11 Best Holiday Horror Books Because ‘Tis the Season to Shiver.
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Best Holiday Horror Books Because ‘Tis the Season to Shiver.
Hello, my Spookies!
The Holiday season is rolling around, begins the time of year filled with decorating, family gatherings and gift giving. It’s the time of year when we cozy up inside next to the fire place with those we love the most.
Well, that’s what the Holiday season is for most people, anyways.
But not for me.
For me, the Holiday season wouldn’t be as fun without a few chilling stories that’ll make you want to check under the bed before you sleep read in the dark of the night.
If you’re anything like me, the long, cold, and dark nights of winter make you want to curl up with a bone-chilling book - and some mulled wine.
And that’s exactly what you'll find in this handpicked list of delicious Horror Books that take place during the holiday season or at the very least, during winter time.
Now beware, these aren’t your typical feel-good holiday tales; they’re the kind that make your heart beat faster and have you peeking over your shoulder. Think less ho-ho-ho and more spine-tingling ‘oh no!’
If you’re the type who likes your cocoa with a side of goosebumps, this list is tailor-made for you.
Whether you're a horror aficionado or just starting to dip your toes into the chilling waters of spooky reads, these books promise to add that extra thrill to your festivities—a little something that might just have you leaving the lights on at night.
So, snuggle up, get cozy, and let these books infuse your holiday season with a touch of the unexpected.
After all, what's a holiday without a bit of a fright, right?
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What would this list be if it didn’t start with the book that is Christmas?
Merry Christmas, everyone!
“Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug!”
With those famous words unfolds a tale that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas. Whether we read it aloud with our family and friends or open the pages on a chill winter evening to savor the story in solitude, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a very special holiday experience.
It is the one book that every year will warm our hearts with favorite memories of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future—and will remind us with laughter and tears that the true Christmas spirit comes from giving with love.
Alright, now that this is done. On to the real spooky books.
Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.
Ten years ago on Christmas Eve, Silas Herzinger donned a Santa suit and took an axe to 15 members of his extended family.
Luke Herzinger, his youngest son, was the sole survivor of the infamous Herzinger Family Massacre.
Now, after a decade away, a despondent and suicidal Luke has come home to face his past and battle the evil that still resides in the old family home on Haunted Hill.
Victoria McQueen has an uncanny knack for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. When she rides her bicycle over the rickety old covered bridge in the woods near her house, she always emerges in the places she needs to be.
Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own. He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland. The journey across the highway of Charlie's twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor.
Then comes the day when Vic goes looking for trouble...and finds her way to Charlie. That was a lifetime ago. Now, the only kid ever to escape Charlie's evil is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx hasn't stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. On the road again, he won't slow down until he's taken his revenge. He's after something very special—something Vic can never replace.
As a life-and-death battle of wills builds, Vic McQueen prepares to destroy Charlie once and for all—or die trying.
Lou Reilly grew up in a strict, oppressive environment, raised by zealous religious parents who merely wanted to protect him from the sinners of the world. Sheltered to the point of isolation, Lou is unprepared to fend for himself when his parents pass away. Bullied and tormented at his new place of employment, Lou starts suspecting that his parents were right to shield him from such harsh and hateful people. Just as Lou begins to befriend a colleague who vows to help improve his life, he is put to the ultimate test of faith. All seems hopeless. But he won’t let the sinners win. He won’t burn in hell as his parents have warned. Lou will make things right…. Warning: For mature readers (18+) only.
There are monsters in this world.
And they used to be us.
Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible.
Post-infection Chicago. Christmas.
Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred.
Emily, a woman haunted by her past (and a really strong female protagonist), only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse.
This emotional horror novel comes from two of horror’s freshest voices, and puts a new spin on an eternal topic: the undead. In the spirit of George A Romero meets Jack Ketchum, Where the Dead Go to Die it is an unforgettable epilogue to the zombie genre, one that will leave you shaken and questioning right from wrong…even when it’s the only right left.
It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood.
This Christmas Horror novel is perfect for fans of grief horror, emotional reads, and psycholocial suspense thrillers.
Following her acclaimed debut Little Darlings, Melanie Golding's newest folkloric suspense is a spine-tingling twist on Celtic mythology.
One dark December night, in a small seaside town, a little girl is found abandoned. When her mother finally arrives, authorities release the pair, believing it to be an innocent case of a toddler running off.
Gregor, a seemingly single man, is found bludgeoned and left for dead in his apartment, but the discovery of children's toys raises more questions than answers.
