8 Folklore-Inspired Horror Novels That Will Make Your Skin Crawl

Folk horror lives in soil and between the shadow of the trees. It’s the stories we inherit, the rules we’re taught not to break. Don’t whistle at night, don’t look back if you hear your name called from between the trees. And always, always, respect the dead. 

But beneath the rules and rituals, folklore is prejudice and misogyny wearing a mask of moss. It is colonial violence, cloaked in the skin of deer. Guilt wrapped in prayers and fetishes.   

In House of Monstrous Women, Philippine folklore bleeds through the pages as Josephine and her friends chase each other through the Ranoco house. Skulls stuffed with names watch the hunt from dark altars. Insects with all too intelligent eyes follow them through the walls. And worst of all? Their hosts might be aswang—beautiful women with a hellish appetite for the dead. The fresher the better. 

Like House of Monstrous Women, these eight unforgettable folk horrors will crawl beneath your skin and make your blood run cold. Some root their terror in history—where superstition, greed, and the law itself become weapons deadlier than anything that might lurk in the wood.

Slewfoot by Brom

When Abitha’s husband dies in a strange hunting accident, she becomes a widow in 1666 New England—a dangerous place to be a woman alone. Soon the men of the village start conspiring to take her land, using a mixture of legal maneuvering and accusations of witchcraft. But when she stumbles across a horned creature from local legend, she strikes an uneasy bargain that might deliver her from danger… or drag her into something far worse. Slewfoot is both lush and brutal, offering a sharp examination of misogyny and prejudice. 

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

On the last day of hunting season, four young Blackfeet men trespass on sacred ground and commit an act they’ll come to regret. The consequences are long-reaching—and they come on hooves. More than just a tale of supernatural vengeance, The Only Good Indians is a haunting novel of intergenerational trauma, guilt, and a past that refuses to let go. 

Lotería by Cynthia Pelayo

Lotería might just be one of the most unique items on the list. Lotería is a traditional Mexican board game made up of 54 cards, each with a different picture. Cynthia Pelayo uses these nostalgic images as doorways into short stories that blend folklore and superstition, packed with horror and surprise. Lotería is an innovative treat and a love letter to the culture.

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Mackenzie is plagued with dreams of her sister’s untimely death. Dreams where crows circle and the fog of guilt hangs heavy. But when the dreams begin to ripple into reality, Mackenzie knows she must return home. What’s waiting for her is the same heavy sadness she tried to escape… and an entity that’s only growing stronger. Bad Cree is a tale of suspense, grief, guilt, and the strength found in family and tradition. 

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A story of three women across time, bound by a legacy of witchcraft and danger. Minerva, a graduate student in 1998, is researching horror writer Beatrice Tremblay—a woman who vanished from public record decades earlier. The deeper Minerva digs, the more she uncovers fragments of protective symbols identical to those her grandmother learned as a girl in rural Mexico, where Alba once used them to fend off a dark presence. Now, that presence may have its eyes on Minerva. The Bewitching is a powerful tale of legacy, resistance through storytelling, and the defiance it takes to survive as a woman in a world that wishes to silence them.

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

When Sam returns to her childhood home in rural North Carolina, she finds it’s nothing like she remembered. Her mother, once chatty and warm, has been broken down into someone guarded and overly polite. The house they once shared has been stripped of its color and personality, reduced to white walls. Sam quickly realizes there’s something very, very wrong in the house. A House with Good Bones is a story about generational trauma, independence, and the need to break free from oppressive traditions that do more harm than good.

The Hotel by Daisy Johnson

The Hotel is a unique collection of 15 interconnected stories, bound by the same cursed location and the legacy of a witch drowned in the marshy Fens. A sin that echoes again and again in the hotel’s twisting corridors, the violence a permanent stain. Each chapter that comes after is narrated by a different woman, ranging from guests to porters and even the hotel itself. With them comes quiet grief and dangerous secrets, filling the rooms of the hotel with a smothering suffering that will stay with you until the last page. 

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

Red algae blooms poison the bayou surrounding the town of Mercy, twisting and mutating everything that lives within it. As townsfolk begin to disappear, the domineering harbormaster demands Noon capture the monster that’s been hunting them—a creature that sounds all too much like the water spirits in her family’s legends. But the red algae is affecting more than just the fish… and what it’s doing to Noon may be more dangerous than anything she’s been sent to hunt.

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