The Malevolent Dark Horror Fiction Top 50
October 2024 Mega-Edition
(Editor’s note: In honor of October, we doubled the Top 25 to a special Top 50 mega-edition.)
1. The Forest of Lost Souls by Dean Koontz
A fearless woman, raised in the forest, fights against a group of powerful men in a novel about good versus evil, the enduring nature of myth, and the power of love.
2. The Exorcist’s House: Genesis by Nick Roberts
Book 2 in the Exorcist’s House Universe alternates past and present narratives in a multi-generational odyssey through Hell.
3. Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert
The sole survivor of a serial killer might hold the key to stopping a new spree of murders.
4. The Rack edited by Tom Deady
An anthology of 20 tales of terror inspired by vintage horror paperbacks. Features stories by Max Booth III, Christa Carmen, Clay McLeod Chapman, Richard Chizmar, Johnny Compton, Kristin Dearborn, Philip Fracassi, Laurel Hightower, Larry Hinkle, Stephen King, Gwendolyn Kiste, Ronald Malfi, Bridgett Nelson, Candace Nola, Errick Nunnally, Cynthia Pelayo, Rebecca Rowland, Jeff Strand, Steve Van Samson, and Mercedes Yardley.
5. The Doll’s House: A Short Story by Lisa Unger
A short story about a widowed mother who moves into her fiancé’s old family home with her teenage daughter. As they try to build a future together, the past refuses to let go in the form of a beautiful handmade doll that belonged to the fiancé’s late sister.
6. Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
A story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.
7. So Thirsty by Rachel Harris
A woman must learn to take life by the throat after a night out leads to irrevocable changes in her life. By the author of Cackle, Such Sharp Teeth, and Black Sheep.
8. Kill Your Darling by Clay McLeod Chapman
An amateur fiction-writing workshop prompts a father to make sense of a senseless crime by writing the story of his son, whose unsolved murder happened nearly forty years ago. But as his story takes on a life of its own, someone from the past is compelled to come out of hiding before he reaches the end.
9. The Darkest Night edited by Lindy Ryan
An anthology of 22 winter horror stories edited by the Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor of Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga. Features stories by Josh Malerman, Rachel Harrison, Darcy Coates, Kristi DeMeester, Christopher Golden, Eric LaRocca, Jamie Flanagan, and many more. With an introduction by George C. Romero and art by British dark artist Mister Sam Shearon.
10. Pay the Piper by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
A tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou by the authors of The Living Dead.
11. Fear of Clowns edited by Kenneth W. Cain
An anthology of 29 stories inspired by coulrophobia or the fear of clowns. Features tales by Graham Masterton and Karolina Mogielska, Aron Beauregard, V. Castro, Adam Cesare, Clay McLeod Chapman, Rachel Harrison, Jonathan Janz, Gwendolyn Kiste, Red Lagoe, Hailey Piper, Duncan Ralston, Hunter Shea, Thomas Tessier, Tim Waggoner, AC Wise, Dex Bryant, S.B. Caves, Douglas Ford, Bitter Karella, Lisa Kröger, Jonathan Lees, Carissa Ann Lynch, Michael Reed, Mel Reynes, Craig E. Sawyer, Em Starr, Bev Vincent, and Daniel Willcocks.
12. The Ghost Train of Eagle’s Pass by J.R. Rain and Matthew S. Cox
Book 4 in the Zeb Clemens western horror series finds the lawman dealing with a town filling up with the undead, including a gang of violent outlaws that realizes they can’t die.
13. Love is a Crematorium by Mercedes M. Yardley
A collection of 17 stories by the two-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author. With an introduction by Gabino Iglesias.
14. Mischief Night Massacre by Jason Parent
A collection of 10 stories that embodies Halloween.
15. Benjamin by Aron Beauregard and Shane McKenzie
Not just a book set in a crime-ridden city, but an immersive entertainment experience where readers are asked to scan QR codes to access over 14 minutes of complementary animated video designed to convey a sense of the story’s atmosphere before starting.
16. Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas
Four gothic novellas from the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Kill Creek.
17. The Bug Collector by Wrath James White
A man whose abnormal sexual desires have ruined his health and made him an outcast encounters a profoundly disturbed and angry woman with a serious grudge.
18. Tales Around the Jack O’Lantern XI by Terri Reid
A Mary O’Reilly Series short story about family and friends who gather to share tales of paranormal events that have happened in their lives, but a requested change sends Mary into a slight panic.
19. I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib by Ben Farthing
After six months of parentally enforced sleep deprivation, a girl’s mind starts playing tricks on her and she sees things like the Boogeyman in her little brother’s room. But is it real or a hallucination?
20. Camp Slasher Lake: Vol. 3 by edited by Candace Nola and D.W. Hitz
An anthology of 11 stories that pays tribute to the glorious slasher movies of the 1980s. Features tales by Jonathan Maberry, Will Suffer, MJ Mars, Brian G. Berry, Megan Stockton, Jay Bower, Eric Butler, M Ennenbach, RJ Roles, Angel Van Atta, and D.W. Hitz.
21. For Every 10 Pages You Read, Someone Will Die by Matt Shaw
A woman finds her Kindle tablet locked on a demonic image displaying the words: “For Every 10 Pages You Read, Someone Will Die.” Nothing she does deletes the image, so she scrolls forward.
22. Test Town by Leigh Kenny
A short story about a group of friends who make a sightseeing pit stop at a long-abandoned nuclear testing facility, soon learning that even in an abandoned town in the middle of nowhere, you’re never truly alone.
23. Welcome to Meadowbrook by Cassandra L. Thompson
An old building’s mysterious past is revealed in a series of short stories told from alternating viewpoints and each from a different era.
24. The Light and the Stick by Sea Caummisar
A man worried his world would collapse when his girlfriend’s parents sent her away to college takes matters into his own hands by exploring the dark web.
25. Keeper of Corpses by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
26. It Eats Your Hunger by Joseph Murnane
A heroin addict haunted by a dark past hitches a ride with a group of itinerant addicts on the run from their own problems. But there’s something unnaturally wrong with one of them — something that wants to see them all dead.
27. Come Out & Play by Patrick Tumblety
In self-isolation since causing the accident that killed his mother, a teenager is faced with a supernatural danger when something comes to tear down his walls — something that he fears has been sent by his mother to avenge her death.
28. Carnival of Carnage by The Sisterhood of the Black Pen
29. How to Be a Professional Mourner by Matt Forgit
A malicious spirit follows a man, ordering him to commit heinous and violent acts against the innocent. But with the help of his sister and a forest ranger, he is determined to send the malevolent soul back to Hell.
30. Withered Hill by David Barnett
A bewitching, dual timeline folk horror novel with a devastating twist you have to read to believe.
31. Evil in Me by Brom
A novel of possession, damnation, and rock and roll, where one woman must get the world singing in order to save her soul. Includes nearly two dozen of Brom’s immersive paintings and endpapers.
32. The Woman in the Walls and Other Stories by Jamie Janazian-Polizzi
A collection of 24 tales of horror, featuring stories about haunted houses, workplace nightmares, terrible rituals, strange things in the forest, and more.
33. Creepers: Vol. 26 by Billy Wells
A collection of 7 horror and thriller stories with surprise and twist endings.
34. The Haunting of Saward Island by Amy Cross
Trying to fix their damaged boat, a woman and her family stop at an uncharted island and soon discover the horrifying secret that caused previous generations to hide the island’s existence from the rest of the world.
