Horror Novels, Career-Defining Debuts You Should Know About

Horror Novels, Career-Defining Debuts You Should Know About

Memorable horror novel debuts, my pick of overlooked classics, career defining moments and personal favourites 

I have been reviewing novels for Ginger Nuts of Horror and Horror DNA for almost a decade. If I factor in the endless YA novels, this amounts to hundreds of books. Once in a while I enjoy wandering through my old files and repackaging them for new features. And that’s exactly what this article is; a nostalgic trawl to identify my favourite reviewed debut novels.

Before anybody starts howling about glaring omissions, of which there are undoubtedly many, this may just mean I never reviewed that book, not that I have no love for it. A small selection of random older books are also thrown into the mix; these are titles I retrospectively reviewed for a feature, theme or perhaps discovered late. 

Debuts can be odd beasts. Sometimes this remains the highpoint of a career and a novel the author can never escape from the shadow of, for others it can be a sign of much better or scarier things to come. Certain authors never back their debut up and there are a few in this list which are most certainly undiscovered classics ripe for rediscovery.

For many their debut is the book they fought for years to see the light of day, that one great idea, and for it to appear in print is a lifelong dream fulfilled. Whichever way you choose look at it, the debut is the beginning of a journey, and this list is peppered with stone cold classics.

They are presented in alphabetical order.  

Horror Novels, Career-Defining Debuts You Should Know About

Richard Farren Barber – The Living and the Lost (2019)

This debut novel from a writer who had already released several impressive novellas and many short stories is a lost classic, no longer in print due to an issue with the original publisher. The action opens with Karl starting a new job for the Borough of Long Draeston Department of Environment and Waste. The job advert cryptically mentions “waste disposal and people skills” as a requirement and soon he realises it involves cleaning houses of restless dead spirits.

I love the way the ‘cleaning’ department is portrayed as a genuine UK council, with its own problems with financial cuts and staffing issues. The author gives very little away about how the supernatural aspects work, but this is not a drawback and only makes the reader pay attention to the many clever ideas sneaked into the action.

The haunting sequences are convincing and quite downbeat; from powerful presences, the speaking of different languages and use of very simple dialogue such as “he’s still here” is very expressive. Do not expect any Exorcist style head twisting here, it is much more lowkey.

The story has so many nice, understated touches; Karl starts to smell (it is never explained why), but his parents understandably think it is because he is working collecting garbage! The Living and the Lost is peppered with a host of engaging characters, an authentic slice of British life mixed with an excellent, very English, supernatural themed story. One of these days, I hope this refreshing novel returns to print, as I rank it as Richard Farren Barber’s finest work. 

L.C. Barlow – Pivot (2013)

Pivot is told in three sections, when the main character Jack Harper is aged seven, eleven and seventeen and who narrates the story in the first person. This narrative style is particularly suitable for this story, as Jack is a cult member who, due to her limited knowledge of the outside world, remains completely unaware of what a cult is.

In fact, I do not think the world ‘cult’ is ever used within the story and the plot is seen entirely from within the workings of the cult from Jack’s limited and childlike perspective. Jack has been adopted by the cult leader Cyrus Harper who ensures she receives a full education of maths, English, and other normal subjects and takes a keen interest in her development. However, Cyrus ensures that Jack is also taught a peculiar extra-curricular subject: that of assassination. Cyrus has talent spotted Jack and has big plans for her.

This makes Pivot an even more peculiar story, as our engaging and very likable main character is a mass murderer who repeatedly kills for Cyrus, particularly in the third segment of the story when she is seventeen. Jack commits her first murder when she is seven which is brilliantly introduced in the opening pages, setting an incredibly bleak tone which permeates throughout the novel. After an early murder, something very strange happens; he comes back to life and she then kills him countless other times. But why? 

Prepare yourself for a very cruel novel which in a very matter of fact has children routinely brainwashed and murdered, but as Jack is our narrator, she barely bats an eyelid at such killings.  If you fancy a journey into a labyrinth of weirdness, then Pivot is essential reading and the start of a trilogy which grips all the way through.     

Lindsey Barraclough – Long Lankin (2011)

Do not let the Middle Grade tag put you off, Long Lankin is a terrifying tale of a house cursed by an ancient evil, set in the 1950s, inspired by a haunting folk song about murder, witchcraft, and revenge. Two unlucky children, Cora and her little sister Mimi (aged fourteen and ten), are sent to live with their elderly aunt in the isolated village of Bryers Guerdon, and, receiving a less than warm welcome, are desperate to return to London. Instead, their arrival reawakens an evil that has lain waiting for years and they find themselves next on this entity’s hit list.

Along with Roger and Peter, two young village boys, Cora must uncover the horrifying truth that has held Bryers Guerdon in its dark grip for centuries – before it is too late for Mimi. You will rarely see a better use of a rural setting than Long Lankin, with the narrative effortlessly moving into the realms of Folk Horror, giving this tale an exceptionally convincing backstory. 

