Horror Legends

In Ghostly Japan collects 12 ghostly stories from Lafcadio Hearn, deathless images of ghosts and goblins, touches of folklore and superstition, salted with traditions of the nation. While some of these stories contain nightmare imagery worthy of a midnight creature feature, others are not ghostly or ghastly at all. "Bits of Poetry" offers an engaging study on verse, and "Japanese Buddhist Proverbs" explains the meaning of several aphorisms based on Japanese cultural references.

A cemetery tour goes horribly wrong - one of the guests is scared to death! A concerned tour guide calls Midas for help, and the Gulf Coast Paranormal team prepares to investigate the potentially paranormal happenings at a cemetery in rural Eight Mile, Alabama. The GCP crew members spend a few nights getting to know the local ghosts and find themselves doing battle with the spirit of the notorious voodoo queen, Ettawa Maybee.

In her small town, dubbed “Dullsville”, 16-year-old Raven—a vampire-crazed goth-girl—is an outcast. But not for long. The intriguing and rumored-to-be haunted mansion on top of Benson Hill has stood vacant and boarded-up for years. That is, until its mysteriously strange new occupants move in. Who are these creepy people—especially the handsome, dark, and elusive Alexander Sterling? Or rather, what are they? Could the town prattle actually ring true? Are they vampires?

Tortured Souls is one of the most vividly imagined, tightly compressed novellas ever written by the incomparable Clive Barker. At once violent and erotic, brutal and strangely beautiful, it takes us into the heart of the legendary "first city" known as Primordium, the site of political upheaval, passionate encounters, and astonishing acts of transformation.

A cave-diving expedition on a mysterious island goes horribly wrong for a renowned marine biologist and his fellow divers when they become hunted by a deadly breed of predators that, until then, had only been known in myths and legends.

I didn’t believe in the Rule of Three. Not at first. It was just one of those urban myths you hear about all the time. A story my boyfriend told me about a girl cursed by the number three. A girl whose parents had killed themselves after her sibling had died in an accident. Which meant that she was doomed to die too because that’s the Rule of Three. Bad things always happen in threes, they say, and they are right. Because it’s happening again.

A self-proclaimed skeptic, the food writer dismissed rumors of a mischievous resident poltergeist named Lucy when he moved in, but he quickly found himself at a loss to explain the disembodied footsteps and mysterious odors that seemed to plague the old house. Soon, he was talking to neighbors and fellow homeowners, and it seemed that everyone had stories of strange events and supernatural occurrences in their own dwellings. As a result, David set out to document and research these reports...

This fast-paced paranormal adventure combines passion and drama with a historical twist. The lives of Madison and Alexandre are plunged into darkness and danger. To save Maddy, Alexandre is forced back to a world he thought was dead and buried. But time is running out. The chase is on.

Darkly thrilling, these 20 new ghost stories have all the chills and power of traditional ghost stories, but each tale is a unique retelling of an urban legend from the world over. Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and award-nominated author and editor Nick Mamatas recruited Jeffrey Ford, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Kit Reed, Ekaterina Sedia, and 13 other fine writers to create stories unlike any they've written before.

In 1954, at the start of the Cold War, the Soviet military offered four political prisoners their freedom if they participated in an experiment requiring them to remain awake for 14 days while under the influence of a powerful stimulant gas. The prisoners ultimately reverted to murder, self-mutilation, and madness. None survived. In 2018, Dr. Roy Wallis, an esteemed psychology professor at UC Berkeley, is attempting to recreate the same experiment. What begins innocently enough, however, morphs into a nightmare.

Life in “Dullsville” has become far from dull for goth-girl Raven. After meeting Alexander Sterling—a night-thriving, shadowy dream guy—her dark world suddenly has a bright glow. But as in her favorite movie, Kissing Coffins, Raven knows that love always has its complications. And Alexander has a secret—a secret she must quietly guard. When he mysteriously disappears, Raven finds herself on a dangerous chase to find him.

The monsters of ancient mythology, folklore, and more contemporary urban legend have long captured the popular imagination. While most people in America today relegate monsters to just that - our imaginations - we continue to be fascinated by the unknown. Linda Godfrey is one of the country's leading authorities on modern-day monsters and has interviewed countless eyewitnesses to strange phenomena.

The year is 1397 and Linnea just lost everything. Exactly everything! The accusations of witchcraft force her to flee into the woods even though nothing scares her more than the forest. She has heard about everything that exists there. Sirens, ghosts and the Moss family—the most feared witch family of them all. The Mosses—the ones who trick people into their dark abodes. Real witches, not innocent peasant women.

The empire rests on the edge of a knife, and sisters Ashyn and Moria are the handle and the blade. Desperate to outmaneuver the evil Alvar Kitsune, whose hold on the people grows stronger every day, Emperor Tatsu begs Moria to put aside past grievances and ally with Gavril - at least long enough to make an attempt on Alvar's life.

As a mortal girl dating a vampire, Raven knows that love isn't always easy. Now that Alexander's parents have returned to Romania, Raven and her dreamy vampire boyfriend are happy to resume their cryptic romance. But soon another visitor comes knocking: Sebastian, Alexander's best friend, arrives for a stay at the mansion.

Teeny Voix lies burritoed in her blanket, girded by Lego landmines, protected by her plushy opossum when the bedroom door creaks, and her lecherous stepfather enters . . . again, while her momma ignores. Weeks earlier, the mute girl penned a mysterious letter, unwittingly hailing a goliath who mauls then kills Teeny's stepfather. The bizarre death forces Teeny to use wit, fortitude, and an eclectic collection of combatants to brave life and death battles with the wicked White Van People, an organized and well-financed child trafficking operation.

There is a vampire war brewing in the underworld and at the center of it all is Damali Richards, spoken word artist and Vampire Huntress. But she is not just any Vampire Huntress, she is the millenium Neteru: a woman so potentially powerful that the vampire world is about to invoke a bloody battle that threatens to spill over onto her streets in order to possess her. It's just a matter of who will get to her first.

One reporter's investigation into the strange and the unexplained.

When a young teacher decides to come work in a secluded Dutch village, little does he know that his stay there will change his life forever. Set among tales of ghosts and supernatural beings, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story whose setting soon begins to play tricks on the protagonist. The chilling story of the Headless horseman is a perfect reading for Halloween or a dark and stormy night. What is more, Irving’s tale inspired many big and small screen adaptations, the most popular one being Tim Burton’s movie from 1999.

Scary stories help children face fear and master it, by portraying the elements of conflict in clear, good-versus-evil terms with good triumphant in the end.