The Best Horror of 2025 for Adults | Multnomah County LibraryLike this list

23 items

• Stag Dance

  a Novel & Stories

  Peters, Torrey,

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  A collection of mostly prior-self published works, all focussing on various anxieties of trans experience. Stag Dance, the new work, charts how gender norms are easily transgressed as a joke, then punished when the transgression becomes real. -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Is My Body

  King-Miller, Lindsay,

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  Goofy, campy homages to classic horror; complicated religious and family trauma; gruesome murders, demon possession, and body horror; and a messy lesbian will-they won't-they romance: this book does it all, and does it well. I had fun the whole time!

• The Ones Who Got Away

  Stories

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

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  I loved Never Whistle at Night, and found this to be a great book in a similar style of short stories, Indigenous author and slightly spooky themes - it's a little scarier than NWN though! -Sharon P.

• Rose/House

  Martine, Arkady,

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  Amazingly realized, the story of a house AI built for just one man's quirks, and how that inhuman intelligence reacts after his death, is a gripping and intense mystery greater than the murder that incites it. - Chloe S.

• Hole in the Sky

  a Novel

  Wilson, Daniel H. (Daniel Howard), 1978-

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  This suspenseful page-turner manages to be at once chilling, touching, and even phantasmagoric at times. There's gore, but there's also a family story - you get it all! - Erika B.

• Of Monsters and Mainframes

  Truelove, Barbara,

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  Totally worth all the sleep I lost staying up to read this book! Classic horror movie monsters + snarky and vulnerable spaceship AI +sweet relationship development +swashbuckling adventure, all wrapped in a creepy, funny, action-packed package. -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

  Schwab, Victoria,

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  A sweeping and heart-wrenching tale. I love a vampire story, and this one toes the line well between honoring previously established lore and creating its own. - Jessica G.

• Play Nice

  Harrison, Rachel, 1989-

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  What’s worse… fixing up your family’s haunted house or having no one believe you that it’s haunted? The chapters featuring a book written about the house were clever. - Liza D.

• Hunger's Bite

  Robin, Taylor, 1994-

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  Under its new management of the mysterious Mr. Honeycutt, something dark is the heart of worsening conditions on the SS Lark. Class divisions, vampire detectives, and a not-quite-love triangle make for a compelling read. - Dan J.

• Dengue Boy

  a Novel

  Nieva, Michel, 1988-

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  Wild, weird, wonderful and yet a chillingly plausible journey into the future alongside a young human-mosquito hybrid. - Berenice C.

• Midnight Timetable

  a Novel in Ghost Stories

  정 보라, 1976-

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  Eerie and offbeat. Seven stories intertwine, slowly revealing more about an institute that houses haunted objects… and even sheep! - Erika B

• The Devils

  Abercrombie, Joe,

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  I'm not usually a fan of horror but this fantasy novel skirts the line. The villains salvage if not quite save the day. Not for the faint of heart or delicate of stomach but surprisingly funny in a bad and wrong way. - Heidi S.

• But Not Too Bold

  Pueyo, H.,

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  I'm a wimp about horror but this one is good! Not for arachnophobes! - Heidi S.

• House of Rayne

  Laroux, Harley,

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  This is the sapphic gothic horrormance of my dreams… or is it my nightmares? I stayed up way too late reading and couldn’t sleep after that climactic ending! - Liza d.

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

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  Bloody & Mysterious; A slow-building haunting in a telescope of a story - Leo B.

• Hellions

  Stories

  Elliott, Julia, 1968-

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  Swampy, squelchy, and surreal tales of wild children and witchy women. Offbeat, with touches of humor and nostalgia. - Erika B.

• Slayers of Old

  Hines, Jim C.,

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  3 aging heroes step back up to save the day. Again. - Heidi S.

• You Weren't Meant to Be Human

  White, Andrew Joseph,

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  A most Personal sort of horror; the worms are really the least of it - Leo B.

• The Knight and the Moth

  Gillig, Rachel,

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  Sybil unravels her upbringing and traditions all the while being accompanied by Rodrick, a rude and handsome knight. The closer she gets to answers of her past the more darkness she uncovers. -Ash W.

• Coffin Moon

  a Novel

  Rosson, Keith (Novelist),

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  The perfect book for Halloween time or any spooky season. Set in 1970s Portland, this vampire novel is filled with action, dread, and nostalgia, sometimes all at once. - Kyle T.