Can spooky be funny? Spoiler alert, but yes, yes it can. The world is filled with horror stories that are as funny as they are scary, as a new generation of terror titans realises the power of laughter and the sinister qualities of comedy. After all, there’s nothing quite like a hilarious audiobook that scares the living daylights out of you. Comedy is at its best when it is unsettling and horror is at its best when it is entertaining. These tremendous audiobooks combine the two with ease. After all, classic horror beasts like Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and Cthulhu might be terrifying, but they are also pretty funny. Hilarious, horrifying, funny, and frightening, these horror-comedy audiobooks will blow you away.
Many horror comedies go heavy on the slapstick and gore, but Grady Hendrix’s fabulous Horrorstör manages to avoid the usual pitfalls through the sheer quality of storytelling. Brilliantly narrated by Tai Simmons and Bronson Pichot, Horrorstör is a haunted house story with a difference. It’s set in a Cleveland-based furniture superstore, where everything isn’t exactly as it seems. Five employees volunteer for a long night shift to see just what is going on, and it would be fair to say that it doesn’t go well for them. Horrorstör is a contemporary horror novel that stands alone as a comedy, and the audiobook is a frightening riot to listen to. It is practically begging to be the next big horror movie.
The title of this masterpiece is a little bit of a giveaway. Who would eat at a fright diner known for zombie attacks and cold service? You’d be shocked. After all, Duke and Earl are starving, although their hunger may soon become the least of their problems. Given that the two aren’t exactly your standard travellers, Gil’s All Fright Diner soon descends into a gore-filled fright-fest that will have listeners splitting sides in no time. Undead cattle might not seem like a subject ripe for hilarity, but A. Lee Martinez is no ordinary horror writer. Fred Berman’s narration of this audiobook adaptation is hilarious too. Well worth a taste, Gil’s All Fright Diner is horror-comedy at its most absurd.
This listen isn’t actually full of spiders. The thought of spiders flowing out of the speakers into one’s ears is just about as horrifying a thought as we are willing to conjure up. Still, it pays to be specific. From the fabulous David Wong, author of John Dies at the End, This Book Is Full of Spiders takes the gothic horror of H.P. Lovecraft and splices it with a healthy lump of Kevin Smith’s absurd slacker comedy, creating a magnificent listen in the process. Nick Podehl more than holds his own on the narration front, but This Book Is Full of Spiders could be narrated by a spider and it would still be hilarious.
Vampires Never Get Old is an absolute must-listen for all the bloodthirsty undead around the world, whether or not they have fears of ageing. Edited by Zoraida Cordova and Natalie Parker, Vampires Never Get Old is a brilliant short story collection that focuses on vampires of all shapes and sizes, from social media lurkers to first-time bloodsuckers searching for that first kill. A wide range of great voices handles the narration, taking one of the freshest horror books and creating a captivating yet chilling listen. Vampire stories have been a horror genre feature forever, but Vampires Never Get Old is a revolution on the trope.
Conspiracy theories are, more often than not, fictional ideas that have gotten a little out of control. In Night Vale, a small desert town in the middle of nowhere, this isn’t entirely the case. Here, all the conspiracy theories you’ve ever heard are true. Narrated by experienced American voice actor Cecil Baldwin, Welcome to Night Vale is a must-read turned must-listen, a hilarious horror story based on an unsolvable mystery that might be the key to everything. Where is King City? More importantly, what is King City? Welcome to Night Vale is a new spin on the small-town horror story, spooky yet side-splitting.
Jeff Strand is up there with the best when it comes to horror-comedy. The author of The Haunted Forest Tour and Wolf Hunt, Baltimore native Strand is arguably at his best in this typically raucous tale filled with over-the-top beasts and comical violence, if such a term is acknowledged to exist. Zombies and the undead are everywhere in Ferocious, and it seems as though all Rusty and his niece Mia can do is survive. That, of course, is easier said than done. Voiced by Scott Thomas, Ferocious is a horror story with a keen eye for the laughs, a zombie apocalypse that’s surprisingly enjoyable.
Narrated by Rebecca Soler, this listen is everything it says on the tin and so much more: a funny horror romp through high school dramas, zombie teens, and the rest. Undead Girl Gang has been described as Veronica Mars meets The Craft. This frightful listen marries the finest elements of high school drama with science fiction and old-fashioned zombie apocalypse-themed horror. Murders need to be solved, but it is hard when the victims don’t remember being murdered. It is tremendously funny, tremendously spooky, and tremendous in all ways. Soler’s narration is plenty excellent in its own right, too.
Robert Rankin’s debut novel and the first instalment of the Brentford Trilogy, The Antipope does a great job of introducing Rankin’s unique brand of science fiction comic fantasy to the world. Not strictly a terrifying read, The Antipope is more about a world we might not understand than one we do not want to. Does that make Robert Rankin the Terry Pratchett of the occult world? That isn’t for us to say, but the narration and overall soundscape of this audiobook adaptation are a must-listen for sci-fi and horror-comedy fans worldwide. Start with The Antipope and then work through the rest of the series—11 books, to be exact—as layabouts Jim Pooley and John Omalley find new ways to get into deep, deep trouble.