35. Kill All Gods edited by Chisto Healy
An anthology of grotesque hardcore horror fiction where 22 authors donate their harshest, most gloriously profane, and most disgusting works with 100 percent of the proceeds going to support indie horror distributor Godless.com. Features the full text of Drew Stepek’s “Nazareth,” the short story that started it all, plus stories by Chisto Healy, Asher Dark, Carietta Dorsch, Judith Sonnet, Jason Nickey, Nick Scarbrough, Dan Shrader, Chuck Nasty, Harrison Phillips, Mark Towse, C.A. Baynam, Thomas Stewart, K.L. Allister, Nora B. Peevy, Cat Voleur, Michael R. Collins, Matthew J. Gleason, Christy Aldridge, Stuart Bray, Megan Stockton, The Professor, and Angelique Jordonna.
36. Queen Boss Slay by Patrick C. Harrison III
A working gal who deals in pain and pleasure hates her male clients, and she’s ready to show them how it’s done with a variety of tools of her trade.
37. The Medusa Psalms: Welcome to Walpurgis County by Kyle Toucher
A collection of 10 stories and two novellas that unveil the grim history and malevolent folklore of America’s most cursed terrain.
38. The Dark Thing by John Ashley
A mind-bending horror novel about the son of a schizophrenic who must find proof of whether the nightmare he’s living is a descent into madness or an assault from a supernatural force more ancient and evil than Hell itself.
39. Incantations of Blood by S.R. Fischer
Ancient demonic forces clamoring for souls are stirring deep in the forest surrounding a small town. Can an unlikely trio of women save the town from a threat that’s been festering for centuries?
40. Cicada by Tanya Pell
Book 4 in the Killer VHS Series is about a woman stranded at a rural horror film festival where people start dying and the locals won’t let them leave.
41. They Didn’t Know by Stephen Barnard
When parents allow their son to have a 19th birthday party at the house, it goes off without incident except one final guest doesn’t want to leave. Who will survive the night?
42. Haunted by Christine Zolendz
A woman attends her annual college getaway at a haunted mansion and realizes the place holds sinister secrets and its vengeful spirits have deadly plans.
43. The Colony by Marie Lanza
A woman receives an urgent call from her husband overseas to find The Colony because a deadly virus is spreading — then the line goes dead. With nothing but fear and a vague direction to follow, the woman must decide who to trust and what she’s willing to risk because The Colony is her only chance for survival.
44. The Man Who Dealt in Death by Marlena Frank
Book 1 in the Colton Fen series is a western horror set in 1893 about a werewolf detective partnered with a blood-drinking, illusion-wielding card shark who will have to put aside their differences to stop a demonic creature that slithers beneath the desert.
45. Just Beneath the Skin by Edward J. McFadden III
A man’s life is ticking away when he stumbles upon an old object in the depths of a woods preserve, prompting an insidious obsession that brings him closer to the precipice of madness as a relentless whisper from beyond promises power and eternal life.
46. Friendly by Anthony Ledger
A man living with his girlfriend in Alaska is relentlessly pursued by an evil entity, but he can’t tell if something nefarious is after him or if he’s just losing his mind.
47. Cigarettes on Saturday by Vincent Vecchio
A deranged, lonely redneck abducts a cocktail waitress and forces her to be his wife, keeping her confined to his bedroom and guarded by a trained hunting dog. As her abductor’s mental stability starts deteriorating, the waitress is forced to get creative and play into his delusions so she can try and escape.
48. Cuddle Buddies by Harrison Phillips
When the creator of a popular children’s TV show is terminated, he reprograms his characters and turns them into unstoppable killing machines.
49. Beyond the Whispering Pines by Kade Godwin
A Southern Gothic thriller about a man who returns to his hometown in rural Georgia and inadvertently stumbles upon a major drug smuggling ring involving his uncle and a ruthless cartel. Forced to run for his life, he must navigate the dangers of an unforgiving landscape and a host of supernatural entities.
50. Pocket Full of Teeth by Aimee Hardy
A woman realizes that her life is inextricably connected to a manuscript hidden in her deceased mother’s desk about a young girl who returns home after her own mother’s death to find her house haunted. As the woman reads the manuscript, her own secrets emerge, and she begins to experience strange phenomena: wet footprints, phantom phone calls, and nightmares. Could a book be haunted?