5 Horror/Thriller Novels I Loved in 2025

 

Credit to So You’ve Been Told You Should Read Some Old Books… | Tim Challies

I recently have been reading a crapload of books this year. My family keeps telling me that my bookshelf is running out of room, but who cares? I dream of collecting nothing but horror novels or thriller books, and once I get my own place, I’m going to have awesome bookshelves built to sustain my entire book collection. 

Hopefully it will be soon, but I guess we shall see lol. 

There are a lot more books I have read this year, but I thought it would be cool to focus on brand new stories I recently read. I don’t want to focus on standalone articles anymore on book reviews. 

I think it would more fun to tackle several at a time, because writing one book review at a time will take way too long lol.

Anyway, here are five books I have read this year, that I freaking loved.

Picture of Corpse with books I read this year. 

It’s pretty tough to rank these five novels, but I will try my best!

5. The Tenant by Frieda McFadden 

This is my second favorite novel by Frieda. She is a great thriller writer who knows how to write insane thriller plots. While some of her books can be a hit or miss, her new novel was a damn slam dunk!

The Tenant follows the story of a dude named Blake Porter who was high on life, before he experiences a downward spiral. He loses his high paying job, and is forced to have a tenant live with him and his girlfriend, to be able to afford to pay the bills for their fancy home. 

Blake is thrown into pure insanity when he realizes that the tenant is a complete psychopath, who uses manipulation and goes to extreme measures to ruin his life. Once Blake finds out the dark truth about his tenant, the book does a complete 180, shocking me with a huge twist. 

This is the best twist Frida has done so far, and damn, I was impressed!

4. The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon 

This is the most disturbing novel I have read this year. I decided to give this book a try, when one of favorite horror writers praised this novel. I gave it a read, and wow…it broke me. 

We read from the point of view of a woman who is held captive by a serial killer. She has been under his capture for five years, and she goes along with whatever he wants to keep herself alive, so that she will one day be able to escape. The killer grows so infatuated with her, that he decides to have her live with him and his daughter. 

It turns out that this killer is a normal dude among society, and is deeply loved by his hometown. His daughter has no idea that he is a secretly a monster, and I struggled to read the parts of the novel when the main character is spending time with the killer’s daughter. 

Their interactions were so normal, and it was so damn scary, knowing what kind of evil this man was. This novel left me terrified, and it is extremely hard to read in some sections. 

Warning: This novel does contain disturbing themes that many will be uncomfortable with. Viewer discretion is strongly advised for those who want to read this one. 

3. Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris 

This novel frustrated and scared the shit out of me. I felt like screaming in so many scenes, because of how evil the villain was in this novel. The story follows a woman named Grace, who has the perfect life. She lives in a big home with her husband Jack, who is rich and handsome. 

He adores her sister named Millie, who wants to live with Grace one day in her big house. 

Unfortunately…this is all an act. 

Jack is secretly a sociopathic monster, who dreamed of kidnapping a woman to keep in his house forever, to psychologically torture. He tricked Grace into becoming his wife, and used manipulation for months, and eventually revealed his true nature, so that he can keep her trapped forever, under his abusive control. 

I felt so horrible for Grace’s character…the psychological torture she suffers throughout the novel will break you…and you will find yourself rooting for her, hoping that she will find a way out. 

This novel deserves to be in the top 10 best thriller novels ever written!

2. Roadwork by Stephen King

I was so surprised with how much I enjoyed this book. Many of his horror fans did not like this novel, due to the story fully focusing on the broken mindset of the main character. I found myself really enjoying the slow descent of madness of this Barton Dawes, because he was so unlikable. 

It’s been awhile since I hated a character so much, and man, Barton really sucks. I know that he was pretty angry that construction led to the loss of his job and his home, but this guy refused to listen to anyone to have a chance at a happy life. I did feel bad that he lost his kid, but come on, this guy treated so many happy people like shit. 

Including his own wife, who utterly adored him, but his meanness is what pushed her away in the end. I was just so fascinated by his downward spiral, and I kept wondering if he was actually going to go through with everything in the end, blowing up his own house to prevent the construction from continuing. 

In my opinion, one of King’s best. 

1. The Long Walk by Stephen King. 

This is one of the best horror novels King has ever written. I now consider this book to be in my top 10 from his work. The Long Walk follows the story of a huge group of kids, who take part in a competition known as The Walk. The kids cannot stop walking, or they will get shot on sight by soldiers, ending their ‘walk’ for good. 

The main prize is a lot of money to whoever is the last walker standing. 

This novel will break your heart piece by piece, as you find yourself growing attached to these characters. You will feel so bad for these kids, knowing that they are enduring horrible torture to keep themselves in the contest. It’s a slow burn of death and pain, as the main character becomes friends with so many of the contestants, knowing that only one of them will be left standing. 

I’m beyond excited for the film coming out this year…I know it’s going to be great!

Have any of you read these novels? And if so, did you enjoy them? 

Stay tuned for another book list! And yes, my creepy teddy bear will be posing in all of my pictures. :)