The fire might be crackling, but these dark, wintry fantasies will send shivers down your spine. Perfect for those who like their winter reads with a side of eerie magic, chilling twists, and just enough darkness to keep you up long after the embers die down. Settle in—things are about to get spooky. 🔥❄️✨
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
From New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.
There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story. Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right? But nothing with fairies is ever simple. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold… Out in paperback on December 21, 2024!
Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby
If there’s anything harder than being a woman in tech, it’s being a woman in tech stranded on a deserted tropical island. With your egotistical, millionaire boss. And the rest of your stranded start-up tech company. With a mysterious AI run mansion. As your team members slowly start to disappear one by one. Glass Houses is what you’d get if you combined Black Mirror with an Agatha Christie novel and added a sense of humor as black at pitch.
Usurpation by Sue Burke
After her rollicking standalone Dual Memory, Sue Burke returns to her Semiosis series and the world of Pax in Usurpation, which combines the thrill of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening with the eco-empowerment of VanderMeer’s Dead Astronauts.
With its eerie, dystopian atmosphere and unsettling themes of control and rebellion, Usurpation offers the perfect mix of sci-fi suspense, making it a must-read for fans of thrillers and dystopian horror.
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima is an eerie, thought-provoking collection perfect for Halloween reading. At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer makes a deal with the devil, and from that moment on, she writes surreal, haunting stories for him throughout her life. With its mix of humor, horror, and magical realism, Lima’s stories explore themes of fear, ambition, and identity, offering a hauntingly unique collection that’s perfect for fans of modern, eerie storytelling.
Masters of Death by Olivie Blake
Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the mansion has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on. With its quirky supernatural elements and playful take on life, death, and everything in between, Masters of Death is a spooky, witty, and fun read!
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu offers a chilling, thought-provoking tale perfect for readers seeking a sense of cosmic horror this Halloween. Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, this Hugo Award-winning novel explores humanity’s first contact with an alien civilization—and the terrifying consequences that follow. As Earth faces the threat of invasion from an advanced and desperate species, the novel delves into deep moral questions, human corruption, and the unknown dangers of the universe. With its sense of foreboding and vast, unsettling scope, The Three-Body Problem is a masterful exploration of fear, science, and the eerie vastness of space.
My favorite dark winter read is Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones. Dubric is a wonderful protagonist, and there are more stories about him if you want more!