This Month in New Horror Books: October 2022

Our season has ARRIVED, my fiends! (“Emily, did you mean friends?” I certainly did not.) October is STACKED with new horror for your reading pleasure. This month, look for new books from Cynthia Pelayo, Rachel Harrison, Catriona Ward, Nadia Shammas & Marie Enger, Ronald Malfi, Andy Davidson, Jennifer Thorne, J.W. Ocker, Jonathan Janz, Erin E. Adams, Philip Fracassi, and many, many more.

Coming from Nightfire this month, we’ve got three new frights for you! On October 4th, pick up Lute by Jennifer Thorne, about a bucolic island off the coast of England where, every seventh summer, exactly seven people die on The Day. Next up on October 11th, make your way north to the barren coast of Scotland for Catriona Ward’s Little Eve, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel and the August Derleth Prize for best horror novel, now in print in the US for the first time. And finally, on the 18th, it’s Nightfire’s first graphic novel: Where Black Stars Rise, by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger, a tense modern cosmic horror story about a therapist whose patient becomes obsessed with Robert Chambers’ The King in Yellow.

Also, a note: we’re regularly updating release dates and newly announced books both here and on our 2022 horror releases master post. (Missed last year’s list? Right this way!)

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October’s new horror titles

October’s new horror titles

October’s new horror titles:

