Becky's Best Horror of 2025

Tomorrow on the general blog I will have my annual Becky's Best Books I Read in 2025 post which will include a link to this post listing my favorite Horror books of the year.

Before I get to my personal list, here is my annual recap of the year in Horror 2025 edition in the Lineup. From my introduction:

...I promise you, this is not your run-of-the-mill, end-of-the-year best books list. As I do each year here at The Lineup, I try to give you a more nuanced look at the year that was by walking you through some of the more interesting trends I have noticed accompanied by the example titles that illustrate them best.

We were blessed with an abundance of great horror this year, and while I would never be able to fit all of my favorites in this one article, I did see three distinct trends emerge, all of which took the genre in original and vibrant directions, drawing in new readers, and providing us all with amazing reading experiences.

Click here to read the entire post for free.

Now in terms of my personal favorite Horror reads of 2025, I am not going to give a top ten because this was a strange year for my favorite. Why was it strange? Well because the best book I read in every category and for every reason regardless of genre is the same book-- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. And what is even more jarring, I read that book in December of 2024 and I knew then, I would not read a better book in 2025. 

In my 25 years of being a librarian, this has never happened to me. I have always been able to say that I have a few favorite books especially when considering genre. That makes this year very special, but also a little strange. 

To that end, I am going to embrace the strangeness which this year presented to me and give you some books that I loved this year with links to my reviews. You can see all of the horror I read and even more that I consider 5 Stars by following my reviews at Goodreads. I use Goodreads to keep everything in one easy and searchable place for you to see all of the books I read each year, but especially all of the horror. And you can always find this link to my reviews in the right gut of the blog in the page titles-- Horror Review Index.

Another easy way to see everything I was paid to review (this will not have the books I read for fun many of which are not horror) is to use the "What I'm Reading" tag on the general blog here.

Once again, I officially read just under 70 Horror books for review in 2025. Some of those books I read in 2025 but the reviews won't post until 2026. In fact, I have 1 more to read and review before the end of the year.

You should 100% check out all of the books I read for review in 2025 because all of these are horror books I would recommend for all public libraries. And these reviews all appeared in Booklist or Library Journal, so you can have a resource to site when making the purchase. Even if you are backtracking now and into January, you can still easily get all the books I have recommended in those magazine with this simple click. Buying horror is an all year long activity. And like every popular genre, sometimes we have to catch up after the fact. 

Okay now on to the books I loved and gave a star to in print; these are the books that stayed with me all year. As I revisited everything, these all flew to the top of the top. Each book came out in 2025 even if I read it in 2024. I have them listed in the order by reviews were published.

[Please note, one title I loved and read but it was not for review is Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. I did include it in the article above though.]

• Wake Up and Open Your Eyes by Clay McLeod Chapman
• At Dark, I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
• The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica
• When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy
• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
• The Country Under Heaven By Frederic S. Durbin
• Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
• Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
• A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper
• The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno Garcia
• Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle
• Killer on the Road/The Babysitter Lives by Stephen Graham Jones
• We Are Always Tender With Our Dead by Eric LaRocca
• Black Flame by Gretchen Felker Martin
• Acquired Taste (stories) by Clay McLeod Chapman
• Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
• The Long Low Whistle by Laurel Hightower

I will elaborate more on a few of these on the main blog tomorrow but that is a wrap on Becky's Best Horror I read in 2025.

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: Something Fun to End 2025

Today I have a fun giveaway to end the year, an interactive Horror coloring book. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Last week's winner was Renee from ND. Now on to this week's giveaway.

A few months ago, the good people at Insight Editions sent me this awesome choose your own adventure coloring book, Survive the Night: A Killer Coloring Adventure, which came out back in March  From their site:

So, you and your friends decide to go away for a quiet vacation at a lakeside cabin. The good news is that you’re all together. The bad news? You’re not the only ones there! As the body count rises, prepare to make decisions, commit to them in color, and hope you survive when you turn the page. Wind through a maze of brutal choices and eerie locales. Go left or right? Axe or hammer? Stick together or split up? (That last one should be obvious!) There's more than sixty bone-chilling pages to color your way through as you try to expose the killer on the loose.

Along the way you'll encounter masked maniacs and creepy, lovestruck teenagers as you unearth buried secrets from the past. You’ll have to make tough decisions and trust your horror trope know-how to save you. Just remember, there are no guarantees you’ll Survive the Night.

Click through to see some images from inside the book.

