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What to read next based on your favourite horror film

What to read next based on your favourite horror film

4 September 2026

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Books to read based on your favourite horror film

Autumn is the unofficial season of horror films, especially with Halloween on the horizon. But in case you’ve already watched (or re-watched) your go-to slashers and are still craving something creepy, we thought we’d bring you some book recommendations based on your favourite scary film.

We’ve matched some of our favourite scary movies – from modern hits to cult classics – with horror books that share similar atmospheres, themes and feelings of terror. Whether you love supernatural scares, clever slashers, or the sort of psychological suspense that leaves you questioning what you just watched, there’s a book that can keep the (creeping) feeling going.

Loved Scream? We’ve got a slasher for you. Still thinking about The Substance? Try some brilliantly twisted body horror. Read on to find your next nightmare – and the perfect book for the run-up to Halloween.

Penguin’s reading list for horror film fans

If you loved Scream, read Burn the Negative by Josh Winning
If you loved The Substance, read Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer
If you loved Longlegs, read Night Film by Marisha Pessl
If you loved Nosferatu, read Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
If you loved Send Help, read Bait by J. Kent Messum
If you loved The Craft, read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
If you loved Midsommar, read The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke
If you loved 28 Days Later, read Zone One by Colson Whitehead
If you loved A Nightmare on Elm Street, read Sleep Donation by Karen Russell
If you loved Poltergeist, read The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
If you loved Shaun of the Dead, read Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

If you loved Scream (1997)...

...read Burn The Negative by Josh Winning (2024)

If you’ve rewatched the Scream films more times than you can count, you’ll race through Burn The Negative. Like the famous franchise, Josh Winning’s novel has plenty of fun with the genre, mixing grisly deaths and knowing horror references with a mystery that keeps you guessing.

The chilling story centres around Laura Warren, a journalist who is sent to LA to cover the remake of The Guesthouse, a notorious ’90s horror film she starred in as a child. The original production was supposedly cursed, with eight members of the cast and crew dying in ways that mirrored their deaths on screen. Now Laura’s back on set, and it’s happening again.

With a killer on the loose, a cursed movie set and plenty of slasher nostalgia, Burn the Negative has all the ingredients for anyone who loves horror about horror. If Ghostface is your favourite movie villain, this is the book to pick up next.

Read it if you like: meta takes on the horror genre, grisly deaths, a mysterious perpetrator.

If you loved The Substance (2024)...

...read Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer (2026)

The Substance took body horror to stomach-churning new levels, as Elisabeth’s desperate attempt to create a younger, more perfect version of herself gives rise to an increasingly grotesque creature. But beneath all the blood and gore is an equally unsettling look at beauty standards, ageing and the impossible expectations placed on women.

Trad Wife takes that pressure into the world of social media and motherhood. Camille has built her following around being the ultimate traditional wife, but there’s one thing missing from the image: a baby. After discovering a crumbling old well behind her new home, she makes a wish, then has vivid dreams, a mysterious visitor and a bump that gets bigger at a terrifying speed, sending her following soaring. But as her influence grows, so does the horror inside her.

Sharp, satirical and packed with gruesome imagery, Trad Wife is a natural next read for anyone still thinking about The Substance. Just swap Hollywood beauty standards for trad-wife culture and social media – and prepare for things to get seriously messy.

Read it if you like: body horror with a feminist stance, psychological terror like Rosemary’s Baby.

If you loved Longlegs (2024)...

...read Night Film by Marisha Pessl (2013)

Longlegs starts as a serial killer investigation before pulling you into much stranger territory, mixing detective work with occult horror and a creeping sense that the supernatural is at play. It’s a film that keeps you looking for clues while never letting you know what’s real.

Marisha Pessl’s book Night Film has that same unsettling pull. When Ashley Cordova, the daughter of a reclusive cult horror director, is found dead, investigative journalist Scott McGrath becomes convinced there’s more to her death than suicide. His search for answers draws him deep into the filmmaker’s secretive world, where disturbing rumours surround both Cordova and the terrifying movies he creates.

