Editorials
I Survived a Night with ‘The Nun’ in Mexico City [Video]
Promising to be the darkest chapter yet in The Conjuring universe, The Nun sees its title villain terrorizing a secluded convent in Romania, in 1952, long before the demon ever crossed paths with Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring 2. Directed by Corin Hardy (The Hallow), and starring Taissa Farmiga, Demián Bichir, and Bonnie Aarons, The Nun explores the origins of the terrifying demon Valak. Ahead of its theatrical release on September 7, select members of the international press were invited to a special, spooky experience in Mexico City, at the Ex Convento Desierto de los Leones, to face off against Valak.
Tucked away in the mountains, the 17th century convent has its own extensive history with earthquakes, thieves, and ghosts, proving to be the perfect setting to experience The Nun. We arrived at the convent during a heavy thunderstorm; the hail, thunder, and torrential downpour making for an ominous greeting. Quietly ushered into the chilly chapel of the convent, cast in an eerie red glow, we were the first to set eyes on The Nun, a requirement if we were to have a chance at surviving the evil of Valak later in the evening.
From a visual standpoint, this entry in The Conjuring series is absolutely breathtaking. Director Corin Hardy weaves in a number of influences to create a lush gothic horror story that feels both vintage and modern at once. The Nun essentially feels like a modern Hammer House of Horror film, and nods to Mario Bava. It’s dripping with visceral, bloody gothic imagery. There’s a rich world of mythology behind the origin of Valak that’s introduced, begging to be explored further; this is the most epic-scaled film in The Conjuring series yet. It’s bloody, dark, and yet feels right at home with the world James Wan and screenwriter Gary Dauberman created.
The Nun ties back to the original films in a surprising way, though it doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny. As for Farmiga and Bichir, both are strong, amiable leads, though it’s tough to follow Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s charming versions of Ed and Lorraine Warren. Jonas Bloquet is the biggest surprise as Frenchie, bringing levity to a nonstop spookfest. Of course, Bonnie Aarons shines in the title role, and Valak retains the crown as the most terrifying entity in the franchise.
Once given enough time to catch our breaths and settle our heart rates after the screening, we were broken down into smaller groups and escorted through the convent by a pair of nuns. It didn’t take long into the tour for Valak to make its presence known, and one of our group members went missing almost immediately. Rooms were littered with dead bodies, crosses turned themselves upside down if we lingered too long, and powerful reenactments of scenes straight out of the movie served up scares as we trekked further and further into the convent. Eventually, the nuns led us straight into the bowels of the convent; the dark, creepy catacombs. We weren’t alone. It was here in the dark, with only candles and our lanterns to illuminate the way, that the haunting presence of the Demon Nun closed in. Members of our group lagged behind, and their screams of terror signaling Valak was coming from behind.
Eventually, our quest brought us back above ground to a graveyard, where our missing team member had been locked in a coffin in parallel with a character’s journey from the film. Releasing him from his coffin trap meant the final piece of the puzzle needed to escape Valak’s clutches. We survived! But when The Nun arrives in theaters on September 7, will you?
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
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