100 Best Scary Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Shining

Stephen King

5.0

Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible force

Recommended by Daisy Johnson and R J Ellory.

Daisy Johnson

If you think you know the story because you’ve seen the film then you’d be wrong. This book is an absolute classic and a great way into the vast King oeuvre. [source]

R J Ellory

I have always rated Stephen King. I think he is so much more than just a commercially successful horror writer. [source]

2

It

Stephen King

5.0

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made 28 years ago calls them to reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city's children. Now children are being murdered again, and their repressed mem

3

Coraline

Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean

4.8

Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and

Recommended by Simon Smith.

Simon Smith

@lindsanderson @Misterbodd @PaulWat5 @f33lthesun Awesomely scary book full stop! Great though. [source]

4

The Stand

Stephen King

4.7

Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those w

Recommended by Harry Khachatrian.

Harry Khachatrian

@redsteeze great book though [source]

5

'Salem's Lot

Stephen King, Clive Barker, David Palumbo

4.7

'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'salem's Lot was a summer of homecoming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils and found instead a new, unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also co

Recommended by Bethanye McKinney Blount and Rae Paoletta.

Bethanye McKinney Blount

I read this for the first time when I was 10 — great parenting at work — but it was almost scarier to reread as an adult. [source]

Rae Paoletta

@sarahpaol Love this book [source]

6

Carrie

Stephen King

4.7

A modern classic, Carrie introduced a distinctive new voice in American fiction -- Stephen King. The story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge, remains one of the most barrier-breaking and shocking novels of all time.

Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is...Carrie
--back cover

Recommended by Darren Aronofsky.

Darren Aronofsky

I proceeded to pound through procrastinating by reading this book, scaring the living crap out of myself. [source]

7

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, Margaret Atwood

4.7

IT TAKES A GRAVEYARD TO RAISE A CHILD.

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy - an ancient indigo man, a gateway to aban

Recommended by Meghan Camarena and Simon Smith.

Meghan Camarena

While I was walking to the gym I finished the last chapter of The Graveyard Book by @neilhimself. I must’ve looked like a mad woman because I was balling my eyes out in public. Damn, what an incredible story. [source]

Simon Smith

@carveresque ...but The Graveyard Book is one of the best books ever. [source]

8

Dracula

Bram Stoker

4.7

“Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”

Recommended by Andrei Codrescu, Becky Cloonan, Claire Jarvis, and 1 others.

Andrei Codrescu

Vampirism is a growth industry. Dracula is bigger than Jesus now. [source]

Becky Cloonan

@Noise_Raptor Oh, thank you so much! This book was such a delight, and such a challenge! Dracula is one of my favorites- funny enough I'd jump at the chance to do this again XD [source]

Claire Jarvis

Dracula is very explicit. That’s what’s so surprising about it. [source]

9

Pet Sematary

Stephen King, Michael C. Hall, et al

4.6

'This is an alternate Cover Edition for ASIN: B00K3NEE56. When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son-and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly car. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth-more terrifying than dea

10

1984

George Orwell

4.6

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania

Recommended by Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Emma Watson, and 16 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

called this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs) [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

11

The Shining, Carrie and Misery

Stephen King

4.6

For the first time ever in one volume three nightmarish tales of horror from the best selling author Stephen King.

Recommended by Rob Anderson For Louisiana.

Rob Anderson For Louisiana

@CrazyVetDem80 @blu_joon Great book, great movie (“Misery”). Nice reference. We are all in this together. I’m honored to have your support - y’all are the important ones. [source]

12

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Scary Stories, #1)

Alvin Schwartz

4.6

This spooky addition to Alvin Schwartz's popular books on American folklore is filled with tales of eerie horror and dark revenge that will make you jump with fright.

There is a story here for everyone—skeletons with torn and tangled flesh who roam the earth; a ghost who takes revenge on her murderer; and a haunted house where every night a bloody head falls down the chimney.

Stephen Gammell's splen

13

The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson

4.5

In celebration of the Shirley Jackson centennial, a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of the greatest haunted house story ever written

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 soli

Recommended by Ben Shapiro and Ramsey Campbell.

