Some books can scare you, others linger. Headlights does both. CJ Leede crafts a brutal, strange, and unexpectedly moving novel that lured me in with its unsettling premise and then kept me going with emotional depth. Leede has a keen ability to balance visceral horror with an exploration of grief to create a story that feels raw and incredible. As a huge fan of Leede, this has to be one of her best…if not her best.
Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it’s happening again.
Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they’ve allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue.
Now Daniel is pulled back into the gruesome cycle, and every clue leads him deeper into the shadows of his own past. He will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along― before he and the people he loves become the next victims.
I will say that Maeve Fly was difficult to beat and American Rapture was very close, but still edged by Maeve. Now, Headlights somehow may edge over Maeve Fly. Either way, Leede is three-for-three on her novels in the past few years.
Leede manages to balance pure dread with great emotion in Headlights. The horror within is graphic and unsettling, something we have come to expect from Leede, but it never feels empty or just inserted for shock value. Leede clearly knows how to scare while telling a fantastic story. She cares about the lives of her characters in Headlights, especially Daniel, and that makes this story hit even harder. Headlights spends a lot of time with trauma, memory, and grief, and somehow manages to make it all feel raw rather than heavy-handed. There are moments that even caught me off guard emotionally, something I didn’t expect coming into this story and don’t usually expect in a horror novel.
Like with American Rapture, this novel breathes atmospheric horror. Headlights feels cold and tense in the best way possible, like driving down a darken highway with only your headlights cutting through the thick night sky, waiting to see what lays beyond the end of the beam. CJ uses her typical vivid writing to give us a story that some may see as strange and chaotic, but really feels intentional. It’s not a neat and comforting read, it has this messiness that works in its favor, making the reading experience that much more intense and personal.
I was captivated and gripped to Headlights for many reasons, some already stated, but the big one really is Leede’s blend of genres. Headlights sits in a weird crossroads of horror, psychological thriller, and even a sense of true crime, pulling tension from each without making it feel gimmicky or forced.
It can be difficult to decide, but Headlights by CJ Leede is definitely one of her best novels yet. Leede crafts a genre-bending horror story that has true emotional depth while scaring the shit out of us. Headlights is visceral, psychological, and horrifying in one fast-paced and gripping novel. A must-read horror story.
Headlights hits bookstores everywhere on June 9, 2026 from Tor Nightfire. The audiobook, narrated by Andrew Eiden, is available for preorder via Libro.fm!
