4 Terrifying New Releases from Indie and Small Presses in October 2026

A young veteran is discharged and disgraced. When he returns home to Massachusetts during a sweltering heatwave, his parents offer no welcome.

Worst of all, the boy he's loved for as long as he can remember—August—sits in a hospital bed wrapped in gauze, burned beyond recognition after the town's only queer club was set ablaze.

But the light here is wrong. At the corners of his vision, strangers dissolve into smoke.

The men he finds in dark bars hide something hungry under their skin.

And as he tries to find out who set that fateful fire, every thread he pulls leads back to the people who raised him.

This feverish novella is a visceral, unapologetically queer hallucinatory horror.

This book is available now from Lethe Press!

Connie is anxious about meeting her boyfriend's family. As they plan to spend the weekend at their glamorous woodland summer home, Evan warns her that his parents are icy and judgmental—especially toward people from different social circles.

So it's incredibly confusing when Evan welcomes Connie with open arms. In fact, neither of his parents are what she expected.

Evan's parents are so warm that he himself is having trouble believing they're real.

And then during dinner Connie hears strange noises emanating from the basement—noises like someone is crying out for help.

Once Connie opens that door, she can never close it again. And if she dares to walk down those ominous steps, she may never see the light of day again.

This book is available now from Evil Twin!

An incredible debut collection that delivers short stories that take on comedic, feminist twists on classic horrors.

On the page, these stories are told by a group of five women who hide away in the bathroom of a bar, avoiding a man who's either a run-of-the-mill creep, or something far, far worse.

This book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on October 13th by Shortwave Publishing!

The manor home set deep in the Romanian wilderness, Tatratea, has been reclaimed by nature after decades of isolation. Now researcher Errata is determined to investigate the odd signals coming from inside the house, and figure out why the world has gone insane.

As she steps inside, the doors lock behind her. The flora won't let her leave, and all that she has to ground her are her sanity check protocols, her voice recorder, and a few pieces of camping gear.

Something has crashed in the hedge maze, and it's been disrupting reality. Errata has to rely on her intuition in order to solve the mystery and escape the terrifying wilderness of Transylvania.

This book is now available for pre-order, and will be released on October 20th by CLASH Books!