Looking for media with horror, paranormal, or supernatural themes? This guide is a quick look into some of the titles we have to offer in our library and online.
Staff Favorites
The Haunting of Hill House
What Nancy thinks:
"One of the first and best horror novels that I've ever read. It's a psychological thriller guaranteed to keep you reading to the end of the book without putting it down. It will fill you with such terror that you won't sleep for days."
Parasyte 1
What Jherell thinks:
"A great manga for readers who don't shy away from body horror. The art and story in this one will definitely effect you!"
Alien; 20th century edition
What Michelle thinks:
"While Alien takes place in space and the future, I would definitely call this horror before sci-fi. The planet's environment is grim and the suspense and gore is just like a slasher film. The Xenomorph is definitely one of the scariest movie antagonists imagined."
Browse These Sections
The Stories of Edgar Allen Poe by
The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe is a brilliant collection of some of hisbest-known stories: The Tell Tale Heart (a murder's haunting guilt), The Cask ofAmontillado (a story of brilliant revenge), and The Fall of the House of Usher(an ancient house full of very dark secretes). Also included in this collectionare The Mask of the Red Death (horrors of 'the Plague'), and the most famous ofall his poems: The Raven (a lover's decline into madness). Best read in adimly-lit room with the curtains drawn, Poe's brilliant works come to life indarkly thrilling ways in this Manga Classic adaptation.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PZ7.7 .K58 Sto 2017ISBN: 1772940208Publication Date: 2020
Through the Woods by
Discover a terrifying world in the woods in this collection of five hauntingly beautiful graphic stories that includes the online webcomic sensation "His Face All Red," in print for the first time. Journey through the woods in this sinister, compellingly spooky collection that features four brand-new stories and one phenomenally popular tale in print for the first time. These are fairy tales gone seriously wrong, where you can travel to "Our Neighbor's House"--though coming back might be a problem. Or find yourself a young bride in a house that holds a terrible secret in "A Lady's Hands Are Cold." You might try to figure out what is haunting "My Friend Janna," or discover that your brother's fiancée may not be what she seems in "The Nesting Place." And of course you must revisit the horror of "His Face All Red," the breakout webcomic hit that has been gorgeously translated to the printed page. Already revered for her work online, award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll's stunning visual style and impeccable pacing is on grand display in this entrancing anthology, her print debut.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PZ7.7 .C369 Th 2014ISBN: 9781442465954Publication Date: 2014
Shirley Jackson's the Lottery by
This graphic adaptation by Jackson's grandson Miles Hyman allows readers to experience "The Lottery" as never before, or to discover it anew. He has crafted an eerie vision of the hamlet where the tale unfolds and the unforgettable ritual its inhabitants set into motion. Hyman's full-color, meticulously detailed panels create a noirish atmosphere that adds a new dimension of dread to the original story. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation stands as a tribute to Jackson, and re-envisions her iconic story as a striking visual narrative.
Call Number: On Display ; PN6727.H96 S55 2016ISBN: 9780809066490Publication Date: 2016
Creepy Creatures: a Graphic Novel (Goosebumps Graphix #1) by
Three of Goosebumps' creepiest creature books ever!*Now in a cool, new GB Graphix anthology adapted and illustrated by acclaimed comic artists Scott Morse, Greg Ruth, and Gabriel Hernandez. Creepy creatures are howling, growling, and stalking through the artwork of the first Goosebumps Graphix anthology when three hot, talented comic artists adapt these bestselling Goosebumps books into a cool, new graphic novel format.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PN6726 .G66 1996ISBN: 0439841259Publication Date: 2006
Parasyte 1 by
They arrive in silence and darkness. They descend from the skies. They have a hunger for human flesh. They are everywhere. They are parasites, alien creatures who must invade-and take control of-a human host to survive. And once they have infected their victims, they can assume any deadly form they choose- monsters with giant teeth, winged demons, creatures with blades for hands. But most have chosen to conceal their lethal purpose behind ordinary human faces. So no one knows their secret-except an ordinary high school student. Shin is battling for control of his own body against an alien parasite, but can he find a way to warn humanity of the horrors to come?
