I’m so excited to be sharing my favorite quotes from the books that I read for the seventh year in a row!
Let’s dive in!
My Favorite Quotes from 2023 –
The ghost had come to him, as most ghosts do, when he was preoccupied, his guard down. Later he would wonder if maybe ghosts were always trying to get the attention of the living, but the living were simply too noisy and busy rushing about to pay heed.
— Six Rooms by Gemma Amor
She shook her head and then tilted her gaze up, up toward the high noon sun. She was like a sunflower, always seeking the light.
— Reply Hazy, Try Again in Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison
As she ran, the voices started back up, but this time they were coming from every direction, like the trees themselves were telling her a secret.
— Inside The Devil’s Nest by John Durgin
When people went into survival mode, the pathway to barbarity was a quick descent.
— Deep by Aquino Loayza
An apocalypse doesn’t happen because of evil men, zombies or even a virus. It happens because of ordinary people. Because somewhere along the way we lost society, lost cohesion. We forgot to try to see the other side. Instead, we all bunkered down harder in our trenches, refusing to be moved, lobbing missiles at those who dared to challenge our myopic view. No good guys or bad guys. Just a bunch of scared motherfuckers trying to find their way home.
— The Drift by C.J. Tudor
Nestled in a tiny yard sat another small farmhouse and a barn with a collapsed roof, and both buildings were dark. The barn was like hundreds across New England; a good gust of wind could blow it over. Whoever owned it didn’t have the time or money to tear it down.
— Hell On High by Michael Clark
Do you remember when you were a kid and played cops and robbers? You’d have nothing but your imagination, but the gun and uniform would feel real, as was the heist or shootout you were acting out. In those moments you’d forget about all your worries; the bully at school, bad grades, or anything that weighed heavy on your mind.
— The Backrooms by Matt Wildasin
She blows a plume of smoke toward the ceiling and then looks at me. “Can I trust you?”
“I don’t know. Nothing good ever comes after that question.”
— Taboo in Four Colors by Tim McGregor
Twilight was quickly vanishing as the sky began to grow darker. Shadows lengthened and deepened around them and soon the forest had transformed once more into an ominous presence, living and breathing around them, harboring more secrets beneath its canopy than most people would ever know.
— Bishop by Candace Nola
Thousands of rebuttals raced through Alex’s head, but no matter which they picked, it would make no more difference than a wave crashing against a seaside cliff. No ground to be gained fighting such illogical behavior with logic.
— Year of the Black Rainbow, Illusions of Isolation by Brennan LaFaro
Facing grief is like standing on a beach and looking out over the water. Some waves are small and lap at your feet, some waves are huge and engulf you completely.
— Rain – Story by Joe Hill, Adaptation by David M. Booher, Art by Zoe Thorogood, Colors by Chris O’Halloran, Letters & Collection Design by Shawn Lee
The daylight was fading, the moon beginning to peak over the mountains, but not yet high enough to offer any light. With that, the snow wasn’t shining, the trees appearing darker, murkier, as though the world was conspiring to keep things hidden from his view.
— Churn the Soil by Steve Stred
Any house that stands empty too long becomes haunted. That’s just the way it is in small towns. The old house out on Merrily Road certainly looked the part with its sagging veranda and rotting roof, a withered husk of lichen and dry rot timbers. A storybook mansion fallen into ruin, it reeked of ghosts and secrets.
— Wasps in the Ice Cream by Tim McGregor
Then there is the no-eating-garlic pish. I fuckin’ loved garlic. I kid you not. I put it in everything. Whatever the recipe required, I doubled it. The shit tastes superb. Can’t eat it anymore. Burns the shit out of my mouth, like the hottest chilli times a billion. Why couldn’t it have just been onions, I hate those! Naw, garlic. It had to be garlic, the seasoning of the gods.
— From V is for Vampire Fae Scotland, A to Z of Horror by Kevin J. Kennedy
Outside, the yard was darker than she realized. She could feel it cover her with its heavy curtain.
— When A Stranger Bites by L. Stephenson, American Cannibal edited by Rebecca Rowland
“But it just takes one hateful person to ruin everything, doesn’t it?”
— Depart, Depart by Sim Kern
The rusty protrusions had been twisted, churning his gray brains up and forcing them out from his ears and his empty eye sockets. He sneezed, and Jace saw a cloud of pink mist jet out from his nostrils.
