Horror is having a moment. Maybe it always has been, but now it’s creeping into the literary mainstream. Genres have bled into one another, and writers are doing incredibly exciting things.
Horror isn’t just Stephen King anymore. It’s not even just Stephen Graham Jones. Horror is slasher, haunted house, gothic, monsters, body, and atmosphere. Writers in the horror genre are doing things better than ever. They’re expanding what the genre is.
Here are 20 debuts from 2026 you should read if you’re a horror fan. Some are classic horror, and some are a little more subtle, where people will scream, “that’s not horror!” on their social media. But it is horror. That’s the beauty of the genre.
Bloodfire, Baby by Eirinie Carson
Listen to our conversation with the author on Apple or Spotify
From the publisher: A maternal gothic tale of new motherhood and the torment of a centuries-old haunting
What others are saying: “A stunning feat of artistry—BLOODFIRE, BABY is a searing meditation on contemporary motherhood, written with the precision of a surgeon. Carson writes with unflinching honesty, capturing both the beauty and the burden of memory and the delicate unraveling of family myth.” —Dionne Irving, author of The Islands
Bruja’s Nest by Brenda LaTorre
Read our interview with the author
From the publisher: The Love Witch meets Monstrilio in Bruja’s Nest, where a young woman’s abuse history and ambition erupt into body horror, class war, and monstrous motherhood.
What others are saying: “Bruja’s Nest is a potent and startling literary incantation that invokes the most powerfully complex elements of magic, motherhood, and unflinchingly grotesque body horror. This is an uncompromising and deeply affecting work exquisitely scrawled in blood, fury, and pain.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
Carrying by Samantha Josephs
From the publisher: In this electrifying horror debut that’s equal parts funny and harrowing, a stealth trans woman desperate to maintain her picture-perfect life discovers that she’s seemingly—impossibly—pregnant.
What others are saying: “Provocative and sharply original, Carrying is as unsettling as it is addictive. A body horror that pulls you in, disturbs you quietly, and doesn’t let you go. Samantha Josephs has a bold, singular voice.” —Raphael Montes, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Secret Dinner
Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os
Read our interview with the author
From the publisher: An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost, for fans of Mona Awad, Yellowjackets, and weird girl fiction.
What others are saying: “Intense, irreverent, surprising, raw. I relished every minute of Sara van Os’s debut and–heart in mouth–will be coming back for more.” –Natalia Theodoridou, author of Sour Cherry
Don’t Leave Her Alone by Desirée de Fez (trans. by Lizzie Davis)
From the publisher: Haunting, cinematic, and strikingly visceral, Don’t Leave Her Alone is an incisive exploration of motherhood that interrogates women’s struggle for autonomy and identity, and ultimately forces the question: What does it take to finally break free?
What others are saying: “Don’t Leave Her Alone is an eldritch Pedro Almodovar nightmare, charting those liminal terrors found beyond the boundaries of the human body, where flesh itself is not safe.” —Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Devil Inside and Ghost Eaters
Femme Feral by Sam Beckbessinger
From the publisher: Hyper-competent Ellie thinks she’s going through perimenopause, but discovers she’s actually turning into a werewolf in this feminist, dark-comedy debut
What others are saying: “A savage, witty, gory, heartfelt, utterly relatable rage fantasy and a helluva good time. Miranda July meets Stephen King.” –Lauren Beukes, New York Times bestselling author of The Shining Girls
The Hill in the Dark Grove by Liam Higginson
Read our interview with the author
From the publisher: In this gripping debut, steeped in Welsh folklore, a husband and wife living in the beautiful but isolated mountains of Snowdonia stumble upon a buried Neolithic ruin—awakening a mysterious, ancient presence with its own dark designs.
What others are saying: “Gracefully and lovingly rendered with the heft of folklore, land, and history . . . evokes, in dazzling detail, the tribulations of everyday life and the grandeur of ancestry . . . bewitching.”—Gerardo Sámano Córdova, author of Monstrilio
The House Built on Alligator Bones by Sophia Huneycutt
Listen to our conversation with the author on Apple or Spotify
From the publisher: The Greers built their fortune on alligator bones.
What others are saying: “Full of mysterious occurrences, mythic family lore, buried histories, and the inescapable burdens of the past, Sophia Huneycutt’s compulsively readable The House Built on Alligator Bones has the hallmarks of the best of Southern Gothic. Underneath its intrigue and suspense lies a story about the longing for familial connection and one’s desire to find their place in the world.” —LaTanya McQueen, author of When the Reckoning Comes
Observer by Nicholas Russell
Listen to our conversation with the author on Apple or Spotify
From the publisher: A disquieting, atmospheric debut horror novel about a young woman investigating her mother’s disappearance at an abandoned Nevada observatory, for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and Mariana Enriquez
What others are saying: “This book is blessedly, beautifully strange; an off-kilter tale designed to evoke all the gorgeous, unearthly promise of a hot desert night. Nicholas Russell is a phenomenally gifted writer with a keen eye for conjuring everyday horrors. After all, what’s more terrifying than family? A truly dynamite debut packed with striking prose, Observer is a novel that refuses to let you look away.” – Kristen Arnett, New York Times-bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things and Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before
Odessa by Gabrielle Sher
Discover the books that shaped the author’s life
From the publisher: In a powerfully imagined Russia at the height of the pogroms, a grief-stricken family turn to ancient magic to bring their daughter back from the grave.
