Saying that 2026 is a great year for horror feels almost redundant, given, you know, everything. I guess it had to be a great year for something? Still, if you need to escape from all of this into something where at least evil doesn’t always have a human face, I’ve got you.
While compiling this list, I noticed a lot of horror by and about women globally, and no wonder. From the quiet horror of influencing, in which the lifestyle itself is a performance, to the body horror that is even just a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy, to the horrors of living under governments that consider you less than, women have a lot to survive. There is a lot more here than your typical haunted house story—which we also love, don’t get me wrong.
There are two books on this list with the same title that are about trad wives, in case you were wondering about the preoccupations of women from many walks of life. There’s also the time-travel novel
English (US)