recommended reading

The Shrinking Man tells a terrifying story about Scott Carey, who, after ingesting a cloud of radioactive spray, finds himself slowly shrinking, day-by-day, inch-by-inch, until he starts to waste away. The slow, unnerving horror of The Shrinking Man powerfully deconstructs American masculinity and middle-class fears during the 1950s. Adapted into the Hugo Award–winning film The Incredible Shrinking Man, this is a classic by the author of I Am Legend and other renowned works—a master of imagination whom Ray Bradbury called “one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.”

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, a child is born with an exquisite sense of smell. He lives to fathom odors, and soon apprentices to a perfumer who teaches him how to mix precious oils and herbs to produce the scents that all of Paris craves. But he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. It’s an obsession that leads to depravity and murder. A wonderfully written, powerful story.

Jim Thompson’s electrifying 1952 novel takes us inside the criminally warped mind of small-town Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford, who, when he isn’t needling locals with his down-home folksiness, is up to his ears in revenge, blackmail, sadomasochism, and murder. Shocking and brutal, this novel deserves a place in the Hall of Fame of serial killer portraits.

There’s an ethereal creepiness that Ramsey Campbell can convey like no other writer. As a reader, he gives you the feeling that there’s always something more going on than what he’s telling you. This excellent collection of 17 tales takes in a spectrum of horror from the sublime to the grotesque to the, well, almost playful. Just when you think you have a story figured out, there’s an another dimension to it you hadn’t counted on. A piece that seems firmly grounded in everyday reality can turn on a dime into something otherworldly and bizarre. Campbell is a talented and imaginative writer: a true craftsman in an arena too often flooded with tropes, empty characters and derivative plots.

Zombie is a classic novel of dark obsession from the extraordinary Joyce Carol Oates. A brilliant, unflinching journey into the mind of a serial killer, Zombie views the world through the eyes of Quentin P., newly paroled sex offender, as he chillingly evolves from rapist to mass murderer. Joyce Carol Oates—the prolific author of so many extraordinary bestsellers, including The Gravediggers Daughter, Blonde, and The Falls—demonstrates why she ranks among America’s most respected and accomplished literary artists with this provocative, breathtaking, and disturbing masterwork.

You know the story: A serial murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill is on the loose, stalking particular women. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the F.B.I. Academy, is summoned by Jack Crawford, Chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and grisly killer now confined in a state hospital for the criminally insane. Relentlessly thrilling.

Cut off from the wider world, Kipp begins to see glimpses of a mysterious woman clothed in black, but the townspeople are reluctant to tell him anything about what he’s seen or the mysterious happenings at the estate. Slowly, the reader is drawn into the darkness of Kipp’s past and the legend of The Woman in Black.

When mysterious Carmilla comes into her life, Laura becomes the focus of her carnivorous, psychosexual advances. A classic thriller.

Twenty-three mind-blowing tales told by people who answered an ad headlined "Writers' Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months." They believed that they could leave behind the distractions of "real life" and focus on creating the masterpiece that was in them. But this haven from worry turns out to be a cavernous old theater where they are not only isolated from the outside world, but face heat and power outages, and diminished food supplies, making them characters in a horror story all its own.

Kindly Dr. Jekyll and wicked Mr. Hyde: no two men could be more different or more alike. In Stevenson’s classic tale, Hyde makes his vile presence known in 19th Century London. But punishment for his vile acts are always parried by the good, and well-respected Jekyll. Soon, the secret relationship between the two men will be revealed. A chilling tale of the potential good and evil that lurks in all our hearts.

Sara Sawyer is swept from her feet by the Indian traditionalist known as "Hawk." Mysterious and mystical, he enshrouds her in a world of magic ... until one day, with little explanation, he returns to the forests that had formerly been his life.Two years pass. Sara, a reporter, is sent to cover an unusual killing--a man has been found dead with a look of screaming terror on his face. Sara senses there's more to the killing than meets the eye but rejects the notion that repeatedly suggests itself: that the actual cause of death was something supernatural. That night, at the height of a fierce storm, Hawk returns, bringing with him the disturbing tale of a skinwalker: a dreadful spirit creature he claims is responsible for the killing. But in rejecting a supernatural premise, Sara is forced to face the possibility that Hawk himself may be the killer.

Imagine discovering an alien monstrosity beyond mortal comprehension. With this novella, Lovecraft singlehandedly invented the cosmic horror genre.

The polarizing literary debut by Scottish author Ian Banks, The Wasp Factory is the bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath. Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least: Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through.

Norman Bates has a strange relationship with his mother. People think she’s been dead for 20 years, but Norman knows better. Together, they run a motel next to a deserted highway. Then, one day, Mary Crane, a lovesick embezzler, blows into town and needs a place to spend the night. It doesn’t go well for her. Psycho is an unflinching look into a twisted mind by a master storyteller.

Brian Evenson has a knack for creating bizarre and unsettling scenarios. His sparse writing style hones in on the outlandish traumas of curious characters, while leaving his readers’ minds with ample room for embellishing on his creepy tales. A master of the eerie and the unconventional, Evenson offers uniquely stark and often grisly visions in The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, a stellar selection of stories. This is Evenson at his best.

