Chloe's Not Scared

Due to stressful events, I had a bad reading year. There’s just no way around it. Despite my best efforts, I had trouble connecting with most of the books I picked up! Because of that, I had to search high and low for good horror titles (so you know that these ten must be good, especially for getting you out of a reading slump). Exploring untapped subgenres such as adventure pulp, ‘50’s-inspired monster movies and highway horror, this list is far from boring or dull. Like the best movie of the year, you probably know my number one horror book (which might be my number one book, period), the rest of the list may surprise you. Without further ado, let’s read about the 10 best horror books of the year!

10. Mansect- Koga Shinichi

Read Mansect here.

Mansect was first published in 1975, but it’s reissued again by Smudge and it’s new to me so I’m counting it! Translated by Ryan Holmberg, Koga Shinichi’s horror manga follows Hideo, a reclusive man who befriends insects and takes them home. Pretty soon, he turns into one. This is a transformation tale almost akin to a werewolf, where the book explores where the man stops and the insect begins. I highly recommend this for Junji Ito fans, but also fans of Roger Corman and monster movies from the 1960’s, which undoubtedly influenced Mansect.

9. Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread by Leila Taylor

Read Sick Houses here.

I joke with my friends that the only nonfiction that I read are books about ghosts, but sometimes its true. This book talks about how real haunted houses influence our famous haunted houses in media, and visa versa. I admired how author Leila Taylor stretches the definition of a haunted house to dollhouses, serial killers’ houses, the Winchester Mystery House and more. It also makes connections about how we think about ghosts and hauntings in the United States. It made me want to read her other book, too!

8. The Possession of Alba Díaz- Isabel Cañas

Read Alba Díaz here.

Isabel Cañas is so good at melding a romance story with a horrific backdrop. Though The Possession of Alba Díaz is one of her scariest (and most adventurous) books, I would recommend it for the scaredy cats out there. To avoid a plague, Alba, her parents, and her fiancé Carlos flee to a silver mine. Alba meets Carlos’ cousin Elías, a broody (hot) alchemist. But something is lurking deep within the mine. I especially liked how Alba’s consciousness was written during moments of possession; it helped humanize her even when she was acting as the demon within her. A Gothic girl’s dream, perfect for readers who want to yearn a little in their historical horror.

7. The Salvage by Anbara Salam

Read The Salvage here.

It’s 1962, Scotland. Marta is commissioned to dive and retrieve Captain Purdie’s remains as well as all valuables from a shipwreck. But the townsfolk are cliquey and Marta isn’t sure who to trust. In this fun underwater folk horror, The Salvage explores themes of otherness in the threat of nuclear disaster. This is a definite slow burn, but I really liked the queer themes and the isolation of an insular Scottish town. I read this during a snowstorm and it was completely perfect conditions.

6. Why I Love Horror- Edited by Becky Spratford

Read Why I Love Horror here.

Eighteen essays from the world’s biggest horror writers about what draws them to this morbid genre. Many cite aspects that also drew me into the genre, such as Stephen King; thoughts of quicksand, spontaneous human combustion, and crop circles; small town urban legends and more. Others gravitate towards horror due to the darkness in their upbringing or society. I especially recommend Alma Katsu, Grady Hendrix, Cina Pelayo, Victor LaValle’s stories, though all are spectacular. Before this book, many of the authors rarely (or never) shared their horror origin story… but they did for Becky Spratford. Full disclosure: I know Becky and Sadie (who wrote the prologue to this book) but even so, I was delighted to read about why these horror writers love the genre.

5. Killer on the Road- Stephen Graham Jones

Read Killer on the Road here.

The book opens to a hitchhiker getting picked up by a trucker. They’re both bantering, trying to figure out if the other is a serial killer a la Scream. Spoiler: one of them is definitely the titular killer. Killer on the Road is half of a book that also holds the novella The Babysitter Lives, which is absent from this list. To me, Killer embodies SGJ’s masterful talent to blend horror, quick wit and loveable characters across the backdrop of the quintessential American setting: a highway with a teenage hitchhiker beside it.

4. Victorian Psycho- Virginia Feito

Read Victorian Psycho here.

The titular “Psycho” is Winifred “Fred” Notty, a young governess hired by the Pounds family, who “coincidentally” comes from the town where all the babies end up dead. Fred isn’t like other governesses– she doesn’t really care about her pupils and likes to sink her teeth into raw meat. But don’t worry, the kids don’t care much for her either. Quirkiness is given tenfold in this darkly comedic horror thriller (your mileage may vary on the blood and/or jokes). In the same vein as horror staples such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, Victorian Psycho– which already has an A24 film in the works– is destined to be a freaky little classic.

3. The Hounding- Xenobe Purvis

Read The Hounding here.

Is The Hounding a horror novel? It’s mysterious magical realism and about witches, so guess what, we are counting it as a slow-burn horror with a literary fiction vibe. The Hounding begins in 18th century Little Nettlebed, an English town with a creek running through town, as the town prepares for the ferryman’s wedding. The five Mansfield sisters, grandchildren of a wealthy blind man, are simultaneously under attack as the ferryman (a notorious drunkard) said that he saw them turn into dogs. I believe the negative reviews of this book are a case of mismatched expectations. If you want to read a book about women turning into dogs, you won’t get that. Instead, you get (in my opinion) a much more unique perspective of the girls, told by the outsiders looking in and in turn, an examination of how information is disseminated. It is also a very terse novel– not a word wasted. Debut author Xenobe Purvis is a talent to watch.

2. Strange Pictures- Uketsu

Read Strange Pictures here.

Strange Pictures is a Japanese mystery horror novel that took me completely by surprise this year. Written by popular Youtuber Uketsu (whose real identity is unknown as he wears a creepy mask in his videos), Strange Pictures uncovers nine drawings and the macabre backstories behind each one. A paranormal club discovers a random blog with unsettling drawings posted. A dead body of an art teacher has a single sketch on his person during the time of his death. While it was originally published in 2022 in Japanese, Strange Pictures and its companion, the not-as-great Strange Houses, were translated into English by Jim Rion for the first time this year. For a scary fun time, pick up Strange Pictures!

1. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter- Stephen Graham Jones

Read Buffalo Hunter here.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was not only my favorite horror book of the year, but my favorite books of the year period. The novel begins with workers, who are demolishing a wall in an old church, finding a manuscript from 1912. The manuscript, a diary written by Lutheran pastor Arthur Beaucarne, ends up in the hands of Professor Etsy Beaucarne who hopes the pages within will illuminate her ancestors and lead to her tenure. Pastor Beaucarne’s account of a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab, who has lived a long and interesting life and may be seeking more than just your average confession.

It’s no secret that Stephen Graham Jones is my favorite author, but I do think this book is very different from his others. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is definitely more somber in tone, and while his signature wit and humor is throughout, it’s less in-your-face. While some of the horror is the gnarliest that I’ve ever read from Jones, it’s nothing out of the ordinary from a typical Western. It’s a book that I would recommend both for general book clubs who read historical fiction, and also horror-specific book lovers, similar to Tananarive Due’s The Reformatory. And much like that book, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter explores the idea that it’s not enough to be against racism, but you must be actively anti-racist (thank you, Ibram X. Kendi!). This is Dr. Jones’ masterpiece.

Honorable mentions: Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel, Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle, Student Bodies by TT Madden

What is your favorite 2025 horror book?