Collection: Horror

A Best in Fiction Book for 2023

"A gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue." -- Jess Kidd, author of The Night Ship

"An immersive blend of historical and science fiction brims with surprises and dark delights. . . . An incisive exploration of women's rights within the field of science. . . . Readers will revel in Mary's personal and scientific discoveries and root for her to succeed in an unfair world." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

As featured in Lit Hub, Lambda Literary Review, Book Riot and CrimeReads

It is not the monster you must fear, but the monster it makes of men . . .

Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Arctic, but she doesn't know why or how. . . .

The 1850s are a time of discovery, and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary is keen to make her name in this world of science alongside her geologist husband, Henry--but despite her sharp mind and sharper tongue, without wealth and connections their options are limited.

When Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle's past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing her and Henry's professional and financial future. Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland; to Henry's intriguing but reclusive sister, Maisie; and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret.

A queer, feminist masterpiece inspired by Mary Shelley's classic, Our Hideous Progeny is a sumptuous tale of ambition and obsession, of forbidden love and sabotage and a twisty Gothic adventure that may forever change your view of human nature.

From Julie Murphy, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin', comes a hilarious and creepy middle grade summer camp story that takes a bite out of fat camp and diet culture. Perfect for fans of Spooky Stories and Starfish.

Magnolia "Maggie" Hagen is determined to be in the spotlight . . . if she can just get over her stage fright. This summer, though, she has big plans to finally attend Camp Rising Star, the famous performing arts camp she's been dying to go to for three whole summers.

But on the last day of school, her parents break the news: Maggie isn't going to Camp Rising Star. She's being shipped off to fat camp--and not just any fat camp. She's going to Camp Sylvania, run by world-famous wellness influencer Sylvia Sylvania, who is known for her soon-to-be-patented Scarlet Diet.

When Maggie arrives at camp, things are . . . weird. There are the humiliating weigh-ins and grueling workouts, as expected. But the campers are also encouraged to donate blood--at their age! The cafeteria serves only red foods and the oddly specific rules change every day. There are even rumors of a camp ghost.

Despite these horrors, Maggie makes friends and starts to actually enjoy herself. There are even tryouts for a camp production of The Music Man! This place might not be so bad . . . until campers start going missing and other suspicious things begin happening--especially after dark. The camp ghost might be the least scary thing about this place. . . .

A KING IS BORN
Pushed to the brink of despair after his father attempted to have him killed, Prince Canute has experienced an awakening, transforming him from a timid, gentle boy into a clear-eyed man with the heart of a king. But a king needs a crown, and Canute now knows that nothing will be given to him. If he wants to rule, he will have to prove his ruthlessness with a plot that will change the fate of the kingdom and spatter the throne with blood! Meanwhile, Thorfinn watches events unfold that could steal away the vengeance he has waited so long to achieve...

*NOW A NETFLIX SERIES*

In this spine-tingling next book of the Lockwood & Co series, the ghost-hunting gang take on terrifying new challenges.

In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn't made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood's investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper.

Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George's curiosity attracts a horrible phantom.

Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood's annoyance. Bickerstaff's coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found.

The author of the blockbuster Bartimaeus series delivers another amusing, chilling, and ingeniously plotted entry in the critically acclaimed Lockwood & Co. series.

Praise for The Screaming Staircase

"This story will keep you reading late into the night, but you'll want to leave the lights on. Stroud is a genius at inventing an utterly believable world which is very much like ours, but so creepily different. Put The Screaming Staircase on your 'need to read' list!" -- Rick Riordan

"A pleasure from tip to tail, this is the book you hand the advanced readers that claim they'd rather read Paradise Lost than Harry Potter. Smart as a whip, funny, witty, and honestly frightening at times, Stroud lets loose and gives readers exactly what they want. Ghosts, kids on their own without adult supervision, and loads of delicious cookies." -- Elizabeth Bird, School Library Journal

"Stroud shows his customary flair for blending deadpan humor with thrilling action, and the fiery interplay among the three agents of Lockwood & Co. invigorates the story (along with no shortage of creepy moments)." -- Publishers Weekly

"A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls." -- Kirkus Reviews

Conceived as part of a literary game among friends in 1816, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is today regarded as a classic piece of 19th century literature. The story begins with the journey of an adventurer, Robert Walton, who saves the life of a man at the North Pole. That man, Victor Frankenstein, tells Walton about his experiments with the creation of life and how he ended up at the North Pole. Through this simple plot device, Shelley was able to deal with serious real-world issues like acceptance, tolerance, and understanding, as well as the universal human need for companionship and love. The novel, of course, inspired a host of films, from the 1931 classic starring Boris Karloff to Andy Warhol's Frankenstein, and more recently, a series of novels by Dean Koontz. This version, though slightly abridged, retains much of the original dialogue and remains true to Shelley's brilliant vision.

WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN TRANSLATED LITERATURE

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

A surreal, devastating story of a homeless ghost who haunts one of Tokyo's busiest train stations.

Kazu is dead. Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Japanese Emperor, his life is tied by a series of coincidences to the Imperial family and has been shaped at every turn by modern Japanese history. But his life story is also marked by bad luck, and now, in death, he is unable to rest, doomed to haunt the park near Ueno Station in Tokyo.

Kazu's life in the city began and ended in that park; he arrived there to work as a laborer in the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and ended his days living in the vast homeless village in the park, traumatized by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and shattered by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics.

Through Kazu's eyes, we see daily life in Tokyo buzz around him and learn the intimate details of his personal story, how loss and society's inequalities and constrictions spiraled towards this ghostly fate, with moments of beauty and grace just out of reach. A powerful masterwork from one of Japan's most brilliant outsider writers, Tokyo Ueno Station is a book for our times and a look into a marginalized existence in a shiny global megapolis.

The holiday season is always interesting when you live in a world with paranormal entities. As a Daeve demon, Caleb Malphas never really understood why humans wanted to celebrate anything.

Until the day a human saves his life.

Lilliana isn't just human, she's the one person capable of taming a vicious demon whose sole goal is to end the world and claim it for his masters. Caleb fights her at every turn, but in the end, he can't deny what she comes to mean to him. Vowing to never again battle for his demonic overlords, he lays down his sword to spend eternity in the human world.

But his enemies won't allow them to live in peace. They return with a vengeance to claim everything he's learned to care about.

It's an unforgivable act.

Centuries later as he joins Nick Gautier and their friends for a very special Christmas gathering, he finally learns the real meaning of giving ... and receives the best gift of his immortal life.

The first book in a fast-paced, witty, and big-hearted debut Afrofantasy trilogy about a twelve-year-old apprenticing in the kitchens at the prestigious Academy of Shamans, who must ally with a snarky goddess and a knife-wielding warrior to save her kingdom. Perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and The School for Good and Evil.

Life is tough for twelve-year-old orphan Adia. Her aunt and uncle believe she's an ogbanje, a demon-possessed child that brings misfortune wherever they go, and Adia can't disagree--especially when she suddenly manifests mysterious powers that she can't control, causing an earthquake in her village.

So when Adia is offered a kitchen apprenticeship at the faraway Academy of Shamans, she flees with nothing but a pouch of change, her cat Bubbles, and the hope that someone there can figure out what's wrong with her--and fix it. But just as she's settling in, Adia stumbles upon a shocking secret: Unlike her, the kingdom's emperor really is possessed--by a demon more wicked than any other. And he's on his way to the Academy for a visit.

Joining forces with a snarky goddess, a 500-year-old warrior girl, and an annoying soldier-in-training, Adia must travel through hidden realms to exorcise the emperor and save her kingdom. But to succeed, she first must come to understand the powers inside her....

The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The infamous, Most Wanted Goosebumps characters are out on the loose and after you. For the first time ever, it's a Goosebumps Christmas!

Kate Welles doesn't want to be special. She just wants to play the lead in her school's Christmas play. Her annoying "friend" Courtney is constantly getting in the way of that. Can you even call someone a "friend" if all they do is make fun of you and ruin everything all of the time? But Kate has to get along with Courtney or else neither of them will be allowed to take part in The 12 Screams of Christmas. Kate and Courtney's teacher decides they need to find a special place to rehearse. A certain house with a special history. The kind of place that Kate would normally be pretty frightened to go into. The kind of place that gives new meaning to the term: Christmas Spirit.

Even an invincible ninja may not be able to survive Hell's Paradise!

Gabimaru is a ninja on death row with one chance to see his wife again--by finding the elixir of immortality on a supernatural island and delivering it to the shogun. Standing in his way are his fellow convicts and the fearsome beasts that roam the island, devouring or killing anyone they encounter.

The survivors stage a desperate raid on Horai, the center of Lord Tensen's operations, even as the new landing party closes in. Battling these supernatural beings is a life-and-death proposition, requiring total focus and extreme skill. A moment's distraction could be fatal. Will Gabimaru and Sagiri overcome the odds and survive this gauntlet?

Stephen King's ultimate evil vehicle of terror, Christine: the frightening story of a nerdy teenager who falls in love with his vintage Plymouth Fury. It's love at first sight, but this car is no lady.

Evil is alive in Libertyville. It inhabits a custom-painted red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine and young Arnold Cunningham, who buys it.

Along with Arnold's girlfriend, Leigh Cabot, Dennis Guilder attempts to find out the real truth behind Christine and finds more than he bargained for: from murder to suicide, there's a peculiar feeling that surrounds Christine--she gets revenge on anyone standing in her path.

