Soft Cover’s Field Guide to the Horror Genre (101)

A mix of classic and contemporary horror picks for the horror curious.

Horror uses dread, unease, and fear to interrogate what threatens us physically, psychologically, socially, or cosmically/environmentally. (Scroll for sub-genre examples).

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein* is considered one of the first works of literary horror (and sci-fi) but the genre has origins in ancient myth, folklore, and religious texts (Revelations is about a literal apocalypse).

Note, all examples are meant to be a mix of arc types and newer releases of the sub-genre and of course, whether a book falls into one or more sub-genres can be up to interpretation!

Psychological Horror

The threat lives in the mind. Unreliable narrators, paranoia, and deteriorating reality. The horror is whether you can trust what you're experiencing or yourself. (This and body horror I know the least).

• I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

• The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Gothic Horror

Atmosphere as menacing and dark. Decaying estates, inherited curses, repressed secrets, and the weight of the past refusing to stay dead. Sometimes supernatural elements. Very very moody.

• Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell

• The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (I do think this could also maybe fall under the psychological horror sub-genre as well)

Body Horror

The body betrays, transforms, or deteriorates in ways the mind cannot accept. Loss of control over your own flesh. Grief, illness, and identity explored.

• The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (This book is how I discovered body horror isn’t for me but incredible first 30 pages that were absolutely terrifying. Body horror, olympic level religious culty haunting/gory scenes)

• Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (Same author but I am going to try and read this one soon)

• Salt slow by Julia Armfield (I want to read this as well. Julia Armfield also wrote “Our Wives under the Sea” that has body horror elements)

Cosmic Horror

Humanity is irrelevant. The universe is indifferent and incomprehensible, and the worst thing that can happen to you is understanding that.

• The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft (H.P. Lovecraft is the “father of cosmic horror” and was heavily influenced by Edgar Allen Poe)

• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (I’m obsessed with this book. It is def a mix of sci-fi and cosmic horror)

• The Croning by Laird Barron (I have not yet read this but have seen this on a couple lists as cosmic horror)

Folk Horror

Isolated communities, old rituals, and the land itself as threat (nature based fear). The horror is that the community believes and you are the outsider or perhaps you start to believe too.

• Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon

• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

• The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

• Never Whistle at Night by Shane Hawk, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

Supernatural Horror

Forces outside the natural world (i.e. ghosts, demons, curses, possession). The horror is that the rules you understood no longer apply as something else has the power.

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• Dracula by Bram Stoker (Okay just saying that you should watch the OG Bram Stokers dracula movie. That is all.)

• The Outsider by Stephen King (Obviously Stephen King is an incredible modern horror writer)

Quiet Horror

No jump scares or gore really. Just a creeping, sustained sense that something is wrong and getting wronger. A lingering horror. I think this is what I mean by “soft horror”.

• Hungerstone by Kat Dunn (This is on my TBR and I am speculating this will fall in the soft horror sub genre)

• Bunny by Mona Awad (I’d classify this as soft horror but absurd)

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