Halloween House Party: Horror Books for People Who Don’t Like Being Scared

When I was about thirteen years old, I watched Event Horizon and didn’t sleep for at least a week. Even now, some twenty-plus years later, scenes from that film still haunt me! I am not a fan of horror movies and rarely subject myself to ‘scary’ movies, but I keep finding myself drawn to horror stories in written format. Without the unsettling music so frequently used in horror films, to accompany written words, I find I can endure and even enjoy the darkest of dark stories. Here’s a list – in no particular order – of horror stories that I surprisingly enjoyed and sometimes even loved! While these books were often unsettling and sometimes even downright disturbing, none of them gave me nightmares.

1. Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

I read this book several years ago and I am still thinking about it! Summer Sons was the sweaty, sultry, sexy Gothic horror book I didn't know I needed that straddles the divide between YA and adult. To be honest, I was a little nervous of the blurb, given the emphasis on fast cars and hard drugs, but thankfully, this book was way more dark academia than drag-racing or drug-gang related. I particularly appreciated the messy way in which the characters grappled with identity with a more fluid approach to sexuality. The language and writing style is gorgeous, full of vivid descriptions and excellent metaphors, including some pretty explicit descriptions of suicide and murder.

Overall, if you're into slow-burn southern Gothic horror with a dash of dark academia replete with queer characters, I highly recommend this!

2. Slewfoot by Brom

This is a puritan folk-horror about a woman treated as appallingly as one might imagine, given this community who ultimately end up embracing her inner wildness and magic. I was worried about how things would end, but I’m so glad I braved it to the end which gets rather gory while serving up some sorely needed justice. Honestly, the religious bigotry and attitude toward women in this is the most horrifying element of the story.

(Note, this book mentions a lot of Native American folklore/mythology—specifically Piquot folklore—and I cannot speak to how well or accurately this is portrayed.)

3. Grim by Stephanie Phillips

The only graphic novel on this list, but a recent read I really enjoyed. I quickly devoured the entire series about a young reaper who gets sucked into a conspiracy that transcends life and death. The art is incredibly vibrant, making use of high contrast reds against black to create dynamic panels, particularly for the gruesome action sequences involving deems and hordes of the dead.

This definitely spares no visual detail when it comes to violence and gore so if comic-style blood splatter turns yours stomach, you might not love this graphic novel.

4. They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

This is essentially a southern Gothic horror novel, only it switched out the haunted, crumbling mansion for a rotting dock covered in body-stealing algae. The writing is lush and poetic, the prose packed with vivid and grotesque descriptions as our protagonist started a gruesome metamorphosis.

The main theme of this book is transformation, which it explores in various ways, and while most of them aren't particular subtle, there are moments with side characters that show just how many layers the author has managed to laminate within these pages. If you’re looking for queer body horror that disturbs rather than terrifies, definitely give this a go.

5. Don’t Let the Forest In by C. G. Drews

I adored absolutely everything about this book that is as much a cautionary fairytale as it is a rumination on grief. If I had read this as a teenager, this book would've been my entire personality.  The prose is gorgeous, packed full of stunningly macabre imagery. The romance was exactly the right amount of angsty and dramatic for a Gothic YA with plenty to appreciate about the complications of grief, coming out, and coming of age for older readers too.

While the twist isn’t as revelatory as it could be, it’s still a joy to witness the reveal for the characters on the page as they battle malevolent forces within the woods encroaching on their remote boarding school.

6. Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite

I read this book as an older teen and it changed my brain chemistry. This was the book that made me want to become a writer, that showed me the true power of story, and that finally made me feel seen within the pages of the story within the characters of both Ghost and Nothing. This book has become a cult classic within the goth and vampire communities for a reason. It explores themes of identity, coming of age, grief and so much more in absolutely exquisite prose, delivering a story that is as transgressive as it is beautifully gruesome, delving into just about every taboo one can think of.

7. A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock

Think Frankenstein, only gay and with mushrooms! Yes, this truly is a Gothic botanical horror story about somewhat sentient mushrooms bringing a corpse to life. It is a slow-moving, character driven story that explores all the usual Gothic romance themes with a dash of meddlesome spores and a certain amount of poignancy when it comes to the queer relationships set in an era that didn’t look too favorably on same-sex partnerships. Also, there is a scene in this book that has given the notion of ‘plant sex’ an entirely new meaning.

8. I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me by Jamison Shea

Ballet, blood, and hungry beasts? Yes! This book blew me away in its originality. While some might consider this more dark fantasy than horror, the Faustian-like deal coupled with a bloody subterranean world has me filing this firmly on the horror shelf.

This YA novel is a delightfully Gothic and creepy novel set at a prestigious ballet school and if this makes you think of Aronofsky’s Black Swan, you would be on the right track, but rest assured, you don’t need to be knowledgeable about ballet to enjoy this story. While I love the gruesome horror aspects, what I truly love is how this book honors the protagonist’s rage and lets her be angry at the world and all the injustice she faces. The best part about this book? There’s a sequel!

9. Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

I loved this novella, but it definitely felt too short. It had such a cool set-up with an awesome cast of maladjusted misfits, but I felt like the story was just getting started when it came to a rather abrupt end. Despite its brevity, this novella tackles some interesting topics about academia and ethics in research in an extremely tense story that unravels over the course of a single night, providing multiple perspectives on a particularly gruesome crime. (TW, it involves animals)

What sets this story apart is how it drew directly from the author’s own struggles with academia, insomnia, and the toll academic pressure takes on the body, mind, and soul, all of which clearly informed this twisted and disturbing tale.

10. Someone you can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

This was so unexpected. It's body horror meets epic fantasy and an ace romance all rolled into one, which is why I loved it. It’s not often that a horror story is told from the monster's perspective, which makes this book truly unique and a different kind of disturbing as readers are invited to empathize with the creature we should be terrified of and wanting to see destroyed. This twisted perspective definitely created some discomfort within me as a reader as I found myself wondering exactly who was the monster and constantly questioning who I should be rooting for. This is a gory and sometimes nauseating read that doesn’t shy away from explicitly gruesome descriptions of the body horror elements, but it was so original and beautifully written.

By Xan van Rooyen

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