10 New Don’t-Miss Horror Novels Out in August 2023

When the Saban family moves into their brand new home, the unfinished neighborhood around them isn’t a concern. Strangely, though, they find a crack in their just-built walk-in closet with something concerning inside. After consulting a YouTube video from Handyman Hank to learn how to fix it, subliminal messages from the YouTube fixer-upper turn Trent Saban into someone unrecognizable.

Halle isn’t too young to be horror obsessed with dreams of starring in scream queen flicks one day. When she gets the chance to deliver flowers from her family’s business to big-name director Maximus Price, she jumps at the chance. There, though, she finds his twin children locked up in their room and a creature plaguing their house. Halle must use all she has learned from the big screen to save them all.

At only 80 pages, Black Vault is one of the quicker reads of the new horror books out in August. Fifteen years after CIA officer Norton submits a report on seeing an unidentified object in the sky, a report that ruined his career and his life, the Navy releases a matching report. Now, pulled onto a task force to investigate these sightings, Norton uncovers something with world-changing implications.

Val has no recollection of the children’s TV show she starred in as a kid. Nor does she remember the tragic accident on set that shut the show down for good. Now, 30 years later, the surviving members of the show collide for a reunion. In the house in the middle of the desert and with a camera filming their every move, secrets from the past reveal something dark about Mister Magic and their Circle of Friends.

Teenage Elodia is living with an abusive father and her muteness makes her an outcast at school. Gabriel is the perfect son, taking his anger about being abandoned out on birds in his free time. When their lives collide, they find both answers and more questions in each other.

Nena is the daughter of a rancher with a friendship with the son of one of her father’s workers, Nestor. When a creature attacks Nena one night while the two are out, he thinks she is dead and leaves her at home before fleeing. Nine years later, though, with the American army and the very same creatures on the way, Nena and Nestor meet again and must work together to defend the farm.

In the unnamed narrator’s town, sentient tornados try to destroy everything. An outcast boy called The Tornado Killer is the only person who can stop them. The narrator and The Tornado Killer share a connection that spirals out of control the closer they get.

At the instruction of their boss, Hutch and Tim are collecting on old drug dues. In one overdue customer’s house, though, they find a severed hand. A hand that seems to play with their minds the closer they get to it. With the government and a rare item collector both vying to take the hand off their hands, the impact of the body part starts to spread through their lives, their relationships, and the city around them.

Laure doesn’t have the money or the privilege of the white ballerinas she competes against, but she won’t let that stop her. When the owners of her ballet studio clue her into a way to gain the power she craves, she jumps at the chance. Even if it means becoming a little monstrous. She lands her dream role, making it all worth it, but she’s not the only one with power in the ballet world, and it will still be a fight to keep her success.

It’s Halloween and there are no limits to the horrors that come out under the light of the moon. With 13 stories of abandoned hotels, drive-in movies, honoring lost loved ones, and toxic friendships, you’re sure to find horror galore!