Literary Horror

Brightness Falls isn't just the name of the TV show that womanizing man-child Andrew Ware has been painstakingly creating for the last couple years, it's also his hometown. A town that he loves as much as he hates. By request of no one, Andrew returns home to help his sister separate from her husband, only to become sidetracked by a beautiful woman. A few drinks and few compliments later the woman is dead, killed in a tragic oral sex accident. In which Andrew would have lost his own life if it weren’t for the dapperly dressed, antler-headed, human skeleton named Doug.

Allison and James Price move to the navy-blue forests of Concordia, Idaho, hoping to leave behind the chaos of Los Angeles and the painful memories of his indiscretions. Once settled in the picturesque town, where time seems to have stalled and life moves at a slower pace, their six-year-old daughter, Reagan, befriends a mysterious young girl who seems too idyllic to be true with her pressed pinafores and perfectly curled pigtails. One late autumn evening, as their playdate winds down, both girls vanish into thin air.

Ava, 14 years old and totally on her own, has still not fully processed her mother’s death when she finds herself on a train heading to New Orleans, to stay with Lane, the grandmother she barely remembers. Lane is a well-known artist in the New Orleans art scene. She spends most of her days in a pot-smoke haze, sipping iced coffee, and painting. Her grip on reality is shaky at best, but her work provides a comfort. Ava’s arrival unsettles Lane. The girl bears an uncanny resemblance to her daughter, whom she was estranged from before her death.

Unique to this title is: A historical introduction and a study of the themes present in A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol and The Chimes. Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He was born in 1812 in Portsmouth. When his father was sent to jail because of unsettled debt, Dickens had to leave school and get a job in a factory. Dickens is believed to be the best novelist of the Victorian era and he became very popular during his lifetime. His novels are still widely read and translated.

The patriarch of the Licht family, Abraham has raised a brood of talented con artists, children molded in his image, and experts in The Game, his calling and philosophy of life. Traveling from one small town to the next across the continent, from the Northeast to the frontier West, they skillfully swindle unsuspecting victims, playing on their greed, lust, pride, and small-mindedness. Despite their success, Abraham cannot banish a past that haunts him: the ghost of his ancestor Sarah Licht, a former con woman who met with a gruesome fate.

Thirteen-year-old Emma grows up under an Eastern European dictatorship where oppression seems eternal. When her dissident parents die in a car accident, she’s taken to an orphanage, only to be adopted soon after by a grandmother she has never met. While her homeland is shattered by a violent revolution, Emma—like a witch's apprentice—comes to learn the ways of her new grandmother, who can tell fortunes from coffee dregs, cause and heal pain at will, and shares her home with the ghost of her husband.

From the author of the horror classic Night of the Living Dead. Tiffany Blake was a beautiful dancer with a glorious future and the backing of a rich benefactor. Then a monstrous accident severed her leg at the hip. Now, the ballerinas are disappearing without a trace. One by one, they fall victim to a dark and deadly pattern of evil - caught by a psycho that would have them pay with their lovely bodies for the cruel fate of another...victims of a madman whose flashing knife will make them writhe a gruesome new dance.

The (black) magical season is here - and whether it's a solstice seance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year's with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu, or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously hellish!

Don’t think about it...don’t talk about it...and if you feel a prickling on the back of your neck...don’t turn around! Matt Hardison doesn’t believe in the Shadowstealer, an evil spirit that could steal a person’s shadow and demand they sacrifice pieces of themselves. It was just a local boogeyman, a gruesome campfire yarn to frighten youngsters; not something that adults took seriously. The Shadowstealer is Matt’s new novel, a bestseller featuring the creepy legend that frightened him as a child.

Sir Charles Ravenstreet, in his mid-50s, is unmarried, childless, and lives only for his work in the fast-paced world of business. When he is forced out of his job to make room for someone younger, Sir Charles finds himself at a loose end and facing the dismal prospect of an empty future.

Besides a few scattered insect calls, the surrounding area is silent. The occasional coughing sounds shatter the night sky. This is a remote public house, isolated at the foot of a short hill. The September night is still a bit hot. In the public house, on the roof of the terrace, is a gray bag, gently moving. But the movement is getting bigger.

Das kleine Häuschen auf dem Land war ein echter Glücksfall, Friedel ist schwanger und Jakob hat endlich die nötige Ruhe, um an seinem zweiten Roman zu schreiben. Alles scheint perfekt. Nachdem Jakob jedoch eines Nachts von einem Tier angefallen und gebissen wird, gerät die Harmonie ins Wanken. Die Arbeit an seinem Buch verwirft er, sie passt ohnehin nicht zu seinen neu auftretenden, irritierenden Tagträumen. Viel interessanter scheinen ihm plötzlich die Sagen aus der Umgebung.

On a quiet Christmas Eve, a governess’ manuscript detailing her encounters with the supernatural is read. She tells the story of moving into an estate to take care of two children and becoming slowly aware that the area is overrun with ghosts of the previous inhabitants - and that the children are aware that these ghosts exist.

James' chilling Gothic horror novella read by Nicki White, reprising her role as the governess.

A new arrival at an isolated school for orphaned boys quickly comes to realize there is something wrong with his new home. He hears chilling whispers in the night, his troubled classmates are violent and hostile, and the Headmaster sends cryptic messages, begging his new charge to confess. As the new boy learns to survive on the edges of this impolite society, he starts to unravel a mystery at the school's dark heart. And that's when the corpses start turning up.

A young governess arrives at Bly, a country home in Essex, England, to care for Miles and Flora, two precocious and pure children. But as ghostly visions take shape, the obsessively protective governess soon fears for the safety of her wards - only to wonder if these hauntings are a conjuring of her own imagination.

One of the most daunting ghost stories to ever be written, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw follows the transformation of Miles (age 10) and Flora (age eight) from well-behaved children to deceitful liars. When a governess comes to their country estate to look after the children, she and Flora are separately visited by a ghost; however Flora denies the experience and Miles claims to never have been visited by one, even when evidence supports an evil plot between the children and the ghosts.

M. R. James (Montague Rhodes James) was a noted British medieval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College. He is best remembered today for his ghost stories, which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. As a medieval scholar his output in that field was phenomenal and remains highly respected in scholarly circles.

A master of terror and nightmarish visions, H.P. Lovecraft solidified his place at the top of the horror genre with this macabre supernatural tale. When a geologist leads an expedition to the Antarctic plateau, his aim is to find rock and plant specimens from deep within the continent. The barren landscape offers no evidence of any life form—until they stumble upon the ruins of a lost civilization. Strange fossils of creatures unknown to man lead the team deeper, where they find carved stones dating back millions of years.

El callejón de las almas perdidas nos adentra en el mundo del espectáculo, y las sombras que se amparan en él. Stanton Carlisle es un joven listo y ambicioso que trabaja en una feria ambulante. Junto con otros personajes, como una adivina, un forzudo o un fenómeno humano llamado «el monstruo», la feria viaja de pueblo en pueblo. Pero Stan quiere medrar en el negocio. Y poco a poco, aprenderá a engatusar, engañar y seducir para conseguirlo. Una novela macabra y absorbente que arrastrará al lector hasta las profundidades del mundo del espectáculo.