10 Terrifying New Horror Books to Read in September 2023

Do you think you could stay in the house of your dreams that you bought for a song if it was haunted? What if it was only really haunted one month of the year? Margaret has decided she can. When she and her husband have their first September in their gorgeous Victorian home, and truly frightening things start happening, they are justifiably terrified. But Margaret figures out a pattern and decides that it’s worth navigating the September scaries to live there. Her husband Hal agrees at first, but as the horror intensifies, he flees after the fourth year. Margaret is fine with this arrangement, but when her daughter calls, telling her no one has heard from Hal, she realizes she may have to share her secrets to get the answers.

When Charlie’s father dies, he leaves him his record store and a small assortment of special records. These aren’t just rare albums — supposedly, they open the doors to the land of the dead. Thinking it’s a hoax, Charlie plays the records at a small gathering. Wow, are they sorry they did. Now that the dead are back and looking to boogie, and darkness covers the land, they must rely on an expert to help them return the world to how it was — Charlie’s dead father.

Madi Price is a down-on-her-luck single mother who makes the hard decision to return to her hometown. Once there, she takes up work as a palm reader, which leads her to a fateful encounter with her ex-boyfriend, Henry. Henry is mourning his son, who disappeared five years before. But Madi is struck with terrifying visions that tell a different truth, and those horrors are now coming for her, too.

This is a collection of terrifying tales from an exciting new name in Japanese horror! The title story is about a child who has lost her mother and the new woman her father brings home. As she sets about making the home her own and starting her new family life, she begins to realize things in the house, and with the child, are anything but normal.

In this wild Western, a ragtag group in a red wagon is on a mission to capture a powerful witch and claim the reward. But the lands they must pass through first are filled with criminals, demons, and corpses. Not to mention that the witch isn’t going to surrender quietly. As they encounter one horror after another, the group soon discovers that maybe the witch isn’t the most terrible thing out there.

From one of the best new horror writers of the last decade comes a story about a woman who escaped her religious extremist family as a teen. Now, she has been invited back, no strings attached, to attend the wedding of her beloved cousin. Maybe all is okay now. But shortly after Vesper returns home for the wedding, she discovers she has made a huge mistake, as dark secrets threaten to consume her.

Chuck Wendig’s books are always a good time! This novel is one that is best read knowing as little as possible about it. It’s about a special apple orchard in the town of Harrow that grows apples unlike any other. People clamor for the apples, but they come with a cost. And in this tale, an apple a day won’t keep the nightmares away…