These Are the 10 Best New Horror Books of 2025 to Read This Halloween

You might be familiar with some of Stephen Graham Jones’ previous tales. From the Indian Lake Trilogy to the 80s-inspired I Was A Teenage Slasher. And his latest book transports us to the American west in 1912. Let’s just say, if you’re looking for an intense vampire revenge, this is it.

The story begins with a diary, which has been found within a wall in the present day. In it is a series of transcribed interviews with a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab, who shares the stories of his unnaturally long life over his visits to a confessional with the Lutheran pastor that the diary originally belonged to. Having lived through the massacre of his people, resulting in the murder of 217 Blackfeet, Good Stab haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation to seek justice. Even though it can be a difficult read, at times, the entire story is incredibly impactful while still having us on the edge of our seats.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

You can’t really go wrong with a Grady Hendrix book, particularly as Halloween approaches, and his 2025 release focuses on all things witchy. Set in the swelteringly hot summer of 1970, 15-year-old Fern arrives at the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida. It’s where wayward girls – unwed expectant mothers whose families want to keep their current predicament a secret – are sent to give birth.

During their stay, the teenagers are forced to abide by the rules, under the understanding that it is all for their own good. That is until Fern is given a book about witchcraft and the occult. From it, the girls discover that not only do they hold a great amount of power, but, like anything in life, nothing comes for free – there’s always a price to be paid. And this time, it’s in blood.

Play Nice by Rachel Harrison

A haunted house story with a twist, Play Nice explores family dynamics, repressed memories and how society treats ‘mad women’. When her mother dies, the supposedly possessed house that Clio and her sisters grew up in passes to them. While all her sisters can remember is childhood trauma, which eventually led to them being removed from their mother’s custody and inspired her mother to write a book about their experience, stylist and influencer Clio sees the opportunity to flip the house and document it on social media.

But as she begins to renovate, she quickly discovers that maybe her mother might have been telling the truth. As Clio finally starts to read her mother’s book and memories

begin to resurface, the demonic presence becomes all the more real and sinister, as do the truths that have stayed buried for far too long.

Bookish Deal Alert: 3 Months of Audible for $0.99/Month

Audible is currently offering three months of its Premium Plus plan for just $0.99/month / £0.99 in the UK, which is a big treat for audiobook fans. In addition to other Audible benefits, that means you get three audiobooks for $3. You might even find some of the best horror books of 2025 there as well.

This offer is set to last for quite a while, until December 16 this year, but if you’re a big audiobook user it’s a deal that’s absolutely worth taking advantage of while it’s available.

Exiles by Mason Coile

The year is 2030 and a crew of astronauts have been sent to prepare the first colony on Mars. Yet, when they get there, they find the newly created base half-destroyed and the AI robots that were deployed to set things up in chaos. In the four years since the robots arrived, they’ve formed alliances, chosen their own names and picked up some rather disturbing beliefs. And given that one of them is missing, it’s clear that none of them are safe.

A brilliant locked room-style horror, Exiles combines sci-fi with psychological horror, and at just shy of 200 pages, this is a book you can easily read in one sitting. So, if you happen to be lagging when it comes to your Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, we’d definitely recommend picking this one up.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

When a book is said to be Alien meets Midsommar, you know you’re in for a wild ride and that’s exactly what you get with You Weren’t Meant to be Human. You might need a strong stomach to make your way through this story though, that’s for sure. Transporting us to Appalachia in rural West Virginia, where festering masses of worms and flies have formed hives and taken over the area, only a few humans have managed to co-exist with them. However, this means giving them their unwavering loyalty and a slew of fresh corpses.

That all changes when Crane – who has found a chance to transition amongst the followers – gets pregnant and the hive demands the child. What follows is one of the most unhinged horrors that we’ve ever read, in a very good way.

The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

After a plague sweeps through the Mexican city of Zacatecas, Alba and her family flee to her fiancé’s isolated mine, but it’s not too long before she starts to suffer from strange hallucinations, violent convulsions and bouts of sleepwalking. She can’t shake the feeling that something is alive and moving around beneath her skin, and only her fiancé’s cousin, Elias, seems to notice it too.

With an atmospheric and gothic feel to it, as well as a touch of romance, as Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, and each other, they work together in a bid to save her, while uncovering a number of long-kept secrets.

When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

A fast paced thriller of a horror, When the Wolf Comes Home seamlessly blends the paranormal with monster horror, as our protagonists flee for their lives. After struggling actress Jess finds a five-year old boy hiding in the bushes outside her apartment complex, it appears that he’s run away from his father. Yet, it’s not quite the domestic incident that you might expect. Actually, nothing is as it seems in this book.

Following a violent confrontation, one which sees a man seemingly turn into a wolf-like creature and leave a pile of bodies in his wake, Jess and the boy are forced to make a run for it. And it soon becomes clear that they, quite rightly, have plenty to fear as the beast is hot on their tails.

Futility by Nuzo Onoh

From the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, comes a wickedly fun horror blending murder, revenge and soup, of all things. After being betrayed by the men in their lives, two women choose to take matters into their own hands in a rather unusual way.

Known for her beauty and popular hot pepper soup, both are quite deceptive when it comes to Chia. And when Claire pays a visit to the infamous restaurant, neither woman can resist the pull of a trickster spirit. With lots of dark humour and body horror, fans of Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister the Serial Killer and Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family will no doubt have a great time with this story.

Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys by Mariana Enriquez

Author of the equally absorbing and unsettling The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Things We Lost in the Fire collections of short stories, Mariana Enriquez delves into some of the most famous and notable graveyards in her latest release, Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys.

From Highgate in London, to Montparnasse in Paris and Greyfriars in Edinburgh, as well as some more remote and decrepit ruins, it’s somewhere between a travelogue, a collection of essays and a memoir, as she marks her personal journey to each of the burial grounds. Finding herself in an almost flux state between the living and the dead, Mariana looks into famous figures like Elvis and Karl Marx, as well as all things voodoo, catacombs and plenty of skeletons.

Ellis is a freelance journalist, based in the UK, with a love of all things books. She also routinely chairs bookish events up and down the country, getting the scoop from some of the biggest and bestselling authors to keep you in the know.