Horror Stories to Get You Ready For Camp Fires and Halloween

by MK French

Who is ready for campfires and scary stories? The weather can't decide if it wants to be summer or fall, but these horror stories will get you ready for all things spooky that come up when the leaves begin to change and the weather chills.

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A Blood as Bright as the Moon by Andrea Morstabilini

September 2025; ‎Titan Books; 978-1803369754
audio, ebook, print (288 pages); gothic horror

Ambrose is a young vampire living with the rest of his clan under Regina's rule. She plans to make wings and fly to the moon, where a safe haven awaits for all vampires. Ambrose isn't ready to leave and has contacted a human who feels he can be saved. As the other vampires prepare to flee to the moon, the Royal Diurnal Society is on its way to conduct its terrifying and mysterious experiments.

In this world, vampires have pink blood and are born with it. Even as a child, Ambrose had pink blood, liked men, and craved red blood. He ran away from home and lived on the streets, never quite fitting in. Regina gave him a home and purpose, but he hoped there was a way to cure the vampirism so that he could be normal and not have to fly to the moon. His anxiety and the terrible way the Royal Diurnal Society treated him and others like him can be seen as a direct allegory to how anyone different gets treated: called monstrous for even existing, that survival is an attack, and that they must be eradicated so that their "normal" can be preserved and they can feel like strong men in their own minds. 

There's a quiet hurt throughout the story. Ambrose is hurt in so many different ways, his anxiety a close companion even when he doesn't think of himself as a person. The shift in POV is an interesting way to show that, and I love how badass Agata was. In the end, Ambrose found what he was looking for all along, even if it wasn't what he expected. While initially it was a story that tied the four vampires together under Regina, it was a story that also allowed him to heal and find what he needed.

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These Dreaming Spires edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane

September 2025; Titan Books; Titan Books
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); horror anthology

These Dreaming Spires is a collection of twelve dark academia stories by Olivie Blake, Genevieve Cogman, Ariel Djanikian, Elspeth Wilson, MK Lobb, Jamison Shea, Kate Alice Marshall, Erica Waters, De Elizabeth, Taylor Grothe, Kit Mayquist, and Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. It's no accident if you recognize these names, since this is a topic they do very well.

This isn't the first dark academia short story collection that Titan published (that was In These Hallowed Halls), so the challenge was to innovate on the theme. We open with "Tallow's Cove" by Erica Waters, featuring a chapel incorporated into a university. Lana investigates hauntings and has been studying to be a priest, and doesn't quite understand what she finds. That part definitely follows through in other stories of this collection. Data collection, research, and ethics are always a consideration in academia. That's no different in these stories. "Destroying Angel" by Jamison Shea has additional warnings prior to its start, reminding me of Evie Carnahan's innocent comment from the first Mummy movie: "Nothing bad ever came from reading a book." 

One of the stories that really stuck with me was Genevieve Cogman's "Utilities," the second in this collection, which starts out as dry academia and swiftly turns into horror. M. K. Lobb's "The Harrowing of Lucas Mortier" and "The Magpies" by Alice Marshall are two other stories that linger and shock, and I reread them immediately after finishing them to really absorb them. Sometimes it's not a book, but a haunting or the trials that staff manage to put their students through. These universities search for knowledge, and ordinary ethics are ignored. Learn from their warnings if you can

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Roots of My Fears edited by Gemma Amor

September 2025; Titan Books; 978-1803369365
ebook, print (320 pages); horror anthology

This anthology explores bedtime stories, family lore, and secrets that are passed down throughout the generations. It contains stories by V. Castro, AI Jiang, Usman T. Malik, Adam Nevill, Nuzo Onoh, Premee Mohamed, Gabino Iglesias, Nadia El-Fassi, Ramsey Campbell, Erika T. Wurth, Hailey Piper, Elena Sichrovsky, Caleb Weinhardt, and Sarah Deacon.

Roots offer connections, obligations, duties, and traditions. Horror often transforms identity and connections, breaking, making, or remaking them. This collection opens with "Lamb Has A Little Mary" by Elena Sichrovsky, and you can tell by the title that the story will have inversions of the nursery rhyme, that stories will hold weight; the truth is hidden between the lines written. So it is for the other stories in the collection, where horrible things are waiting within families. Sometimes, keeping the secret is meant to protect the next generation, but in other stories, the next generation gets pulled into the horror without any preparation. 

The Guyanese family of Premee Mohamed's "One Of Those Girls" is like many immigrant families, refusing to talk about the legends of their culture or where superstitions come from. Unlike some of the other stories in this collection, there isn't intentional malice behind it, just the usual wish to appear successful. I liked Benny in that story and really felt for her. I also felt sorry for Mina of "The Saint In The Mountain" by Nadia El-Fassi. The stories here are haunting in different ways, with the specter of families hanging over them. To me, that heightened the horror of it, since families are supposed to protect themselves, not throw members into harm's way. 

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Coffin Moon by Keith Rosson

September 2025; Random House; 978-0593733400
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); horror

In 1975, Portland, Oregon, Duane Minor returned from Vietnam full of anger and with a tendency to drink to keep nightmares away. His wife Heidi helps him get back on track, and they take in his niece Julia after a tragedy. When Minor crosses John Varley, a man who sleeps in dirt during the day and has sharper teeth by moonlight, Heidi is killed. Minor and Julia are determined to get revenge and enter a world of undead children, silver bullets, and others who fall in line with Varley. The pair follows him from state to state, but who will prevail?

Julia had a rough go of life from the start, with witnessing her stepfather murder and her mother going to jail. Duane and Heidi want to do the right thing by her, and he's opposed to having drugs sold out of the bar. This makes it even more painful for Julia and Duane when Heidi is killed. Grief tosses Duane into alcohol and Julia into leaving to track down Varley. The need for revenge is high for both of them, and the despair permeates the pages. We get flashback chapters to show Varley in the past and how he developed into the vampire he was at the start, as well as the search to track him down. It's not a pretty story, since it's death and vengeance and the choices people make under duress. These vampires kill, sometimes just for the fun of it, and we're along for the ride to see how it ends. There are still choices to be made at the end, and we are not always sure how it will go, just like life.

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Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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