April's Horror Picks

I like my horror books with a dash or sci-fi or literary fiction. More Stephen King than slasher. My ideal horror mashup would be as if Cuthulu and Wednesday Adams wrote a book together.

Updated June 8, 2023
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Leave the world behind a novel
Alam, Rumaan
Paper Book
A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award (Fiction) One of Barack Obama's Summer Favorites A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago...
Something wicked this way comes
Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012
Paper Book
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...
Black hole
Burns, Charles, 1955-
Paper Book
"The best graphic novel of the year" (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation--the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui.
When no one is watching a thriller
Cole, Alyssa
Paper Book
An instant NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLER! "I was knocked over by the momentum of an intense psychological thriller that doesn't let go until the final page. This is a terrific read." - Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author *A Marie Claire Book...
House of leaves
Danielewski, Mark Z.
Paper Book
THE MIND-BENDING CULT CLASSIC ABOUT A HOUSE THAT'S LARGER ON THE INSIDE THAN ON THE OUTSIDE * A masterpiece of horror and an astonishingly immersive, maze-like reading experience that redefines the boundaries of a novel. ''Simultaneously reads like a thriller and like a...
The lathe of heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K., 1929-2018
Paper Book
The Locus Award-winning science fiction novel by legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin, set in a world where one man's dreams rewrite the future. During a time racked by war and environmental catastrophe, George Orr discovers his dreams alter reality. George is compelled to receive...
Strangers on a train
Highsmith, Patricia
Paper Book
The psychologists would call it folie a deux... 'Bruno slammed his palms together. 'Hey! Cheeses, what an idea! I kill your wife and you kill my father! We meet on a train, see, and nobody knows we know each other! Perfect alibis! Catch?'' From this moment, almost...
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" : the authorized graphic adaptation
Hyman, Miles
Paper Book
Winner of the 2017 Solliès Comics Festival's Best Adult Graphic Novel The classic short story--now in full color Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" continues to thrill and unsettle readers nearly seven decades after it was first published. By turns...
Attack on Titan. 1
Isayama, Hajime
Paper Book
The megahit Attack on Titan anime is back! In this post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, humanity has been devastated by the bizarre, giant humanoids known as the Titans. Little is known about where they came from or why they are bent on consuming mankind. Seemingly unintelligent...
Uzumaki : spiral into horror
Ito?, Junji
Paper Book
A masterpiece of horror manga, now available in a deluxe hardcover edition! Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but a...
We have always lived in the castle
Jackson, Shirley
Paper Book
Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret, with an afterword by Jonathan Lethem. A Penguin Vitae Edition Merricat Blackwood lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her uncle Julian....
Carrie
King, Stephen
Paper Book
Carrie has the gift of telekinesis. To be invited to prom night by Tommy is a dream - the first step to social acceptance. But events take a turn on that night as Carrie is forced to exercise her terrible gift on the town that mocks and loathes her.
What moves the dead
Kingfisher, T.
Paper Book
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" from Hugo, Locus, &...
The Stepford wives
Levin, Ira
Paper Book
The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's Baby With an Introduction by Peter Straub For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind...
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Lindsay, Joan
Paper Book
The road
McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive that "only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle)....
Lovecraft country : a novel
Ruff, Matt
Paper Book
Now an HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out) The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this...

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