This Month in New Horror Books: September 2022

Happy Halloween First, ghouls and goblins! Some naysayers might try to tell you it’s still summer for another few weeks yet, but we don’t want anything to do with your “calendars” or “facts” here. We know the truth: September 1st marks the start of Spooky Season, and this month’s new release list agrees.

This month, look for new books from Clay McLeod Chapman, Hiron Ennes, Stephen King, Eric LaRocca, Hailey Piper, Gemma Amor, Josh Malerman, Alexis Henderson, and many more. Also keep an eye out for Nightfire’s gorgeous new edition of Necroscope II: Vamphyri!, coming your way on September 20th.

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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September’s new horror titles

September’s new horror titles

September’s new horror titles:

• Crom Cruach, Valkyrie Loughcrewe (September 2): A distinctly Irish anxiety piece about the reluctant future and repressed past of a country trying to shrug off the shackles of colonialism, wrapped in the shiny black leather of Giallo and written in a poetic style fit for the fog-shrouded mysticism of the emerald isle.
• Bad Dolls, Rachel Harrison (Sept 6): In this stunning new audio-only collection of four horror stories, award-winning author Rachel Harrison explores themes of body image, complicated female friendship, heartbreak, and hauntings.
• Carnosaur, Harry Adam Knight (Sept 6): First published in 1984, six years before Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Harry Adam Knight’s Carnosaur is a gory dinosaur-filled romp sure to delight fans of ’80s paperback horror fiction.
• Fairy Tale, Stephen King (Sept 6): Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.
• Gallows Hill, Darcy Coates (Sept 6): The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations, living and working on the beautiful grounds where they grow their famous grapes. Until the night Mr. and Mrs. Hull settle down for the evening… and are dead by morning. When their daughter, Margot, inherits the family business, she wants nothing to do with it. The winery is valued for its unparalleled produce, but it’s built on a field where hundreds of convicts were once hanged, and the locals whisper morbid rumors. They say the ground is cursed. It’s been more than a decade since Margot last saw her childhood home. But now that she’s alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, she begins to believe the curse is more than real―and that she may be the next victim of the house that never rests…
• Medusa’s Ankles, A.S. Byatt (Sept 6): Medusa’s Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt’s short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her readers beyond the veneer of the ordinary—even beyond the gloss of the fantastical—to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.
• Our Shadows Have Claws, ed. Amparo Ortiz & Yamile Saied Méndez (Sept 6): A YA horror anthology featuring monsters and specters from Latinx folklore, from el Chupacabra to La Llorona, the vampire and werewolf, the pombero and Nahuelito, and beyond.
• The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror, ed. Tori Bovalino (Sept 6): A cemetery full of the restless dead. A town so wicked it has already burned twice, with the breath of the third fire looming. A rural, isolated bridge with a terrifying monster waiting for the completion of its summoning ritual. A lake that allows the drowned to return, though they have been changed by the claws of death. These are the shadowed, liminal spaces where the curses and monsters lurk, refusing to be forgotten. Hauntings, and a variety of horrifying secrets, lurk in the places we once called home. Written by New York Times bestselling, and other critically acclaimed, authors these stories shed a harsh light on the scariest tales we grew up with.
• Song of the Red Squire, C.W. Blackwell (Sept 6): North Carolina, 1949. When agricultural inspector Charlie Danwitter is sent on a special assignment to bucolic Ashe County, he expects an easy job cataloging heirloom apple varieties. However, when the local farmers grow suspicious of his motives, Charlie finds himself in far more trouble than he bargained for. In an attempt to salvage his assignment, he follows a mysterious woman deep into the beating heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains to a long-forgotten village where harvest rituals are rooted in bizarre Old World customs—and discovers that some traditions are better left in the past.
