Horror Novels to Read in the Dark

A head full of ghosts

Tremblay, Paul, author
2015

WINNER OF THE 2015 BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.

To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.

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Bird box

Bird box

Malerman, Josh, author
2014

Written with the narrative tension of The Road and the exquisite terror of classic Stephen King, Bird Box is a propulsive, edge-of-your-seat horror thriller, set in an apocalyptic near-future world--a masterpiece of suspense from the brilliantly imaginative Josh Malerman.

Something is out there . . .

Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now, that the boy and girl are four, it is time to go. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat--blindfolded--with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them. But is it man, animal, or monster?

Engulfed in darkness, surrounded by sounds both familiar and frightening, Malorie embarks on a harrowing odyssey--a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Under the guidance of the stalwart Tom, a motely group of strangers banded together against the unseen terror, creating order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside--and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted?

Interweaving past and present, Josh Malerman's breathtaking debut is a horrific and gripping snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.

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Books of blood. Volumes 1-3

Books of blood. Volumes 1-3

Barker, Clive, 1952- author
1998

Here are the stories written on the Book of Blood. They are a map of that dark highway that leads out of life towards unknown destinations. Few will have to take it. Most will go peacefully along lamplit streets, ushered out of living with prayers and caresses. But for a few, the horrors will come, skipping, to fetch them off to the highway of the damned ...

Gathered together for the first time in one volume, here are fifteen mind-shattering stories from the awesome imagination of World Fantasy Award winning author Clive Barker. They will take you to the brink - and beyond ...

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Collected ghost stories

Collected ghost stories

James, M.R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936, author
2013

"I was conscious of a most horrible smell of mould, and of a cold kind of face pressed against my own..."Considered by many to be the most terrifying writer in English, M. R. James was an eminent scholar who spent his entire adult life in the academic surroundings of Eton and Cambridge. His classic supernatural tales draw on the terrors of the everyday, in which documents and objects unleash terribleforces, often in closed rooms and night-time settings where imagination runs riot. Lonely country houses, remote inns, ancient churches or the manuscript collections of great libraries provide settings for unbearable menace, from creatures seeking retribution and harm. These stories have lost noneof their power to unsettle and disturb.This edition presents all of James's published ghost stories, including the unforgettable "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" and "Casting the Runes", and an appendix of James's writings on the ghost story. Darryl Jones's introduction and notes provide a fascinating insight into James'sbackground and his mastery of the genre he made his own.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expertintroductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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The complete tales and poems of Edgar Allen Poe

The complete tales and poems of Edgar Allen Poe

Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
2002

This collection of 73 short stories and 48 poems includes such masterpieces as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Purloined Letter, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

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Dracula

Dracula

Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912
2012

Prince of the Night. Lord of the Damned. King of Vampires. He is Dracula, the most well-known vampire in the world--and this new illustrated edition of Bram Stoker's classic tale of terror offers Dracula as you have never seen him before. Brought to life through the stunning visual artistry of Eisner Award-winning illustrator Becky Cloonan (Demo, American Virgin, Victor Von Doom), this new graphically compelling novel offers a spellbinding, edition of the book that launched the world's enduring fascination with vampires: Bram Stoker's complete and unabridged Dracula. Illuminated and accentuated by the visionary hand of one of America's most gifted illustrators, Dracula is perfect for fans of the ghastly and paranormal, and unmissable for fans of True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and Tim Burton's macabre new film, Dark Shadows (release May 11, 2012) starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, and Jackie Earle Haley.

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Feed

Feed

Grant, Mira, author
2010

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.


FEED is the electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own---a novel of geeks, zombies, politics and social media.


Newsflesh Feed Deadline Blackout

For more from Mira Grant, check out:
Parasitology Parasite Symbiont Chimera
Newsflesh Short Fiction Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box Countdown San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell Please Do Not Taunt the Octopus

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Fledgling

Fledgling

Butler, Octavia E., author
2007

"A master storyteller, Butler casts an unflinching eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance and lets the reader see the terror and beauty of human nature." - The Washington Post

This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.

