Horror Books of the 2020s
The 176 most-read horror books first published between 2020 and 2029, led by Haunting Adeline (2021), Five Nights at Freddy's Character Encyclopedia (an AFK Book) (Media Tie-In) (2023) and Her Soul to Take (2021).
This list collects 176 books from the 2020s by 144 authors, published between 2020 and 2026. 1 is free to read and 2 have a free audiobook. Books are ranked by how many readers have shelved, rated or downloaded them.
Haunting Adeline
H. D. Carlton
Five Nights at Freddy's Character Encyclopedia (an AFK Book) (Media Tie-In)
Scott Cawthon
Her Soul to Take
Harley Laroux
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
Eric LaRocca
Mexican Gothic
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Step Closer (Five Nights at Freddy’s Fazbear Frights #4)
Scott Cawthon, Andrea Waggener
If It Bleeds
Stephen King
Fetch (Five Nights at Freddy’s
Scott Cawthon, Carly Anne West
Holly
Stephen King
Home Before Dark
Todd Ritter
The Final Girl Support Group
Grady Hendrix, Víctor Manuel García de Isusi
What Moves the Dead
T. Kingfisher
Ring Shout
P. Djèlí Clark
Nona the Ninth
Tamsyn Muir
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Grady Hendrix, Paz Pruneda
Her Soul for Revenge
Harley Laroux
Phantasma
Kaylie Smith
A Dowry of Blood
S T Gibson
Our Wives Under the Sea
Julia Armfield
Devolution
Max Brooks
Later
Stephen King
How to Sell a Haunted House
Grady Hendrix
The Book Eaters
Sunyi Dean
Slewfoot
Brom
40 Short Stories -- Sixth Edition
Beverly Lawn, Joanne Diaz
Clown in a Cornfield
Adam Cesare
Soul of a Witch
Harley Laroux
Negative Space
B.R. Yeager
Camp Damascus
Chuck Tingle
1:35 AM (Five Nights at Freddy's
Scott Cawthon, Andrea Waggener
Plain Bad Heroines
Emily M. Danforth
Never Whistle at Night
Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr.
Just Like Home
Sarah Gailey
The Spirit Bares Its Teeth
Andrew Joseph White
Devoted
Dean Koontz
Gwendy's Final Task
Stephen King, Richard Chizmar
The Hacienda
Isabel Cañas
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
V. E. Schwab
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
Grady Hendrix
The Reformatory
Tananarive Due
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The Colour Out of Space
Howard Phillips Lovecraft
The Lost Village
Camilla Sten, Alexandra Fleming
Sorrowland
Rivers Solomon
The Taking of Jake Livingston
Ryan Douglass
Squad
Maggie Tokuda-Hall
The Invention of Sound
Chuck Palahniuk
None Shall Sleep
Ellie Marney
Cackle
Rachel Harrison
House of Hunger
Alexis Henderson
Horror Movie
Paul Tremblay
Girls Against God
Jenny Hval
The Lamb
Lucy Rose
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Stephen Graham Jones
Hungerstone
Kat Dunn
The Book of Elsewhere
Keanu Reeves, China Miéville
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
John Wiswell
You've Lost a Lot of Blood
Eric LaRocca
A Sunny Place for Shady People
Mariana Enríquez
Short Fiction
Ray Bradbury
Hazelthorn
C. G. Drews
Near the Bone
Christina Henry
The Devil Takes You Home
Gabino Iglesias
An Education in Malice
S T Gibson
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes
Eric LaRocca
Ghost Stories
E. F. Benson
Enchantra
Kaylie Smith
Vampires Never Get Old
Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker
No Place for Monsters
Kory Merritt
We Need to Do Something
Max Booth III
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The Personal Poe Collection (Annabel Lee / Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Hop-Frog / Masque of the Red Death / Pit and the Pendulum / Raven / System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether / Tell-Tale Heart)
Edgar Allan Poe
Mandíbula
Mónica Ojeda
Such Sharp Teeth
Rachel Harrison
Ballistic Kiss
Richard Kadrey, MacLeod Andrews
Fluids
May Leitz
Burn Our Bodies Down
Rory Power
Diavola
Jennifer Thorne
Graveyard Shift
M. L. Rio
Carving for Cara
Dana LeeAnn, Melissa McSherry
Lucy Undying
Kiersten White
The Starving Saints
Caitlin Starling
The Lost Girls
Sonia Hartl
The Night Will Find Us
Matthew Lyons
Night Eaters
Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda
The Dead and the Dark
Courtney Gould
The River Has Teeth
Erica Waters
White Cat, Black Dog
Kelly Link
Maggie's Grave
David Sodergren
My Darling Dreadful Thing
Johanna van Veen
Lucky Day
Chuck Tingle
Everything the Darkness Eats
Eric LaRocca
Paradise-1
David Wellington
Little Pinprick
Paige Dearth
Sixteen Souls
Rosie Talbot
Looking Glass
Christina Henry
Horrid
Katrina Leno
House of the Beast
Michelle Wong