Horror, at its most haunting, isn’t just about what lurks in the dark—it’s about what festers in the heart. This season’s most compelling reads plunge into the shadows of history, identity, and desire, each offering a distinct flavor of dread. Stephen Graham Jones’ Buffalo Hunter Hunter carves a blood-soaked path through the American West, where retribution and moral rot unfold in stark, snowy silence. John Wiswell’s Someone to Build a Nest in twists body horror into a darkly whimsical romance, exploring monstrous love with queer warmth and razor-sharp wit. Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone drapes gothic horror in sapphic tension, as feminine rage and suppressed desire simmer beneath the weight of Industrial-Age shadows. In Don’t Let the Forest In, CG Drews crafts a YA nightmare of toxic devotion, where love and monstrosity blur in aching, lyrical prose. And Freddie Kolsch’s Empty Heaven lures readers into eerie rural charm, where ancient rituals and queer found-family bonds collide with the terror of being claimed by something that calls itself love. Whether you crave slow-burning dread, body-horror humor, or the seductive pull of the unknown, these books promise to linger long after the last page.
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Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
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Historical indigenous horror with deep foreboding, blood-soaked revenge.
For readers drawn to bleak, blood-soaked historical horror obsessed with the spiraling cost of retribution—guilt, memory, and the west itself. Ideal if you like measured pacing that tightens into dread, sparse yet poetic prose, and moral rot painted across wide snowy silence rather than loud gore or intricate lore.
Empty Heaven by Freddie Kölsch
Amazon | Bookshop.org | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Young adult horror with teenage angst, queer found family, and the secrets that lie just beneath the surface.
For readers drawn to dark, emotionally-charged YA horror about the terror of being claimed by something that insists it loves you. Ideal if you like brisk yet lingering pacing, eerie rural atmosphere, queer found-family tenderness, and the seductive dread of ancient rituals hiding behind postcard charm.
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Amazon | Bookshop.org | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Historical horror with gothic sapphic vampires.
For readers drawn to dark, atmospheric historical horror about suppressed desire colliding with feminine rage. Ideal if you crave slow-simmering dread, lyrical gothic prose, and morally thorny sapphic tension over fast scares, plus elegant manor shadows and Industrial-Age hunger metaphors.
Someone You Can Build a Nest in by John Wiswell
Amazon | Bookshop.org | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Cozy queer horror with body horror asks, who is the actual monster?
For readers who crave darkly whimsical fantasy-romance about learning to love without devouring what you desire—monstrous identity versus tender connection. Perfect if you enjoy brisk, banter-rich pacing, body-horror humor, queer warmth, and emotional stakes sharper than any blade.
Don’t let the Forest in by CG Drews
Amazon | Bookshop.org | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Queer young adult organic horror, with a growing sense of dread and toxic devotion.
For readers drawn to queer YA horror about toxic devotion and the terror of loving someone whose pain is turning monstrous. Perfect if you crave dark, tense atmospheres, lyrical prose, and emotional intimacy more than gore or complex worldbuilding, and you like your scares laced with yearning, art, and the ache of wanting to save what might already be lost.
Happy reading!
/rae/
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