2024 was a fantastic year for horror debuts. The depth and range of books is a testament to the growing popularity of the genre, and these new voices promise to ensure that horror is going to reign supreme for years to come.
From the perils of motherhood to home renovations gone wrong, here are eight debut horror novels that you do not want to miss.
We Used to Live Here
Charlie and Eve flip houses together. When they get the deal of a lifetime on an old house, they can hardly believe their luck.
When a man knocks on their door explaining that he once lived there and wanted to show his kids, Eve doesn’t see the harm in letting him in. Only, once inside, strange things start happening.
The youngest child vanishes, and is that a ghost in the basement?
A sense of wrong creeps throughout the house. And the family who doesn’t seem to want to leave isn’t helping.
But when Charlie disappears, Eve isn’t sure what’s more terrifying: that she might be losing her mind or that there is something terribly wrong with that house.
The Eyes Are the Best Part
After her father leaves, Ji-won’s mother is inconsolable. Until a loud white man with succulent blue eyes takes an interest in her.
He pushes his way into their lives, a disgusting presence that takes up more space in their small apartment than he should. But her mother, terrified to be alone, desperate to be loved, refuses to see the danger this man poses to their tiny family.
His presence eats at Ji-won, his eyes following her through rooms and into her dreams, until she decides she won’t tolerate him anymore. Ravenous for revenge, it doesn’t matter who she has to use, manipulate, or lie to anymore.
Her hunger will be sated.
Dearest
When Flora gives birth to her daughter a few weeks early, her husband is still deployed.
It’s okay, she think. She has her father and her step-mother—everything should be fine.
But Flora doesn’t take to motherhood as naturally as everyone seems to think she should. And in the wake of sleep deprivation and exhaustion, reality seems to be slipping through her fingers.
When her mother appears on her doorstep, she’s grateful. Maybe they can finally mend their relationship.
Only, Flora’s nightmares continue to escalate until she has to face the terrifying reality that she may not be the thing standing between her beautiful new baby and danger. The nightmare might be her.
Dead Girls Walking
For Temple Baker, it isn’t a question of if evil runs in her blood, it’s how much. As the daughter of an infamous serial killer, she’s as much a prisoner of his evil deeds as he is.
But when he confesses to her that he killed her mother, she doesn’t have a choice but to return to their old farmhouse to try and find the body to prove it. Posing as a camp counselor at a nearby farm, she tries to keep her true identity hidden among these true crime horror enthusiasts.
When a dead girl shows up in the woods, Temple worries one of her father’s fans is committing copycat crimes. Only, the truth is far more sinister.
This Wretched Valley
Dylan has found an unclimbed cliff face—and she’s going to be the first to climb it. If she’s successful, it will cement her reputation as a rising star in the rock-climbing community.
She ropes in her friend Clay, his research assistant, and her boyfriend to help document her journey. Seven months later, three of their bodies are found.
Only Dylan remains missing. Tracing her Instagram stories and disturbing livestreams, it’s impossible to tell what happened.
Were they murdered? Abandoned and forced to resort to cannibalism?
The only person who might have answers is Dylan—and there’s no way to know if she’s still alive.
This Cursed House
Desperate to escape 1962 Chicago and the actual ghosts following her, 27-year-old Jemma Barker jumps at the offer to work for the Duchon family in New Orleans. Only, it isn’t the fresh start she imagined it would be.
First, the Duchon’s are light enough to pass as white, and they seem to hold Jemma’s darker skin against her. Then she finds out why they really hired her.
The Duchon’s are cursed and they think Jemma can break it. As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s fought her entire life, dark secrets from the family’s past surround her.
Because if she can’t break their curse, she’s doomed to join them.
youthjuice
It’s obvious from her first day at HEBE that Sophia Bannion doesn’t belong. Pushing 30 with too many skeletons in her closet, she isn’t anything like the eternally young, almost ethereal women floating through the office.
Sure, she’s worked hard to maintain a carefully crafted façade, one that makes her appear to fit in. But inside, she longs for more.
When the CEO offers her exactly that, she takes it. Suddenly, there’s nothing she wouldn’t do to keep her gorgeous new skin and her successful new life.
Even when she learns the horrifying truth of what truly makes their products work. Even if it means turning her back on everything and everyone she thought she cared about.
After all, beauty doesn’t have to be skin deep. It can last forever.
The Z Word
After a bad breakup, chaotic bisexual Wendy is trying to find her place in the queer community in San Larazo, Arizona. It doesn’t help that her ex is hooking up with some of her friends.
But that’s fine. At least, it was until people start turning mindlessly violent all around them.
Now, Wendy is stuck with friends and frenemies as they try to stay alive, save Pride, and get to the source of the zombie outbreak. Now, they just have to figure out how to do that without getting killed—and killing each other.
Featured image: David Jorre/Unsplash
