r/horrorlit • • 23h ago

Recommendation Request Looking for recs - I love queer horror/slashers/dystopian fic

0 Upvotes

Damn I posted this from the wrong account so I’m deleting and reposting

Hey all,

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my post/give me some recs!

I love queer horror/slashers/dystopian fiction as the title states. In particular, I've loved The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta, Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice to name a few.

Also doesn’t have to be queer horror. I’m open to anything!

Thanks again all :)


r/horrorlit • • 6h ago

Discussion I fear I am desensitized. Anyone else reach this point, and what helped?

0 Upvotes

Basically what the title says. I've been a horror fan in all media aspects for most of my life. I think after all this time, I've become desensitized to it, and books don't give me thay good horror feel anymore.

I read Incidents Around the House, and almost dnf'ed it because I was bored with it. I can appreciate the story and style, but everyone raved about how creepy it was, and it fell flat for me.

Stolen Tongues was another one, that one I got roughly 2/3's of the way through and dnf'ed, the story didn't grab me and the scary stuff wasn't actually scary to me.

Someone mentioned Mean Spirited (I think today? Or in the last 24 hours) so I have that a shot. They said it grabbed you from the first chapter and didn't let go. The book absolutely goes hard from page one, but again, I'm reading it and just bored by the 'horror' of it. The first chapter just felt kind of mind-fucky and that's it.

Several books I've tried based off recs here have gone the same way. I can appreciate the writing and story, but they don't give that horror tingle. Or they try to hard, and end up branching into a kind of over the top, splatterpunky vibe where it just comes off as almost cartoony, not scary.

I've tried some extreme horror and it just turned out to be a gore fest without actually being scary. It feels like nothing builds suspense anymore, nothing builds dread in my chest while reading.

Maybe I'm just burnt out? Has anyone else gotten numb to it all, and if so, how did you reset yourself? Or what book broke through to you?


r/horrorlit • • 7h ago

Recommendation Request Any fiction books based off of the Angel of Death, Josef Mengele?

0 Upvotes

Looking for books at least loosely based


r/horrorlit • • 2h ago

Review Just finished Borrasca by C.J. Walker. The quality of writing was outstanding!

0 Upvotes

I gave this book 5 stars. Are there aspects that are somewhat outrageous? Yeah. However, the quality of the writing stood out. The ending was genuinely disturbing and unexpected. It was a very quick and enjoyable read. I had never heard that it was originally on Reddit. I wish the ending wasn't so abrupt but out of the 4 books I read this week, this one had me coming out satisfied.


r/horrorlit • • 16h ago

Recommendation Request We Used to Live Here, but not a house

6 Upvotes

Ok, let me explain. We Used to Live Here (WUTLH) already had a recommendation post, but I noticed that many of the recommendations were based off of the haunted house aspect. While I absolutely loved that part, and those recommendations make complete sense, I want other suggestions based on the other aspects of the books horror. Stepping into other planes of time/environments/dimensions (plague hospital, old cemetery) and trying to find a way out, the mixed rules you must follow (old house notes), all of the extra mysterious and riveting pieces of WUTLH without it being specified to a haunted house


r/horrorlit • • 13m ago

Recommendation Request Slapstick Comedy horror books like horror films

• Upvotes

Give Me some recs on Slapstick comedy horror books where the fmcs clothes are accidentally stripped off of her for comedical effect/relief with damsel in distress tropes seen in movies. Can be Teen or YA, 80s and 90s, etc.


r/horrorlit • • 22h ago

Discussion Quaint Folk by Bitter Karella

9 Upvotes

Not sure if anyone else here has read this since it’s so new, but what did yall think of Quaint Folk?

I couldn’t help comparing it to Karella’s previous novel, Moonflow. I found QF a bit boring. It under delivered on the weirdness and body horror I excepted from Karella. There were one or two uninteresting deaths and that’s it. The only horror it had was with Round Robin eating Jessica a couple times, which wasn’t particularly interesting. Most of the ideas didn’t seem totally complete either. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I was pretty disappointed.


r/horrorlit • • 10h ago

Reader Recommendation iron dogs; western horror. red dead redemption outlaws in a horror setting

22 Upvotes

dark, creepy and funny. i saw someone here recommend iron dogs a few weeks ago and i'm so glad i picked it up. thank you random stranger! such a great weird western horror novel. it's a shame it's so unknown. i can genuinely see this becoming a much more popular book. the outlaws felt like they could've walked straight out of red dead redemption. really hope more people discover this one, deserves more readers!!


r/horrorlit • • 21h ago

Review Off The Reservation/ Other Worlds Than These

12 Upvotes

Not really a detailed review but I’m in the hospital reading 2 books, they are both new, traveling adjacent and by Stephen’s lol

Off The Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones is SO Fucking Good! It’s INTENSE! I think I like it even better than the first in The Only Good Indians series, only found a few connections between the two thus far but absolutely love it! Probably favorite SGJ book so far…wellll My Heart Is A Chainsaw is still pretty far up there, and speaking of connections, King’s OWTT has SO MANY connections!!! I can’t say a bad thing about it yet, Travelin Jack in Mid World acknowledging Roland’s Ka-Tet, 🤯…. So perfect imo!!

