Hello there all my ghosties, welcome back for a post all about my 21 seasonal horror TBR.
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Hello, ghosts and ghouls! Welcome to my little cozy corner of the web, Booked and Bewitched, where we chat about all things horror and mystery related!
From back to school, fall sports, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and three birthdays I don’t get much reading time, I do however get time to throw a ton of seasonal horror books on my winter TBR. And that is what I am sharing with you today.
If you’ve wandered in here by mistake, Hi! Welcome to a horror subgenre that needs more attention, I’m biased though. Seasonal horror is a subgenre that takes place in those warm and fuzzy times of year that you wouldn’t normally expect to see. I think it’s safe to assume we all know Krampus at this point. As someone with Slavic ancestors, the shock of people first learning of this entity was quite amusing.
Anyhoo- grab a cup of tea or coffee and your Kindle. Let’s take a look at my top 21 seasonal horror books for this coming winter! And if you need some more TBR ideas- go check out 13+ Paranormal Fiction Books To Disappear Into Right Now! And don’t worry, I’m not going to regurgitate the jacket, I keep it short and sweet, after all, you can easily read it for yourself if you go searching for it.
Great Seasonal Horror Books For Adults
1. Unsure Christmas Horror Read
So, the reviews on Dying for Christmas are all over the place, and I am going to give it a shot. The story here seems to be a holiday romance gone seriously wrong. Now don’t get me wrong I love a good Christmas romance, but I also love a great Christmas horror read, so away we go, for 12 f*cked-up days of Christmas.
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Out Christmas shopping one December afternoon, Jessica Gould meets the charming Dominic Lacey and impulsively agrees to go home with him for a drink. What follows are Twelve Days of Christmas from hell, as Lacey holds Jessica captive, forcing her to wear his missing wife’s gowns and eat lavish holiday meals. Each day he gifts her with one item from his twisted past—his dead sister’s favorite toy, disturbing family photos, a box of teeth. As the days pass and the “gifts” become darker and darker, Jessica realizes that Lacey has a plan for her, and he never intends to let her go.
2. Iconic Seasonal Horror Must-Have
The cover art on Hark! The Herald Angels Scream- a great Christmas horror anthology is iconic. I got the chance to finish it last winter, during the holiday season as it’s divided into 18 bite-size stories that are great reads. Most fall into the dark horror humor category, but still, one I will read again this year.
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That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. Marley untying the bandage that holds his jaws together. The hideous children–Want and Ignorance–beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The heavy ledgers Marley drags by his chains. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts.
3. Creepy Seasonal Horror Must-Read
The jist of Mistletoe is that a woman loses her family to an accident and in an attempt to escape all the pity being thrown her way, she buys an old farmhouse. Now naturally, this farmhouse is isolated, and filled to the brim with all sorts of bumps in the night. This is the seasonal horror book you will find me curled up with on Christmas evening once my magic mom duties are finished.
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It may look like a Christmas card, but it’s soon clear it’s not just the house needing renovation; the land is in bad heart too. And Leah’s mind starts playing tricks on her: she hears a child playing in the snow, but although there are snowballs, there are no footprints. Is this the ghost of her son, returned to her? She starts having visions of the farm’s former occupants – the young widow and her son, the cousin who’s wooing her, the maid who shares her secrets and the handsome labourer who’s hanged for the murder of a child, a murder he didn’t commit.
4. Must-read seasonal horror
It’s not a secret that Joe Hill is a horror master, and I cannot wait to dive into Nos4A2. If you are anything like me, it only takes a couple of days at the most to devour a great book, so my seasonal horror tbr is loaded down with goodies like this. A magic serial killer who takes kids to a creepy Christmas land-style amusement park, with a “the one who got away” female protagonist, and magical skills of her own. Yes, please.
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Charles Talent Manx has a gift of his own. He likes to take children for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the vanity plate NOS4A2. In the Wraith, he and his innocent guests can slip out of the everyday world and onto hidden roads that lead to an astonishing playground of amusements he calls Christmasland. The journey across the highway of Charlie’s twisted imagination transforms his precious passengers, leaving them as terrifying and unstoppable as their benefactor.
5. New holiday horror read
I stumbled upon The Ancestor last fall when I was searching Hoopla for something to holiday horror-ish to listen to while walking. And boy oh boy does the Ancestor deliver. It’s amazing I’m an heiress and didn’t know it Christmas yeti monster that eats children from the village kinda story and one I can’t wait to sit down and read again.
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After a DNA test reveals that Alberta “Bert” Monte is the sole heir of a wealthy noble family in the Italian Alps, she leaves New York to visit the family estate: Montebianco Castle, a centuries-old compound isolated in the mountains. What appeared to be a fairy tale inheritance, however, soon turns into a nightmare as Bert begins to uncover the dark legacy of her family.