Ben Shapiro

Very enjoyable. It is a good book. [source]

Ramsey Campbell

This book is one of several novels in which a group of ghost hunters or psychic investigators move into a house with a reputation of being haunted, and see what they find. But what makes this the greatest single ghost novel, in my view, is that it’s at least as much about the psychological interaction of the characters as it is about the overtly spectral. There’s a superb characterisation of the spinster character, who ultimately becomes one of the ghosts of Hill House, if you like. The scenes from her viewpoint are both moving and disturbing. [source]

14

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)

Ransom Riggs

4.5

Alternate Cover edition for ISBN 9781594744761

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to

15

Night Shift

Stephen King

4.5

NIGHT SHIFT -- Stephen King's first collection of stories -- is an early showcase of the depths that King's wicked imagination could plumb. In these 20 tales, we see mutated rates gone bad ("Graveyard Shift"); a cataclysmic virus that threatens humanity ("Night Surf," the basis for The Stand); a smoker who will try anything to stop ("Quitters, Inc."); a reclusive alcoholic who begins a gruesome tr

Recommended by Aaron Nagler.

Aaron Nagler

@DustyEvely LOVE that book [source]

16

Frankenstein

Mary Shelley

4.5

Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein when she was only eighteen. At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stole

Recommended by Michael Arrington, Adam Roberts, Adam Roberts, and 5 others.

Michael Arrington

Founder/TechCrunch

Shelley wrote this book as a teenager, and most of us read it in high school. Often credited as the first science fiction novel. You can read just about any political viewpoint you want into the book, and there are strong undertones that technology isn’t all good. But what I get out of it is the creativeness that can come with solitude, and how new technology can be misunderstood, even perhaps by the creator (see Twitter). Key thing to remember: Frankenstein is the name of the scientist/creator, not the Monster. Everybody forgets that. [source]

Adam Roberts

Brian Aldiss has famously argued that science fiction starts with Mary Shelley’s novel, and many people have agreed with him. [source]

Adam Roberts

Brian Aldiss has famously argued that science fiction starts with Mary Shelley’s novel, and many people have agreed with him. [source]

17

House of Leaves

Mark Z. Danielewski

4.5

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, environmental

Recommended by Amelia Boone.

Amelia Boone

This is a book that you have to hold, because there are parts of it where you need to turn it upside down to read it. There are certain pages where, you are reading it, and it turns in a circle... This is a book that's an entire sensory experience. [source]

18

Bird Box

Josh Malerman

4.4

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, th

19

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

4.4

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 from those apocalyptic years, 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.

Recommended by Bradley Voytek, Geoffrey Miller, Greg Garrett, and 1 others.

Bradley Voytek

World War Z is told from multiple different perspectives and multiple different cultures. It’s about how they respond to the impending apocalypse: what the Americans do and what happens in the Middle East, how individuals respond. So you have a couple of people who are already preparing for the end of the world and you’ve got the military view. It’s great because Max Brooks really pulls together this multi-cultural viewpoint, it’s not just a Brad Pitt action-movie vehicle. [source]

Geoffrey Miller

World War Z (the book, not the movie) by @maxbrooksauthor is an incredibly well-researched, thoughtful, horrifying page-turner that explores the many ways that people, media, & gov'ts are likely to mismanage global pandemics. Highly prescient must-read. https://t.co/04YMqnu06e https://t.co/7dyx0F9qqB [source]

Greg Garrett

World War Z is a novel that bridges the gap between pulp and high literature. It takes a subject matter which we would think of as mainstream geek culture, but it finds universal human themes, develops characters that you care about, and also manages to be culturally critical. It is clearly critical of many of the post-9/11 choices made by the United States and Britain. [source]

20

Doctor Sleep

Stephen King

4.4

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenanc

Recommended by Devon Sawa.

Devon Sawa

@AaronFlux @flanaganfilm This makes me so happy to hear. I can’t wait to love the movie as much as the book. [source]

21

The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2)

Thomas Harris

4.4

Hannibal Lecter. The ultimate villain of modern fiction. Read the five-million-copy bestseller that scared the world silent. The Silence of the Lambs. A young FBI trainee. An evil genius locked away for unspeakable crimes. A plunge into the darkest chambers of a psychopath's mind--in the deadly search for a serial killer. - back cover

Recommended by James Twining and Peter James.

James Twining

Harris breaks a story in that he popularised or exposed the workings of the FBI’s criminal profiling unit. He put them on the map. [source]

Peter James

If you want to be a crime writer it is one of the books that you absolutely have to read. It has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful, crime novel of the 20th century. [source]

22

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

4.4

Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaid’s Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times).

