Every year brings a flood of highly anticipated horror releases, but some books stand out long before they hit sales shelves. Thought early reviews and anticipation from readers, these titles quickly become some of the most buzzy books in the book world. Our literary landscape continues to be shaped by the innovation and storytelling power of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) authors, whose work consistently pushes genres in exciting new directions while also brining fresh perspectives to readers around the world. Chilling horror and speculative fiction challenge and provoke thought and these upcoming releases from BIPOC writers are some of the most anticipated books on the near horizon.
As publishing grows more diverse, readers have more opportunities than ever to discover stories that reflect a wider range of cultures and voices. Supporting BIPOC writers remains as important as ever, not simply as a matter of representation, but because these authors are producing some of the most original and compelling stories being published today. Their stories introduce us to unforgettable characters and showcase the incredible breath of talent across the literary community. Here are 10 books you need to add to your 2026 TBR (to-be-read) list.
MY MONSTERS AIN’T LIKE YOURS by R.J. Joseph Publisher: Quill & Crow Publishing House; July 15
Bram Stoker Award Winner R.J. Joseph brings us a brand new short story collection that explores the topic of what one finds frightening and the irony this may reveal through Black feminist intersectional horror at its most raw. Monsters are personal. Monsters are universal. These facts create an intriguing juxtaposition where the things deemed monstrous or frightening can be shaped by personal experiences, while also representing many aspects of the human condition; our fears are much more similar than dissimilar. This means my monsters are absolutely like they are our collective nightmares.
THE HOUSE OF GARDENIAS by Isabel Cañas Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers; September 29
A debut gothic YA from the USA Today bestselling author of The Hacienda and The Possession of Alba Díaz. Sixteen-year-old Minerva has spent her whole life in the slums of the capital city of an unnamed country that resembles colonial Mexico. Though she lives in the shadow of constant government turmoil, her empty belly and her father’s brutality don’t leave time for politics—especially since her older brothers ran away. Minerva can’t take another beating or miss another meal, so she steals flees to a wealthy loyalist neighborhood to win a job as a lady’s maid to an elderly widow. Minerva and Encarnación del Valle—the proud and acerbic widow—form an unlikely duo. They are both survivors in their own ways, stubborn and used to being underestimated. For a time, Minerva is happy. She has food and safety in a house lit and warmed by magical chispa. Why should she care who runs the country or how her employer afford the magic?
OUR CUT OF SALT by Deena Helm Publisher: Tor Nightfire; September 22
In this lyrical debut, three generations of Palestinian women must put the haunting of their ancestral home to rest, before the secrets of the past drown them all. Our Cut of Salt is a powerful and intimate look at what it means to make a home, to lose it, and to return, only to find it irrevocably changed. There is something haunting Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart. And, in return, the house did the same for her. After Nuhad passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother’s home after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. Marina’s mother, Haifa – named for the city that was lost to their family – reluctantly agrees to her trip, though she knows firsthand that some secrets are better left buried. But the house is no longer a home. It is a painful, festering wound that infects everything it touches. The more Marina digs into her family’s past, the sicker she becomes. Despite Nuhad’s ghostly warnings, Haifa rushes to help her daughter. As the three women converge in their ancestral home, they must put the haunting to rest before the secrets of the past drown them all.
SAVAGE LAKE by Nick Medina Publisher: Berkley Publishing; October 27
A mother and son travel to a dilapidated cabin in the woods that haunts more than just her memories in this new unnerving horror from the author of The Whistler and Sisters of the Lost Nation. Nell Marin swore she would never return to the place where part of her died. The passing of her estranged father, however, leaves her with no choice but to take her teenage son, Oscar, back to the run-down family cabin on Torchlight Lake, where horrific memories linger. The two will fix the place up, sell it, and ensure Nell never has to return to that dreaded lake again. But when the roads—which pass through Native land—are barricaded by the local Tribe, the quick trip turns into weeks. Oscar, a horror movie buff, knows this is exactly how it starts. As the long summer days drag on, unsettling things begin to occur: screams ring out over the water and a mysterious figure watches the cabin from the trees at night. Most disturbing of all, his mother is becoming less and less herself. As the strange events lead Oscar to uncover the secrets Nell has shielded him from, he is forced to confront a reality that is far more frightening than movie monsters. He must uncover answers to the questions that stole so much from his mother…before the horror that traumatized Nell drags him under as well.
THE SLEEPING SISTERS by Jennifer Givhan Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; August 18
A threatened mother and relentless detective collide in this mesmerizing novel from a rising voice in literary horror, perfect for fans of Gabino Iglesias, Carmen Maria Machado, Augustina Bazterrica, and Stephen Graham Jones. A mother’s love is the oldest curse. Fortuna Miércoles has finally moved her family to a better neighborhood across the Rio Grande, desperate to outrun the curse that’s stalked her bloodline since her greatest grandmother crossed the desert with a cactus thorn splitting her throat. But burying a family’s violent legacy isn’t so easy. Twenty years ago, girls and women vanished into the Albuquerque night, their bones later unearthed on the mesa. The so-called Reaper was never caught. Now, beneath the dormant volcanoes called the Sleeping Sisters, the killings have begun again. Detective Jeanette Palacio has spent decades chasing the ghosts of her murdered cousins—alongside the memory of the other women she couldn’t avenge. When a new body turns up in Fortuna’s backyard, both women are pulled into a dangerous, ancient plot. Are the Sleeping Sisters awakening—or has someone in Fortuna’s family set a trap?
