Recs if you like Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird...

are you sick of being recommended stephen king when you ask for a horror novel? have you picked up a book expected to be scared, but the scariest thing about it was a woman being needlessly tormented and gaslit? have you read 4627473 books about a man in a haunted house and need something different?

if so, this list is for you :)

a masterlist of horror by anyone who isn't a straight cis white man, started in 2022 and brought to pb in 2026.

Horror books written by Latin American authors.

This list was a winner of the Q1 2026 Community Voting event. To participate in the Side Quest, please follow the link pinned in the comments.

I am planning on keeping this list alive and will be adding more recommendations as I find them. Thank you everyone for nominating and voting for the list to be made into a Side Quest!

Shorter books (under 200 pages) that are part of at least one quest. Many are also in the public domain, making them easily accessible when you want to grind for that next badge.

Horror novellas under 200 pgs. Bite size scary reads for spooky season. These span the horror spectrum from psychological horror to gory, body horror to gothic ghosties and more. Let me know what else I should add!

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that go past the July start date and match at least one of these title prompts: Periodic Table, Familial Terms, Rainbow of Words (also Joseph's coat), Numerical Titles, Titular Counting 5+, Pun in the Title, and First & Last Name in the Title. Recommendations welcome!

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that I think matches at least one of these cover prompts: craft, food, motion, biomes/landscapes, animals, weather.

I can't be the only one who want to remember all the books without jumping around in a video, right?

Let's get weird!! 💫

wave em, shake em, jazz hands-em

always accepting suggestions for books with hands on the cover

From Patagonia to the Caribbean.

Anthologies of short stories in the horror or speculative fiction genre! Tales will be spooky, thrilling, and maybe more than a little weird!

Short horror is very effective and there are so many collections to explore.

Book ideas for the ‘Rainbow of Words’ - Books with colours in the title. I know that not all these colours are in the challenge but I’m down the rabbit hole now okay and I’m not leaving you can’t make me!!!

Includes: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Jade, Blue, Purple, Violet, Black, White, Brown, Gold, Silver, Rose & Pink

plus some french, spanish & german titles for colours too

A list of books from A-Z. I tried to include various genres to appeal to a wide array of readers. I wanted this to be a good reference list for anyone doing an alphabet reading challenge or anyone just looking for a new book to read!

Birds on the cover. Why do they all creep me out so much? Extra points if they’re weird/creepy.

Please feel free to add your suggestions/recommendations!

Short story collections with strange elements, scifi/fantasy, or magical realism to leave you unsettled and wanting more.. or maybe just wanting to get away

Because who doesn’t love birds?? Fiction and non-fiction books all featuring birds prominently on the cover. This is what I spend my time thinking about 😭

Spanish is my first language and I thought I'd compile a list of interesting books that were originally written in Spanish.

I have read a bunch of these, but not all of them!

And as always if you have any recs please feel free to comment them.

Horror books with black covers!