The Best Brand-New Horror Reads for 2024
The Must-Read List of the Year's Scariest Stories from Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone’s Must-Read Picks for the Year’s Scariest Stories
In 2024, horror literature is doing well because authors are pushing the boundaries, combining genres, and creating new nightmares that will keep readers up until midnight. This year's lineup includes everything from folk horror to cosmic dread and supernatural hauntings to psychological thrillers. Here are Rolling Stone’s picks for the best new horror books of 2024—each one guaranteed to send chills down your spine.
1. Dan Simmons' The Black River Orphan is a book. Release
Date: March 2024
Why You Should Read It: The legendary author of The Terror returns with a chilling historical horror novel set in 19th-century New England. When a boy is found wandering near a cursed river with no memory of his past, a small town’s dark secrets begin to unravel. Simmons successfully combines visceral terror, gothic atmosphere, and folklore. Perfect for fans of: The Terror, The Witch, slow-burn gothic horror.
2. Andy Davidson's The Hollow Kind Release Date: April 2024
Why You Should Read It: Davidson delivers another Southern Gothic nightmare following his critically acclaimed The Boatman's Daughter. A family inherits a decaying estate, only to discover that the land itself is alive—and hungry. With lush prose and relentless dread, this is one of 2024’s most unsettling reads.
Ideal for fans of folk horror, The VVitch, and House of Leaves. 3. Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine
Release Date: February 2024
Why You Should Read It: This novel about a pandemic of horror has a terrifying twist: people who make eye contact go violently insane. Moraine’s claustrophobic, psychological thriller explores isolation, paranoia, and the fragility of the human mind.
Perfect for fans of: Bird Box, The Girl With All the Gifts, apocalyptic horror.
4. The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
June 2024 is the release date. Why You Should Read It: Golden, the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Road of Bones, crafts a terrifying haunted house story. An American couple moves into a cheap home in Italy, only to learn why the locals avoid it. A perfect blend of folk horror and classic ghost story tropes.
Perfect for fans of: The Haunting of Hill House, The Ruins, eerie slow-burn horror.
5. Whalefall by Daniel Kraus (Now in Paperback with New Bonus Content)
Release Date: July 2024
Why You Should Read It: Originally released in 2023, Kraus’s Whalefall—about a diver swallowed by a whale—gains new life with expanded content. Part survival thriller, part cosmic horror, this is 127 Hours meets Moby-Dick with a terrifying twist.
Perfect for fans of: The Deep, Annihilation, survival horror.
6. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Release Date: October 2024
Why You Should Read It: The queen of Black horror returns with a chilling tale set in a haunted reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Due blends historical horror with supernatural terror, creating a story that’s as heartbreaking as it is terrifying.
Perfect for fans of: Beloved, The Good House, socially conscious horror.
7. The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert
Release Date: August 2024
Why You Should Read It: A bestselling horror novelist becomes the prime suspect in a series of murders that mirror his books. Markert’s meta-horror thriller is a love letter to Stephen King fans, packed with twists and relentless suspense.
Perfect for fans of: Misery, The Dark Half, psychological horror.
8. The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey
Release Date: September 2024
Why You Should Read It: A wild, bloody urban fantasy-horror hybrid about a burnout demon hunter in New York City. Khaw and Kadrey deliver a fast-paced, grotesque, and darkly hilarious ride.
Perfect for fans of: John Dies at the End, Sandman Slim, splatterpunk.
9. The Paleontologist by Daryl Gregory
May 2024 is the release date. Why You Should Read It: A scientist returns to a cursed natural history museum where his sister disappeared years earlier. Gregory blends dinosaur lore with supernatural horror in a way that’s both smart and terrifying.
Perfect for fans of: Jurassic Park meets The Relic, scientific horror.
10. The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
Release Date: March 2024
Why You Should Read It: Three women who survived a neighborhood-wide haunting must return to uncover the truth. Kiste’s lyrical, eerie prose makes this ghost story unforgettable.
Perfect for fans of: The Last House on Needless Street, Shirley Jackson.
Final Thoughts: 2024 Is a Killer Year for Horror
Whether you’re into slow-burn gothic tales, pulse-pounding thrillers, or surreal cosmic horror, 2024 has a nightmare waiting for you. These books prove that horror literature is as inventive and terrifying as ever.
Which one will you read first? Let us know in the comments—if you dare.
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