Start Your Year Off Scared: New Horror Coming Out in January

First up is a novella from Simon St. James. When a doctor suggests to Ginette Cox that she might need to find an environment with less excitement, Ginette moves away from the city to a suburban home in New York: 19 Howard Avenue. Life in suburbia is certainly less exciting that life in the city, but at least Ginette has interesting neighbors. To keep herself entertained, Ginette watches the family across the street from her window and makes up little stories for them. But although life in her new home may be boring, it’s far from peaceful. She keeps hearing strange sounds in her basement that keep her from sleeping. And strange man keeps showing up outside of her home.

Jessica Johns’s debut novel is the story of a young Cree woman named Mackenzie. Night after night, Mackenzie has horrifyingly realistic dreams about the events that lead to her sister’s untimely death. But then her waking world isn’t that much less terrifying. A murder of crows keeps stalking her around the city, and she keeps getting threatening texts from someone who claims to be her sister. Mackenzie knows this is more than she can handle alone, and so she travels north to her rural hometown in Alberta to return to her family, still haunted by grief. However, Mackenzie’s return home only intensifies her dreams and makes her more unsure about what happened to her sister years ago.

The wait for the next Grady Hendrix banger is almost over! How to Sell a Haunted House is the story of siblings Louise and Mark Joyner. The two are totally different from each other and basically never speak. But when their parents die at the end of the coronavirus pandemic, Louise and Mark are forced back together to get their childhood home on the market. Guess what though? Yeah, something is weird about the house. Before their parents died, they taped newspaper over the mirrors and nailed the attic door shut. And that’s just the beginning of the disturbing events Mark and Louise will experience in that house.

Tell Me I’m Worthless is a literary gothic horror novel that explores the horror of trauma. Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends Ila and Hannah. Since then, nothing has been the same. Memories of that night continue to torment her, and she hasn’t spoken to either Ila or Hannah since they left the house. So when Ila asks Alice to return with her to the house to rescue Hannah, Alice knows she must go.

Juan Martinez’s Extended Stay is a work of social horror that examines capitalism and the undocumented experience in the U.S. After his parents are killed in a roadside execution, Alvaro flees Columbia with his sister Carmen to work as a line cook at a seedy hotel in Las Vegas. The Alicia Hotel is the perfect place for those with something to hide. But something is feeding on those secrets.

Fade to Black is the latest reality TV sensation. It’s a ghost hunting show led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin. And on episode 13, Fade to Black takes its viewers to the Paranormal Research Foundation. Back in the 1970s, strange experiments were done there, and of course, the building is incredibly haunted. The team enters the foundation, eager to prove just how haunted it really is. But they’re about go get much more than they bargained for.