6. Classic seasonal horror
I read The Shining every winter- normally around late January when I’m starting to get loopy from the lack of human contact and sunshine. If you’ve never read the book- you must. It’s kinda like the movie, but not really. I find the movie- okay. The book is one of my favorite novels. It is a seasonal horror classic for sure.
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Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.
7. Whodunit seasonal horror
It is no surprise that Clue and Murder She Wrote heavily influenced me as a child. So when I came upon The Christmas Murder Game I immediately added it to my seasonal horror reading list. This takes the 12 days of Christmas (least favorite Christmas carol by the way- ugh) to a whole new level of family drama. While this is more along the seasonal mystery side of things, I still can’t wait to figure out which cousin murdered Lily’s mother.
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Now, Lily must compete with her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. The snow is thick, the phone lines are down, and no one is getting in or out. Lily will have to keep her wits about her, because not everyone is playing fair, and there’s no telling how many will die before the winner is declared.
8. Epic Christmas Horror Anthology Books
It’s hilarious to me that everyone and their brother likes to sit around and squawk like hens at me because I enjoy a good horror Christmas story. All while they watch ten versions of A Christmas Carol each year. IT’S A GHOST STORY BARB. Okay- I’m done venting, Ghosts of Christmas Past is a set of short Christmas horror stories that play on the same themes. Anything by Neil Gaiman gets me excited and I can’t wait to see what he and the others have cooked up for us.
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Who knows what haunts the night at the dark point of the year? This collection of seasonal chillers looks beneath Christmas cheer to a world of ghosts and horrors, mixing terrifying modern fiction with classic stories by masters of the macabre.
9. Eerie Christmas Horror Read
Show of hands- if Elf on a Shelf was the dumbest thing you ever agreed to as a parent. You too- cool, then you’re going to want to add Snowball to your TBR. When I read the jacket on this, I burst out laughing and added it to my Christmas horror tbr. Basically- what happens if your Elf on a Shelf- is possessed? Yeah, nothing good, just like everyone else’s elf.
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The holidays are a time for magic, cheer, and making memories. Brandon and Erin begin a new family tradition by introducing the elf on a shelf to their young children. When Erin brings home their newly purchased elf, little do they know the horror that awaits.
10. Fun Campy Seasonal Horror
Camp Crystal Lake meets Christmas Lodge. Okay, I’ll bite. If you, like me, have ever wondered what would happen if an 80’s slasher was set in a Christmas village The Christmas Morning Massacre is set to answer just that question. It might turn out to be super campy, but hey. Who doesn’t need more campy Christmas horror in their lives?
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The group of young women are snowed into the Morrison mansion and begin the weekend festivities; unknown to them a stranger is watching—stalking them and waiting to strike. And he will not stop until they are all dead. Trapped in the worst snowstorm Raven Hill has ever seen, the girls have two choices: fight or die.
11. Spooky Christmas horror anthology books
While there isn’t a ton of detail around Christmas Kills, the cover art is great and the reviews are raving. This is another Christmas horror anthology, so if you’re looking for shorter reads, this seems to be. Good option. I myself will devour the stories in-between making cookies and fist-fighting over toys. Just kidding, like Im actually going to leave my house after trick or treat is over, ha!
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An anthology of Christmas Horror.
12. Amazing Historical Seasonal Horror
So A Ghost of Christmas Past is a historical Christmas horror, fun fun. While this part of a series, the jacket says this one is a standalone so we don’t have to read the first ten to understand what’s going on. We’ve got a creepy country house, a seance, missing kids, Christmas, and pissy ghosts. Sounds like my cup of tea.
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It’s Christmas in 1911, and John Decker is stuck in London, far from those he loves. When he gets invited to a holiday party at a manor house in the country, he reluctantly agrees to go, expecting a quiet few days of holiday cheer. But Blackthorn Manor is not just any country house. It hides a dark secret from centuries past, and a restless spirit that never left.
13. Best Christmas Horror Books of all Time
Bloodthirsty snowmen, demons working at convenience stores, and zombies? What could possibly go wrong here? The cover art of Hell For The Holidays caught my eye first, and once I read the jacket, I knew it had to be on my season horror reading list. This makes me think of every office Christmas party I’ve been forced to endure.
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The home of Lloyd Wallace, hapless employee of the 24/7 Demon Mart, a local corner store where the beer cave doubles as the gate to hell. When the possessed snowmen crash a party packed with unpleasant relatives, back-stabbing socialites, one inconsolable cockroach, three badass demon fighters, and too much alcohol, this picture-perfect holiday soon goes straight to hell.
