Caitlin R. Kiernan won the best novel award at the Bram Stoker Awards for The Drowning Girl. The Horror Writers Association revealed the winners at a gala this weekend.
Below, we’ve rounded up free samples of the scariest books of the year–did your favorite horror novel make the cut?
All the winners are listed in bold.
NOVEL
Kiernan, Caitlin R. – The Drowning Girl (Roc)
Ethridge, Benjamin Kane – Bottled Abyss (Redrum Horror)
Everson, John – NightWhere(Samhain Publishing)
Little, Bentley – The Haunted(Signet)
McKinney, Joe – Inheritance (Evil Jester Press)
FIRST NOVEL
Soares, L.L. – Life Rage (Nightscape Press)
Boccacino, Michael – Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling (William Morrow)
Coates, Deborah – Wide Open (Tor Books)
Day, Charles – The Legend of the Pumpkin Thief (Noble YA Publishers LLC)
Dudar, Peter – A Requiem for Dead Flies (Nightscape Press)
Gropp, Richard – Bad Glass (Ballantine/Del Rey)
YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Maberry, Jonathan – Flesh & Bone (Simon & Schuster)
Bray, Libba – The Diviners (Little Brown)
Lyga, Barry – I Hunt Killers (Little Brown)
McCarty, Michael – I Kissed A Ghoul (Noble Romance Publishing)
Stiefvater, Maggie – The Raven Boys (Scholastic Press)
Strand, Jeff – A Bad Day for Voodoo (Sourcebooks)
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Wood, Rocky, and Lisa Morton – Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times (McFarland)
Bunn, Cullen – The Sixth Gun Volume 3: Bound (Oni Press)
Moore, Terry – Rachel Rising Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death (Abstract Studio)
Thornton, Ravi – The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone (Jonathan Cape)
Wacks, Peter J., and Guy Anthony De Marco – Behind These Eyes (Villainous Press)
LONG FICTION
O’Neill, Gene – The Blue Heron (Dark Regions Press)
Burke, Kealan Patrick – Thirty Miles South of Dry County (Delirium Books)
Ketchum, Jack, and Lucky McGee – I’m Not Sam (Sinister Grin Press)
McKinney, Joe, and Michael McCarty – Lost Girl of the Lake (Bad Moon Books)
Prentiss, Norman – The Fleshless Man (Delirium Books)
SHORT FICTION
Snyder, Lucy – “Magdala Amygdala” (Dark Faith: Invocations, Apex Book Company)
Boston, Bruce – “Surrounded by the Mutant Rain Forest” (Daily Science Fiction) COMPLETE
McKinney, Joe – “Bury My Heart at Marvin Gardens” (Best of Dark Moon Digest, Dark Moon Books)
Ochse, Weston – “Righteous” (Psychos, Black Dog and Leventhall Publication)
Palisano, John – “Available Light” (Lovecraft eZine, March 2012) COMPLETE
SCREENPLAY
Whedon, Joss, and Drew Goddard – The Cabin in the Woods (Mutant Enemy Productions, Lionsgate)
Goldman, Jane – The Woman in Black (Cross Creek Pictures)
Kim, Sang Kyu – The Walking Dead, “Killer Within” (AMC TV)
Minear, Tim – American Horror Story: Asylum, “Dark Cousin” (Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision, Ryan Murphy Productions)
Ross, Gary, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray – The Hunger Games (Lionsgate, Color Force)
ANTHOLOGY
Castle, Mort, and Sam Weller – Shadow Show (HarperCollins)
Guignard, Eric J. – Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations (Dark Moon Books)
Miller, Eric – Hell Comes to Hollywood (Big Time Books)
Scioneaux, Mark C., R.J. Cavender, and Robert S. Wilson – Horror for Good: A Charitable Anthology (Cutting Block Press)
Swanson, Stan – Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books)
FICTION COLLECTION
Castle, Mort – New Moon on the Water (Dark Regions) TIE
Oates, Joyce Carol – Black Dahlia and White Rose: Stories (Ecco) TIE
Carroll, Jonathan – Woman Who Married a Cloud: Collected Stories (Subterranean Press)
Hand, Elizabeth – Errantry: Strange Stories (Small Beer Press)
Hirshberg, Glen – The Janus Tree (Subterranean Press)
NON-FICTION
Morton, Lisa – Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween (Reaktion Books)
Collings, Michael – Writing Darkness (CreateSpace)
Klinger, Les – The Annotated Sandman, Volume 1 (Vertigo)
Paffenroth, Kim, and John W. Morehead – The Undead and Theology (Pickwick Publications)
Phillips, Kendall R. – Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film (Southern Illinois University Press)
POETRY
Simon, Marge, and Sandy DeLuca – Vampires, Zombies & Wanton Souls (Elektrik Milk Bath Press)
Addison, Linda, and Stephen M. Wilson – Dark Duet (NECON eBooks)
Boston, Bruce, and Gary William Crawford – Notes from the Shadow City (Dark Regions Press)
Collings, Michael – A Verse to Horrors (Amazon Digital Services)
Turzillo, Mary A. – Lovers & Killers (Dark Regions)