I’m so excited to share my favorite quotes from the books I read last year. It’s always so fun to look back and remember the quotes that stuck with me, and I cannot believe this is the ninth year in a row that I’ve done this!
But folks… There are two quotes specifically that still make me tear up every single darn time I read them…
The horse’s eyes were still filled with stars, only reflections this time.
— Song Dogs (The Buzzards Edge Saga #4) by Brennan LaFaro
&
Goodbye was a concept. It only became real in the absence of something. Of someone.
— Fallen, from Dark Worlds We Wander by Kristin Kirby
Let’s dive in!
My Favorite Book Quotes from 2025 –
Scarecrows didn’t bother him, but this particular one got under his skin. A stay-away energy was palpable in the air.
— Scarecrow Slaughter by E.C. Hanson
My heartbeat accelerates until I can feel it in my fingertips. No, no, no. This is wrong! Something is wrong. Go, now!
But, as always, I’m constitutionally incapable of fucking letting it go.
— Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes
The towering pines thinned, fewer of them brave enough to claim the slope. With each step, light seized more of the sky. The panorama of surrounding peaks revealed themselves, tucking the sun from view just a little longer.
— Thin Air by Christina Bergling, from KJK Publishing Presents The Horror Collection: Morte Edition
Grimaldi’s head tilted inhumanly to the side, his neck bending just a touch too far, like a marionette waiting for the strings to be yanked.
— I See You by Lucretia Stanhope from KJK Publishing Presents The Horror Collection: Morte Edition
The girl’s screams blended with the howling shriek of the wind, forming a symphony of horror scoring the most tragic of stage plays.
— Sinner by Steve L. Clark
Silence lingered in the air as the sun ducked behind the horizon.
— They Only Come Out at Night from Where the Daybreak Ends: Stories from Buzzard’s Edge by Brennan LaFaro
When the sun starts to shake hands with the tops of the buildings on the western edge of town, that’s when I usually close up shop.
— Salvia Sunset from Where the Daybreak Ends: Stories from Buzzard’s Edge by Brennan LaFaro
There’s something outside, she thinks. The oldest of human fears.
— In The High Places by Ally Wilkes from BOREAL: An Anthology of Taiga Horror edited by Katherine Silva
She wanted to reach out for him, tear through the Sheetrock and pull him to safety. Instead, she listened as someone stabbed him repeatedly, metal entering flesh, as her dad slowly dragged himself across the floor.
— Consumed by Evil by John Durgin
If a steady diet of true crime podcasts had taught her anything, it was that the public was far too quick to snap photographs of dead bodies. It was like they completely forgot that the thing they were taking a photo of was a human being. Never mind the fact that the human being likely had loved ones who would be devastated, traumatised, by a photograph of their dearly departed’s body (decapitated, in this instance) making the rounds. Didn’t people deserve to die with dignity? People who exploited the dead were the worst of the worst, as far as Hester was concerned.
— Headed North by Sarah Jules, from The Horror Collection: Crystal Edition presented by KJK Publishing
We all-and by this I mean the whole of humanity across the ages-have an in-built fascination with the unknown. A fear, yes, but a fear that dances in step with a natural curiosity.
— CARNIVAL OF REEDS by S.R. Miller, from Marshland Horrors: The Cellar Door Issue #5 edited by Aric Sundquist
Sofia emerged from the shadow with Jess close behind, their features being filled in, as though by a sketch artist, the closer they came to the flare.
— Below by Kev Harrison
There is no such thing as the protector, she reminds herself one more time. This is the twenty-first century. There are no boogeymen-but she can’t help but wish just a tiny bit that there were. Because a protector would make things so much easier. You could make problems go away merely by wishing.
— Fiend by Alma Katsu
Buildings change, technology progresses, but people do not change. Still, they fear difference and grow intolerant of those who are unlike themselves.
— Death of a Clown by Catherine McCarthy
The dancing fireflies whipped about aimlessly through the darkness like his mental search for that very moment, but it was lost. Sadness gripped his throat, but he swallowed it away so that the boy would not realize he could not remember.