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Ghost story

Ghost story

Straub, Peter, 1943- author.
2016

#1 New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub's classic tale of horror, secrets, and the dangerous ghosts of the past... a What was the worst thing you've ever done? a In the sleepy town of Milburn, New York, four old men gather to tell each other stories-some true, some made-up, all of them frightening. A simple pastime to divert themselves from their quiet lives. a But one story is coming back to haunt them and their small town. A tale of something they did long ago. A wicked mistake. A horrifying accident. And they are about to learn that no one can bury the past forever...

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The girl with all the gifts

The girl with all the gifts

Carey, Mike, 1959- author
2014

The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.
When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.
Melanie is a very special girl.

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The haunting of Hill House

The haunting of Hill House

Jackson, Shirley, 1916-1965, author
1959

The classic supernatural thriller by an author who helped define the genre

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers--and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Heart-shaped box

Heart-shaped box

Hill, Joe
2007

"Wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty....A Valentine from hell."

--Janet Maslin, New York Times

The publication of Joe Hill's beautifully textured, deliciously scary debut novel Heart-Shaped Box was greeted with the sort of overwhelming critical acclaim that is rare for a work of skin-crawling supernatural terror. It was cited as a Best Book of the Year by Atlanta magazine, the Tampa Tribune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and the Village Voice, to name but a few. Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling Neil Gaiman of The Sandman, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys fame calls Joe Hill's story of a jaded rock star haunted by a ghost he purchased on the internet, "relentless, gripping, powerful." Open this Heart-Shaped Box from two-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Hill if you dare and see what all the well-deserved hoopla is about.

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Hex

Hex

Olde Heuvelt, Thomas, 1983- author
2016

"This is totally, brilliantly original." --Stephen King

"HEX is creepy and gripping and original, sure to be one of the top horror novels of 2016." --George R.R. Martin

The English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel, Hex, from Thomas Olde Heuvelt-- a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated talent to watch

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.

This chilling novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.

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Horrorstor

Horrorstor

Hendrix, Grady, author
2014

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Brooka glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofa beds-clearly, someone or something is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-till-dawn shift-and they encounter horrors that defy imagination. Along the way, author Grady Hendrix infuses sly social commentary on the nature of work in the new twenty-first century economy.

A traditional haunted house story in a contemporary setting (and full of current fears), Horrorstor comes conveniently packaged in the form of a retail catalog, complete with illustrations of ready-to-assemble furniture and other, more sinister accessories. We promise you've never seen anything quite like it!

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Interview with the vampire

Interview with the vampire

Rice, Anne, 1941-
1997

#1 New York Times Bestselling author - The spellbinding classic that started it all - Book I of the Vampire Chronicles

Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force--a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.

Praise for Interview with the Vampire

"A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth-the education of the vampire." -- Chicago Tribune

"Unrelentingly erotic . . . sometimes beautiful, and always unforgettable." -- Washington Post

"If you surrender and go with her . . . you have surrendered to enchantment, as in a voluptuous dream." -- Boston Globe

"A chilling, thought-provoking tale, beautifully frightening, sensuous, and utterly unnerving." -- Hartford Courant

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The last werewolf

The last werewolf

Duncan, Glen, 1965-
2011

Then she opened her mouth to scream--and recognised me. It was what I'd been waiting for. She froze. She looked into my eyes. She said, "It's you."

Meet Jake. A bit on the elderly side (he turns 201 in March), but you'd never suspect it. Nonstop sex and exercise will do that for you--and a diet with lots of animal protein. Jake is a werewolf, and after the unfortunate and violent death of his one contemporary, he is now the last of his species. Although he is physically healthy, Jake is deeply distraught and lonely.

Jake's depression has carried him to the point where he is actually contemplating suicide--even if it means terminating a legend thousands of years old. It would seem to be easy enough for him to end everything. But for very different reasons there are two dangerous groups pursuing him who will stop at nothing to keep him alive.

Here is a powerful, definitive new version of the werewolf legend--mesmerising and incredibly sexy. In Jake, Glen Duncan has given us a werewolf for the twenty-first century--a man whose deeds can only be described as monstrous but who is in some magical way deeply human.

One of the most original, audacious, and terrifying novels in years.

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Lovecraft Country : a novel

Lovecraft Country : a novel

Ruff, Matt, author
2016

Soon to be a New HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out)

The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.

Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him, accompanied by his Uncle George--publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide--and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite--heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus's ancestors--they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours.

At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn--led by Samuel Braithwhite and his son Caleb--which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his--and the whole Turner clan's--destruction.

A chimerical blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism--the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.

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Mark Z. Danielwski's house of leaves

Mark Z. Danielwski's house of leaves

Danielewski, Mark Z., author
2000

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.

Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.

The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

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Night shift : excursions into horror

Night shift : excursions into horror

King, Stephen, 1947-
1978

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bared to You

When Evangeline Hollis spent a night of passion with the darkly seductive Alec Cain, she had no idea that she'd be punished for it years later. Branded with the Mark of Cain, Eve was thrust into a life of hunting demons as penance.

Living with the Mark--and the two sexy brothers who come with it--was trouble enough. But then Eve ran over Satan's hellhound during training. Now Satan, incensed at the loss of his pet, has put a bounty on Eve's head, and every demon in the country wants to be the one to deliver her.

Meanwhile, Eve's formerly insatiable one-night stand is acting distant. Cain says he still wants Eve, and she believes him, but scorching hot sex isn't enough. Not after knowing what it was like to have more.

As Cain's role in Eve's life becomes more and more uncertain, Abel doesn't hesitate to step in.

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The passage : a novel

The passage : a novel

Cronin, Justin
2010

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * This thrilling novel kicks off what Stephen King calls "a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction."

NOW A FOX TV SERIES! THE PASSAGE airs Mondays at 9/8c.

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR BY TIME AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post * Esquire * U.S. News & World Report * NPR/ On Point * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * BookPage * Library Journal

"It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born."

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy--abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape--but he can't stop society's collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

Look for the entire Passage trilogy:
THE PASSAGE | THE TWELVE | THE CITY OF MIRRORS

Praise for The Passage

"[A] blockbuster." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Mythic storytelling." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Magnificent . . . Cronin has taken his literary gifts, and he has weaponized them. . . . The Passage can stand proudly next to Stephen King's apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but a closer match would be Cormac McCarthy's The Road: a story about human beings trying to generate new hope in a world from which all hope has long since been burnt." -- Time

"The type of big, engrossing read that will have you leaving the lights on late into the night." -- The Dallas Morning News

"Addictive." -- Men's Journal

"Cronin's unguessable plot and appealing characters will seize your heart and mind." -- Parade

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The road

The road

McCarthy, Cormac, 1933- author
2006

A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

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Rosemary's baby

Rosemary's baby

Levin, Ira 1929-2007
2010

A masterpiece of spellbinding suspense, where evil wears the most innocent face of all...

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guymove into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment buildingwith an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around towelcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary'sreservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that shekeeps hearing, her husband takes a special shine to them.Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interestin her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasinglyisolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavets' circle is notwhat it seems...

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The ruins

The ruins

Smith, Scott, 1965-
2006

The Ruins

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Through the woods

Through the woods

Carroll, Emily, author
2014

Discover a terrifying world in the woods in this collection of five hauntingly beautiful graphic stories that includes the online webcomic sensation "His Face All Red," in print for the first time.

Journey through the woods in this sinister, compellingly spooky collection that features four brand-new stories and one phenomenally popular tale in print for the first time. These are fairy tales gone seriously wrong, where you can travel to "Our Neighbor's House"--though coming back might be a problem. Or find yourself a young bride in a house that holds a terrible secret in "A Lady's Hands Are Cold." You might try to figure out what is haunting "My Friend Janna," or discover that your brother's fiancée may not be what she seems in "The Nesting Place." And of course you must revisit the horror of "His Face All Red," the breakout webcomic hit that has been gorgeously translated to the printed page.

Already revered for her work online, award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll's stunning visual style and impeccable pacing is on grand display in this entrancing anthology, her print debut.

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World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war

World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war

Brooks, Max
2006

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies."-- Entertainment Weekly

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the apocalyptic years.

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

"Will spook you for real." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone . . . . It's Apocalypse Now , pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating." -- USA Today

"Will grab you as tightly as a dead man's fist. A." -- Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick

"Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles's War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view." -- Dallas Morning News

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