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Emma Watson, Catherine Mayer, and 3 others.

Catherine Mayer

Atwood takes all the hard information about gender inequality that she sees around her and then turns it up a few notches. [source]

Cliff Bleszinski

@HandmaidsOnHulu Done. Love the show, book is a classic, can't wait for season 2. [source]

Grady Booch

I read this several years ago but — much like Orwell’s 1984 — it seems particularly relevant given our current political morass. [source]

23

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., #1)

Jonathan Stroud

4.4

When the dead come back to haunt the living, Lockwood & Co. step in . . .

For more than fifty years, the country has been affected by a horrifying epidemic of ghosts. A number of Psychic Investigations Agencies have sprung up to destroy the dangerous apparitions.

Lucy Carlyle, a talented young agent, arrives in London hoping for a notable career. Instead she finds herself joining the smallest most r

Recommended by Robin Stevens.

Robin Stevens

Lockwood & Co is set in a world where ghosts are real and they walk among us. Hauntings are becoming daily more dangerous—and deadly. Only children can see ghosts, so children become the most important people in this world. [source]

24

The Exorcist

William Peter Blatty

4.4

Four decades after it first terrified the world, William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is back! An extraordinary classic work of horror and dark paranormal suspense. In this stunning 40th Anniversary Edition, a desperate mother and two priests fight to free the soul of a little girl from a supernatural entity of pure malevolence.

25

The Night Gardener

Jonathan Auxier

4.4

This much-anticipated follow-up to Jonathan Auxier’s exceptional debut, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, is a Victorian ghost story with shades of Washington Irving and Henry James. More than just a spooky tale, it’s also a moral fable about human greed and the power of storytelling.

The Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling En

26

The Hot Zone

Richard Preston

4.3

Preview Summary

A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of r

Recommended by Jon Najarian and Pierre Haski.

Jon Najarian

I believe both the corona virus and ebola have a bat connection. Scary, but great book on ebola: Hot Zone by Richard Preston https://t.co/jGEjbrB7pZ [source]

Pierre Haski

@ChuBailiang The hot zone, it made my days during SARS in Beijing, a great book! https://t.co/8E8AYgIhp7 [source]

27

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ott, Jonathan Lethem

4.3

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise, I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and

Recommended by Lucy Atkins and Sarah Perry.

Lucy Atkins

It has a barely contained, unhinged feel to it that I find completely gripping. [source]

Sarah Perry

This is a masterpiece in atmosphere and Gothic empathy. It challenges your idea about what wickedness is. [source]

28

The Road

Cormac McCarthy

4.3

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 noth

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey, Aubrey Marcus, George Monbiot, and 6 others.

Oprah Winfrey

CEO/O Network

It's got everything that's grabbing the headlines in America right now. It's about race and class, the economy, culture, immigration and the danger of the us-versus-them mentality. And underneath it all, pumps the heart and soul of family love, the pursuit of happiness, and what home really means. [source]

George Monbiot

This is possibly the most important environmental book ever written. It is a thought-experiment that imagines the world without a biosphere. That is the fundamental thought-experiment at the heart of environmentalism. All the horrors of that story arise from the disappearance of the biosphere, leaving people without any means of feeding themselves and without any means of survival. They are thrown into a brutal and fatal competition where the only thing left to eat is each other. [source]

Greg Garrett

There is no creature that has been transformed by leaking chemicals or radioactive satellites. But, on the other hand, there are human beings who consume other humans and that informs the major conflicts of the book. So, you’ve got a post-apocalyptic setting and you’ve got ethical quandaries for the main characters. There’s the sense of menace that permeates the zombie apocalypse. It’s not bad enough that they’re going to kill you, they’re also going to eat you. What I love about this story is its literary quality. We tend to think of the zombie apocalypse as a low-culture, pulp phenomenon. [source]

29

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman

4.3

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an o

Recommended by Asher Wolf and Zoe Keating.

