Softer Scares: Light Horror Books

Mixed-race vampire Lydia is hungry and desperate to taste everything the world has to offer. Clinging to the shadows, Lydia is an observer of the humans around her, recreating them in her paintings. As Lydia reconciles with her need for blood and her lonely existence, she meets other artists also seeking their place in the world.

Dreamy and cerebral, this novel explores fairytale themes using horror tropes. Skincare-obsessed Belle travels home when her mother dies unexpectedly. While settling her mother’s debts, Belle watches a video about a miracle spa. Falling through the looking glass, Belle’s transformation is nearly complete. Keeping gore and jump-scares to a minimum, Rouge is all about the unsettling vibes.

This quiet, unassuming novel creeps in and haunts beyond the last page. On an unnamed island, an unnamed Writer struggles to complete her latest novel while bits and pieces of the world are slowly disappearing. From birds to tin cans to now useless body parts, anything can disappear from existence and memory.

When the Writer’s editor is threatened by the brutish Memory Police, the Writer takes drastic steps to keep his editor hidden. Beautifully translated, this book begs the question: when everything is taken, what is left?

For a bit of middle grade horror fun, The Keeper is just the ticket. When James and his family move from Texas to Oregon, things get weird fast. Mysterious letters from someone called “The Keeper” arrive with threats to James and his sister, but no one will believe James, thanks to his pranking past. Determined to keep Ava and himself safe, James searches for the real “Keeper.”

This book is a fun mystery wrapped up in a family story of transition, with just a hint of scariness.

This translated collection of short stories is themed around water and what lurks beneath the surface. Strange, atmospheric, and emotional, these stories have just enough of a creepiness factor to send a tingle down your spine.

Seeking a fresh start after the death of her father, Jane and her mom Ruth move to Ruth’s neglected childhood home in Maine. As they settle in, the house begins to feel off. Jane is being tormented at school, and Ruth is lost in memories.

Light on scares and gore, Horrid uses the weight of grief and intergenerational trauma to carry this YA horror novel.

In rural Scotland, people go missing, the nearby forest is full of ghosts, and the adults that 10-year-old Lauren has known her whole life are becoming strangers. Lauren and her father, Niall, are out driving when they find a woman on the road. They offer her shelter, but in the morning, she’s gone. The neighbors talk, and Lauren is desperate for a connection to her missing mother. Beautiful, yet claustrophobic and menacing, Pine reaches in and disturbs the quiet.

Tired of running from his past, Eric takes a job as a caretaker for the Mason House, a supposedly haunted house. For Eric and his two daughters, watching over the Mason’s activity will be light work. As Eric begins to explore the legends of the Mason, he examines his own ghosts that keep him running.

This authorized return to A Haunting of Hill House begins with a struggling playwright and a spark of inspiration. With her newest play funded, Holly gathers a group of actors, including her spitfire girlfriend Nisa, at the crumbling mansion that is Hill House.

Time seems to run differently inside the House, and there is something in the air. Deliciously eerie, A Haunting on the Hill feels quite cozy.