— Magick by Judith Sonnet
Memory is a difficult thing to navigate, especially traumatic memory. It splinters. You can cut yourself on the edges of it so easily.
— Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
“The dark does not die in the light; it only waits,”…
— Your Mind Is A Terrible Thing by Hailey Piper
She rubbed at her eyes. Hard. As if disgusted with herself and nodded, but something was gone from her eyes. Something that had made her Lucy. She might never be the same again.
— The Auld Mither by William Meikle, narrated by A.D. Milne
Ollie was a mysterious guy, but I accepted his mystery just as I accepted that snakes went somewhere during the winter and it wasn’t my business to know where.
— Soft Targets by Carson Winter
I don’t know why someone laughing out of control should be more frightening than someone sobbing, but it is.
— 1408, Blood and Smoke by Stephen King
It made him feel complete in a way he couldn’t seem to fathom, as if he’d been given a new limb he didn’t know he’d been missing, or was suddenly able to see colors or hear sounds he couldn’t before. It felt like such a natural part of him.
— Bad Ink by Matthew V. Brockmeyer, The Horror Collection: Lost Edition presented by KJK Publishing
Nance is worried that if she’s not always looking, she might miss Julie.
— A Red Jacket in the Wind, Homesick by Samantha Kolesnik
Isn’t it funny how altitude and tiredness and grief all affect the body in the same way?
— Neverest by T.L. Bodine
We waited a few minutes, and the only noise we heard was the rustling of the dead autumn leaves blowing across the street to the neighbor’s yard. I couldn’t help but get the feeling even the leaves were trying to get away from the house.
— Candy Bar Killer, Sleeping In The Fire by John Durgin
“I may not know showbusiness, but I don’t need to be a proctologist to know an asshole when I see one, either.”
— Agony’s Lodestone by Laura Keating
Words could eviscerate or they could be a miracle.
— The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro
He tried to spin and get a better look, but every time he did, the breathing shifted just out of his line of sight. Eventually, he was able to catch a glimpse. He wished he hadn’t.
— The Vile Thing We Created by Robert P. Ottone
It took a couple of years to make it a home. Kids, and finger-paint, and a baseball-sized hole through the basement window would do that. It wasn’t about rose-scented potpourri or a perfectly manicured front lawn. It was about the chaos inside. It was, indeed, a great home.
— Idle Thursday, Insomnia by Kelly Covic
His heart played a symphony of dread as he felt himself sinking. A crushing pain gripped his lower body as an eighteen-foot demon began to haul him to the very depths of hell.
But, unlike the hell of his upbringing, it was not one of fire and brimstone. This hell was a decidedly liquid one, as cold and black as the womb of a dead woman.
— Beneath Black Bayou, Tales from the Southern Fried Crypt by Ronald Kelly
“Why are people so quick to condemn those who believe? To poke fun? Many people have encountered spirits throughout history, but the modern world ridicules those of us that see them now.” He moved closer. “Yet thousands more believe in a God that has never been seen, and that is simply accepted as faith.”
— The Immortal Dead, Old Tales Reborn by J. C. Michael
It was so much more obvious to Joe now just how hollow this circus truly was. It had none of the typical, wholesome, big top trappings that he’d read about in books and newspapers. No highwire acrobats, juggling, balloons, or even music.
— The Circus of Hungry Clowns by Caesar Ruell
I wonder if it’s because each thing that loves us leaves behind a small stain.
— The Strange Things We Become, Trees Grew Because I Bled There by Eric LaRocca
Rob made a noise. He didn’t cry, nor did he scream. He had to encapsulate a lifetime of bereavement into a single breath. This was not the environment for grieving.
— It Looks Like Dad by J. Krawczyk
On the shelves sit books with old, broken spines, worn covers, and marked-up pages that have been dog-eared, creased, or ripped out all together. The new books have glossy covers, tight binding, and clean, crisp pages, but none are more contemporary than the old beaten-up versions.
— Linghun by Ai Jiang
There’s a certain kind of smile that is not safe to return- every woman knows this.
— Every Woman Knows This, Every Woman Knows This by Laurel Hightower
What have you done to deserve it? He repeated her question as if he were weighing it on a scale. What have you done that makes you think that you don’t?