It is based around a ghostly character from local English folklore and this horrible creation is as nasty as anything you will find in adult horror fiction. Worse even. I met Lindsay Barraclough at London book events, and it is amazing such a charming lady is responsible for such an evil monster, sadly she has not published anything since the companion story, Mark of Cain.

If adult horror author Adam Nevill ever wrote a kid’s book, I imagine it might be a bit like this, coincidentally Nevill also found it equally unsettling and online noted “I’ll read it to my nipper when she’s twenty!” which says it all, as it is genuinely scary. Nevill is totally correct, you’ll quickly forget you are reading a book aimed at kids, which unnerves to the bone. Not one to recommend to overly sensitive children (or adults). 

Fiona Barnett – The Dark Between The Trees (2022)

The dual narratives set in 1643 and the present day is a real strength of The Dark Between the Trees and I loved the way in which they often mirrored each other but deviate in other instances. The soldiers of 1643 were all God-fearing men, which led to clashes, whilst the women in the present-day narrative believed in science, archaeology and logic, but found themselves at odds in having to accept the impossible.

By way of a taster, on their first night they camp in a clearing with a huge tree, but in the morning the tree is gone. How do they explain this rationally or irrationally for that matter? How could they return to their university funding boards and reveal this astonishing fact? The arguments, conversations and sheer incredulity of five intelligent women made riveting reading and was in stark contrast to the soldiers of 1643 who were much more open to accepting the supernatural. 

Dr Alice Christopher, an historian who has devoted her entire academic career to uncovering the secrets of Moresby Wood in north England leads the party. Through her we realise that the area is knee deep in folktales and myths which the book cleverly explores, some of which predate the ill-fated 1643 expedition into the forest. Armed with metal detectors, GPS units, mobile phones and the most recent map of the area (which is nearly fifty years old), her group enters the wood ready for anything, but soon find themselves quickly out of their depth and clashing about what to do next.

These are not adventurer Indiana Jones types, with the narrative concentrating on a couple of the women. The manner in which the story of the modern women and English Civil War stories converge was wild stuff, even if not all questions were answered, it was creative and unpredictable. The sense of hopelessness and dread is skilfully heightened as we realise maps and technology are useless in the vividly drawn Moresby Wood. The Dark Between the Trees remains Fiona Barnett’s only novel to date. 

R.L. Boyle – The Book of the Baku (2021)

R.L. Boyle’s The Book of the Baku is one of the novels of the year and was beautifully ambiguous. For the most part it was astonishingly bleak for a teen novel. Although the blurb calls it “A Monster Calls meets The Shining” I would disagree and amend that to “A Monster Calls meets The Babadook” which suits it slightly better.

This highly unsettling debut novel is very much its own beast and does not lean on anything, except for the pain of broken families, isolation, guilt and tragedy. If you think this sounds too heavy, do not let that put you off; Sean is a brilliant leading character who deserves your empathy and support. It was also fantastic to read a horror novel with a boy as a central character, these are few and far between, and one who struggles bravely with a disability, whose cause is revealed in tragic flashback. 

The Book of the Baku plays out in two ‘before’ and ‘after’ narratives, but it is enticingly unclear what happened to Sean’s mother when he arrives at his estranged grandfather’s house. A family tragedy has led to him developing a Conversion Order, which means he cannot talk, but he also has a serious leg disability which hampers his mobility and has been bullied because of it. In the past, his grandad was a writer who wrote a collection of short stories about a mythical creature, called the ‘Baku’, which feeds on the dreams of children.

As Sean reads the terrifying collection, he begins to lose touch with reality, and the stories from the book blend into his everyday world, with some real Bababook style moments. This was one of those books where you just will the main character to confront their internal demons, and I was quite literally cheering out loud when some glimmers of light appeared in the darkness of the tunnel.

In many ways, the life Sean left behind was considerably more harrowing than anything the Baku could do to him, and it was brilliantly written into the major reveals which come later in the plot. The Book of the Baku is one of the bravest and most impressive horror novels on the market and deserves to be read incredibly widely. It is R.L. Boyle’s only novel to date. 

John Connolly – Every Dead Thing (1999)

The long running 20+ Charlie Parker series begins with the horrific murder of the wife and daughter of NYPD cop Charlie Parker, who no longer after, wracked with guilt, leaves the force. He was getting drunk the night they were tortured and killed and sees their ghosts everywhere, or is he just feeling their presence through his guilt? As the murders are unsolved, he is also consumed with the need for revenge which sends him on the tail of ‘The Travelling Man’ or is it the Travelling Man who is stalking Charlie? 

The mystery takes him to Louisiana and the disappearance of a missing girl where multiple story strands connect. The greatest detective writers of our time, from Rankin (Rebus) to Connelly (Bosch) did not start their epic series with their best work and neither does John Connolly. However, he does set strong seeds for what lies ahead. Funnily enough, there were many YEARS between book one and two for me as a reader.

So, it obviously took a long time for the seeds to come to fruitarian and it was certainly worth the wait. As the years have passed Charlie Parker and I have become old friends and I look forward to every new book, hoping it might not be the last. The finest supernatural detective series of all time. I also enjoyed meeting John at a London book event earlier this year and he was both the perfect gentleman and a very funny guy.

