“Empty bookshelves saddened her, but she promised herself they would not stay empty for long.”
We were treated to some incredible horror books across 2023. And 2024 looks to be bringing with it an even more exciting array of tales to keep us all up at night. As the genre continues to grow in popularity (The Guardian reported a 34% increase in literary sales during the first three months of 2024), more and more writers are pushing horror fiction into new realms. One of the biggest reasons for this surge in popularity has been the recent adaptions of horror books such as A Haunting in Venice have been treated to. We’re Bram Stoke’d to see which of these new releases could be next on the list of great adaptations. From slashers in space, queer romance to folk terrors, join us today at What We Reading as we compile some of our favourite new horror books released in 2024!
Horror Movie – Paul Tremblay
Kicking off our list of the best new horror books from 2024 is Paul Tremblay’s take on the cursed film genre, Horror Movie. In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent a month making Horror Movie, a disturbing art-house flick. Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public. Nevertheless, Horror Movie grew a rabid fan base and, three decades on, Hollywood is pushing for a big-budget reboot.
The man who played ‘Thin Kid’ is the only surviving member of the original cast. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events involved with filming and the dangerous crossed lines on set that led to tragedy. As the memories flood back to him, the boundaries between film and reality begin to blur. Nevertheless, he is determined to navigate the crazed conventions and meddling producers to finish remaking the film. But, what cost will he end up having to pay to accomplish this?
I Was A Teenage Slasher – Stephen Graham Jones
In 1989, Lamesa is a small town in west Texas driven by cotton and oil and is the sort of place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application. He’s seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge.
In his 2024 horror book I Was a Teenage Slasher, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones recounts the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside, through the slash horror he lives told through the perspective of the killer writing his own autobiography. A fresh twist on a tried-and-tested formula, this summer teen movie of a novel is the perfect beach read for any horror fan.
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This Wretched Valley – Jenny Kiefer
First published back in January 2024, Jenny Kiefer’s This Wretched Valley follows four ambitious climbers as they hike into the Kentucky wilderness. Seven months on, three mangled bodies are discovered. Were their deaths simple accidents? Or the result of something more sinister? All three bodies are found in various states of decay: one body is a stark skeleton, one has had its guts emptied and the third has had their tongue, eyes, ears and fingers removed.
But Dylan has yet to be found. Followers of her Instagram account report seeing disturbing live streams, some even swear they caught glimpses of her vanishing into the dark woods. But no trace of her – dead or alive – has been discovered. Kiefer’s debut novel takes inspiration from the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident and is a bone-chilling survival horror story.
The House Of Last Resort – Christopher Golden
Another one of the best new horror books from January 2024, Christopher Golden whisks readers to the beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina in Italy in The House of Last Resort. The mayor has promised to rebuild the town by selling abandoned houses for a single Euro, provided the occupants promise to live there for five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi, who both work remotely and have Tommy’s grandparents living nearby.
What begins as a romantic adventure soon takes a dark turn when Tommy’s grandmother discovers which house they’ve bought. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and their neighbours refer to it as The House of Last Resort. Then the couple learn the house was once owned by the Church. But the real secret, and true horror, is only unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years.
Incidents Around The House – Josh Malerman
From the bestselling author of Bird Box, Josh Malerman delivers a chilling horror novel from the perspective of a young girl and troubled, haunted family. To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her entire world. She has Mommy, Daddo and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, an evil entity who asks her every day: ‘Can I go inside your heart?’
A number of horrifying incidents around the house point to Other Mommy growing tired of asking the same question on repeat. Bela understands that, unless she says yes soon, her family are going to pay. Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only her family’s bonds are enough to keep Bela safe but other incidents show the fragileness of her parents’ marriage. Soon, the safety the young girl relies on threatens to unravel for good.
