20 Horror Books for People Who Don’t Like Horror

This YA horror novel is a twist on the Frankenstein motif. Lady Hazel Sinnet is determined to be a surgeon however is rejected from anatomy programs because of her intercourse. With the assistance of her new good friend, Jack, a black-market corpse vendor, Hazel is decided to cross her medical exams. Hazel and Jack quickly uncover that one thing far worse than anatomy courses is occurring contained in the lecture corridor. This guide has simply sufficient ugly particulars to maintain you in your toes, paired with journey and romance.

Before The Hunger Games, there was Battle Royale. A category of junior excessive college students are left on an island and compelled to kill each other till just one scholar survives. Dark, violent, and allegorical, this 1999 traditional is an exploration of psychology and worry. 

First-date jitters flip to dread when James and Amelia discover a whole dwelling on the backside of a secret lake. What else are they speculated to do however go exploring? This novella is a good stepping stone into horror, with unsettling eeriness and unanswered questions. 

These macabre tales of retribution are mild on the scares, heavy on the jealousy and uncanniness. The first story contains a author that strikes into an empty house, solely to find that her new landlady murdered her husband. When the landlady’s stepson begins to share bizarre tales from his stepmother, the author is additional unsettled. In one other story, a surgeon meets a lady together with her coronary heart exterior of her physique and vows to restore it, however is detained by a person with uncommon needs. These 11 tales join and drift aside, leaving spidery trails behind them.

If you’re keen on imaginative settings and graphic design, you’ll love this unsettling guide. There’s one thing taking place on the Orsk furnishings retailer in Ohio: issues going lacking, furnishings smashed to bits, and no safety footage to determine it out. Three workers volunteer to work the evening shift, however the reality is way worse than they may have imagined. Part parody, half social commentary, this guide is a contemporary tackle the haunted home story. 

High college was already a recreation of survival for Jake, however his capability to see the useless makes attending to class harder. When Jake meets Sawyer, an offended ghost with harmful unfinished enterprise, Jake turns into a shifting goal. This paranormal YA novel addresses severe subjects, paired with just a few good frights. 

If true crime is extra your factor, then this fictionalized model of the legendary Lizzie Borden case is likely to be extra interesting to you. Schmidt brings readers into the intimate, violent Borden family with lurid particulars and ugly, sweltering prose.

The first in an alternate historical past duology, this guide’s scariest components don’t have anything to do with the zombies plaguing the nation. Trained to combat the zombies from childhood, Jane is determined to return dwelling. Jane’s plans are derailed when she and her classmate Kate are taken to a distant, harmful neighborhood. Their combat is simply starting.

This novel is made from two converging narratives that can draw you in and fill you with creeping dread. When three associates start their renovation challenge within the distant Icelandic forest, they quickly start to really feel uneasy. As issues get stranger, they notice there is no such thing as a straightforward escape from no matter is bothering them. In city, a physician is investigating the loss of life of a lady when he makes an unnerving discovery. Switching forwards and backwards between storylines, this guide is tense and fast-paced. 

After a private tragedy, Angela returns to her beloved Grandmother’s Good House, hoping for solutions. As Angela digs into her personal previous, she uncovers surprising occasions from the city’s previous — may they be linked to the home? To heal herself and her household, Angela has to search out the reality concerning the Good House, earlier than it’s too late. 

This guide is ideal for anybody who needs to attempt only a style of horror. After Mila ages out of the foster system, she takes a job at a secluded farm on the California Coast. In the fog, ghosts dance and play, because the farm’s younger residents grieve and heal collectively. 

As the one two Black women of their neighborhood, Cherish and Farrah had been drawn to one another from the start. When Farrah’s household is confronted with arduous occasions, she takes refuge with Cherish’s a lot wealthier household. Something is effervescent beneath the pristine floor, although, and Farrah’s dropping management.  

For emotions of unease with none monsters or gore, this twin timeline novel seems like a Jane Eyre retelling meets a Christie whodunit. In 1988, Beth is distributed to reside at Raven Hall and turns into quick associates with Nina. Beth feels welcome and glad, till the household asks her to do the unthinkable. Thirty years later, actress Sadie Langton is employed to play a celebration visitor for an uncommon recreation at Raven Hall. When the sport takes a darkish flip, Sadie decides to uncover the reality about her host. 

The anonymous protagonist of this darkish modern novel abandons a promising future as a pianist in favor of working in a high-end spa. She turns into more and more preoccupied with the spa’s sinister aesthetics, vowing something for the subsequent remedy, the subsequent beautifier. This guide grapples with obsession, assimilation, and manipulation.

This is the novel I like to recommend to individuals who need to attempt King’s horror, however don’t need monsters or bounce scares. It’s easy: preserve strolling, keep alive. One hundred boys compete yearly for the prize of a lifetime. This 12 months, Ray goes to win. Peppered with humor and moments of hope, this guide is an train (ha) of rising nervousness and despair.

After a cross-country transfer and the delivery of her third youngster, Alejandra is scuffling with main depressive episodes. When she begins to see visions of the Mexican people demon, La Llorona, Alejandra worries that she is going to succumb to the identical destiny of drowning her kids. To save herself and her kids, Alejandra digs into her household historical past, wanting for clues on the way to finish the curse. Folkloric and highly effective, this guide focuses on Alejandra’s private journey in energy.

This German traditional is actually gory, however it’s additionally a lush, sensorial fairy story. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born within the slums of 18^th century Paris with a rare sense of odor. He begins his journey as an apprentice perfumer to distill uncommon smells: brass, wooden, rotting meals. Grenouille’s truest obsession is the odor of 1 younger girl. To excellent her scent, he’ll cease at nothing. 

Somewhere alongside the U.S.-Mexico border, ghosts, gods, and spirits search vengeance and justice. This mosaic novel is a number of tales as one, with plots crossing each other within the center. Iglesias makes use of components of horror, noir, and crime fiction to create one beautiful novel. 

Vera’s household is difficult: her estranged mom is dying and her father was a serial killer. When Vera returns dwelling to go to, she finds the house is being taken aside by a wierd artist residing within the visitor home. Disturbing notes start to look all around the home, however the artist claims he isn’t writing them. Unsettling and claustrophobic, you’ll need to uncover the reality with Vera. 

This YA fairy story retelling is all vibes, however decrease stakes. Annaleigh and her sisters reside in Highmoor Manor, locked away to maintain them protected after their 4 eldest sisters tragically handed away. Each evening, as Annaleigh receives ominous visions, her sisters escape to attend ghostly, glittering dances. Determined to maintain herself and her sisters protected, Annaleigh will do something to interrupt the curse plaguing her household.