Collection: Horror

A New York Times Book Review Best Horror of 2023 selection.

"Packed with profoundly unsettling scenes that'll slither under your skin and stay there long after you turn the last page."--Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You Home

After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market.

It's there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry's palm, she's haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth--and it's coming for everyone she holds dear.

Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman's reputation as a "star" (Vulture) and "the twenty-first century's Richard Matheson" (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)

This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau, author of Palimpsest: A Collection of Contemporary Horror follows the gut-wrenching journey of Miller and her estranged mother, Sylvie, who has always had a tense relationship.

After Miller's father dies, she agrees to a girls' vacation away from the city to reconnect with the only family she has left. Although she's eager to make things work, Miller can't help but worry that her mother is seeing their countryside retreat as a fun weekend getaway instead of what it really is: a last-ditch effort to repair their relationship.

Unfortunately, that quickly becomes the least of Miller's problems.

Sylvie's trapped in the past and if Miller's not careful, she will be too. A cross between Stephen King's Misery and Stephanie Wrobel's Darling Rose Gold, This Is Where We Talk Things Out explores the horror of familial trauma, mother-daughter relationships, and what happens when we don't let go.

A woman is haunted--both literally and figuratively--by ghosts of the past in this second novel of the Royal Street series by New York Times bestselling author Karen White.

Nola Trenholm may not be psychic herself, but she's spent enough time around people who are to know when ghosts are present, and there are definitely a few lingering spirits in her recently purchased Creole cottage in New Orleans. Something, or someone, is keeping them tethered to this world. And not all of them are benign.

But with the sudden return of Sunny Ryan, Beau Ryan's long-lost sister, Nola has plenty to distract her from her ghostly housemates. Especially when the tempting--yet firmly unavailable--Beau, wanting to mete out justice to those he blames for Sunny's kidnapping, asks Nola for a favor that threatens to derail her hard-won recovery and send her hurtling backward. He asks her to welcome Michael Hebert back into her life, even though Michael is the reason for Nola's bruised heart. Beau is convinced that Michael's powerful family was behind Sunny's disappearance and that Michael is the key to getting information the police won't be able to ignore--if Nola is willing to risk everything for which she's worked so hard.

Torn between helping Beau and protecting herself, Nola doesn't realize until it's almost too late why the ghosts are haunting her house--a startling revelation that will throw her and Beau together to fight a common enemy. Assuming Nola can get Beau to listen to what the spirits are trying to tell him, because ignoring them could prove to be a fatal mistake...

A captivating collection of ghost stories from "one of the most gifted writers working today" (New York Times), The Night Side of the River is as ingeniously provocative as it is downright spooky.

In this delightfully chilling collection, the iconic Jeanette Winterson turns her fearless gaze to the realm of ghosts, interspersing her own encounters with the supernatural alongside hair-raising fictions. Lifting the veil between the living and the dead, Winterson spirits us away to a haunted estate that ensnares a nomadic young couple in its own dark past, a staged immersive ghost tour gone awry, a West Village séance that threatens the bounds between AI and reality, and a vacation home in the metaverse where a widow visits an improved version of her deceased husband. Gloriously gothic and unnervingly contemporary, Winterson examines grief, revenge, and the myriad ways in which technology can disrupt the boundary between life and death.

Portia Hastings has spent her life rescuing her younger sister from one scrape or another. Now, she has to step through time to do it, following Miranda from the nineteenth century to the eighteenth. Almost immediately, Portia is beset by highwaymen, which might be the most exciting thing to happen to her in a long time, even if she'd never admit it.

When one of the highwaymen is injured, Portia makes the inexcusable mistake of helping him-she is trained as a doctor after all. Her travel companions abandon her, and she's left at the mercy of a highwayman who demands she continue tending to his compatriot's wounds.

Portia soon finds herself at a crumbling castle inhabited by the destitute Earl of Ravensford. Benedict Sterling is in desperate need of money, and his solution is a ball, where a wealthy bride will win the title of countess, even if it does come with one thunderously ill-tempered earl.

Portia agrees to a scheme to help Benedict look like a slightly more appealing bridegroom, while she continues to search for Miranda. Then there's the small matter of the castle, complete with a ghost intent on driving her out. But once Portia sets her mind on something, she's not going anywhere.

Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way--except their craving for human flesh.

Ghouls live among us, the same as normal people in every way--except their craving for human flesh.

Ken Kaneki is an ordinary college student until a violent encounter turns him into the first half-human half-ghoul hybrid. Trapped between two worlds, he must survive Ghoul turf wars, learn more about Ghoul society and master his new powers.

Kaneki is still trying to get used to his new life when Commission of Counter Ghoul agents Mado and Amon start sniffing around for Hinami. Kaneki and Touka are going to have to get them off her tail and fast. No easy task now that Kaneki's got to bring humans and Ghouls to a rapid truce at the same time.

You're not afraid of zombies . . . are you? This spooky, funny, and thrilling Step 3 reader features zombie retellings of popular fairytales!

What is Little Red Zombie carrying in her basket on her way to Grandma's? Are those . . . brains?! What if all the fairytales you know and love where actually zombie-tales? Beware, these stories are only for the bravest of readers! Read about Little Red Zombie, Hansel and Gretel Zombie, and more in this spooky and hilarious early reader!

Step 3 Readers feature engaging characters in easy-to-follow plots about popular topics. For children who are ready to read on their own.

Penny swears that when she was a little girl, a creature called the Bawk-ness Monster--half sea serpent, half chicken--saved her from drowning. Now, years later, she's about to move away to a new city, and before she goes, she needs the help of her best friends, Luc and K, for a vitally important mission: seeing "Bessie" one more time. But in their quest to find Bessie and give Penny the send-off she deserves, the kids stumble into a whole new problem--cryptids are being kidnapped by an evil collector, and only Penny, Luc, and K can save them!

2018 Barnes & Noble Best Book 2021 Amazon Teacher's Pick

"For days after reading Brenna Thummler's Sheets I have been wandering my neighborhood, haunted, enchanted, and in need of freshly pressed clothing." --Lemony Snicket

A story of ghosts, family, loneliness, and laundromats.

Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen-year-old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she's worked for. Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world. When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt's Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.

Sheets illustrates the determination of a young girl to fight, even when all parts of her world seem to be conspiring against her. It proves that second chances are possible whether life feels over or life is over. But above all, it is a story of the forgiveness and unlikely friendship that can only transpire inside a haunted laundromat.

The long-awaited sequel to No Gods, No Monsters from award-winning author Cadwell Turnbull, We Are the Crisis sees humans and monsters clash as civil rights collide with preternatural forces.

Three years after the Monster Massacre, members of Rebecca's old wolf pack have begun to go missing without a trace.

The world has undergone many changes in the years since monsters came out of the shadows. An anti-monster group known as the Black Hand has started to organize across the United States. In response, pro-monster organizations have been growing in numbers and militancy. Targeted killings of suspected monsters and their allies, monsters spirited away in the dead of night, and the beginnings of pro-monster legislation are all signs of a cosmic shift on the horizon. Is there any hope for lasting peace? Or are these events just precursors to a devastating monster-human war?

Meanwhile, beneath it all, two ancient orders escalate their mysterious conflict, revealing dangerous secrets about the gods and the very origins of magic in the universe ...

Part dark gothic fantasy, part journey into the bizarre, this delicious blending of tall tales and Latin American surrealism will haunt you as you devour it!

"Highly imaginative and powerfully affecting."--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

1836, Wisconsin. Catalina lives with her pa and brother in a ramshackle cabin on the edge of the wilderness. Harsh winters have brought the family to the brink of starvation, and Catalina has replaced her poet's soul with an unyielding determination to keep Pa and her brother alive.

When a sudden illness claims Pa, a strange man appears--a man covered in bark, leaves growing from his head, and sap dripping from his eyes. He scoops up her brother and disappears, leaving behind a bird with crimson wings. Catalina can't let this man--if that's what he is--have her brother. So, she grabs Pa's knife and follows the bird.

Along the way, she finds help from a young lumberjack, who has his own reasons for hunting the Man of Sap. As their journey takes them deeper into the woods, they encounter strange beasts and tormented spirits. The more they uncover about the Man of Sap, the more they learn how deeply Catalina's fate is entwined with his, planted long ago in cursed seeds.

