New Horror Books

Beautiful cover of black with a red relief evoking minimalist film poster art. Blackletter style font. Carmilla is an 1872 Gothic novella by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897).

https://amzn.to/4gLd3jU

Steeped in the sexual tension between two young women, this is a beautiful, brand-new edition of the original cult classic.

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest - the beautiful Carmilla.

A black and white stripy affair similar to the other books in the  series - skulls and roses adorn the title.

https://amzn.to/4j4U4m6

Dark Moon Books and editor Eric J. Guignard bring you this introduction to her work, the seventh in a series of primers exploring modern masters of literary dark short fiction. Herein is a chance to discover the evocative voice of Gemma Files, as beautifully illustrated by artist Michelle Prebich.

A beautiful cover of a woodcut style black background featuring a cabin in the piney woods, the relief is a muted red to dark teal gradient. The type is soft serifs.

https://amzn.to/4gLLhDV

Twenty-five year old Calla is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

The cover is a gorgeous black with red text featuring a plump red steak plated directly on green herbs.

https://amzn.to/3PS68JY

Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember.

When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.

Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful stray named Eden turns up in a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make a bid for freedom.

The cover has a porcelain doll's face with yellow fluted block text over top - reminds me somewhat of Incident in a Ghostland. I've requested an ARC.

https://amzn.to/3BQLsPo

Winifred arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess—she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew; tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family—Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze. 

Compounded with her disdain for the children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery . . . and creeping across the moonlit lawns. . . .

The cover looks like a techno thriller - skyscrapers with ghastly red skulls leering over a city street. Strange but it works. White sans serif font. Very nouveau Tom Clancy

https://amzn.to/42tOjs7

In the aftermath of a catastrophic New Year's Eve explosion in the heart of the city, Miki embarks upon a treacherous odyssey into the devastated area in search of her famous photojournalist sister, Jennifer, who has mysteriously disappeared.

With only the help of a former homicide detective, a cagey teenage street dodger, and a set of lurid photographs her sister left behind, Miki will come face to face with the manifestations of malevolent psychic energy called Paramentals-and the sinister conspiracy that created them.

Ochre text in stretched bold serif over a very creepy woodland lake - very lonesome umber, red, brown with many verticals in the tree trunks. Haunting. 

https://amzn.to/429jQzx

With its long history of countless deaths and disappearances, Aiken Mill, Virginia, has become known to law enforcement as “The Cold Case Capital of the World.” A mutilated body has turned up in town and Sheriff Parrott discovers frightening clues that lead him to believe some ghostly force—or entity—may be responsible for the killing.

Meanwhile, psychology professor Martin Pritchett and his brother, Phillip, happen upon a crumbling, century-old house beside a body of water called Black Tooth Pond. A strange compulsion leads both men back to the house time and time again, but neither can remember any of the events that occur there.

As both the Sherrif and Pritchett brothers attempt to solve their respective mysteries, their paths begin to converge—paths that lead inexorably to the ancient, foreboding house at Black Tooth Pond.

This title has one of those kindleprenure titles that has added to it: "Creepy Gothic Horror with a Haunting Thematic Atmosphere, Perfect for Winter 2025, Don't Read Alone" which I find annoying as that is not the title

Really great cover in red and black with a twisted tree that has glowing eyes peering out from a hollow knot in the trunk.

https://amzn.to/4j7yjBZ

There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew "The Giant" in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

A beautiful red on black cover with a Dungeness crab illustrated on the cover. One of those kindle books that have a long 'kindlepreur' title that tells us it is unputdownable. This is not the title. "Scuttler's Cove: A chilling, unputdownable folk horror thriller" as the cover says  it is 'a seaside idyll with horror at its heart'. It still sounds good though. 

https://amzn.to/4hwhOy4

Scuttler’s Cove is a working village, nestling in dramatic coastal scenery in Cornwall, where life has gone on uninterrupted for centuries… until this seaside idyll was discovered by the rich. Now the quaint cottages have been snapped up by time-share and rental companies, and the locals can barely afford to live in their own town.

It is a very different place for Merrin Moon, who left for university at the age of eighteen and never looked back. Now in her thirties, she returns to the Cove for the first time since, after the death of her mother. She soon discovers that there are forces at play in the village that she could never have imagined. Something old and terrible is awakening beneath the town’s hallowed ground. And with it comes a horror that the residents have fought for generations to keep a secret.

The cover in red with white text reminds me of the Mallus Malleficarum or Withcraft and Superstition. Plain but effective.

https://amzn.to/404hgIB

Blood on Satan's Claw is widely regarded as part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of cult classics which gave birth to the film genre that would become known as folk horror. Along with The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General, it found new ways to terrify audiences using elements of superstition and folklore.

