BEST HORROR BOOKS OF 2025 - MEN'S HEALTHSenseless is a haunting, bloody noir epic that sent me back to Matheson and other old kings of the genre. A slick, fascinating saga I couldn't inhale fast enough.-Sam Rebelein, Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Edenville & The Poorly Made and Other ThingsRonald Malfi's Senseless is a stunning, yet grim, puzzle box to solve. Each twist and turn of captivating prose draws us closer to a mesmerizing conclusion. An absolutely exquisite horror thriller.-Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Vanishing DaughtersIn this gripping LA noir, Malfi triangulates a city rife with monsters of every kind to highlight a chilling truth: it's often the subtlest evils that have the most horrific impact.-Jennifer Thorne, bestselling author of DiavolaSensational! A spellbinding dive into the devil's playground that is Los Angeles, where everybody is simultaneously hunter and hunted. Ronald Malfi is the real deal-you don't read this book, you live it.-Josh Winning, author of Burn the Negative and Heads Will RollTo read Ronald Malfi is to find yourself in your favorite bar, drink in hand, music you love coming out of the speakers, the comforting babble of the crowd around you. An intriguing stranger sidles up to you and begins to tell you a story. Before you know it, all those other noises fall away and you're enrapt. You barely even notice the glint of the blade as it slides into your gut. Malfi is just that bewitching, just that sneaky, just that brutal, just that good at what he does.-Nat Cassidy, author of Mary and When the Wolf Comes HomeA brutal Rubik's Cube of a book covered in blood... This vamped out, sun-bleached mobius strip is a masterclass in horror noir.-Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Wake Up and Open Your EyesA stark look at a haunted world, filled with ghosts of once-people.-Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth and All the Hearts You EatA neon-lit pilgrimage to the worst parts of LA and the filthiest parts of the human soul, this intricate braid of horror, thriller, and procedural slowly tightens like a snare, holding you captive, forcing you to watch as the knife parts flesh. Brutal, clever, surprising, and as dark as the desert on a moonless night.-Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestseller, and author of Bloom and GuillotineThe perfect beach read...except it's not the beach, it's the unforgiving desert, sand grits in your teeth, unspeakable things are approaching, and no one will save you. That lulling horror is the beauty of a Ronald Malfi novel, and Senseless delivers even more of the thoughtfully blood-soaked ingenuity he might as well get a patent on. Malfi layers noir, things that go bump in the night, serial killers, and buried secrets in an expertly crafted feast you'll devour.-Michael Wehunt, author of THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT and GREENER PASTURESA crackling procedural dipped in psychedelics, Senseless drags you along on a thrill ride through Los Angeles's neon-lit underworld, where nothing is what it seems. Weaving merciless storytelling with prose that's equal parts luminous and queasy, Ronald Malfi's got you trapped-and he never lets up. By the end, you'll find yourself as transfigured as this book's perfectly realized characters.-Andy Marino, author of The Swarm and It Rides a Pale HorseIf stories about LA are like visits to a theme park, Ronald Malfi's Senseless is the wildest dark ride you've ever dreamed of, whirling and shrieking at Tinseltown's throbbing neon-veined heart. A consummate storyteller, Malfi is a master of shadowy noir, nerve-wracking suspense and balls-out horror, drawing the reader deep into a winding web of terror from which there is no escape. Senseless may be his best work yet--a breathlessly compulsive thriller that twists and turns on itself and tightens like the knot of a noose. Don't miss it!-David Demchuk, author of The Butcher's Daughter and RED XIn this thought-provoking new thriller, Ronald Malfi burrows into the human heart and carves out its darkest beats. Set against the background of Hollywood's magic and L.A.'s worst streets, Senseless is a gripping meditation on the nature of violence and the origin of evil. You'll want to read it again and again-but you might be too scared to.-Wendy N. Wagner, author of Girl in the Creek and The Deer KingsThe City of Angels is some of the most well-trod literary territory there is, but Malfi stakes out dark regions all his own in a tale that slithers like a rattler and bites like one, too. From the high desert to the desperate cracked downtown streets, from Glendale to the valley and beyond, heat, grit, and pain roil off every page, ones you'll be turning at a desperate pace from the opening body to curtain's final bow.-Brian Asman, author of Good Dogs and Man, F*ck This House (And Other Disasters)Senseless is a novel that demands to be read with the lights on, but even then, you'll feel the shadows pressing in around you. It's a dark, unnerving descent into the heart of human and inhuman monstrosity, and Malfi's voice ensures every whisper, every heartbeat, echoes long after the final line.