These 8 Devil Horror Books are Devilishly Good

Imagine waking up after a night of drinking with horns growing out of your forehead. That’s what happens to Ignatius Perrish, the protagonist of Joe Hill’s novel, Horns.

It’s the first anniversary of the death of Perrish’s girlfriend, Merrin Williams. A year filled of grief and rage, Perrish’s life has fallen into a state of disrepair. With nothing left to lose, he drinks himself into a stupor, only to wake up the following morning with and hangover… and horns. 

Before her death, Perrish had lived a privileged life, everything going well; now he’s tormented by inner demons, broken down by the life that was taken from him. The manifestation of the horns yields a strange new power, one that he decides to use to hunt down the murderer of his girlfriend.

In Horns, Hill has crafted a deeply personal rendition of the Devil—and the demon(s) within. 

This series by Mike Carey delves into the darkly rich and fantastical world of The Sandman. Not just for fans of the main series, Lucifer stars none other than Lucifer Morningstar, former Lord of Hell, who is brought back via a holy request from Heaven.

He’s been relegated to an on-off again cleaner, a hitman type whenever God really doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. It also implies that no matter how much Lucifer feels like he’s finally rid of his past era, he can’t quite shake free the residuals. 

Naturally, a mission seldom goes smoothly, and soon Lucifer’s chapter lengthens into a complex and supernatural descent into Heaven and Hell. What’s interesting is how Lucifer is portrayed, a character battle-worn and more interested in hanging at his bar, playing piano.

It’s another example of how the Devil can don many forms, including a more humanistic version that reflects internal demons in an external fashion. 

From the author of the acclaimed The Loney, Andrew Micheal Hurley’s Devil’s Day sends readers into that same gothic and nostalgic atmosphere found in Hurley’s debut.

Our protagonist John Pentecost goes back home to a farm in Lancashire after receiving word of his grandfather’s passing. Known by the townsfolk as “The Gaffer,” his grandfather leaves behind a role in the local community that is in dire need of being filled. 

The Gaffer was responsible for establishing and maintaining the boundaries of the town, and many of those boundaries were more than Pentecost might have initially expected. They include various communal rituals designed to protect the farm’s various animals. Pentecost is forced to take up the role and on the next Devil’s Day, he does his best to ensure that tradition continues.

Of course, he cannot achieve the heights of what his grandfather was able to do and soon the community faces a multitude of tragedies, evidence that they may in fact be cursed and hunted by the Devil himself.  

For fans of demonic possession by way of adolescence, Ania Ahlborn’s Seed is a twisted tale that explores the traumas of childhood.

Loving father Jack Winter has a secret, one that he has been hiding from since he was a kid. This looming darkness simply refuses to let go of him. After a car accident, Jack’s daughter Charlie begins acting odd. 

His wife Aimee becomes worried; on the other hand, Jack begins to see the similarities, something that happened to him so long ago. Charlie’s behavior might be reminiscent of Damien (The Omen) or even Regan (The Exorcist) yet Ahlborn paints her own unique picture of the Devil possessing innocence.

Seed causes you to think about your own past, what haunts you, and if you can ever really be freed of what you endured as you came of age. 

Victor LaValle reinvents himself with every new novel, yet manages to contain a voice that’s entirely his

 In his 2012 novel The Devil in Silver, readers are introduced to Pepper, a man being admitted to a mental institution after being arrested for attacking some police officers. It doesn’t take long for Pepper to realize that the Devil visits the institution at night, there for reasons he cannot yet fathom. 

And yet, it’s the fact that the Devil’s visits (and form) remain shrouded to be a reflection of why he preys upon the fractured minds of the residents of the mental hospital.

It’s perhaps true that many were introduced to Victor LaValle’s special blend of horror and fantasy by way of his novel, The Changeling; however, it must be said that every book the author’s penned has been an exceedingly original and memorable experience. 

In this brisk novel by Stephen Michell, the Devil takes multiple forms and readers see it refracted across a child’s fear and vulnerability.

A man named Rook kidnaps a six-year-old boy named Evan, who quickly notices something odd about the man. He seems to carry powers, and is much more than your average villainous character. On the run, never standing still for long, Rook appears to be protecting Evan, or rather what Evan embodies.

Mitchell ratchets up the pace and keeps readers on an action-oriented descent into a series of increasingly violent and horrific altercations. It’s a story that carries hints of Midnight Special and The Road by way of John Wick with the Devil as its director. 

Micol Ostow’s The Devil and Winnie Flynn is the sort of book written for fans of the paranormal, particularly those shows that specialize in paranormal investigations and urban legends.

Readers are introduced to Winnie Flynn, a teenager as disaffected as any teenager would be given the state of modern life. She is contacted by her aunt Maggie, who produces a show called Fantastic, Fearsome, Flynn ends up in the throes of TV production and the real unknown. 

In the show’s latest episode, Winnie finds herself head-first in the role of production assistant in New Jersey while filming the show on the infamous Devil. Of course, soon Winnie sees things, hears things, and things go bump in the night.

Worst of all, Winnie learns that there’s more to the show, and to her aunt Maggie, than expected and the timing of her recruitment might not be a coincidence at all. 

An incredibly comprehensive dive into the history and lore of the Devil, John Skipp’s 2011 anthology Demons is perhaps one of the best tomes for those looking to take a detailed tour and look into the Devil and his various forms across fiction past and present. 

In addition to 36 stories by authors like Neil Gaiman, Bentley Little, and Richard Matheson, Skipp includes two awesome appendices that manage to form a chronology of the Devil and demons in various lore.

The anthology is the sort of book that you’ll keep going back to, not just because it will take you a long while to get through all 36 offerings, but also because its heft holds true in achieving its intention to fully explore the realms of demons and the Devil.