Andrew Cull – Remains (2019)

Remains is absolutely drenched in bleakness with an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness until its final tragic moments and is one of the most striking haunted house novels I have read in recent years. There can be nothing worse than losing a child, and the plight of Lucy Campbell, whose son Alex was murdered nine months before we pick up the story when she is about to be released from a psychiatric hospital after a breakdown.

Lucy finds herself driving past the house where the murder took place and feels the house pulling her and hopes that perhaps that something of her son is still inside its walls. Shockingly, she buys the house. This is not a wise decision and leads to the type of horror which exists at the corners of your vision, creeping just out of sight, or lurking in the shadows.

Set over a relatively short space of time, this beautifully paced book, which has a minimal but amazingly effective story, is soaked in ambiguity and gripped on every level. Remains cleverly refuses to overplay the supernatural element and for the most part, the horror and reality of grief is more than enough. It is not an action-driven novel, but it still has some outstanding scenes; you’ll wince in a car-crash sequence where supernatural powers might be at work, and another corker where a wardrobe lurches and inexplicitly falls down the stairs.

Haunted house novels are dime a dozen and it is extremely hard to produce something new in a bulging genre, but Andrew Cull breathes new life into a familiar trope with an incredibly grim book which keeps its intensity going until its haunting final paragraphs. Remains is a stunning read and is the only novel by Andrew Cull who has published many short stories, novellas and edited anthologies.  

Blaine Daigle – The Broken Places (2023)

Being entirely set in a remote part of Canada’s Yukon Territory it is easy to compare The Broken Places with any survival style story where something nasty lurks in the forests and help remains frighteningly out of reach. However, Daigle gives all those familiar ingredients a shakeup delivering a chilling and powerful read. Written in the third person, the action seamlessly moves between the three main characters and best friends, Ryne, Shawn and Noah. Aged in their late twenties and with significant shared history behind them, the trio meet up to visit Ryne’s family cabin which is some miles beyond the village of Wolf’s Bone, in a remote part of the Yukon where strange things begin to happen.

The novel is developed around Ryne’s childhood connection with the cabin, which was built by his ancestors many generations earlier, but there were secrets his father and uncle chose not to pass onto him. Set over a relatively brief period of a couple of days, with the three men arriving at the cabin just as a huge storm arrives cutting them off from the nearby village. The slow escalation was overseen with significant effect, with the bickering friends dealing with weird whispers, sleepwalking, the feeling of being watched and the possibility that they are not alone. Blaine Daigle has been busy since this impressive debut, releasing three further novels. 

Victoria Dalpe – Parasite Life (2016)

If you were to rank unsettling and intense debut novels, Victoria Dalpe’s Parasite Life is up there with the best of them. The teen market has been saturated with vampire novels, but this unnerving tale sails miles above the pack, partly because the teen-life sequences are so painfully believable they are presented without any need for terror. An isolated and lonely seventeen-year-old girl with no friends is horror enough.

However, when the supernatural angle is filtered into proceedings, it is done so skilfully and believably the reader is sucked into a unique take on the vampire myth. Blend both story strands together, supernatural and teen angst, and you have an intoxicating and very feminine vampire story. Jane is the novel’s powerful narrator and voice, who spends her time caring for her sick mother who either cannot or refuses to talk to her and has an undiagnosed wasting illness. She has no friends, they have little money, and she escapes her humdrum life by hiding in books. However, early in the narrative vivacious Sabrina arrives at her school and life takes an amazing and exciting upturn. 

Equally engaging is the fact that Dalpe creates her own version of what a vampire is and develops her own rules, for example, the vampires in this story can live in sunlight. It sounds strange, but these weird deviations click. The author also tackles tricky subjects such as menstruation, which when you think about it, should play an important role in vampire novels, but is often overlooked particular in YA literature. There is a budding sexual attraction between the two girls, which awakens something hidden in Jane and takes the girls into some dark places.

These relationship scenes are a combination of sexy, sensual, sleazy and terrifically edgy writing as Jane discovers her hidden talents. This is a very mature YA novel which was originally written as an adult novel before being toned down at the request of the publisher. Due to publisher problems this brilliant novel is currently out of print and deserves to find a new home. Meanwhile, Dalpe has kept busy with short story collections and her entertaining urban fantasy Selene Shade, Resurrectionist for Hire series.

Shaun Hamill – A Cosmology of Monsters (2019) 

These days, many types of horror is marketed as ‘Lovecraftian’, but A Cosmology of Monsters is genuinely one of the finest odes to H.P. Lovecraft you’re ever likely to read. Part of its odd charm lies in the wonderful first-person narrator, a kid called Noah, but wait for it, his story begins many years before his birth.

Spread across several decades from before his birth to into his twenties, the story details his struggles to deal with life within his traumatised and highly dysfunctional family, including mental illness and strange supernatural presences. There are monsters in this book, but it is how Noah deals with them which makes this a particularly clever novel. Both Noah’s sisters are exceptionally troubled, and the family dynamics are so well pitched, the balance between drama and horror is totally convincing as it meanders into the territories of dark fairy-tale and mystery, taking a pitstop around both tragedy and depression.

