7 Chilling Horror Novels to Read

by MK French

We have just under 3 weeks until Halloween. If you are looking for chilling stories to read, then check out this list of horror novels. (There's one that you can put on your Christmas reading list) If horror isn't your thing, be sure to check out my list of fantasy novels and paranormal romances that would be great for Halloween reading as well. I'll have some Halloween book recommendations for young readers in about a week so check back for those if you have kids.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

Coal Gets In Your Veins by Cat Rector

October 2024; Indie;  978-1738304813
ebook, print (432 pages); horror

Laurel is doing her best in a failing coal mining village, biding her time within her abusive marriage. Right up the hill from her home is the grieving vampire Spencer, unable to drink the poisoned blood of the villagers. Change is hard, but Spencer is ready to end his isolation.

We have a list of trigger warnings in the beginning, all inspired by things that happened to the author or people she knew while growing up in an impoverished coal mining town wishing she could leave. In her preface, she tells us "There are horrors in this book, and most of them are true. ... you can’t build a town on 300 years of traumatic events without it haunting the generations to come." 

With this in mind, we have Laurel's POV, Spencer's, and Penny Harbour's, which are various snippets of life in the small town. They're poor with few options, starting out with anger and misery, and then falling into terrible times. Laurel and Spencer develop a close friendship over time, even after Laurel finds out that Spencer is a vampire and unable to drink the blood because it tastes terrible. Both feel like they're living out of penance and keep themselves in tense situations because they don't feel like they're ready for change. Despite themselves, they grow closer over time and fall in love, but the town doesn't want to let go of Laurel and the hold it has.

Small towns often involve a lot of "everybody knows everybody else's business," which involves both the good and the bad. They band together in times of trouble, but can also look the other way. The darkness of it is personified in this book, a living thing made of the coal beneath the ground and worked into the generations of people that had lived there. I loved Laurel and her friends, and seeing them with Spencer. We have an interesting finale, and I'll leave it up to the reader to decide if it's good or bad. I enjoyed it and found that it fit the story well. It's about balance and a thread of darkness within the hope for a better future.

Buy Coal Gets in Your Veins at Amazon

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

October 2024; Titan Books; 978-1803369624
ebook, print (144 pages); horror 

A suicidal young man is trapped in an endless, looping subway station. As he explores the station to find a way out, he finds rooms and corridors but not an exit. Even more terrifying, he soon discovers that he is not alone.

This is billed as a story reminiscent of Susanna Clark's "Piranesi" or Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves." If you've ever read either one, then you know you're in for a brain-breaking horror story. For all that our narrator is suicidal, waking up and exiting into the endless corridors and rooms erases the thought. He finds another person, and occasional food places, as well as horrible sights and the realization that there's no escape. We cycle through his thoughts and fears, scattered bits of memory, and the various paths his life could take if he gets out of the labyrinth. Instead of odd typography and typesetting as in "House of Leaves," we get a choose-your-own-adventure of possibilities and a melancholy sense that the depressive horror might never leave. It's a well-done tangled story for those who enjoy psychological horror. 

Buy Coup de Grâce at Amazon

The Revenge of Captain Vessia by Leslie Allen

October 2024; Indie; 978-1068815003
ebook, print (376 pages); horror

Claire Vessia was sentenced to death when the navy captured her on a ship full of would-be pirates; as the only survivor, she was blamed for all their crimes. A highborn lady offers to help her escape the oncoming execution, but she's still hung and buried at sea. Claire rises as a Vampyri and only understands what happened to her after she consumes the person who tried to help her. Now Claire is out for revenge against everyone who had wronged her. Her quest for vengeance is in jeopardy after meeting her maker's other child, and she questions how far she's willing to go.

Leslie acknowledges this isn't a kind book, as it's full of blood and vengeance as well as a list of potential triggers. It's kind of a given with vampires and pirates, but it's nice that she gives readers an understanding of what they're up against. Lady Ameritia was known for making bargains with those headed to the gallows, and Claire is one of the few to rise from her experiments. She eventually becomes a pirate captain in truth, and much like pirates of our history, they're a ragtag band of misfits that didn't fit into their birth homes, bodies, or genders. Working to kidnap the royal grandson, Ameritia's son, is Claire's goal to get back at her and the Kitaxian kingdom that destroyed her human life. Her crew is loyal to her and push past their reservations, and then discovers the truth about that child.

Of course, there's such a big difference between planning revenge and enacting it, as well as seeing what the child is like. We know exactly what will happen, from the first shock of discovery to the "oh no, she's hot" moment when they see each other. There are further complications as various members of the crew make friends, Claire contends with her thirst, and there are various attempts to trap Claire and her crew. There's a lot of loss, blood, sacrifice, and emotion in this novel, as well as a fitting end that hints at the possibility of far more to come. Claire wasn't aware of the wider politics at play, but they're out there and could become more important if future books are written.

Buy The Revenge of Captain Vessia at Amazon

The Narrows by Ronald Malfi

October 2024; Titan Books; 978-1835410530
audio, ebook, print (416 pages); horror

Stillwater, Maryland is recovering from a terrible storm, and people start to see things. Matthew Crawly sees his father in the woodlands above the Narrows. Maggie Quedentock nearly hits a child with her car, only to find an empty road. Sergeant Ben Journell is investigating animals being slaughtered, their brains removed. Something ancient and evil has its grip on the town, and it's dangerous to be out after dark.

