October is the perfect month to immerse yourself in spine-chilling tales that send shivers down your spine and linger long after the last page. Whether you crave supernatural hauntings, psychological terror, or darkly twisted suspense, there’s a horror story out there to satisfy every thrill-seeker. From New York Times bestselling authors to rising voices in the genre, we’ve curated a list of the best horror books to read in October 2025 that promise unsettling mysteries, haunted locales, and unforgettable characters. Prepare to explore cursed castles, eldritch forests, sinister family secrets, and terrifyingly vivid nightmares as we count down the must-reads for this spooky season.
1. King Sorrow by Joe Hill
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill comes a dark, mesmerizing story where the allure of the occult collides with the perilous consequences of revenge. At the heart of it is Arthur Oakes, a dreamy student at Maine’s Rackham College, whose quiet life and budding romance with Gwen Underfoot are violently upended when a local drug dealer coerces him into stealing rare, priceless books from the college library. Desperate and cornered, Arthur turns to his closest friends—wealthy, daring Colin Wren; fearless Alison Shiner; the determined twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and clever, bold Gwen—who hatch a daring plan to save him: using the unnerving Crane journal, bound in its author’s skin, to summon a dragon capable of granting their wishes. But the fantasy quickly turns nightmarish, as summoning the creature binds them to a horrifying pact: every year, a human must be sacrificed to King Sorrow—or they themselves will pay the price. It’s a brilliantly twisted tale of friendship, ambition, and the dark magic that comes with tampering with forces beyond comprehension.
2. The Haunting of Paynes Hollow by Kelley Armstrong
From New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong comes a gripping supernatural horror that entwines family secrets, haunted memories, and a sinister lakeside property. When Samantha Payne’s estranged grandfather dies, she expects nothing from his will—after all, she hasn’t seen him in fourteen years, not since her father’s tragic death following accusations of a child’s murder. Yet to her shock, the lakefront cottage tied to that dark past is left to her, on one chilling condition: she must live there for a month. Returning to Paynes Hollow, Sam is forced to confront the shadows of her childhood and the unsettling truths buried in her family’s history. But when her aunt disappears just days into her stay, the line between memory and nightmare blurs, as eerie sounds in the forest and strange shapes emerging from the lake hint at a dark, malevolent force lurking beneath the water’s surface, threatening to drag her into a horror she never imagined.
3. The Barre Incidents by Lauren Bolger
In The Barre Incidents, readers are plunged into a chilling blend of cosmic horror, dark fantasy, and found-footage dread as Kara faces the haunting legacy of her miner father’s death from silicosis in Barre, Vermont. Long skeptical of the town’s terrifying legends—like the dead miners marching five miles from Hope Cemetery to the Rock of Ages quarry—Kara is forced to confront them when a frightening encounter on the night of her father’s burial shatters her doubts and awakens memories she had buried. As she digs deeper, she uncovers a history of death-defying secrets, a lost friend, and eerie sightings of mechanical beings, cryptids, interdimensional creatures, and even an ancient god stirring in the shadows. With each revelation, Kara edges closer to the truth, navigating a perilous path where grief, love, and a world brimming with dark, unimaginable magic collide in ways both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
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4. Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Moonflow, the debut horror novel from three-time Hugo Award nominee Bitter Karella, is a gloriously queer, irreverent plunge into a psychedelic nightmare where eldritch forests and the horrors of (cis)terhood collide. In the dense, pitch-black Pamogo forest, the fabled King’s Breakfast grows—a mystical fungus that grants cosmic knowledge and communion with forgotten gods to anyone brave enough to take a bite. When mushroom cultivator Sarah faces a failed harvest, the temptation of the King’s Breakfast draws her into the uncharted woods, guided only by the most infuriating man she knows, who insists there’s nothing to fear. But as they venture deeper, the forest’s dark secrets awaken, unseen forces begin to close in, and the line between wonder and terror blurs, calling them both to confront the unknowable and answer the haunting call of the woods.