I love this style of narrative, portrayed akin to a coming-of-age memoir, except for the fact that monsters are real and for some inexplicable reason are only attracted to certain people. Some may find the pace a tad slow, however, this story of a cursed family is truly bittersweet and soaked in such pain, the pace fits this perfectly pitched tale like a glove.

The disappearance and death of loved ones dominates the action, giving it a very melancholic vibe that is as believable as it is fantastical. It has been said on many occasions that the true horror in the story isn’t the monster but rather the heartbreak and tragedy found in the everyday world. Hamill followed this with the fantasy horror novel The Dissonance and has since written for the Aliens franchise. 

Jack Ketchum – Off Season (1981)

This astonishingly brutal and powerful short 300 page novel had me gripped from the start and rarely have I experienced such graphic violence in a novel. Six city yuppy types hire a holiday home in a fairly remote part of Maine, they don’t realise that an extended family of cannibals have been living in the area. Set over a very brief fifty hour period the cannibal family mount an attack on the house on the first night all six are sleeping in the house and the subsequent fifty hours is one of the finest exercises in terror I have read in a long time.

The second death, just outside the house, whilst the other four holiday makers are hiding inside really sets the scene as the woman is tied up slit open from groin to neck, has her heart pulled out whilst still beating and slowly roasted whilst all the cannibal kids dance around in glee and anticipation for man flesh. It was truly nasty, but written so well it really knocked me for six especially as the author killed off a likable character who had set the scene for the arrival of her five friends.

Off Season is akin to something you might have seen in a grindhouse cinema, but it works incredibly well as pulp horror. The second 150 pages is set over a mere hours when Nick begins to stalk the cannibals as they have run off with the two surviving women back to their lair. Seen in tandem from all points of view, and the police who begin to put two and two together it really is the proverbial rollercoaster.  So many characters are killed off.

The cannibal children were horrible creations and when the story was told from the point of view of the savages and we’re told man flesh was good for soup because the meat did not sink in the pot I felt my own stomach drop. Off Season heralded one of the finest careers in horror fiction, from an author who is still missed by many. 

Lucie McKnight Hardy – Water Shall Refuse Them (2019)

Water Shall Refuse Them is narrated entirely, in the first person, by sixteen-year-old Nif, whose family is in crisis after the recent death of a younger sibling. Nif is an outstanding lead character and as things develop you’ll realise that she is a sneakily unreliable narrator who drops hints here and there, sometimes out of context.

In trying to recover from the death, Nif’s father takes the family on holiday to a remote cottage in a tiny Welsh village which does not take too kindly to outsiders. Set in the roasting hot school summer holiday of 1976, the story has a vivid sense of time and place which is often crucial in Folk Horror stories. Upon arrival they find the cottage to be a real dilapidated dump and this only worsens the fractured relationship between her parents.

To say the village was cliquey is a major under statement and this is where elements of Folk Horror filter more strongly into the story. Whilst Nif is out exploring she spots a group of men acting strangely outside of the local church and after she meets local boy Mally is told that the churchgoers are different from the normal villagers. The plot moves further into Folk Horror territory when the girl experiments with incantations: “Robin’s egg, magpie’s egg, duckling bill and bone. Blackbird’s egg, feathers of wren….” Following these rituals make her feel safer and more comfortable in her own skin and after arriving in the Welsh countryside her senses are heightened.

Did the novel have any witchcraft at all? Much will depend on your personal interpretation. The novel also convinces as a family drama seen from the point of view of a sixteen-year-old girl who had nobody to talk to and lives, for the most part, inside her own head. The author astutely avoids all of the usual horror tropes and one of its strengths is the simple fact that it is very hard to classify at all. Since this debut McKnight has published a collection of short stories, the excellent Dead Relatives. 

Alexander James – The Woodkin (2023)

I am a sucker for survival horror novels and this beauty had me coming out in cold sweats. I am not one for long hikes, but in the first quarter of The Woodkin I found myself happily keeping pace with Josh Mallory, who is tackling large swaths of the Pacific Crest Trail. On the trail Josh is known by the trail name ‘Switchback’ and after he meets the elderly ‘Appletree’ the two travel together until Josh makes a forced detour to Belam for fresh supplies.

Upon arrival, nobody has a phone and there is even less interest in the dead hiker, who Josh wants to report to the mountain rangers. Feeling that something is not quite right, he hurries back to the trail, but soon something is chasing him and he wishes he heeded a “be careful” warning a friendly driver gave him earlier. Suddenly Josh realises all those ‘Missing’ posters on the diner wall were there for a reason and The Woodkin takes a horrifying turn and we head into an intoxicating mashup of Hillbilly and Folk Horror.  

Once Josh returns to the isolation of the mountain trail, hold onto your hat for a punishing and painful ride into hell. The levels of fear are palpable as the young man simply cannot believe what befalls him. Some of the chase sequences were totally exhilarating and I felt exhausted just reading them.