Call Number: On Display ; PN6790 .J33 I9335 2013ISBN: 9781612620732Publication Date: 2013
Real-Life X-Files by
Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal examines the cases of over forty paranormal mysteries. Using a hands-on approach, Nickell visits the scene of the so-called unexplainable activity whenever possible and attempts to physically duplicate the miraculous. Whether he's inflicting stigmata on himself or recreating the liquefying blood of Saint Januarius, Nickell does whatever necessary to eliminate the probable before considering the supernatural. What is left is that much more fascinating. Nickell reports on familiar legends from American history such as the supernatural events surrounding Abraham Lincoln's death and the supposed crash landing of an alien spacecraft near Roswell, New Mexico. He closely examines claims of the miraculous, from rose petals bearing the likeness of Jesus to photographs of a "golden door" to heaven. Controversial mysteries such as clairvoyance and "spirit painting," haunted places, and freaks of nature are just a few of the many topics covered. Suspenseful, engrossing, funny, and grounded in scientific methodology, Real-Life X-Files provides real explanations for the "paranormal" activities that have intrigued human beings for centuries.
Call Number: Available Online - EBSCOISBN: 0813122104Publication Date: 2001
Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before by
When Lieutenant Uhura took her place on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek, the actress Nichelle Nichols went where no African American woman had ever gone before. Yet several decades passed before many other black women began playing significant roles in speculative (i.e., science fiction, fantasy, and horror) film and television--a troubling omission, given that these genres offer significant opportunities for reinventing social constructs such as race, gender, and class. Challenging cinema's history of stereotyping or erasing black women on-screen, Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before showcases twenty-first-century examples that portray them as central figures of action and agency. Writing for fans as well as scholars, Diana Adesola Mafe looks at representations of black womanhood and girlhood in American and British speculative film and television, including 28 Days Later, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Children of Men, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Firefly, and Doctor Who: Series 3. Each of these has a subversive black female character in its main cast, and Mafe draws on critical race, postcolonial, and gender theories to explore each film and show, placing the black female characters at the center of the analysis and demonstrating their agency. The first full study of black female characters in speculative film and television, Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before shows why heroines such as Lex in AVP and Zoë in Firefly are inspiring a generation of fans, just as Uhura did.
Call Number: Available Online - EBSCOISBN: 9781477315231Publication Date: 2018
Global TV Horror by
In an era fascinated by horror, this book examines some of the most significant global TV horror, from children's television and classic series to contemporary shows taking advantage of streaming and on-demand to reach audiences around the world.
Call Number: Available Online - EBSCOISBN: 1786836955Publication Date: 2021
Videogames and Horror: From Amnesia to Zombies, Run! by
Videogames are full of horrors -- and of horror, a facet of the media that has been largely overlooked by the academic community in terms of lengthy studies in the fast-growing field of videogame scholarship. This book engages with the research of prominent scholars across the humanities to explore the presence, role and function of horror in videogames, and in doing so it demonstrates how videogames enter discussion on horror and offer a unique, radical space that horror is particularly suited to fill. The topics covered include the construction of stories in videogames, the role of the monster and, of course, how death is treated as a learning tool and as a facet of horror.
Call Number: Available Online - EBSCOISBN: 9781786834379Publication Date: 2019
Japanese and American Horror by
Horror fiction is an important part of the popular culture in many modern societies. This book compares and contrasts horror narratives from two distinct cultures--American and Japanese--with a focus on the characteristic mechanisms that make them successful, and on their culturally-specific aspects. Including a number of narratives belonging to film, literature, comics and video games, this book provides a comprehensive perspective of the genre. It sheds light on the differences and similarities in the depiction of fear and horror in America and Japan, while emphasizing narrative patterns in the context of their respective cultures.
Call Number: Available Online - EBSCOISBN: 9780786496662Publication Date: 2015
Poltergeist
The Freeling family is a typical middle class family living in the peaceful Cuesta Verde Estates. Soon strange things begin to happen around the house; the pet canary dies, mysterious storms occur, and Carol Ann is summoned to the TV set, where a strange shaft of green light hits her and causes the room to shake. As the curious events continue, Carol Ann is repeatedly drawn to the television, where she begins to talk to "the TV people." Soon Carol Ann is sucked into a closet, disappearing from this reality plane. Clairvoyant and professional exorcist Tangina makes a horrifying discovery: Carol Ann is alive and in the house, but is being held on another spectral plane.
Call Number: Ocala Audio-Visual ; PN1997 .P66638 2007ISBN: 9781419852800Publication Date: 1982
Dreamcatcher
Four friends with an unusual power become stranded in a blizzard and are confronted by a deadly alien force. As they try to stop this unparalleled horror, the fate of the world is in their hands.