Can Dennis save Arnold from the wrath of Christine? This #1 national bestseller is "Vintage Stephen King...breathtaking...awesome. Carries such momentum the reader must force himself to slow down" (The New York Times Book Review).

From debut author Andrew Duplessie, a terrifying collection of teen short horror stories--and accompanying videos--that will keep you up long into the night! Perfect for fans of Five Nights at Freddy's.

A garbage disposal that feeds on flesh . . .A beloved stuffed rabbit that cooks up your parents . . .Roses that require human blood to bloom . . .

From blood-chilling horror to supernatural scares, this collection of short stories from debut author Andrew Duplessie offers something to stoke anyone's fear factor.

But that's only the beginning. In a first-ever twist, each story also comes with a pulse-pounding video that deepens the horror. Point your phone at the QR code and be prepared to scream! Maybe even share it with your friends, if you dare.

Ready or not, Too Scared to Sleep will answer the question: How brave are you, really?

From the creator who brought you notable works such as The Flowers of Evil, Happiness, and Inside Mari, comes his latest suspense drama centering on the theme of a toxic parent.
Dive into this latest thriller by master storyteller, Shuzo Oshimi.

"..if you enjoyed Oshimi's previous work with "Flowers of Evil", and you enjoy dark storylines with twisted characters, you'll no doubt enjoy "Blood on the Tracks"! Recommended!" - Neo Tokyo 2099

Seiichi is back home for the first time in ages to inter his father's remains in the family grave. After that, he'll be finished, nothing left to hold him in this world...until he happens to bump into Fukiishi, resurrecting all the feelings he had buried along with his past--

Will Seiichi finally find peace in death? Or will the specters of the past keep him here against his will...?

Clowns of all shapes and sizes turn the town into a circus in this twentieth spooky adventure in the Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol series!

When Kersville celebrates the town's birthday, they pull out all the stops. There's a petting farm, bumper cars, cotton candy machines, and of course, clowns! There's big clowns, little clowns, smelly clowns, and scary clowns...but every clown wants you to scream for more!

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on every page, the Desmond Cole Ghost Patrol chapter books are perfect for emerging readers.

A bestial face appears at windows in the night.
In the big white house on the hill angels are said to appear.
A forgotten tenant in an isolated building becomes addicted to milk.
A strange goddess is worshipped by a home-invading disciple.
The least remembered gods still haunt the oldest forests.
Cannibalism occurs in high society at the end of the world.
The sainted undead follow their prophet to the Great Dead Sea.
A confused and vengeful presence occupies the home of a first-time buyer . . .

In ghastly harmony with the nightmarish visions of the award-winning writer's novels, these stories blend a lifelong appreciation of horror culture with the grotesque fascinations and childlike terrors that are the author's own.
Adam L.G. Nevill's best early horror stories are collected here for the first time.

Praise for Some Will Not Sleep:

"Great storytelling, but across a wider palate and range of styles than you might have expected, leading to some delightfully unexpected visions and hellscapes." Gingernuts of Horror.

"There is not one single tale which feels less than the others, none which seem to be mere 'filler'. They are beautifully crafted, original and complete works which nevertheless fit well together as arranged by the author." This is Horror.

"In Some Will Not Sleep nothing is sacred, nothing is safe, and goodness me, if you like horror fiction you're going to absolutely love every damn minute." Pop Mythology.

"Eleven wonderfully macabre tales that cover the whole gamut of the horrific. The supernatural rubs shoulders with the bizarre, body horror and psychological trauma walk hand in hand." The Eloquent Page.

"An excellent collection, recommended for anyone interested in the current surge in weird fiction or short stories in general." Unsung Stories.

"Verdict: A collection full of creeping dread, well worth a read. 9/10" SciFi Bulletin.

"Some Will Not Sleep contains 11 short stories, 11 stories that takes you different times and places. 11 stories that will give you your fix of the macabre. 5 Stars" Terror Tree.

"It isn't often that I read a short story collection and enjoy every entry, but with this book I did." The Grim Reader.

"There are eleven stories in the book, eight of which are written in first person narrative, and each and every one is a cracker - here you'll find monsters (including those of the human variety), ghosts, arcane rituals and some of the most disturbing imagery." Anthony Watson.

The monster hunting hero Ham Helsing is back for his biggest challenge yet--a family reunion? Vampires, monsters, and now your dad?! This action-packed graphic novel brings on the laughs and the drama!

Ham and his pals are snowed in at the old Helsing manor...and they aren't the only ones haunting its dusty halls. All Ham wanted to do was get some closure after the death of his father, but when his father turns out to be very alive? Ham will have his hands full just trying to keep his friends safe from his legendary monster hunter dad!