The countdown to Halloween has begun! And if the crisp air and pumpkins have you craving a terrifying tale, I have a few horror novel recommendations for you.
Now, horror isn’t my specialty genre, but every year in October, I binge listen to audiobooks that focus on this oh-so-appropriate genre. Some are fun-time spooky and some are downright nightmare inducing. This month is off to a great start for me – connect with me on Goodreads for real-time updates of my reading list. But this year is the first time I’ve put together a short list to recommend to readers who might just be looking for a good horror audiobook fix.
I also enjoy a good horror tale in the summer, for whatever reason. The sun is out and shining and I’m lying by the pool. Time for murder and carnage, ghosts and goblins, I guess. 🤷♀️
Now, generally after I read or listen to something, I post a private and very casual review to my friends on social media, which sometimes makes its way to Goodreads, although not usually. The horror novel recommendations you’ll find below here are reposts of what I tell my friends and family about these books.
Since October has already begun, and there’s way too many in my reading history for me to keep the list short if I include everything I recommend, I’ve narrowed it down to just three horror sub-categories: fantasy horror, psychological thriller, and horror featuring women of color as protagonists (two appear in this category below: one YA appropriate and one for adults).
It may go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Reader discretion advised.
The Salt Grows Heavy
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
By: Cassandra Khaw
Fantasy-Horror Recommendation
Tagged: adventure, fantasy, women’s lit, romance, LGBTQ+, mom lit, short story
I covered this incredible short novel in my blog, Editor’s Pick: Top Books Read in 2023, so you’re welcome to check that out if you want the full (and extended!) review.
To what I’ve said there, I’ll add this: this is one of the few horror novel recommendations that maintains its place on my list, even as I read more in this genre, and I’m growing to love this author more with each exposure to her work.
I listened to another short story from this author in October 2022, returned to her to listen to this in October 2023, and have now returned to her again for my horror reading list of October 2024. She continues to impress me each and every time.
The Last House on Needless Street
The Last House on Needless Street
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
By Catriona Ward
Psychological Thriller-Horror Recommendation
Tagged: 21st century lit, LGBTQ, psychology, horror
This incredible book was an Honorable Mention in my blog, Top 5 Books of 2022, so you might want to take a look there for the full review.
What I can say is that this has stuck with me over the past two years. As someone with a background in psychology, I have to sometimes be careful about what types of psychological thrillers I get myself in — as they tend to hit deeper nerves than other types of thrillers — but as I continue to read more novels with depictions of mental illness, I continue to think about how well done this one is. Since the time of reading this, I have also listened to books by Mary Higgins-Clark and Cormac McCarthy, who are both superb writers in depicting mental illness, and I would maintain that this book holds up against those larger, perhaps more well-known writers.
I predicted when I published my Top Books of 2022 blog that this book would “stick with me for a long time,” and here we are, two years after I read it, and it’s showing up on this short list of horror novel recommendations. I love it when a prediction comes true. 😁
Horror Novel Recommendations Featuring Women of Color Protagonists
For the final category of my horror novel recommendations, I’d like to feature two books that star not only female protagonists but women of color specifically. There has long been discussion in the publishing community about how women of color are not featured enough in the horror genre, and I agree! #representationmatters
The first book is one I read just this past summer of 2024, so it’s fresh in my mind and still haunts me randomly as I go about my life. The second I read in summer of 2023 and is for a YA audience. I particularly enjoyed the narrative’s delivery of the character’s paranoia in the audiobook, and I hope you will too.
Both these titles include content warnings for hate crime violence and abuse based on race, as well as depictions of pretty severe mental health crises. The first also receives content warnings for harm to a child.
One of Us Knows
By Alyssa Cole
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tagged: horror, adventure, psychology, women’s lit, romance, LGBTQ+, 21st century lit
4.5 stars. Oooo! Spooky! A psychological thriller for your summer reading list. Very well done. 👏👏👏
Disassociative Identity Disorder (previously known as “multiple personality disorder”) is not particularly well understood or depicted in general pop culture media (books, TV, etc.), and I’m certainly no expert, but I’d say this is extremely well done. Our main narrator is one of the two hosts of this person’s system, a queer Black woman in her early thirties, and she is co-narrated by several of her/their other identities. 👉👈
While people with DID often experience gaps in time due to various personalities controlling the body’s actions and memories, this novel shows how terrifying that really can become when your whole personhood ends up the center of a mystery that urgently needs solving before more people die or disappear under strange circumstances… 😱
So while one of them must know what’s going on, all of them will have to work together to save themselves using only the pieces of information available to each.
Terrifying. Funny. Deeply disturbing depiction of true-to-life trauma caused by people of MAGA ilk. It’ll have you cheering and laughing and gasping in the same scene.👌
Reminded me of The Shining and The Menu and Last House on Needless Street.
Obviously content warnings. No SA but violence, hate crimes, abuse/neglect of children, mental illness, and more. 💔
White Smoke
By Tiffany D. Jackson
⭐⭐⭐
Tagged: psychology, women’s lit, YA, 21st century lit
3.5 stars. A mid-summer ghost story that actually felt like fun summer reading.
A lot of YA tropes mixed with standard ghost story stock that felt like a fresh twist on some classics I probably read in middle or early high school and just can’t remember now, like “Fear Street.”👻
This was fresh and modern, with an angsty MC who learns a few valuable lessons along the way. 👩🎤 Her dad is in an interracial relationship, and she’s learning to adjust to having a White stepmother and stepsister. She’s also struggling with her own mental health in a few different ways.
At times it was a bit predictable or obvious, but maybe that’s because I’m an adult who is familiar with the formula. And at times I was honestly questioning what would happen next. Generally, I enjoyed it. ❤️
Do You Have Horror Novel Recommendation for Me?
So that’s it! This is my short list of horror novel recommendations for October 2024.
If you have suggestions for me, I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below to let me know what you think I should add to my horror To Be Read list.
Happy reading, and have a great/horrific spooky season!
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