Why are horror audiobooks such a uniquely immersive experience? Because there’s something about hearing a scary story unfold through your headphones that makes it feel immediate and personal, like the narrator is whispering terrifying secrets directly into your ear.
Skilled narrators can use pacing, tone, and vocal techniques to build tension in ways that reading silently simply can’t match. A well-performed horror audiobook can make your heart race during a quiet moment, or use silence and breathing to create an atmosphere that rivals any movie soundtrack. The best horror narrators understand that sometimes what they don’t say is just as terrifying as what they do.
Whether you’re a longtime horror fan or someone looking to dip your toes into the genre, these audiobooks will be sure to pull you in and never let you go again!
So dim the lights, put on your best headphones, and prepare for a seriously spine-tingling listening experience.
Manhunt
Written by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Narrated by Katherine Pucciariello
This book is such a powerful and wildly entertaining ride! Manhunt is unflinching body horror set in a post-apocalyptic world where a plague has turned people with high testosterone levels into feral monsters.
The story follows trans women Fran and Beth as they hunt these creatures to harvest their estrogen for survival.
Gretchen Felker-Martin doesn’t pull any punches here. This is raw, visceral, and deeply political horror that uses the apocalypse to explore transphobia, survival, and what it means to be human when society has collapsed.
Even though the book is a few years old, it’s – sadly – more timely than ever! It’s angry and brutal and absolutely necessary. The audiobook performance by Katherine Pucciariello captures perfectly both the desperation and the dark humor that runs through the story.
Manhunt is one of the most important horror audiobooks in recent years. It’s not just scary, it’s smart, furious, and unforgettable!
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
Written by Kylie Lee Baker
Narrated by Natalie Naudus
This book had me in a chokehold! Revisiting the scary early days of the COVID pandemic creates an all too familiar eerie atmosphere that’s the perfect backdrop for Cora trying to find out who killed her sister. It took my breath away how Kylie Lee Baker made me experience so immediately the hate East Asians had to endure.
After losing her sister in a horrible and traumatizing way, Cora herself gets into the crosshairs of an extremely prolific serial killer. And we readers are pulled into a frightening race to find the killer in time!
Natalia Naudus brought out Cora’s despair so well and turned this into a truly captivating horror audiobook that I could not turn off!
Hungerstone
Written by Kat Dunn
Narrated by Perdita Weeks
On the one hand, Hungerstone is an atmospheric gothic novel that plays with Vampire themes inspired by the classical novel Carmilla. On the other hand, it’s a very intimate portrait of a smart and strong-willed woman who has to live her life inside the tight confines of her time.
I was mesmerized by this historical horror novel and Perdita Weeks’s amazing narration that perfectly brought out Lenore’s inner life and complexity as well as Camilla’s allure.
So Witches We Became
Written by Jill Baguchinsky
Narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Kristin James
I found this YA Horror novel so deeply satisfying! For once, a heroine full of righteous anger doesn’t have to pay a price for daring to feel rage while being a woman.
So Witches We Became manages to very gently explore trauma and how prevalent it is. It allows its main characters to connect on a deeper level, to see each other with all their facets, and strengthen their sense of friendship and community. And it provides us with a truly compelling line that I won’t get out of my head anytime soon:
They called us witches, so witches we became!
Jeremy Carlisle Parker is a narrator whose range I’ve come to love from her performances of queer and lesbian romance books. But she also shines in horror audiobooks, and made this book an experience you can’t turn off!
Bury Your Gays
Written by Chuck Tingle
Narrated by André Santana, Charlie Jane Anders, CJ Leede, Georgia Bird, Liz Kerin, Mara Wilson, Mark Oshiro, Sarah Gailey, Stephen Graham Jones, T. Kingfisher, TJ Klune
Bury your Gays is a friggin delight not only for fans of horror, but for anyone who can appreciate an excellent audiobook production!
This book is magic. And Chuck Tingle has filled it with so much love, you can feel it throughout.
Bury Your Gays is his love letter to horror, given through the main character. It made me see horror in a new light and showed me what it is really about for many fans of the genre. It also got me hooked (the result of which is this blog post right here).
It is also, fittingly for this author, a very hopeful book as we try to uncover what is going on with the weird imaginary monsters coming to life.
I loved absolutely everything about Chuck Tingle’s audiobook and the narration is truly excellent! I’m a big fan of André Santana. He has a beautiful voice and a real knack for bringing the story to life. But the audio version also has special chapters that work like a script. These are read by other authors, including T. Kingfisher!
I can’t recommend this outstanding horror audiobook enough to you! It might give you an even deeper appreciation for this genre, and you’ll simply have a fantastic time listening to this outstanding audio experience.
Shutter
Written by Ramona Emerson
Narrated by Charley Flyte
Shutter by Ramona Emerson blends a captivating mystery novel with gory horror elements. The audio version is read by Charley Flyte, who brings the creepy atmosphere of this book out perfectly.
Rita is Navajo and works as a forensic photographer. She can see ghosts of dead people at the crime scenes she covers. And they know that she can see them! Again and again, they try to get Rita to find out what happened to them or to bring messages to family members.
Rita has to navigate the horrors she can see, the ghosts trying to influence her life, and her own isolation from her family, while trying to solve a crime that might be bigger than she had thought.
Diverse and Innovative Horror Audiobooks
I used to be a real wimp, thinking horror books weren’t for me. But what has drawn me in about contemporary horror is how it’s expanding beyond traditional scares to explore new themes and perspectives. The books on this list are not just about monsters and gore (though there’s plenty of that too!), they’re about identity, female rage, community, and what it means to be human in a world that can be genuinely terrifying.
It was Chuck Tingle who helped me really “get” what horror is about. While you can absolutely listen to this genre for the thrill and the scares, I’ve discovered that you can also, like me, listen to it for the hopeful endings, for that feeling that things, no matter how grim they get, can turn out okay in the end.
For me, horror at its best isn’t just about feeling scared and invested; it’s about letting a book take me through darkness to find light on the other side. And I have learned that this genre can be both entertaining and meaningful, scary and smart, gruesome and beautiful.
Need more now? Check out my list of weird and spooky Halloween audiobooks.
Happy haunting… and listening!
Eline Blackman (pronouns: she/they) fell in love with books as a child – with being read to and reading herself. 11 years ago, she bought her first Audible book. It was love at first listen! An average of 200 audiobooks per year has become the new normal, and you will rarely see Eline without a wireless earbud. Romance and Fantasy are the go-to genres for this audiobook fan.