— House Of Rot by Danger Slater
Darkness surrounded her, cloaking her in a shroud that was at once comforting and, within seconds, menacing. She fought it off. Struggled to breathe. Pushed hard, resisting its temptation to sink deeper into a cocoon of softness.
— The After-Death of Caroline Rand by Catherine Cavendish
But instead of the pockets of black between the trunks that he was used to, his eyes snagged on something up ahead. In the distance, just within the reach of the light, a sheet ghost stood still and watched him, its black balloon held aloft.
— The Haunting of Aiden Finch by Theo Hendrie, Bound In Flesh Anthology edited by Lor Gislason
“…And what are the living without stories?”
— Our Own Unique Affliction by Scott J. Moses
To be evil is to enforce your own ill will upon someone else’s fragility…
— Zero Sum by J. Daniel Stone, The Horror Collection: LGBTQIA+ Edition presented by KJK Publishing
Travis gazed at me from behind a steaming mug, a genuine smile on his face. The kind of absent grin you get when you stare at someone you love and lose yourself a little.
— The World You Loved by Brennan LaFaro
She mindlessly began to covet the lines around his mouth and eyes until they resembled the scratches at the bottom of a teacup. She thought of a silver spoon, circling the bottom of a cup–going over the dark thin lines like the immeasurable loop of time, the nauseating ache of infinity.
— Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca
Being truly alone in the midst of this silence, it was easy to be paranoid. It was easy to think that the sounds of the forest were something much worse. I dreaded the moment when I’d look behind me and actually notice something there instead of chalking it up to my terror getting the best of me.
— The Wild Dark by Katherine Silva
Hiking Franconia Ridge was like crawling along the spine of some enormous beast. Its jagged rocks made the exposed trail treacherous.
— Hallowed Oblivion by Katherine Silva
I am nine again, all pluck, calloused hands and sun-soaked skin.
— Orchards by Katherine Silva
No matter where you go in the world, no matter who you are, pizza can bring everyone together. Having a bad day? Order a pizza. Celebrating an accomplishment or a birthday? Pizza party.
— Bone Saw Serenade by Cody J. Thompson
Teenage love – Always exciting, always toxic.
— This One’s Gonna Hurt by Cody J. Thompson
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, like every bit of reason these two had between them had dried off with their swim trunks.
— Rivers Of Mercy by Wile E. Young, from Disasterpieces
My phone informed me that it was absolutely talking to the internet, it was happy to talk to the internet, it loved talking to the internet, then as soon as I tried to check my email, it told me it had never heard of the internet and wasn’t entirely sure it existed.
— A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Music can make a place feel your own, and this time of year, for one month without fail, my music plays everywhere. The world becomes a little more mine.
— Maeve Fly by CJ Leede
“Of course, I’m concerned. But it doesn’t mean I want to run headlong into danger just so I can know how close it is to me.”
— The Wild Fall by Katherine Silva
If you want to save the starving children, you can forget it. If you want to throw millions of dollars at Mars or the Mariana Trench, well, there’s a billionaire for that.
— Julia by Andrew Cull, from Terror in the Trench: An Anthology of Aquatic Horror edited by Jay Alexander
Sometimes bad things happened on beautiful days. It made Tom wonder: Was it all simply a game of chance? Or were the gods just twisted motherfuckers?
— DOGS by Mike Sullivan
It’s quieter at night and in the dark is when the fear leaks in and people are most open to seeing the things that they don’t want to admit are there.
— To Be Heard, from My Glass is Runn by Die Booth
“…I believe they are more frightened of seeing what emerges from this tent than you might think. And fear can bring about violence and retribution more swiftly than a match can light fire to dry tender.”
— The General’s Arm from The Shrouded Tome: Ten Forgotten Fables by Ronald Kelly
Today felt like she was standing on the ever-shifting slush of melting ice, just barely thick enough to hold her weight. She wanted to fall through just to get it over and done with.
— Dehiscent by Ashley Deng
I have never seen anyone who looks so exactly like her before. It takes my breath away, something I always thought before was a myth, but, here I am, not breathing, and not because of any issue with my life support system.
— Derelictus by Stephen Kozeniewski, from Negative Space 2: A Return to Survival Horror edited by Aric Sundquist
“Yeah, well. I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last.”