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes, Eric LaRocca (Sept 6): Dark, disturbing, cutting-edge horror from an astonishing new voice. The viral sensation that everyone is talking about. Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?Devastating, deeply disturbing and beautifully written horror from one of the genre’s most cutting-edge voices.
• The Weight of Blood, Tiffany D. Jackson (Sept 6): New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America’s history and legacy of racism in this suspenseful YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom.
• Dark Observation, Catherine Cavendish (Sept 13): In the dark days of war-torn London, Violet works in Churchill’s subterranean top secret Cabinet War Rooms, where key decisions that will dictate Britain’s conduct of the war are made. Above, the people of London go about their daily business as best they can, unaware of the life that teems beneath their feet. Night after night the bombs rain down, yet Violet has far more to fear than air raids. A mysterious man, a room only she can see, memories she can no longer trust, and a best friend who denies their shared past… Something – or someone – is targeting her.
• The Depths, Nicole Lesperance (Sept 13): A tropical island full of secrets. Two Victorian ghosts, trapped for eternity. And a seventeen-year-old girl determined not to be next. After she suffers a near-fatal freediving accident, seventeen-year-old Addie tags along on her mother’s honeymoon to a private island where she unearths dark secrets — wandering ghosts, bloodthirsty flowers, and a deep pool where no one feels pain — before realizing the island might not be willing to let her go.
• Fellstones, Ramsey Campbell (Sept 13): Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child? Now their daughter Adele has found him. By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he’ll discover, and memories to confront. The Fellstones dream, but they’re about to waken.
• Full Immersion, Gemma Amor (Sept 13): A traumatized woman with amnesia finds her own dead body and sets out to uncover the truth of her demise in a race against time, sanity, crumbling realities and the ever-present threat of the Silhouette.
• Lucky Girl, How I Became a Horror Writer: A Krampus Story, M. Rickert (Sept 13): A novella told across several Christmases, rooted in loneliness and horror and the ever-lurking presence of Krampus written by World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award-winning short fiction author M. Rickert.
• The Stars Did Wander Darkling, Colin Meloy (Sept 13): A suspenseful and atmospheric middle grade horror set in 1980s Oregon, perfect for fans of Stranger Things, Neil Gaiman, and Margaret Peterson Haddix, from New York Times bestselling author and the Decemberists’ lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy.
• The Talosite, Rebecca Campbell (Sept 13): It’s 1916, during the First World War, in an alternate world where resurrection is possible. Anne Markham, the daughter of a celebrated neurologist, is reusing the bodies of the dead, combining them into new forms and sending them back into combat, building creatures so complex, and so enormous, that they can encompass all of the fallen.
• Daphne, Josh Malerman (Sept 20): Horror has a new name: Daphne. A brutal, enigmatic woman stalks a high school basketball team in a reimagining of the slasher genre by the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.
• Direwood, Catherine Yu (Sept 20): In this YA gothic horror novel, 16-year-old Aja, whose sister Fiona disappears when a strange weather event isolates their town, must put her trust in a vicious but alluring vampire if she wants to see her sister again.
• Ghost Eaters, Clay McLeod Chapman (Sept 20): For fans of Grady Hendrix and Paul Tremblay, this terrifying supernatural page-turner explores ghosts, grief, and god complexes.
• Necroscope II: Vamphyri!, Brian Lumley (Sept 20): The fear level rises in this new edition of book two of Brian Lumley’s Necroscope series, which blends disturbing horror and thrilling spycraft into a gripping whirl of terror and suspense! Necroscope II: Vamphyri! is the second volume in a powerful series that has enthralled millions of readers with its very different look at vampires and vampire hunters, at the dead and the living and the worlds they share. (A Nightfire title)