Asher Wolf

@trib I love that book. So much. [source]

Zoe Keating

For a while in 2015 I lost the ability to read (PTSD, I’m told) and “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” and Eli Brown’s “Cinnamon & Gunpowder” were the first books I was able to understand and enjoy. @neilhimself’s book in particular was like a hand pulling me up. https://t.co/foEbRxYbuj [source]

30

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story

Mary Downing Hahn

4.3

Twelve-year-old Molly and her ten-year-old brother, Michael, have never liked their seven-year-old stepsister, Heather. Ever since their parents got married, she's made Molly and Michael's life miserable. Now their parents have moved them all to the country to live in a house that used to be a church, with a cemetery in the backyard. If that's not bad enough, Heather starts talking to a ghost name

31

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1)

Kendare Blake

4.3

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the futu

32

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

4.3

The World's Bestselling Mystery

"Ten . . ."
Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious "U.N. Owen."

"Nine . . ."
At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead.

"Eight . . ."
Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . o

Recommended by Rian Johnson.

Rian Johnson

@AdamLanceGarcia I think And Then There Were None is her best book, but The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain are probably tied for my personal favorite. [source]

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book cover

33

Scary Stories Paperback Box Set

Alvin Schwartz

4.3

The three Scary Stories books come together in this paperback box set to form a timeless collection of chillingly scary tales and legends.

Folklorist Alvin Schwartz offers up some of the most alarming tales of horror, dark revenge, and supernatural events of all time.

The paperback books in this box set feature Stephen Gammell's artwork from the original Scary Stories books. Read if you dare!

35

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

Suzanne Collins

4.3

WINNING MEANS FAME AND FORTUNE.
LOSING MEANS CERTAIN DEATH.
THE HUNGER GAMES HAVE BEGUN. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and once girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in

Recommended by Bill Gates and Robert Muchamore.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Robert Muchamore

A brutal, exciting, action-based sci-fi novel. Hugely popular and excellent fun. [source]

36

NOS4A2

Joe Hill

4.3

NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes h

37

Bag of Bones

Stephen King

4.3

Four years after the sudden death of his wife, forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write, and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls Sara Laughs, Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to t

38

Needful Things

Stephen King

4.3

Leland Gaunt opens a new shop in Castle Rock called Needful Things. Anyone who enters his store finds the object of his or her lifelong dreams and desires: a prized baseball card, a healing amulet. In addition to a token payment, Gaunt requests that each person perform a little "deed," usually a seemingly innocent prank played on someone else from town. These practical jokes cascade out of control

39

Heart-Shaped Box

Joe Hill

4.2

“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. L

40

The Outsider

Stephen King

4.2

Evil has many faces…maybe even yours in this #1 New York Times bestseller from master storyteller Stephen King!

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son

Recommended by Roman Mars.

Roman Mars

@justrobgrant I LOVE that book. That one and The Talisman are the only ones I’ve read multiple times. [source]

41

Small Spaces

Katherine Arden

4.2

Bestselling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic. Now in paperback.

After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie who only finds solace in books discovers a chilling ghost story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man"--a si

42

Rosemary's Baby (Rosemary's Baby, #1)

Ira Levin

4.2

Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, an ordinary young couple, settle into a New York City apartment, unaware that the elderly neighbors and their bizarre group of friends have taken a disturbing interest in them. But by the time Rosemary discovers the horrifying truth, it may be far too late!

43

Lord of the Flies

William Golding

4.2

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and evil. And as order collapses, as strange howls echo

Recommended by Elon Musk, Ev Williams, Audrey Russo, and 5 others.

Audrey Russo

So many novels; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations; all the Nancy Drew books; Catcher in the Rye, Books written by Zora Neale Hurston; Pat Conroy – all because of the view about different people who endure despite adversity while kindling the hearts of the human spirit. [source]

Chigozie Obioma

William Golding imbues some of these children with wisdom that would read, in the hands of a lesser author, as implausibly knowing [source]

Disco Donnie

@JoshRHernandez1 I love the book “Lord of the Flies” so just started watching The Society [source]

44

Bad Girls Don't Die (Bad Girls Don't Die, #1)

Katie Alender

4.2

Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude. When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes

45

The Diviners (The Diviners, #1)

Libba Bray, January LaVoy, et al

4.2

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a super

46

Let the Right One In

John Ajvide (Translated by Ebba Segerberg) Lindqvist

4.2

It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has

47

Doll Bones

Holly Black

4.2

Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing . . . and stop being friends with Po

48

Through the Woods

Emily Carroll

4.2

'It came from the woods. Most strange things do.'

Five mysterious, spine-tingling stories follow journeys into (and out of?) the eerie abyss.

These chilling tales spring from the macabre imagination of acclaimed and award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll.

Come take a walk in the woods and see what awaits you there...

49

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn

4.2

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her fa

Recommended by Jessica Northeyshaw.

Jessica Northeyshaw

@TheBrandyClark It's awesome! Did you read the book? It's super twisted and dark. Enjoy! 😘 [source]

50

Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)

Thomas Harris

4.2

A second family has been massacred by the terrifying serial killer the press has christened "The Tooth Fairy." Special Agent Jack Crawford turns to the one man who can help restart a failed investigation: Will Graham. Graham is the greatest profiler the FBI ever had, but the physical and mental scars of capturing Hannibal Lecter have caused Graham to go into early retirement. Now, Graham must turn

51

Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)

Anne Rice

4.2

This is the story of Louis, as told in his own words, of his journey through mortal and immortal life. Louis recounts how he became a vampire at the hands of the radiant and sinister Lestat and how he became indoctrinated, unwillingly, into the vampire way of life. His story ebbs and flows through the streets of New Orleans, defining crucial moments such as his discovery of the exquisite lost youn

52

Deep and Dark and Dangerous (A Ghost Story)

Mary Downing Hahn

4.2

Just before summer begins, 13-year-old Ali finds an odd photograph in the attic. She knows the two children in it are her mother, Claire, and her aunt Dulcie. But who’s the third person, the one who’s been torn out of the picture?

Ali figures she’ll find out while she’s vacationing in Maine with Dulcie and her four-year-old daughter, Emma, in the house where Ali’s mother’s family used to spend summ

53

Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn

4.2

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. As the police begin to investigate, the town golden boy parades a series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he's definitely bitter - but is he re

Recommended by Kelly Vaughn.

Kelly Vaughn

@ceeoreo_ Great book! [source]

54

A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness, Jim Kay

4.2

An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting - he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started

55

Firestarter

Stephen King

4.2

First, a man and a woman are subjects of a top-secret government experiment designed to produce extraordinary psychic powers.

Then, they are married and have a child. A daughter.

Early on the daughter shows signs of a wild and horrifying force growing within her. Desperately, her parents try to train her to keep that force in check, to "act normal."

Now the government wants its brainchild back - for

56

The Amityville Horror

Jay Anson

4.2

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property—complete with boathouse and swimming pool—and the price were too good to pass up.

Twenty-eight days later, the entire Lutz family fled in terror.

This is the spellbinding,

57

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)

Ray Bradbury

4.1

One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre.

For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Tow

Recommended by Dave Child.

Dave Child

I'm in the middle of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. I really liked Fahrenheit 451 but for whatever reason I didn't read anything else by him. When he died in 2012, I picked up a few more of his books and this one had sat on my shelf for a while. So far I'm loving it, and that's enough of a gain for me. [source]

58

Cujo

Stephen King

4.1

Outside a peaceful town in central Maine, a monster is waiting. Cujo is a two-hundred-pound Saint Bernard, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. One day Cujo chases a rabbit into a bolt-hole—a cave inhabited by sick bats. What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inexorably drawing in all the people around him makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has wri

59

The Green Mile

Stephen King

4.1

When it first appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE was an unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller lists—simultaneously—and delighted millions of fans the world over.

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping

Recommended by Clive Stafford Smith.

Clive Stafford Smith

It’s an immensely courageous book for such a famous author to write. It’s written from the perspective of the warder, whose job is to supervise death row and the execution of prisoners. The story is ultimately about a guy called John Coffey, a Christ-like figure who gets executed. [source]

60

Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones

Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell

4.1

Scary Stories 3 is a timeless collection of chillingly scary tales and legends, in which folklorist Alvin Schwartz offers up some of the most alarming tales of horror, dark revenge, and supernatural events of all time.

In this paperback edition, Stephen Gammell's artwork from the original Scary Stories 3 appears in all its spooky glory. Read if you dare!

61

The Passage (The Passage, #1)

Justin Cronin

4.1

IT HAPPENED FAST.
THIRTY-TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the

62

The Winter People

Jennifer McMahon

4.1

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.

Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that th

63

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

Stephen King

4.1

The first collection of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago, Everything's Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four stories published by The New Yorker, and "Riding the Bullet," King's original e-book, which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade.

"Riding the Bu

64

I Am Legend and Other Stories

Richard Matheson

4.1

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood.

By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.

How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

I am l

Recommended by Greg Garrett.

Greg Garrett

The monsters in the book are more like vampires. But the interesting thing about I Am Legend is that it is an apocalyptic survival story. The main character thinks that he is the last human being left on earth. [source]

65

Cell

Stephen King

4.1

WHERE WERE YOU ON OCTOBER 1ST AT 3:03 P.M.?

Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction.

And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone....
(back cover)

66

Christine

Stephen King

4.1

Master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 national bestseller of the ultimate vehicle of terror!

“This is the story of a lover’s triangle…It was bad from the start. And it got worse in a hurry.”

It’s love at first sight for high school student Arnie Cunningham when he and his best friend Dennis Guilder spot the dilapidated 1958 red-and-white Plymouth Fury for sale—dubbed “Christine” b

67

Under the Dome

Stephen King

4.1

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on im

68

Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)

Michael Crichton, Scott Brick, et al

4.1

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.

Until something goes wrong. . . .

In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific b

Recommended by Richard Branson.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

69

Duma Key

Stephen King

4.1

From the Flap:

NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . .

A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar beg

70

Took: A Ghost Story

Mary Downing Hahn

4.1

“Folks say Old Auntie takes a girl and keeps her fifty years—then lets her go and takes another one.” Thirteen-year-old Daniel Anderson doesn’t believe Brody Mason’s crazy stories about the ghost witch who lives up on Brewster’s Hill with Bloody Bones, her man-eating razorback hog. He figures Brody’s probably just trying to scare him since he’s the new kid . . . a “stuck-up snot” from Connecticut.

71

A Head Full of Ghosts

Paul Tremblay

4.1

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;

72

Thinner

Stephen King

4.1

Billy Halleck, good husband and loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American good life: He has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer...but he is also fifty pounds overweight and edging into heart attack country.

73

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

4.1

On its first publication The Picture of Dorian Gray was regarded as dangerously modern in its depiction of fin-de-siècle decadence. In this updated version of the Faust story, the tempter is Lord Henry Wotton, who lives selfishly for amoral pleasure; Dorian's good angel is the portrait painter Basil Hallward, whom Dorian murders. The book highlights the tension between the polished surface of high

Recommended by Andra Zaharia, Eric Berkowitz, Marc Montagne, and 1 others.

Andra Zaharia

A copy from 1903 of this book is my most prized possession. [source]

Eric Berkowitz

The Picture of Dorian Gray is now a part of the canon that no one would admit to not having read. Most of us have read it and delighted in its witticisms. It’s hard to imagine, but when Dorian Gray was first published, the book was not well received at all. It was totally panned. It was held against him as being an example of an effete character. It was being serialised by Lippincott’s Magazine, and the serialisation of the novel stopped when it became too inflammatory. [source]

Marc Montagne

My favorite fiction book is the The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I'm a huge Oscar Wilde fan, he has one of the brightest minds and the Picture is a masterpiece and his unique novel. I consider that you should only read books that you would consider reading again at some point while still enjoying the same pleasure. The Picture is definitely one of those. [source]

74

Ghost Story

Peter Straub

4.1

In life, not every sin goes unpunished.

GHOST STORY

For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past -- and get away with murder.

75

The Dead Zone

Stephen King

4.1

Johnny, the small boy who skated at breakneck speed into an accident that for one horrifying moment plunged him into The Dead Zone.

Johnny Smith, the small-town schoolteacher who spun the wheel of fortune and won a four-and-a-half-year trip into The Dead Zone.

John Smith, who awakened from an interminable coma with an accursed power—the power to see the future and the terrible fate awaiting mankin

76

Creepy Carrots!

Aaron Reynolds, Peter Brown

4.1

The Twilight Zone comes to the carrot patch in this clever picture book parable about a rabbit who fears his favorite treats are out to get him. Jasper Rabbit loves carrots—especially Crackenhopper Field carrots.

He eats them on the way to school.

He eats them going to Little League.

He eats them walking home.

Until the day the carrots start following him...or are they?

