York's new horror bookshop opens by a graveyard

York has always worn its gothic reputation comfortably, so it is hardly surprising that its next bookshop is leaning fully into the macabre. Horrifically Good Books, the new horror-themed shop from the team behind Criminally Good Books in Colliergate and owned by Isla Coole, is taking shape at 60 Goodramgate in the city centre, and the setting is doing half the work: the building is Grade I listed and looks straight out onto a graveyard.

The timing is clearly no accident. The shop is scheduled to open at the end of October, right in time for Halloween, which is about as on-the-nose as a horror bookshop can be. The building itself is a historic Grade I listed property sitting next to the graveyard by Holy Trinity church, a former parish church that dates mainly from the 15th century and stands in a small, secluded wooded cemetery. The retail space runs over two floors, with the top floor set aside as a community event space for writing workshops and other gatherings, so it is being built as much for events as for browsing.

On the shelves, the collection is being shaped around the broader horror genre rather than just the obvious hits. It will carry gothic and classic horror, folk horror, historic horror, translated work, young adult horror, and titles from small press and indie publishers, which should make it a destination for anyone who wants to go beyond the bestsellers. If you have spent any time in the crime section of the team's other shop, you will recognise the same approach here: a curated, enthusiast-led range rather than a generic stock list.

The opening is being marked with a series of events, the first of which lands on 23 October at Merchant Adventurers' Hall, run in partnership with Criminally Good Books. That night brings together illustrator Dom&Ink, who is creating a window installation for the shop, and Juno Dawson, the Doctor Who writer and young adult author. It is a calculated way to start, pairing a window display you can see from the street with a night at one of York's most historic halls, and it sets the tone for what the shop intends to be: a working part of the city's literary and events scene rather than just a place to buy a book.

Further opening events and recruitment information are due to be announced shortly, so if you are after a job or a date to put in the diary, the Instagram account @horrificallygoodbooks is the place to keep an eye on. For now, the most certain thing is the address: 60 Goodramgate, a street that runs diagonally across the line of former Roman buildings and dates back to the Viking Jorvik era, and which now adds a horror bookshop to its list of residents. With the graveyard next door, the shop will not need to do much to earn its name once the doors finally open at the end of October.