PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR BOOKS

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]so I'm here today to do a recommendation video for psychological horror I can't believe I've gotten this long on my channel without ever making this video I think the reason for that is that while I love this sub genre it's also really hard to do right and it's also very subjective so keep in mind if you're watching this that if you disagree with me that's okay some things work on a psychological level for some people and it doesn't for others so all that being said these are books that to me have a psychological angle to them in terms of the horror I love them and I can't wait to talk about them let's get started first let's talk about Uzumaki by Genji Ito this is the horror manga that is said in a town where everyone starts to become obsessed with spirals this book was first pitched me by a friend and I remember hearing that synopsis and thinking it was going to be the stupidest book ever and so many people have said over the years that it's one of the scariest books I've ever read which again I thought was really stupid to say about a book with a premise like that then I read it myself and I completely understand the hype this book is the perfect starting place for Genji Ito I think it's one of his best works and it is absolutely psychologically scary I got so immersed within the story that I soon enough started to see Spirals and different patterns throughout my own house and my life and suddenly I realized that spirals were everywhere and they were terrifying there were spirals on my pillows spirals on my bed spread and I was getting really bothered by it which I've never had that experience before this is definitely one of the first psychological horror books that I experienced or it's specifically one that worked for me on that level and it made me such a fan girl of Genji ito's work I've read so many of his books by now and I can't stop saying his Praises again if you want psychological horror and you're open to the horror medium of manga this is an excellent one to check out it's so good it is worth your time the premise again sounds ridiculous but somehow it completely works and I love it so much next let's talk about come closer by Sarah Graham which is one of my favorite horror novellas this is a piece of again psychological horror where we follow a woman who is possibly possessed the story is told in a first person perspective which is very unique for these type of stories and we follow her through her day there is just an unexplained noise or noises that are coming around different places in her apartment she's having strange incidences at work and just situations where she's blacking out she can't quite remember what's happening and she just is acting out of sorts and she doesn't know why now I could argue that most possession stories have an element of psychological horror but I think this is one of the best examples again because of that first person narration we put ourselves in the shoes of this protagonist and we have to wonder are we going crazy is she going crazy or is there actually something going on this book starts to ramp up when she receives a book in the mail that has all the signs of possession and then one by one she slowly begins to check off those boxes and starts to worry that possibly she has become possessed I love a book that plays with the question of whether a character is possessed or just mentally unstable and I think this book walks the line so well and again I really literally got into the character's head and found myself going back and forth because it's never over the top at least not until the end instead it feels very believable very plausible and you can kind of explain away all the strange details but it keeps getting worse and worse slowly over time and I think it works so well it's so smart easily one of my favorite narratives it's just so well done and another favorite in the genre next let's talk about Only the Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones this is a story that follows a group of indigenous Hunters that years ago they went on this hunting trip where something went terribly wrong and now they are adults and believe that they are possibly haunted by the deer that they harmed through that incident and this is once again a book that centers around psychological horror because we as a reader are not entirely sure from the beginning whether or not this is actually real or is it simply in the character's mind they appear to have visions of this deer and purple things are happening to them but from a rational perspective you can kind of explain away everything that's happening at least the beginning and it definitely just seems like they're a bit mentally unstable mentally unwell and then eventually it progresses and progresses until it builds into something very exciting and satisfying this is a narrative that I find to be very challenging it's a book that really pushed me out of my limits when I was reading it but I think the ideas that the author is exploring is so well done this easily one of my favorite books by this author and I do think it's just one of their best because it really worked for me on a psychological level which I can't say with a lot of books there's a reason it took me so long to film this video because I finally have enough recommendations to talk about next let's talk about Red X by David dumb check which is a piece of recent historical horror that is set in the city of Toronto in Canada in this story you have gay men that are disappearing out of the city and again this is based off of real events that did happen during that time period And in the story just like in real life the police didn't do a lot about it so the author takes these recent historic events and turns it into a Horror Story the question we oppose as a reader is where are these men going are they simply leaving their lives not telling anyone and running away is there perhaps a serial killer on the loose targeting them or perhaps is there something more Supernatural going on and we as the reader are left to figure that out as I mentioned with this book before there is a meta element to the story where the author himself places himself as a character within the story or at least talks to us and breaks that fourth wall where he describes his own growing up his own experience being a young gay man in Toronto and we as a reader really have to parse together what is fact and what is fiction and in my mind even though I've read this book several times now it's never entirely clear where that line Falls and I love the murkiness I love the questions it's a book that really plays with my head there are certain scenes where you're not quite sure if they're actually happening are they in the character's mind and the ambiguity of parts of the story made it so fantastic it was such a unique read nothing I've read quite like it before and it's one that's definitely stuck with me it's so powerful it's so important and it's so well done next is Will haunch You by Brian Kirk this is a short horror novel that follows a guitarist who has for the most part put aside their Rockstar days and now they are a family man however when the story opens they are still having some of that life they are off at a concert and playing their guitar music with their band after the concert they go off and end up in almost some sort of a fever dream and the story goes from there this is one of those times where I strongly encourage you to avoid the synopsis on the back of the book don't look it up on Goodreads or Amazon or anything like that because I would know this book relatively blind only knowing of roughly what I told you and that was all I need to know in my opinion the back of the book gives away way too much information about what the story is about essentially it gives you the whole story and it was so much more fun to experience it myself I'm putting it into this video for psychological horror because of the fact that this book really messes with your head without giving away too much I'll mention that there is an incident in the character's past that is somewhat catching up with them there's something they've done that they feel very guilty about and now they have to come to terms with that and again I love this book without knowing the synopsis because it's so much fun to have that puzzled out as we