Somehow we’ve already reached April 2025-and that means there’s a new batch of horror books waiting to pull you into the darkness.
This month’s new titles are particularly unhinged (for good). We’ve got cursed staircases that eat people alive, space barges alive with their own minds, zombie-fied justice, and so many monsters you’ll be sleeping with your lights on.
Whether you’re already in the horror scene or are branching out into something darkly disturbing, these five books are the read-alikes of any reader who wants to be scared out of their wits. Let’s take a look at the top picks horror readers should not miss this April.
1. Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes
Release Date: April 8, 2025 | Publisher: Nightfire
If your horror tastes are cold, silent, and in the vastness of space, then Cold Eternity has got it covered. S.A. Barnes (remember her from Dead Silence) returns with another mix of horror and sci-fi that is as chilling as it is suffocating.
Halley is hiding out from a political scandal aboard a deep-space barge, surrounded by cryogenically frozen corpses of the ultra-rich. It’s supposed to be a perfect escape—silent, forgotten, no one around. But something’s moving in the vents. Scratching. Slithering. Watching. And there’s no one else awake on the ship. At least, there shouldn’t be.
Barnes masterfully balances quiet foreboding and outright horror. If you enjoyed Alien or Event Horizon, this one’s squarely in your haunted wheelhouse.
Recommended if you enjoy: space horrors, isolation, locked-room scares.
2. Senseless by Ronald Malfi
Release Date: April 15, 2025 | Publisher: Titan
Ronald Malfi is a weaver of atmospheric horror, and Senseless could be its most terrifying to date. Picture Zodiac with an extra heaping of psychological tension and fangs—actual fangs.
The narrative focuses on three people whose lives intersect gradually:
- Detective Bill Renney, tracking down a murderer who mutilates and poses their victims in odd ways.
- Maureen Park, who is engaged to a Hollywood producer but uneasy with his unsettlingly taciturn son.
- Toby Campen, tormented by a woman with rattlesnake fangs and an insatiable appetite for destruction.
As their world careens further into the shadows of L.A.’s underworld, an even darker picture unfolds. The signature suspense and complex characters of Malfi create this slow-burning thriller.
Recommended if you enjoy: serial killer novels, mind game fiction, tales with intertwined horrors.
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3. The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum
Release Date: April 22nd, 2025 | Publisher: HarperColl
K. Ancrum steps into horror-thriller territory with a queer, emotionally charged tale of possession, revenge, and forbidden love.
Hollis Brown is eager to get out of his nowhere small town. But after he is possessed by the spirit of an angry ghost named Walt, things get interesting—quickly. Walt has some things to take care of, and he’s taking over Hollis’s body to do it. But the longer they spend in each other’s company, the deeper Hollis finds himself falling in love with him. It’s complicated, it’s risky, and it’s not really the kind of haunting Hollis had in mind.
This one is ideal for those who love richly emotional horrors—there’s yearning, anger, sadness, and a hint of fatal love.
Recommended if you enjoy: queer horror, possession with an emotional cost, Aiden Thomas fans who enjoy Jennifer’s Body.
4. The Summer I Ate the Rich by Maika and Maritza Moulite
Release Date: April 22, 2025 | Publisher: FSG BYR
This one’s for young adult horror fans (but don’t tell anyone, because it packs the same punch for grownups). Maika and Maritza Moulite combine social commentary with Haitian mythology in a book that’s as edgy as it is disturbing.
Brielle Petitfour attempts to support her family since her mother has lost her job. She begins to cook for the super-rich families who contributed to putting her city in trouble. But there’s a twist—there’s a really secret ingredient in her food. One based on something ancient. Something that craves.
Inspired by Haitian zombie mythology, The Summer I Ate the Rich is funny, angry, and completely delectable in a revenge-fantasy sense. It’s a clever and terrifying exploration of class and survival presented in an unforgettable narrative.
Read if you dare: horror with bite (literally), folklore, revenge tales fueled by rage.
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5. The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Release Date: April 29, 2025 | Publisher: Del Rey
You’ve heard the myth—mysterious staircases in the woods with no apparent end. Do not attempt to climb them. But in The Staircase in the Woods, someone does, and the repercussions are merciless.
Twenty years ago, a group of teens went camping and found one of those infamous staircases. One friend climbed it and disappeared forever. The rest went home, haunted and changed. Now, the staircase is back. And it’s calling the remaining friends to return.
Wendig turns an everyday internet myth on its head and makes it real, visceral, and terrifying. The novel plumbs grief and guilt and the horrors that will not be buried. Do not be lulled by the slow beginning—once the nightmare starts clicking into place, it doesn’t release.
Recommended if you enjoy: urban legends, reunion horrors, slow-burning supernatural suspense.
Final Thoughts
April 2025’s slate of horrors is loaded with nightmare fodder. From outer space to small towns, ghosts to haunted staircases, these five titles demonstrate how varied—and done genuinely well—contemporary horror can be. No matter if you’re here for ghosts, gore, monsters, or vengeance, there’s at least one fresh favorite in here.
So what’s on your TBR list first? Let me know if you would like a personalized rec based on your favorite sub-genre of horror—haunted houses, body horror, cults, whatever. Otherwise, happy screaming—er, reading. Let me know if you would like a brief version for social media, or a title/cover-compliant blog style.