Now, fifty years after its release, readers can experience the unearthing of this terror in the film’s first official novelisation: a compelling and frightening retelling of the fate of unfortunate villagers sacrificed by their own children as devil worship infiltrates their rural existence.

Written by the film’s original screenwriter Robert Wynne-Simmons and featuring haunting new illustrations from Richard Wells, it is an atmospheric and defining cult classic in the making.

A poison green background with a oiled fish tin of eyeballs. Fittingly weird and cosmic, as the twitter account it was spawned of is. 

https://amzn.to/4fRGEa6

Noah desperately needs a new job that involves less blood and piss than his current one as a janitor. So, when he spots an ad for a newspaper seeking an ad rep with ‘No experience preferred’, he puts on his good shirt and marches down to their average-looking office to unknowingly sign his life away.

Malachia is the only human left in the City of Silence and she spends her time wandering its empty, bone-filled streets. Until one day she finds a lone figure hunched over a typewriter, his fingers enmeshed with the keys. Could he be the answer to finding her lost love?

Propelled by their pursuits for rent money and truth, Noah and Malachia are pushed to their limits in this tightly-plotted satire of occupational hazards and conglomerate powers.

Dread Singles (@hottestsingles) 
HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA, FLESH UNDULATING IN TIME TO THEIR FERAL KEENING

A lovely cover evoking The Nightmare without the gremlin. Green block calligraphic text.

https://amzn.to/420XpfZ

It’s the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore’s marriage to steel baron Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla; weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed with terrible hunger . . .

As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk.

The cover is in keeping with the rest of this series featuring a litho-style graveyard in black over a gradient of red to orange. Tall sans-serif white text.

https://amzn.to/4h3T3Zz

Keira is caught in a deadly battle. Her ability to help ghosts move on from the mortal world has made her a threat to Artec, a powerful corporation intent on trapping the tortured dead for profit. They've been tracking her for years and now, finally, there's nowhere left for her to run.

Artec fears Keira and everything she's capable of. They will stop at nothing to eliminate her―including sending armed men after everyone she holds dear.

A rather boring cover of a door hanger on a motel room door. Fitting rolled serif typography of the 30s perhaps. 

https://amzn.to/40llLQd

These short stories evoke an alluring voice, sure to make the reader shiver in arousal and horror, never quite knowing what could happen next. Castro pushes past the limits of gothic terror and fantasy to carve a dangerous path of lust and violence, all throughout the reader’s charming stay at The Pink Agave Motel.

The cover has a howling wolf illustrated in green ink on a black background. Yellow chunky serifed text. Strange choice for the  title as it is often used so this book would be confused with others easily. Blurbed by George R. R. Martin. 

https://amzn.to/3CesN05

Under cover of the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff—gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon, after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world.

All manner of participants, both human and not, are about with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night. The witch, the mad monk, the vengeful vicar, the Count who sleeps by day, the Good Doctor and the hulking Experiment Man he fashioned from human body parts, and a wild-card American named Larry Talbot—all the while Snuff is keeping Things at bay and staying a leap ahead of the Great Detective, who knows quite a bit more than he lets on.

the cover is beautiful and evocative of the yellow wallpaper being a  slat and plaster wall with a hole in some faded and stained old wallpaper. The font is a distressed black sans-serif.  

https://amzn.to/3PQHCco

Newly-minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. The only reprieve from her small world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. 

Alice is a thirteen year old girl who claims she’s being haunted by a witch. Living with her family in their crowded home in a remote village, Alice’s symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience and Alice will get better, Mina is sure of it.

But instead of improving, Alice’s behaviour becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. The town has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of dealing with it. And they don’t expect outsiders to understand.

A red cover with massive blood spatter stylized over a DSLR camera on a city street.

https://amzn.to/4hwPcEQ

Rick is a young, struggling filmmaker with big dreams but no direction. By day, he’s trapped in a soul-crushing job he despises; by night, he pours his heart into low-budget short films, hoping to break into Hollywood. When he meets Sergio, a charismatic yet enigmatic producer, Rick is convinced he’s finally found his big break.

Behind the allure of success lies a twisted underworld of snuff films–gruesome, underground creations blurring the line between art and depravity.

As Rick becomes entrenched in Sergio’s world, but the deeper he dives, the more he loses: friendships, love, and the last fragments of his humanity. What starts as a desperate attempt to make a name for himself spirals into a waking nightmare of violence and betrayal.

Rick never imagined his pursuit of success would lead him here. Now, as the horrors he’s complicit in mount, he’s left to question whether he can escape–or if he even wants to.

https://amzn.to/3Panh1d

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

https://amzn.to/41L2M2z

A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones.