5 Horror Stories with Settings Just as Creepy as Their Characters

Sen tting is a central element to any novel, though within the horror genre, it can also have the wonderfully eerie ability to become its own living, breathing secondary monster that characters are forced to contend with throughout a story. Whether it be a location consumed by harsh, unpredictable weather, the grounds of a classic haunted house, or even a gnarly gas station bathroom, a story’s setting can be the most effective way of establishing an unsettling atmosphere that makes a reader’s skin crawl at the thought of finding themselves stuck in such a place.

I explored this in my debut novel When the Night Comes Knocking, where the story’s location set deep in the North Georgia mountains acts as an additional antagonist to the more obvious monster also wreaking havoc upon the cast of characters. The supreme isolation, the lack of cell service, and the sprawling darkness of miles of woods surrounding the convenience store where the characters become trapped all serve as a reminder of their vicious aloneness—and the challenge they ultimately face in trying to stay alive.

Here is a list of five horror novels where the setting feels like a gaping, sharp-toothed mouth waiting to snap shut at any moment.

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Stephen Graham Jones, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

A historical novel with dual timelines in 2012 and 1912, this story follows a modern-day professor, Etsy, as she transcribes the diary of her great-great-great grandfather, a Montana pastor named Arthur. The narrative dives deeper into the past based on the entries of Arthur’s diary, which center around an array of confessions given by a vigilante Pikuni man named Good Stab, who’s been turned into a vampiric creature driven by guilt and a need for justice for the violent wrongs committed against his people.

Utilizing the frigid, snowy Montana frontier, this story vividly explores the horrors of colonization and the generational scars that long-linger.

Nat Cassidy, Rest Stop

A traveling bass player, Abe, only plans to make a quick pit-stop at a seemingly harmless gas station before getting back on the road for an unwanted trip to visit his grandmother; he certainly doesn’t plan on being locked inside the gas station’s restroom by a violent stranger and forced to face an escalation of bloody horrors.

The grimy, trapped bathroom location of Rest Stop is as disgusting as it is deliciously claustrophobic. If you love “survive the night” stories, this one is for you.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”

This short story follows an unnamed narrator struggling with “temporary nervous depression” as she follows the strict recovery plan dictated by John, her husband and doctor. The narrator is confined to a single bedroom which she believes was once a nursery, where there are gouge marks clawed into the floor and a peeling yellow wallpaper that becomes the subject of the narrator’s intense fixation.

The physical and psychological confinement that festers in this room is enough to make you queasy, desperate for a breath of fresh air.

Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell

Are you feeling existential? Like contemplating your significance in the grand scheme of the universe? Peck’s haunting novella tells the story of a Mormon man named Soren who dies and is cast into Hell for believing in the wrong religion. He finds himself in an overwhelmingly massive library, tasked with sorting through the near-infinite shelves of books in order to find his life’s true story for a chance at escape.

John Langan, The Fisherman

Grief brings together Abe and Dan, where they connect over the loss of their loved ones by fishing together throughout the Catskills. Dan learns of a place called Dutchman’s Creek, where an entity known as the Fisherman resides and is rumored to have supernatural power to restore what someone has lost; only once there, the two men instead find a disturbing, warped reality in the vein of true Lovecraftian horror.

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