• If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror, Caleb Stephens (Oct 3): If Only a Heart and Other Tales of Terror is a visceral collection of thirteen stories that explore what happens when we open ourselves to others and dare to let them in. There are monsters on these pages, yes, ones whose teeth cut deep, but never as deep as the teeth of the monsters in the mirror.
• A Study in Ugliness & Outras Histórias, H. Pueyo (Oct 3): Ghosts and weird mourners, horrible teenagers and disgraceful instructors. Haunted prisoners and seafolk taken from the shore. H. Pueyo’s evocative writing takes notice that the dead, like memories are often closer than we think, and the guilty are often ignorant of the damage done and astonished when they themselves suffer. This debut collection offers Pueyo’s stories in both English and Portuguese to celebrate the author’s heritage. 
• All These Subtle Deceits, C.S. Humble (Oct 4): Lauren Saunders moved to Black Wells, Colorado to escape a toxic relationship that stole three years of her life. But her hopeful optimism of a fresh start is dashed after a brutal, supernatural attack sends her screaming from a nightclub into the cold, winter night. Her journey toward recovery leads her to the doorstep of William Daniels—a professional spiritual intercessor and occult consultant. Together they will descend into an occult labyrinth of dark forces and oppressive spirits.
• The Black Maybe: Liminal Stories, Attila Veres (Oct 4): Every so often a new horror writer bursts onto the scene with a book that is so dazzlingly original, so bone-chillingly terrifying, that it instantly alters the landscape of contemporary horror fiction. Hungarian author Attila Veres’ debut collection The Black Maybe is one of those books, now in English for the first time.
• Castle Rock Kitchen, Theresa Carle-Sanders (Oct 4): Explore 80 classic and modern recipes inspired by Stephen King’s Maine, featuring dishes from the books set in Castle Rock, Derry, and other fictional towns—with a foreword from the legendary author himself.
• Concerning Those Who Have Fallen Asleep, Adam Soto (Oct 4): A collection of short stories moving through time and place, exploring the spaces where we haunt each other and ourselves through our choices, our institutions, and our dreams.
• Curse of the Reaper, Brian McAuley (Oct 4): Scream meets The Shining in this page-turning horror tale about an aging actor haunted by the slasher movie villain he brought to life.
• The Cursed Earth, D.T. Neal (Oct 4): Set deep in the forests and hills of Pennsylvania, The Cursed Earth hurls readers headlong into the heart of a cosmic folk horror nightmare in a town ruled by the enigmatic La Signora Grigia—the psychedelic Grey Lady—where gangsters, partygoers, investigators, and sinister cultists clash in the midst of the wild festival atmosphere. Who is the Grey Lady, and can outsiders ever hope to survive for long in Lynchburg?
• It Rides A Pale Horse, Andy Marino (Oct 4): From a new star in horror fiction comes a terrifying novel of obsession, greed, and the shocking actions we’ll take to protect those we love, all set in a small town filled with dark secrets.
• Jackal, Erin E. Adams (Oct 4): A young Black girl goes missing in the woods outside her white Rust Belt town. But she’s not the first—and she may not be the last…
• Lute, Jennifer Thorne (Oct 4): The Wicker Man meets Final Destination in this atmospheric, unsettling folk horror novel about love, duty, and community. (A Nightfire title)
• Malice House, Megan Shepherd (Oct 4): New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd (The Madman’s Daughter) weaves a complex tale of dark magic and family secrets when a woman attempts to settle the estate of her father, an acclaimed horror novelist. Perfect for fans of Lovecraft Country, Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, and The Babadook.
• Such Sharp Teeth, Rachel Harrison (Oct 4): A young woman in need of a transformation finds herself in touch with the animal inside in this gripping, incisive novel from the author of Cackle and The Return.
• The Witch in the Well, Camilla Bruce (Oct 4): The Witch in the Well is a dark Norwegian thriller from Camilla Bruce, author of You Let Me In.
• October’s End: Halloween Horror Stories, Kevin Lucia, Jeremy Bates, and Jason Parent (Oct 7): Three leading voices in modern horror take us on a journey through Halloween in the infamous town of Clifton Heights.
• The Dark Between The Trees, Fiona Barnett (Oct 11): An unforgettable, surrealist gothic folk-thriller with commercial crossover appeal from a brilliant new voice. 1643: A small group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed in an isolated part of Northern England. Their only hope for survival is to flee into the nearby Moresby Wood… unwise though that may seem. Seventeen men enter the wood. Only two are ever seen again, and the stories they tell of what happened make no sense. Stories of shifting landscapes, of trees that appear and disappear at will… and of something else. Something dark. Something hungry. Today, five women are headed into Moresby Wood to discover, once and for all, what happened to that unfortunate group of soldiers. They’re ready for anything. Or so they think.
• Ghosts of the Forbidden, Leanna Renee Hieber (Oct 11): When newly unemployed writer Lillian Anders tries to escape her personal demons by running off to Glazier’s Gap for a writer’s conference hosted by a reviving Gothic romance publisher, she lands right in the middle of her own Gothic novel. Her life begins eerily reflecting one of the early-’70s “women running from houses” books in the publisher’s archive. Striking 19th Century ghosts haunt darkened halls and carriage-house mirrors, startling Lillian with dangerous secrets. As a hungry, violent force lurks in the mountains and the abandoned silver mine, Lillian’s presence rekindles old flames and reopens aching wounds. When charming journalist Nathaniel Lynd arrives in town, he and Lillian forge an immediate bond when intimate memories surface from another century. Evil forces that killed star-crossed lovers in the past seek to destroy Lillian and Nathaniel in the present. It will take fortitude, ingenuity and unexpected help from the strange town itself to make sure the demons of the past don’t destroy a passionate future; destined to set old wrongs right.
• Ghostwritten, Ronald Malfi (Oct 11): Four brand-new horror novellas from “a modern-day Algernon Blackwood” all about books, stories, manuscripts – the written word has never had sharper teeth…
• The Hollow Kind, Andy Davidson (Oct 11): Andy Davidson’s epic horror novel about the spectacular decline of the Redfern family, haunted by an ancient evil. From the author of The Boatman’s Daughter, The Hollow Kind is a jaw-dropping novel about legacy and the horrors that hide in the dark corners of family history. Andy Davidson’s gorgeous, Gothic fable tracing the spectacular fall of the Redfern family will haunt you long after you turn the final page.
• Lilith – Hollywood Monsters, Dana Fredsti (Oct 11): Quirky, fast-paced modern horror in the vein of Supernatural, Lucifer, True Blood, and Evil. Lee Striga is an actress, movie stuntwoman, and demon hunter. Fresh from filming Voodoo Wars in New Orleans, Lee returns to Los Angeles. Back at the Katz Family stunt ranch she finds animals of all kinds taking refuge on the grounds, and the supernatural creatures who populate Hollywood on edge to the point of violence. People are vanishing without a trace, and clues lead to a legendary mansion famous for its horrible deaths—the location for Lee’s next film job.
