8 Horror Books Coming Out in December That Will Chill You to the Bone
For many of us, this time of year is full of bundling up to mitigate the cold temperatures outside. I know I do! I buy hot chocolates just to wrap my hands around, slip hand warmers into my jacket pockets for the time spent waiting for the bus, and curl up under a heated blanket (or two) the minute I get home. I spend the winter months doing everything I can to avoid shivering.
But I do still need my horror fix even when I’m hibernating through the winter. I’m all for trimming a tree and wrapping some presents, but I want some blood and gore on TV while I do it. I want a killer Claus, a sadistic snowman, a dream of something less sweet than sugarplums dancing in my head. I want to shiver from fear, not cold, when the sky is dark and cloudy like this.
If you’re the same way and are on the hunt for some horror novels to read by the warm fire, you’re in luck! There are graphic novels, anthologies, and scares galore in this month’s releases. Here are eight new horror novels to make you shiver with something other than cold this December!
Holy Ghost Road by John Mantooth
When 15-year-old Forest witnesses her stepfather, Pastor Nesmith, doing something evil in the barn, she goes on the run from him and his followers to her grandmother’s house. On the way, she bumps into a lost man in the woods, Elijah, who’s also fleeing from something terrifying. Forest must dodge the pursuit of Nesmith and his henchmen who are desperate for talk of what they’re actually doing to stay inside the confines of their community.
The Gravity of Existence by Christina Sng
Poetry and horror come together in this new collection by Christina Sng. Full of short form poems like haiku and tanka, the collection touches on all of the monsters we know and love: ghosts, sirens, and other classic fairytales and myths. With sections of horror and dark science fiction, you’re sure to find a bite-sized scare in this new poetry collection.
Out of Aztlan by V. Castro
This new collection by V. Castro is full of stories of revenge from Aztlan, a mythical homeland of the Aztecs. In the pages you’ll find a goddess emerging from a lake to clean up the Earth, jellyfish mutating to take out beach visitors, and the pirate The Scorpion and her crew going head-to-head with corrupt royalty with the assistance of mermaids — and it’s all in the name of vengeance.
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen Edited by Ellen Datlow
Horror anthology icon Ellen Datlow is back again with the 14th volume of The Best Horror of the Year. Full of authors we know and love like Stephen Graham Jones, Mira Grant, Neil Gaiman, and many more, you’re sure to find something wonderfully terrifying inside.
Monstress Book Two by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
We’re back in the war between humans and Arcanics in this 500-page collection of Monstress volumes 4–6. Maika Halfwolf is in search of her past and must reckon with the monster inside. But answers and trust are hard to come by in the Known World on the brink of yet another war.
A History of Fear by Luke Dumas
When Grayson Hale arrives at the University of Edinburgh, determined to make a name for himself and desperate for the money to make it happen, he takes a ghostwriting job from an unnerving stranger. The book he’s asked to write, though, brings up the feeling that the Devil is after him. When he confesses to murdering his classmate, he claims the Devil made him do it. After he’s found hanged in his prison cell, law enforcement find a manuscript that may just hold the answers to his real motives.
Showtime by Ricky Ruszin
After college student Jordan’s grandmother is killed in a televised massacre, he’s left angry and grieving. When he discovers his grandparents’ TV has time travel powers, he leaps at the chance to save his beloved grandmother from her fate and also stop the perpetrator from ever enacting violence again. As it turns out, though, going back in time is easy, but returning might not be.
Mine: An Anthology of Body Autonomy Horror Edited by Roxie Voorhees and Nico Bell
Violations of body autonomy are at the forefront of Mine: An Anthology of Body Autonomy Horror edited by Roxie Voorhees and Nico Bell. The collection’s 16 stories explore what makes our bodies ours and the limits of control we have over these things we walk around in all day.
In the mood for more horror? Check out the new releases from last month for any you might have missed or these horror comics to get you through the end of the year!
