With an impressive lineup of books set for publication before the end of the year, we’ve put together a list of our most anticipated books for the rest of 2025. Since we’re avid readers of the horror, thriller, and mystery genres, our selection might lean a bit heavy in that direction.
20. Your Favorite Scary Movie
by Ashley Cullins
The ultimate story of the Scream movie franchise, featuring interviews from more than eighty key players and an in-depth exploration of the creation and legacy of the films that revived a dying genre
In Your Favorite Scary Movie, entertainment journalist Ashley Cullins examines the making and impact of the Scream films with behind-the-scenes insight from cast, creators, and crew, as well as sharp analysis on how the movies’ special blend of gruesome violence and humorous self-awareness rewrote the horror playbook. This intimate and thorough history includes brand-new interviews from Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Kevin Williamson, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Jack Quaid, Parker Posey, Hayden Panettiere, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Radio Silence, Roger L. Jackson, and so many more.
Perfect for fans of Scream, horror lovers, and cinephiles, this is the story of how a little movie about a ghost-faced killer terrorizing high schoolers overcame countless obstacles to become an historic success that still has audiences screaming to this day.
Release: August 19, 2025
19. Crafting for Sinners
by Jenny Kiefer
Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in Kill Devil.
In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her. As Ruth fights for her life using only the crafting supplies at hand, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her but the entire town.
Urgent, scathing, and utterly original, Crafting for Sinners cements Kiefer’s status as a dazzling new star in horror.
Release: October 7, 2025
18. A Game in Yellow
by Hailey Piper
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of A Game in Yellow
A kink-fixated couple, Carmen and Blanca, have been in a rut. That is until Blanca discovers the enigmatic Smoke in an under-street drug den, who holds pages to a strange play, The King in Yellow. Read too much, and you’ll fall into madness. But read just a little and pull back, and it gives you the adrenaline rush of survivor’s euphoria, leading Carmen to fall into a game of lust at a nightmare’s edge.
As the line blurs between the world Carmen knows and the one that she visits after reading from the play, she begins to desire more time in this other world no matter what horrors she brings back with her.
Bram Stoker Award–winning author Hailey Piper masterfully blends horror, erotica, and psychological thriller in this captivating and chilling story.
Release: August 12, 2025
17. Nowhere Burning
by Catriona Ward
A refuge for lost children may also be their prison.
In the middle of the night, Riley pulls her younger brother Oliver out of bed, and the two run away from home. Riley is intent on joining a group of teenagers squatting in the abandoned ruins of an infamous movie star’s ranch, Nowhere. For actor Leaf Winham, Nowhere was a place to hide from his fame, and to hide his crimes―until a fire ravaged his home and exposed him as a murderer.
It is rumored that the ranch nestled in the peaks of the Rocky Mountains is now home to group of feral children, a place where adults cannot enter, and Riley hopes to find a new family there. But the Nowhere Kids are fierce in defending their turf and their clan, and Riley quickly realizes that while she and Oliver may have left the devil they knew, this group is a new type of diabolical.
For something dark lives in the burned shell of Nowhere, something which asks a terrible price for sanctuary…
Release: October 7, 2025
16. We Are Always Tender with Our Dead
by Eric LaRocca
The lives of those residing in the isolated town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, are forever altered after three faceless entities arrive on Christmas morning to perform a brutal act of violence—a senseless tragedy that can never be undone. While the townspeople grieve their losses and grapple with the aftermath of the attack, a young teenage boy named Rupert Cromwell is forced to confront the painful realities of his family situation. Once relationships become intertwined and more carnage ensues as a result of the massacre, the town residents quickly learn that true retribution is futile, cruelty is earned, and certain thresholds must never be crossed no matter what.
Engrossing, atmospheric, and unsettling, this is a devastating story of a small New England community rocked by an unforgivable act of violence. Writing with visceral intensity and profound eloquence, LaRocca journeys deep into the dark heart of Burnt Sparrow, leaving you chilled to the bone and wanting more.
Release: September 9, 2025
15. Future Boy
by Michael J. Fox, Nelle Fortenberry
In early 1985, Michael J. Fox was one of the biggest stars on television. His world was about to get even bigger, but only if he could survive the kind of double duty unheard of in Hollywood. Fox’s days were already dedicated to rehearsing and taping the hit sitcom Family Ties, but then the chance of a lifetime came his way. Soon, he committed his nights to a new time-travel adventure film being directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg―Back to the Future. Sitcom during the day, movie at night―day after day, for months.
Fox’s nightly commute from a soundstage at Paramount to the back lot at Universal Studios, from one dream job to another, would become his own space-time continuum. It was in this time portal that Alex P. Keaton handed the baton to Marty McFly while Michael J. Fox tried to catch a few minutes of sleep. Alex’s bravado, Marty’s flair, and Fox’s comedic virtuosity all swirled together to create something truly special.
