25 Horrormance Books To Take You From First Kiss To Final Kill

Published Oct 11, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.

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They have covered events, such as the Denver Fan Expo. Professionals in the field, such as Damien Leone and Lucy Hale, have shared their articles. Their review of Ponies was quoted in the show's TV trailer.

In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18.

Aside from working at Screen Rant, Dani has worked as a freelance editor and writer over the past decade, often in a ghostwriting capacity.

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The horrormance genre blends different types of horror with various forms of romance to create a story that's as disturbing as it is heart-swelling. Horror and romance aren’t complete strangers, as they've crossed over in many great stories in the past. However, there’s a big difference between a romance story with a mild horror subplot, a horror with a dash of romance, and a horrormance. The newer genre uses the horror conventions to create fear or existential dread while also exploring the light or dark sides of romantic pairings.

Like any other form of romance, horrormance books can range from mild to spicy, and the relationships can range from healthy to toxic. There aren’t any guaranteed happily-ever-afters in horrormance, but many still choose that type of ending. Similarly, the genre can have more or less psychological torture, mild or intense body horror, and some supernatural creatures or none. There are so many different horror and romance combinations to dive into. Here are twenty-five published and upcoming horrormance books to read, broken down by horror type.

Horrormance books frequently include violence, graphic gore, and potentially distressing themes. Please consider checking the content warning, if available, before reading any of these books.

5 Monster Horrormance

• Jenny Will Eat You Now: Meat Cute by Gillian Daniels (Published: September 29, 2026 / Purchase here): Jenny Greenteeth, an ancient river monster hungry for human flesh, leaves her Boston subway home to stalk a handsome man she couldn’t bring herself to eat.
• Lethal Kiss by Taylor Grothe (Publishing: October 20, 2026 / Preorder here): Marcella, a Norse draugr stuck in academia, denies any guilt when bodies start dropping on campus, and she teams up with assistant professor Lacie to find the murderer.
• Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin (Published: April 22, 2025 / Purchase here): After losing her job, Shell Pine starts working at a floral shop alongside Neve, the beautiful shop manager, but she soon learns a sentient, carnivorous plant with a voracious appetite runs the place.
• The Haar by David Sodergren (Published May 17, 2022 / Purchase here): In a Scottish fishing village, a thick fog rolls in, bringing madness and a mysterious and bloodthirsty monster, who gets rescued and nursed back to health by an old woman named Muriel McAuley.
• A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson (Published March 22, 2022 / Purchase here): Flipping the script on the Gothic horror book by Bram Stoker, Dracula’s first wife, Constanta, recounts her life from her vampire transformation to Dracula bringing new people into their home, examining their toxic relationship.
• Interview With The Vampire By Anne Rice (Published May 5, 1976 / Purchase here): 200-year-old vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac recounts his life and toxic relationship with his companion Lestat de Lioncourt and vampire child Claudia to a young journalist named Daniel Molloy.

Gothic horror stories with monsters, like the vampire novels Carmilla and Dracula, laid the foundation for horror romance centuries ago. In 1976, Anne Rice redefined horror romance with Interview with the Vampire, a foundational work of literature in the genre. As such, it’s no surprise that monster horrormance is perhaps the most abundant category, with plenty of great options for readers.

4 Ghosts & Spirits Horrormance

• Haunted Hearts by Hanna Harp (Publishing: October 27, 2026 / Preorder here): In the second book in The Bound Duet, Cade Halloway works to dismantle the Covenant, which is after his sister Callisto, while she secretly trains and learns to wield her power.
• Decomposition Book by Sara Van Os (Published: May 19, 2026 / Purchase here): Savannah wakes up one day standing next to the dead body of a woman named Ava and starts reading her journal. Because of their newfound connection, she refuses to call the police, afraid of losing Ava’s ghost.
• On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield (Published: January 27, 2026 / Purchase here): After fleeing from her abusive mother without a plan in 1965, June takes shelter in a sentient haunted house, where she tends to the land, ghosts, and haints. However, her peace gets disrupted by an uncanny woman on her front steps.​​
• Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta (Published: October 29, 2024 / Purchase here): When Angela's close friend Jagvi shows up in town, a malevolent spirit awakens and violently possesses her, and Jagvi's touch is the only thing that can repel it.​​

Whether it’s telling ghost stories around the bonfire or playing with a Ouija board, folks remain fascinated by the idea of evil spirits existing in our world. The perennial interest helps explain why incorporeal beings frequently show up in the horrormance genre. These books range from ghosts as positive forces, like the reader being a ghost character in Haunted Hearts, to them being predatory, destructive forces, like in Feast While You Can.