Blending murder mystery, psychological suspense and the possibility of something far more sinister, Night Film is perfect for anyone who loved slowly unravelling the mystery at the heart of Longlegs. It even uses photographs, articles and other documents along the way, turning the reader into a kind of investigator too.

Read it if you like: a mounting sense of dread, psychological horror mixed with murder mystery.

If you loved Nosferatu (2024)...

...read Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker (2026)

Trade the shadowy castles and snow-covered landscapes of Nosferatu for an isolated mansion in rural Japan. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic delivers a similarly haunting mix of folklore, obsession and supernatural dread, while drawing on Japanese history and mythology.

Japanese Gothic moves between two timelines. In modern-day Japan, burnt-out photographer Nell is invited to photograph an eerie old mansion, when disturbing figures start appearing in her images. Four centuries earlier, samurai Hiro is sent to investigate a string of gruesome deaths, only to encounter a mysterious woman in the forest who seems to know more than she should.

As the two stories begin to connect, Japanese Gothic becomes an atmospheric mystery filled with ghosts, strange visions and centuries-old secrets, making it a great read for anyone who loved the Gothic beauty of Nosferatu.

Read it if you like: supernatural horror, Gothic settings, creepy tales steeped in folklore.

If you loved Send Help (2026)...

...read Bait by J. Kent Messum (2013)

Being stranded in the middle of nowhere is bad enough. Add dwindling supplies, no obvious way home and the growing realisation that you might not be alone, and you’ve got the makings of a seriously stressful survival story. That’s exactly what makes Send Help such a fun watch – and Bait takes the island nightmare in an even more disturbing direction.

In Bait, six strangers wake on a deserted island with no idea how they got there. They have no food, no water and no way to escape, while a group of shadowy figures watches them from a boat just beyond their reach. Soon it becomes clear that their predicament is no accident: someone has deliberately brought them there, and they’re waiting to see what happens next.

Fast-paced and increasingly brutal, Bait shares Send Help’s remote setting and fight-for-survival stakes, but swaps its darkly comic office rivalry for a far more brutal fight for survival.

Read it if you like: survival horror on a desert island setting, where monsters lurk in the shadows.

If you loved The Craft (1996)...

…read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (2025)

Teenage girls discovering witchcraft, forming intense alliances and realising just how powerful they can be? Fans of The Craft will find plenty to love in Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Only this time, we’re swapping a ’90s high school for a deeply restrictive home for unmarried mothers-to-be in ‘70s Florida.

Fifteen-year-old Fern has been sent away to have her baby in secret, surrounded by dozens of other girls whose families would rather pretend their pregnancies never happened. Every waking moment is controlled, from what they eat to what they talk about. Then a librarian gives Fern an occult book, offering the girls something they’ve been denied since arriving: power over their own lives.

Like The Craft, this is witchy horror with female friendship and rebellion at its heart, but Hendrix takes it somewhere darker, exploring pregnancy, shame and the adults determined to control the girls’ futures. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is perfect for anyone who always wanted to join Nancy, Sarah, Bonnie and Rochelle’s coven.

Read it if you like: stories of the occult, witchy horror, women using their powers for survival.

If you loved Midsommar (2019)...

...read The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke (2015)

Rural settings are often at the heart of folk horror films and here we swap the pastel-hued tones of Midsommar's Scandinavian countryside for an agricultural community deep within a mountainous region of eastern China.

The Day the Sun Died takes place over a single summer evening when teenager Li Niannian starts to notice some strange goings-on: instead of going to sleep as they normally would, the town's residents start “dreamwalking”.

Sleepwalking wouldn't usually be a cause for too much alarm but these residents lack inhibition, acting out the desires they've been repressing during their waking hours. Unsurprisingly, it's not long before the community descends into violence and terror, leaving Li Niannian to save the day.

Read it if you like: folk horror, dystopian fiction, stories about the dark side of human nature.

If you loved 28 Days Later (2002)...

…read Zone One by Colson Whitehead (2011)

If you're after tales of the undead and survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, pick up Colson Whitehead's satirical, genre-bending zombie novel, Zone One.

