“It scared me so much I didn’t finish it. I left it in the lobby of my building.”

Summary: Told through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl, the novel follows Bela as a sinister entity known as "Other Mommy" relentlessly tries to gain access to her heart. Meanwhile, her family's own fractures leave them increasingly vulnerable. The result is an intimate haunted-house story built on childhood terror and psychological dread.

Summary: After moving to rural Maine, a family discovers a mysterious burial ground hidden beyond an old pet cemetery. As grief and loss take hold, one father's desperate choices unleash consequences far more horrifying than death itself.

Summary: A slacker and his volatile on-and-off lover discover a mysterious black void, dubbed "the Funhole," in the storage room of his rundown apartment building. Their fascination with the phenomenon and escalating experiments with it slowly consume both their lives in grotesque and destructive ways.

Summary: A young solicitor travels to a remote estate to settle a deceased client's affairs, only to encounter a mysterious woman whose appearance is always followed by tragedy. What begins as a routine assignment becomes an increasingly terrifying ghost story.

Summary: Presented as a series of interviews conducted after humanity survives a global zombie pandemic, the novel explores how different countries and individuals responded to the crisis. Its documentary-style format gives the fictional events an unsettling sense of realism.

Summary: A man discovers a manuscript about a family whose home is impossibly larger on the inside than it is on the outside. As the maze-like house grows more unsettling, the story's layered narratives blur the line between reality and obsession.

Summary: After a deadly virus makes animal meat unsafe to eat, society legalizes the breeding of humans for consumption. The novel uses its disturbing premise to examine power, dehumanization and the ethics of industrialized violence.

Summary: After dying, a man is condemned to spend eternity searching for a single book in an unimaginably vast library. The novella explores infinity, isolation and the psychological horror of endless time.

Summary: The residents of a small town live under the curse of a centuries-old witch whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. When younger residents begin challenging the town's strict rules, the curse spirals into increasingly terrifying consequences.

Summary: In a world where seeing an unknown entity drives people violently insane, a woman must guide two children to safety while blindfolded. The novel builds suspense through constant uncertainty about the unseen threat lurking outside.

Summary: A secret group of powerful individuals can manipulate other people's minds, using ordinary humans as unwilling puppets. As their influence stretches across decades, a handful of survivors race to stop them before more lives are destroyed.

Summary: A series of unsettling childhood memories gradually reveal that someone had been secretly watching and manipulating the narrator's life for years. As the novel progresses, isolated incidents slowly form a deeply disturbing picture of obsession and stalking.

Summary: This classic collection gathers dozens of eerie folktales, urban legends and ghost stories originally written for younger readers. Combined with Stephen Gammell's famously unsettling illustrations, the stories have frightened generations of readers.

Summary: A struggling writer takes a winter job as caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel, bringing his wife and young son along. As supernatural forces close in, the hotel's sinister influence threatens to destroy the family from within.

Summary: Set in the mysterious world of the Southern Reach series, this novel follows multiple characters whose lives become entangled with a strange, ever-changing wilderness. Blending psychological tension with cosmic horror, it explores obsession, identity and the unknowable.

Summary: Set along the US-Mexico border in the mid-1800s, the novel follows a teenage runaway who joins a notoriously violent scalp-hunting expedition. Its unflinching portrayal of brutality and the enigmatic Judge Holden have made it one of literature's most unsettling works.

Summary: Written by a former Jesuit priest, this nonfiction book examines several alleged cases of demonic possession and exorcism. Blending reported events with theological discussion, it has become one of the most influential books on modern exorcism.

Summary: Seven kids in Derry, Maine, face down a shape-shifting evil that surfaces every 27 years to feed, usually wearing the face of Pennywise the clown. Decades later, grown and scattered, they're pulled back to finish what they started.

Summary: A struggling young woman rents a room in an aging boarding house that quickly reveals itself to be anything but ordinary. She fights to survive while trapped by both financial hardship and increasingly terrifying supernatural events.

Summary: This nonfiction classic investigates reports of strange sightings, paranormal encounters and unexplained events surrounding the Mothman legend in West Virginia during the 1960s. Keel explores the phenomenon through both eyewitness accounts and his own investigations.

Summary: A weekend camping trip turns into a nightmare when a sick stranger stumbles into a remote island carrying a horrifying biological threat. Cut off from help, a troop of boys must survive both the infection and each other.

Summary: After moving into a prestigious New York apartment building, a young woman begins to suspect that her friendly neighbors are hiding sinister intentions surrounding her pregnancy. As her fears grow, she struggles to determine whom she can trust.

Summary ('Dracula'): Told through letters, journal entries and newspaper clippings, this Gothic classic follows a group of friends determined to stop the mysterious Count Dracula from spreading his influence across England.

Summary ('The Exorcist'): When a young girl begins displaying terrifying behavior that defies medical explanation, her desperate mother turns to two priests for help. Their confrontation with an ancient evil became one of the defining stories of supernatural horror.

Summary: This short-story collection blends supernatural horror with surreal and psychological unease. Across its stories, ordinary lives are disrupted by bizarre events that challenge reality, memory and human nature.

Summary: A brilliant scientist secretly creates intelligent microscopic organisms that rapidly evolve beyond human control. As they spread, they transform both the human body and the future of civilization in unexpected ways.

Summary: Following a devastating accident, an artist retreats to a secluded Florida island to rebuild his life through painting. But his new work begins to reveal, and perhaps awaken, a sinister force tied to the island's dark past.

Summary: On a scorching summer day, the water suddenly vanishes, leaving pipes dry and stream beds scorched. As a suburban couple and their neighbors face escalating thirst and no power, the neighborhood rapidly unravels into paranoia and violence.

Summary: Four Indigenous men are haunted years after a hunting trip that violated tribal traditions. As guilt, identity and the supernatural collide, each must confront a relentless force seeking revenge.

Summary: A family's move into an upscale suburban neighborhood quickly becomes a nightmare when the local homeowners association begins enforcing increasingly invasive and terrifying rules. The novel turns everyday suburban bureaucracy into dark satire and horror.