Shadows Over Main Street (2016) An Anthology of Small-Town Lovecraftian Terror (Shadows Over Main Street, book 1) edited by Doug Murano and D Alexander Ward
Gutted (2016) Beautiful Horror Stories edited by Doug Murano and D Alexander Ward
When We Talk to the Dead (2025) Ian Chorao "While there's no doubt When We Talk to the Dead is a horror novel, it's also deeply (and mindfully) psychological, as if Ian Chorao has rendered both the narrator and reader part of a brilliant therapy session. The malevolence is met by the rich characters within, yes, but by Chorao himself, too, as his mastery as a writer (and thinker) is on full display. Highly recommended."
Simultaneous (2025) Eric Heisserer "Past lives and parallel lives, crime and potential punishment--but the most thrilling thread here is facing belief in a wild theory, a worldview changing, as the theory becomes the most sensible one on the table. Heisserer has outdone himself: a novel with the cinematic stakes and pacing as one of his brilliant scripts."
I'll Quit When I'm Dead (2025) Luke Smitherd "Your workout begins with reps of thrilling scenarios before stretching into an unputdownable story. All upon a mat of fantastic writing. Never has self-improvement existed on such pins and needles."
Veil (2025) Jonathan Janz "The voice in Veil is as present, strong, charming, singular, and desperate as any I've read. The story of a family man who will stop at nothing to protect those he loves. Even if those threats are beyond sanity, reason, and a once agreed upon reality. Janz has written another absolute gem of the genre."
The October Film Haunt (2025) Michael Wehunt "The October Film Haunt is the written equivalent to the feeling you get when you've entered a space you hadn't realized was occult, alarmingly occult, truly occult. The book feels like an ambush; as real as any fear you've surprisingly endured. It's like Wehunt has a bridle on the narrative, his capacity is something to be celebrated; the chapters unfold like a series of perfectly mystic riddles. This is an extraordinary book, carried by an unsettling baritone hum, not dissimilar to the whir of a VCR that should never have been plugged in to begin with."
When the Wolf Comes Home (2025) Nat Cassidy "I finished reading the book about a week ago, and it keeps sliding back into my thoughts and conversations. ... Wolf carries with it a harrowing inevitability. The feeling you get, maybe, when one enters the Twilight Zone, and you just know things will be different now. ... Nat Cassidy has tapped into something with this one: it's the mood all us readers are always digging for: the Truth, a truth, his truth... the sort of truth you add to your own."
Invader (2025) Brian Deleeuw and Adam Egypt Mortimer "The story is cinematic, scary, sagacious. It's incredible to me that the best book I've read on being human has come in the form of an alien invasion."
Wake Up and Open Your Eyes (2025) Clay McLeod Chapman "The proximity of Chapman's demons is enough to make one lock the doors, turn off the television, [and] curl into a ball in the dark. . . . A sparkling variety of narration, mad vivid energy, and even brilliantly funny bits."
Coup De Grace (2024) Sofia Ajram "Forwarded with the funereal poetics of dream-logic but, wait: awake. And therefore, no dream, but nightmare. Still, despite the horror, Ajram's spirited voice is as self-evident as a solitary bright hue in a wide grey world. What do we look for in books, in stories, if not signs of life? Coup de Grace is teeming with rare life."
Guillotine (2024) Delilah S Dawson "If there's a better writer than Delilah Dawson going today, I don't know'em."
Under the Surface (2024) Diana Urban "A nightmare we've all had: in a place we don't know well, innocent spontaneity gone awry. Yet, a heart beats fierce throughout this book, from Diana Urban's brilliantly rendered characters to the City of Light itself. It's survival, yes, but more than merely physical: Under the Surface explores the survival of friendship, optimism, romance, and hope. All in the horrifying presence of the innumerable dead. Urban is magnificent."
Bless Your Heart (2024) (Bless Your Heart, book 1) Lindy Ryan "Such a brilliant blend of banter and dread. Authored with the confidence of a storyteller who knows every inch, cadence, and beat of their tale. Instantly cinematic. And if you're anything like me, you're going to wish you were part of the Evans family, working at the Evans Funeral Home, just so you can spend more time with these people. Lindy Ryan is on fire with this book."