Even if there is not much to the plot which has not appeared in similarly set backwoods novels, Alexander James skilfully weaves his own narrative around familiar tropes and morphs it into his own living and breathing beast. Even if I predicted the direction the novel headed into and prompted some of the twists, but not all the betrayals it remained a riveting read with spiralling levels of cruelty with Hillbilly Horror evilly clashing with Folk Horror.  This is the author’s only release to date. 

Jo Kaplan – It Will Just Be Us (2020)

Wakefield Manor is one of the finest haunted houses I have entered in quite a while. It is a monstrous creation which is vividly brought to life and described entirely through the eyes of Samantha Wakefield, the youngest of two daughters who live alone with their semi-hermit mother in the decrepit family home.

Samantha has an unhealthy interest in a particular room, which she has only ever known to be locked, and will soon have you reading between the lines looking for the true reasons for its closure. Why will her mother not give her a satisfactory reason why no key exists? The plot slyly revolves around this room and Sam’s fascination with it and the reader is eagerly pulled along.

Ghosts play a big part in It Will Just Be Us, but the plot cleverly bucks what you might find in the traditional haunted house tale by avoiding the usual clichés, as Sam is not scared of ghosts at all; she sees them all the time and they are part of her daily life. This house is full of ghosts from different periods, portrayed almost as memories, many of which are of dead relatives. Some wander randomly, others appear connected to certain rooms, but the core of the story revolves around the appearance of a new ghost Sam begins to see, which acts slightly different to all the apparitions.

This little boy can most definitely see her and is not at all friendly. This is a very clever development, as the familiar ghostly presences move from benign to something darker and the way in which this major part of the plot plays out is superb with some great shrouding of the later developments. 

It Will Just Be Us is a very stylish and original ghost story and although it may be a tad quiet for some tastes, if you’re a fan of thoughtful and atmospheric supernatural tales with a convincing narrative, then you can’t go wrong. Highly recommended with a sublime ending. Since this debut Kaplan has written When the Night Bell Rings and has The Midnight Muse coming out in 2026. 

Cody T. Luff – Ration (2019)

Everything that happens in the utterly horrific Ration is connected to food; from the motives of the characters to the bone-crunching consequences of eating a prized ‘A’ ration. Set in an unnamed, starving future, most of the action revolves around a group of girls who live in a building called the Apartments.

To varying degrees, they are all very hungry and most probably eat a meal every few days. There is no food as we would know it and only three types of rations exist: ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’, which provide different levels of nutrition, with ‘A’ being the highest. There is also ‘paste’, but the less you know about that the better. Early in the novel there is a particularly shocking scene where a girl eats something she should not and suffers a barbaric punishment where the others use the heel of their feet to stamp on her fingers, hands and arms, breaking multiple bones.

I’ve never wondered too much about what goes into a calorie and in Ration it is a currency to be bought and sold in a world where there is no food. Sustenance is worth more than money (which may no longer exist) and society revolves around it; the world Cody Luff draws is a horrifying place which is bleaker than hell. It never truly paints the whole picture and you’ll have to join some dots yourself and will not like the results when characters head to the dreaded ‘Wet Room’.

If you have nothing left to trade, what do you sell? One could argue that this is a genuine example of contemporary speculative fiction and a warning shot for what lies ahead for mankind should there be a genuine worldwide food shortage. It is both astonishingly bleak and brutal but also carries a powerful message of love. A complete and utter knockout. Ration is Toby Luff’s only novel to date. 

Amy Lukavics – Daughter unto Devils (2015)

It is rare to see a horror story set on the plains of the pioneer era America, so Daughters unto Devils was a unique experience right from the opening pages. This wickedly well-crafted chiller had more creeps in it than many adult horror novels and an edginess rarely found in teen fiction. Written in the first person, with an authentic sixteen-year-old female narrator who lives with her parents and four younger siblings in a remote cabin near the bottom of a mountain. She is secretly having an affair with a post delivery boy and becomes pregnant.

There is a second narrative which flicks back to the previous year when there was a severe snowstorm, stranding the family in their home, while their mother falls ill whilst heavily pregnant. In the middle of all this stress, Amanda flips out, claiming to see the Devil after which she struggles to grasp reality. Whether her visions are merely cabin-fever or something else is not revealed, but this ‘episode’ is not spoken of again and becomes the elephant in the room.

Amanda feels guilty over everything, particularly praying for the death of her unborn child and her youngest sibling who screams and screams incessantly. Imagine The Little House on the Prairie with demons and you are heading in the direction this outstanding novel moves into. The family uproot, once again based on superstition, and relocate to a prairie overlooking a forest. After moving into an abandoned cabin the supernatural element of the novel kicks in and you feel the helplessness of the young children who are easy prey.

Throw into the mix demons, madness, guilt, nutty neighbours, young love, and teenagers struggling to hold their family together, the end result is a novel with real bite. There is also a meat pie you really would not want to eat, and do not ever mention the ant scene! At 200 pages it is the perfect length for teenagers who enjoy intelligent horror with genuine scares. It has a strong, spunky, female lead, who, although tough on herself, is both engaging and a great girl to root for. Lukavics followed this debut with three other superb YA horror novels, but has not published for this age group since 2018. The ‘Queen of YA horror’ is solely missed. 

