Late October is the time to crack open the cozy fantasy you’ve been saving for the fall, as the turning leaves and the nip in the air are simply too irresistible to ignore the call of the dungeons and the dragons. It's also the time to indulge in some Gothic-influenced spookiness, or a lot of it, depending on what you like.
Fantasy and horror stories have long gone hand in hand, and the best ones come with underlying themes of pain, trauma, and existential crisis. Never let the labels fool you. Some of the darkest, most terrifying stories lurk within the pages of a good fantasy.
Here are 13 books that perfectly blend the warmth of fantasy and the chill of horror, making them ideal reads for this Halloween season.
1. Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Scott Hawkins’ ambitious debut (and only novel, so far) blurs the line between dark fantasy and horror. It follows Carolyn, one of 12 adopted children raised and brutally tortured by a god-like man known only as Father. The children master a wide array of strange, supernatural powers, one of which is resurrecting the dead, in Father’s vast library, which holds the knowledge of the universe.
When Father disappears, Carolyn and the others are pitted against each other in a desperate, cosmic-level power struggle. When god is deemed dead and his children fight over the inheritance of omniscience, you can expect there to be graphic violence, disturbing psychological traits, and humanity taking a backseat in favor of apocalypses.
2. Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Gerald Brom
This historical fiction set in Colonial New England is one of the more “purer” horrors on this list, rooted in folklore. Revered for his work as a gothic fantasy artist, Gerald Brom pens a mystery about a lively young Englishwoman, Abitha, who is married to a man called Edward in a Puritan colony. Their marriage isn’t overly romantic, but there is care and love. But Abitha is quickly widowed under suspicious circumstances and finds herself alone in a pious and patriarchal society that does its best to curb women’s free will and agency.
On the other side of the story is Slewfoot, the slumbering forest monster the locals call “The Devil." Abitha befriends Slewfoot, and the bond between the two semi-outcasts holds the story together. You can interpret it as a platonic friendship, romantic love, something in between, or beyond. Brom does not tell you what to think about them. But what he does tell, albeit through the narrative, is that sometimes, a fanatically religious group of people devoid of compassion or empathy that commits heinous acts in the name of God can be more insidious than a scary creature hiding inside a cave.
3. Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Almost no one writes the ugliness of the overarching human condition better than Stephen King. In this book, titled quite poignantly, 17-year-old Charlie Reed lives a seemingly everyday life. But his life is burdened by the grief of his mother’s death, which pushed his father away from him and toward alcohol. When Howard Bowditch, a recluse he had befriended, dies, Charlie is left with a magical portal to another world.
This other realm, though magical, is a place of perpetual gloom and decay, where its denizens are afflicted with a wasting disease known as “the gray.” Charlie is captured and held in a terrifying underground prison called the Deep Maleen, where men and women are forced to fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One,” battling undead "night soldiers" and a monstrous, world-ending evil.
4. Aching God by Mike Shel (Book 1, “Iconoclasts” Series)
This book starts Mike Shel’s “Iconoclasts” trilogy and is steeped in dark fantasy and cosmic horror. The protagonist, Auric Manteo, is a retired soldier who suffers from what is essentially PTSD due to his past of adventurous yet traumatic quests. He is forced back to a perilous life to save his daughter from a deadly plague.
The journey forces him back to the Barrowlands, a place of his worst nightmares. He must confront the malice of the ancient, insidious Djao civilization and their "Aching God," whose hunger is terrible and unquenchable. The atmosphere is heavy with trauma, dread, and a pervasive sense of helplessness that is bound to send a chill down your spine.
5. Court of the Dead: The Chronicle of the Underworld by Tom Gilliland, Landry Q. Walker, Corinna Sara Bechko (Sideshow Collectibles)
Written as a companion for Sideshow Collectibles' “Court of the Dead” board game, this graphic novel is perfect for fantasy readers who want a touch of the macabre yet philosophical. The book follows a curator tasked by his master, the Death, to find the true purpose of the Underworld, his realm of the dead.
To find the correct answer, the curator must write a journal recording the war of Heaven and Hell, as old as time itself, and interview all existing within the citadels of the Underworld. Does it exist to dish out the ultimate judgment to the mortals at the end of their lives? Is it meant to balance the worlds of the living and the dead? Or is its real purpose something more sinister?
Despite being tied to the board game, this book can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.
6. A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)
A dark retelling of Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm, this book masterfully blends its fairy tale elements with a claustrophobic horror of domestic violence and coercion. Cordelia is the daughter of a volatile sorceress, Evangeline, who uses her magic to have her way in the world. That includes controlling Cordelia to the point of physical and mental abuse and committing murder to marry the wealthy man she wants.
The book is lauded for its ability to build steady, sickening fear and tension while maintaining its essence of a quintessential fairy tale. It features macabre moments, including a resurrected, headless horse attacking a manor. But it also features a ragtag group of unlikely friends, including a ghostly apparition, teaming up to save the day. If you have read and liked T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone, another mildly gothic fantasy novel, you would love this, too.
7. Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Stover (Book 2, “Acts of Caine” Series)
Set in a dystopian future of our Earth, the “Acts of Caine” series involves a magical alternate reality called Overworld. In the first book, Heroes Die, we find out that the protagonist Hari Michaelson (known on Overworld as Caine) and his wife Shanna are among the actors sent to Overworld by Earth’s wealthy and manipulative studios to be entertainment fodder for the masses back home.
