Hey bookworm friends. The leaves are changing colour and the smell of fresh-pressed ink is in the air. That’s right, it’s time for my monthly list of anticipated releases—now with a healthy dose of ‘perfect for Halloween’! These stories are chock-full of ghosts, demons, and creatures of all kinds. With a whole lot of gothic atmosphere thrown in! But don’t worry, if you’re not a Halloween fiend there are still some options for you. Here are 21 Outstanding October Releases; I hope they’re all treats and no tricks! And as always, they’re organized loosely by genre categories and then by publishing date.
Book Titles lead to TheStoryGraph links. Except for when it’s not on SG in which case it goes to bookshop.org.
Outstanding October Releases
Fantasy
The Scarlet Ball by Nghi Vo
⟡ Pub Date: October 6, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Historical Fantasy / Gothic
⟡ Publisher: Tor Books
Pick a face, pick a fate.
In this tale of ballrooms and bloodshed, a former convent girl takes the place of a missing heiress in the deadly game that is The Scarlet Ball. The reward? A demonic marriage of untold power. That is, if she doesn’t get devoured first.
Bane Bloom by Sharon Lynn Fisher
⟡ Pub Date: October 6, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Historical Fantasy/ Gothic / Mystery
⟡ Publisher: 47North
A botanical illustrator from London, travels to a remote estate to catalog and paint the specimens thriving in a mysterious glasshouse garden. The most bewildering find is a water lily that alters its appearance.
Nearly as puzzling is Thomas Bane, the brooding groundskeeper, who closely guards the estate’s secrets—including the disappearance of Catherine’s predecessor.
The Purgatory Hotel for Wayward Ghosts by Katy Nyquist
⟡ Pub Date: October 8, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Cozy Fantasy / Mystery
⟡ Publisher: Headline Accent
Welcome to the Purgatory Hotel… where you must take your test and meet your fate.
The Purgatory Hotel for Wayward Ghosts is a temporary passing place, and the final test for those who lived middling lives. Passing through your floor fully reformed means going up to heaven, but succumb to temptation, and it’s straight to hell . . .
A Scholar’s Guide to Demonology & Other Dark Arts by Genevieve Cogman
⟡ Pub Date: October 8, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Fantasy / Dark Academia
⟡ Publisher: Tor
Philomena can’t believe her luck when she’s hired to be the new Latin teacher at Graynes, an all-girls school nestled in the remote Yorkshire Moors.
Things take a strange turn when she discovers that Graynes is no ordinary school – it’s a training ground for the Queen’s elite force of demonologists.
Mothsblood by Lynn D. Jung
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Fantasy/ Dark Academia / Gothic
⟡ Publisher: Penguin
When Larkspur Lee arrived in Paris, it was with nothing more than the ambition in her veins and the magic under her skin.
As a student of Meurdrac, one of the few remaining alchemical universities, she burns to prove herself. So when the Grand Magistra of Meurdrac, and Third amongst the Deathless, begins searching for an apprentice, Lark decides she’ll do whatever it takes to be selected.
When The Magic Comes by Shereen Vedam
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Epic Fantasy / Cozy Mystery
⟡ Publisher: Indie/Self Pub
Magic. Prophecy. Murder.
Kennard of Grimm teaches magic at a prestigious university, but he has no magical abilities. Normal chaos rules his life until a student is murdered, and another is blamed. Convinced the accused is innocent, he and his baby dragon named Tala, set out to find the real killer.
The Soul Thief by Molly Haniszewski
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Urban Fantasy/ Romance
⟡ Publisher: Dragon Bone Publishing
A master thief plans to steal a priceless gem, but a demon-possessed man beats her to her own job. Charged with recovering the gem, she must decide which to save–the life she’s worked so hard to create, or the broken man who keeps slipping out of reach.
Goblin Market by A. J. Hackwith
⟡ Pub Date: October 20, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Fantasy / Romance
⟡ Publisher: Ace
Toast was older than most changeling children when her goblin parents stole her back from her human family and returned her to the Goblin Market.
Nearly a decade later, Toast has grudgingly cobbled together a life there as the Market’s guide for mortal visitors. But when the Market itself begins to die, she must find a way to save her home.
The Riven Kingdom by Juliet E. McKenna
⟡ Pub Date: October 27, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: High Fantasy
⟡ Publisher: Angry Robot
The King is dead…
Struck down by lightning on a hunting trip, King Venais leaves the Kingdom of Arafaze with no clear successor. And soon enough the nobility are shedding loyalty in favour of ambition as two princesses with competing claims to the empty throne seek alliances and the realm teeters on the brink of war.
Science Fiction
A Wall Is Also a Road by Annalee Newitz
⟡ Pub Date: October 6, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Science Fiction Fantasy
⟡ Publisher: Tor Books
Gardenpath is a graduate student in biology who desperately wants to pass their exams with the highest honor possible: a prize given to scholars who discover something truly novel in the universe. Gardenpath also happens to be an amoeba–a slime mold, to be exact–from an ancient civilization that dwells in a vast network of towers between the stars.
