Happy Halloween! This is the perfect time of year to read a book that gives you a taste of the scary goodness that the horror genre has in spades. But what if you always thought you didn’t like horror? Sometimes an easier entry point is a blend of horror and another genre. Here are a handful of recent horror blends to put you in a spooky mood.

 

Horror + Historical Fiction

Cover for book Buffalo Hunter Hunter, with a large image of a buffalo head taking up most of the cover with red text over it.

Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

This novel of a Blackfeet man seeking revenge in early 20th century Montana has won accolades and starred reviews from all over the publishing world for good reason. While still housing the blood-soaked heart of a horror novel, it also examines the deeper horror of injustices against native peoples and violence against the land itself. Oh, and vampires.

 

Horror + Science Fiction

Cover image for book Cold Eternity with a blue toned image of a cryogenic chamber in the center with a shadow of a strange hand appearing over it. There is a caption "No one gets out alive" and the title in red lettering at the bottom.

Cold Eternity by S. A. Barnes

Running from a political scandal, a woman decides a job on a  barge storing the cryogenic bodies of the wealthy elite is the perfect hideout. But there is something or someone else hiding among the frozen almost-dead. Barnes excels at space-based horror and this one has plenty of twists along with its scares.

 

Horror + Fantasy + Historical

The cover for the book The Bewitching is a dark green with sillouetted vines bordering the image of a feminine hand. Above the hand is a golden bird pinned in place. In the center, the book title is also in gold.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A grad student in horror literature has focused her studies on Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure writer who attended her university. It seems Tremblay based her most famous novel on her time at the school, and on her strange roommate. Another critical and popular hit from the always reliable Moreno-Garcia.

 

Horror + Mystery

Cover for the book Strange Pictures. It consists of 4 hand-drawn images on a bright green background. The title is in black letters at the top and there is a box at the lower right that says "The Japanese Mystery-Horror sensation".

Strange Pictures by Uketsu

A collection of drawings seem innocent, but contain clues to mysteries old and new. More eerie than flat-out scary, the author presents the pictures in short vignettes that have the reader puzzle not only the meaning of each set, but how they all might be connected.

 

Horror + Romance

Cover image for the title ZomRomCom. On a purple background, there are two figures, a man in black and a woman in bright pink overalls. He is wielding a sword, she has a cleaver. There are green zombie hands reaching in from the sides of the book. The title is in green, with a dripping blood effect.

Zomromcom by Olivia Dade

This is classed as a paranormal romance, and that’s fair: in horror the characters are fighting the monsters and in paranormal romance, the characters are usually having sexy times with the monsters. But Dade combines the two as  her sunshine heroine teams up with a grumpy vampire to fight off a zombie infestation.

 

Want more horror blends? Visit the blender!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *