Horror bestsellers

“I loved this book. Jones has a unique narrative voice, allowing ‘the entity’ to step in and take over unexpectedly, amping up the horror. Also, each character has a distinct voice that brings them to life. Jones combines the culture and traditions of the Blackfeet and Crow people with the social truths of their contemporary life. It is refreshingly different from any other horror novel I’ve read. This book is gruesome and honestly scary. I couldn’t put it down.”

“This was a blast to read. Kate and Dan Holland have an opportunity to move into an eco-friendly community called Greenloops in the shadow of Mt. Rainier. Kate’s therapist asks her to keep a journal, and this is how their story is preserved. Because after Mt. Rainier erupts, horrible things happen at Greenloops. Really horrible things…”

“Maggie Holt was the central character of the bestselling memoir her father wrote about their 14 days living in the supposedly haunted Baneberry Hall. Maggie has always hated the book and the notoriety that came from it. She was only 5 when they lived there and she remembers nothing about the time. But since the book was essentially about her she is constantly bombarded with questions and made fun of by non-believers. All that she really knows is that her father swore the house was haunted and that everything he wrote was true and that on his deathbed he begged Maggie never to return to the house. Since Maggie doesn’t believe in ghosts, and since her mother has refused to ever discuss what happened there. Maggie decides she must return to the house to find out for herself what caused them to run from the house twenty years ago with only the clothes on their backs, never to return. If, like Maggie, you don’t believe in ghosts and think there is a rational explanation for everything you will love trying to figure out what that explanation is. As you hear Maggie’s father read his book and at the same time follow what is now happening to Maggie and what is going on at Baneberry Hall you may begin to believe that the only explanation is that Baneberry Hall is truly haunted. The brilliant plotting was instrumental in making this one of the creepiest and most believable ghost stories I have ever read and the ending was beyond amazing. If listening to this doesn’t put you in another place and time to escape what is going on in the real world then nothing ever will.”

“Excuse my French here, but The Bright Lands is one scary-ass book. Think Friday Night Lights rewritten by Stephen King. Set in where else but high-school-football-obsessed Texas, the story revolves around the brutal murder of the Bison's quarterback. When his brother comes back for the funeral, the homophobic culture of his hometown seems to have frightened and irreparably harmed more than just him. It's filled with sexy, homoerotic tension and builds to a nail-biting finish. Leave the lights on while you listen.”

“I will admit I was a little afraid to download this one when I saw how many hours I had in store for me but I just couldn't resist a creepy tale on these brisk October nights! Chbosky weaves a fantastic tale of epic good versus evil. A child goes missing, only to turn up 6 days later, completely unharmed but with no memory of his time in the woods. But he is different, smarter, more confident, prone to illness and possibly going crazy. As his mother fights to keep him safe the entire town seems to fall prey to a mysterious illness that seems to have happened once before--ending only with the disappearance of another little boy into the same woods. Will Christopher be able to save the town (and maybe the world) before his time runs out? Will the Nice Man triumph over the Hissing Lady? The Imaginary World begins to bleed into the Real World as Christmas approaches and the town fights for it's very soul.”

“Joseph Fink is my hero for making extreme anxiety a superpower and something from which a person can draw strength. Like the Welcome to Night Vale novels, Alice Isn’t Dead evinces a gentleness throughout the story, but as with Keisha, the protagonist, don’t mistake that for weakness. This novel is a road trip into the depths of human love even in the midst of experiencing inexplicable and weird horrors. It will linger with you long after you finish reading it.”

“Wen and her dads are taking a break from everything by visiting a remote cabin for vacation. Wen is studying grasshoppers in their yard when a man comes up and warns her that she and her dads are going to have to make a decision. And that’s about all I can tell you without spoiling the story. This book was so creepy, in a very good way. I’d classify this as horror, but very realistic.”

“When a take-no-prisoners virus sweeps through the area, how will people react? Survivor Song is a thriller that follows a pair of friends trying to survive, but it also offers an interesting and realistic look at how society on a local scale may try to cope while also trying to maintain some semblance of order. On the other side of the coin, others don’t always have everyone’s best interests at heart. Can our characters make it? Can society withstand a disaster like this?”

“Featuring a pair of lovable, courageous misfits and their unexpectedly charming goat companion, "The Bone Houses" is truly a magical read. One part historical fiction, one part Welsh fairy tale, and one part zombie horror, this story will chill your bones and warm your heart in equal measure.”

“Even if you've never heard of Night Vale, I truly believe you'll enjoy It Devours. It's a book about science and religion. It's a book about belonging and how sometimes to truly understand what is happening, you may need an outsider's perspective. It's also a book about a friendly desert town that finds its way into some of the strangest predicaments, and the people who live there. In other words, it's superbly written science fiction that deserves to be read more than once.”