In Future Boy, Fox tells the remarkable story of playing two landmark roles at the same time―a slice of entertainment history that’s never been told. Using new interviews with the cast and crew of both projects, the result is a vividly drawn and eye-opening story of creative achievement by a beloved icon.
Release: October 14, 2025
14. My Ex, the Antichrist
by Craig DiLouie
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of My Ex, the Antichrist
1998: Lily Lawlor and Drake Morgan form a punk band. Drake inspires faith in some. Fear in others. Lily is a believer.
1999: A Battle of the Bands ends in a shocking death, and a riot that claims the lives of three teenagers.
2009: At the height of her stardom, Lily walks into a police station and confesses to murder.
Now: The band has refused to talk to the press about the night of the riot, Lily’s confession, or anything else. It’s been over a decade, but Lily has finally agreed to an interview. And the band is following her lead.
What follows is a story of prophecy, death, and apocalypse. A story about love and love lost. A story about the antichrist. Maybe it’s all true. Maybe none if it is.
Either way, this is their story. And they’re sticking to it.
Release: July 1, 2025
13. Shiny Happy People
by Clay McLeod Chapman
At sixteen Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw as little girl living with her mother’s drug addiction. Years later, Kyra doesn’t always feel like she belongs—and disturbing dreams come to her at night.
When a new party drug reaches her high school, Kyra’s life becomes an actual nightmare. A video challenge spreads among the students—and though she doesn’t participate, Kyra can’t escape the inexplicable side effects.
Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to notice the eeriness is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene.
When the strangeness begins to feel sinister—or unnatural—Kyra is determined to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug. As she and Logan get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra’s past and present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself, or lose everyone she loves.
Release: November 11, 2025
12. King Sorrow
by Joe Hill
Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll—and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot—is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library.
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.
But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.
Release: October 21, 2025
11. Widow’s Point: The Complete Haunting
by Richard Chizmar, W.H. Chizmar
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of Widow’s Point: The Complete Haunting
Longtime residents of Harper’s Cove believe that something is wrong with the Widow’s Point Lighthouse. Some say it’s cursed. Others claim it’s haunted.
Originally built in 1838, three workers were killed during the lighthouse’s construction, including one who mysteriously plunged to his death from the catwalk. That tragic accident was never explained, and it was just the beginning of the terror. In the decades that followed, nearly two dozen additional deaths occurred in or around the lighthouse including cold-blooded murder, suicide, unexplained accidents and disappearances, the slaughter of an entire family, and the inexplicable death of a Hollywood starlet who was filming a movie on the grounds.
The lighthouse was finally shuttered tight in 1988 and a security fence was erected around the property. No one has been inside since. Until now.
Told across two harrowing incidents from 2017 and 2025, those who enter the Widow’s Point Lighthouse searching for supernatural proof and the next big thing find themselves cut off from the outside world. And although no one has recently stepped foot inside the structure, they are not alone.
In this remarkable collaboration, father and son writing team, Richard and W.H. Chizmar combine forces to tell a terrifying ghost story that will make you think twice about what’s waiting for you in the dark.
Release: September 30, 2025
10. Enemy of my Enemy
by Alex Segura
When reports come in that the Kingpin and a police officer have been killed and that Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) has turned himself in for it, Matt Murdock senses holes in the narratives the media and the streets are quick to run with.
Both criminals have been Matt’s nemeses when he dons the cowl of the Daredevil, and there’s no denying that New York is better off without its Kingpin and with the Punisher behind bars. And yet . . . while the Punisher is a murderous vigilante, he doesn’t kill cops. And he doesn’t turn himself in.
Castle certainly deserves prison for all of the other crimes he has committed in the past. However, Matt’s indominable sense of justice insists that nobody should be locked away for crimes they didn’t actually commit. Representing the vigilante in court, Matt enters a contest of wills and guile with Castle to try and uncover the game beneath the game. And when Matt’s girlfriend takes the stand and complicates matters, there’s truly no rest for the wicked or the just. As the Kingpin’s absence causes passion and ambitions to run hot in Hell’s Kitchen, Matt must decide if justice means the letter of the law, what’s best for the citizen on the streets, or where his heart leading him.
Enemy of My Enemy continues the Marvel Crime series that began with Lisa Jewell’s Breaking the Dark, and brings fans into a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe. Marvel Crime novels build on one another but do not require in-depth familiarity with Marvel or the other books in the series.
Release: September 23, 2025
9. Another
by Paul Tremblay
READ JUSTIN’S ADVANCE REVIEW of Another
READ ANNA’S ADVANCE REVIEW of Another
When Casey Wilson’s parents tell him that his friend is coming for a sleepover, he has no idea who that might be. Ever since the Zoom Incident, everyone treats him like a pariah, and his tics are worse than ever.