Call Number: Citrus Audio-Visual ; PN1997.2 .D742 2003ISBN: 0790778084Publication Date: 2003
The Shining
Based on the novel by Stephen King, with screenplay written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson.
A young boy and his parents spend the winter in a resort hotel which is possessed by ghosts.
Call Number: On Display ; PN1997.85 .S5564 2001ISBN: 0790760053Publication Date: 2001- Alien; 20th century edition
The terror begins when the crew of a spaceship investigates a transmission from a desolate planet, and discovers a life form that is perfectly evolved to annihilate mankind. One by one, each crew member is slain until only Ripley is left, leading to an explosive conclusion that sets the stage for its stunning sequel, "Aliens."
Call Number: Ocala Audio-Visual ; PN1997 .A3225 1999Publication Date: 1999
Weird Women by
From two acclaimed experts in the genre, a brand-new volume of supernatural stories showcasing the forgotten female horror writers from 1852-1923.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PN6120.2 .W47 2020ISBN: 1643134167Publication Date: 2020-08-04
On a Raven's Wing by
Twenty contemporary writers commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe with chilling stories inspired by the master himself.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS648 .H6 O5 2009ISBN: 9780061690426Publication Date: 2009
Rag: stories by
A man, forgotten by the world, takes care of his deaf brother while euthanizing dogs for a living. A stepbrother so desperately wants to become his stepsibling that he rapes his girlfriend. In Maryse Meijer's decidedly dark and searingly honest collection Rag, the desperate human desire for connection slips into a realm that approximates horror.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS3613 .E4264 A6 2019ISBN: 0374246238Publication Date: 2019
If It Bleeds: new fiction by
Readers adore Stephen King's novels, and his novellas are their own dark treat, briefer but just as impactful and enduring as his longer fiction. The four brilliant tales in If It Bleeds prove as iconic as their predecessors. In the title story, reader favorite Holly Gibney (from the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and The Outsider) must face her fears, and possibly another outsider--this time on her own. In "Mr. Harrigan's Phone" an intergenerational friendship has a disturbing afterlife. "The Life of Chuck" explores, beautifully, how each of us contains multitudes. And in "Rat," a struggling writer must contend with the darker side of ambition.
Call Number: Ocala Popular Books ; PS3561 .I483 .I3 2020ISBN: 1982137975Publication Date: 2020
A Certain Hunger by
Food critic Dorothy Daniels loves what she does. Discerning, meticulous, and very, very smart, Dorothy's clear mastery of the culinary arts make it likely that she could, on any given night, whip up a more inspired dish than any one of the chefs she writes about. Dorothy loves sex as much as she loves food, and while she has struggled to find a long-term partner that can keep up with her, she makes the best of her single life, frequently traveling from Manhattan to Italy for a taste of both. But there is something within Dorothy that's different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority. A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world's most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.
Call Number: PS3619 .U45943 C47 2021ISBN: 9781951213435Publication Date: 2021
Chasing the Boogeyman by
In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI, are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman--and he's playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end.
Recent college graduate Richard Chizmar returns to his hometown just as a curfew is enacted and a neighborhood watch is formed. Amid preparing for his wedding and embarking on a writing career, he soon finds himself thrust into a real-life horror story. Inspired by the terrifying events, Richard writes a personal account of the serial killer's reign of terror, unaware that these events will continue to haunt him for years to come. A clever, terrifying, and heartrending work of metafiction, Chasing the Boogeyman is the ultimate marriage between horror fiction and true crime.
Call Number: PS 3553 .H563 C48 2022ISBN: 9781982175177Publication Date: 2022
Christine by
Arnie Cunningham is in love with his car. Christine, the car, is in complete control. "Vintage King . . . breathtaking, awesome. Carries such momentum the reader must force himself to slow down."--"New York Times Book Review"Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Call Number: Citrus Circulation ; PS3561 .I483 C4 1983ISBN: 0670220264Publication Date: 1983
The Final Girl Support Group by
From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films--movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she's been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized--someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
Call Number: PS3608 .E543 F56 2021ISBN: 9780593201244Publication Date: 2022
Frankenstein Thrift Study Edition by
Includes the unabridged text of Shelley's classic novel plus a complete study guide that features chapter-by-chapter summaries, explanations and discussions of the plot, question-and-answer sections, author biography, historical background, and more.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PR5397 .F7 2009ISBN: 0486475824Publication Date: 2009- The Haunting of Hill House by
First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile 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.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS3519 .A392 H3 1987ISBN: 0899684300Publication Date: 1993
A Head Full of Ghosts by
WINNER OF THE 2015 BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN A NOVEL A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts' plight. With John, Marjorie's father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend. Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.