go and I say fun but this book is actually really dark and messed up it deals with some very serious subject matter so there are content warnings that you may want to check out if you have those that you are worried about but in terms of a twisted tale this is really one that takes the Cake The Narrative is very disjointed which I think is a bit polarizing between readers but in my opinion it worked incredibly well I loved it I thought it worked so well and really fit the bizarre style of the story so I got entirely pulled into it but I do understand it's not for everyone but it definitely was for me next is lunar park by Brett Easton Ellis and this is the horror book that is a follow-up to American Psycho this book follows a fictionalized version of the author who is going about writing his famous books and soon enough after publishing American Psycho there is possibly a serial killer on the loose who is copycatting the different murders in that book and so the police are of course investigating Brett to see if there's any connection there along the way Brett starts to see another individual and he's not entirely sure if that person is in his imagination or actually there and then again with that meta aspect of the book you also have the questioning of yourself as a reader of what in the story is true where is the author pulling from their real life and what is fictionalized and perhaps the answers are all out there I know this author is pretty prolific and well known online but I personally enjoyed going into the book and trying to guess for myself the story feels very believable except for of course supernatural horror elements to it but that made the story oh so much more fun and it's a story that perhaps in a way is predictable you can kind of see what ending it's leading up to but it's an ending I absolutely love it's oh so satisfying and I really enjoyed where it was going so it's one I personally recommend you should probably read American Psycho first but really you get away with just starting with this one if you love this premise a little bit more and I just love it because again it messed with my head I didn't know what was true and I was completely engrossed in the story I want to be inside the main character's mind even though he is of terribly unlikable protagonist so warning there if that's a problem for you and if you're going to talk psychological horror I have to give a mention to one of my favorite books I'm thinking of anything by Ian Reed this is a book that sometimes I classifies horror sometimes I classify as literary Thriller depending on my mood but regardless this book is absolutely psychological this story without knowing too much is about a boyfriend and girlfriend who are going along on a winter Road in Canada they're going off to meet the boyfriend's family and throughout the story you find the girl thinking about ending the relationship and The Story Goes On from there this is one where I can't say anything about it just in case you were lucky enough to not have been spoiled by the Netflix movie which I've heard is not very good I refuse to watch it it but the story itself is very psychological it's very slow moving it's very much in the character's head their mind when they get to the boyfriend's parents house things are just not quite right and that's basically the entire premise I've never been so creeped out by the scene at a Dairy Queen before I don't know how you make Dairy Queen creepy but this author did it so if you want a book that's just very unsettling very quiet very much the kind of book where there's almost like a worm niggling into your brain that is the experience I got from this book it is short it is tight The Narrative is on par and I love this book so much it definitely messed with my head I hope that you have the same experience when you pick it up from there let's talk about a history of fear by Luke Dumas and this is a story that follows a man a murderer specifically in Scotland who was caught for his crimes however in his defense he said that the devil made him do it and so the story is told from a bunch of different perspectives where we have journalists and interviewers who are looking at his case and trying to put all the pieces together and we have the flashbacks of him as he's going through his life and so we as a reader get to piece together whether or not this person is criminally insane or if the devil was actually talking to him now I do want to mention that this book is very slow burning it has a slower start and it does take a while to get moving and so often with these kind of books I'm often not sure if I should fully commit but I'm definitely glad that he made the investment because the book ended up being well worth it I think the book is perfectly done slowly because again it creates that more psychological suspense and so we as the reader are slowly going along again at first the book seems a little bit slower on Monday but I think that is done purposely because we almost want the reader to be caught off guard so when things do start to happen it really caught at least my attention and I got really excited when suddenly there were some twists and shifts in the narrative that really changed my opinion about this entire book so this is one that if you're going to start it you have to go all the way through otherwise you'll have an incomplete opinion on this book and while it took a while to get started once I got going I was hooked and it definitely messed with my mind I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about the protagonist and their sanity and I love that questioning I started to question my own Sandy once I got immersed in the story and I really enjoyed this one so I hope you check it out and enjoy it as well and last for psychological horror let's talk about string follows by Simon Jacob this is a story that is set in a small town where there's some kind of entity that is seeing over the teenagers and this entity has some sort of force that is encouraging the teenagers to do Terrible Things the story is told in almost a mosaic narrative where you have different teenagers taking different perspectives and I always warn people when they pick up this book that is about a bunch of terrible teenagers doing terrible things there are so many content warnings for this book so I do encourage you to look them up if you have any concerns because there are some really nasty despicable things that happen but I love this book on a psychological level because it worked really well with my brain so basically you have it where there's this entity that is creating some kind of influence over these teenagers encouraging them to do these despicable acts and so we get to follow them along as they are trying to prey on each other they're trying to particularly Target one young woman who is the focus of this Supernatural entity in the town and they start to use the different teenagers in different ways they try to get clothes it doesn't work they move around this book is slow paced it feels Meandering but I did not mind that whatsoever I soaked up every page every strange perspective it's weird it's uncomfortable you will want to put it down and those are the kind of books that I absolutely love so was this book psychologically messing with me 100 I did not know where it was going until it got there and it's just a book you have to experience for yourself if you love messed up books that are psychological this is one to put on your list I think it's so under hyped and I'd love to change that so that's it for this video here I'd love to know the books I talked about which ones are you planning on checking out for yourself and please let me know what is a psychological horror book that you love if I haven't read it yet I'll definitely check it out and again keep in mind that if I don't have a favorite on my list it might be that our tastes are different and something just didn't work for me on that psychological level all that being said if you're new to my channel I hope you stick around subscribe I do read a lot of horror Thriller science fiction fantasy and if you want to help me out with this video here you can give me a thumbs up you can drop a comment even if just a little Emoji like a brain or a head that works for me and if you want to hit that little notification Bell you'll never miss a video from me thanks so much for watching I'll talk to you again soon okay bye foreign