Celebrated artist Peter Brown’s

77

The Woman in Black

Susan Hill, John Lawrence

4.1

What real reader does not yearn, somewhere in the recesses of his or her heart, for a really literate, first-class thriller--one that chills the body, but warms the soul with plot, perception, and language at once astute and vivid? In other words, a ghost story written by Jane Austen?

Alas, we cannot give you Austen, but Susan Hill's remarkable Woman In Black comes as close as our era can provide.

78

Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)

Stephen King

4.1

#1 New York Times bestseller! In a high-suspense race against time, three of the most unlikely heroes Stephen King has ever created try to stop a lone killer from blowing up thousands. “Mr. Mercedes is a rich, resonant, exceptionally readable accomplishment by a man who can write in whatever genre he chooses” (The Washington Post).

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desp

79

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1)

Carrie Ryan

4.0

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and

80

All the Lovely Bad Ones

Mary Downing Hahn

4.0

Travis and his sister, Corey, can t resist a good trick. When they learn that their grandmother's quiet Vermont inn, where they re spending the summer, has a history of ghost sightings, they decide to do a little haunting of their own. Before long, their supernatural pranks have tourists flocking to the inn, and business booms. But Travis and Corey soon find out that they aren't the only ghosts at

81

Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft

Joe Hill

4.0

Locke & Key tells of Keyhouse, an unlikely New England mansion, with fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them. Home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all...

82

Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles, #1)

Joseph Delaney, Patrick Arrasmith

4.0

For years, Old Gregory has been the Spook for the county, ridding the local villages of evil. Now his time is coming to an end. But who will take over for him? Twenty-nine apprentices have tried—some floundered, some fled, some failed to stay alive.

Only Thomas Ward is left. He's the last hope, the last apprentice.

83

Asylum (Asylum, #1)

Madeleine Roux

4.0

Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it's a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan le

84

Asylum 3-Book Box Set: Asylum, Sanctum, Catacomb

Madeleine Roux

4.0

Sometimes the past is better off buried…

Enter the twisted world of Madeleine Roux’s New York Times bestselling Asylum series with this bone-chilling box set containing the first three novels.

In Asylum, sixteen-year-old Dan discovers that his summer-program dorm used to be a psychiatric hospital—and that it's filled with secrets linking Dan and his new friends to the asylum's dark past.

In Sanctum,

85

The Witches

Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake

4.0

This is not a fairy-tale. This is about real witches. Real witches don't ride around on broomsticks. They don't even wear black cloaks and hats. They are vile, cunning, detestable creatures who disguise themselves as nice, ordinary ladies. So how can you tell when you're face to face with one? Well, if you don't know yet you'd better find out quickly-because there's nothing a witch loathes quite a

86

The Tommyknockers

Stephen King, Edward Herrmann, et al

4.0

Librarian's Note: This is alternate cover edition #2
ISBN 10: 0451156609
ISBN13: 9780451156600
See: Original Record Here

Late Last Night and the Night Before ...
... Tommyknockers, tommyknockers, knocking at the door.

Something was happening in Bobbi Anderson's idyllic small town of Haven, Maine. Something that gave every man, woman, and child in town powers far beyond ordinary mortals. Something that

87

Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1)

Dean Koontz

4.0

"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.

Maybe he has a gift, maybe it's a curse,

88

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

4.0

Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and he works on Wall Street, he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America's greatest dream—and its worst nightmare—American Psycho is bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognise but do not wish to confront.

Recommended by Jay McInerney and Pavel Tsatsouline.

Jay McInerney

It’s a brilliant satire of greed and the mindlessness of popular culture, of American life and of New York in the 80s. [source]

Pavel Tsatsouline

Most people exist between the on and off switch. They are unable to turn on and put out high power, and they are unable to turn off completely and enjoy true rest. To learn how to control your on and off switch, read the book Psych by Dr. Judd Biasiotto. He is one of the most successful power lifters in history, having squatted over 600 pounds at a bodyweight of 132... drug free, at the age of 44, after back surgery. [source]

89

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote

4.0

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both me

Recommended by Ben Shapiro, Lynda La Plante, and R J Ellory.

