10 Horror-y Reads On My Autumn TBR
Have I finished my Summer tbr? Absolutely not. Will that stop me making a new one? Refer to previous answer, please!
Specifically, these are the horror and horror-adjacent reads near the top of my tbr, which seemed like a seasonally-appropriate theme!
Between the Walls by Caspian Faye Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Queer MC, trans love interest, M/M
Goodreads
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When James Thorne and his recently divorced dad move into their new house, in a new town, looking for a new start, James can’t help thinking about all he’s left behind.
Missing his best friend, his high-maintenance boyfriend, and troubled by the paranormal occurrences rattling his nerves, James wishes he’d never moved.
But when his presence awakens Nathaniel, the ghost of a seventeen year old trans boy who has haunted the walls of this house since the 1700s, things take a surprising turn.
After a false start or two, Nathaniel and James hit it off, an easy connection that could become something more.
But only if they survive.
Because Nathaniel isn’t the only ghost haunting this house. In the basement hides a dark entity, longing to escape, to claim their souls.
Can James and Nathaniel cross the boundaries of the living and the dead in order to see each other and themselves for who they truly are?
Will this be actually scary? I doubt it – off the top of my head I can’t remember a YA horror ever properly freaking me out – but who knows! Either way I really like the premise.
A Sword of Bronze and Ashes by Anna Smith Spark Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Horror
Published on: 12th September 2023
Goodreads
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Readers of Shauna Lawless and Thilde Kold Holdt will love this Celtic-inflected adventure by critically acclaimed, grimdark epic fantasy novelist, Anna Smith Spark.
A Sword of Bronze and Ashes combines the fierce beauty of Celtic myth with grimdark battle violence. It's a lyrical, folk horror high fantasy.
Kanda has a good life until shadows from her past return threatening everything she loves. And Kanda, like any parent, has things in her past she does not want her children to know. Red war is pursued by an ancient evil, Kanda must call upon all her strength to protect her family. But how can she keep her children safe, if they want to stand as warriors beside her when the light fades and darkness rises?
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress
Officially I’m already reading this one, but I got distracted. I need to focus back in on it! What I’ve read so far has been equal parts beautiful and horrifying, with an interestingly off-beat writing rhythm.
The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 14th October 2025
Goodreads
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'An intriguing work of whimsi-grotesquerie' OLIVIE BLAKE
He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster.
Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty.
In a complex, chaotic city, Guy Moulène has a simple keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he'll take on any job, no matter how vile.
As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny pests that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is a worm the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice.
Guy doesn't have a choice.
'A lush and seductive story, rife with opulent horror and decaying decadence' SUNYI DEAN
Again, I started this one ages ago – but when I got to 70%, I stopped, because I DIDN’T WANT IT TO END! So I’m restarting it. It’s so horrifically gorgeous and weird with the most incredibly unique worldbuilding!!!
Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories by Bora Chung, Anton Hur Genres: Adult, Horror
Goodreads
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From the author and translator of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted Cursed Bunny, comes a new novel-in-ghost-stories, set in a mysterious research center that houses cursed objects, where those who open the wrong door might find it’s disappeared behind them, or that the echoing footsteps they’re running from are their own…
The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer’s goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels those around it. The cursed sneaker down the hall is stolen by a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee, who later finds he can’t escape its tread. A cat in Room 206 reveals the crimes of its former family, trying to understand its own path to the Institute’s halls.
But Chung's haunted institute isn't just a chilling place to play. As in her astounding collections Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia, these violent allegories take on the horrors of animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and late-stage capitalism. Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny, and deeply political, Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.
I’m fascinated by the set-up of this – multiple ghost stories that tie together into one big story? Yes please, I want to see what that looks like!
The Captive by Kit Burgoyne Genres: Adult, Horror
Goodreads
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From Ned Beauman, the Man Booker Prize longlisted author of The Teleportation Accident and Clarke Award winning author of Venomous Lumpsucker. Perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix and Joe Hill.
Underground revolutionary group, The Nail, and their newest member, Luke have kidnapped 23-year-old heiress Adeline Woolsaw, whose wealthy parents run the Woolsaw Group, a vast outsourcing company. They run everything from prisons and hospitals to military bases – quietly suffocating the country with the help of powerful friends in government.