• No Gods For Drowning, Hailey Piper (Sept 20): The gods have fled. Monsters threaten to invade the city of Logos, hunting mankind as they did in the olden days. In the midst of it all, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims–to lure the gods back and stop the imminent destruction, or for a more sinister purpose? Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god–even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her lover Arcadia and her friends means sneaking, lying, and even spilling the blood of people she loves. Alex and Cecil of Ace Investigations have been tasked with hunting down the killer, but as they close in–not knowing it is their close friend they’re hunting–the detectives realize the gods may not have left willingly, and must uncover the truth before Lilac summons the wrong god, who may have come back just to destroy them all. Set in an alternate reality which updates mythology to near-modern day, No Gods For Drowning is part hunt for a serial killer, part noir detective story, and unlike anything you’ve ever read before.
• This is Where We Talk Things Out, Caitlin Marceau (Sept 21): This Is Where We Talk Things Out follows the gut-wrenching journey of Miller and her estranged mother, Sylvie, who have always had a tense relationship. A cross between Stephen King’s Misery and Stephanie Wrobel’s Darling Rose Gold, This Is Where We Talk Things Out explores the horror of familial trauma, mother-daughter relationships, and what happens when we don’t let go.
• The Butcher, Laura Kat Young (Sept 27): A suspenseful small-town horror novel of oppression, heartbreak and buried anguish – Shirley Jackson meets Never Let Me Go with the wild west setting of Westworld.
• The Haunted History of Invisible Women: A Collection of True Ghost Stories, Andrea Janes & Leanna Renee Hieber (Sept 27): Andrea Janes, owner of Boroughs of the Dead in Manhattan, and Leanna Renee Hieber, an award-winning author of historical gothic fiction, are teaming up to write a collection of ghost stories that tackle the tragic history of women who were invisible in mainstream society—widows, spinsters, servants and other working women. With firsthand accounts of ghostly encounters and historical research, The Haunted History of Invisible Women is both spine-tingling and thoughtful—a page turner that will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book.
• House of Hunger, Alexis Henderson (Sept 27): A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power, in this dark and enthralling gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.
• The House in the Orchard, Elizabeth Brooks (Sept 27): When a World War II widow inherits a dilapidated English estate, she uncovers a diary written by an adolescent girl named Maude Gower. Looking for answers, she begins reading, only to unravel more questions about the mysterious past and many secrets hidden deep within the walls of Orchard House. With each psychologically gripping turn, Elizabeth Brooks masterfully explores the blurred lines between truth and manipulation, asking us who we can trust, how to tell guilt from forgiveness, and whether we can ever really separate true love from destruction.
• Isolation: The Horror Anthology, ed. Dan Coxon (Sept 27): A chilling horror anthology of 20 stories about the terrifying fear of isolation, from modern masters of horror including Tim Lebbon, Paul Tremblay, Joe R. Lansdale, M.R. Carey, Ken Liu and many more.
• It Looks Like Us, Alison Ames (Sept 27): Shy high school junior Riley Kowalski is spending her winter break on a research trip to Antarctica, sponsored by one of the world’s biggest tech companies. She joins five student volunteers, a company-approved chaperone, and an impartial scientist to prove that environmental plastic pollution has reached all the way to Antarctica, but what they find is something much worse… something that looks human.
• Leech, Hiron Ennes (Sept 27): A surreal and horrifying debut from author Hiron Ennes, Leech combines parasitic body horror with gothic family drama in a post-post-apocalyptic masterpiece that defies our understanding of identity, heredity, and bodily autonomy.
• Perfect Union, Cody Goodfellow (Sept 27): When Drew married Laura, he also married into the Kowalski family. But on a trip with his twin brothers-in-law into the backwoods of northern California to find their abusive, estranged mother, buried secrets will be revealed, threatening his fragile marriage and his sanity.
• Split Scream Volume One, Carson Winter & Scott J. Moses (Sept 27): Dread Stone Press presents SPLIT SCREAM, a new Horror Novelette Double Feature. This is Volume One. Grab some popcorn, turn the lights low, and don’t be afraid to scream.
• We Spread, Iain Reid (Sept 27): The author of the “evocative, spine-tingling, and razor-sharp” (Bustle) I’m Thinking of Ending Things that inspired the Netflix original movie returns with a mind-bending and chilling novel about the power of loneliness on a person’s psyche.

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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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