The Narrows is an area just outside of town near an old abandoned factory. Most kids avoid it, but odd sounds at night, and the sensation of someone watching gets to several people. They start seeing or hearing people they once knew, even if it doesn't make sense. Matthew was sure he saw the father had abandoned him two years before, then goes missing. Soon after, Maggie is sure she hit a child. Animals on the outskirts of town are mutilated, only their brains are gone, and an infestation of bats in the homes, barns, and even the school seem to circle everywhere. Ben is trying to track the animal mutilator as well as look for Matthew, then discovers that a body found in the river near the Narrows just before this all happened is missing. Tensions rise everywhere in town, as too many apparently unrelated things are happening. These aren't pranks before Halloween, and the body count slowly rises until another storm comes into town.

This book comes with a new preface from the author, describing how he wanted to write a vampire novel without the vampires. He certainly achieved that aim in this novel. Its creepy vibe builds up as it progresses, and is coupled with the quiet horrors that can live in small towns within families. That makes it feel real, even with the unreality of the monster they're hunting. 

Buy The Narrows at Amazon

All The Hearts You Eat by Hailey Piper

October 2024; Titan Books; 978-1803367644
audio, ebook, print (448 pages); horror

Ivory discovers Cabrina Brite's body along with a poem in Cape Morning, looking like she was trying to swim to Ghost Cat Island. That island is the center of local mysteries, and Ivory begins looking into Cabrina's death. She sees Cabrina's ghost, but so do her closest friends. It seems like there might be occult reasons for this, so they look for the truth behind Cabrina’s death.

Technically, Ivory was swimming and thought another person on the deserted beach saw her and was going to start trouble when she realized he was staring at the body and called the police about it. But she found a note Cabrina had written, and afterward can't shake thoughts of the body. She discovers that Cabrina is trans like her, and feels a kinship and a need to get some kind of justice for Cabrina. This is caught up in something dark and sinister at Ghost Cat Island; people told stories of seeing cats of varying sizes and types on the island, which makes no sense given that it's a barren strip of land beyond the Cape. Ivory is haunted by images of cats, a barren and starry sky, and feels terrible about herself and the relationships she has. It lets her fall under the spell of a nameless woman interested in blood and hearts; Ivory chooses her and everything this woman stands for, which is destruction and the release of other monstrous beings into the world. Ivory sees it as revenge for all the trans lives lost or smothered by others' needs, and that she's doing it in Cabrina's name.

Most of the story is told in Ivory's POV, but we sometimes get Xi or Rex's views. The teens were Cabrina's friends, also within the gender nonconforming spectrum, but with parents who accepted that part of their lives. They had cared for Cabrina unconditionally so that when she seems to be a ghost or some kind of undead, they don't reject her out of hand. As much as there is death and blood and the uncanny in this novel, this is also the story of how much love can change lives and give them a way out. The lack of love can lead people to accept lies about themselves and others, to grow selfish and lonely, and it's love that makes people reach out for connections. This is tangled within horror and death, because sometimes love will transcend them, too. It's an interesting take on vampires and body horror.

Buy All the Hearts You Eat at Amazon

Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

October 2024; Titan Books; 978-1835410080
ebook, print (128 pages); Christmas horror

Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire’s husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn. Desperate to escape her guilt and grief, Christine brings her fifteen-year-old son and cat to a cabin in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays. There are strange noises in the woods and a horned figure that Christine assumes to be the moose that the property manager warned her about. But moose don’t walk upright and don’t call Christine’s name with her dead husband’s voice.

This is a slim novella, but packed with creepy feels. Christine and her son Billy have a strained relationship, and she feels that he and the cat had a better relationship with her late husband Derek. Everything reminds her of the accident that killed him, and she often creeps herself out with her memories. She assumes that her son wishes she had died instead of Derek, and almost wishes the same. The cabin is isolated, they don't have enough firewood, there's the creepy horned figure and their cat is killed in the woods. As much as Christine tries to push for a normal Christmas dinner, its still an emotional mess and the electricity goes out.

The emotional fallout of Derek's death coats everything that Christine does in the book. She flashes back to the accident, to the thought that her son resents her, and the thought that she's not good enough. The end doesn't go the way you think it will, and still plays off her grief. It's a chilling read, quick and painful. 

Buy Cold Snap at Amazon

Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh

October 2024; Titan Books; 978-1835410561
audio, ebook, print (288 pages); horror

Bata is outside her cousin's door the night before her cousin's wedding, protecting her from the ghost-bride who used to be engaged to her groom. She succeeds thanks to a possession, and a botched exorcism transports her to Ibaja-La, the realm of dead brides. There, she receives powers to fight malevolent ghost-brides. When she returns to the human realm, she must learn to harness her new abilities to protect those whom she loves.

Bata thinks there isn't much special about her in her small Nigerian village, but she turns stark white and taller than humans as she shouts down the ghost bride that would have harmed her cousin. Suddenly everyone wants her to protect the brides in the village, and she has significant spiritual rank as a Bride-Sentinel. Within the realm of Ibaja-La, she meets brides from different countries and cultures and learns about the realm and the dangers that come from the ghosts that are determined to harm others to get their way. 

I don't know much about Nigeria, but this book painted a vivid picture of village life. The spiritual world and Christian religion coexist, though there can be tension between them. For those who believe in the old ways, there's as much respect for any spiritual guide as there is for business and wealth. The dangers of Ibaja-La follow Bata to the living world, distancing her from family members. She goes through a lot because of these powers, none of which she asked for. The early pride gives way to fear, right up until the very end. 

The tale has some aspects of horror to it, along with vengeful ghosts, and they're tied up in Bata's family as well. There are some sorrowful aspects in the middle because Bata is still a child caught up in a bigger power struggle. It kept me turning pages to see what would happen next.

Buy Where the Dead Brides Gather at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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