Every night, Ruby gazes into Gregor’s apartment, leading to the discovery of his secret family: his unusually silent daughter and his mentally unstable wife, Constance, who insists that she is descended from the mythological Selkies. She begs Ruby to aid in finding the sealskin that Gregor has hidden from her, making it impossible to return to her people.
DS Joanna Harper's investigation into Gregor’s assault leads her to CCTV footage of the mother-daughter pair from town. Harper realizes she knows the woman almost as well as she knows herself: it's her estranged daughter, Ruby. No matter the depth of Ruby’s involvement, she knows she will choose her daughter over her career.
London 1905—It begins when a toymaker comes bearing a unique Christmas gift for his favorite niece, Olivia—a handsomely carved nutcracker doll. Anne, Olivia’s young governess, believes that a girl of fourteen is much too old for toys.
Olivia, however, refuses to grow up. She cares for the dolls as if they are dear friends. They speak to her. Anne merely humors the girl’s pleasures. She has never had much use for fantasy. Yet not even Anne can deny the curse.
At the stroke of midnight, Anne is immersed in the horrific world of her unstable charge when a bite from a mouse makes her the size of a doll. She must brave a world of mangled and demented toys that have come to life. Each has his own agenda—the most unrelenting of which is the mysterious Nutcracker, who becomes Anne’s only sane ally.
There is war in the lower levels of the Ellington house between the rodents and the toys, yet Anne's only concern is getting Olivia and herself back to their own world before they are stuck in this twisted reality forever, or worse: become subjected to the terrifying Rat King. The Nutcracker Bleeds is a mature, unusual, and horrific retelling of the classic Nutcracker story.
Despite having taken the children and leaving him - his wife was coming over, with the kids, for Christmas Day. Not because she wanted to but, rather, a vague attempt of keeping things 'normal' for the children. What she doesn't know, though, is that her new boyfriend is there too..... in pieces. Some of him wrapped up, ready for her to open, under the Christmas Tree and another, sizeable, chunk of him slowly cooking in the oven - ready to be dished up with a good portion of roast potatoes.
Who knows - she may never discover the shocking truth of what her husband's done either and, more importantly, what he wants to do; kill her and cut her head off so he can stick it on top of the Christmas Tree in place of the usual Angel...
YOU decide the outcome. YOU choose the story YOU want to read.
With seventeen premature endings, an ultimate 'revenge' ending and an ultimate 'happy' ending - there are numerous ways to shape this evolving story... just, for their sake, try and keep the kids out of harm's way. This is between their parents. Keep it like that.
Similar to the old-style 'choose your own adventure' books, this is the first of it's kind from Matt Shaw ('Happy Ever After' Trilogy and the '9 Months' Trilogy). Each book segment ending with a series of sentences allowing you to choose how the characters progress within the story. Their fate is in your hands as you play God.
Re-live your childhood experiences of playing 'interactive' books but remember - this is NOT for children!!!!
From USA Today Bestseller L.A. Detwiler comes a disturbing paranormal horror novel that will bring hell to the holidays and chilling fear to the festivities.
Some Christmas ornaments should be left in the attic.
When Candace Mills, 26, heads home for the holidays to visit her mother and ailing grandmother, she's expecting a peaceful, dull Christmas. She has no idea, though, that a single Christmas ornament is about to send her into a whirling chasm of evil.
It starts with the Christmas bell, scratched and worn in one of Grandma Anne's boxes in the attic. Once they put it on the tree, Grandma Anne starts to say terrifying things and act strangely. Candace and her mother assume it's her dementia talking—until they start to have dangerous encounters with a fiendish being.
As the secrets of Anne's past involving her twin sister rise to the surface, the women face sinister horrors from a dark force looking for revenge. Will any of them be able to survive, or will they fall prey to the malevolent secret Grandma Anne is harboring from her past?
Winter isn’t coming…it’s already here, and with it comes a horror no door can keep out.
It’s there in the yard, in the faces of the snowmen a young boy doesn’t remember building.
It’s in the oddly empty streets below Santa Claus’s crumbling sleigh.
It’s in the unnatural movement of the snow that suffocates a widower’s town, and in the cold eyes of a lonely man’s estranged children.
Here, there is no holiday cheer, only spine-chilling fear, in the DEAD OF WINTER.
Featuring seven stories, an introduction by the author, and a list of recommended books for the winter season.
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