Early in life, I discovered I had a passion for the dark and disturbing, the things that make us lose sleep at night. This, on the one hand, led to my passion for reading. It also led me to a career in psychology, specifically forensic psychology, where I’ve practiced and taught issues related to the darkness that often resides within our souls. In my writing, I’ve sought to explore that darkness, both within and without. Perhaps by understanding evil more comprehensively, we can best learn how to manage it…before it is too late!
I read this book when I was young, maybe 11-12, and was immediately hooked. It’s not written for kids, but I still loved the slow burn of encroaching horror. The sense of the entire town, trapped by a snowstorm, being unwound by the evil entity’s presence, was a masterwork.
This may be the book that made me want to write horror books. Is it actually about a ghost? No. But somehow, it’s still one of the best ghost stories out there.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub’s classic tale of horror, secrets, and the dangerous ghosts of the past...
What was the worst thing you’ve ever done?
In the sleepy town of Milburn, New York, four old men gather to tell each other stories—some true, some made-up, all of them frightening. A simple pastime to divert themselves from their quiet lives.
But one story is coming back to haunt them and their small town. A tale of something they did long ago. A wicked mistake. A horrifying accident. And they are about to learn that no one can bury…
My grandparents let me watch the 1970s TV adaptation of this when I was young, maybe 7 or 8, and I was terrified! But the book is much better, much more profound. Vampires are always exciting, and King plays this as “old school” vampire stuff, no romance, no sexy glittery skin, just moral corruption, and blood-sucking.
I love these broad strokes books where seemingly unstoppable chaos spreads across an entire town. This book is a masterwork in vampire horror.
#1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.
But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work.
In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that…
This one is a bit more young adult-friendly. It’s got an admirable heroine I care about, but it also starts and remains very dark throughout. I love a great dark feel to a book, and this manages it without succumbing to pretension.
Part of the fun of this book is, half the time, wondering what the hell is even going on! Gaiman manages this with aplomb, and it kept me hooked, always wanting to see what revelations and scares were just around the next page.
"Sometimes funny, always creepy, genuinely moving, this marvellous spine-chiller will appeal to readers from nine to ninety." - "Books for Keeps". "I was looking forward to "Coraline", and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was enthralled. This is a marvellously strange and scary book." - Philip Pullman, "Guardian". "If any writer can get the guys to read about the girls, it should be Neil Gaiman. His new novel "Coraline" is a dreamlike adventure. For all its gripping nightmare imagery, this is actually a conventional fairy story with a moral." - "Daily Telegraph". Stephen King once called Neil Gaiman 'a treasure-house…
It was hard to pick a book in Michael Slade’s Special X series, as the first few books work together like a symphony. I’ve always been fascinated with serial murder, like so many people who get into psychology.
This book sets up a twisted narrative and a shocking ending that sets the stage for more surprises in the books that follow. I’d let the series drop after one particular loop got closed, but I'm looking forward to picking it up again soon!
The women aren't safe with a beheading killer on the lose. Detective Robert DeClercq was even eluded as he and the police combed the lower depths of the sexual underground on two continents.
For me, there is nothing like a creepy ghost story. It is a house so obviously steeped in rage and trauma that only a fool would set foot in it, yet inevitably, somebody does.
Sure, we know the tropes of these tales…the slow burn of unexplained phenomena, the creepy looks of knowing locals, the outsider who suspects something is wrong but can’t get past what is logical, and the twisted secrets of some departed soul’s pain. This book exemplifies this genre and is a page-turner from start to finish.
The classic ghost story from the author of The Mist in the Mirror: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town.
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford—a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway—to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablow’s house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business trip…
Nevine Turner thought foster care was the worst thing in the world, but she learned better when she was sent to the Grimoire Manor for Orphaned Girls. Nevine discovers that Grimoire Manor is filled with cranky teachers, abandoned attics, and four generations' worth of tortured Grimoire family souls. Nevine can barely settle in before she is mysteriously whisked to the city of Prague in the year 1888.
There, she is saved from a murderous ghoul by Xanthae Halruaa, an eccentric physicist. From Xanthae, Nevine learns the trade of ghost-hunting. Together, they work out the secrets of the haunting of Grimoire Manor, the Ghoul of Prague, and the mysterious connections between the two that force Nevine to flip between Grimoire Manor and Prague when she sleeps.
This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to rendezvous with the ship meant to carry them back to their home in southern Norway.
Beyond enduring the Arctic winter’s twenty-four-hour night, the couple must cope with the dangers of polar bears, violent storms, and bitter cold, as well as Astrid’s unexpected pregnancy.
The Last Whaler is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive under extreme conditions. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to rendezvous with the ship meant to carry them back to their home in southern Norway. Beyond enduring the Arctic winter's twenty-four-hour night, the couple must cope with the dangers of polar bears, violent storms, and bitter cold as well as Astrid's unexpected pregnancy. The Last Whaler concerns the impact of…
