5 Scary New Books To Read for Spooky Season in 2026
Michelle is an award-winning journalist hailing from the deep woods of Upstate New York. She holds a B.A. in Writing from Syracuse University and a M.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Wilkes University. She's an avid traveler who loves nothing more than reading (or telling) a good story.
Horror and thriller stories are having a moment this year. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’ve all survived a pandemic, or that global events often feel stranger than fiction. Either way, there’s no shortage of new horror and thriller novels. However, finding a scary book without the horror tropes and cliché endings? Well, that’s a different story. To save you the frustration of reading a predictable book that’s hard to finish, here are the best scary page-turners released so far in 2026 —just in time for spooky season.
5 ‘Japanese Gothic’ by Kylie Lee Baker (April 2026)
What happens when an American college student in 2026 stumbles upon a time portal that catapults him directly into the year 1877? That’s exactly the question you’ll get an answer to in Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker, a terrifying horror book with supernatural and historical elements that keep you guessing until the end.
The main character, Lee Turner, disappears from school after a terrifying incident. Seeking refuge in his father’s rural country house in Japan, Lee begins encountering strange things in the home. One day, he accidentally makes contact with a young girl named Sen, who is a former resident of the house and was a samurai in training 149 years before present day.
What ensues is a tale of unraveling generational trauma, a quest for answers across multiple timelines, and an exploration of hard family truths (and the lies we tell ourselves to hide them).
4 'The Caretaker' by Marcus Kliewer (April 2026)
When Macy Mullins takes a three-day job as a caretaker on the Oregon coast, she thinks it’s to care for an elderly man. Easy, she thinks. Instead, the gig ends up being to care for the house itself — a role that pays extremely well, but comes with a set of strict rules, like shutting off the lights at the exact right time. This is the premise for The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer, one of the most disturbing books, which goes beyond the classic haunted house story.
Going beyond the tropes of ghosts and houses of horrors, this book explores themes like mental illness, grief, obsessive compulsive disorder, and family relationships. These concepts come alive in the relationship between Macy and her little sister, Jemma, who she’s had to care for since her father’s recent passing. Fans of The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides will especially enjoy this suspenseful, twisty novel. Plus, it received so much attention that it's already being adapted into a film starring Sydney Sweeney.
3 ‘Headlights’ by CJ Leede (June 2026)
Headlights follows FBI detective Daniel Stansfield, who is planning to retire before being asked to return to his hometown of Denver for one last investigation. Back in the frigid, urban landscape of the Mile High City, Daniel confronts his mother’s murder at the hands of his father years earlier while trying to track down a modern serial murderer.
Fans of body horror, psychological thriller books, and gruesome details will enjoy this book’s most terrifying detail: People are found walking along the side of the road wearing other people’s skin, with the strand of a separate stranger’s hair tied around their tongue. These people have no memory of what happened, making it even harder for Daniel to face the truth amid the shadows, flashbacks, and visions that plague his every waking hour.
Headlights by CJ Leede is a gory, tragic, and irresistible read.
2 ‘Helpless’ by Jessica Knoll (July 2026)
Helpless by Jessica Knoll is a new take on a domestic feminist thriller that begins with Hollywood screenwriter Faye Heron reluctantly returning to Upstate New York for the funeral of her beloved college professor, PT. There, Faye reunites with her ex-boyfriend, Henry, and best male friend, Campbell.
Soon after that, Faye finds herself in The Adirondacks, tangled in a dangerous and unexpected situation with both men — who are also PT’s nephews — and the horrible secret they’ve been hiding.
Anyone who enjoyed Knoll’s previous books, Luckiest Girl Alive, which was adapted into a movie, and Bright Young Women, will love this page-turner. Beware, though: Helpless is spicy. Half toxic romance, half wilderness thriller, this novel is not for anyone who shies away from explicit details of intimate acts, including murder.
1 ‘Molka’ by Monika Kim (February 2026)
Monika Kim’s latest novel, Molka, is inspired by the very real South Korean concept of hiding cameras inside someone else’s home to spy on them. The novel is primarily about a woman, Dahye, who faces a series of privacy invasions that threaten her sense of safety.
Molka’s point is to demonstrate the destructive effects of misogyny and how far a woman can go to seek revenge and reclaim her life. Readers who enjoyed feminist thrillers such as The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood and even The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood will enjoy this fresh, modern take on voyeurism in the digital age. In some ways, Molka should be science fiction, but it mimics real life in too many unsettling ways.
Whether you're in the mood for a non-cliché haunted house story like The Caretaker or you're eager to delve deep into a sickening romance like that depicted in Helpless, these books are sure to keep you scared until the sun comes up.
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