Call Number: PS3620 .R445 H43 2015ISBN: 9780062363244Publication Date: 2016
Home Is Where the Bodies Are by
After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm's length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn't been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before. While going through their parents' belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends. Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.
Call Number: YA PS3618 .O78436 H66 2024ISBN: 9798212182843Publication Date: 2024
I Am Legend by
Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS3563 .A8355 I2 2007cISBN: 0765357151Publication Date: 2007
Imaginary Friend by
A young boy is haunted by a voice in his head in this acclaimed, bestselling epic of literary horror from the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. One of The Year's Best Books (People, EW, Lithub, Vox, Washington Post, and more) We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us. Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out. At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six long days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again. Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.
Call Number: PS3553 .H3469 I43 2020ISBN: 9781538731352Publication Date: 2020
The Last House on Needless Street by
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three.
A young girl who isn't allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
Call Number: PS 3623 .A7315 L37 2022ISBN: 9781250812643Publication Date: 2022
Lost by
Famed children's book author Winifred Rudge travels to London to research a book about a woman who is being haunted by Jack the Ripper. Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her step-cousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his home. Is the spirit Winnie's great-great-grandfather, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin? Winnie begins to investigate and finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades -- some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS3563 .A3535 L6 2002xISBN: 0060988649Publication Date: 2002
Never Whistle at Night by
Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms- for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai'po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear-and even follow you home. These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples' survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.
Call Number: PS647 .I5 N48 2023ISBN: 9780593468463Publication Date: 2023
Nightbitch by
In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else... An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler's demands, only to discover a dense patch of hair on the back of her neck. In the mirror, her canines suddenly look sharper than she remembers. Her husband, who travels for work five days a week, casually dismisses her fears from faraway hotel rooms. As the mother's symptoms intensify, and her temptation to give in to her new dog impulses peak, she struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity secret. Seeking a cure at the library, she discovers the mysterious academic tome which becomes her bible, A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography, and meets a group of mommies involved in a multilevel-marketing scheme who may also be more than what they seem. An outrageously original novel of ideas about art, power, and womanhood wrapped in a satirical fairy tale, Nightbitch will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. And you should. You should howl as much as you want.
Call Number: PS3625 .O3385 N54 2021ISBN: 9780593312148Publication Date: 2022
The Queen of the Damned by
In 1976, a uniquely seductive world of vampires was unveiled in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire ... in 1985, a wild and voluptous voice spoke to us, telling the story of The Vampire Lestat. Anne Rice continues her extraordinary Vampire Chronicles in a feat of mesmeric storytelling, a chillingly hypnotic entertainment in which the oldest and most powerful forces of the night are unleashed on an unsuspecting world.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS3568 .I265 Q44 1988ISBN: 0394558235Publication Date: 1988
Red in Tooth and Claw by
Faolan Kelly's grandfather is dead. She's alone in the world and suddenly homeless, all because the local powers that be don't think a young man of seventeen is mature enough to take over his grandfather's homestead...and that's with them thinking Faolan is a young man. If she revealed that her grandfather had been disguising her for years, they would marry her off at the first opportunity. The mayor finds a solution that serves everyone but Faolan: He hires a gunslinger to ship her off to the Settlement, a remote fort where social outcasts live under the leadership of His Benevolence Gideon Dillard. It's a place rife with mystery, kept afloat by suspicious wealth. Dillard's absolute command over his staff just doesn't seem right. And neither do the strange noises that keep Faolan up at night. When Faolan finds the body of a Settlement boarder, mangled by something that can't possibly be human, it's clear something vicious is stalking the palisades. And as Settlement boarders continue to drop like flies, Faolan knows she must escape to evade the creature's wrath.
