Welcome friends and fiends! Here is an updating list of horror titles being released May 2026. This is a fairly comprehensive list of all things horror, including traditional, small press, and self-published works. I provide at least one link where you can find the book and purchase it directly.

Want to know what books I have on my TBR? The books with a featured cover at the top of each week are the books that I am planning to read!

This is a project I hope to do every month, with posts going up at the end of the month. My aim is to share the books I run into with my monthly scrolling and to have a venue to lift up authors. If you have a book releasing this month that you don’t see on the list, please feel free to leave a comment on this post so I can add your book to the list.

May 1-10

Title	Author	Publisher	Tags
Accumulation	Aimee Pokwatka	G.P. Putnam’s Sons	Psychological, Mother
Body Count	Codie Crowley	Disney Hyperion	YA, LGBTQ, Feminist, Slasher, Monster
But Won’t I Miss Me	Tiffany Tsao	HarperVia	Motherhood, Speculative, Psychological
Fatally Yours	Jessica Lacy	Sourcebooks Fire	YA, Slasher, Comedy
Ghostroots	‘Pemi Aguda	W. W. Norton & Company	Short Stories
Honey	Imani Thompson	Random House	Serial Killer, Female Rage
I Know A Place: Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours	Nat Cassidy	Shortwave	Short Stories
Into The Darkening Dust	Katherine Silva	Strange Wilds Press	Supernatural
Mori Quinn and the Coffin Game	S. Alessandro Martinez	Crystal Lake Publishing	Middle Grade, Coming of Age, Summer Camp
Neon Moon	Grace R. Reynolds	Dark Matter INK	Slasher
No One Heard Her Screams	Ann O’Mara Heyward	Self-Published	Short Stories
Not Your Final Girl	Mikayla Randolph	CLASH Books	Feminist, Slasher
One Leg on Earth	‘Pemi Aguda	W. W. Norton & Company	Folklore, Historical
She Waits Where Shadows Gather	Michelle Tang	Poisoned Pen Press	Paranormal, Feminist
Spider Spider	L.C. Winter	Duckworth	Historical, Mystery
That Which Feeds Us	Keala Kendall	Random House	YA, Supernatural, Thriller
The Build-A-Monster Workshop	Pedro Iniguez	Raw Dog Screaming Press	Poetry
The False Child	LM Kaplin	Broken Brain Books	Coming of Age
The Girl with a Thousand Faces	Sunyi Dean	Tor Books	Gothic, Historical, Fantasy
The Hidden	JG Faherty	Lvp Publications	Eco Horror
The Library After Dark	Ande Pliego	Bantam	Mystery, Thriller, Killer
The Vanishers	R. G. Belsky	dp books	Paranormal, Gothic
The Witch of Tongues	S. Alessandro Martinez	Crystal Lake Publishing	Middle Grade, Witches
The Wives of Herrick Hall	Julie Lew	Quill & Crow Publishing House	LGBTQ, Gothic
Tongue in Cheek and Eyes in Sockets	Hannah Birss & Emily Tragedy	Self-Published	YA, Short Stories
We Don’t Deserve Them	Amanda Ruzsa	Self-Published	Short Stories
Where The Small Ones Play	Matt Shaw	Self-Published	Psychological

May 11-17

Title	Author	Publisher	Tags
Abyss	Nicholas Binge	Tor Nightfire	Cosmic
Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun	Mónica Ojeda	Coffee House Press	Supernatural, Psychedelic
Femme Feral	Sam Beckbessinger	Penguin Books	Female Rage
Hunger	Choi Jin-young	Europa Editions	Psychological, Satire
In the Blood	April Henry	Christy Ottaviano Books	YA, Thriller, Serial Killer
In The Poppy Field She Plays	Rebecca A. Noble	Self-Published	Splatterpunk, Short Story, Fantasy
Killer Summer	Wendy Dalrymple	Mad Axe Media	Slasher
Make Me Better	Sarah Gailey	Tor Books	TAGS
Manitou	Glen Gabel	Self-Published	Creature
Medusa: A Novel of Mystery, Ecstasy and Strange Horror	E. H. Visiak	British Library Publishing	Classics, Myth, Underwater
Muntu (Ivory’s Story)	Eugen Bacon	Bad Hand Books	Occult, Curses
The Saw Mouth	Cale Plett	Delacorte Press	YA, LGBTQ
The Bone Door	Frances White	Hanover Square Press	Dark Fantasy, Paranormal
The Fathoms Below	Jackie Sonnenberg	Crystal Cove Press	YA, Aquatic
The House of Whispers	Tom Carter	Rowan Prose	Paranormal
The Nightmare World	JG Faherty	Lvp Publications	Supernatural
We Dance Upon Demons	Vaishnavi Patel	S&S/Saga Press	Urban Fantasy
We Were Never Really Friends	Timothy King	AETHON: Wicked House	Slasher
Vile Lady Villains	Danai Christopoulou	Union Square & Co.	LGBTQ, Gothic, Horrormantasy

May 18-24

Title	Author	Publisher	Tags
All Us Saints	Katherine Packert Burke	Bloomsbury	LGBTQ, 90s
Bookmail: Creator of Nightmares	Jason R. Davis	Self-Published	Writer Horror, Supernatural
Decomposition Book	Sara van Os	Hanover Square Press	Ghost, LGBTQ, Comedy
Filth Eaters	Ito Romo	Deep Vellum Publishing	Vampire, Monster
Hearts Strange and Dreadful	Tim McGregor	Raw Dog Screaming Press	Historical, Creature
Magician	Tracy Lynne Oliver	Roxane Gay Books	LGBTQ, Magical Realism
Salomé	Leslie Baird	G.P. Putnam’s Sons	Feminist
Something on Your Mind	George Morris De’Ath	Rising Action	Psychological, Ghost
The Dorians	Nick Cutter	Gallery Books	Sci-Fi
The Temptation of Charlotte North	Camilla Bruce	Del Rey	Gothic, Psychological
Until Death	Mary Berman	Little, Brown and Company	Humor, Gothic, Occult
Venue 13	David Jón Fuller	Ravenstone	Ghost, Haunted Theatre

May 25-31

Title	Author	Publisher	Tags
A Dark and Wild Wood	Sarah Nicole Lemon	Harper Voyager	Gothic, Bluebeard
Bone of My Bone	Johanna van Veen	Poisoned Pen Press	LGBTQ, Historical, Dark Fantasy
Dead Weight	Hildur Knútsdóttir	Tor Nightfire	Thriller, Psychological
House of Margins	Tlotlo Tsamaase	Erewhon Books	Occult
I’ll Watch Your Baby	Neena Viel	St. Martin’s Griffin	Historical
Unknown Title “Make Racists Afraid Again” May 26	Brandon Ennis	PUBLISHER	TAGS
Skidmark Heart 2: The Skidmark Child	Callum Abbott	Self-Published	Splatterpunk
Teddy Bears Never Die	Cho Yeeun	Run For It	Fantasy, Revenge
We Could Be Anyone	Anna-Marie McLemore	Feiwel & Friends	YA, Gothic, Historical
Forlorn Harbor	Jim Doran	Rowan Prose Publishing	YA, Supernatural, Haunted Theatre
The Hollow One	Corinne Westbrook	Permuted Press	Literary, Grief, Child POV
TITLE	AUTHOR	PUBLISHER	TAGS

Disclaimer: Each title is linked to a store front where books may be purchased, this includes Amazon, publisher websites, and Godless.com. Please note that I am an Amazon Affiliate, so links to Amazon store fronts will use my affiliate links. Purchases made through any affiliate links help me keep this blog running.