You know we were going to get around to Jonathan L. Howard and his infamous necromancer at some point, right? Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day is a short story collection of seven seriously terrifying adventures, journeys that see the titular necromancer come up against demon kings and all other sorts. Nicholas Guy Smith is a fantastic narrator. He fills each short story with verve and energy, ensuring that the fear never lets up, even when Johannes Cabal is in wacky situations. There is something beautifully British about the humour, a dry wit that shouldn’t work with the tales of a necromancer but works oh so well. Horror stories are perfectly built for the novella format, and Howard’s collection is as good as it gets.
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are two of the very best crafters of sci-fi and fantasy tales on the planet. If you expect excellence from a pair of the most iconic names in modern sci-fi, get ready to have those expectations exceeded. Their epic collaboration, Good Omens comes armed with an entire cast of outstanding narrators, featuring Michael Sheen, David Tennant, and Rebecca Front. The armies of Good and Evil are set to do battle, but this isn’t a war, exactly. It might just be one big misunderstanding, but the Antichrist doesn’t seem to be anywhere for clarification. The best horror-comedies are often the product of indie creativity, but Good Omens shows that the mainstream can master this stuff.
Straight out of Catalonia comes a fantastic piece of horror-comedy that splices the sinister leanings of Lovecraft with pop culture and more. Meddling Kids centres around the Blyton Summer Detective Club, a group of meddling kids turned into adults, looking to deal with past events in a very different time. That time involves asylums, celebrities, and best friends presumed dead, making for a reasonably apt appraisal of what to expect from this terrifying romp. Edgar Cantero is a star of the horror-comedy genre, and Meddling Kids is right up there with the best horror-comedy books of this and any other generation.
Brilliantly narrated by Joe Jameson, The Last Days of Jack Sparks is a thrilling ride through the final days of a controversial pop culture journalist. This rebellious name dies a mysterious death while writing a book—this book—one already shrouded in controversy after Sparks took to social media to make fun of an exorcism in the Italian countryside. Jack Sparks should have known better than to mock forces from other worlds, and this magnet for argy-bargy seems to have attracted some decidedly unwanted attention. British novelist and screenwriter Jason Arnopp is no stranger to the horror genre, and The Last Days of Jack Sparks showcase a keen knack for comedy and horror throughout.
Sticking with the subject of exorcisms, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is another hilarious horror romp from the unorthodox mind of American author and screenwriter Grady Hendrix. Emily Woo Zeller takes care of the narration and she does a tremendous job, giving a personality-filled base to what is billed as a “heartwarming story of friendship and demonic possession”. Can two best friends overcome the devil? The odds are long, but never underestimate the power of friendship. Or the devil. So, it’s best to load up My Best Friend’s Exorcism and see the results for yourself. Expect to laugh out loud plenty from under the safety of the blankets.
Has there ever been a good curse? Of course not, but some curses are really, really bad. The one that has plagued Brookhants School for Girls is so bad, that a horror movie is about to be made about it. This features a centuries-old story of the undying love between two young girls and an entire army of wasps. When filming starts, what was already a strange situation starts getting even weirder, and the results are hilarious and horrifying. A brilliant piece of horror-comedy writing, Plain Bad Heroines is Emily M. Danforth’s second novel, brilliantly brought to life by narrator Xe Sands in this audiobook adaptation.
A short story collection of young adult thrillers and horror stories that will appeal to fans of Stephen King and Daphne Du Maurier, Slasher Girls & Monster Boys is every bit as exciting as the title suggests. Every short story takes its inspiration from different places, from horror classics to twisting and turning tropes that doesn't lose sight of the need for fear and fun. It all makes for a romp of a listen, with a tremendous cast of voices taking care of the narration. Slasher Girls & Monster Boys is an absolute must; you might just find the new Stephen King along the way.
Okay, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Friday Black isn’t the sort of horror-comedy that will have listeners doubled over in stitches, but the subtle quips and all-too-real prescience make it a must-listen in all ways. This collection of troubling short stories takes on racism within virtual reality. It is a desperate fight for humanity and community in an increasingly hostile society with unexpected twists. Friday Black is right out of the sinister humour playbook that made shows like Black Mirror such a triumph, albeit told through a more focused lens. Again, this isn’t laugh-out-loud horror, but the best comedy is often that which forces the listener to think a little deeper about the world around them. Friday Black is a triumph.
Bunny is written by a Canadian short story writer who has been making a name for herself in the dark comedy world over the years. Mona Awad isn’t afraid to take chances with her storytelling, and Bunny is a razor-sharp attack on the cliquey world of high school and wealth. Think Mean Girls but spooky. The story of outsider Samantha Heather Mackey’s descent into the sinister sweet world of the Bunnies will have listeners laughing along with their unease. Bunny is about loneliness, identity, friendship, desire, issues, and emotions that we all experience, but often shy away from scrutinising too closely. After all, you might not like what you see.
It can’t be a good thing when the souls of the dead start going AWOL, right? If we’ve learnt anything from the annals of horror literature, it’s that it’s usually best if the dead stay undisturbed. Alas, New York Times best-selling author Christopher Moore’s fabulous follow up to A Dirty Job tells the tale of uncollected souls and a growing administrative problem in San Francisco. Brilliantly narrated by Fisher Stevens, Secondhand Souls is a laugh-out-listen filled with absurdity. This is horror-comedy at its wackiest, although there is nothing funny about the impending battle for humanity’s soul.
