5 Most-Read Horror Fiction Books on Goodreads Right Now, From Freida McFadden to Riley Sager

This week’s most-read horror books on Goodreads prove that readers don’t need a brand-new release to keep them turning pages long after dark. The site’s current horror selections mix recent releases with older favorites, bringing together psychological thrillers, supernatural mysteries and stories in which figuring out whom—or what—to trust can be a matter of survival.

Leading the pack is Ward D from bestselling author Freida McFadden, which traps a medical student inside a locked psychiatric unit for one increasingly terrifying night. Riley Sager brings a century-old mystery into the present with The Unknown, while Jason Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures continues to find readers years after winning the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror.

Also among the five most-read titles are Meagan Church’s The Mad Wife, a psychological tale set against the pressures placed on women in the 1950s, and Megan Lally’s That’s Not My Name, in which an amnesiac teenager and a missing girl become pieces of the same unsettling mystery.

Whether you’re looking for supernatural chills or psychological suspense, here are five of the horror books Goodreads readers are picking up right now.

‘Ward D’ (March 7, 2025)

Author: Freida McFadden
Publisher: Sourcebooks

What It’s About: Medical student Amy Brenner is required to spend a night working in Ward D, a locked psychiatric unit in a hospital. She has personal reasons for dreading the assignment—reasons she’s determined to keep secret—but soon realizes her own fears may be the least of her problems. As patients and staff begin disappearing, Amy becomes convinced that something dangerous is happening inside the supposedly secure ward, and getting through the night may mean uncovering secrets she’d rather leave buried.

Freida McFadden says: “I’ve always wanted to write a book about my medical internship as it was such a… let’s just say, intense experience.  I read The Devil Wears Prada, and when I read it, I couldn’t help but think to myself, ‘Medical training is so much worse than fashion!  They should hear what I went through!’  So that gave birth to The Devil Wears Scrubs.  Although it’s technically women’s fiction, it’s actually more of a fictionalized memoir about my real life experiences, as is the sequel that takes place a decade later. However, I’ve always loved reading thrillers, so in switching to primarily creating thrillers, I was writing more of the type of books that I personally enjoy reading.”

‘The Mad Wife’ (September 30, 2025)

Author: Meagan Church
Publisher: Sourcebooks

What It’s About: Lulu Mayfield has spent years trying to embody the ideal 1950s housewife, but after giving birth to her second child, maintaining that picture-perfect existence becomes increasingly difficult. Then the seemingly flawless Bitsy moves into the neighborhood. Lulu becomes convinced there’s something disturbing beneath her new neighbor’s cheerful exterior, even as those around her begin questioning Lulu’s own mental state. The result mixes historical fiction with psychological suspense and an examination of the expectations placed upon women. 

Meagan Church says: “The 1950s have always fascinated me because of that glossy promise of perfection–the smiling housewife, the tidy home, the obedient children. But that veneer was often built on suppression, especially for women whose interior lives didn’t align with the ideal. I wanted to set Lulu’s story in that precise tension, the moment when the cracks begin to show. It’s also a decade when medicine and mental health intersected in some truly chilling ways, with lobotomies, electroshock therapy and the rise of tranquilizers like Miltown. Women were routinely misdiagnosed with ‘hysteria,’ a label used to quiet rather than understand them. Lulu’s unraveling begins after childbirth because that’s when so many women of that era were most vulnerable and most silenced. Her breakdown is both personal and historical.” 

“I wanted readers to question what’s real just as Lulu does because that uncertainty is its own form of horror. When you can’t trust your own mind, the walls around you can feel like they’re closing in. And the butterflies on the wallpaper appear to flutter. To balance that ambiguity, I leaned on atmosphere more than action, quiet dread rather than overt terror. The lighting, the silence, the repetition of domestic life all become unsettling in their own way. Lulu’s perception of her environment changes as she unravels, so the horror grows not from jump scares, but from erosion of certainty, trust and self.” (Rue Morgue)

‘The Unknown’ (August 4, 2026)

Author: Riley Sager
Publisher: Dutton

What It’s About: Hollywood star Vivienne Carter travels to a secluded Vermont island to film a movie inspired by a century-old mystery: the disappearance of five women in 1926. Vivienne is accompanied by her assistant, her actor boyfriend and the movie’s crew, but life begins imitating the film when members of the production start disappearing. With a killer apparently among them, the survivors must determine what’s really happening on the island—and whether its past is reaching into the present. 

Riley Sager says: “In 2002 or 2003, I was aimlessly searching the internet for spooky things, and I came across a tree in a swamp that had these white dresses hanging from it. No one knew who put them there, why they were there, or what it meant, but the mysteriousness of it all really fascinated me.”

‘Hidden Pictures’ (May 10, 2022)

Author: Jason Rekulak
Publisher: Flatiron Books

What It’s About: Mallory Quinn, newly out of rehab and trying to rebuild her life, takes a nannying job caring for five-year-old Teddy. Everything initially seems ideal—until Teddy’s innocent drawings begin changing. His simple pictures become disturbing, increasingly sophisticated images, including what appears to be a woman being murdered. Mallory begins wondering whether Teddy’s artwork could somehow be revealing the truth about an old unsolved crime. 

Jason Rekulak says: “I wanted to write a novel with illustrations for an adult audience. I had long been interested in illustrated fiction and eventually collaborated with artists Will Staehle and Doogie Horner. Then the right story arrived. I was walking down my street in Philadelphia when everything hit me like a ton of bricks. I ran into the closest coffee shop and wrote three pages of notes, and everything was pretty much there.” (The Big Thrill)

‘That’s Not My Name’ (December 26, 2023)

Author: Megan Lally
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

What It’s About: A bruised teenage girl awakens beside a dirt road with no memory of who she is or how she got there. At the police station, a frantic man arrives carrying documents and photographs proving she’s his daughter, Mary. Meanwhile, another teenager named Lola has vanished after arguing with her boyfriend, Drew—and almost everyone believes Drew killed her. As Drew desperately searches for Lola, the two mysteries begin moving toward each other. 

Megan Lally says: “The initial idea for That’s Not My Name was just a girl in a ditch by the side of the road. The opening chapter is actually the first mental image I had of the story.” Lally realized that following an amnesiac protagonist alone wouldn’t sustain the entire novel, which led her to create Drew and the book’s second perspective: someone desperately searching for the person who’s missing. (The Little Bookshop)