This Thing Between Us follows Thiago, a man grieving his wife who died in a freak accident, incidentally after a bunch of strange occurrences after their buying a smart speaker, Iza.

The official synopsis makes the book seem like tech horror alone, but the actual novel focuses more on Thiago’s grief and the aftermath of his wife’s passing. Written like a monologue Thiago delivers to his dead wife, This Thing Between Us is a beautiful exploration of grief, loss, and loneliness, that also includes a bit of horror.

The audiobook had me looking over my shoulder All. The. Time. And I am sure this book will have you side-eyeing your Alexa for a while too. Fun stuff!

This riveting read is set during the pandemic in NYC. But stay with me — I hate books about the panini as much as all of you but this one is gripping, well-written, and atmospheric enough to forgive the pandemic reminder.

Cora sees her sister be killed in a gruesome hate crime. Months later, as a crime scene cleaner, she sees a pattern emerge of young Asian women being brutally murdered with bats always being a part of the scene.

There is gore and you will get the ick but you will also love this book. And that’s all I’m going to tell you.

This novel actually started out as a Reddit story and has now been optioned to become a movie!

We Used to Live Here is yet another hauntingly atmospheric novel about a queer couple who flip houses and an MC who unknowingly allows a strange family into their current house when they claim they, well, used to live there before.

Weird things ensue. The book is filled with clues and the audiobook experience is 10/10 too, with morse codes beeping at the beginning of each chapter.

Set in a rundown motel in a small town, The Sun Down Motel is narrated by two different women (aunt and niece) from different timelines. The aunt disappears without a trace in her timeline, and today, her niece takes up her same job in the same small town motel.

This novel has ghosts, mysteries, and the eeriness of horror novels set in small towns.

Incidents Around the House is narrated by an 8-year-old child. That’s creepy enough for a horror novel, imo.

But Malerman makes it worse by giving her a friend who lives in her closet. A friend, who Bela refers to as Other Mommy.

Geez.

Other Mommy is okay except for all the times she keeps asking our child MC if she can go into her heart. Le sigh.

Is Titanic your Roman Empire? Because you need to read Dead Silence, stat.

In Dead Silence, a repair crew in space picks up a distress signal from a luxury liner that disappeared without a trace — passengers and all — years back and they board the liner. Cuz, why not?

All novels on this list are atmospheric but this one made me feel the claustrophobia and cold right to my bones.

A must-read for horror gworlies!

In this sapphic gothic novel, Roos, the MC runs fake seances with her guardian. She does have a spirit companion, though. One day, a rich young widow changes everything for her by taking her in. At the crumbling estate, the horrors begin.

Oh, and while Roos is recounting the entire story, she is also on trial for murder.