With spooky season around the corner, it’s time to round up our favorite dark reads for fall. Here are five thrillers with serious Gothic suspense vibes to keep you turning the pages well past midnight. The horror vibes are strong: chilling air, stormy skies, and ominous, claustrophobic settings, often with a dash of unsolved murder. These books have twisty plots that will keep you on the edge of your seat, plus eerie vibes that will appeal to horror lovers. Truly, best of both worlds. So grab a hot cider, a donut and a cozy blanket, and gear up for these phenomenal spooky reads.
The Only One Left is the ultimate horror-thriller blend because it’s fantastic both as a horror and as a thriller. It’s a modern Gothic story set in 1983 featuring a legendary writer and an isolated cliffside mansion where terrible things happened in the past, and secrets can’t stay buried. It’s a haunting tale with deliciously twisty elements. This book is one of Riley Sager’s most popular novels, and deservedly so. It’s an unputdownable gem with impeccable spooky vibes.
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Frieda McFadden is the thriller queen of our generation, and Never Lie is a thriller first and foremost, but it has horror elements. Newlyweds Tricia and Ethan end up stranded in the remote manor of a celebrated psychiatrist who vanished years earlier. I was hooked from start to finish. It’s a pacey, highly entertaining novel that you’ll want to read under the covers on a windswept, rainy fall day… Or night.
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Trade Paperback
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The Sanatorium is set in an isolated luxury hotel that used to be a tuberculosis sanatorium. Many Gothic elements are found in this twisty thriller: our protagonist is trapped in an isolated, storm-wrecked location, secrets of the past are threatening to close in on her, and she has to deal with an avalanche and a killer on the loose. This story was a fun ride, and I couldn’t stop turning the pages. It has everything you could want from a thriller, plus some Gothic horror elements to give you just the right amount of anxiety.
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Ever since I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, I’ve become a sucker for horror stories set in hotels. Psycho is a heavy inspiration for this horror-thriller set in a motel that is very reminiscent of the Bates Motel. The story switches back and forth between 1982 and 2017, as our protagonist, Carly Kirk, tries to solve her aunt’s mysterious disappearance. There are unsolved murders and supernatural elements that will make this book appealing to horror fans. There are plenty of intriguing mysteries here to keep you turning the pages.
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An older book and one of the great horror novels of the 20th century. While Psycho sits firmly in the horror tradition, it also has elements that will appeal to the thriller crowd: fast pace, shorter length, a central mystery, and a massive twist at the end (that twist!). Originally published in 1959, this novel is still very readable today – I read it for the first time a couple years ago and I found it to be a quick read and a page-turner. It’s also wonderfully character-driven; Norman Bates and his mother are iconic for a reason. If you’re a fan of Gothic horror with thriller elements, you must give this one a try. And when you’re done, be sure to watch the classic movie by Alfred Hitchcock.
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Trade Paperback
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A well-paced, witty contemporary noir about two sisters, one of whom is sociopathic serial killer. This dark, sardonic tale doubles as a character study, and will appeal to fans of dark humor and unusual crime stories. A Booker Prize nominee.
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Trade Paperback
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A debut Gothic horror set in 1870s Brazil–a tale of creeping suspense in which a young pregnant woman finds herself unable to escape her lover’s isolated family home, and a family’s deal with the devil goes terribly wrong
1877, Pernambuco, Brazil: Raised in a deeply religious household, Madalena knows Dante’s Inferno by heart and fears her mother’s reaction as much as she fears God. When she falls pregnant with a child conceived in sin, her mother issues a threat: marry or surrender the baby. Madalena is confident that the father, the dashing Leandro Neves, will do right by her and propose. But just as she is about to tell him about the baby, a violent storm sends their carriage careening off the road.
Madalena awakens in Leandro’s sprawling, secluded home, under the care of the mysterious and larger-than-life Doctor Lobo. Leandro is there . . . but he is no longer the charming poet she knew. He’s silent. Obsessed. Always watching.
Strange perfume haunts a locked room. Pages vanish from books. Jewels lie untouched in a forgotten wardrobe. And mirrors begin disappearing after Madalena sees something–or someone–ghastly in the reflection.
Leandro is unraveling. Doctor Lobo may be hiding something even darker. Trapped in a decaying house of secrets, Madalena must uncover the truth before the men around her destroy her, and before the hell she fears becomes the one she’s living in.
Format
Hardcover
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