As You Wake, Break The Shell by Becky Chambers
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Science Fiction / Romance
⟡ Publisher: Harper Voyager
Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind.
Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system.
Theirs is a love story centered around survival.
Romance
The Lost Guardian by Natalia Hernandez
⟡ Pub Date: October 6, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Romantasy
⟡ Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Press
The stories we’re told aren’t myths. They’re warnings.
Santiago Rios didn’t plan to leave his quiet life in Los Angeles. But when his grandfather sends him a map to the lost tomb of the final Incan emperor, the young archaeologist is thrust into a brutal race across the Andes, pursued by ruthless tomb raiders who will stop at nothing to steal the emperor’s treasure.
Wench by Erynne Rivers
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Romantasy / Retelling
⟡ Publisher: Avon
Maid Marian’s life is over.
Her cowardly father has betrothed her to the most reviled man, the Sheriff of Nottingham. Devastated, she’s sent on the quickest path to meet her husband, through the fae-infested Sherwood Forest.
But everything changes when her carriage is attacked by the most feared fae, the Merry Men, followers of the infamous Robin Hood.
Horror
What Feeds Below by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
⟡ Pub Date: October 6, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: YA Horror / Fantasy
⟡ Publisher: Bindery Books
At the edge of the City of the Void, a massive chasm extends miles into the earth, its treacherous terrain overrun with vicious monsters and carnivorous plants.
For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding treasure-seeking tourists down into the Void is the only way to earn enough to pull themselves up out of the slums for good.
Rottenheart by Kat Dunn
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Gothic Horror
⟡ Publisher: Zando
Two young women, Odette and Cecilia, spend their days roaming their grand homes. But when Odette’s mother inexplicably sickens and dies, a dark veil falls. Odette realises that despite her death, Lydia never really left. And now she wants revenge . . .
Set in the 1890s and inspired by Hamlet, this a story of love and grief, mothers and daughters, death and madness.
Pan by Francesco Dimitri
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Horror / Urban Fantasy
⟡ Publisher: Tor Books
Magic is returning to the world and in the skies above the city, children clash with pirates while deities old and new fight for dominance of Rome.
A Peter Pan retelling and the story of a transgressive, brutal god―the patron of those who choose to live outside the rules.
Strange Cases: A Graphic Novel by RiotBones
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Horror/ Fantasy/ Gothic
⟡ Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
In the wake of his attorney mother’s sudden death, dutiful law student Jude Aguilar returns to the town of Lazaro to take over her practice—but the only thing stranger than the peculiar cases she left behind are the clients themselves.
As the mysterious cases unfold, Jude uncovers a tapestry of secrets. Can he save Lazaro, his mother’s legacy, and himself, before it all goes up in flames?
Nightcats by Kristen J. Sollee
⟡ Pub Date: October 26, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Horror/ Thriller
⟡ Publisher: Feral Eye
It’s 2005, and Vera Valcourt is an aimless goth waitress in New York City, desperate for something to sink her teeth into. Caged by her Catholic upbringing, her dead-end job, and her deadbeat boyfriend, Vera’s only solace is her rescue cat, Sammy.
But when Sammy disappears, Vera is forced to claw her way out of the domestic life she’s been trapped inside.
From the Library of Jurgen Leitner by Premee Mohamed
& Jonathan Sims
⟡ Pub Date: October 27, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Horror / Fantasy/ Mystery
⟡ Publisher: Random House Worlds
Enter the library of an enigmatic collector, where occult books are guarded and researched at a fatal cost.
Free, these books are more than simply unnerving—they’re deadly. But the library keeps their dangers in check and their would-be readers safe. . . .
Or so Jurgen Leitner claims.
Miscellaneous
Winnie-the-Pooh: The Graphic Novel by A. A. Milne
⟡ Pub Date: October 13, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Classics / Children’s Literature
⟡ Publisher: Ten Speed Young Readers
Experience the idyllic magic of the Hundred Acre Wood like never before through this charming graphic novelization.
Adapted by Kevan Chandler and Eisner Award-winning artist Joe Sutphin, this enchanting adaptation brings all ten original Winnie-the-Pooh stories to life with soft, captivating colors and sprawling scenes that are faithful to the heartwarming spirit of Pooh and friends.
Of Her Blood: A Novel by Rozina Hyland
⟡ Pub Date: October 20, 2026
⟡ Sub-genre: Historical Fiction
⟡ Publisher: Rozina Hyland / Self Pub
Not witch. Not spellcaster. Only woman.
Tilda knows her place: silent, obedient, unseen. In seventeenth-century Norfolk, England, where the nobility and Church rule with an iron fist, submission is survival, especially for a maid whispered to have witchcraft in her veins.
In a world ruled by superstition and eager to condemn women who do not conform, the odds were never in Tilda’s favour. But can she break the cycle before history repeats itself?
Happy reading!🖤
I did my best to list the expected pub dates but you never know, dates can change. If you’re interested in any of these releases please make sure you keep an eye on the latest updates in your part of the world.
Let’s chat in the comments!
Are you looking forward to any of these? Or, did I miss any that you would add to the list?
