Hiding From The Dark, Kiersten White’s new Star Wars horror novel, is part of Lucasfilm Publishing’s genre push for Lucasfilm Publishing and is scheduled for release in 2026. Lucasfilm revealed the book at its New York Comic Con panel last October, alongside several other upcoming Star Wars books. That matters because this isn’t just another tie-in novel; it’s Lucasfilm testing how far Star Wars can stretch when it stops acting like pure space opera and starts leaning hard into horror.
White is a New York Times bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author, and Lucasfilm Publishing says she’s bringing that horror background to a galaxy far, far away. The book follows Bia, her mother, Nerik, and Darth Vader, with the official synopsis framing Vader as “the living nightmare known as... Darth Vader.” Readers who’ve wanted Star Wars to get properly unsettling finally have a book built for that mood, not just a dark coat of paint.
About Hiding From The Dark
Lucasfilm Publishing announced Hiding From The Dark during its New York Comic Con panel last October, where it also laid out several upcoming Star Wars books for 2026. The same slate included Ashley Poston’s young-adult romance, Eyes Like Stars, which shows Lucasfilm’s new genre initiative reaching beyond the usual adventure template. Michael Siglain, creative director of Lucasfilm Publishing, said the company and its partners are focusing on “the various genre building blocks of Star Wars — fantasy stories, samurai stories, war stories, etc” in “very specific and deliberate ways.”
Siglain added, “These are genre stories first, Star Wars stories second, and we hope that these will appeal to both Star Wars fans and genre fans.” That’s a smart framing, because it tells readers exactly what Lucasfilm wants here: books that work as genre fiction on their own terms, not just lore delivery systems. For players and readers who’ve bounced off the safer corners of licensed fiction, that approach could make Star Wars books feel a lot less predictable.
Bia, Nerik, and Darth Vader
The official synopsis gives Hiding From The Dark a clear horror setup. Bia’s mother, who works as a supply coordination specialist for the Empire, stays away too long on a business trip and doesn’t check in, so Bia tries to contact her with their secret communicator. Then strange men arrive at the door and press Bia about her mother’s whereabouts, which immediately turns a family problem into a threat that feels personal and invasive.