no animals harmed in the making of this horror

A collection of horror books without animal death/cruelty since it is prevalent in the genre! These books will avoid graphic scenes with animals and cruelty. Animal bones may be present, let me know if you need to know which ones. Suggestions welcome and if I am mistaken about the content let me know and I will remove!

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created by makiki

last updated July, 2026

22 books

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From Below

Darcy Coates

Hungerstone

Kat Dunn

The Sacrifice

Rin Chupeco

The Book Eaters

Sunyi Dean

A Head Full of Ghosts

Paul Tremblay

Hell Followed With Us

Andrew Joseph White

The Castle of Otranto

Horace Walpole

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Shirley Jackson

The Yellow Wall-Paper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson

A House with Good Bones

T. Kingfisher

The Black Lord

Colin Hinckley

The October Film Haunt

Michael Wehunt

Carmilla

J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Moon of the Crusted Snow (Moon, #1)

Waubgeshig Rice

Root Rot

Saskia Nislow

Middle of the Night

Riley Sager

Killer on the Road / The Babysitter Lives

Stephen Graham Jones

The Willows

Algernon Blackwood

The Good Son

You-Jeong Jeong

The Hollow Places

T. Kingfisher

Annihilation

Jeff VanderMeer

Comments

makikiOP

Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives is a 2-in-1 book, I cannot guarantee that Killer on the Road is safe. The Babysitter Lives doesn't involve animals (unless you include spiders) as far as I remember!

moski

oh i love this!!! what a helpful resource

makikiOP

I was inspired by thebogwitch's post in the pagebound club!! I had a long comment of suggestions and figured I had enough books to make a list ☺️

thebogwitch

This is so cool - thank you for creating this list!!!!! ❤

makikiOP

No problem!! It's so fun and my first list!

avidreadergeekgirl

Thank you! I'm with thebogwitch on it being one reason I avoid horror.

makikiOP

Totally! It's such a big part of horror BUT it doesn't have to be!!

Smarzipan

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Edited

Love this list! I have a few suggestions that I believe are animal cruelty free, at least I don’t recall any. But anyone feel free to correct me if not.

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. Though it is definitely more fantasy horror.
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay.

makikiOP

oh yes The Book Eaters! I'll add it; I want this list to have a bunch of different types of horror so that there is a decent selection! I've never read A Head Full of Ghosts but I'll add to the list and my tbr 👀

haharuko

Loved the variety of authors 👀💕

makikiOP

My goal is variety!! I'm trying to get as many types of horror as possible! I might add some manga as well

curiousmoth

i love this list!! Some very interesting titles in here that I'll be sure to check out

makikiOP

I hope you enjoy!!

Nadiiia

The Sacrifice by Rin Chupeco would be a good fit for this! The dog has a great time

makikiOP

Oh cool! I will add it and also check it out myself 😺😺

makikiOP

Following up to say I am almost done The Sacrifice and you were not kidding the dog has a BLAST 😂😂😂

Nadiiia

ah i love that! i think i saw a forum post from you about it hehe. he's truly living his best life bahaha

makikiOP

Yeah for real! We need more horror books where the animals/pets are in a totally different genre 😂

Nadiiia

YES! it was so fun

Nadiiia

oh! while i'm here, Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher also has a dog who is unharmed by the horrors! he's not having a blast like Askal is, but he's chilling happily.