'Salems Lot (1975)
Summary: Set in a small town in New England, 'Salems Lot tells the story of a writer who returns to his hometown only to discover that the place has been overrun by vampires.
The Shining (1977)
Summary: The Shining centers on Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. His family accompanies him on this job, including his young son Danny, who possesses "the shining," an array of psychic abilities that allow the child to glimpse the hotel's horrific true nature.
Christine (1983)
Summary: Christine tells the story of a car that is possessed by malevolent supernatural forces.
IT (1986)
Summary: King's IT follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by an evil entity that exploits the fears of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey.
Black House (2001)
Summary: Black House centers around a boy named Jack Sawyer who travels to a parallel universe called the Territories twenty years before the novel occurs. Now, when a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin, Jack is drawn back to the Territories.
Doctor Sleep (2013)
Summary: This book, which is a sequel to The Shining, follows the now-adult Dan Torrance as he uses his psychic abilities to help dying patients. However, he soon finds himself in a battle against a cult that feeds on children with the same gift.
Bag of Bones (2018)
Summary: Bag of Bones focuses on an author who suffers severe writer's block and delusions at an isolated lake house four years after the death of his wife.
Pet Semetary (2018)
Summary: In Pet Semetary, Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine. However, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow's tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creeds' beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing ... as is evidenced by the makeshift pet cemetary in the nearby woods.
The Institute (2019)
Summary: This book follows twelve-year-old genius Luke Ellis. When his parents are murdered, he is kidnapped by intruders and awakens in the Institute, a facility that houses other abducted children who have telepathy or telekinesis.
Holly (2023)
Summary: This novel takes place in July 2021, amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic. During this time, private investigator Holly Gbiney mourns the death of her mother, with whom she had a complicated and strained relationship. Despite taking a break from work, Holly is contacted by Penelope Dahl, whose daughter Bonnie disappeared earlier that month. Holly is intrigued by Penelope's message and agrees to work on the case.
You Like it Darker (2024)
Summary: "'You like it darker? Fine, so do I,' writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life--both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read." ---provided by publisher.
Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley
Summary: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
Summary: Dracula is a gothic horror novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. An epistolary novel, the narrative is relayed through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor, Jonathan Harker, taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby.
The Cask of Amontillado (1846) by Edgar Allan Poe
Summary: The Cask of Amontillado tells the story of a man named Montresor who decides to seek revenge against a man named Fortunato, who has insulted him.
The Phantom of the Opera (1909) by Gaston Leroux
Summary: This book is about a Parisian opera house that is “haunted” by a mysterious and alluring phantom. The phantom falls in love with soprano Christine Daaè, which causes trouble for the opera house.
The Dunwich Horror (1929) by H.P. Lovecraft
Summary:The Dunwich Horror is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft that tells the story of Wilbur Whateley, a child born to an albino woman and an unknown father in the fictional Massachusetts town of Dunwich. The plot is centered around Wilbur's strange birth and development, his relationship with his grandfather, and the dark rituals he learns.
Interview with the Vampire (1996) by Anne Rice
Summary: In Interview with the Vampire, a vampire recounts his tragic two-century life, marked by an endless thirst for human blood.
House of Leaves (2000) by Mark Danielewski
Summary: In this novel, a young family moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane, where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility - until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story: one of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.
The Haunting of Hill House (2013) by Shirley Jackson
Summary: This story tells the tale of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly place called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting;' Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers--and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2021) by Shirley Jackson
Summary: Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret takes readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.
The Only One Left (2023) by Riley Sager
Summary:The Only One Left follows a woman who takes a job caring for elderly invalid Lenora Hope, who was accused decades ago of murdering her parents and younger sister.
A Haunting on the Hill (2023) by Elizabeth Hand
Summary: In this novel, Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It's enormous, old, and ever-so eerie--the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play. Despite her own hesitations, Holly's girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house's peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone...--- provided by publisher.
The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson
Summary: This is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly place called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting;" Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers--and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.
Coraline (2002) by Neil Gaiman
Summary: In this novel, a girl named Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
Let the Right One in (2011) by Anne Billson
Summary: Let the Right One in is set on a housing estate in the suburbs of Stockholm in the early 1980s. It's the story of Oskar, a lonely, bullied child, who makes friends with Eli, the girl in the next apartment. 'Oskar, I'm not a girl,' she tells him and she's not kidding. They forge a relationship which is oddly innocent yet disturbing, two outsiders against the rest of the world. But one of these outsiders is, effectively, a serial killer.
We Are All Completely Fine (2014) by Darryl Gregory
Summary: We Are All Completely Fine follows multiple characters. Harrison, the Monster Detective and boyhood storybook hero is now in his mid-thirties and spends most of his time not sleeping. Then, there's Stan, who became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Another character named Barbara is haunted by the messages carved upon her bones, and Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. Unsurprisingly, no one believes their horrific tales until they are sought out by psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer. What happens when these likely-insane outcasts join a support group?
The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night (2022) by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
Summary: In The Night Eaters, "Chinese American twins, Milly and Billy, are having a tough time. On top of the multiple failures in their personal and professional lives, they're struggling to keep their restaurant afloat in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily their parents, Ipo and Kenny, are in town for their annual visit. Having immigrated from Hong Kong before the twins were born, Ipo and Kenny have supported their children through thick and thin and are ready to lend a hand-but they're starting to wonder, has their support made Milly and Billy incapable of standing on their own? When Ipo forces them to help her clean up the house next door-a hellish and run-down ruin that was the scene of a grisly murder-the twins are in for a nasty surprise. A night of terror, gore, and supernatural mayhem reveals that there is much more to Ipo and her children than meets the eye." ---provided by publisher.