7 New Horror Books That Will Actually Scare You

Warning: These books tend to be just as polarizing as they are brilliant.

1. Inspection by Josh Malerman

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Inspection by Josh Malerman is a slow-burning tale about two groups of children, one group of boys and one group of girls, that are raised as a science experiment. The goal is to prove that they can accomplish brilliant things if only they weren't distracted by the opposite sex.

About the Author

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer/ songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol and Inspection. Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist/musician Allison Laakko.

2. Growing Things by Paul Tremblay

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"One of the best collections of the 21st century." — Stephen King

A chilling collection that blurs the lines of psychological suspense, supernatural horror, and literary fiction, from the multiple- award-winning author of the national bestseller The Cabin at the End of the World and the acclaimed A Head Full of Ghosts

A masterful anthology featuring nineteen pieces of short fiction, Growing Things is an exciting glimpse into Paul Tremblay’s fantastically fertile imagination.

3. Sinkhole: A Horror Story by April A. Taylor

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Ranked the #1 Most Popular Spooky Fiction Book on Goodreads (as of Oct 15, 2019).

A sinkhole swallows a girl in Michigan. Fire shoots into the sky in Pennsylvania. Deer attacks leave people hospitalized in West Virginia. And this is all just the beginning of a catastrophic series of global events that will make you question everything you think you know about the planet, nature, and humanity.

About the Author

Indie horror author April A. Taylor's follow-up to last year's surprise hit. Her Gothic horror novel, The Haunting of Cabin Green, was featured on PopSugar's '13 Most Chilling Horror Books of 2018,' Inquisitr's 'Best Horror Books of 2018,' Ranker's '2018's Scariest Horror Books,' and BoredPanda's '7 Books That Scared Me Half to Death.'

The Haunting of Cabin Green is a #1 Amazon Best-Seller in Ghosts, Gothic, U.S Horror, & LGBT Horror. It was also #1 in U.S. Horror New Releases for three consecutive weeks. Cabin Green was the Top Vote Getter in the Horror/Suspense category of The Kindle Book Review's Reader's Choice Awards 2018 and a Runner-Up for Reader's Choice Best Overall Book of 2018.

4. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

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When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods in this chilling novel that reads like The Blair Witch Project meets The Andy Griffith Show.

About the Author

T. Kingfisher, also known as Ursula Vernon, is the author and illustrator of many projects, including the webcomic “Digger,” which won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story and the Mythopoeic Award. Her novelette “The Tomato Thief” won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and her short story “Jackalope Wives” won the Nebula Award for Best Story. She is also the author of the bestselling Dragonbreath, and the Hamster Princess series of books for children.

5. The Invited by Jennifer McMahon

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A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house, they start building one from scratch, without knowing it, until it's too late

About the Author

Jennifer McMahon is the author of nine novels, including the New York Times bestsellers The Winter People and Promise Not to Tell. She graduated from Goddard College and studied poetry in the MFA writing program at Vermont College.

6. Dead Voices by Katherine Arden

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New York Times bestselling author Katherine Arden returns with another creepy, spine-tingling adventure in this follow-up to the critically acclaimed Small Spaces.

Biography

Born in Austin, Texas, Katherine Arden spent her junior year of high school in Rennes, France.

Following her acceptance to Middlebury College in Vermont, she deferred enrolment for a year in order to live and study in Moscow. At Middlebury, she specialized in French and Russian literature.

After receiving her BA, she moved to Maui, Hawaii, working every kind of odd job imaginable, from grant writing and making crêpes to serving as a personal tour guide. After a year on the island, she moved to Briançon, France, and spent nine months teaching. She then returned to Maui, stayed for nearly a year, then left again to wander. Currently she lives in Vermont, but really, you never know.

She is the author of The Bear and the Nightingale.

7. Full Throttle by Joe Hill

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New York Times Bestseller!

In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in thirteen relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including “In The Tall Grass,” one of two stories co-written with Stephen King and the basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.

About the Author

Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman; NOS4A2; Horns, which was made into a major motion picture starring Daniel Radcliffe; Heart-Shaped Box, which won the Bram Stoker Award and the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel; and the prizewinning story collection 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner Award–winning writer of a six-volume comic book series, Locke & Key. He lives in New Hampshire.