In The Lonely Hours – Shannon Morgan
On a small island in an isolated corner of rural Scotland lies Maundrell Castle, owned by its namesake family for centuries. Until now. Edwina Nunn is shocked to learn a relative she has never heard of has left the castle and all of its land to her. What awaits Edwina and her teenage daughter, Neve, is even more startling, however. The castle is home to a multitude of ghosts. Yet, there is a strange beauty in the gothic architecture and eerie waters of Loch na Scathanna, the Lake of Shadows.
Bewitched by a frightened ghost who gazes longingly out of the castle’s windows, Edie and Neve are drawn into the legends surrounding the island and the mystery of the Maundrell Red, a princess diamond that disappeared decades ago. Is this gem really cursed and the cause of all the family tragedies that have occurred on Samhain – Scottish Halloween? With the next Samhain fast approaching, Edie and Neve race to peel back the dark secrets of Maundrell before they become the next tragedy caught in the lonely hours.
Diavola – Jennifer Marie Thorne
Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: tread lightly and survive. It isn’t easy when she is the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow, her older sister, Nicole, plays the role of happy family impeccably, Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for the vacation, just wants some peace and quiet.
The gorgeous remote villa in tiny Monteperso appears to be the perfect place to grit through so much family togetherness. Until things begin to go off the rails. Strange noises at night, stark warnings from the locals and the dark violent past of the villa itself. Jennifer Thorne’s new 2024 horror book Diavola is a wickedly funny vacation-gothic tale of loneliness, belonging and the all-too-familiar dynamics that come with family time.
Bury Your Gays – Chuck Tingle
Chuck Tingle is the author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus. In their 2024 horror book Bury Your Gays, they deliver a heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.
Misha is a drained scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years and has only just been nominated for his first Oscar. But, when his producers pressure him to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale for the ‘algorithm’, rather than have them confess their love to their interest, he discovers that it isn’t that simple. As his past haunts him, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what’s right – before it is all too late.
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Ghost Station – S.A. Barnes
Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS – a space-based condition that has become infamous on the back of a case that led to the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she’s assigned to a small exploration crew, she’s determined to make an impact. But, as they set to work establishing a residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that the crew are hiding something.
Ophelia sets to work on her new role, but her crewmates are far more fascinated with investigating the ancient planet, and what worked out what led to the previous colonisers leaving in such a hurry. Then their pilot is found gruesomely murdered. Is this a case of ERS beginning? Or something more sinister? S.A. Barnes is the bestselling author of Dead Silence and delivers another jaw-dropping space-based sci-fi horror story in her 2024 book, Ghost Station.
Craft: Stories I Wrote For The Devil – Ananda Lima
At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the Devil. Throughout her life, she continues to see him again and again and writes stories for him about things that are both impossible and true.
Ananda Lima’s Stores I Wrote for the Devil lures readers into the surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil. There, they find bite-sized Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of living people. A collection of deftly delivered horror short stories, Lima paints a portrait of modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.
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Cuckoo – Gretchen Felker-Martin
In the late 1990s, five queer kids, whose parents want to be ‘fixed’, find themselves thrown together at a secretive ‘tough love’ camp nestled deep in the scorching Utah desert. There, they are tormented, hounded, abused and worked to the point of collapse by hardline religious zealots intending to straighten them out. Slowly, they become aware that something in the mountains north of their camp is speaking to them in their dreams, and that the children who return home to their families have… changed.
From the bestselling Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin’s 2024 horror book Cuckoo follows a group of kidnapped kids as they try to stay true to themselves inside a conversion camp from hell.
The Queen – Nick Cutter
On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on and finds a text message from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is that Charity’s been missing for over a month. Most in town believe her to be dead.
Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything and know the most intimate details about one another, but Charity carries with her a secret that even she is unaware of. A secret engraved into her DNA. She is also known as Subject Six, the result of a clandestine manipulation gene experiment. And when Charity’s gene sequencing actualises as a result of a traumatic event at a high school party, it sets off a chain reaction that will end in tragedy, bloodshed and death. Nick Cutter’s 2024 horror story The Queen follows Margaret as she follows the trail of breadcrumbs into the mystery of her best friend – a person she never truly knew at all.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