I know it is probably too late for you to order this as a gift for the holidays, but head on over to their site and take a look at all the great titles they have for the horror fans in your life. Stock up for 2026's gift giving opportunities. Maybe even consider buying a few for your library's passive programming, craft programs, or even as prizes.

This week's winner will get their own copy of this fun, interactive title. Hopefully you have some time off over the holidays to enjoy engaging with it. 

Before I go, a few end of the year comments.

As we round out another year of the giveaway (which began in April 2020), I am also closing in on 300 separate giveaways (this one makes 296). Definitely more than 300 books  have been given away though because I have had many weeks where I give more than 1 book to a winner. And just last week, one of the last people who entered in 2020 won!.

Thank you all for being on this journey with me. I love passing these books on to you. When the giveaway returns on January 8th, I will begin with some titles from my January 2026 Library Journal Horror Review column. 

All of this is a reminder that if you enter once, you are entered going forward. Follow the rules above and get your name in the running. And if you have won before, as long as it has been 4 weeks, you can hop back in. 

Check back here next week (12/22) for my Best Horror of 2025, but other than that, see you in 2026.

Via Chicago Tribune-- Chicagoan of the Year in Books: If you’re into horror, thank the librarian Becky Spratford

I mean, knew this was coming, but it still feels odd. I am the person behind the curtain always, but at the same time, all of us who hep readers in public libraries are.

I am proud to stand here to promote all of us and the work we do.

I was honored to be chosen for this and even more honored to take the pictures in the adult stacks at the La Grange Public Library-- a building a literally was a part of building in my time on the library board. I was there for 24 years, from when we passed the referendum to build the library until it opened, and now after those 20 years of binds have been paid off. 

I have an account for the Tribune and am sharing this gift link here. It will be in the print paper on 12/21.

Thank you to all of the authors who provided quotes to Chris Borelli. Thanks also to Chris who is a huge supporter of books in general and Horror specifically. We are lucky to have him on the beat here in Chicago when so many other cities just ignore books coverage. 

I will drop the article here for posterity but then, I am going back behind the curtain.

Chicagoan of the Year in Books: If you’re into horror, thank the librarian Becky Spratford

Click the image to read the article
(gift link)

#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: 2 Must Add ARCs from Poisoned Pen Press

Today I have two advanced copies (for 1 winner) from Poisoned Pen Press, both due to come out in April of 2026. These are going to have wide appeal. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Last week's winner was Rosemarie from AZ. Now on to this week's giveaway.

Poisoned Pen Press is an imprint of Sourcebooks and they are putting out some of the most accessible and popular horror for a general reading audience. Their titles are how many of today's readers discover horror for the first time, especially female horror readers and library users.

I am very excited to share 2 of their April 2026 titles here today. One person will win both ARCs, but all of you should use the links to learn more and get these titles on order ASAP.

First up, We Call Them Witches by India-Rose Bower:

For fans of The Watchers and T. Kingfisher comes a queer, post-apocalyptic horror following one woman's journey across a merciless wasteland to save her brother and confront the dark truth behind the monsters that ravaged the world - with the help of a woman she's not sure she can trust but can't help falling for. 

 Nearly everyone died the first night they came… 

Two years ago, monstrous beings tore through Britain, leaving few survivors. Now Sara and her family live on the run, relying on scraps of folklore and fading pagan rituals to stay safe from the eldritch creatures they call "witches". 

 While her mother grows increasingly paranoid, Sara longs for something more than fear.

Then a strange girl appears in the garden of their current camp. Her name is Parsley, and she cannot remember where she came from or why she's there. Despite her family's suspicions, Sara feels drawn to her.

But when Sara's younger brother is taken by the Witches, she and Parsley must cross desolate moors full of merciless terrors to get him back. As their bond deepens, so do the dangers they face—and Sara begins to question whether anything is truly as it seems.

In a world ruled by terror and myth, trust is the only thing more dangerous than the Witches themselves.

Second, Death Meets Cute by J. Penner:

 "Filled with so much love, heart, and delicious baked goods." —Rebecca Thorne, USA Today bestselling author of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea

I am more than capable of being evil today. I think…

Iris Weyward wants to be bad. Truly bad. Terrifyingly, gloriously villainous. But after helping her sisters unleash a spell to throw the realm into chaos, Iris is left feeling strangely empty—and still not the villain of her dreams. So, she sets off for the quiet town of Fraywell to build her wicked legacy alone.

Things start promisingly: a crooked little cottage, a reputation for curses and potions, and a healthy dose of fear from the locals. But when her ogre bodyguard disappears, Iris needs new muscle. Good thing a fearsome orc just toppled over in her yard. Naturally, she decides to reanimate him. It's a perfect solution. 

