Duncan Ralston’s Helloween tops the Horror Fiction Top 25 January 2025 edition
Not surprisingly, the list of horror fiction releases from December features several Yuletide-themed titles. Two of them, Violent Advents and Humbug, find their way onto the January edition of Malevolent Dark’s Horror Fiction Top 25. Violent Advents is #7 and Humbug by Andre Gonzalez is #17.
Violent Advents is a Christmas horror anthology boasting an outstanding lineup of authors, including Rebecca Rowland, Ross Jeffery, Brian Bowyer, Y.M. Miller, and Kev Harrison. All royalties from Violent Advents will be donated to the British Heart Foundation and the American Heart Association. Gonzalez’s Humbug is part of the Twisted Tales of Familiar Faces series and is a nightmarish retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Now, to the rest of the Top 25. Despite the many Christmas-themed releases, it was Halloween, or rather Helloween, that topped the January chart. Woom author Duncan Ralston’s epic novel is billed as Dean Koontz’s Phantoms meets Stephen King’s Desperation. Published by Shadow Works, Helloween is about a group of teens whose filmmaking project at a Halloween haunt unleashes an entity able to kill by controlling inanimate objects. I read some 5-star reviews saying the book is a blend of 1980s nostalgia with Maximum Overdrive vibes.
Roberts’ Rabid, Magnuson’s Bayou round out Top 3
At #2, Holly S. Roberts personifies the rabies virus in her Wicked Story Telling novel titled Rabid. Readers are moved by the strong characterization and bravery of the main character Joan.
Rounding out the Top 3 is C.S. Magnuson’s novel A Light in the Bayou from Horrorsmith Publishing. Readers are loving the Southern gothic atmosphere of Bayou.
Other notable December releases include Volume 1 of Crystal Lake Publishing’s immersive anthology Hotel Macabre, which lands at #4 on the chart. Hotel Macabre features flash fiction, short stories, poetry, a play, a novella, and an illustrated comic book section. There’s even a link to an exclusive dramatic reading. Helmed by Bram Stoker Award-winning editor Joe Mynhardt, Hotel Macabre includes contributions from a host of other Bram Stoker Award winners like Alessandro Manzetti, Tom Deady, John Palisano, Stephanie M. Wytovich, plus many others.
With Hotel Macabre, Crystal Lake is doing something a little different in the turbulent world of book publishing. I’m seeing more examples of authors and publishers using creative approaches with regard to presentation and storytelling. Robert Essig’s Try Not to Die: In This Damned House (#13 on the December 2024 chart) and Benjamin by Aron Beauregard and Shane McKenzie (#15 on the October 2024 chart) are two recent works that come to mind.
As I peruse the rest of the Top 25, a couple of other titles stand out. At #5 is Fuck Them Kids, a collection of stories about evil children by Seven Rabbits author Timothy King. Of course, with a title like that, it’s hard not to stand out, but it’s King’s writing talent that gets those crazy kids in the Top 5 here. At #22 is the fourth entry in the #DeadEndTours collection titled T&W by Ashley Lister. It’s an entertaining series about tour-guided urban exploration.
What else? It’s no secret that I love Bigfoot, so I was pleased to see three Sasquatch titles make the cut. Luka T. Jacobs, Jeffrey B. Miley, and Eric S. Brown have the Bigfoot bona fides and consistently deliver entertaining reads in the subgenre of cryptid horror fiction.
That wraps up my thoughts on this month’s chart. Without further ado, here’s the Top 25. Clicking on the book titles takes you to their Amazon pages where they can be purchased.