The Best Horror Novels For Those Obsessed With The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Keep the spooky fall vibes alive all November with these chilling tales!

For those who sat in shock and awe over the 8 episode series on Netflix detailing the delicious retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's most infamous stories, we have the ultimate list of horror novels for you to find your next grotesque obsession!

For many horror fans, the spooky season doesn't simply end on November 1st. Instead, the rest of the droopy, dreary, dreamy autumn season is the best time to break out all new tales of terror.

Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories by Lindsay Wong

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As a Vancouverite, it will become undeniable in this list that I will ride or die for local authors, and Lindsay Wong makes it so easy to love her grotesque, horrible, and simply hilarious collection of immigrant horror stories.

A true Canuck, Lindsay Wong sets up some of the most intriguing stories of Chinese immigrants that will make every horror fan curl their toes in abject repulsion.

In one of her brightly effective tales, she tells of Grandmama Wu, a 17th-century courtesan who simply cannot die, although her aging and rotting body tells a different story. Set now on a world TV production stage, guests are welcome to come and attempt to eat all the leaves from a deadly and poisonous lotus flower. If contestants finish eating the entirety of the leaves, they receive the ultimate gift: immortality. However, Grandmama Wu is the only person who has ever accomplished the goal and lived to tell the tale. She sits on the sound stage as the rest of the hopeful immortals suffer agony and brutal death.

The rest of Wong's delightfully dark tales cover stories of loss, hope, and belonging through an immigrant lens.

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier #1) by T. Kingfisher

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If you became obsessed with the Netflix series The Fall of The House of Usher, look no further than this twisted and graphic retelling of the same short story.

Edgar Allen Poe's original poem becomes undone by the very same Ushers that you've come to admire, despise, and wish death upon. In T. Kingfihser's retelling, she begins the story through the eyes of a retired soldier, Alex Easton, who races home to the countryside home of the Usher's to be close to his childhood friend, Madeline.

With a twist on the original retelling, new and old characters join together to try and understand the forces causing the possession of nearby wildlife, the lake that seems alive.

Go all in on Edgar Allen Poe lore by diving head first into this unabashed mystery that's bound to consume your dreams.

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

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Laura Purcell puts together a Victorian ghost story that will reignite your more visceral paranormal fears. In The Silent Companions, she tells the story of young Elsie, who marries an heir, Rupert Bainbridge, and believes herself to be destined for a life of dutiful luxury. But tragedy befalls the new couple when Rupert dies just weeks after their wedding.

Surrounded by hostility and strange surroundings, Elsie finds herself inside her new mansion with a silent companion, something lurking behind a painting that looks shockingly similar to Elsie.

This tale will creep you out in the most unexpected ways. Reading this book is like living inside of the mansion alongside Elsie and just as desperate for answers as she is.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

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If you're in the mood for a Georgia peach-flavored supernatural thriller set in the 90s, then look no further than Grady Hendrix's classic vampire novel.

Highly attuned to the makings of a fantastic horror novel, Hendrix weaves the story of a women's book club with a disturbed blood-sucking killer destroying the peaceful neighborhood.

Filled with twists that will make you question your own reality, this book follows the protagonist, Patricia Campbell, as she breaks out of her life as a homely housewife to detective and then vampire hunter. Laugh-out-loud and real as hell, this book is destined to leave you shivering with fear and peaking between your fingers.

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology by Shane Hawk

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This collection of short stories is written by more than a dozen Indigenous authors with their own personal tales of insidious spirits with the singular belief: never whistle at night.

Crossing the boundaries of dozens of Indigenous groups, this one folk tale and unwritten rule seems to traverse cultures for a reason. Native Hawaiians have said that whistling at night summons the Hukai'po, an ancient warrior spirit. At the same time, Native Mexicans call the figure who appears the Lechuza, a witch who can turn into an owl. The unifying draw of each of these stories will have you sleeping with your night light on.

True, terrifying, and connected to nature, each Indigenous story rivals the best of the horror world.

The Trees Grew Because I Bled There: Collected Stories by Eric LaRocca

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Eric Larocca is a previous finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, and it's easy to see why with these thrilling tales of dark fiction.

These eight stories cover dark themes of love, obsession, grief, and control that will make you grossed out at times and bent over with pain in others. Throughout each story, a young woman imagines traumatic scenarios while carrying her young niece. These deeply unsettling, dark works of prose will have you under the covers in fear in no time.

LaRocca weaves a perfect collection of fiction to curl up with on a cold and dreary night in November, imagining all the things that can go bump in the dark.

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

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Another Canadian tale that touches me in Vancouver, Jessica John's debut novel Bad Cree follows a young Indigenous woman's dreams through self-discovery, which finally leads her home.

Bad omens confront protagonist Mackenzie through a series of dreams that follow her from her rural hometown in Alberta to her escape in Vancouver.

This riveting story of a "bad cree" circles the drain of horror, mystery, magical realism, and true Indigenous themes of violence and community.

Shiver: Selected Stories by Junji Ito

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Fans of manga and Japanese horror will know that ghost stories from this style are unimaginably dark and disturbing.

With nine of Junji Ito's best works, this collection of stories, as selected by the author, comes with additional notes and commentary.

Known as the King of horror manga, Ito will have you on the edge of projectile vomiting into the ether with his weird and sick ghost stories. Completely unique and twisted in the best ways, these stories cause an itch in the back of your mind like no other horror writer before.