The 10 Best Upcoming Books To Read in Fall 2026

Published Oct 6, 2026, 6:21 PM EDT Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel. A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated. Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point. With the arrival of fall, bookworms worldwide know exactly what to expect: novels that are bound to go down in history as some of the best of the year. All in all, 2026 has thus far been a fantastic year for new books, but September, October, and November have still had plenty in store. Outside of heavy hitters like fantasy and sci-fi, fans of all other genres have plenty to look forward to reading this fall. Fall is typically the publishing industry's peak "blockbuster" season, the time during which they drop their biggest titles and prize contenders to build plenty of early buzz for holiday wishlists. From exciting debut novels to big-name authors' latest masterpieces, and from terrifying horror thrillers to enticing mysteries, there is plenty from the fall 2026 season to add to one's to-read list. 'Pictures of You' - September 8 Image via Del Rey American songwriter and guitarist Josh Malerman saw his breakthrough as a novelist with his very first book, Bird Box, the pop-cultural phenomenon that inspired the Netflix film starring Sandra Bullock. It's one of those horror books you know will be masterpieces from the first 10 pages, and this year, Malerman is coming out with another horror thriller: Pictures of You, about a young woman who wakes up trapped as a living still-life masterpiece inside an empty picture frame. It's a delectably bizarre high-concept premise to serve as the basis of an irresistibly Hitchcockian thriller. After Malerman's previous novel, Incidents Around the House (the source material for this year's Other Mommy starring Jessica Chastain) became a smash hit and made Malerman a Bram Stoker and Locus Awards nominee, it's impossible not to be immensely excited about reading Pictures of You. The book came out earlier this past September and can be purchased on Amazon. 'The Need' - September 22 Image via Del Rey Megan Mostyn-Brown is primarily a playwright and TV writer and producer, but this year, she's putting out her electric debut novel. The horror thriller The Need is about a woman whose teenage son is tormented by The Need, a rare genetic disorder that forces the carrier to either consume human flesh or die. It's a fittingly edgy premise that bolsters one of the wildest speculative fiction reads of the year. Fresh, fast-paced, grotesque, and dizzyingly creepy in ways that any book meant to be read during spooky season should be, The Need should be a perfectly enjoyable experience for people who love particularly transgressive October reads. The novel was released late this last September and can be purchased on Amazon, just in time for the Halloween season. 'Our Cut of Salt' - September 22 Image via Tor People whose favorite books to read during spooky season are Gothic horror, haunted house, and historical fiction masterpieces ought to take a look at Deena Helm's wonderfully lyrical debut novel, Our Cut of Salt. In it, three generations of Palestinian women must put the haunting of their ancestral home to rest before the secrets of the past drown them all. Powerfully emotional, potently intimate, and written so masterfully that readers will likely immediately sign up for whatever it is Helm does next, Our Cut of Salt is undoubtedly one of the must-read horror titles of the year. It's about haunted history just as much as it is about a haunted house, and that makes it a deeply timely read. Coming out this past September, Our Cult of Salt can already be purchased on Amazon. 'House Haunters' - October 6 Image via Tor People looking for great horror books not by Stephen King to read this year should consider Bram Stoker Award finalist KC Jones' latest, House Haunters. In this fast-paced haunted house horror thriller, a skeptical reality TV producer and a misanthropic ghost-hunter team up to survive a shoot from hell. Recommended for fans of How to Sell a Haunted House and Play Nice, it's likely to end up being one of the most acclaimed horror titles of the year. Perfectly spooky for an October read yet incredibly fun and surprisingly full of heart, House Haunters is such a complete and well-rounded horror experience that no fan of the genre should go without reading it when it comes out on October 6th. The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon and should provide an absolutely riveting time for anyone who loves horror that's scary but also genuinely fun. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you. 😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger) 🧸Chucky(Child's Play) 📞Scream(Ghostface) 🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files) FIND YOUR NIGHTMARE → 01 Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you. ASomebody falling asleep when they really should not. BA toy that has moved, and nobody touched it. CA phone ringing in an empty house. DA child talking to somebody who is not there. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything. AI am exhausted and my mind is playing tricks on me. BSomething in this room is not where I left it. CSomebody is in here with me. DThis house has never felt entirely right. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does. ANever fall asleep. BNever leave it out of your sight. CNever answer the phone. DNever go down to the basement. NEXT QUESTION → 04 Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight. AConvince myself I imagined the whole thing. BTell someone, and brace for them not believing me. CWork out which person I know could be behind it. DGet everybody in the house into one room. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking. AFine during. Wide awake at two in the morning. BShouting at the screen that nobody is listening. CCalling the twist out loud before it lands. DThrough my fingers, holding on to something. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing. AFall asleep in a room I have never been in before. BKeep an old doll on the shelf facing my bed. CAnswer every unknown number that calls after midnight. DSpend one night alone in a house with a history. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do. ANot wanting to turn the bedroom light off. BNot trusting one particular object in my house. CLooking twice at people I have known for years. DFeeling like something came home with me. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare. AThat I am still asleep, and it knows it. BThat the thing nobody believed me about is here. CThat somebody with a key is downstairs. DThat something is in the doorway, watching us sleep. REVEAL MY NIGHTMARE → The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind. Elm StreetYour nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument. Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever. You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage. These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired. You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep. ChuckyYour nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it. Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you. You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too. The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults. By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own. ScreamYour nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them. Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party. You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films. The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention. Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home. The ConjuringYour nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving. The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary. Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds. This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be. Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'The Witch' - October 6 Image via Poisoned Pen Press Freida McFadden's The Housemaid was her most recent runaway success, one of the best thriller books to read over a single weekend. Aided by her background as a practicing physician specializing in brain injuries, she mostly writes twisty psychological thrillers. This year, though, she's publishing the spooky mystery thriller The Witch, about an unemployed young woman named Julia who moves into Pemberton, her family's sprawling rural estate. There, she faces unsettling paranormal encounters. The Witch should prove to be just as much of a binge-worthy read as any McFadden fan might expect by this point. Its status as a standalone title could also make it a phenomenal introduction to the author's work or the thriller genre for newcomers. Fast-paced, twisty, and perfectly scary for the Halloween season, The Witch comes out on October 6th and can be purchased on Amazon. 'It Looks Like You in the Dark' - October 13 Image via Tor Mathilda Zeller is an important rising voice in contemporary Indigenous horror and dark fantasy, whose work draws deeply from her Inuit heritage and her roots in Alaska's Kobuk River Valley. This brings us the Kobuk Valley series of standalone horror novels, whose first installment will be It Looks Like You in the Dark, about a 19-year-old from a remote Alaska village searching for her missing sister. If early reviews are to be believed, It Looks Like You in the Dark could end up being one of those horror books that are considered downright perfect masterpieces. Creative and insightful, it's an incredibly exciting horror debut that blends folklore and horror in ways that all fans of the genre should find appealing. It Looks Like You in the Dark will be out on October 13th and can be pre-ordered on Amazon. 'Monster in the Mirror' - October 20 Image via Sourcebooks Landmark Self-advertised as perfect for readers of The Quiet Tenant and The Butcher, Monster in the Mirror is Janasha Prabhu's debut novel. In this twisty thriller, Jiah Rai is found cradling her girlfriend's dead body on one fateful night, and since her uncle was a serial killer, the town begins to suspect that murder must run in the family. It's more than meaty enough premise for a thriller debut, and indeed, early reviews have pointed to Monster in the Mirror being a powerfully atmospheric and slow-burning mystery that keeps you guessing every time you turn the page. This exquisitely creepy story lives up to the reputation of its venerable genre and will be officially published on October 20th and can be pre-ordered on Amazon. 'Mercy House' - October 20 Image via Del Rey People who love spending October reading nothing but great horror books will quite possibly find Adam Cesare's Mercy House to be a thoroughly enjoyable read at worst, and one of the best horror books of the last 20 years at best. This splatterpunk story is set in a state-of-the-art eldercare facility, where a supernatural phenomenon starts to transform residents into violent monsters. It's a fresh, over-the-top spin on the survival horror genre that grounds its gore in deeply human stakes, fast pacing in an enrapturing atmosphere, and visceral body horror. Thematically, it delivers a scathing critique of the real-world neglect and societal erasure of the elderly. Mercy House was originally released as an ebook all the way back in 2015, but revised, overhauled print and audiobook editions will arrive on October 20th and can be pre-ordered on Amazon. 'Cold Sunset: A Gabriel Dax Novel' - November 3 Image via Atlantic Crime William Boyd is a major contemporary British-Scottish novelist and screenwriter, praised by several critics and peers as one of the finest storytellers of his generation. In 2024, he introduced the world to Gabriel Dax with Gabriel's Moon. This year, Gabriel will see his third outing in Cold Sunset, where he travels to 1964 Moscow to deliver a mysterious package to a triple agent, only to get trapped in a dangerous plan to smuggle him across the border to Finland. Both of Gabriel Dax's previous adventures are among the most perfectly-written thrillers of the 21st century, and if early reviewers' excitement is anything to go by, Cold Sunet may be the reluctant spy's most exhilarating expedition yet. People interested in a book that was specifically written as a sort of Bond antithesis can pre-order Cold Sunset on Amazon before it comes out in hardcover on November 3rd. 'Peculiar Stars' - November 17 Image via Montlake Rebecca Yarros is best known for helping ignite the massive global boom of romantasy, the genre combining romance and fantasy that became massively prominent after the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, however, she's putting out the contemporary slow-burn romance Peculiar Stars, about a woman who gets stranded on a deserted island alongside her fiancé's cousin, with whom a profound bond begins to form. After her huge success in fantasy, Peculiar Stars marks Yarros' long-awaited return to her roots in contemporary romance and women's fiction. Fans can expect this book to be intense, high-stakes, and emotionally raw to the core. It's a standalone castaway story that's ideal for those who love slow-burning romance, one that can be pre-ordered on Amazon before it officially comes out on November 17th.