What others are saying: “Odessa is a triumph. Gabrielle Sher has given us, at once, a classic monster tale, a heartbreakingly relevant historical drama, a pulse-poundingly contemporary descent into horror, a timeless parable about the porous boundaries between atrocity and self-defense, and above all, a powerful reclamation of agency. Count me in for whatever Sher writes next.”–Nat Cassidy, author of When the Wolf Comes Home
Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm
From the publisher: In this lyrical debut, three generations of Palestinian women must put the haunting of their ancestral home to rest, before the secrets of the past drown them all. Our Cut of Salt is a powerful and intimate look at what it means to make a home, to lose it, and to return, only to find it irrevocably changed.
What others are saying: “Lyrical and haunting, Our Cut of Salt explores the horrors of occupation via the lens of three generations of women as well as a one-of-a-kind haunted house. A disturbing, mesmerizing read.” —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep
Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
From the publisher: A mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. A dark force that draws victims into its static. The unlikely hero called to save them and herself from this electric hell. Public Access Afterworld is the profound, binge-all-night, headrush of a novel by the celebrated filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
What others are saying: “Constantly yanking the magic carpet out from under the reader’s feet, this epic quest for the source of all television is psychedelic horror of the first order.”—Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
The Red Sacrament by Sara Hinkley
From the publisher: A savage, hypnotic dive into the lives and deaths of a coven of vampires living in 19th Century Paris on the cusp of revolt and revolution, perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Laura Purcell and Elizabeth Kostova
What others are saying: “As elegant as it is brutal, The Red Sacrament is a nasty, atmospheric novel about capitalism and the consequences of immortality. A perfect combination of rich period detail and grimy ultraviolence.” —Avery Curran, author of Spoiled Milk
She Made Herself a Monster by Anna Kovatcheva
Listen to our conversation with the author on Apple or Spotify
From the publisher: A heady, dark-hued Gothic gem of a debut novel: in nineteenth-century Bulgaria, a self-proclaimed vampire slayer—in truth, a traveling con artist—joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster deadly enough to vanquish their own demons.
What others are saying: “As a longtime fan of Anna Kovatcheva’s shorter fiction, this deliciously dark debut novel delivers the same dreamlike prose I’ve come to admire, but digs far deeper into labyrinths of belief, desperation, and illusions of necessity. By turns horrific, atmospheric, and tender, this is a spell book that practices the best kind of magic—revealing the monsters embedded within and around us.” – Sequoia Nagamatsu
Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
Listen to our conversation with the author on Apple or Spotify
From the publisher: A thrilling gothic debut. The untimely death of a student at a girls’ boarding school marks the first in a haunting series of escalating supernatural events, and uncovers buried truths of teenage repression, queer desire, and the everyday horror of coming of age.
What others are saying: “The haunted lesbian boarding school horror show we always wanted. From its dread-inducing opening to that breathtaking finale, Spoiled Milk is brimming with images that we’ll carry into way too many nightmares. Avery Curran is a witch.” —Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta, authors of Feast While You Can
There Used to Be People Here by Kennedy Cole
From the publisher: In 1970s Mississippi, a Black detective and his temporary partner are assigned to a case that shifts from murder to paranormal conspiracy with life-altering repercussions.
What others are saying: “A taut, well-crafted debut! Each page crackles with tension. A great, must-read work!” —Jason Mott, bestselling author of Hell of a Book
Tillinghast by Clare Cavenagh
From the publisher: A dark and utterly original literary horror debut, following a priest whose bloodthirsty life has extended far longer than any mere human’s—and is upended when a stranger comes to town
What others are saying: “Wonderfully mysterious and gorgeously written, Tillinghast offers a boldly original take on what it means to be a monster. While the subject matter is inherently dark, Cavanagh’s reflections on connection, love, and found family shine through with an unexpected warmth.” —Monika Kim, Sunday Times Bestselling Author of The Eyes Are the Best Part
The Unheld by Luke Larkin
Discover the books that shaped the author’s life
From the publisher: Startling monsters and occult oddities abound in this chilling horror Western as a girl journeys across the haunted Montana Territory to rescue her father from an otherworldly creature.
What others are saying: “Luke Larkin’s The Unheld will lull you with its sparse Montana vistas, beguile you with its headstrong heroine, then absolutely blow your doors off with one of the most unsettling and unusual monsters I can recall in horror fiction. This novel is a beast all its own.” —Nick Cutter, bestselling author of The Troop
The Water House by Nneoma Ike-Njoku
From the publisher: An unexplained tragedy. A handsome stranger. A house of ghosts and memories. In this fresh take on the Gothic tale, a young Nigerian woman returns to the family mansion where her brother died—only to find the past ready to consume her—perfect for readers of Tananarive Due and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
What others are saying: “In this atmospheric tale, the mysteries of the past are always hauntingly present, diffusing a quiet dread that Ike-Njoku masterfully controls. The Water House is wonderfully aware of its gothic lit ancestors, and this book joins their ranks valiantly with its spare and unsettling style. I ate this up!” —’Pemi Aguda, author of One Leg on Earth and Ghostroots
When the Night Comes Knocking by Katherine Daniel
From the publisher: In this Appalachian horror novel, two estranged siblings become trapped in a convenience store under attack by a monster from the mountains who feasts on guilty hearts.
What others are saying: “When the night knocks, don’t ask who’s there. Set deep in the Appalachian Mountains, this very scary story has the isolating atmosphere of a classic horror tale. I couldn’t put it down.” —Nick Medina, author of Savage Lake