The Nail's to use the kidnapping to draw attention to the Woolsaw Group and their terrible practices. But with Adeline bundled into their van, The Nail discover two things. The first is that she's just about to give birth. And the second is that this isn't a normal baby. In fact, it has devastating supernatural powers. Because the father of this baby wasn't a man, it was… something else. Something that her parents make human sacrifices to on an altar in the basement of their Highgate mansion. And all this time the Woolsaw Group has been preparing the ground for the Woolsaws' real an infernal new kingdom that will rise with Adeline's son sitting on its throne.
This one was just released this week, and since I have a morbid fascination with antichrists and other supernaturally-Wrong pregnancies/kids stories, it’s one I’ve been excited for!
Out for Blood by John Peyton Cooke Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC
Goodreads
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I think I came across this one while looking into the indie press publishing Vincent Virga’s Gaywyck Quartet (which is Gothic, so arguably Horror, and which you should read if you haven’t already!) Out For Blood is an old-school queer vampire book, so I’d be intrigued by that alone, but I also like the tagline: the night spawns a hideous evil even the undead fear. A monster even vampires are scared of? I’m in!
To You Shall All Flesh Come (Honoré Sloane, #1) by Lumen Reese Genres: Adult, Horror
Goodreads
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THIS IS SUCH A COOL, FUCKED-UP IDEA!
The Church of the Mountain of Flesh by Kyle Wakefield Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Goodreads
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THE CHURCH OF THE MOUNTAIN OF FLESH is a cosmic horror novel about mad artists, bodies spiralling out of control, and a trans man's merciless desperation.
Sole De Gasinis drowns his grief in wine and buries his hatred of his body in twisted sculptures. When, one drunken night on the beach, God orders him to rebuild his village's church, he knows he wasn't chosen for his piety.
Instead, he and God make a deal. If Sole rebuilds the church, God will give him the body of a man.
As Sole works in a frenzy for salvation, lifelong friendships decay, a village united to tear down its church fractures into pariahs and zealots, and power and grief reshape the prophet into a tyrant. Grief for a boy he fell in love with ten years ago, who claimed to be a virgin birth, who died in agony in the church crypt when the God inside him wanted out -- and whose monstrous remnant Sole must commune with for every piece of his prize.
This has been on my tbr for FREAKING AGES – longer than any other book on this list, easily! – and I really need to get to it already!
Hinterland by Logan Spurgeon Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 6th December 2025
Goodreads
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Kestrel awakes in the woods without a real name or his memories. Before him are twelve strangers, an altar on fire, and bones hanging from the trees like wind chimes. He’s to be initiated into their group so they may fulfill their purpose: head to the mountain of the so-called gods, have a feast, and bring about the end of the world. Kestrel is willing to risk it all to escape, but without any memories, he knows he must play along until he finds a way out.
It won’t be easy. Winter is on their heels, hunters are searching for them, and the strange rituals they perform will rip his humanity from his flesh. But Kestrel isn’t alone. One of the strangers claims to be his friend from before, and there are others willing to join his side and leave the wilderness... if the gods let them.
I just got approved for an arc of this, and I’m very hopeful – old gods! Some kind of cult-thing that wants to end the world! And missing memories, which is a trope that is most excellent in the right hands!
Corrupted Vessels by Briar Ripley Page Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Goodreads
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With CORRUPTED VESSELS, Briar Ripley Page takes hold of the alienation, placelessness, desire, and need to belong [that haunts] the queer world and slowly sculpts [the characters] into something at once disturbing and achingly familiar; a story about the people we throw away and the dreams [we] cling to in order to survive.
-Gretchen Felker-Martin, Manhunt
Southern Gothic meets surrealism, CORRUPTED VESSELS is a story about terrifying angels, messy realities, and queer life on the margins. [ Volume includes a previously unpublished standalone novelette called NEW EDEN.]
Like Out For Blood, this one made it onto my radar because I was checking out the publisher – tRaum Books, who published one of my favourite books and who I got to work with on a copy-editing project! Corrupted Vessels jumped out at me from their catalogue, and after talking a lot with the editor about the kind of books he wants to publish, I’m expecting to adore this one!
Have you read any of these? Do you have any spooky reads lined up for the season? Let me know!
The post 10 Horror-y Reads On My Autumn TBR appeared first on Every Book a Doorway.