First released in 1948 by Arkham House, this remarkable collection of weird fiction is a great introduction to an overlooked master. Ranging from supernatural revenge to traditional ghost tales to the blackest humor, Hartley’s talents are on full display in such creepy classics as “Feet Foremost," "The Cotillon," "The Travelling Grave" and "The Killing Bottle.” S.T. Joshi calls says Hartley stories are “among the most distinguished and frequently reprinted horror tales of their time.”

This moody, modern take on the vampire story focuses on the relationship between a bullied, 12-year-old boy named Oskar and new neighbor Eli. Together they forge an odd friendship while surrounded by tragedy, death and destruction. A sometimes bloody, sometimes touching novel that compares favorably with the best works of Anne Rice.

A spiraling, staggering maelstrom of human evil, at the center of which is a seven-foot-tall villian named Judge Holden who may or may not be the devil himself.

This 1971 horror novel tells the story of the demonic possession of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two priests who attempt to exorcise the demon. Inspired by a 1949 case of supposed demonic possession, The Exorcist is easily one of the most chilling supernatural stories ever written.

This best-of collection of Joe R. Lansdale's stories is nothing short of a hoot. For those unfamiliar with Lansdale's tales, suffice it to say they toe a wavering line somewhere between horror and very weird fiction. Dark humor is one element of his style but it seldom gets in the way of the chillingly dread atmospheres he creates. Case in point: "The God of the Razor," in which an antiques dealer searches an abandoned manor for collectibles. As he inspects the flooded basement, he comes face-to-face with a madman who relates how the death of a friend robbed him of his humanity and made him a host to a demonic presence. The ensuing battle between the madman and the antiques dealer is gripping and results in an ending as unexpected as it is inventive. Bumper Crop is populated with colorful characters who often operate at the margins of society. The pace is crisp and the plots stretch the limits of dark fiction. Joe R. Lansdale is a one-of-a kind writer whose unique style and vision is amply displayed in this wonderful compilation.

Written in 1865, this superb exploration of the lycanthropy curse and related topics covers a century of legends and lore. It is fascinating, readable and packed full of chilling tales. Citing Latin, Greek, Norwegian, Icelandic, French and Native American sources, Baring-Gould skillfully lays out the story of men and women reported to have been transformed into brutish beasts. This offers an eye-opening, ghoulish tableaux of about monsters, madness and depravity. Author Kent David Kelly calls it “one of the finest, most disturbing, and most intelligent books on werewolves that you will ever read.”

In Arthur Machen’s The Hill of Dreams, a young writer is haunted by the presence of a ruin near his rural home. Whenever he visits the ruin, it carries him off to ancient Rome. His visions are vibrant and sensual and all-encompassing. Years later, when he moves to London, the pressure to write something of literary merit and the isolation of being friendless in a metropolis takes their toll on him. He becomes drawn into a whirlpool of altered realities that threaten not only his sanity but his life. The Hill of Dreams is a marvelously atmospheric novel that has influenced writers from Lord Dunsany to Henry Miller

Harriet gives birth to an eleven-pound boy, caveman-like in appearance and surprisingly strong. They name him Ben. The child is violent in all his actions, including breastfeeding, and he doesn’t show any signs of recognizing his family. “What is he?” they wonder. Attempts at answering this question, whispered through the family, include: goblin, dwarf, troll, changeling, gnome. A creepy, slow-burner of a story beautifully written.

Aren’t evil extraterrestrial invaders just the most fun ever? Forget Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In tranquil Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell uncovers a conspiracy to turn everyday people into alien pod folks. One by one, his neighbors, family and friends are becoming clones in a plot to take over the world. This is a fast-paced classic thriller hits on all cylinders. Dean Koontz called it “a gift of gold for us all.” You bet it is.

Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking monster-of-a-novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who plunders graveyards to bring to life a new being. But the creature he creates is lonely and haunted, and shunned by the world he was born into. A chilling Gothic tale of terror and revenge.

S.T. Joshi wrote famously of Thomas Ligotti that his “interest is focused more intensely and exclusively on the weird, than any author’s in the history of weird fiction.” One can agree or disagree with this characterization but there is no denying that Ligotti spins a uniquely dark web of fantastic horror. No one else writes like he does. Hands-down, this double-book comprises the best of Ligotti’s short stories. It offers a mesmerizing tour of the bizarre, featuring dreamlike characters and settings, and conflicts both brutal and ethereal. He pirouettes through visions of evil and the horrific like a literary virtuoso. Writes Michael Dirda in The Washington Post: “No matter how nightmarish the events described, Ligotti’s prose is always precise and beautifully controlled.”

A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews is searing, hypnotic, disgusting, brutal, visceral, hilarious, and deeply tragic. It’s a book that grabs you like a pitbull and locks its jaw. With a deceptive simplicity and ingenious attention to detail, Crew’s prose burns itself into the reader’s mind. Vulgar and perceptive, but darkly beautiful, his writing is truly alive. The way he returns to details like the sound of an injured dog’s breathing, a TV talk show playing in the other room, the unique curve of a snake’s body as it moves to strike, makes for incredibly memorable, immersive and moving scenes.

Giant rats slaughter the good people of London in this masterful monster tale by famous British writer James Herbert. Well-paced and captivating, it was considered too graphic by some critics when it was first published in 1974, but since has become acknowledged as a classic of modern horror. Though the plot is gruesomely straightforward (will our heroes stem the tide of ravenous rats in time to save humanity?), it is wildly entertaining, with plenty of digs at blue-nose authorities, and some dark humor. In short, The Rats is a delight.