14. Haunting Humorous Horror Fiction
The title says it all, don’t you think? Candy Canes and Buckets of Blood proposes the question of whether would you save your step-family or not. It’s a humorous horror fiction with killer elves and annoying step-brothers. I mean honestly who among us hasn’t wanted to feed some of our family to the wolves during the holidays?
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Can the family band together to survive the night? Or will Santa’s little helpers make mincemeat of them all?
15. Spooktacular Christmas Horror
Technically this is listed as a children’s holiday horror, but I will be giving Christmas Dinner of Souls a chance. I still read Goosebumps each Halloween season, so I’m happy to find a new Christmas horror read to add to my family traditions.
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For this is the annual meeting of a secret club for those who despise children, warmth, happiness, and above all Christmas. Each member must try to outdo the others by telling the most terrible, disgusting story they know.
16. Creepy Seasonal Horror
I guess The Last Gift is a super short seasonal horror, and the reviews are pretty scathing. But I will give everyone a couple of chances and given I’ve never read anything by this author before, might as well start here.
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On 24th December, loving husband and father Peter Biddiscombe is killed in a tragic accident on his way home from work. His body is not discovered until Boxing Day but when PC Maxine Derbyshire arrives at the house to deliver the devastating news, Peter’s wife believes it must be a case of mistaken identity. Peter spent Christmas with his family. Or did he?
17. Dark Christmas Books
The fun part of Christmas In The Empty Cabin a Holiday Horror Anthology is the fact that there are some Thanksgiving and fall horror stories mixed in as well. If it takes you a while to finish a book, you could start this one around trick or treat and finish up with the new year.
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A hot holiday toy that brings terror to a department store. A man caught in a blizzard as he searches for help for a dying friend. A girl who wakes up to surprise visitors on Día de los Muertos. A man who recounts a sick and twisted Thanksgiving. A boy who becomes intrigued by a mysterious house and the girl who resides there during fall break. A family man who struggles with a dilemma that may cost him his soul.
18. Creepy Christmas Horror Books for Adults
I won’t lie, I’m really excited to read The Visitor. Snowstorms, aliens, and roadside diners should be a good time. The general review gives it a B horror movie vibe, which is always a good time because it’s funny or horrifying. Who doesn’t love a good alien seasonal horror story?
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On Christmas, during one of the worst snowstorms Indiana has ever seen, five strangers are forced to take shelter inside of a roadside diner. As the night progresses, the snowfall shows no signs of relenting, ice begins to build up on the roads, and the temperature seems to be dropping by the hour. But the worst has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with the sixth visitor coming to the diner. The jolliest time of the year quickly turns bloody as the diners find themselves fighting for their lives. This Christmas won’t just be white. It’ll be red, too.
19. Best Christmas Horror Books
So two things I don’t ever want to experience in person have been presented to me in a highly reviewed short Christmas horror story. Amityville Horror Christmas apparently puts us smack dab in the middle of the Lutz family hell, on Christmas Eve. What could possibly go right here, I mean come on.
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December 24, 1975. Two innocent handymen are summoned to 112 Ocean Avenue to fix a boathouse door. Little do they know that the Lutz Family is living through a nightmare in the main house…and now they will be sharing that nightmare. In the next few hours, Owen Blake and Randy Hallowell will encounter inexplicable events, malevolent spirits, and a force beyond understanding. If they survive, it will change them…forever. Now: Experience the previously untold story of what happened at the Amityville house on that awful Christmas Eve.
20. Best Holiday Horror Books
So fun fact, I have a Christmas ornament obsession. I also have a fairly large family keepsake collection of ornaments, so when a seasonal horror about possessed Christmas ornaments showed up, I have to read it. The Christmas Bell is about a not-Christmas spirit-filled tree ornament and I can’t wait to read it this holiday season.
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It starts with the Christmas bell, scratched and worn in one of Grandma Anne’s boxes in the attic. Once they put it on the tree, Grandma Anne starts to say terrifying things and act strangely. Candace and her mother assume it’s her dementia talking—until they start to have dangerous encounters with a fiendish being
21. Sexy Holiday Horror Books for Adults
Okay- I know, All I Want for Christmas is not technically a seasonal horror novel, BUT. It’s got Lovecraftian vibes, kind of. Honestly, this was a recommended read, and I burst out laughing when I saw it and had to share it with all of you. I’m not big on MM Erotica, but someone out there is, so if it’s worth the read, let me know!
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When Colin sits on Santa’s lap at the office Christmas party, he’s goaded into asking for EXACTLY what he wants.
Tentacles, and lots of them. Santa doesn’t disappoint.
This post was all about my seasonal horror TBR. That you need to read right now! Happy reading my love’s!
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