An enchanting mixture of American tall tales and Faustian elements, Before the Devil Knows You're Here centers a fierce Mexican American poet on a quest to save her brother. Autumn Krause's vivid, haunting prose and rich symbolism make this a must-read for fans of Maggie Stiefvater and Erin Craig.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Year
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year!

4th Bestselling Children's Book Series of all Time -The New Yorker

In Murder at the Old Willow Boarding School, YOU need to solve a murder... your own!

You go to breakfast with your friends and feel strangely alone. No one looks at you and no one is answering your questions. It's not until you hear a scream and rush to the library to find the sight of your lifeless body that you realize YOU ARE DEAD. Thus begins Murder at the Old Willow Boarding School where you must figure out which of your classmates can and can't be trusted and who among the students at this academy for gifted children is behind such an awful crime. Now, as you investigate, you begin to suspect the killer plans to strike again. The search for your murderer turns into a quest to prevent another killing.

Murder at the Old Willow Boarding School is written by noted middle grade author Jessika Fleck and takes the reader on an adventure through the haunted halls of Old Willow. You need to discover how to communicate with your fellow classmates as a ghost--but who can you trust?

Choose Your Own Adventure is the bestselling gamebook series of all time. Empowering generations of children through choice, it is widely commended for its appeal to reluctant readers.

The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.

Funny, moving, and heart-achingly real, this romantic romp and paranormal romcom debut--through a haunted library with trapdoors, ghosts, and memories--is full of great love that triumphs over even death, perfect for fans of Ninth House and Cemetery Boys.

Radcliffe Prep. The third most haunted school in the country, where a student disappearance isn't uncommon and no one dares stay in the library after dark. And Este Logano enrolls with the hopes of finding her dead father.

Not literally, of course. She doesn't believe in ghosts. Going to her dad's school just seems like her best hope at figuring out who he was.

But then Este meets Mateo, who is maybe--probably--definitely--a real ghost. And an annoying one at that.

When Mateo frames Este for the theft of a rare book from the library's secret spire and then vanishes, Este will have to track him down or risk being expelled and leaving Radcliffe early just like her father did.

Except following her father's footsteps might be more dangerous than Este ever anticipated. As she investigates the library with its secret passageways, hidden tunnels, and haunted halls, she learns that the student disappearances aren't just myth. And if she isn't careful, she'll be next.

Includes the stories "The Body" and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption"--set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine

A "hypnotic" (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas--including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption--from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.

This gripping collection begins with "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge--the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.

Next is "Apt Pupil," the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town.

In "The Body," four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me.

Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in "The Breathing Method."

"The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is," hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.

A cutthroat K-pop competition leads to a dark obsession in this twisty horror-romance, perfect for fans of She Is a Haunting

"A perfect blend of folk horror and dazzling showbiz that will grip you from page one." ―Trang Thanh Tran, New York Times-bestselling author of She is a Haunting

"The sweetest spot between horror and romance." ―Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of These Violent Delights

You'll love them to death . . .

THEN:

Sunny Lee is on the top of the world. She's one third of Sweet Cadence, the hottest up-and-coming teen pop group, alongside her new BFFs, Candie and Mina. The three are inseparable as they ride their way to the top of the charts, even as Candie and Sunny fight to resist the growing spark between them. But when a shocking scandal breaks, the group is suddenly torn apart. Then the unthinkable - Mina dies tragically right before Sunny and Candie's eyes. And Sunny suspects the dark and otherworldly secrets she and Candie were keeping may have had something to do with it . . .

NOW:

For the past two years, Sunny has spent her days longing for her former life and her nights wondering just what caused Mina's death. So when she discovers that Candie is attending a new K-pop workshop right in her hometown, Sunny has no choice but to follow her there. Candie might be chasing stardom again, but Sunny is only after one thing: answers.

At the workshop, the lines between nightmare and reality start to blur as Sunny is haunted by ghostly visions and her competitors' bodies turn up bizarrely maimed and mutilated. To survive the twisted carnage, Sunny will have to expose the ugly truth behind the workshop's spotlights and the sinister forces swirling around Candie. Stitched with cutting commentary on the ugly side of stardom and impossible beauty standards, Linda Cheng's mind-bending thriller will have readers screaming and swooning for more.