Happy 2025 ya’ll! We made it by the skin of our teeth, but we made it.

It was a great reading year for me, I made a conscious effort to replace my phone screen time and doom scrolling with reading. I started the year off averaging 4 hours a day, and as of the last week of December, I was averaging 1 and a half hours a day. That also lead to me reading 235 books across 77,301 pages.

I’ve posted my top 24 reads of 2024 over on my Instagram, but I wanted to share my top 10 horror genre reads specifically. Not all of these came out in 2024, but were read by me in the year.

Let’s jump in!

Coming in at number 10 is What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman. I’m a massive Chapman fan and have loved every book he’s put out. This one was no different. What I loved about this one though is that it felt more fantastical and dreamy than his previous novels, while still being really terrifying.

Madi is returning to her hometown with her 17 year old daughter with nothing to her name. She sets up a palm reading business at the farmers market to get by. Madi runs into Henry, a reclusive local fisherman whose son disappeared 5 years ago. Madi reads Henry’s palm and is shown a vision that disturbs her. She begins to work with Henry to help him find his missing son but as the visions continue, this southern gothic horror story kicks off in a direction you won’t expect.

It’s a story that explores grief, what it means to be a family, and the pressures of motherhood. It’s incredibly atmospheric and has some fantastically disturbing body horror moments. And if you’re afraid of crabs like I am….good luck.

Number 9 is Model Home by Rivers Solomon, a refreshing and horrifying take on the haunted house genre. I have a full review of this coming soon on the site.

Number 8 is Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca. I went on a big LaRocca binge this year and read a bunch of his collections back to back. This short story collection stood out the most for me, and the story based on the title of the collection is engrained into my brain. I think about it all the freakin’ time!

I really love all of LaRocca’s short stories, he has such a gift for writing the most bone chilling and disgusting stories. I recommend picking up any of his collections as you will never be disappointed.

Real World by Natsuo Kirino is number 7. The story is following four teenage girls in Tokyo. A mother next door is murdered and the girls suspect the son. When he flees, the teenage girls find themselves intertwined with the potential killer.

This was absolutely fantastic. It’s so dry, dark, and intricate. I genuinely couldn’t put it down. And when I finished I just had to sit quietly for an hour working through what I’d just read and experienced.

My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura is number 6. “Turn this page, and you may forfeit your entire life.” The best way to go into this book is knowing absolutely nothing. This was a fever dream that made me feel absolutely insane when reading it, I was scribbling notes in the pages and pacing around the living room. My roommate would occasionally walk into the room to find me manically raving about the characters. When I finished, I just stared at the wall and felt the need to take a shower and clean off the grime I got from experiencing this story.

Coming in at our half way mark, 5, is No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill. I actually read a lot of Nevill this year, but this one stood out to me the most. Stephanie is in a desperate situation but manages to find a cheap room to rent. The landlord is an absolute creep, the room is a total dump, there’s whispers coming from the fireplace and women weeping behind the walls. But she’s stuck here and as things get progressively worse and worse, Stephanie finds herself fighting for her life.

There was one chapter in this book that scared me so bad I had to put the book down for the night and take a break. And as I turned the lights off to go to sleep, I could feel my heart starting to race as I desperately looked at the shadows forming in my room. This is definitely a slow burn story but when the horror kicks in, it drop kicks you in the face.

Obviously, Stephen King would be on this list. He raised me. And I look forward to his new book every single year. In 2024 we got a new short story collection which was really really strong. So number 4 is You Like it Darker. We got an alien story, a novella, a story that made me cry, a fantastic reference to Cujo, and some old school King vibe stories. It was a really solid collection.

We’re into the top 3 now, and I’ve put Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman here. This one has been quite divisive this year. It’s written in a very unique way from the perspective of an 8 year old girl who is haunted by something she calls Other Mommy. This was genuinely so terrifying. There was a couple of scenes that really freaked me out and having an 8 year old describe it to you made it that much more frightening. I think this was such a bold and experimental novel that just cements why Malerman is one of my favorite authors of all time.

Number 2 is Stephen Graham Jones with I Was a Teenage Slasher. I’m totally in my SGJ era, and you can find a bunch of reviews of his books on the site recently. Here’s my review for this one.

Coming in at number 1 is no surprise to me; The Queen by Nick Cutter. This was an easy pick for me. I’m a massive Nick Cutter fan and I was overjoyed to get a new book from him this year. I also got to meet him last year which was such an honor. I made him a friendship bracelet which he immediately put on, we joked about turtles, and he signed my very battered and loved edition of The Troop.

BUT - memories aside, The Queen was fucking incredible. The cover is also amazing. In the summer, Margaret wakes up to find a phone on her doorstep with texts from her best friend Charity coming through one after another. Except Charity has been missing and presumed dead for over a month. Charity leads Margaret on a mysterious journey leading to an explosive ending that will uncover secrets and experiments.

This book is disgusting, and emotional, and horrifying, and I loved every single freakin’ page. I LOVE YOU NICK CUTTER!

And there we have it, my top 10 horror novels of this year. Horror was actually my second most read genre this year as opposed to the number one spot it usually takes year after year. I read a lot more experimental, speculative, and “weird girl” lit this year.

What were your favorite books of 2024? Is there any horror releases I should’ve picked up? Let me know in the comments below and here’s to another great reading year!