dread. Fame becomes a funhouse mirror, and every reflection is cracked.
Why we recommend it: A chilling meditation on fame, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt watched, curated, or commodified, and wondered what’s lurking behind the lens.
4. Glass Girls by Danie Shokoohi
Two girls vanish. Then they come back. But they’re not quite right. Danie Shokoohi’s debut is a fever dream wrapped in suburban frost, where trauma warps reality and memory is a trickster with glitter on its teeth. Are the girls ghosts? Clones? Cursed? No one knows, not even them.
This is horror as poetry: lyrical, queer, and quietly feral. The narrative slips between perspectives like fog, offering no easy answers and refusing to hold your hand. It’s The Virgin Suicides if the girls came back darker, sharper, and full of secrets they don’t know how to name.
Why we recommend it: Not every horror story needs a monster. Sometimes, it’s enough to have two girls who don’t remember who they are and a town that’s quietly unraveling around them. If you like your fiction strange, lyrical, and emotionally loaded, this one’s a haunting you’ll welcome.
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5. Red Rabbit Ghost by Jen Julian
It starts with a body. It ends with a rabbit. Somewhere in between, four college students unravel a mythology stitched together with grief, memory, and something that might be love, or madness. Jen Julian’s Red Rabbit Ghost is slippery, spectral, and impossible to pin down.
The rabbit is a metaphor, a menace, and maybe something more. Julian builds tension in the silences: the things unsaid, the grief unspoken, the dream logic that hums beneath every scene. It’s Donnie Darko meets The Secret History, but haunted and heartbreakingly sincere.
Why we recommend it: Julian doesn’t just write horror, she conjures it. This is for readers who want their scares tangled in grief, their ghosts ambiguous, and their rabbits…well, not entirely metaphorical. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’ll leave you blinking into the dark.
6. How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold
Mallory Arnold’s horror comedy doesn’t just break the fourth wall; it sets it on fire and dances in the ashes. Nora is a horror movie obsessive who wakes up inside one, fully aware of every trope, every rule, and every doomed decision. She knows what’s coming. She just doesn’t know how to stop it.
What unfolds is a blood-soaked, self-aware spiral through genre clichés and emotional landmines. Arnold writes with gleeful irreverence, balancing gallows humor with moments of surprising vulnerability. Beneath the carnage lies a tender ode to the misfits, the survivors, and the ones who never got to be the final girl.
Why we recommend it: For anyone who’s ever screamed “Don’t go in there!” and wished someone would listen, this book is your catharsis. Smart, savage, and strangely sweet.
7. The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia returns with a tale steeped in velvet shadows and whispered curses. Set in 1970s Mexico, The Bewitching follows a scandalous socialite turned spiritual medium whose predictions begin to manifest with terrifying precision. As her fame grows, so does a force darker than she ever conjured.
This is witchcraft reimagined, ritual magic tangled with class, desire, and the cost of power. Moreno-Garcia’s prose is lush and biting, her world decadent and dangerous. It’s a story that seduces before it strikes, a slow descent into glamour and rot.
Why we recommend it: It lingers. Not like a ghost, but like perfume on skin, sweet, strange, and impossible to forget. For readers who crave literary horror with teeth and elegance, this one casts a spell you won’t want to break.
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8. We Won’t All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall
In We Won’t All Survive, five teens return to the site of a buried trauma, hoping to confront the past. What they find is a forest that remembers, secrets that rot, and a dare that was never meant to be accepted.
Marshall builds dread like a symphony: slow, deliberate, and devastating. The story pulses with guilt, grief, and the kind of fear that feels personal. It’s Yellowjackets meets Blair Witch, but with more heart and fewer exits.
Why we recommend it: Survival isn’t always the goal. Sometimes it’s about what you carry with you and what you leave behind. For fans of psychological horror with emotional depth and teeth.
9. The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine
Danielle Valentine serves up horror with a serrated edge and a side of satire. Her protagonist is recently widowed, impeccably styled, and possibly a serial killer. Her new cookbook? A glossy collection of cryptic recipes and confessions that blur the line between culinary art and criminal intent.
Valentine’s writing is sharp, stylish, and deliciously deranged. Beneath the glitter lies a critique of grief, gender, and the performance of perfection. It’s Gone Girl meets The Menu, with a dash of Martha Stewart and a splash of blood.
Why we recommend it: It’s not just a book, it’s a mood. For readers who like their horror domestic, their protagonists morally ambiguous, and their kitchens immaculate but cursed.
10. A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper
Hailey Piper’s latest is less a novel and more a ritual. A Game in Yellow unfolds in a warped version of New England, where a forbidden children’s game opens doors that should never be touched. What begins as folklore curdles into cosmic horror, stitched with grief and madness.
Piper’s prose is hypnotic, her imagery unsettling. The narrative slips between reality and nightmare, inviting readers to play along even as the rules dissolve. It’s The King in Yellow reimagined for a generation raised on nostalgia and dread.
Why we recommend it: For fans of weird fiction, collapsing realities, and horror that feels like a fever dream you’re not sure you woke up from.
There’s a special kind of pleasure in letting fiction destroy you. Whether you crave slow-burning dread, absurdist bloodbaths, or witchy revenge fantasies, this horror lineup has something to hex you with.
These ten books don’t just want to scare you: they want to interrogate you, seduce you, and maybe ruin your next night-in. So find a flashlight, lock your doors, and dive in. Just don’t be surprised if something crawls out with you.
