anna bogutskaya – thebestpossibletime

Pumpkins. Photo by Leandra Rieger for unsplash

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

The leaves are falling, the pumpkin men are dancing and it’s currently the most socially acceptable season to read as much horror as you can get your hands on. Obviously, I’m a year-round horror kind of gal, but for those who save their scares for spooky season, I have some recommendations of horror novels, new and old, that will get you in to the Samhain spirit.

Just to keep it simple, I’ve stuck to books published in the last five years, and I’ve left out the obvious heavy hitters like Stephen King because I figure if you’re interested in the horror classics you can probably find them yourselves. But if you do want some recommendations by the masters and from the back catalogue, give me a shout.

What to read if… you’re new to horror

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas, The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

I was thrilled that my book club allowed me to suggest a horror novel recently, and The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas was a big hit. This lush, atmospheric novel is as much romance as it is horror, and the beautiful writing will draw you in even if you’re hesitant about the scares.

There are no jump scares in The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister, only a sense of melancholy and decay that is potentially as scary as any ghost or demon. For those who love folk tales, family drama, and climate anxiety (maybe “love” is the wrong word), this book is the one.

What to read if… you’re all about the vibes

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, Summer Suns by Lee Mandelo

If you know me, I’ve probably already told you to read Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. But in case I haven’t, please read Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. Weird, watery, beautiful and devastating.

Lee Mandelo is a master of the modern southern gothic, and Summer Sons is my favorite of his books. It’s visceral and compelling, and the sweat practically drips off the page.

What to read if… you’re in your “good for her” era

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

The pregnant teenage characters in Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix are due a win as they’re sent to a miserable mother and baby home in 1970s Florida to be hidden away until they give birth. And if that win is getting tangled up in some seriously shady witch business? So be it.

If you’d rather your heroines just to be deranged for no reason, then Victoria Feito’s cheerful murderess Winifred Notty is your girl. Victorian Psycho, indeed. This book is wild and gory and so much fun.

What to read if… you want a recent book that’ll be remembered as a classic

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones have a lot in common. They’re both deeply inspired by true historical evils (abusive reformatory schools in the Jim Crow era Deep South for the former, the Marias massacre of Blackfeet peoples in the latter), they both bring supernatural elements to these real-life horrors, and they’re both written by authors who I’m confident will be regarded as integral parts of the literary canon for the genre in years and decades to come. Two powerful, frightening, incredible books.

What to read if… you like your stories short and sweet scary

Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap, She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark

Spanning a variety of genres and drawing inspiration from folklore and myth, Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap is a short story collection that will appeal to horror and non-horror fans alike. A strong debut and I hope we’ll see more from Yap soon.

One for the weird girls, She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark reminds us that there’s nothing better than a really fucked up short story. A must-read for “The Shadow Over Little Chitaly” alone, which is formatted as a series of meal delivery app reviews.

What to read if… forever sounds like a scarily long time

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab, Old Soul by Susan Barker

Nobody does immortality quite like a vampire, and Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab follows three vampiric women across their long, long lives, from 1500s Spain to 1800s London to 2000s Boston. Schwab’s story has all the timeless elements while also bringing something new to the classic tropes.

There’s an old myth that someone taking your photo can steal your soul, and a similar horrifying concept serves as the conceit of Old Soul by Susan Barker. As much as I love horror, I rarely feel genuinely shaken when reading, but this book definitely did it.

What to read if… you think fact is scarier than fiction

Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya, American Scary by Jeremy Dauber

I think that, maybe more than in any other genre, most people who love horror can pinpoint exactly when they became fans. Why Horror Has a Hold on Us by Anna Bogutskaya explores those moments, as well as why the horror genre gets so many of us in its grips.

For a more academic take on the topic, Jeremy Dauber’s American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond provides an exhaustive but fascinating look at similar themes, with a focus on the way horror has held up a mirror to American society and history.

Bonus: what I’m reading this October (and beyond)

A selection of new and upcoming horror book covers

2025 has been a ridiculously good year for horror, with new books from big names, fresh faces, and scary stories across every sub-genre. I already wrote about my favorite horror books published in January-June of this year, and since then I’ve read plenty more that I’ll share about later.