5. Acquired Taste by Clay McLeod Chapman
Acquired Taste is a sharp, darkly witty, and utterly terrifying collection of 25 short stories from Clay McLeod Chapman, hailed as the “21st century’s Richard Matheson.” Blending horror with biting social insight, Chapman explores the fears that haunt our modern world—from a Vietnam veteran’s disturbing addiction to a man grappling with a horrifying object in his fireplace, and a right-wing news network’s insidious grip on its audience. His stories roam from department store Santas to ghostly boyfriends, salamander-worshipping nuns, and the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic, painting small-town Chesapeake USA in a vividly unsettling light. With a mix of humanity, dark humor, and relentless creeping dread, Acquired Taste transforms universal anxieties about parenthood, addiction, and political division into uniquely chilling tales, cementing Chapman as one of contemporary horror’s most fearless voices.
6. The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Aymar Castle plunges readers into a dark, intoxicating tale of siege, seduction, and supernatural intrigue. After six months under blockade, the castle’s dwindling survivors are astonished when their stores are replenished, the sick are healed, and divine figures—the Constant Lady and her Saints—arrive unbidden, demanding worship in exchange for aid. As the castle succumbs to their lavish, unsettling feasts, war hero Ser Voyne pledges herself to the Constant Lady, while Phosyne, a paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to uncover the source of these miracles and save her reputation. Meanwhile, Treila, a serving girl with a secret thirst for vengeance, navigates the horrors and shifting loyalties within the castle walls. As Aymar descends into bacchanalian madness, only these three women perceive the peril lurking beneath the surface—and their entangled pasts, desires, and alliances may hold the key to survival, demanding not just courage, but a radical reimagining of themselves and the world around them.
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7. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a haunting Southern Gothic horror from New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix that explores power, oppression, and the dark magic of survival. In the sweltering summer of 1970, fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, a place where “wayward girls”—unwed mothers deemed too wild or too fast—are hidden from the world, forced to give up their babies, and made to forget their own lives. There, she meets other girls navigating fear, secrecy, and constrained futures: Rose, determined to keep her child and flee to a commune; Zinnia, planning marriage; and Holly, barely fourteen and mute. Under the strict control of the adults who run the home, Fern discovers a librarian who gives her an occult book on witchcraft, granting the girls a power they’ve never held before. But magic comes with a cost, and in a world built on secrecy and repression, the price is often blood, testing the limits of friendship, ambition, and vengeance.
8. Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen
Blood on Her Tongue is a chilling gothic horror set in the Netherlands in 1887, where Lucy faces a terrifying ordeal to save her twin sister, Sarah. Sarah grows increasingly ill, refusing to eat, muttering strange words, and obsessing over a centuries-old corpse on her husband’s estate. Diagnosed with temporary insanity, Sarah’s condition worsens, and Lucy discovers that her sister may be under the influence of something far darker than fevered delusions. As Sarah’s behavior turns violent and unnervingly hungry, Lucy must confront secrets—both her own and Sarah’s—and uncover the monstrous truth before it consumes her twin completely. With gothic atmosphere, supernatural dread, and a poignant sapphic love story at its heart, Blood on Her Tongue is a haunting, unflinchingly terrifying tale for fans of dark, atmospheric horror.
9. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
Blending the eerie suspense of Mexican Gothic with the chilling intensity of She is a Haunting, this horror thriller follows Cora Zeng, a crime scene cleaner in Chinatown who’s seen it all—or so she thinks. Years after witnessing her sister’s brutal death in a train accident, Cora is haunted not just by trauma but by a whispered warning from the killer: “bat eater.” As she tries to bury her fear and dismiss the strange bite marks appearing in her apartment, ominous signs multiply—bat carcasses show up at her clean-ups, and all the recent victims are East Asian women. Despite her aunt’s warnings to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of the underworld open, Cora must confront the rising dread she can no longer ignore. Terrifying, propulsive, and darkly atmospheric, this story proves that some ghosts cannot be evaded—and some horrors demand reckoning.
From the eerie streets of Chinatown to the haunted shores of Paynes Hollow, the best horror books to read in October 2025 offer something for every lover of the macabre. Each story delivers its own unique brand of terror—whether it’s through dark magic, haunted legacies, or psychological dread—ensuring that this October, your nights will be filled with suspense, fear, and excitement. Pick up one of these chilling reads, dim the lights, and let yourself be carried into worlds where horror lurks around every corner, leaving you both terrified and utterly captivated.
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