Plastic Space House (2023) John F D Taff "Welcome to Taff's nightmare. An entire novel seemingly set at that outer rim Lovecraft so deeply feared. Here plot makes room for philosophy without losing the beat, and the imagination does its work in the blackness of deepest outer space."
I Died Too, But They Haven't Buried Me Yet (2023) Ross Jeffery "Ross Jeffery is the two things you long for most in an author of horror: first he's fearless. Second, he's giving. Giving you, the reader, all the fear instead."
The Night House (2023) Jo Nesbø "Nesbo doesn't spend any time fiddling about, building up, or misdirecting. In The Night House, the horror begins immediately. And it only keeps calling from there. There are lessons to be learned here: who to believe and what to believe in. And how a person can change, when the impossible turns possible and the unimaginable is laid bare. This horror fan loved it."
The Devil Takes You Home (2022) Gabino Iglesias "Here there be bloodshed, oh yes, sudden lyrical frenzies peppers over the main course of calamity. Every time you think the book got quiet, it screams again."
Black Mouth (2022) Ronald Malfi "A modern-day Algernon Blackwood...I'm gonna be talking about this book for years."
Such a Pretty Smile (2022) Kristi DeMeester "Wonderfully well written; the dread, the enigma, build with each scene. It's coming of age, it's family secrets, it's life in the balance, too. It's Thomas Harris, it's Lois Duncan... but no, it's Kristi DeMeester, in complete confident control of your experience. An outstanding story in outstanding hands."
Road of Bones (2022) Christopher Golden "A slash in reality, or what we mistakenly assume is the real, exposing not only extrinsic horrors but those within, all found in a corner of the globe that has long held our fascination, though most of us don't have the courage to make the trek. Golden has that courage. Road of Bones is a masterclass in mind-set and setting; I've never felt the temperature of a book so firmly. I've also never been so afraid to step outside. In some ways a quick story (the central events span much less than 24 hours), in other ways enormous: the emotional stakes could not be higher. A breathtaking experience, a glacial gust of a book, Christopher Golden's best yet."
Just Thieves (2021) Gregory Galloway "Chock full of mystery, regret, intrigue, emotion: Galloway’s newest is a brilliant meditation on what matters. The kind of book that leaves you feeling like you already saw, and felt, deeply, the movie."
Don't Push the Button (2021) John M Skipp "Startingly honest, refreshingly revealing, funny, freaky, upsetting, unsettling. His best yet."
Getaway (2021) Zoje Stage "Zoje Stage is in total control of your nightmare. For those who live to be scared, Wonderland is the book you’ll be glad you cracked open at home, alone, at night."
Chasing the Boogeyman (2021) (Boogeyman, book 1) Richard Chizmar "Hammer in hand, Richard Chizmar’s come to shatter the idea that everything’s already been done. An absolutely chilling mash-up of styles, media, biography, and legend. Elastic, unsettling, brilliant. And here you thought you knew the names of every genre."
The Anatomy of Desire (2021) L R Dorn "A truly innovative, fantastic book. Emphatically recommended. Reads like your favorite podcast, the hit crime doc you'll want to binge. A brilliant brewing of progressive internet influencers, with smaller town police doing their best to keep up. Structurally fresh, these talking heads will enchant you."
Just Get Home (2021) Bridget Foley "Thrilling, yes, but so much more than a thriller. Set to the tune of a life-altering (and vividly rendered) earthquake, Foley brings together two very different women who discover an ultimate commonality: knowing what matters. Written with aplomb, precision, and courage, Just Get Home is a breathtaking achievement."
We are Wolves (2020) Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower and Cynthia Pelayo "The bravest book you'll read all year. Harrowing, yes, but necessarily so. As empowering as it is powerful. Not only does the book benefit a crucial cause, the stories are extraordinary, written by more than a dozen paramount voices in horror. Sometimes a book illuminates as it entertains; We Are Wolves is that rare find."
The Residence (2020) Andrew Pyper "The only thing more bewitching than a ghost in the White House is putting its story in the hands of Andrew Pyper. Herein lies the coupling of the uncanny with the all-too-real, and the glow from such a pairing lights the way to a chilling, profound reading."