He leaned in and took both my hands between his. “I reckon not, but this is your hurt. Other people hurtin’ don’t make it any less.”
— Silent Key by Laurel Hightower
He rounded upon the first fiend so swiftly that the creature had no time to react as he plunged the chainsaw deep into its belly. The circulating blades chewed through the layers of flesh to the beast’s innards with ease, dousing the surrounding monsters in blood and viscera.
— Gore by Matt Wildasin
I’ve noticed that when you see a good horror film, your senses open up like you’re a bug with a thousand feelers. You hear more noises, sense every breeze.
— Dead Owls by Mona Susan Power from Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
John knew the expression about one’s jaw hitting the floor, but in that moment, he legitimately feared getting a patch of rug burn on his chin.
— Last Stay by Brennan LaFaro
The weight of her missing son is a suit made of sandbags and she knows dwelling on the details of the night before will make the bags swell. She’s not sure she can handle the extra weight.
— The Black Lord by Colin Hinckley
Ahead stands the church, an ancient Cotswold-stone building complete with narthex and bell tower, but it is the graveyard itself that steals my breath. Scattered headstones peep from behind knee-high grass, some of the stones leaning towards each other as if conspiring. The wind whispers through the trees, giving them a voice: visitors, visitors!
— Mosaic by Catherine McCarthy
Loose body parts lay scattered across the floor like chewed-up dog toys.
— Blank Space by John Durgin from The Conservator’s Collection: Derelict by John Durgin, Jay Bower & John Lynch
I made to move past them when I heard the flick of a pistol hammer pulled back. I spun on my heels and let the Gun sing; the bullet split the man’s head open like kindling on a chopping block. Bits of his brain splattered over his companions, both watching with wide eyes and trembling guns, then they ran.
— Seeking A Grave In Canaan by Wile E. Young from Hot Iron and Cold Blood: An Anthology of the Weird West edited by Patrick R. McDonough
She waited for an eternity, even holding her breath as long as she could. She would give it time, and the monster would disappear. That’s all she had to do: wait for it to disappear.
— The Thing Under Your Bed by Stephen Kozeniewski
A lonesome breeze sends dead leaves skittering up the street. Bradbury would love it. I watch them for a moment before I notice the air smells faintly of cotton candy, and there go those alarm bells again. I’m just going to say for the record that if it’s an evil clown out there, I’ll shit my pants in three different languages.
— Let The Dark Do The Rest by Kealan Patrick Burke from October Screams: A Halloween Anthology edited by Kenneth W. Cain
She’s numb with fear. No, more than fear. The air is so cold she can see her breath; her finger joints ache with it. Her scars are brilliant white, memories her body holds even if her mind does not.
— Mister Magic by Kiersten White
The old and weak were first to die in the wild. Nature’s finest fuck you for beating the odds for so long.
— Foxfire by Rowan Hill
Posthaste stood tall and screamed. Where most houses were content in their silence, Posthaste was loud. Its boards creaked, its boiler clanked and whistled; its being shook the bars of whatever cage it was trapped in.
— Posthaste Manor by Jolie Toomajan and Carson Winter
A system that plays into
destruction of communities
is a vulture embodied
— Crime Scene by Cynthia Pelayo
I guess we’re all thinking the same stuff. How lives can turn sour. How some people don’t even get a start, but are born into generational trauma. It’s not an excuse for anything, of course. But maybe it’s a reason.
— The Leaves Forget by Alan Baxter
Each tale is taller than the last, tiny bits of truth baked into the center of an entrée of lies.
— Beware the Empty Subway Car by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, from Our Shadows Have Claws: 15 Latin American Monster Stories edited by Yamile Saied Méndez and Amparo Ortiz
Postcards from the past, leaving a haunting reminder of what was lost.
— The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark by Warren Wagner
Somewhere along the line his life had jumped the tracks and he had found himself in a nightmare, and like the worst kind of nightmare, he could not move, the people around him too busy chatting, redirecting traffic, or filming the scene with their iPhones to realize the very real and possibly dangerous drama taking place on the edge of it.
— Sour Candy by Kealan Patrick Burke
The crab, which scurries sideways, proving one’s life does not always follow a straight path.
