“An exciting move towards authors from more diverse backgrounds.”

While this year didn’t quite see that horror breakthrough I hoped for, the genre has certainly been cementing its recent comeback with numerous excellent titles. New books from

Grady Hendrix, Josh Malerman and Paul Tremblay led the way, and I’d also give a big shout out to Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians

and T Kingfisher’s The Hollow Places.

But there were notable movements elsewhere that I expect will spill into 2021, so my reviews and my predictions dovetail into one.

Firstly there were a growing number of titles that were leaning into history and alternative history – Justina Ireland’s Deathless Divide and Silvia MorenoGarcia’s Mexican Gothic leap out as particular examples. This is an interesting angle that might attract readers reticent to approach contemporary horror and potentially appeal to the wide historical fiction audience, and with a new Laura Purcell novel to come in 2021 that’s a great frontrunner.

What we’ve also seen – and something in common with our ‘sister’ genres of fantasy and science-fiction – is an exciting move towards authors from more diverse backgrounds. I expect authors like the aforementioned Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Premee Mohamed, Julianne Pachico (The Anthill is well worth a read) and Gabino Iglesias to have a good year in 2021 – and the list could go on…

It might have been a slow year for horror movies – with a few notable exceptions – but with a thriving ebook market, horror fiction has largely weathered the storm throughout 2020.