Booksology The Asian American horror works on this list will give you a taste of the creative horror created just for you by talented authors. But before you peruse them, please take a moment to give us your feedback.
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new asian american horror books
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
I love a good dual-timeline book, and Baker’s latest does it in a very original way. Pairing a modern-day Japanese-American college girl with no memory of killing her roommate (oops!) and a female samurai warrior from the late 1800s trying to figure out what’s wrong with her father, this novel is a surprise from start to finish. It’s incredibly violent, but written in beautiful and captivating prose. Baker’s novel is one of the most memorable works of horror I’ve read recently.
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Blooming at Night by Tran Thanh Tran
I loved Tran’s first novel. she is a ghost (It’s also a YA horror), so I wasn’t surprised that I was hooked right away. The story takes place in the small town of Marcy, Louisiana, where a hurricane forces the area to deal with a deadly algae bloom. Teenager Noon is trying to survive a dangerous environment when he is forced to team up with the daughter of a corrupt harbormaster to save his family. A chilling read with elements of body horror and Southern Gothic.
Fiend by Alma Katsu
Maris, Dardan, and Nora are ready to take over the family business…but there’s more to it than any of them expected. Besides the fact that the Berisha family is falling apart in the most spectacular way, the secret behind the family’s success is darker than any of them could have guessed. This book departs from Katsu’s usual brand of historical horror and presents a modern context for the first time. That was very interesting to me and the fact that the family is basically Viper’s heirs and throws in the devil among so many unlikable characters made for a really interesting story.
Morcha by Monica Kim
The fact that this book is based on real-world problems makes it even more frightening. Da-hye is a woman trying to live a dream life with her boyfriend, but everything falls apart when she gets caught up in a voyeur scandal. As the story shifts between the increasingly unstable Da-hye and the cranky Joon-young (the man behind the spy cameras), Kim has crafted a deeply disturbing work of horror that raises important questions about consent, voyeurism, and technology.
“The Question of Authority” by Nadia Balkin
This seminal collection includes three novellas, each with a distinct atmosphere and unique premise. The film opens with “Cop Car,” a story about a young psychic being hunted by the government. (In the world of horror, we know that doesn’t work.) The second story is called “Your Next Best American Girl” and centers around a beauty pageant. While that may be scary enough on its own for some readers, the moderate horror of the skin disease that plagues Veronica makes for particularly unsettling reading. Finally, “Red Skies in the Morning” manages to combine a pandemic situation with horror, giving a new twist to a somewhat familiar horror trope. This book is worth reading.
Add more thrills and thrills to your bookshelf
If you’re still looking for a book that will give you goosebumps, check out the titles on our list of great under-the-radar horror books. Also, peruse this list of AAPI horror authors to keep an eye out and take a peek at the weird horror books you can expect this summer.
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