So this Halloween has rolled around quickly, and it turns out there are plenty more horror recommendations to share. It’s not an exclusive genre for my reading habits, but it’s definitely one I love to return to. This time around I’ve gone back through my Goodreads for some of my five-star favourites in the genre.
Let me know afterwards if you agree with any, or not. After all, art is subjective, and I love hearing what others think about such a rich and fertile topic.
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
I’d already 5-starred The Unworthy last year, a harrowing, psychologically thrilling tale of a strange religious order after an unspecified end of the world. So I was eager to return to this author, and I wasn’t disappointed. After recently attending my local book group to discuss it, I found I was in the majority.
It was a horrible book – and I mean that as a compliment. I started reading, quickly moved through the graphic yet mundane descriptions of human meat, and realised I was uncomfortable. And before long it’s obvious that’s the point. How easily society can slide into an easy justification for horrible acts – by simple acts of dehumanisation.
I could do an entire thesis on this novel, which, to me, is a more straightforward, modern horror-genre version of 1984, but I’ll have to move on. I’ll say this: if you have a strong stomach and/or care about the easy way we can slide into dystopian nightmares, then have a read. Just don’t expect to fancy a bacon butty afterwards.
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
I’ve loved Paul Tremblay’s work since I first came across The Cabin at the End of the World, and while I’ve worked my way through the catalogue since, found some other belters, and some that left me a little colder, Survivor Song was one of the most pleasant surprises. On the surface, a modern ‘zombie’ novel, where zombism is more closely linked to a rapid rabies outbreak. In a post-COVID world, it takes on a whole different dimension when ordinary spaces become testing centres.
It’s not the typical societal-breakdown kind of crap that gets you, although don’t get me wrong, it’s handled far more subtly and with nuance than other novels of the kind I’ve read. It’s the people. The relationship between the two leads: one a doctor, the other a pregnant woman. You go through it with them, so close to everything, and bit by bit begin to dread the ending you know is coming. The fact you see it a mile off doesn’t matter; it’s the slow and creeping dread of inevitability shuffling towards you.
Just like a zombie, come to think of it.
Exiles by Mason Coile
We’re going into space for the next recommendation. This was actually a book sent through my first book box subscription I’d ever tried and so came as a complete surprise. And what a surprise. It begins with a fairly simple premise – three people sent on a mission to Mars at which they’ll be the first people on the planet at a base set up for them by their robotic heralds.
But when they arrive instead of the welcome party, they find a couple of missing robots, a broken base and a whole manner of histories. Was it something alien out on the surface of mars that has been stalking them? Or has one of the robots gone mad from the isolation and the alien landscape?
It is written in a bleak, hopeless tone, keeping us in the mind of one of the crew members until close to the very end. It twists and turns, and you wonder throughout whether the supposedly ‘alien’ creature is even real. By the end, there’s very little doubt, but the hopelessness that has crept in makes the ending completely, devastatingly simple. Simply excellent.
Oracle by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
I wasn’t sure going into this one because I’d absolutely loved Hex (I even recommended it during last Halloween’s special!). But then the follow-up published-in-English novel Echo left me a little cold, with a fantastic opening premise that devolves into a complicated, convoluted storyline (for me). But Oracle returns to follow a single character and survivor from Hex with a completely new story. And what a sodding story.
A former vessel appears one day in the middle of a misty field, and people begin to disappear inside. That’s the simple premise, investigated by an external supernatural-intelligence agency. But it becomes a tense novel of escalation, driven by truth versus secrecy and the lengths people will go to control something they don’t understand. It also manages to carry an ecological message about the nature of nature in the process.
I can’t quite describe this novel, except to say: go in with an open mind and enjoy the ride. That’s it.
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
I think I picked this one up at random at Waterstones, drawn in by the cover and what seemed like a pretty cool concept. What would happen if a bunch of ‘final girls’ formed a support group? At first, it’s a pretty obvious concept, each of them representing thinly veiled allusions to the classics: Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell, her at the end of The Texas Chainsaw. Then they begin to die. And then shit gets weird.
We’re placed close to the head of one of the final girls, whose paranoia keeps her from pursuing any kind of normal life. And you would think being that close to someone who’s effectively stopped living and started merely surviving would grate, eventually, but bit by bit, as you go through the novel, you actually begin to agree with her, think like her, and ultimately understand her.
And then, of course, we get a very validating bloodbath that is equal parts cathartic, chaotic, and downright fun. It’s definitely made me want to go back to Grady Hendrix’s other work – and I think this is a great way in for anyone.
Until Next Time
Well, that’s this Halloween over with – and hopefully some decent new recommendations for you to go away and try. Perhaps I’ll do another genre special sometime during the year. A Sci-Fi recommendation on April 26th perhaps. For now, I’ll simply keep reading and sharing some random thoughts on Goodreads. Come join if you like; I’m happy to add anyone and be nosy about what people are reading.
And then, next time, shambling forward from the grave once more – as the veil between my opinions and the internet reaches its thinnest point – I’ll be like one of those horrible monsters and come back.
Although, honestly, that could just be a hangover.
‘til the End
Rick Rawes
Leeds, West Yorkshire
30th October 2026
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