Gus Moreno – This Thing Between Us (2021)

Gus Moreno’s strange and beguiling debut novel This Thing Between Us knocked me for six, and fans of vague weird fiction where there are no clear explanations or answers will find this irresistible. Written in a peculiar style, the reader piggybacks on a long conversation, almost a confession, between narrator Thiago and his recently deceased wife Vera.

Wracked with guilt over the circumstances of her death, Thiago both reflects back upon their relationship whilst also telling the story in the present with him struggling to move on. Around this time, a supernatural presence manifests itself, which we realise might have been tracking the couple for some time. This is unsettling and off-beat stuff and if you are looking for easy answers, nothing is spelt out and is a more memorable reading experience because of its vagueness.

Even though This Thing Between Us is not a long novel. It crams much into its page length, with the first half setting the scene and the second seriously upping the ante, where things get pitch black. Do not think part two is simply twitching curtains and ambiguous shimmering shadows, hell no; blood spills and the dead rise. Part of the plot revolves around the couple buying “the world’s most advanced smart speaker” known as an Itza (obviously an upgrade of Amazon’s Alexa) and the strange occurrences which follow, with them repeatedly being delivered purchases they did not buy, followed by odd noises and scratches. 

This Thing Between Us is a bold and highly original horror novel built around the power of grief, guilt, isolation, loneliness and the entities which might feed on those feelings. When you get to the end, you may well ask yourself “what the f**k did I just read?” and then backtrack over the previous pages for missed clues you may or may not find. This is Moreno’s only novel to date, but in 2025 his five part comic When I Say My Vengeance Upon Thee is published. 

Adam Nevill – Banquet for the Damned (2004)

Banquet for the Damned is a fine debut and twenty years after its first release has lost none of its lustre, highlighting much of the style present in Nevill’s later better known work. Set entirely at the end of the summer season of wind-swept Saint Andrews, with the next batch of university students about to shortly arrive, the small Scottish coastal town oozes atmosphere and threat.

The story has several fascinating threads, Dante and Tom are visiting the town as Dante has been appointed research assistant to a largely forgotten occult writer, who works at the university. The two young men are heavy metal musicians who hope to record an album inspired by Professor Eliot Coldwell’s writing. Meanwhile, some students are being haunted by incredibly realistic night terrors, which might have connections to Coldwell, and are aided by Hart, an American anthropologist, who begins his own independent investigation. Scary dreams are soon followed by disappearances, a dodgy university coverup, with an exquisite supernatural mystery developing around these interconnected events. 

The influence of MR James and his mighty shadow lurks in the background of this superbly crafted horror novel and most certainly in ‘The Brown Man’ (possibly underused?) a supernatural being who foreshadows what lies ahead in later novels. A layered story quickly develops into a very clever modern tale of witchcraft and dodgy rituals, with nods of the ‘Great Beast’ himself, Aleister Crowley. Banquet of the Damned also examines male friendships, later revisited in The Ritual. Flick forward twenty years and Nevill’s output of novels is unrivalled in modern horror, delivering a back catalogue for the ages rivalling the greats who inspired him. 

Alison Rumfitt – Tell Me I’m Worthless (2021)

Tell Me I’m Worthless is as visceral and striking as Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, with a similar bleak mix of casual sex, rape, drug use and hopelessness with the state of the nation. If Rumfitt is to believed then Britain is broken, very few individuals are satisfied with their lot in life and is littered with characters who are not comfortable in their own skin or are medicated by drugs and alcohol. In this uncompromising bleak novel horror bubbles below the surface until one of the four main story strands introduces ‘The House’ with its own very distinctive presence, to call it a ‘haunted house’ would be a disservice.

The House is a living, breathing character which lurks in the background and exerts influence far beyond the boundaries of its garden and fences. The descriptions of the House, its origins and insidious connections to fascism were outstanding with the ripple effect extending to the other protagonists.

Main character Alice is a trans woman who medicates with drug and alcohol and is often on edge. Some of the edgiest scenes were developed around Alice doing very mundane stuff like walking or travelling on the bus, but there was always menace in the air and the possibility of a random insult, slur, or worse if a passer-by clocked she was trans. The story is built around a shared trauma Alice had with the two other main characters, Ila and Hannah, three years earlier in an encounter with the House.

The story then moves back and forwards over the two periods with the ups and downs of their relationship. Combined they show different aspects of the British queer scene in an unnamed city, taking in feminist politics and other topical subjects such as cancelling. Politics and horror can be strange bedfellows but Tell Me I’m Worthless captures a mood which many people will undoubtedly connect with in post-Brexit modern Britain. As time moves on there will undoubtedly be more horror fiction in which shine a light on trans issues with this novelsetting the bar very high as way of comparison. In 2023 Rumfitt followed this debut with Brainwyrms.

