5 Powerful Horror Novels for Animal Lovers

When I was ten years old, I picked up Watership Down, assuming it would be a lighthearted adventure story like The Incredible Journey.  Instead, I got an allegorical mindfuck about politics and religion where a group of rabbits has to escape gas chambers and choking snares. It made me wonder, how do animals really feel about their relationship with humans?

Sometimes it feels like the horror genre isn’t built for animal lovers–there’s a reason websites like Does the Dog Die are so popular. Creature features have always had their place, where man-eating animals attack innocent victims, but what about novels that highlight the animal’s perspective? What about when that animal is out for revenge? Those bloody attacks are so much more satisfying when they’re justified, and let’s be honest, sometimes the humans deserve it.

My debut horror novel In the Woods They Wait examines the ways humans have affected the ecosystem. There are so many wild spaces that we have no business encroaching on, and the book is about what happens when humans fail to respect those boundaries. The novels included in this list range from animal narrators to animal ghosts, but they do have one thing in common: the animal characters are given agency.

WARNING: The novels recommended below DO contain animal deaths. If you’re looking to avoid that, this list is not for you. The deaths that occur serve a thematic purpose, and some are included to expose the cruelty that animals endure. If you care about animals and think they should have a voice, then these books are for you.

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Kira Jane Buxton, Hollow Kingdom

Speaking of The Incredible Journey, if it took place in the world of 28 Days Later, you’d get something like Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom. A pet crow named Shit Turd narrates this bizarre but heartwarming zombie apocalypse story. The humans (or as ST calls them, Mofos) have all succumbed to a strange sickness. It’s making them violent and unrecognizable–literally, their body parts are falling off.

ST and his fellow pet, Dennis the dog, set out to find help for their owner, Big Jim. It looks like the Mofos might be beyond saving. But you know who else needs saving? All the pet cats and dogs and birds trapped in their zombified owners’ houses. Hilarious, devastating, disturbing, and gorgeously written, I seriously cannot recommend this book enough.

Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians

This is, in my opinion, the quintessential example of humans getting what they deserve. On a fateful night they now refer to as the “Thanksgiving Classic,” a group of four childhood friends and members of the Blackfeet nation go to an off-limits section of the reservation to hunt elk. They shoot and kill a pregnant doe and bury the fetus. Though they promise to use every part of the elk, they’re forced to dispose of the illegal remains by a game warden.

So begins a brutal haunting by the vengeful spirit of the mother elk. And boy do I mean brutal. This is a terrifying and bloody read that had me checking the shadows in every corner for elk-headed women.

Catriona Ward, The Last House on Needless Street

If you liked the idea of an animal narrator, and unreliable narrators are your thing, then this will be right up your alley, because it has plenty of them. Eleven years before the book begins, a six-year-old girl named Lulu goes missing while on a family vacation at the lake. The two primary narrators are the main suspect in her disappearance, Ted, and his pet cat, Olivia.

We also get the POV of Lulu’s bereft older sister, Dee, and a little girl named Lauren that Ted claims is his daughter. It’s tough being in Ted’s head, so some of our most objective information about what’s actually going on in that house comes from Olivia. This mystery takes time to unravel. Luckily, cats like to play with string.

Josh Malerman, Pearl

Pigs are highly intelligent, social animals. Their eyes look so human, and they always seem to be smiling. It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that they could be telepathic, which is exactly what Malerman explores in this high-concept slasher. The story opens with a boy named Jeff beheading a pig on his grandfather’s farm. He’s horrified when he realizes what he’s done, because it wasn’t his idea–Pearl made him do it.

Pearl is an intimidating hog who sits like a human, and has avoided the axe for years by manipulating the farmer’s thoughts. Now that he’s tested and realized the strength of his influence, Pearl begins a gruesome murder spree. Why? “Time to kill the people who killed the pigs.” It should come as no surprise that Malerman is a vegetarian.

Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh

Hear me out on this one–I know it doesn’t technically feature animal characters, but it is the most harrowing fictional depiction of industrialized meat production I’ve ever read. A global pandemic has destroyed all edible animal meat. The solution? State-sanctioned cannibalism. Humans referred to as “heads” are bred like cattle and served as “special meat.” The main character, Marcos, is estranged from his wife after the death of their child, and he’s struggling to care for his ailing father, so he works in a slaughterhouse.

This features violent, descriptive body horror that is not for the faint of heart, but it’s an unflinching look at the ethical dilemma surrounding the consumption of sentient beings.

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