Only, Talon isn't the brooding warrior she was hoping for. He's gentle. He bakes. Worst of all, he's nice. But Iris can't possibly have a thing for her new employee. She's supposed to be the most wicked witch in town!

While Iris struggles to turn Talon into the enforcer she deserves, her sisters arrive seeking help—their magic is fading, and the cause may be closer than any of them realize. The timing couldn't be worse, and falling for an orc wasn't supposed to be part of her villain era, but it might turn out to be the best spell she's ever cast…

Remember, when you enter once, you are entered going forward until you win.

I will have 1 more giveaway this year and then I will be back the first week of January with a giveaway of a book from my January 2026 LJ column.

Good Luck!  

#HorrorForLibraries: 3 Fall ARCs from Flame Tree Press

Today I have two finished copies for two winners of a volume featuring many authors whose work you have on your sleeves, presented by a trusted editor, and part of a series of books which I have reviewed titles from in the past. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Last week's winners were Nancy from VA and John from MI.

Now on to this week's giveaway which features a three book prize pack courtesy of Flame Tree Press

After the 31 Days of Horror, I still had a backlog of ARCs to giveaway and in this case, all three books have already released, but the title themselves are worth you knowing about, so I am giving them all away at once, to one very lucky winner.

First up An Echo of Children by the great Ramsey Campbell:

A slow burn, chilling horror in a gorgeous edition. Ramsey Campbell always delivers... 

Coral and Allan Clarendon have just moved to the seaside town of Barnwall with their young son Dean. If an uncommon number of children have died unnaturally in Barnwall throughout history, surely Dean must be safe with his parents. Could their house be a source of peril? Allan and Coral seem to think so, since they call for an exorcism. Allan’s father Thom believes his wife is wrong to think the ceremony has left Dean in worse danger. But if she’s alone in seeing the terrors that are gathering around him, how desperate will her solution have to be?

The Ramsey Campbell Special Editions. Campbell is the greatest inheritor of a tradition that reaches back through H.P. Lovecraft and M.R. James to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the early Gothic writers. The dark, masterful work of the painter Henry Fuseli, a friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, is used on these special editions to invoke early literary investigations into the supernatural.

Next it is Unseen Gods by Justin Holley:

Careful what you search for, you may just find it. With grotesque glimpses of the disappeared, the past is alive and well.

After winning an old casefile at auction outlining the disappearance of a hunting party back in the nineties, Kory and his pregnant wife invite their friend and mentor, Professor Frank Colista, and others, for a casual long weekend of exploring the mystery onsite with very little hope of finding anyone or anything. When one of their factions disappears without a trace, Kory and Colista fear the past may repeat itself. Then the deaths start. As a savage, unexpected snowstorm sets in, the disappearances and ungodly sightings of the deceased ramp up, and an old woman rambles about end-of-days and sacrifice.

And finally, Opposite World by Elizabeth Anne Martins:

Memories are malleable, dreams are a battlefield, and reality is a shifting landscape. Think Inception meets Dark Matter, with echoes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the unsettling corporate dystopia of Severance.

Piper “Pip” Screed remembers nothing about her mother’s mysterious death or the strange episode that left her in a deep, unexplained sleep. All she knows is that her father uprooted them to a secluded mountain cabin, severed all ties to the outside world, and refuses to answer her questions.

Fifteen years later, Pip escapes isolation and discovers The Reverie Cloud—a revolutionary sleep-therapy program that merges the subconscious with virtual reality. Here, users can experience their desires, confront fears, and rewrite their pasts in a dreamscape indistinguishable from reality. But when The Reverie Cloud falls into the hands of those who see her subconscious as a prize, Pip becomes ensnared within its unstable architecture. Now locked inside the program, she must navigate its mercurial layers, face the horrors buried within her subconscious, and unravel the truth about her past before time runs out. Worse, she’s not the only one at risk—her father’s life hangs in the balance, too.

But the deeper Pip ventures, the more dangerous the game becomes. If she pushes too far, she may never escape. Yet only by confronting the truth can she hope to uncover what really happened to her mother—before the program consumes her entirely.

Blending science fiction with psychological horror, surreal fantasy, and an aching tremor of human longing, OPPOSITE WORLD is an exploration of memory, identity, and the thin divide between perception and reality. 

As I said above, all three are advanced copies, courtesy of the publisher. These books are out and available thought Ingram to add to your library's collection.

One winner will get all three ARCs.

Enter once and you are entered going forward.

Good luck!