Best Horror Books of 2025 with Anna Dupre

2025 has come to an end, so that means it’s time to break down our standout reads of the year. I am joined by my friend, fellow podcaster and reviewer, Anna Dupre of the Anna Rose Reads Podcast. This was a year full of cannibalism, sweeping historicals, and weird little horny books, so a great year!

Books Mentioned: Short Story Collections/ Anthologies

• Teenage Girls Can Be Demons by Hailey Piper
• Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia
• You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi (translated by Chris Andrews)
• The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein
• Oddbody by Rose Keating
• PUNK goes HORROR: A Mixtape Anthology edited by William Sterling
• It’s the End of the World As We Know It: New Tales from Stephen King’s Stand edited by Brian Keene and Christopher Golden

Graphic Novels

• A Guest in the House by E.M. Carroll
• Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer
• Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Hogarth

Young Adult Horror

• Showstopper by Lily Anderson
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
• The Overnight (#3) by RL Stine

Middle Grade Horror

• Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson 
• Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave by Ally Russell
• Another by Paul Tremblay
• Broken Dolls by Ally Malinenko

Non-Fiction

• Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread by Layla Taylor
• There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
• Scream With Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism by Eleanor Johnson
• The Midcentury Kitchen: America’s Favorite Room, from Workspace to Dreamscape, 1940s-1970s by Sarah Archer

Non-Horror

• Blob : A Love Story by Maggies Su
• The Favorites by Layne Fargo
• The Wedding People by Allison Espach
• Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan

Horror Novella

• Spread Me by Sarah Gailley
• The Film You Are About to See by Hailey Newlin

Horror Debut

• Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
• The Lamb by Lucy Rose 
• House of Beth by Kerry Cullen 
• Good Boy by Neil McRobert   

Horror Novel

• Blood On Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen
• Immaculate Conception by LIng Ling Huang
• When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
• Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
• Play Nice by Rachel Harrison 
• Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• Of Flesh and Blood: The Untold Story of the Cajun Cannibal by NL Lavin and Hunter Burke
• Such a Pretty Smile by Kristi Demeester
• What Hunger by Catherine Dang
• Itch! By Gemma Amor
• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• King Sorrow by Joe Hill

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