Scott Sigler – Earthcore (2001)

Scott Sigler’s 2001 debut Earthcore is hard to beat for sheer imagination and craziness in a tale of an unfortunate mining expedition which finds a barrel-load of trouble when deep underground in the search for priceless platinum. The group stumble upon something horribly nasty, and I’m not talking landslides as we head deep into monster territory. As debuts go, I think the author completely nailed the blueprint for the style of fiction he was to follow in future: a seamless mash-up of horror and science fiction which is irresistible and hugely addictive. 

There are few better page-turners that Earthcore, sure the characters are sketchy and shallow, but who cares, for this type of novel it works perfectly. The level of cartoon style violence is breath-taking, the excesses, the pulp science, the non-stop action as a group of scientists and mercenaries use new technology to dig three miles below the earth’s surface and get way more than they bargained for. Sequel Mount Fitz Roy finally appeared in 2021 and since this debut Sigler has written a host of superb novels, including the Infected trilogy and the Galactic Football League (GFL) series.  Uber fans has guest appearances in the GFL books, there is a certain Tony Jones in books three and five!

James Tyler Toothman – Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar  (2023)

Once in a while a book arrives like a bolt out of the blue and completely knocks you out. The majestic Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar, does exactly that. It is so captivating it is both tricky to describe and to nail down exactly why it means so much. It could also be argued it is disjointed and meandering, but has a charm which is impossible to resist, magical even.

Set in the vast Appalachian mountain range, the small mining town of Clockmaker, and surrounding forest areas, are so vividly described I felt I was sitting right there on Maw Maw’s front porch smoking a cigarette and drinking her Jim Beam whiskey. This book is a treasure trove of pitch perfect scenes, both large and small, which add to its overall charm littered throughout its 570-page length. You will need patience to get the most out of this magnum opus.

Even though the friendship of teenagers Priscilla and Joseph drive the book for most of the story, rarely have I seen a novel with such a living, breathing and such well-drawn supporting cast. Initially, Joseph and Priscilla are church going folks. Priscilla has a very abusive father and Joseph has a stable background but finds religion a bore. Together they roam the forests; Joseph hunts and Priscilla avoids her parents, both of which have alcohol problems and alternatively lives with her grandmother. Ultimately this magnificent book is a drama of friendship and family and what happens to a teenage girl after she finds a magical book and begins to teach herself witchcraft. 

Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liaris surely destined to become an oddball cult classic which deserves to find an audience, probably though word-of-mouth. A stone-cold masterpiece which is one of the most original and striking novels I have read in a long time. Both God and the Devil even make personal appearances, but it is the Devil who has the moves! I cannot wait to see what Toothman gives us next. 

Rob True – In the Shadow of the Phosphorous Dawn (2021)

In the Shadow of the Phosphorous Dawn refuses to follow any writing rule book, giving multiple snapshots of a broken drug user, drifting in and out of hallucinations, receiving and dishing out savage beatings in equal measures, whilst trying to solve a series of gruesome murders. Events open with Carl struggling to recover from the death of his brother and is attempting to leave behind an existence of drugs, petty crime and street life.

However, a series of brutal gangland killings which perplex both the police and the various lowlifes mean that Carl is sucked back into the scene. In his attempts to go clean, he has been working as a private investigator, with most of his income coming from using surveillance equipment to bug offices, homes and cars. His old boss Mick wants Carl to use his devices to listen in on rival gang chat and drug users to pick up potentially useful street intel on the murders all of which begins to mess with his head.

The plot is a brutal downward spiral involving pain, paranoia, and blackouts. You are unlikely to come across a raw and more visceral debut than In the Shadow of the Phosphorous Dawn with the reader piggybacking upon Carl’s journey into psychosis, with his seemingly endless supply of bugs and their nonsensical chatter and the toxic relationship he has with his on/off girlfriend Anna.

A murderer lurks in the background and as the plot blends elements of crime with psychedelic horror, paranoia comes tapping as shadow men lurk on the edges of Carl’s vision as he staggers further down the tunnel into darkness. Rob True has given us a debut which does not play by the literary rulebook and the end result is an intoxicating blend of genres and a stumble through both the crumbling inner-city landscapes and the mind of a broken man. This is Rob’s only novel to date. 

Matt Wesolowski – Six Stories (2016)

All the books in the series of Six Stories novels are written in the same style, are pure genius in their simplicity being the perfect blend of thriller and horror. True crime podcaster Scott King interviews six individuals who are in some way connected to an often-notorious cold case or murder whose discussions attempt to shed new light on the investigation. As the series has continued Scott’s podcast has grown in popularity and although the creator stays out of the spotlight media interest in him increases. 

There is also often an undiagnosed supernatural feel to the cases, but because he is not necessary trying to ‘solve’ a murder or mystery there are often enticing threads left hanging and not all questions are necessary answered.

For those of you enjoy your crime to be of the type of investigation Miss Marple might lead you may hate these books! But if you enjoy darker explorations which take the side roads, dark ripples into broken psyches, the opinions of bit-players or avenues not covered by the police then these books will blow you away and are totally gripping. As each novel develops the reader is totally invested in who the next ‘guest’ on the podcast might be. Since the Six Stories concluded in 2021 Wesolowski has written the novella  (Don’t) Call Mum. 

