The 22 Best Horror Books of 2022 Are Full of Real and Imagined Frights

It’s a testament to the craft and imagination of horror writers that a year of make-believe terrors have kept pace with the global news cycle. Full-scale war has returned to Europe, Covid lingers like a malevolent specter, bad actors continue to undermine liberal democracy, and the shadow of climate collapse looms over all. Surely even the most hardened horror reader should be saying, “Please, no more,” and reaching for the nearest celebrity memoir.

And yet, I can say without any hesitation that 2022 has been a banner year for scary stories. Horror is as buoyant as it has been in decades, and the range and reach of contemporary tales is magnitudes greater than at any point in the genre’s history. Horror is not merely flourishing despite the real world perma-crisis—it’s become the genre-of-choice to interrogate and explore the sprawling avenues of contemporary dread.

Brutal home invasions and bestial masculinity, drug-induced hauntings and malign misinformation, frozen wastes and sun-thrashed American borderlands: this year’s dark catalogue offers a nightmare for every taste and tolerance. Now, as the winter nights draw in, it’s time to look back at the highlights from a year of reading frightening things.