— The Old Man and His River by Matt Wildasin
I’d experienced so many moments of sheer confusion over the last few days that I should’ve been able to handle whatever the next crazy thing was. But apparently, I wasn’t.
— The Invisible by Steve Stred
Some people have such a bad life that little scares them. They just don’t see how things could be worse.
— Crabs Vs the A.Y.T. by Kevin J. Kennedy, from Kevin J. Kennedy Presents Horror Tales from Scotland I
The place was falling apart. Not like the nostalgic sort of spooky place you see in old Scooby Doo cartoons. This place was a dinosaur. The metal was rusting through, and structures were falling apart.
— Rage by Kevin J. Kennedy, from Kevin J. Kennedy Presents Horror Tales from Scotland II
“Do you know what’s worse than hating your monsters.”
“No,” Amber said.
“Learning the truth about how your monsters were made,” he said, lowering the gun slightly.
— Spider to the Fly by J.H. Markert
Being with those who have known you since you were a child has a way of making you feel like you never grew up, like you’re still that little kid they knew, no matter how many years you have under your belt. But death, the death of those close to you, it has a way of aging you, of changing you. It takes a piece of that innocence and it hardens it.
— Black Out The Stars by Christopher Bond
Enlightenment is always a thing to be feared by the ignorant.
— Black Out The Stars by Christopher Bond
My life lay spread out before me then, like a blank sheet of paper, and I had the pen to draw in all the lines of a map, wherever I wanted them to go.
— Bummin’ to the Beat of the Road, from A Graveside Gallery: Tales of Ghosts and Dark Matters by Eric J. Guignard
Ava wasn’t sure if money bought happiness, but she was damn sure it bought choices.
— A Bleak Remedy by D.S. LaLonde
He knew this moment was coming, and he knew it would be soon, yet now that the moment had arrived… it didn’t feel real. Her suffering was over, but theirs was just beginning.
— The Devil’s in the Next Room by John Durgin
Loneliness and hopelessness make cracks in the soul that evil is eager to fill.
— Bottling His Ghosts by S.H. Cooper
“…This place kind of holds you on its tongue, tasting you, letting you dissolve, but never bites down. There’s no quick end here.”
— Nothingland by Katherine Silva
The glittering night was silent. Ice-sheathed branches of leafless trees shivered and tinkled as the breath of early January moaned across the mountain top.
— Vargasången by Mary SanGiovonni, from Strange New Moons edited by Kayleigh Dobbs and Stephen Kozeniewski
Cesar opened his mouth, but it was blood that spouted out, not words.
— The Pit by Johnson Durgin, from Strange New Moons edited by Kayleigh Dobbs and Stephen Kozeniewski
It took nearly a year before Tom realized that the occurrences, what he and Luis had taken to calling the Shindigs of Shit, were happening around the full moon every month.
—Who Keeps Shitting On The Memorial Fire Tower? by Somer Canon, from Strange New Moons edited by Kayleigh Dobbs and Stephen Kozeniewski
Beyond her, the curtains dance like tethered ghosts in the briny breeze through the open window. It’s night and there’s no view, the sea little more than a rectangular swatch of dark broken only by the winking stars of passing ships.
— Nightsong by Kealan Patrick Burke, from Kevin J. Kennedy Presents Horror Tales From Ireland
The horse’s eyes were still filled with stars, only reflections this time.
— Song Dogs (The Buzzards Edge Saga #4) by Brennan LaFaro
Deep breath. Deep. Deep, deep fucking breath.
Except I couldn’t find one. My lungs felt shallower than a puddle.
— Song Dogs (The Buzzards Edge Saga #4) by Brennan LaFaro
We have never had more information at our finger tips, and yet, I don’t see the masses using it to their advantage. If anything, the more information that is available to us, the more I think people on a whole are regressing. Stupidity has never been so prevalent. Maybe we have smoothed off too many of the rough edges in modern society.
— Nothing Is Real by Kevin J. Kennedy
I am not going online either. My brain needs no new information. I fear we were never meant to know as much as we do. We may have passed a point of no return.
