Stuck in a reading rut? Want to expand your reading horizons in 2026? You’re in luck! Every month this year, we will be delving deep into popular genres at the library. If you’re already a fan, find readalike suggestions for popular authors and ideas for similar genres to explore. If you’re brand new to the genre in question, you will find a helpful explanation of the hallmarks of the genre, a breakdown of its most common subgenres, and explanations of what readers find so appealing about the most popular authors writing those types of books. For October, we’re exploring horror, of course.
Horror can be an overlooked genre in the library. It doesn’t have its own section like mysteries or Westerns, and it often only gets highlighted extensively this month around Halloween. Still, we have quite a few avid horror readers among our patrons, and year in and year out, Stephen King remains one of our top-circulating authors. (He was #5 for 2025). I have also done a couple horror reader’s advisory readalike lists over the years. That’s the service we offer that provides tailor-made suggestions for people based on their own personal reading history and preferences.
Horror can be divided into quite a few different subgenres, depending on how you want to discuss the genre. But for our booklet, I went with 5 subcategories–popular horror (bestselling authors who were part of the 20th century horror literature boom), 21st century horror (authors whose horror careers started after 2000), gothic horror (which includes a lot of 19th century classics), historical horror (contemporary horror with historical settings), and weird fiction (a fusion of horror, fantasy, and science fiction that steers clear of more conventional monsters).
Whether you’re a complete newbie to horror or someone who just reads horror for Halloween or a veteran horror reader, there should be something new for you in the booklet.
There are several horror recommendation lists already uploaded on our Readers’ And Viewers’ Advisory Resources page on the right-hand sidebar under Horror.
You can also use the “horror” tags and categories feature on the top left-hand side of this post to search for other horror recommendations on the blog. Just click on them, and you can pore through every single post that highlights a horror novel.
If you are still not finding anything new and appealing to read (or you are not interested in horror), use our Google Form or contact the library in person or by phone or email to request a reader’s advisory consultation. I will write you a personalized list of suggested authors and titles based on your reading preferences.
Also be sure to check out our Historical Fiction booklet, which highlights several gothic authors that may also appeal to fans of historical horror and gothic horror.
Happy reading!
What’s your favorite genre? What new-to-you genre are you exploring in 2026? Who’s your favorite horror writer? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of our items or to place them on hold.
The following resources have been especially helpful in preparing this booklet and post:
NoveListPlus. Ebsco.
Joyce G. Saricks. Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. ALA: Chicago and London, 2001.
Joyce G. Saricks. Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. 2nd edition. ALA: Chicago, 2009.
Neal and Wyatt and Joyce G. Saricks. Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. 3rd edition. ALA: Chicago, 2019.
Syndetics Unbound library catalog enrichment service.