Call Number: YA PZ7 .M478267 Re 2024ISBN: 9781984815620Publication Date: 2024
Something Wicked This Way Comes by
A carnival rolls in sometime after the midnight hour on a chill Midwestern October eve, ushering in Halloween a week before its time. A calliope's shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. In this season of dying, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. And two inquisitive boys standing precariously on the brink of adulthood will soon discover the secret of the satanic raree-show's smoke, mazes, and mirrors, as they learn all too well the heavy cost of wishes -- and the stuff of nightmare.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PS3503 .R167 S66 1999ISBN: 0380977273Publication Date: Originally published 1962; Edition 1999
Tender Is the Flesh by
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans--though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition." Now, eating human meat--"special meat"--is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he's given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he's aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost--and what might still be saved.
Call Number: PQ7798.412 .A9847 T413 2020ISBN: 9781982150921Publication Date: 2020
Things Have Gotten Worse since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by
Three dark and disturbing horror stories from an astonishing new voice, including the viral-sensation tale of obsession, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s--a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires.
A couple isolate themselves on a remote island in an attempt to recover from their teenage son's death, when a mysterious young man knocks on their door during a storm...
And a man confronts his neighbour when he discovers a strange object in his back yard, only to be drawn into an ever-more dangerous game. Three devastating, beautifully written horror stories from one of the genre's most cutting-edge voices. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?
ISBN: 9781803361499Publication Date: 2022
This Thing Between Us by
It was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house--who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room. It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago's world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room . . . The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape--not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world. A bold, original horror novel about grief, loneliness and the oppressive intimacy of technology, This Thing Between Us marks the arrival of a spectacular new talent.
Call Number: PS3613 .O717567 T48 2021ISBN: 9780374539238Publication Date: 2021
Wrong Place Wrong Time by
Can you stop a murder after it's already happened? It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger. She doesn't know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd's, have been shattered. After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up...it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet--and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd's terrible crime...and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place. Both the story of a mother's love and the sacrifices she will make for her child, and a thriller with a brilliant twist, Wrong Place Wrong Time is a one-of-a-kind novel that begs to be read in one sitting.
Call Number: YA PR6113 .C28 W76 2022ISBN: 9780063252356Publication Date: 2023
The Dark-Thirty by
With an extraordinary gift for suspense, McKissack brings us ten original, spine-tingling tales inspired by African American history and the mystery of that eerie half hour before nightfall-the dark-thirty.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PZ7 .M478693 Dar 1992ISBN: 9780679818632Publication Date: 1992
The Graveyard Book by
Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place--he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings--such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him. Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead?
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PZ7 .G1273 Gr 2008ISBN: 9780060530938Publication Date: 2008
Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch by
Murdered bad girl Annie Lane is back from the grave and hellbent on revenge . . . she just has to figure out who killed her. This fast-paced thriller by a talented debut delivers a horror-infused hunt for justice that's at once furiously feminist, darkly funny, and utterly satisfying. Between her careless mom, her cheating ex-boyfriend, and her rotten reputation around town, Annie Lane is used to being left behind. But she's never been left for dead before--until she wakes up to find her body's been dumped on a mountain rumored to raise the dead. Annie can't remember who killed her, but she'll stop at nothing to figure it out and make them pay. Because girls like her don't get justice unless they take it for themselves. Codie Crowley's propulsive debut presents a furious and cathartic thriller skewering society's condemnation of "unlikeable" girls.
Call Number: YA PZ 7.1 .C7725 He 2024ISBN: 9781368099905Publication Date: 2024
Together We Rot by
A teen girl looking for the truth about her missing mother forms a reluctant alliance with her former best friend...in exchange for hiding him from his cult-leading family. "All hail the new queen of YA horrormance! Arndt's unputdownable debut crackles with wit and seethes with terrors just beneath the surface. Equal parts tender and grisly, Together We Rot will sink its roots into you."--Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic Wil Greene's mom has been missing for over a year, and the police are ready to call the case closed--they claim she skipped town and you can't find a woman who wants to disappear. But she knows her mom wouldn't just leave...and she knows the family of her former best friend, Elwood Clarke, has something to do with it. Elwood has been counting down the days until his 18th birthday--in dread. It marks leaving school and joining his pastor father in dedicating his life to their congregation, the Garden of Adam. But when he comes home one night after a final goodbye with his friends, already self-flagellating for the sins of drinking and disobeying his father, he discovers his path is not as virtuous as he thought. He's not his father's successor, but his sacrifice. For the woods he's grown up with are thirsty, and must be paid in blood. Now on the run from a family that wants him dead, he turns to the only one who will believe him: Wil. Together, they form a reluctant partnership; she'll help him hide if he helps her find evidence that his family killed her mother. But in the end they dig up more secrets than they bargained for, unraveling decades of dark cult dealings in their town, led by the Clarke family. And there's a reason they need Elwood's blood for their satanic rituals. Something inhuman is growing inside of him. Everywhere he goes, the plants come alive and the forest calls to him, and Wil isn't sure if she can save the boy she can't help but love.