-Shane Hawk, co-editor of the internationally bestselling Never Whistle at NightSenseless is a blistering, twist-filled rollercoaster of a novel, ripe with visceral horror and complex characters who will have you questioning their motives along with their hold on reality. You'll feel the heat from the California desert and the hum of the city streets in this noir-touched supernatural thriller. I couldn't put it down!-Paulette Kennedy, bestselling author of The Devil and Mrs. DavenportWith Senseless, Malfi has created a warped, psychological thriller novel and painted it black with horror, creating something totally unique. Senseless combines all the chills of a crime-driven story about a serial killer with the dark, knife-twisting terrors of furious madness; the compulsion of a murder mystery with the distorted reality of the supernatural. I've never read anything quite like it.-Philip Fracassi, author of Boys In the ValleyA layered ride of jaw-dropping twists. With Senseless, Malfi once again leaves his reader off-kilter, unnerved, and begging for more.-Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart and Cold SnapA tense thrill ride...Seasoned horror readers will find plenty to enjoy in Malfi's darkly intricate world of arcane surprises.-Publishers WeeklyThis is a story that leaves little room for humanity, solidifying Malfi as one of the best writers of dark fiction of our time.-FanFiAddictMalfi never repeats himself: each book is something entirely new. On the other hand, when it comes to his characters, he's wonderfully consistent: he writes about people who feel abundantly real, who have complex motivations, who struggle to reconcile the good and evil that live inside them. Is this his best book? Considering the depth and high quality of his backlist, that's impossible to say. But it sure is good.-BooklistSenseless in a word is a pure mindfuck, that will have you questioning every sentence you read. There's murder, hints of supernatural, unhinged characters and a touching reflection on grief and mental health. I believe it is absolutely ripe for adaptation and hope someday to see it made into a series or film.-Fantasy HiveMalfi is horror's Faulkner, and Small Town Horror might be his best novel yet. Stylish, dark, and with a haunting, salty atmosphere, this is a superb novel about how the ghosts of the past always dance with those of the present.-Gabino Iglesias, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson award-winning author of The Devil Takes You HomeThis is bedrock American horror fiction, sure to be a classic. Malfi deftly draws you down into the darkness of a group of friends in a small town (natch) who find themselves literally haunted by the secrets and mistakes of their shared past.-Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of WanderersRonald Malfi is a talented storyteller known for the quality of his writing and the way he brings an element of elegance to the genre, and Small Town Horror-relentlessly creepy, unapologetically dark, and surprisingly heartfelt-might just be his best novel yet-Locus MagazineAn eerie and deeply unsettling horror epic with faint shadows of Peter Straub and Robert R. McCammon flickering at the periphery . . . Small Town Horror is the kind of masterful and deftly written horror fiction that makes me fall in love with the genre all over again.-Eric LaRocca, Bram Stoker Award finalist, and author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last SpokeThis isn't only Malfi's masterpiece, it's a heroic swing at the Great American Novel, and will be nakedly terrifying to anyone who's been a kid-and to anyone who's grown up with regret. This is heavyweight horror, a total knockout.-Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestseller and author of WhalefallStunningly good, with echoes of King, Bradbury, Straub, and McCammon, but somehow purely Malfi. Full of malevolence and dread, and peopled by truly compelling characters, the book locks in Malfi's place as one of the best writers in the genre.-Christopher Golden, 'New York Times' bestselling author of 'Road of BONES' and 'Ararat''Black Mouth' is good magic about dark magic: a powerful meeting between adulthood and childhood, the people we pretend to be and the people we have to be. Smart, character-driven horror.-Andrew Pyper, author of 'The Residence' and 'The Demonologist'Malfi has established himself as one of the all-time great horror writers, and 'Black Mouth' shows him working at the peak of his dark powers. Equally terrifying and heartbreaking, 'Black Mouth' is a book filled with terror, ghosts, and murder, but also hauntings of the heart, and the soul. Riveting, bloody, and cosmic, this novel will tear you apart in all the best ways.-Philip Fracassi, author of 'Beneath a Pale Sky'Malfi is a modern-day Algernon Blackwood... I'm gonna be talking about this book for years JOSH MALERMAN, author of Bird BoxPart mystery, part ghost story, Come with Me chimes with rare beauty and page-turning brilliance. I surrendered to it completely.-Rio Youers, author of Lola on FireShines as both a nightmare journey of shadows and secrets, and a poignant testimony to love and loss. I read it in a single day because I had no other choice: it's that damn good.-Richard Chizmar, author of Gwendy's Button Box