When Morel appears, he’s not like any friend Casey has ever met. His skin is like clay, and he doesn’t speak. But Casey’s parents are charmed by the strange kid, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to besides his sister, Ally, who is away at college. As his normally loving parents grow distant from Casey, they gush and fawn over Morel. Casey knows something is wrong—but with no end in sight to the sleepover, he’s exhausted. And in the dark, out of the corner of his eye, Morel doesn’t look like a kid at all…
Release: July 22, 2025
8. The End of the World As We Know It
by Various
Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered Stephen King’s seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction, with millions of copies sold and adapted twice for television. Although there are other extraordinary works exploring the unraveling of human society, none have been as influential as this iconic novel—generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilization, and its stunning array of characters.
Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorized a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today’s greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand—brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel.
Release: August 19, 2025
7. Breathe In, Bleed Out
By Brian McAuley
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of Breathe In, Bleed Out
Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way… even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life. So when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start.
Despite her skepticism of the strange Guru Pax and his belief in the supernatural world, Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven. But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways. As the body count rises and Hannah’s sanity frays, she’ll have to confront her dark past and uncover the true nature of a ruthless monster hellbent on killing her vibe for good.
Release: September 2, 2025
6. Play Nice
by Rachel Harrison
READ JUSTIN’S ADVANCE REVIEW of Play Nice
READ ANNA’S ADVANCE REVIEW of Play Nice
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.
After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.
Release: September 9, 2025
5. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre
by Philip Fracassi
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre
LISTEN TO PHILIP FRACASSI on the Capes and Tights Podcast
Rose DuBois is not your average final girl.
Rose is in her late 70s, living out her golden years at the Autumn Springs Retirement Home.
When one of her friends dies alone in her apartment, Rose isn’t too concerned. Accidents happen, especially at this age!
Then another resident drops dead. And another. With bodies stacking up, Rose can’t help but wonder: are these accidents? Old age? Or something far more sinister?
Together with her best friend Miller, Rose begins to investigate. The further she digs, the more convinced she becomes: there’s a killer on the loose at Autumn Springs, and if she isn’t careful, Rose may be their next victim.
Release: September 30, 2025
4. Coffin Moon
by Keith Rosson
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of Coffin Moon
It’s the winter of 1975, and Portland, Oregon, is all sleet and neon. Duane Minor is back home after a tour in Vietnam, a bartender just trying to stay sober; save his marriage with his wife, Heidi; and connect with his thirteen-year-old niece, Julia, now that he’s responsible for raising her. Things aren’t easy, but Minor is scraping by.
Then a vampire walks into his bar and ruins his life.
When Minor crosses John Varley, a killer who sleeps during the day beneath loose drifts of earth and grows teeth in the light of the moon, Varley brutally retaliates by murdering Heidi, leaving Minor broken with guilt and Julia filled with rage. What’s left of their splintered family is united by only one desire: vengeance.
So begins a furious, frenzied pursuit across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. From grimy alleyways to desolate highways to snow-lashed plains, Minor and Julia are cast into the dark orbit of undead children, silver bullet casters, and the bevy of broken men transfixed by Varley’s ferocity. Everyone’s out for blood.
Gritty, unforgettable, and emotionally devastating, Coffin Moon asks what will be left of our humanity when grief transmutes into violence, when monsters wear human faces, and when our thirst for revenge eclipses everything else.
Release: September 9, 2025
3. Angel Down
by Daniel Kraus
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of Angel Down
Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.
What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.
Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.
Release: July 29, 2025
2. 8114
by Joshua Hull
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of 8114
LISTEN TO JOSHUA HULL on the Capes and Tights Podcast
After returning to his hometown, Paul, the beleaguered host of a small-time podcast, discovers a longtime friend committed suicide in the dilapidated ruins of Paul’s childhood home. Desperate to find answers, Paul interviews friends and locals hoping to find closure. He finds himself in a chilling downward spiral of his memories and the land he grew up on. Has his past caught up with him or is there something far more sinister at play?
Joshua Hull, screenwriter of Glorious, brings an edge of horror film expertise to this story of small-town haunting, trauma, and grief that just won’t let go. 8114 roots out the rot of a small town’s past and unravels the memories we must face to survive the present.
Release: August 26, 2025
1. Lucky Day
by Chuck Tingle
READ OUR ADVANCE REVIEW of Lucky Day
After a global disaster prompts thousands of comically unlikely deaths, a bisexual statistics professor―who has convinced herself she might not exist―and an ethically dubious government agent must travel to Las Vegas to unravel the connection between deadly bouts of absurdity and a supernaturally lucky casino.
Release: August 12, 2025