— Immortelle by Catherine McCarthy
In the off-season, the seaside town carried on its salty breeze the ghosts of Isaac Tripp’s childhood memories. Stomping barefoot in the ocean, sunburns, salt-water taffy, and aggressive gulls swooping down for bits of French fries or funnel cake. But those glimpses of his past had been viewed through the naïve goggles of innocence for too long. Much like an ice cream cone on the beach, melting away and leaving nothing behind but sticky fingers and disappointment, so did Isaac’s rosy picture of his childhood.
— The Glass Labyrinth from Impulses of a Necrotic Heart: and Other Afflictions by Red Lagoe
While the seasonal change from verdant green to the warm, cozy colors of fall certainly had an aesthetic appeal that almost everybody seemed to like, the season of Halloween was a different creature altogether. It wasn’t anchored in an obligatory family gathering like so many other holidays, nor was it force-feeding the masses saccharine sentimentalities that were sometimes more hurtful than inspirational, especially to those who were alone in the world, like herself.
— The Spirit of the Season by Somer Canon
You’d think with all his designer bullshit he’d be a stunning snack, but the packaging was deceiving. He tasted like stale bread. Boring, flat, and a little stringy. Strong citrusy aftertaste.
— The Blue Mausoleum by J.C. Smith from The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood edited by Kayleigh Dobbs, Stephen Kozeniewski, and Wile E. Young
What if Hell wasn’t exactly all fire and brimstone? What if it was something else, something less obvious than the biblical representation? Say, maybe a massive acreage of grass that regrew the next day and would need mowed again.
— The Grass is Always Greener from Horrors Untold: Volume 6 by Matt Wildasin
Trepidation was the tickle of a hundred ants crawling on Gerard’s skin.
— Lost Oblivion by Katherine Silva
An active, haunted mind was a hard thing to quiet.
— The Nest by Kevin J. Kennedy from KJK Presents: Vampires
I think of short story collections like I do a new album of music. Whereas a novel or novella compares to a movie, a collection is like an album; it can have different tones, highs and lows, and different songs might connect with people in different ways.
— Short Story Love from Twisting Parallels by Steve L. Clark
Our playing fields weren’t equal. They never had been. I wasn’t even sure we were playing the same game.
— Keep Your Friends Close by Lucinda Berry
Torian stepped off the cliff, assisted by the momentum of the blast, and was thrown into the air. His arms flailed to grab onto something that wasn’t there or to perhaps start flying. When neither happened, Torian’s body cartwheeled downward like a ballistic mistle.
— Jungle Habitat by Daemon Manx, from The Horror Collection: Monster Edition presented by KJK Publishing
When the sun starts to shake hands with the tops of buildings on the western edge of town, that’s when I usually close up shop.
— Salvia Sunset by Brennan LaFaro, from The Horror Collection: Monster Edition presented by KJK Publishing
He didn’t believe in God anymore. He sure as hell wasn’t going to replace that with believing in ghosts.
— Master Of The House by Mark Wheaton from Dark Highways: The Cellar Door Issue #3 edited by Aric Sundquist
He didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything. His whole life was like a barely-there sheet pulled tight over a ghost.
— We All Live in a Fascist Police State Now, Thanks to This One Fucking Guy by Stephen Kozeniewski
I knew that what I was about to see would be terrible. I just didn’t appreciate how….oh, Jesus.
— IT SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING: A Christmas Horror Story by Gemma Amor
Mothers protected their children at all costs. But what if your child was the one others needed protecting from?
— One of Our Own by Lucinda Berry, narrated by A.J. Cook and Tessa Albertson
“Amazing what a little experience can do to cast away ignorance.”
— The Fourth Emergency Service by Lex H Jones, from Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III by KJK Publishing
Everyone believed in magic. They drove on unsafe highways and went to work expecting the paycheck to show up in their bank accounts. They trusted their house to stand, the electricity to function, and the wires to not spark. They went to sleep believing they’d wake up. All of it required magic, trust, faith, hope.
— Lords of the Sleigh by Gage Greenwood, from Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III by KJK Publishing
They exited the house to an eerie silence. Light snow had begun to fall, blowing sideways in the sharp wind, as if they needed something else to slow them down.
— Three Sizes Too Small by John Durgin, from Collected Christmas Horror Shorts III by KJK Publishing
Thanks for reading!
For the last six years, I’ve posted lists of my favorite book quotes. Feel free to check out the previous years below:
Leave a Reply