Call Number: YA PZ 7.1 .A76 TOG 2023ISBN: 9780593526279Publication Date: 2023
Under the Heron's Light by
Inspired by stories about the real-world Great Dismal Swamp, this acclaimed fantasy explores alternate history, a family's supernatural connections to the swamp, and the strength that comes in knowing your roots. "Four thousand six hundred forty-two steps in," Grannylou interrupted. "You remember that now, Baby. Four-thousand six hundred forty-two steps to paradise." On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher's son--so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on their heels, the four siblings breach the treacherous confines of the Great Dismal Swamp. Deeper and deeper into Dismal they delve, amid the biting moccasins and pitch-black waters, toward a refuge where they can live freely within the swamp's natural--and supernatural--protection. Three-hundred years later, college student Atlas comes home to North Carolina for the annual Bornday cookout and hog roast: a celebration of the fact that she and her three cousins were all born on the same day nineteen years ago, sharing a birthday with their Grannylou. But this Bornday, Grannylou's usual riddles and folktales about a marvelous paradise deep in the Great Dismal Swamp start to take on a tangible quality. Change coming. When Dismal calls, sucking Grannylou in, it's up to Atlas and her cousins to uncover the history that the black waters hold. Centuries of family tension, with roots all over Virginia and North Carolina, are about to be dug up. Because Babylou and Grannylou are one and the same, and the power she helped cultivate hundreds of years ago--steeped in Black resistance, familial love, and the otherworldly mysteries of the Great Dismal Swamp--is bubbling back up. But so is a bitterness that runs deep as the swamp's waters. And some are ready to take what they feel they're owed.
ISBN: 9781250820372Publication Date: 2024
We Are Hunted by
A boy, his family, and other resort guests must fight for their lives after the island's unusual animals turn feral, in this horrifying fast-paced survival story from the author of The Changing Man! Experience paradise, reimagined. When 17-year-old Femi Fatona and his older brother are forced to accompany their dad to an island resort, Femi is not looking forward to it. After all, he hasn't exactly been getting along with either of them lately. At least the resort promises to be full of all the extravagant luxuries they're used to. Yet not much is actually known about it, as it's on a recently-discovered island and shrouded in nondisclosure agreements. Once they arrive, Femi is thrilled to find that the island is bursting with new and spectacular species of plants and animals. But he soon realizes that sometimes pretty exteriors hide ugly truths--truths that are begging to come to light. When the animals suddenly become feral and the island is thrown into chaos , what was meant to be a peaceful bonding experience quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. Femi will have to put aside tension with his family and work with other guests in order to escape the animals, the island. . .and his own guilt at the part he may have played in all of it.
Call Number: YA PZ 7.1 .O8985 We 2024ISBN: 9781250868169Publication Date: 2024
Scream by
No one studies fear quite like Margee Kerr. A sociologist who moonlights at one of America's scariest and most popular haunted houses, she has seen grown men laugh, cry, and push their loved ones aside as they run away in terror. And she's kept careful notes on what triggers these responses and why.