Naturally, late-September through October is peak publishing season for horror, and some of the new and upcoming releases I’ve got on the tbr this month are Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, Good Boy by Neil McRobert and King Sorrow by Joe Hill.

I’ve also been eager to read The End of the World As We Know It, an anthology of short stories set in the world of Stephen King’s epic The Stand, but I realized it’s been at least 16 years since I read the novel so I want to revisit it first. Anyway, what’s October without some Stephen King?

On the nonfiction side I’m looking forward to reading Somebody is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez and Ghosted by Alice Vernon.

What are you reading this October?

Everyone has a foundational horror. It’s the image that seeps under our psyche and won’t let go, transforming the film and the image of horror itself into an avatar for our biggest fear. Take a moment and remember yours. – Anna Bogutskaya, Feeding the Monster

My love of horror stems from two sources. One, you will not be surprised to hear, was Stephen King. I would suspect that at least 70% of horror enthusiasts came to their love of the genre by picking up a Stephen King novel at an inappropriately young age. For me, it was The Dark Half.

My other formative horror experience was Friday the 13th. I didn’t see it in full at the time; I certainly wasn’t allowed to watch it. I was about ten years old, at my friend’s house, getting ready to go out to dinner with her family. But then her sister accidentally slammed her fingers in the car door, and so instead of a trip to a restaurant it was a trip to the hospital, and a hastily-engaged babysitter arriving to the house to look after my friend and me. The babysitter decided to watch Friday the 13th, and so did we, hiding behind the couch and running out of the room every time she caught us.

One of the things I love about horror is how personal it is. Something that terrifies one person can leave another completely unmoved. For years I refused to sleep in a room with a mirror I could look into from my bed, an unnamed fear I could not explain but which mystified my best friend, although she kindly agreed to reposition the furniture to accommodate me.

But equally true, horror is universal. There are certain fears that are found across eras, across cultures, and if there’s something you are afraid of it is certain that there is someone else in the world who shares the same fear.

In Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us, Anna Bogutskaya looks at the past decade in horror film, television, and literature, exploring why so many of us love the genre so much. She divides the book into five categories: fear, hunger, anxiety, pain, and power. Some aspects offer examples of our worries, and some explanations for our enjoyment.

The book is less dense than similar deep dives like King’s classic Danse Macabre or the recent American Scary by Jeremy Dauber and instead offers a more conversational take on the subject. But this doesn’t take away from its overall thesis. It’s full of academic and cultural analysis, and rife with examples, augmented with casual, often humorous footnotes:

*Would I eat human flesh if Mads Mikkelsen, clad in a tailored velvet suit, with his sleeves rolled up, served it to me on an elegant, dark porcelain platter, adorned with radishes and romaine lettuce? I don’t know! It’s all very confusing! Don’t look at me. – Anna Bogutskaya, Feeding the Monster

Much has been said about the way vampire stories always seem to experience a renaissance during economic recessions, and there are obvious reasons that there have been a plethora of films about the horror of unwanted pregnancies released over the past few years, but Bogutskaya also makes strong arguments in terms of placing the popularity of other horror tropes into our current cultural context. How cannibalism, for example — from Hannibal to Bones and All to Yellowjackets, often reflects the loneliness and isolation of modern life, as well as the anxieties of capitalism and class struggle. Do we eat the rich? Or do the rich eat us?

Do be warned, as the author makes clear in the introduction, that this book contains copious spoilers for the media she uses as evidence for her arguments. However, I think that she does a solid job of writing about the books, films, and tv shows in a way that does not damper my enthusiasm for reading or watching the the ones I haven’t yet. I didn’t find the amount of spoilers overwhelming, as mostly they teased rather than revealing all.

(I did think it was funny that the only spoiler Bogutskaya redacts is one for Game of Thrones, a show whose cultural cache has sunk so much following its final season that I doubt most people who haven’t seen it yet would care).

While there were a few omissions that I thought deserved a mention (as other reviews have pointed out, for example, it’s surprising not to see Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica included in examining the current popularity of cannibalism stories), overall I found this to be a solid exploration of contemporary horror and why we love it. Feeding the Monster is an ideal pick for those looking for a fresh and readable work that still offers a strong academic thesis on our fears and our favorite fearful fictions.

Tag: anna bogutskaya

What you should read this October (spooky szn book recs)