Kea Wilson – We Eat Our Own (2016)

We Eat Our Own is not strictly a horror novel it has much to offer genre fans, as well as those who prefer literary fiction. Whichever you prefer, prepare to be swept away by layers of sweaty paranoid horror and dark nights in the jungle. The premise should be familiar to any serious fan of horror: an Italian film director makes a horror film in the Colombian jungle.

This film features cannibals and shortly the reader realises that the structure of director Ugo Velluto’s nasty little film  adds a new element to the already jaded cannibal sub-genre of horror films, he is making a ‘film within a film’ which is clearly inspired by Cannibal Holocaust. Although the plot is revealed through multiple points of view, a struggling unnamed actor dominates the proceedings. Fresh out of acting school and desperate for work he accepts a ‘leading’ role in a film directed by an obscure Italian horror film director. 

I would highly recommend this beguiling and continually inventive literary take on the horror novel which I found it to be a breath of fresh air. For those of you who know nothing of the history of Cannibal Holocaust you may get a slightly different reading experience from this novel, I’m sure it will still be a good one though. I hope Kea Wilson’s publisher sent a complimentary copy to Ruggero Deodato, I sure would love to know what he made of his crazy namesake Ugo Velluto. This is Kea’s only novel, although she writes widely in the areas of arts and culture. 

Tony Jones

Praise for the YA Horror 400 almanac, written in 2024 by Tony Jones:

“The YA Horror 400 is such a good and constructive push for YA horror.” JEREMY DE QUIDT (YA author of The Wrong Train & The Toymaker)

“An amazing teen horror guide, with fabulous features like fear factor ratings and ‘If You Like This Try” recs. Perfect for librarians, teachers, and anyone who wants to live their best YA horror life” ANN FRAISTAT (YA author of What We Harvest & A Place for Vanishing)

“A must have for anyone looking to help connect younger readers to the best genre in the world. Expertly compiled by Tony Jones” PHIL HICKES (Middle Grade author of the Aveline Jones and Shadowhall Academy series)

“So excited that my books have been featured here. Teachers and librarians – this is the PERFECT resource for you!” LORIEN LAWRENCE (Middle Grade author of The Stitchers series)

“If you’ve ever wished there were an easily accessible almanac of YA horror, I’ve got great news, Tony Jones, who has been reviewing and supporting my work since I first started and is one of my biggest professional cheerleaders has released his YA Horror 400 almanac! I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to contribute to it, too. What a cool project! Go Tony!” AMY LUKAVICS (YA author of Daughters Unto Devils & The Ravenous)

“I want to alert English teachers and librarians to the most definitive resource I’ve ever seen highlighting the best YA horror novels since 2008. 400 of the best dark fiction for readers 9-15+ . Where do you go for advice yourself to know what to purchase? It’s all here. What do you give a middle-grade reader or teen with a taste for the darker side? This … and let them pick and choose their own! CLIFF McNish (YA author of Breathe & The Hunting Ground)

“Librarians! Bloggers! Readers! Educators! I am wildly pleased to see The Call on, and between, the covers of THE YA HORROR 400 by Tony Jones. Reviews of brilliant books, author interviews. Scares aplenty.” PEADAR Ó GUILÍN (YA horror/fantasy author of The Call duology)”

“Great news for teen horror fans! The YA Horror 400 is out! A massive horror almanac w/ fab features including fear factor ratings, articles, notes from authors and much more. Absolutely perfect for librarians, teachers and anyone who reads YA horror.” BRYONY PEARCE (YA author of Savage Island & Raising Hell)

“The YA Horror 400 is a fabulous resource for librarians, parents, and fans of horror kidlit.” Lora Senf (Bram Stoker Award winning author of The Blight Harbor series)

“I highly recommend the YA Horror 400: an almanac of 400 teen horror novel reviews published between 2008-2024 by Tony Jones, featuring reviews of the best YA and middle grade horror (including my own novel Channel Fear”. LISA RICHARDSON (YA author of Channel Fear)

“Teachers, librarians, readers… This brand new almanac from horror guru Tony Jones is all you need to navigate your way through YA spookiness, gore and thrills. SJ Wills (YA author of the Bite Risk series)

Further Reading

For fans of horror literature, The Ginger Nuts of Horror website is an essential destination that should not be overlooked. This platform offers a dedicated horror book review section that caters specifically to the needs of horror enthusiasts. With its unique blend of insightful critiques, expert recommendations, and a vibrant community, the site serves as a treasure trove for anyone seeking their next spine-chilling read.

One of the standout features of the horror book review section is its diversity. Readers can discover everything from classic horror novels to contemporary indie gems, ensuring that there’s something for everyone. Each review is thoughtfully penned, providing not just a summary but also a deep dive into the themes, writing style, and overall atmosphere of the works. This allows readers to gauge whether a particular book aligns with their preferences.

For those passionate about horror literature, checking out this section is a must!