IT’S UNDER THE DECK by Jacy Morris Publisher: Sobelo Books; July 28
Jacy Morris (We Like It Cherry) brings you the tale of Phil, who discovers something dying under his deck, emitting a horrid stench. When he attempts to remove the corpse, strange things begin to happen, and Phil descends into a strange pit of insanity. A novella length makes this a quicker read but no less effective in its horror elements.
BACK FOR BLOOD: NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT PART II: AN INDIGENOUS HORROR ANTHOLOGY Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. Publisher: Vintage; August 18
The bestselling Indigenous dark fiction anthology returns with a new selection of even more daring and sinister stories. From monsters to mutilation, Never Whistle at Night is back for revenge. As any savvy horror fan the monster never truly dies. The team that brought you the bestselling dark fiction anthology Never Whistle at Night has risen, hungry, from the grave to summon more dark delicacies for your delectation. In these twenty-one brand-new, groundbreaking, gruesome stories—authored by both established and newly unearthed Indigenous talent—the contributors are fully embracing both supernatural horrors and the everyday horror of living under colonialist rule. Featuring stories of unspeakable yet satisfying terror, from twisted psychological tales to gore-filled monster hunts, this new selection of sinister stories will sate your darkest appetites and leave you slavering for more. Never Whistle at Night, Part II Back for Blood is a further celebration of Indigenous survival and the enduring tradition of transforming adversity into art.
NEEDLEMOUTH by K-Ming Chan Publisher: Simon and Schuster; October 20
From the award-winning author of Bestiary, three cousins are forced to complete an impossible and violent task set by a vengeful demon. Cousins Cindy, Yangyang, and Mandy’s hot, tedious summer unfolds in their grandmother’s hauntingly familiar house. Mandy, the eldest, seeks connection online and exchanges emails with a stranger. Yangyang, the youngest, retreats into her own imagination in search of meaning. But every morning Cindy wakes with strange objects in her mouth: a button, a berry, a coin. One night, a starved figure with a mouth the size of a needle-tip appears at Cindy’s bedside. She is hunger-afflicted, a demon with no descendants to feed from: she is Needlemouth. Part vampire, part hungry ghost, Needlemouth forces the girls into a grim task to end a man’s life. Cindy, Yangyang, and Mindy are plunged in and out of the demon realm, where they are called to break out of the indifference and numbness of their claustrophobic worlds, and where they are met with the most rageful and resistant parts of themselves. In a quest to satisfy the demon’s hunger, they unravel their shared grief and reckon with the cyclical violence that shaped their family. For readers of Akwaeke Emezi and Carmen Maria Machado, K-Ming Chang has crafted a reimagined coming of age novel that asks: what does it mean to become the monster instead of slaying it?
ROOTED by Leopoldo Gout Publisher: Tor Nightfire; September 15
Author of Piñata, Leopoldo Goût’s latest horror novel Rooted is a “a blood reckoning” (Marlon James) where one woman’s return to Mexico City digs away the layers of her forgotten past and the Aztec gods she awakened. Aurora, a successful art lawyer, has returned to Mexico to celebrate a recent campaign for the repatriation of stolen artifacts. In particular a mysterious statue of an Aztec god. There’s nothing wrong with Aurora. But Mexico City isn’t as she remembered, and as she cares for her ailing mother, home isn’t as she remembered either. Nothing is as she remembered. Elements of her past hint at darkness and power, and reality begins to crack and warp the streets. There’s nothing wrong with Aurora. But some sicknesses can’t be healed. As Aurora’s sanity unravels, she must pry apart her family’s secrets and accept the simplest of The Flayed One cannot stay buried.
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU IN THE DARK by Mathilda Zeller Publisher: Tor Nightfire; October 13
It Looks Like You in the Dark is a propulsive, grab-you-by-the-throat, Indigenous horror debut, by Mathilda Zeller, that expertly blending folklore and supernatural chills to explore all the fearsome monsters that emerge when we turn our backs on the land and each other. Tapeesa is newly out of high school and working in a fish processing plant in the Inupiat village, Chukchi, where she’s lived her whole life. Maybe that’s why people tend to assume she isn’t that bright―or maybe her mama is right and she does have bad blood. Either way, she knows the legend, and she knows the history. Her Ahna told her that the hungry creature―the kushtuka―appears to us in the form of someone we love. It will try to get us to follow it. Follow it where? Those who have gone no longer have throats to tell us. The Kobuk River Valley of remote Alaska draws greedy white men time and time again. But whenever they come, death comes too. This time the white men are here for the long term, to create an open pit, a lead mine just north of the village. When her sister Esther goes missing, Tapeesa will do anything to get her back. Seeking justice, Tapeesa must track down the kidnapper in the darkening Arctic. What awaits beyond the warmth of her village is more horrible than she could imagine and closer to her than she knows.
Whether you are looking to diversify your reading list or discover your next favorite author, this list highlights upcoming books that deserve a place on your radar. These title spark excitement and promise to leave a lasting impression on readers in the months ahead.
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE RESPECTIVE PUBLISHERS
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