“What’s so noble about being dead?”
From 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918, the First World War (WW1) gripped the world. The conflict was caused by increased economic, political and military competition between the Great Powers of the time, but its outbreak was immediately triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip. WW1 was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, killing up to nine million military dead and eight million civilians. Whilst it isn’t technically the deadliest, the debut of new technologies, marking the first instances of warfare becoming mechanised and the appalling conditions of trench warfare has provided inspiration for authors to create some of the most chilling WW1 horror books. Join us today at What We Reading as we run through the most harrowing and chilling stories set during World War 1.
Baltimore, Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier And The Vampire – Mike Mignola And Christopher Golden
Kicking off our list of WW1 horror books is Baltimore, Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier And The Vampire, a gothic horror-fantasy story by celebrated comic artist Mike Mignola and award-winning author Christopher Golden.
When Lord Henry Baltimore awakens the wrath of a vampire on the hellish battlegrounds of WW1, the world is changed irreversibly. The lone soldier suddenly finds himself in an eternal struggle against the forces of darkness. He summons three old friends to a lonely inn. As these men wait for their friend, they each trade stories of their terror and misadventures picked up during their travels and fantastical experiences. However, before the night is through, they will learn how the greatest terror of all comes from the creature who has named Baltimore as his greatest nemesis.
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In The Shadow Of Blackbirds – Cat Winters
In 1918, the world appears to be on the brink of an apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to fend off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war in Europe. The result is a frenzied-filled atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners queue up for seances and spirit photographers for comfort. She herself has never believed in ghosts or the supernatural.
However, during her bleakest moment, she’s forced to rethink the entire way she looks at life and death. Her first love, a boy who died in battle, returns in spirit form. But, what does he want from her? Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, Cat Winters’ In the Shadow of Blackbirds is a tense and eerie WW1 horror and historical romance tale.
The Lady Of The House Of Love – Angela Carter
Another one of the best WW1 horror books featuring gothic vibes and vampires, Angela Carter’s The Lady of the House of Love is based on a radio play named Vampirella. The story centres on a young English soldier travelling through Romania by bicycle who finds himself deserted in a remote village.
He stumbles upon a mansion inhabited by a vampiress who survives by enticing young men in and feasting on them. She fully intends to serve the same fate to the young soldier. However, his purity and virginity begin to have a strange, unexpected effect on her.
The Bloody Red Baron (Anno Dracula #2) – Kim Newman
It’s 1918 and Graf von Dracula is commander-in-chief of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies. The War of the Great Powers in Europe has also become a war of the living versus the dead.
Caught up in the conflict, Charles Beauregard, an old enemy of Dracula, his protege, Edwin Winthrop and intrepid vampire reporter Kate Reed go up against the deadly vampire flying machine known as the Bloody Red Baron. Written by the popular novelist and movie critic Kim Newman, The Bloody Red Baron is an alternate WW1 horror story that takes his Anno Dracula series into the twentieth century.
Johnny Got His Gun – Dalton Trumbo
One of the best WW1 horror books and pieces of anti-war literature ever written, Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun was published all the way back in September 1939 on the eve of the Second World War. The story centres on Joe Bonham, a young American soldier in World War One, who wakes up in a hospital bed and realises that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face.
Despite his injuries, Joe’s mind remains fully functional. As he struggles to come to terms with the horrors he has experienced on the battlefield and the condition he finds himself in now, Joe develops a way to communicate via Morse code. Whilst it is a work of fiction, the devastation and traumas that inspired Trumbo make this one of the most unsettling reads firmly rooted in real-life horror.
By The Blood Of Heroes (The Great Undead War #1) – Joseph Nassie
At the tail end of 1917, the German army introduced a new type of gas to the battlegrounds of the First World War: T-Leiche, or ‘corpse gas’. Its effects allowed the enemy to resurrect the bodies of the dead, giving them an almost unlimited source of fresh troops. When American ace Major Jack Freeman – the poster boy for the war against the Kaiser’s undead army – is downed over enemy lines, Captain Michael ‘Madman’ Burke is the only man foolish enough to take on the mission of recovering him.
Assembling a ragtag team of desperate members and aided by a highly advanced British dirigible war machine, Madman and the group face unimaginable dangers as they struggle to reach the prison camp and strike against the resurrected Red Baron, whose abilities have been enhanced, but his mind pushed to the brink of madness.
The Winter Ghosts – Kate Mosse
In the winter of 1928, Freddie is travelling through the beautiful but foreboding French Pyrenees, still looking for some resolution from the horrors of World War I. During his snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Disorientated, he stumbles through the dense woods, eventually coming across a tiny village and a small inn to wait out the blizzard outside.
Inside, he meets a lovely young woman also mourning a lost generation. Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks through the inn’s windows, Freddie will have unearthed a tragic, centuries-old mystery, and discovered the role he plays in the life of this remote town. With the supernatural elements and fuelled by the horrors and destruction of WW1, Kate Mosse’s historical mystery story The Winter Ghosts is the perfect read for anyone looking for a more poignant tale.
The Damned (The Darkest Hand Trilogy #1) – Tarn Richardson
1914; in the French city of Arras, a father is brutally murdered. The Catholic Inquisition sends its most determined, and unhinged, inquisitor, Poldek Tacit, to investigate. His mission is to protect the church, no matter the cost, from those who seek to undermine it. Yet, as Tacit arrives, so too do the British and German forces, contesting each other across No Man’s Land.
As the inquisitor attempts to work out the truth behind the murder, Tacit becomes increasingly plagued by overwhelming odds and his own demons. Forced to battle the forces of evil and a church determined to achieve its goal, he eventually unearths a dark conspiracy that seeks to engulf the world and plunge it even deeper into the War to End all Wars. Morally complex and fast-paced, Tarn Richardson’s The Damned is undoubtedly one of the best WW1 horror books.
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).
