Bram Stoker Awards: Which horror books won?

Published Thursday, July 16, 2026

Each year, the Horror Writers Association presents awards for Superior Achievement. 2025's Bram Stoker Awards were announced this spring. A selection of the winners is below.

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

The October Film Haunt book cover
The October Film Haunt
by Michael Wehunt

Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt – a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons – perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez – everything unraveled.

Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry — hysteria, internet backlash, and the death of a young woman — Jorie has put it all, along with her intense love for the horror genre, behind her.

Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” – Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director – begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel…and Jorie is her final girl.

As the dangers grow even more unexpected and strange, Jorie must search for answers before the Proof of the movie’s title finds her and takes everything she loves.

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Nominees

The Scald-Crow by Grace Daly
Moonflow by Bitter Karella
Her Wicked Roots by Tanya Pell

The Faceless Thing We Adore by Hester Steel

Molting by Kathryn Tennison
Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown book cover
Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown
by Mike Mignola

From a search for the beating heart of a long-dead sorcerer, to a pirate girl who makes a deal with the devil, to the titular boy who wins a grim prize in a game with some undead interlopers, and more.

Mignola builds a brand-new world filled with the weird, wicked and whimsical in this volume that will delight longtime Hellboy fans and new readers alike.

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Nominees

Jumpscare by Cullen Bunn (writer) and Danny Luckert (artist)
John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight, Volume 11 by Sandy King (editor)
Athanasia by Daniel Kraus (writer) and Dani (artist)
Let This One Be a Devil by James Tynion IV (writer), Steve Foxe (writer), and Piotr Kowalski (artist)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

Ride or Die book cover
Ride or Die
by Delilah S. Dawson

Tonight is Brie’s chance to finally be accepted by the Ems—the most popular girls at school. If she can just keep one potentially reputation-ending secret under wraps, she’ll have the best night of her life, screaming on scary rides and running the Wildwoods amusement parkwith her new friends.

But when the Ems take a game of truth or dare too far, Brie ends up alone in a creepy abandoned section of the park. There, she meets a group of cool older teens that invite her to join them. They seem friendly enough.

Little does Brie know she’s about to come face to face with a reawakened evil that wants to take her on the ride of her life...make that her death.

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Nominees

The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt
Broken Dolls by Ally Malinenko
The House Next Door by Ellen Oh
Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave by Ally Russell

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Buffalo hunter hunter book cover
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
by Stephen Graham Jones

This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice.

It begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall in 2012. What is unveiled is a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events that goes back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow, told in the transcribed interviews with Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar and unnaturally long life over a series of confessional visits.

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Nominees

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Shiny Happy People Book Cover
Shiny Happpy People
by Clay McLeod Chapman

At sixteen Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw as little girl living with her mother’s drug addiction. Years later, Kyra doesn’t always feel like she belongs—and disturbing dreams come to her at night.

When a new party drug makes its way to her high school, Kyra’s life becomes an actual nightmare. A challenge spreads among the students thanks to a few videos circulating—and Kyra is unable to escape the inexplicably strange side effects.

Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to be noticing the eeriness around them is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene.

But as strange occurrences begin to turn sinister, Kyra can’t shake the feeling that something unnatural is at play . . . as if something deadly spreading is in their veins. With Logan’s help, she decides to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug—before they’re next. As they begin to get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra’s past and her present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself to save everyone.

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Nominees

Beautiful Brutal Bodies by Linda Cheng
We’re Not Safe Here by Rin Chupeco
The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach
A Girl Walks Into the Forest by Madeleine Roux

Katherine Cropped Black And White
About the Author

Katherine is the Operations Coordinator and has been working at EPL since 2008. She loves books, especially ones with unique plots and those written so well that she can't put them down.