Ben Shapiro

Truman Capote's best book. It's a really, really good book. [source]

Lynda La Plante

One of the reasons I like this true crime novelisation is down to the fact it was so out of character for Capote and took everyone by surprise. It is also an excellent, almost biographical, insight into the two young killers’ minds. [source]

R J Ellory

I think in all honesty it is one of the finest books ever written. It took him six years to finish it because he had to wait for the court case and the final verdict which was the two perpetrators being executed. [source]

90

The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co., #2)

Jonathan Stroud

4.0

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

91

Unwind (Unwind, #1)

Neal Shusterman

4.0

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end.

92

Dark Places

Gillian Flynn

4.0

From The #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Of Gone Girl

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice" of Kinnakee, Kansas. She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club—a secret secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. The

93

The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye

Robert Kirkman

4.0

Collects issues #1-6.

Rick Grimes is not prepared for this. A couple months ago he was a small town cop who had never fired a shot and only ever saw one dead body. Separated from his family he must now sort through the death and confusion to try and find his wife and son.

94

Different Seasons

Stephen King

4.0

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption--the most satisfying tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape since The Count of Monte Cristo.

Apt Pupil--a golden California schoolboy and an old man whose hideous past he uncovers enter into a fateful and chilling mutual parasitism.

The Body--four rambunctious young boys venture into the Maine woods and in sunlight and thunder find life, death, and inti

95

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson

4.0

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the original title of a novella written by the famous Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson that was first published in 1886. The work is commonly known today as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, or simply Jekyll & Hyde. It is about a London lawyer named John Gabriel Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his

96

Room

Emma Donoghu

4.0

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night

97

I Am Watching You

Teresa Driscoll

4.0

What would it take to make you intervene?

When Ella Longfield overhears two attractive young men flirting with teenage girls on a train, she thinks nothing of it—until she realises they are fresh out of prison and her maternal instinct is put on high alert. But just as she’s decided to call for help, something stops her. The next day, she wakes up to the news that one of the girls—beautiful, green-

98

Dolores Claiborne

Stephen King, Frances Sternhagen, et al

4.0

Suspected of killing Vera Donovan, her wealthy employer, Dolores Claiborne tells police the story of her life, harkening back to her disintegrating marriage and the suspicious death of her violent husband, Joe St. George, thirty years earlier. Dolores also tells of Vera's physical and mental decline and of her loyalty to an employer who has become emotionally demanding in recent years.

99

The Old Willis Place

Mary Downing Hahn

4.0

Diana and her little brother Georgie have been living in the woods behind the old Willis place, a decaying Victorian mansion, for what already seems like forever. They aren’t allowed to leave the property or show themselves to anyone. But when a new caretaker comes to live there with his young daughter, Lissa, Diana is tempted to break the mysterious rules they live by and reveal herself so she ca

100

The Institute

Stephen King

4.0

In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis's parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekine

Recommended by John Smedley.

John Smedley

Been a while since I waited for a book to be released at midnight. But for a new @StephenKing heck yeah. The Institute is awesome as expected. Now I’m too tired to keep reading. [source]

The Shining

It

Coraline

The Stand

'Salem's Lot

Carrie

The Graveyard Book

Dracula

Pet Sematary

1984

The Shining, Carrie and Misery

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Scary Stories, #1)

The Haunting of Hill House

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1)

Night Shift

Frankenstein

House of Leaves

Bird Box

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Doctor Sleep

The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2)

The Handmaid's Tale

The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., #1)

The Exorcist

The Night Gardener

The Hot Zone

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The Road

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story

Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1)

And Then There Were None

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories Paperback Box Set

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

NOS4A2

Bag of Bones

Needful Things

Heart-Shaped Box

The Outsider

Small Spaces

Rosemary's Baby (Rosemary's Baby, #1)

Lord of the Flies

Bad Girls Don't Die (Bad Girls Don't Die, #1)

The Diviners (The Diviners, #1)

Let the Right One In

Doll Bones

Through the Woods

Sharp Objects

Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1)

Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)

Deep and Dark and Dangerous (A Ghost Story)

Gone Girl

A Monster Calls

Firestarter

The Amityville Horror

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2)

Cujo

The Green Mile

Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones

The Passage (The Passage, #1)

The Winter People

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

I Am Legend and Other Stories

Cell

Christine

Under the Dome

Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)

Duma Key

Took: A Ghost Story

A Head Full of Ghosts

Thinner

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Ghost Story

The Dead Zone

Creepy Carrots!

The Woman in Black

Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1)

All the Lovely Bad Ones