I live about 60 seconds away from a forest, and with spring finally here, I’m so glad that my walks through the trees now come with a view of lovely green leaves rather than dark, barren branches. But although the woods are a peaceful place during the day, you won’t ever catch me there at night, thanks to the distinctly sinister air that settles over the trees when darkness falls…
Plenty of stories use the woods as a spookily atmospheric setting (here are some great recs if that’s what you’re after!), but this list is focused on books and short stories where the trees are a little more active in the narrative. As in, the monsters aren’t lurking behind the trees; the monsters are the trees. Here are five stories that’ll have you eyeing every tree you pass with suspicion and trepidation.
“Only Unity Saves the Damned” (2014) by Nadia Bulkin
Many small towns have local legends and ghost stories, and in Whippoorwill, Nebraska, their claim to haunted fame is Raggedy Annie—a witch who supposedly haunts the town after being hanged from a big oak tree now known as the Witching Tree. Friends Roz, Lark, and Bay decide to capitalize on Raggedy Annie’s story by shooting a short film which they claim captures the witch (really Bay’s girlfriend in a costume) on camera.
After successfully convincing people in the town and beyond that the video is real, Roz becomes convinced that she’s actually seeing and being haunted by Raggedy Annie. But Roz’s fears are misdirected; it’s really the Witching Tree that she—and Lark and Bay—should be worried about.
Along with featuring some delightfully creepy tree imagery throughout, “Only Unity Saves the Damned” also offers a thoughtful exploration of the complicated feelings that can come with living in the small town that you grew up in.
“Elo Havel” (2020) by Brain Evenson
“Elo Havel” reads like a dark dystopian fairy tale. It’s set in a society where those on death’s door are left in a nearby forest to die. What exactly happens once the moribund are abandoned to the trees isn’t known, but the practice is accepted as the natural order of things and no one fights it. That is, until one man begs to not be left in the forest. To get him to stay put, the drop-off delegation have to tie the man to the trunk of a tree.
When the next batch of moribund are led to the grove, they see that the man who’d resisted is gone (as expected), but that there’s now a huge amount of blood splashed across the tree along with the remains of the rope (not as expected). The sight of blood causes panic—understandably so, since it indicates that a forest death might not be so peaceful after all—and the delegation end up lashing everyone thereafter to the trees.
From there, the tension builds and builds towards a chilling reveal that feels like an eco-horror nightmare.
The Hollow Places (2020) by T. Kingfisher
Taking Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows” (1907) as inspiration—which I previously recommended on a list of scary plant stories—The Hollow Places beefs up the weird willow tree horror while adding a hearty dash of humor to the mix.
Main character Kara—who goes by Carrot—is freshly divorced and jumps at the chance to move in with her Uncle Earl and help run his Wonder Museum (which is full of cryptid statues and bad taxidermy). But when Earl is out of the picture for a stint, Carrot discovers a hole in the wall that leads to a concrete hallway that can’t possibly exist within the bounds of the building.
Carrot enlists the help of Simon—the barista next door—to step through the portal with her into what must surely be a fantasy world or alternate dimension. After exploring the hallway and the very creepy adjoining bunker, the pair discover a strange world filled with willow trees as far as the eye can see. To paraphrase an iconic Twin Peaks line: the willows are not what they seem.
This Wicked Valley (2024) by Jenny Kiefer
This Wicked Valley begins at the end: three bodies are found on the edge of a forest in Kentucky and the grisly and gory condition of the corpses—which don’t seem to form a cohesive story about what happened—baffle the police. We then go back to the beginning, with four people (and a dog!) hiking into the woods to research and climb an as-of-yet undocumented cliff face.
The group sets up camp with excitement in the valley below the cliff, but things start to crumble fairly quickly. The dog didn’t want to set even one paw into the woods at the start of their journey and now he’s going wild; all the while climber Dylan is feeling a distractingly magnetic pull toward the rock face. As the group starts to fray, it becomes evident that the picturesque natural environment all around them might not be so natural after all; in fact, it might just be malevolently supernatural.
“Jackknife” (2025) by Joe Hill
Dennis Lange isn’t the kind of character that you root for. His life appropriately lies in tatters after his inappropriate conversations with a student are revealed; not only has his wife left him, but his academic job is on the chopping block. Dennis is currently stewing in his anger in an Airbnb on the edge of the woods; while out walking one day, he spots an old sycamore tree that has been stabbed with a jackknife, with some ominous words carved into its bark.
Dennis removes the knife and decides to look into the history of both the blade and the tree. But the next day the tree appears to have moved, propelling Dennis even further down the strange and scary rabbit hole that he’s stumbled into. “Jackknife” is basically a tale of karmic justice delivered via evil Ent.
Are there any horror stories about trees that have managed to get their roots into you? Feel free to leaf leave your recommendations in the comments below!