Horror Niches You Might Not Have Heard Of (But Should Try!)

As a child I think I may well have read every single Goosebumps story that was published. There's a photo of me at a beautiful west coast beach and instead of playing in the surf or building a sand castle I have my nose buried deep in the latest R.L. Stein. I swear some of these are a permanent part of my brain chemistry now - I still think far too often about Don't Go Into The Basement and One Day at Horrorland. Those books we possibly too disturbing for my 7 year old brain, and yet I ate them up like candy.

After Goosebumps, I moved on to Stephen King, finding his books scattered amongst my amazing Grandma's home in Fielding. I have a core memory of going to bed after reading Misery and having to put the book just outside my bedroom door because I was too creeped out to have it close by (it was the old cover with the eyes on it, I couldn't handle that plus the idea of Kathy Bates holding me hostage). 

As an adult I fell out of love with Horror for some reason. I think the terrifying reality of being an adult kind of took away the fun of being scared and reading instead became a place to relax the nervous system rather than amp it up. This year I fell across a random little book that completely changed my approach. Realizing that horror had these new amazing little niches and sub-genres that I didn't know existed has opened me back up to being disturbed and delighted.

Usually nature is seen as relaxing and calm, but in botanical horror we get murderous mushrooms and gardens that are not only sentient but also often quite bloodthirsty. Often this genre crosses over with Gothic Horror with it's creepy, atmospheric vibes and quiet sense of dread, or with body horror, but sometimes it can overlap with Sci Fi or even Romance! 

I have one book that introduced to this incredible sub-genre, and one author who really does it impeccably well. Hazelthorn I picked up purely based on it's beautiful cover, and it introduced me to the most incredible YA story about queer yearning and also an old crumbling house surrounded by a terrifyingly blood-hungry garden. It's to blame for the fact that I bring up this genre in every conversation.C.G. Drews is an amazing writer and one of my favourites now - another one of their botanical horror masterpieces is Don't Let the Forest In. 

For more plant-based horror, T.Kingfisher has an eerie reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe with sinister fungi surrounding a remote ancestral home in What Moves the Dead. T.Kingfisher is another favourite author so although I haven't read this one yet, I absolutely will be. 

Another recommendation if more Sci Fi is your vibe would be to read Annihalation by Jeff Vandermeer. Also an incredible film, this book is a terrifying story about Area X and an investigation into an environmental disaster zone where the landscape is mutated into something both beautiful and dangerous. 

On my own Botanical Horror TBR is They Bloom at Night. This time nature and botany takes place underwater in this story about trauma and nature and a hurricane that has devastated a small town and left mutated wildlife lurking in it's water. It sounds amazing.

Cosmic Horror is not just a cool name but a subgenre that explores our very human existential dread at being irrelevant, and combines it with the terror of the unknown and the power of the universe. It's connected to Lovecraft or even Eldritch style horror, and the one that is newest to me! For a reminder of how pointless we are and how little we matter, this is the one to try. 

H.P. Lovecraft needs the first shout out as the father to this kind of work. His works combine science-fiction with the supernatural to create a fictional universe with god-like aliens. Start with one of his Cosmic Horror classics like The Colour Out of Space or The Call of Cthulu.

The Fisherman by John Langan is a more modern example of Cosmic Horror, with a widowed man and his co-worker journeying to a mysterious reservoir with dark supernatural elements. It's a clever story about grief and monsters.

One of my recent favourites that I would class as Cosmic Horror as well as Speculative Sci-Fi is There is No Anti-Memetics Division by qntm. This is a confusing but terrifying story about anti-memes, predators that are world-ending and yet can't be understood or even remembered. It's a book about psychological dread and paranoia and the utter hopelessness of fighting beings so much stronger than us.

I think I have saved one of my favourite new sub-genres until last. Feminist Horror explores the one true horror, The Patriachy. It's ususally focussed on women's experiences, their autonomy and their rage, and it's delightful horrifying in it's gory, anger-filled stories. 

This genre often overlaps with Body Horror, frequently talks about motherhood or trauma, and is just as satisfying as it is disturbing.

Monika Kim is a favourite author of both Shirl and I with her two amazing novels, The Eyes are the Best Part and Molka. Both of these look at women taking revenge, and are disturbing either in their grotesque descriptions (don't read The Eyes are the Best Part without a strong stomach) or their psychological torment.

Mona Awad's novels are also a staple in this sub-genre, with Bunny being one of my first introductions into how unhinged the social horror side can get where women come together and get carried away. This novel starts off almost dream like and turns into a horrofying satire of dark academia and female identity. 

Feminist Horror books about motherhood and domestic life is a sub-genre within a sub-genre and I'm all about it. Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth is a story about a woman trying to keep the peace despite a truly terrible mother-in-law. It evolves into a dark domestic horror novel about motherhood and family.  Nightbitch is another story that stuck with me, about putting a career on hold to raise a child and transforming into a feral dog (an interesting metaphor for the way motherhood can absolutely transform your entire sense of being).