Books Five Books Five Horror Books That Will Make You Afraid of the Dark From haunted mansions to spooky mines to subway tunnels, the darkness is all-encompassing… By Lorna Wallace | Published on May 29, 2025 Photo by David Tomaseti [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by David Tomaseti [via Unsplash] Many kids go through a phase of being absolutely terrified of the dark (and of the monsters the darkness could be concealing). I certainly did—though as an adult, I love it when a horror story can reignite that childhood nyctophobia and have me hightailing it out of a room once I’ve turned the light off. There are many books that have been described as “so scary you’ll sleep with the lights on” but it’s not often that the horror actually revolves around darkness itself. So here are five books that are scary precisely because they’re set—at least partially—in the dark. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson The Haunting of Hill House makes this list for one scene alone, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read the book because it’s essentially a jump scare. Here’s my spoiler-free pitch: Dr. John Montague wants to scientifically document the supernatural, so he rents the allegedly haunted Hill House for the summer and invites a few carefully chosen guests to stay with him, hoping that their presence will draw out the ghosts. Jackson’s writing is at once captivating and chilling—you’ll see what I mean if you read just the first paragraph. A sense of foreboding permeates every page, with Hill House itself looming over its inhabitants like an ominous presence. Added to that are the characters, whose personalities and developing relationships are just as fascinating to delve into as the creepy goings-on around the house. [Spoiler warning.] I bet anyone who has read Hill House knows the exact scene I’m thinking of, in terms of terrifying darkness. Eleanor is woken up in a pitch-dark bedroom—despite being sure the lights had been left on—by some unsettling noises. Throughout the scary auditory experience, she clutches Theodora’s hand for comfort. But when the lights come back on, she realizes that Theo was actually fast asleep across the room, which raises the shiver-inducing question—whose hand was she holding? Dark Matter by Michelle Paver Set in 1937 and told via a series of diary entries, Dark Matter is positively blanketed in darkness. This is thanks to main character Jack taking a job as a radio operator for a meteorological team on Svalbard—a remote Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic circle where the sun doesn’t rise at all for a few months during the winter. The sailors who drop Jack and his colleagues off seem uneasy about their chosen location on the coast, but everything is fine to begin with. The isolated cabin is cozy and the sled dogs bring a joyful energy to the camp (as dogs tend to do!). But then a series of mishaps lead to Jack having to spend some time alone at the site, and he learns just how scary polar night can be. Dark Matter is an atmospheric slow burn of a ghost story that is as much about Jack’s declining mental state as it is about the lurking specter. Fear of the dark can be a very powerful thing—especially when you’re the only person for miles around and the sun isn’t going to rise anytime soon. The Underdwelling by Tim Curran The Underdwelling largely takes place in the depths of a mine—a perfect setting for a story to inspire a fear of the dark. Main character Boyd comes from a family of miners and isn’t overly fazed by the hard, dirty, and dangerous work. Looking to prove himself in this new job and earn some extra cash for his family—he’s got a baby on the way—he agrees to work the graveyard shift down in the deepest level of the mine. While Boyd is toiling away carving out a new tunnel, a shaft unexpectedly opens up, plunging straight down and granting access to a mysterious—and very creepy—cave that has been sealed shut for millions of years. Boyd joins the exploratory team, but it’s a decision he’ll soon come to regret. In this novella, Curran crafts an atmosphere so thick with claustrophobia and nyctophobia that no amount of torches or companions could dispel the fear (not that either are any use in fighting off what’s down there, anyway). Last Days by Adam Nevill Kyle Freeman is a down-on-his-luck documentarian, but Last Days opens just as a golden opportunity drops into his lap. He’s hired to make an investigative documentary about the Temple of the Last Days—a cult that ended in a gruesome massacre back in 1975. In the years since, there have been a number of documentaries and films about the tragedy, but none of them have managed to uncover the real details about the cult’s strange supernatural beliefs. After conducting the first interview with one of the few survivors, Kyle is confident that he can nail this documentary, but then he steps into the cult’s first base—an unassuming, and now abandoned, house in London—and realizes that he may be in over his head. At first, he thinks the lack of electricity will make the shadowy interiors look extra creepy on camera, but then he starts to suspect that something might just be lurking in the darkness. Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker Bat Eater brilliantly blends together real-world and supernatural horrors. Set in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic, the story opens with Cora Zeng witnessing her sister being shoved in front of a train by a racist man. This is not an isolated incident—Cora’s job as a crime scene cleaner gives her firsthand knowledge of the increasing number of East Asian women who are being murdered. Along with dealing with the loss of her sister and the bloody aftermath of racially motivated violence, Cora is also starting to think that she may have a haunting on her hands—one that manifests in darkness. Whether it’s a hungry ghost (in her aunt’s opinion) or a jiangshi (in her friend/colleague’s opinion), Cora just knows that she needs to get rid of it if she ever wants to sleep with the light off again. While all of this may sound heavy—and it is—there is some lightness to balance out both the literal and metaphorical darkness. Cora’s newfound friends provide not only hilarious banter, but also genuinely heartfelt emotional support throughout the novel. It’s not always easy to find horror books that play into a fear of the dark—partly because it isn’t usually the driving force of the story and so isn’t flagged upfront—so please feel free to leave any of your own recommendations in the comments below![end-mark] The post Five Horror Books That Will Make You Afraid of the Dark appeared first on Reactor.