Both 28 Days Later and Zone One deal with the breakdown of society following the spread of a deadly virus that has separated people into two camps: the infected and the uninfected. However, in Zone One, the worst of the plague has passed and half of Manhattan has been reclaimed.

Mark Spitz, part of a team of civilian volunteers working to clear the rest of the island of the remaining “stragglers”, gets on with the task of zombie removal while dealing with Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder. Zone One is a post-apocalyptic horror like 28 Days Later, sure, but it’s also a piece of thought-provoking literary fiction which grapples with the psychological weight of living through an unnatural disaster.

Read it if you like: survival horror, post-apocalyptic new world orders, zombie films.

If you loved Get Out (2017)...

…read This Cursed House by Del Sandeen (2024)

Jordan Peele’s Get Out became a cultural phenomenon with its sharp, unsettling examination of racism and white privilege – not to mention the “sunken place” that quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Del Sandeen’s This Cursed House taps into similar fears, this time through a chilling Southern Gothic ghost story set in 1960s New Orleans.

Jemma Barker leaves Chicago after receiving an unexpected job offer from the mysterious Duchon family. But once she arrives at their crumbling estate, she discovers she wasn’t simply hired – she was summoned. The family is living under a generations-old curse, and they believe Jemma, who can see spirits, is the only person who can break it.

Like Get Out, the supernatural horror is only part of what makes the story so disturbing. As Jemma uncovers the Duchons’ secrets, This Cursed House explores racism, colourism and generational trauma, making the people inside the house every bit as sinister as its ghosts.

Read it if you like: supernatural horror, ghost stories, razor-sharp social commentary.

If you loved A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)...

...read Sleep Donation by Karen Russell (2020)

A Nightmare on Elm Street follows a group of teenagers whose dreams are haunted by a violent killer – with very real consequences.

Karen Russell's novella isn't a slasher story but, like the film, sleep is a major player here too. A deadly insomnia epidemic has crippled the nation with exhaustion but luckily, Slumber Corp is offering a solution by transfusing sleep from healthy volunteers to those suffering with insomnia. Everything seems peachy until recruitment manager Trish discovers that all is not right at the organisation.

Sleep Donation comes with a glowing review from the King of Horror himself (that's Stephen King to you and me), who said “Parts of it gave me nightmares – and I'm case-hardened,” so you know this is going to be one that keeps you up at night.

Read it if you like: dystopian fiction, psychological horror.

If you loved Poltergeist (1982)...

…read The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971)

For supernatural chills along the lines of Poltergeist, try The Exorcist. Okay, so it's an iconic horror film in its own right but did you know it was based on a book? First published in 1971, the book spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list before being turned into a wildly successful movie soon after. Both begin with an ordinary family home disrupted by strange events, before a child becomes the focus of an increasingly terrifying supernatural presence.

It all begins slowly: an unexpected noise here, an icy chill there. It seems like there's an easy explanation for it all. But then, 11-year-old Regan seems changed, frighteningly so, and there are no explanations for that. It's like she's a different person altogether, so a priest is called in the hopes that he can exorcise the child and return things to normal. Decades after its release, The Exorcist remains as gripping and mind-numbingly terrifying now as it was then.

Read it if you like: supernatural horror, psychological suspense, terrifying reads.

If you loved Shaun of the Dead (2004)...

...read Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (2010)

Let's end on a lighter note, shall we? The 2004 horror comedy Shaun of the Dead took its cue from classic films such as George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and gave us a vision of a zombie apocalypse from the perspective of two slackers. They're the last to find out the end of the world seems nigh and just about manage to hold it together.

Like Shaun of the Dead, Warm Bodies finds plenty of humour and heart amid the blood, brains and general chaos of a zombie apocalypse. R is one of the undead, but he's a little different: he's in love – with a girl who's very much alive. For reasons he can't understand, he decides to save Julie instead of eating her and a highly unusual relationship begins. R dreams of breathing again and Julie wants to help him, but they're not getting anywhere without a fight...Warm Bodies is the first book in Isaac Marion's trilogy; it's dark, it's funny and it's the perfect love story for the season.

Read it if you like: zombie apocalypses, horror with a lighter tone.