“In Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant has conjured up scary mermaids living in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. An expedition sets out to learn if mermaids truly exist and to uncover the fate of a previous expedition. The new crew is being recorded for a documentary, with the hope it will prove mermaids are real and clear the network of wrongdoing. Both Tory, whose sister was killed on the first expedition, and Jillian, who has been teaching about mermaids for years, are going out on the state-of-the-art ship; however, that ship has one major flaw. You will not look at The Little Mermaid the same way again!”

“This is an onion of a mystery, layers deep, each one - each story wrapped around the shocking event at the center - shaped carefully around details that push the reader's suspicions in every direction. The old, dense wood beside the never-prosperous village was bound to give rise to scary stories, and an event - was it real? - decades before gave the town a particularly creepy bogeyman, upon whom an inventive child fixates until he has drawn his friends into an escalating course of action. Twenty years later, one of those children returns to the village, but has no wish to reengage with the past. The bogeyman haunts everyone here in different ways, though, and when an old clue and a new disappearance coincide, Paul can't keep the indifferent distance he forces to protect himself from the memory nobody can escape. ...Capturing the foreboding of 1990's horror films and the wistfulness of a life frozen by calamity, this book won my affection with its depiction of an independent bookstore and the vibrant person at its core, but its many emotionally rich moments, like little dapples of sunlight across a forest floor, will provide every reader with that moment of love that makes the horror that much more disturbing!”

“I have an abiding fondness for kooky premises executed well, and Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids is as kooky as they come. In 1977, the tween members of the Blyton Summer Detective Club solved their last case and went their separate ways. Now it's 1990 and the man they sent to jail has been paroled. These former detectives have unfinished business, so one of them resolves to get the gang back together to find out the dark truth behind that final case. Meddling Kids is a pop-culture savvy, uproarious romp but also an action-packed horror-thriller. Highly recommended for fans of Christopher Moore and Ernest Cline, or anyone seeking a little laughter, nostalgia, or escapism.”

“Haunting, foreboding, eerie, and ominous, Schweblin's Fever Dream is the first of the Argentine author's books to appear in English. Despite its brevity, Fever Dream throbs with a quickened pulse, as heightening tension is its most effective quality. An intriguing yet purposefully vague plot adds to the story's mystique, one of peril, poison, and the unexplained terror of worms. Metaphorical in scope, Schweblin's impressively constructed tale leaves much to the imagination but is all the richer for doing so. Unsettling and compelling, this is a delirious, potent novel not to be overlooked.”

“Joe Hill delivers with Strange Weather, a collection of four novellas. Hill has developed a writing style akin to an oil slick - eerie sentences that leave behind something that shines unclean. There's nothing clean about Strange Weather; each tale is a horrific glimpse just beyond normalcy. Horror can often be best delivered as an understatement, luring the reader into a world that seems just reasonable enough. When Hill reveals his tricks (whether a magical camera or a cloud disguised as a UFO), they loom uncomfortably dark on the horizon. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft won't be disappointed with this collection.”

“I already enjoy Edgar Allen Poe and his Gothic darkness, and this collection of modern writers choosing a Poe classic was something fresh and interesting. After many of the stories (and one poem), I had to stop to absorb and process before moving on to the next. Sometimes for many days, they were so genuinely thrilling and disturbing. Beautiful, funny, surprising, and affecting, I think Poe would read many of these and see himself in them. On the audiobook, each story was read by a different voice, which was a perfect way to set off each writer's style.”

“Josh Malerman has created a brilliantly twisted coming-of-age story, highlighting the importance of truth, at any age, and the devastation misinformation can cause. From the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box comes a world of secrets, lies, and dangerous revelations. In the forests of Northern Michigan stands two towers being operated by an organization of scientists and ex-felons. The Parenthood, as they call themselves, have an underlying theory about the human condition that they are putting to the test. They believe the opposite gender is a distraction from genius, so by separating twenty-six boys and twenty-six girls and raising them in facilities closed off to the outside world, they hope to breed geniuses. J studies at the school meant for the boys, the Alphabet Boys, and they have no idea about the school for girls nearby, or the fact that females exist at all. He has spent his entire life at the Turret with the twenty-five other boys he calls his brothers, all of whom think of the founder of the school as their father, or D.A.D. They are all being trained to be prodigies of art, science, math, and athletics, and this is the only life they’ve ever known—and all they are allowed to know. But when J suspects that D.A.D. hasn’t been entirely truthful, his ignorant bliss quickly begins to unravel, leaving him with so many questions. What is beyond the pines? What is the purpose of this place? Why can the students never leave? What secrets have their father been hiding from them? This novel does an outstanding job of portraying an unimaginable perspective of the world through characters that are innocent and undeserving of such extreme censorship. Inspection would make a great book club choice, with many social topics worth discussing within its pages.”