We’ll be so glad when this miserably hot summer is over! We’ll rejoice when autumn approaches, bringing cool weather, the scent of pumpkin spice, blazing fireplaces, and long dark nights to spend reading in our comfy tattered armchairs.
Here is a sneak peek at some of the upcoming new releases of dark, gothic and horror books that I’m most looking forward to in Autumn 2020!
(Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you)
The Auguries, by F.G. Cottam – A history professor goes on a search for a powerful spellbook, hoping to stop a tide of deadly disasters.
A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik – A young sorceress fights to survive The Scholomance.
Dracula’s Child, by J.S. Barnes – The story of Jonathan and Mina Harker’s troubled marriage, and their unfortunate offspring.
The Hush Sisters, by Gerard Collins – A pair of sisters inherits an old house with dark secrets.
It Will Just Be Us, by Jo Kaplan – Yet another sisters-moving-into-a-haunted-house book, this one with locked and forbidden doors.
The Loop, by Jeremy Robert Johnson – I’m rather looking forward to this sci-fi tale of murderous teenagers in a small Oregon town.
The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow – Three witch sisters join the suffragettes in New Salem in the late 1890s, and ttry to turn the women’s movement into the witch’s movement.
The Orphan of Cemetery Hill, by Hester Fox – A girl with psychic gifts is exploited by her seance-crazed aunt.
Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke – This book takes the exploring-an-old-house trope to another dimension, adding on a creepy underground labyrinth.
The Residence: A Novel, by Andrew Pyper – An alternate history horror book in which President Franklin Pierce’s dead son Bennie haunts the White House. Seances ensue.
We Hear Voices, by Evie Green – An eerily prescient book about a little boy who recovers from a pandemic only to discover he’s inherited an imaginary friend. The imaginary friend prompts the boy to do violent things.
Dark Anthologies:
John Landis Presents: The Library of Horror Haunted Houses – A must-have for fans of haunted house ghost stories. Authors include Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oscar Wilde.
Queens of the Abyss: Lost Stories from the Women of the Weird – Check out these long-forgotten dark stories by authors including Frances Hodgson Burnett (of The Secret Garden fame), and several Weird Tales female contributors.
Weird Women: Classic Supernatural Fiction by Groundbreaking Female Writers: 1852-1923 – Halloween expert Lisa Morton helped edit this book of dark tales by Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, and Charlotte Riddell.
Dark Non-Fiction
Fright Favorites, by David J. Skal and Turner Classic Movies – 31 movies to haunt your Halloween and beyond. The book discusses The Birds, The Shining, Frankenstein, An American Werewolf in London, Nosferatu and Phantom of the Opera, plus modern classics like Get Out.
The Science of Stephen King – Authors Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence explore the truth behind Pennywise, Carrie, Cujo, Jack Torrance, and more of Stephen King’s iconic characters.
Dark Books For YA:
Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted Mansion, by Iban Coelho – A Haunted Mansion graphic novel.
Seance Tea Party, by Reimena Lee – Middle-schooler Lora befriends an imaginary friend named Alexa, who happens to be a ghost.
We Were Restless Things, by Cole Nagamatsu – A drowned boy texts his friends from beyond the grave, warning them to stay away from the forest.
Dark Books for Spooky Children:
The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt, by Riel Nason – It’s hard to be a ghost when you’re a quilt instead of a sheet! For ages 3-7.
Happy reading!
-Carrie