3 Sci-Fi Horrormance

• Immersed by Gale Ian Tate (Published: October 5, 2025 / Purchase here): Levi Mercer gets trapped in a VR horror game during a charity stream, and the game keeps resetting even though the obsessive killer doesn't. However, he soon starts protecting Levi from other threats.
• Queen Of Teeth by Hailey Piper (Published: September 1, 2021 / Purchase here): After a one-night stand with Doc, Yaya discovers her vagina’s growing teeth and tentacles. Then, she learns Doc is a scientist at AlphaBeta Pharmaceutical, which secretly runs unsanctioned experiments that cause genetic mutations in people.
• Spread Me by Sarah Gailey (Published: September 23, 2025 / Purchase here): Kinsey, the leader of a science crew with a physical attraction to viruses and bacteriophages, discovers a specimen and breaks quarantine to bring it inside. However, the group soon learns it’s a parasite that wants one of them to be its new host.
• The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (Published: April 2, 2019 / Purchase here): Gyre Price lies to take a well-paying solo caving expedition on an alien planet with a creature living deep in the caves, and she gets stuck in the dark with a manipulative person named Em, who controls Gyre through drugs and lies.

Horror and sci-fi have gone hand in hand for centuries, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and some of the best modern franchises understand this, like Alien and Predator. These books take the blended genre a step further by throwing romance in as well. They feature everything from genetic experiments to alien planets, making them just as diverse in the sci-fi department as they are in horror.

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2 Slasher Horrormance

• His Final Girl by Brooklyn Ann (Published: August 29, 2025 / Purchase here): Farm girl Linnea Langenkamp and computer nerd Wes Carpenter fall in love on Amteep High’s 1979 senior class trip to Camp Natty, but soon learn their love will have to survive a masked murderer intent on killing the group.
• Slash Or Pass by Thalia Sanchez (Published: August 4, 2026 / Purchase here): Mabel returns to Westbrook College and teams up with her now-hot former best friend, Danny, to stop a murderer wearing a Cupid mask after he sends a letter threatening to kill her younger sister.
• How To Kill A Guy In Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson (Published: February 3, 2026 / Purchase here): Cinephile Jamie Prescott attends a speed dating event, where someone slits the necks of multiple attendees, and she must use her encyclopedic knowledge of horror to keep everyone else alive.
• The Final Girl by Dani Lagasse (Publishing: August 30, 2027 / Preorder here): Summer Sorrows, a mortuary science major with a horror movie obsession, must survive a campus killer in this slasher rom-com advertised as perfect for fans of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Slasher TV series and movies are a cornerstone of the horror genre, remaining popular throughout the 70s and 80s and seeing a major revival in the mid-90s. Nowadays, they’re just as big on paper as they are on the screen. These slasher horrormance books feature traditional elements like masked killers and character archetypes but with fresh stories.

1 Miscellaneous Horrormance

Cannibal Horror

• When Life Gives You Corpses by Lene D. Buttner (Publishing: March 23, 2027 / Preorder here): A cursed, human-eating praying mantis named Theory disguises himself as a person and works a search-and-recovery guide, occasionally snacking on the remains of dead adventurers. When he tries to save Nim, a wizard, he recruits Theory to go deeper into a magic sinkhole.
• This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham (Published: April 25, 2023 / Purchase here): After a pathogen makes some people only capable of eating human flesh, scientists create synthetic alternatives. A group of friends brings a cooler of the fake meat to a music festival, but someone drugs the flesh-craving people, causing attacks on humans.

Demon Horror

• I Hope This Email Finds You In Hell by Mackenzie Reed (Published: September 1, 2026 / Purchase here): A receptionist named Brie joins her demon hunter boss, Luke, through Hell to rescue their kidnapped coworker. As she navigates the underworld with Luke, they’re drawn closer.
• Devil Inside by Clay McLeod Chapman (Published: September 1, 2026 / Purchase here): After nearly dying, Jordan experiences disturbing side effects, but he’s still eager to find someone to love. He meets Lilith, she disappears after hooking up one night, and she shows back up wearing a different face.

Survival Horror

• Doomsdate by Laura Piper Lee (Published: September 15, 2026 / Purchase here): Maisie Bennett and Dr. Everett Greer, a doomsday prepper and a nerdy film professor, must survive the zombie apocalypse together when their awkward first date turns deadly.
• Little Bird Lost by Jessie Walker (Published: March 18, 2023 / Purchase here): A girl named Isobel Montgomery gets kidnapped and kept captive in a mansion called The Aviary, and she’s subjected to psychological games that blur the lines between victim, captor, and savior.

Folk Horror

• Don’t Let The Forest In by CG Drews (Published: October 29, 2024 / Purchase here): Andrew Perrault writes twisted fairy tales for the boy he’s obsessed with, Thomas Rye, who illustrates them. One day, those monster drawings come to life and start killing people.

Even though it’s considered relatively new, Horrormance is as widespread as any other genre. If something can scare you, it’s a pretty safe bet that there’s at least one book blending it with romance. Zombies have their place, as do folk horrors. For this reason, not every book will be for everyone.

I may skip a corpse story like Decomposition Book because biological decay gives me the ick, but pick up a zombie survival horror rom-com. Meanwhile, you may want to skip a sci-fi horror or a cannibalism tale, depending on your taste, but be in search of a monster story. Ultimately, the variety is a good thing, though, because anyone who loves horror and romance can find something to enjoy.