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.”

“Made the mistake of listening to this book before going to sleep and subsequently spent an hour after turning off my phone staring at the shadows at the corners of my room as they morphed into bigfoot. Hauntingly written and beautifully performed.”

“I do not recommend listening to this audiobook while driving down the Pike in the dark after your shift at the bookstore because this is one of the most creepy, terrifying books I’ve ever listened to. While horror is not my usual genre, the main characters were so relatable and endearing that I had to follow them to the end. Even when I was yelling at my car speakers when they couldn’t see what was right in front of them. Kara, or "Carrot" as she is know by her uncle, is a freshly-divorced 30-something who has managed to find mostly-stable ground working and living at her uncle’s curios museum, the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy in North Carolina. And then she finds a hole in the wall. Which leads to a hallway that shouldn’t be physically possible. Which leads to a locked bunker with a body inside. Which leads to a new world, filled with water, and bunkers, and willow trees. But of course, there’s much more than meets the eye. With more curiosity than common sense, Kara and her best friend, Simon decide to explore. And discover the meaning of the ominous graffiti they find, "Pray they are hungry." If you, too, wish you could celebrate Halloween year-round, this is the book for you.”

“With exception to the first part of high school (because vampires), I do not read horror. But Sawkill Girls had me in fits of hysterical laughter as often, if not more so, than it had me on the edge of my seat. Legrand crafts each and every character with incredible finesse, much like an ogre or onion with all their dichotomous layers. Good and bad, weak and strong, self-sacrificing and selfish... human. She gets at the heart of what it is to be a girl - the expectations placed upon us by ourselves as often as others, the necessity we feel to hold up the world, and how powerful (and terrifying) it can be to be powerless. Never have I read a greater call to smash the patriarchy than Sawkill Girls. Never has horror been so utterly enticing. Read this book.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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!”

“"Well, this is the story all about how, Elizabeth's life got twisted, upside down..." All jokes aside, this is the creepiest book I've read this year. It is the tale of how Elizabeth became a Frankenstein, how her upbringing made her crave companionship and stability, and how in that quest, she accidentally encouraged Victor Frankenstein to become the monster we all know. Kiersten White provides readers with an amazing retelling, while also inserting recognizable tidbits, that fans of the classic will devour.”

“When a young boy goes missing, his mother and sister begin finding pages from his diary revealing secrets they had never suspected. Where did he go, and why won't his friends tell anyone the truth? Tremblay peels back the layers of a quaint New England town to expose the ugly underbelly of family life in the U.S. Disappearance at Devil's Rock is a shocking, scary, and disturbing read, the result of a powerful storyteller at work, and it solidifies Tremblay's reputation as a master of psychological suspense.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 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.”

“Come for the battle ravens, stay for the probably-bewitched cat! Buehlman's latest will have you laughing one moment and gasping the next, and you'll wonder what fascinating new concept he'll come up with next. As Kinch Na Shannack takes an epic journey, you explore this exquisitely built world with him, your sardonic narrator, along with nonstop action. A few raunchy jokes and scenes (as a warning for those who don't prefer it). ”

“When is the last time a horror novel was both scary and charming? A Cosmology of Monsters is that book! Riffing on themes from H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury, Hamill weaves a complex tale of lost cities, haunted Halloween attractions, and doorways to other worlds. I really enjoyed this literary horror story, which starts out as a love story (don’t ALL good horror tales?) and grows progressively creepier. The book posits the questions: Who are the real monsters, and why do we love to be scared? Truly an uber-creepy yet delightful homage. I loved 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.”