Set seven years after the events of the first book, Blade of Tyshalle shifts into bleak survival horror as Earth's corrupt corporate executives plan to infect the Overworld with an especially virulent plague (HRVP, a form of rabies) to clear the way for colonization. Hari must now be a one-man army to defeat all odds. Expect a raw, brutal world with intense violence, moral decay, and characters struggling against overwhelming, systemic evil in both worlds.
8. Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff (Book 1, “Empire of the Vampire” Series)
Finally, enter the vampires, the favorite kind of horror element of many fantasy lovers. The first book of Jay Kristoff’s loved trilogy, Empire of the Vampire, starts 27 years after Daysdeath, a cryptic event that cast the living world into a dark stasis after vampires conquer humans. Gabriel de León is the last silversaint, a sacred group of Holy Brotherhood who were tasked with eradicating vampires and had clearly failed.
Imprisoned and sentenced to be executed for killing the Forever King, Fabien Voss, Gabriel is spared temporarily by the Undying Empress in exchange for telling his life’s story. Clinging on to a spark of hope, Gabriel shares stories of love, hatred, friendship, betrayal, revenge, and visceral combat as the fear of the monstrous predators looms over his head. Empire of the Dawn, the third and last installment of the series, is coming out in November 2025. Now would be a good time to dig into this story.
9. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (Book 1, “The Poppy War” Series)
One could argue that R. F. Kuang does not write horror. But for anyone who comes from a nation with a colonial past or has knowledge of the damage it inflicted during its golden days, The Poppy War should check the boxes. Primarily a grimdark military fantasy (my favorite type of fantasy), the horror in this book is psychological, existential, and body horror, based on real-world atrocities.
The Second Sino-Japanese War and the horrors of the Nanjing Massacre inspire the plot of the conflict between the Nikan Federation and the Mugen Empire. The internal motifs of substance abuse, crime syndication, and colonial overtones come from the infamous Opium Wars, which are also the obvious inspiration behind the title (opium comes from the poppy plant).
The protagonist, Rin, must harness dark, shamanic powers to survive and seek the help of the vengeful Phoenix, the god that has chosen her. The novel depicts the unspeakable brutality and trauma of warfare, chemical attacks, massacres, and the sheer cost of power, forcing Rin to commit an act of mass destruction that is deeply horrifying in its scope.
10. Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
This novel is a brilliant piece of medieval historical fantasy-horror set during the Black Death in 14th-century Europe. The plague has eviscerated the continent. But Thomas, our disgraced knight of a protagonist, believes there’s more suffering to come. He tells Delphine, a plague orphan he rescues from being raped, that Lucifer and his fallen angels are preparing for a second war on Heaven with humanity at its crosshairs.
The unlikely duo travels together through a world where body horror is rampant and anything good and fair has abandoned humanity. Thomas and Delphine face possessed statues, monsters that mimic human screams, and are caught in a fight between a demonic invasion and a seemingly indifferent Heaven. You can take it as a commentary on a "When the rich make war, it's the poor that die” situation, if you want. The girl also develops mystic powers and can see angels.
11. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
This list would not be complete without the work of Ray Bradbury, one of the genre's father figures. It follows two 13-year-old best friends, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, whose lives are upended by the arrival of “Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show” in their small Midwestern town in Illinois, a week before Halloween.
The carnival, led by the sinister, tattooed “Mr. Dark,” preys on the townspeople's deepest desires and fears. He offers them their wishes, like youth regained via a demonic carousel, at the cost of their soul and life force, trapping them in nightmarish fates. The horror is atmospheric, psychological, and visceral, forcing the book’s characters to confront the evil lurking beneath the surface of the idyllic small-town setting.
12. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (Book 1, “The Broken Earth” Series)
The horror in N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is one that we are facing in real life as well. Set within the framework of brilliant worldbuilding, the war-ravaged planet Stillness has run out of basic resources. The technological advancements that were helping the world survive collapses after a madman’s murderous rage. An environmental catastrophe is the final nail in the coffin, which turns Stillness into an arid, lifeless land without sunlight, water, or fertile land.
With a limited stockpile of supplies, systemic power disparity and inhuman oppression come to the surface as deep-seated elements of horror. Meanwhile, the protagonist, Essun, finds her son murdered by her husband, who has also kidnapped their daughter. Enduring the geological and climatic horrors, she makes a journey of grief and rage to save her daughter.
13. The Scar by China Miéville (Book 2, “New Crobuzon” Series)
Set in Miéville’s signature Bas-Lag universe, this Hugo Award-winning book pans out on Armada, a floating pirate city built from thousands of lashed-together ships that sail the Swollen Ocean. Linguist Bellis Coldwine is trying to flee New Crobuzon, the steampunk, futuristic city where the first book, Perdido Street Station, is set. She is aboard a ship en route to the new colony, Nova Esperium, with a band of prisoners, enslaved people, and other travelers.
But the ship gets overtaken by pirates. The survivors are brought to Armada, a strange, floating city made of hulls of pirate ships and ruled by a duality called the Lovers. Bellis is trapped there and soon uncovers a terrifying agenda: Armada is sailing toward an encounter with amorphous, colossal entities floating miles below the waters undetected. This book would be a delight if you are starved of nautical fantasy like me.