The Bright Lands (2020) John Fram "Absolutely enthralling. Written with the rhythm of the game Fram writes of. A mystery to get the skin crawling even as you unbury the secrets of those trying to solve it. Despite its nature, there is a warmth to this thriller, and you’ll feel like you’ve come home…a home that still haunts you."
Home Before Dark (2020) Riley Sager "Flawless pacing, a dexterous dual narrative, and character through the roof. But the biggest revelation to be found in Home Before Dark is this: There’s nobody writing scarier books than Riley Sager is right now."
The Narcissism of Small Differences (2020) Michael Zadoorian "The Narcissism of Small Differences asks big questions and delivers big answers but not without wit, taste, and style. A snapshot of a modern relationship, all messiness included. There's nobody better than Michael Zadoorian at unearthing the beauty in ruins, the truth in jest, youth in aging. In a literary landscape where most are hell-bent on outplotting their peers, he has sculpted a thriller from everyday life. For this, it's my most cherished book of the year."
Devolution (2020) Max Brooks "There's a bowstring undercurrent running through the whole of Max Brooks's newest that's liable to snap a reader in half. Characters so real you could name them from your own life, even as you call for them to run for cover. Max Brooks has written the next great epistolary novel. Devolution is phenomenal."
The Deep (2020) Alma Katsu "Here's an incredibly ambitious setting, prose as ornate as the boat, mood as ghostly as gothic, and what must have been enough research to build a ship of her own. Yet, The Deep is thrilling, rich, frightening, unsettling, and, best of all, told from the heart. I'm going to have to read it again, because I'm not sure how she did it....The Deep is divine. I hear bugles blaring; the announcement of the arrival of a brilliant author."
The Only Child (2020) Mi-Ae Seo "Wholly absorbing, but without any pandering on the author's part, so that the language, the style, and the mood grow about you, as you slip deeper into the story and realize, quite suddenly, you are immersed. An eerie, electrifying read."
Eden (2020) Tim Lebbon "Instantly cinematic. A textured, thought-provoking thriller that will make you wonder what the world would be like if humans were to give it back. Eden is a story about family, humanity and the desire to re-experience the wonders we screwed up the first time around. Nobody is as smooth on the lettered keys as Tim Lebbon. Here, as with all his books, you are in the hands of a master."
Dead to Her (2020) Sarah Pinborough "Within minutes of opening Dead to Her you will be unsettled, charmed, riled, empowered, and aroused. Pinborough at the height of her powers."
Violet (2019) Scott Thomas "A master class in immersion. Don't let anybody tell you this book is a slow burn - Violet travels at the speed of horror."
The Only Good Indians (2019) (Only Good Indians, book 1) Stephen Graham Jones "The best yet from one of the best in the business. An emotional depth that staggers, built on guilt, identity, one's place in the world, what's right and what's wrong. The Only Good Indians has it all: style, elevation, reality, the unreal, revenge, warmth, freezing cold, and even some slashing. In other words, the book is made up of everything Stephen Graham Jones seemingly explores and, in turn, everything the rest of us want to explore with him.""
The Boy At the Keyhole (2018) Stephen Giles "Equal parts pastoral and piqued, The Boy at the Keyhole is a story that rises above its own devices and transcends the sum of its parts. The characters sink through the cracks of your mind, straight to your soul. And the questions herein will burn you to bits. You’ll talk about this book with everyone you meet. It’s that exciting."
Bad Man (2018) Dathan Auerbach "With Penpal Auerbach freaked us out. With Bad Man he's got a bigger canvas, and, it seems, a sharper shovel, as he's dug deeper here and found a totally unsettling story about never giving up on a loss. Brilliant stuff."
This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us (2018) Edgar Cantero "In A.Z. Kimrean, Cantero has written the funniest private investigator this side of Peter Sellers. How can you not love the warring siblings, opposites in a single body, as they outwit everyone they meet? You will. You will love them."
What Should Be Wild (2018) Julia Fine "Julia Fine is an exciting, excellent writer. And her voice, in What Should Be Wild, says, unspoken, what we all want so badly to hear when we pick up a new book: Let me tell you a story... one you won’t want to end."