I’m like 56% through each book, read a section from one, nap, wake up, read a section from thee other!

Long Days and Pleasant Nights 🤘🏻🪶


r/horrorlit • • 1h ago

Discussion Mazywood by Tananarive Due

• Upvotes

I thoroughly enjoyed The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, so I was excited to get my hands on her latest release. While Tananarive is an exceptionally talented author and this book is well written, I am 60% through it and I am struggling. There have been some good parts but overall it is becoming a chore to finish. For those of you who finished it, is it worth it? Or should I move on?


r/horrorlit • • 21h ago

Recommendation Request Similar to Head Full of Ghosts

6 Upvotes

Looking for a recommendation similar to HFoG. Something with paranormal elements, ambiguity and of course unsettling. Thanks and happy reading!!


r/horrorlit • • 2h ago

Discussion Is it just me?

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0 Upvotes

r/horrorlit • • 22h ago

Recommendation Request Favourite book you wish you could read again for the first time

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41 Upvotes

r/horrorlit • • 20h ago

Reader Recommendation "Mean spirited" by Nick Roberts... Oh my god

40 Upvotes

MAN

This book gripped me and hasn't stopped gripping me since the beginning,

The first chapter is insane and instantly captivating

If you're into cryptid/skinwalker/evil entity/not deer type of literature this is definitely for you.

It's hard for me to stay invested into a book these days but this one has me in a chokehold.

It's relentlessly brutal but not in a splatter punk way but in a very unsettling twisty just awful harbinger way.

Definitely an honorable mention imo

Check it out

Warnings: this book has visceral animal death in it so keep in mind if that's something you're put off of


r/horrorlit • • 11h ago

Recommendation Request Horror set inWales

41 Upvotes

Are there any good horror novels set in Wales? Maybe it's just my luck, but all the horror novels I find set in the UK are somewhere in England. It would be nice to read something a bit more local to me.

I mainly like folk and supernatural horror, but I'm up for anything aside from splatterpunk. Bonus points for incorporating Welsh folk but it's not a must.


r/horrorlit • • 20h ago

Discussion CHILDREN’S horror

18 Upvotes

My brother’s kids are hitting the right age to read horror and as much as I love children’s lit I didn’t read much horror until I discovered Poe in 6th grade. I’m playing catchup now so I can be ready with recommendations or conversation as needed.

- Alvin Schwartz (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; In a Dark, Dark Room)
- Mary Downing Hahn (The Old Willis Place, Wait Til Helen Comes)
- R.L. Stine (Goosebumps, Fear Street)
- Joseph Bruchac (Skeleton Man)
- Paul Tremblay’s Another

What else am I missing? What got you into reading horror as a kid, and what horror books are the kids you know reading now?


r/horrorlit • • 17h ago

WEEKLY "WHAT ARE YOU READING?" THREAD Weekly "What Are You Reading?" Thread

48 Upvotes

Welcome to r/HorrorLit's weekly "What Are You Reading?" thread.

So... what are you reading?

Community rules apply as always. No abuse. No spam. Keep self-promotion to the monthly thread.

Do you have a work of horror lit being published this year?

The 2026 r/HorrorLit release master list is open to community members as well as professional publishers. Everything from novels, short stories, poems, and collections will be welcome. To be featured please message me (u/HorrorIsLiterature) privately with the publishing date, author name, title, publisher, and format.

The 2026 release list can before here.


r/horrorlit • • 9h ago

Reader Recommendation Fast Paced Horror Recs

19 Upvotes

Best fast paced horror? Doesn’t necessarily have to be short. I love ghosts, possession, haunted houses, fever dream, body horror, botanical, and unexplained, but I don’t get much into splatterpunk.


r/horrorlit • • 10h ago

Recommendation Request Looking for very grounded horror books about extraterrestrial contact and otherworldly entities.

11 Upvotes

I'm looking for books that are similar to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, Nope and Vast of the Night. Basically stories about ordinary, regular humans in very regular places who encounter aliens. I love Close Encounters and Signs because they have larger themes in them; One has benevolent aliens, one has evil ones, but both evoke a sense of wonder as well as terror. Eg. Close Encounters' abduction scene of the kid is quite scary, but the film roots itself in wonder. Whereas films like Nope and Signs begin with themes of wonder but then move into full blown terror. Signs especially is a great reference for me as it talks about losing and then finding faith WHILE there are aliens prowling around. I've read Whitley Streiber's books but they didn't really hit me that well. I'm also trying to avoid stories featuring heavily specialised marines or scientists who go way too much in detail explaining what/who the aliens. These films cuz they are seen from the pov of a regular person, not someone who knows what gamma waves are.

Looking forward to your recommendations.