• Little Eve, Catriona Ward (Oct 11): Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel and the August Derleth Prize for best horror novel, Little Eve is a heart-pounding literary gothic with a devastating twist. (A Nightfire title)
• Mothwoman, Nicole Cushing (Oct 11): From Bram Stoker Award-winning author Nicole Cushing comes a novel about family, grief, aliens, mental illness, trauma, sexism, the Mothman legend, Covid, and the encroachment of unreality into American political life. Mothwoman combines the style and playful dark satire of A Sick Gray Laugh with the grimness and relatively quick pace of Mr. Suicide.
• Saturnalia, Stephanie Feldman (Oct 11): Donna Tartt meets Jeff VanderMeer in this literary horror novel set in Philadelphia during a city-wide solstice celebration, in which an exile from an elite social club comes into possession of an alchemically-created being.
• The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters, J.W. Ocker (Oct 11): Welcome to the United States of Cryptids, where mysterious monsters lurk in the dark forests, deep lakes, and sticky swamps of all fifty states. From the infamous Jersey Devil to the obscure Snallygaster, travel writer and chronicler of the strange J. W. Ocker not only uncovers the bizarre stories of these creatures but investigates the ways in which communities have embraced and celebrated their local cryptids. Whether you believe in Bigfoot or not, this fully illustrated compendium is a fun, frightening, fascinating tour through American folklore and history, exploring not just the stories we tell about monsters but also what stories of monsters say about us.
• When The Night Bells Ring, Jo Kaplan (Oct 11): Two climate refugees descend into an old mine where they find a settler’s diary that whispers of horrors haunting the ghost town, only to realize that the caved-in tunnels are haunted still…
• Crime Scene, Cynthia Pelayo (Oct 13): Cynthia Pelayo sings a song for the least of us, the victim we want to forget as soon as possible, the one who disappeared before ever really appearing. With a fairy tale gaze and a heart bigger than the world, her siren song insinuates itself past our defenses, past the hardened calluses and apathy we’ve erected to protect ourselves from the everyday horror of another missing girl.
• Blood Country, Jonathan Janz (Oct 18): In the second book of Janz’s Raven series, the vampires have transformed a four-story school building into their fortress, and they’re holding Dez’s ex-girlfriend and Iris’s young daughter captive. To save them, Dez and his friends must risk everything. They must infiltrate the vampires’ stronghold and face unspeakable terrors.
• Close to Midnight, ed. Mark Morris (Oct 18): Close to Midnight is the third volume in an annual, non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window.
• Dark Matter Presents: Human Monsters, ed. Sadie Hartmann and Ashley Saywers (Oct 18): Not all monsters are fantasy. Some are very real, and they walk among us. They’re our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. They’re the people we’re supposed to trust… and they know it. Contained within this anthology are 35 never-before-published works by supremely talented authors and best-selling novelists. Brace yourself for the unexpected and unimaginable horror of…human monsters. 
• Gargantuana’s Ghost, Patrick Barb (Oct 18): Living in a society conditioned to fear him, young Antoine Santiago rides the New York subway and communes with the dead. With a love of history inherited from his late father, the city’s storied past is now the only friend to this loner obsessed with a long-forgotten legend about the life and tragic death of a fabled giant ape. Equal part horrifying and heartwarming, this dark fantasy novella from Patrick Barb is a love letter to New York and an ode to society’s outsiders.
• If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe, Jason Pargin (Oct 18): The fourth book in New York Times bestseller Pargin’s John Dies at the End series.
• Sebastian, P.D. Cacek (Oct 18): The son of a world-renowned photographer, Morgan Riley is familiar with his mother’s creative eccentricities. Having been the subject of one of her photographic series, he knows all too well how focused she can become with a new project. So he’s not overly concerned when his mother shows him her newest series that spotlights a small, featureless white plastic manikin the size of a two-year-old child that his mother has named Sebastian. However, as Morgan watches his mother’s obsession with the manikin grow, he begins to question her sanity and fear for her safety…
• Soft Places, Betty Rocksteady (Oct 18): Soft Places is a novella / graphic novel hybrid. Johnna is found naked, wandering the streets with a mysterious head injury. Seemingly psychotic, she’s forced into the care of perverted psychiatrist Dr. Gonne. She must escape his clutches and return to a strange place she only half-remembers.
• Uncanny Times, Laura Anne Gilman (Oct 18): The year is 1913. America—and the world—trembles on the edge of a modern age. Political and social unrest shift the foundations; technology is beginning to make its mark. But in the shadows, things from the past still move. Things inhuman, uncanny. And the Uncanny are no friend to humanity.
• Where Black Stars Rise, Nadia Shammas & Marie Enger (Oct 18): A horror graphic novel about two women who find themselves pulled into a terrifying world by a cosmic entity beyond their understanding. (A Nightfire title)
• Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil, Lisa Morton, Lucy A. Snyder, and Kate Maruyama (Oct 21): When the Halloween Beyond stores appear across America, they intertwine the lives of three visitors in a web of mystery and magic.
• A Child Alone With Strangers, Philip Fracassi (Oct 25): A kidnapped child’s otherworldly abilities alert him that there is something sinister lurking outside the farmhouse he’s been imprisoned in, and only he possesses the key to communicate with it.
• How to See Ghosts & Other Figments, Orrin Grey (Oct 25): A new collection from the author of Guignol & Other Sardonic Tales and Painted Monsters & Other Strange Beasts. Orrin Grey returns with eighteen haunting stories of the strange and supernatural.
• Sign Here, Claudia Lux (Oct 25): A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul.
• Beach Bodies, Nick Kolakowski (Oct 31): This billionaire’s luxury doomsday bunker has everything: spectacular ocean views, a full-service kitchen, three bedrooms, a broadband connection, and concrete thick enough to keep any kind of horror out. Today, the bunker’s caretakers are about to discover those concrete walls are good—too good—at keeping them trapped with the horrors inside. Twenty feet below the world’s most beautiful beach, they’ll face the ultimate evil—one that transcends death itself.
• Cassandra’s Typewriter, Andrew McRae (October): This genre-busting tale takes a dark look at the ability of art and its creators to mold society while cautioning against the deification of perceived heroes. Rife with dark humor while delivering an ominous message for humankind, the novella revolves around the lives of a vile, reclusive author whose once-groundbreaking work has been long forgotten and the intrepid reporter assigned with securing the interview of his lifetime.

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As always, if we missed anything, let us know in the comments!

View our 2022 new horror release masterlist here, and view previous monthly new releases posts here.

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