— Nothing Is Real by Kevin J. Kennedy
A pale, swollen hand slapped against the dryer window, fingernails jagged, crusted, dirty, then grabbed the side of the drum. Then rolling clothes blocked her view.
— Tumble from Dark Worlds We Wander by Kristin Kirby
Goodbye was a concept. It only became real in the absence of something. Of someone.
— Fallen, from Dark Worlds We Wander by Kristin Kirby
To one side, the forest loomed, a black and green wall that ran the length of the property. The cabin itself seemed a wind’s breath from collapsing. The weathered wood buckled; the small back porch slanted like an unhinged jaw.
— The Brood by Rebecca Baum
“…Told me to always take time for stars. Always take time for the things that the world shows us because someday, we might not be as lucky. It took me a while before I understood what he meant. Now, I pay attention. I try to.”
— Where The Soul Goes by Katherine Silva
She was headed to the small, local discount grocery store three blocks away from her home because they sold cheap, overly cheesed pizza by the slice, and Jennifer was consumed by a mighty need for a greasy triangle of dairy deviance.
— Watcher by Somer Canon
Before setting off close to the house, Brian observed the dilapidated farmhouse before him. While it was framed by a beautiful orange sky that signalled the arrival of dusk, the building itself looked rather pathetic, as if it were being held together by moss and cobwebs.
— Ghosts of Randall Farm by Lee Mountford, from Ghosts (Classic Monsters #3) presented by KJK Publishing
The human mind held such an amazing capacity for forgetting what it didn’t want to see.
— Girl By Day, from Unusual Occurrences by Glenn Rolfe
I look up just in time to see him get brained with a heavy hardcover book. God damn nonfiction section, it has all the chonkers.
— Small Town Slasher by Stephanie Rose
Blood shot up into the night from the stump of her severed neck. With her head tucked under his arm, Gabriel crouched over the spurting corpse with his tongue out, trying to catch the crimson droplets like a child trying to taste a falling snowflake.
— Until Summer Comes Around by Glenn Rolfe
Scarlet droplets stained the snow-shrouded graveyard, artistic in its violent beauty.
— Dogs of Hell by C L Raven, from Kevin J. Kennedy Presents: Horror Tales From Wales
The house seemed to swallow the noise whole. Glasses remained untouched, forks hovered above plates. Even the candles on the table flickered as if they, too, had been startled.
— Fear Actually by Ryan Colley, from The Horror Collection: Christmas Edition presented by KJK Publishing
“Sorry” ain’t worth the time it takes to say, if you could’ve prevented the sorrow in the first place.’
— The Denizens by Brennan LaFaro
Sam took a seat across from Anne, each waiting for the other to speak. The ticking of a clock made for the only conversation.
— The Denizens by Brennan LaFaro
Suspecting changed nothing, but knowing ruined everything.
— The Claim They Stake, from The End by Kayleigh Dobbs
Wind whistled and whipped at fence posts. It pulled lovingly planted flowers from their beds in the gardens of Willow Street, yanking every bit of cheerful colour away, and tossing the severed petals into the storm.
— Just Like Baking, from The End by Kayleigh Dobbs
Never a good time to follow a cop with power issues… This line was a total gut punch: Probably better to shoot than arrest her really. Dead women file no lawsuits.
— Reckless Eyeballing by N. K. Jemisin, from Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele
No matter what, I was either about to be consumed by the monster in front of me or the pain within me.
— Lasiren by Erin E. Adams, from Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele
It’s hard to get excited about rights we can’t use.
— The Rider by Tananarive Due, from Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele
Of all the tools of oppression, fear was the cruelest.
— The Norwood Trouble by Maurice Broaddus, from Out There Screaming edited by Jordan Peele
The shadows fleeted, and he stepped into the hall, reaching for the light switch. He sensed the danger too late, and the impact of the thing tackling him knocked him off his feet and onto his back.
— Cursed by R.E. Sargent, from The Horror Collection: Sapphire Edition presented by KJK Publishing
Thanks for reading!
For the last seven years, I’ve posted lists of my favorite book quotes. Feel free to check out the previous years below:
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