Recs if you like The Caretaker...

books that started as nosleep threads or are by nosleep authors, for those of us who read borrasca as a teenager and didn’t sleep for a week.

books that fracture, remake, and defy the rules of time, space, memory, and idea.

was curious, so did some research and found loads and loads!!! happy reading, folks!

A genre-inclusive and diverse list of horror releases coming in 2026. If I missed any or you have suggestions, please let me know. I will update periodically as new books are announced and release dates are solidified.

Source for a lot of the data for this list came from readjumpscares.com, which is a website you should absolutely check out. I’m sure data will come from other places along the way, as well.

| 2026 | verity: october 2 sense & sensibility: october 16 sunrise on the reaping: november 20 dune messiah: december 18

| 2027 | children of blood & bone: january 15 the nightingale: february 12 beach read: may 7

| 2028 | cinder: november 3

This includes book that have either mystery or thrillers as a primary or secondary genre. If you have recommendations to add please comment and I'll happily add them 💕

books with covers that look like another

Every single Aardvark Book Club book pick since its inception. Updated monthly!

covers composed of concentric circles

the house is haunted… or maybe not? but there are voices coming from the walls and bodies in the floorboards… or aren’t there? who knows!

Books that are very creepypasta-esque or started out as a creepypasta story

it's not a haunted house, it's a haunted HOME. if you enjoyed monster house as a kid or, like me, still enjoy it as an adult, here are some books about homes that aren't so cozy! feel free to give your own recs to add

All the 2026 Aardvark book club picks

Horror books with green covers!

horror novels published in canada with a particular emphasis on Indigenous authors and indie press publications! I'm currently in a publishing program learning about how in danger the canadian publishing industry is and how rarely book reading in canada actually highlights our own authors so one could say this list is a cope and an attempt to add that to ways i'm diversifying my reading. obv disclaimer that canada is. yikes. but this is in the context of mainly american books being platformed

these horror books are safe for tenderhearted cat lovers— they either feature no cats to worry about, cats that remain safe throughout the entirety of the story, or cats who even though endangered (and possibly even hurt), are confirmed to survive and make it to the end of the book with at least one of their nine lives in tact! 😸

this list is cat-specific! there is no guaranteed safety of any other animals in these books. recommendations 100% welcome!

Books that have been made into a TV series or Movie

My recommended horror books that you might want to pick up and read around the dead of night.

For those of us who celebrate spooky season all year long and need some newer recs in between. Especially adding whatever has given me the heebies. Not all books are directly scary as much as skin crawling or strange! I tend to seek a few horror/thriller books that have very little reviews, excited to add them here once I have read them.