Fear is a universal human experience, but do we really understand it? If we're so terrified of monsters and serial killers, why do we flock to the theaters to see them? Why do people avoid thinking about death, but jump out of planes and swim with sharks? For Kerr, there was only one way to find out. In this eye-opening, adventurous book, she takes us on a tour of the world's scariest experiences: into an abandoned prison long after dark, hanging by a cord from the highest tower in the Western hemisphere, and deep into Japan's mysterious "suicide forest." She even goes on a ghost hunt with a group of paranormal adventurers. Along the way, Kerr shows us the surprising science from the newest studies of fear -- what it means, how it works, and what it can do for us. Full of entertaining science and the thrills of a good ghost story, this book will make you think, laugh -- and scream.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; BF575 .F2 K47 2015ISBN: 9781610394826Publication Date: 2015
Naked and the Undead by
Horror is often dismissed as mass art or lowbrow entertainment that produces only short-term thrills. Horror films can be bloody, gory, and disturbing, so some people argue that they have bad moral effects, inciting viewers to imitate cinematic violence or desensitizing them to atrocities. In The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror , Cynthia A. Freeland seeks to counter both aesthetic disdain and moral condemnation by focusing on a select body of important and revealing films, demonstrating how the genre is capable of deep philosophical reflection about the existence and nature of evil--both human and cosmic. In exploring these films, the author argues against a purely psychoanalytic approach and opts for both feminist and philosophical understandings. She looks at what it is in these movies that serves to elicit specific reactions in viewers and why such responses as fear and disgust are ultimately pleasurable. The author is particularly interested in showing how gender figures into screen presentations of evil.The book is divided into three sections: Mad Scientists and Monstrous Mothers, which looks into the implications of male, rationalistic, scientific technology gone awry; The Vampire's Seduction, which explores the attraction of evil and the human ability (or inability) to distinguish active from passive, subject from object, and virtue from vice; and Sublime Spectacles of Disaster, which examines the human fascination with horror spectacle. This section concludes with a chapter on graphic horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . Written for both students and film enthusiasts, the book examines a wide array of films including: The Silence of the Lambs, Repulsion, Frankenstein, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Alien, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Frenzy, The Shining, Eraserhead, Hellraiser, and many others.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PN1995.9 .H6 F755 2000ISBN: 0813367026Publication Date: 2000
Shock Value by
An enormously entertaining account of the gifted and eccentric directors who gave us the golden age of modern horror in the 1970s, bringing a new brand of politics and gritty realism to the genre. Much has been written about the storied New Hollywood of the 1970s, but at the same time as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola were making their first classic movies, a parallel universe of directors gave birth to the modern horror film-aggressive, raw, and utterly original. Based on unprecedented access to the genre's major players, The New York Times's critic Jason Zinoman's Shock Value delivers the first definitive account of horror's golden age. By the late 1960s, horror was stuck in the past, confined mostly to drive-in theaters and exploitation houses, and shunned by critics. Shock Value tells the unlikely story of how the much-disparaged horror film became an ambitious art form while also conquering the multiplex. Directors such as Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, John Carpenter, and Brian De Palma- counterculture types operating largely outside the confines of Hollywood-revolutionized the genre, exploding taboos and bringing a gritty aesthetic, confrontational style, and political edge to horror. Zinoman recounts how these directors produced such classics as Rosemary's Baby, Carrie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween, creating a template for horror that has been imitated relentlessly but whose originality has rarely been matched. This new kind of film dispensed with the old vampires and werewolves and instead assaulted audiences with portraits of serial killers, the dark side of suburbia, and a brand of nihilistic violence that had never been seen before. Shock Value tells the improbable stories behind the making of these movies, which were often directed by obsessive and insecure young men working on shoestring budgets, were funded by sketchy investors, and starred porn stars. But once The Exorcist became the highest grossing film in America, Hollywood took notice. The classic horror films of the 1970s have now spawned a billion-dollar industry, but they have also penetrated deep into the American consciousness. Quite literally, Zinoman reveals, these movies have taught us what to be afraid of. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of the most important artists in horror, Shock Value is an enthralling and personality-driven account of an overlooked but hugely influential golden age in American film.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; PN1995.9 .H6 Z56 2011ISBN: 9781594203022Publication Date: 2011
Trick or Treat by
Halloween has spread around the world, yet its associations with death and the supernatural as well as its inevitable commercialization have made it one of our most puzzling holidays. How did it become what it is today? Trick or Treat is the first book both to examine the origins and history of Halloween and to explore in depth its current global popularity. Festivals like the Celtic Samhain and Catholic All Souls' Day have blended to produce the modern Halloween, which has been reborn with new customs in America--but there are also related but independent holidays, especially Mexico's Day of the Dead. Lisa Morton lifts the cobwebs off everything from the explosion in popularity of haunted attractions to the impact of events like the global economic recession, as well as the effect Halloween has had on popular culture through literary works, films, and television series. Taking us on a journey from the spectacular to the macabre, this book is a treat for anyone who wants to peep behind the mask to see the real past and present of this ever more popular holiday.
Call Number: Ocala Circulation ; GT4965 .M676 2012ISBN: 9781789141580Publication Date: 2012
