Horror

Asylum. bk.1

Roux, Madeleine


Themes: Sanity vs insanity, Secrets, Friendship, Trauma, Fear, Identity, Curiosity, Trust, Paranormal, Survival. Three teens at a summer program for gifted students uncover shocking secrets in the sanatorium-turned-dorm where they're staying-secrets that link them all to the asylum's dark past. Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it's a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane. As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried. Featuring found photos of unsettling history and real abandoned asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Madeleine Roux's teen debut, Asylum, is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity.
Date Published:2013

Themes: Sanity vs insanity, Secrets, Friendship, Trauma, Fear, Identity, Curiosity, Trust, Paranormal, Survival. Three teens at a summer program for gifted students uncover shocking secrets in the sanatorium-turned-dorm where they're staying-secrets that link them all to the asylum's dark past. Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it's a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane. As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it's no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried. Featuring found photos of unsettling history and real abandoned asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Madeleine Roux's teen debut, Asylum, is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity.

Date Published:2013

Bag of bones

King, Stephen, 1947-


Horror Fiction Thriller Mystery Fantasy Paranormal Suspense Supernatural Ghosts . Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, Bag of Bones, is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire. Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor. Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home. He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan? As vivid and enthralling as King's most enduring works, Bag of Bones resonates with what Amy Tan calls "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." It's no secret that King is our most mesmerizing storyteller. In Bag of Bones -- described by Gloria Naylor as "a love story about the dark places within us all" -- he proves to be one of our most moving.
Date Published:1998

Horror Fiction Thriller Mystery Fantasy Paranormal Suspense Supernatural Ghosts . Stephen King's most gripping and unforgettable novel, Bag of Bones, is a story of grief and a lost love's enduring bonds, of a new love haunted by the secrets of the past, of an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire. Set in the Maine territory King has made mythic, Bag of Bones recounts the plight of forty-year-old bestselling novelist Mike Noonan, who is unable to stop grieving even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and who can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor. Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home. He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath -- held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, who twists the very fabric of the community to his purpose: to take his three-year-old granddaughter away from her widowed young mother. As Mike is drawn into their struggle, as he falls in love with both of them, he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs, now the site of ghostly visitations, ever-escalating nightmares, and the sudden recovery of his writing ability. What are the forces that have been unleashed here -- and what do they want of Mike Noonan? As vivid and enthralling as King's most enduring works, Bag of Bones resonates with what Amy Tan calls "the witty and obsessive voice of King's powerful imagination." It's no secret that King is our most mesmerizing storyteller. In Bag of Bones -- described by Gloria Naylor as "a love story about the dark places within us all" -- he proves to be one of our most moving.

Date Published:1998

Chilling tales : evil did I dwell; lewd I did live /

Kelly, Michael, 1963-


short stories. This tome includes selections by iconic Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers Nancy Kilpatrick, Claude Lalumière, Brett Alexander Savory, Robert J. Wiersema, Richard Gavin, Barbara Roden, Leah Bobet, Michael R. Colangelo, Simon Strantzas, Jason S. Ridler, Suzanne Church, David Nickle, Christopher K. Miller, Brent Hayward, Sandra Kasturi, Ian Rogers, Gemma Files and Tia V. Travis with an introduction by Michael Kelly. Edited by the maestro of macabre, Michael Kelly, Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live will distress, delight and disturb you with stories that slowly creep under your skin and linger in your mind long after the pages have been read.
Date Published:2011

short stories. This tome includes selections by iconic Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers Nancy Kilpatrick, Claude Lalumière, Brett Alexander Savory, Robert J. Wiersema, Richard Gavin, Barbara Roden, Leah Bobet, Michael R. Colangelo, Simon Strantzas, Jason S. Ridler, Suzanne Church, David Nickle, Christopher K. Miller, Brent Hayward, Sandra Kasturi, Ian Rogers, Gemma Files and Tia V. Travis with an introduction by Michael Kelly. Edited by the maestro of macabre, Michael Kelly, Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live will distress, delight and disturb you with stories that slowly creep under your skin and linger in your mind long after the pages have been read.

Date Published:2011

Chilling tales : in words, alas, drown I /

Kelly, Michael, 1963-


20 New Spine Tingling Tales... Canada's maestro of the macabre, Michael Kelly, bring you Chilling Tales: In Words, Alas, Drown I, an all new collection of nightmares that will perturb and torment you. Tales that will leave a frisson of fear and raise a quiver of goose-flesh. A chill is in the air. This tome includes selections by iconic Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers Camille Alexa, Colleen Anderson, Kevin Cockle, Gemma Files, Lisa L. Hannett, Derek Kunsken, Claude Lalumière, Daniel LeMoal, Catherine MacLeod, Michael Matheson, Susie Moloney, David Nickle, Ian Rogers, Douglas Smith, Simon Strantzas, Edo van Belkom, Halli Villegas, Bev Vincent, Robert J. Wiersema and Rio Youers, with an introduction by Michael Kelly.
Date Published:2013

20 New Spine Tingling Tales... Canada's maestro of the macabre, Michael Kelly, bring you Chilling Tales: In Words, Alas, Drown I, an all new collection of nightmares that will perturb and torment you. Tales that will leave a frisson of fear and raise a quiver of goose-flesh. A chill is in the air. This tome includes selections by iconic Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers Camille Alexa, Colleen Anderson, Kevin Cockle, Gemma Files, Lisa L. Hannett, Derek Kunsken, Claude Lalumière, Daniel LeMoal, Catherine MacLeod, Michael Matheson, Susie Moloney, David Nickle, Ian Rogers, Douglas Smith, Simon Strantzas, Edo van Belkom, Halli Villegas, Bev Vincent, Robert J. Wiersema and Rio Youers, with an introduction by Michael Kelly.

Date Published:2013

Death sentence. Bk.3. Escape from furnace

Smith, Alexander Gordon, 1979-


After his failed attempt to escape from Furnace Penitentiary, Alex struggles to survive the bloodstained laboratories beneath where monsters are manufactured, with a death sentence hanging over his head.
Date Published:2009

Down a dark hall

Duncan, Lois, 1934-


Lois Duncan was an American pioneer of Young Adult suspense who spent her life in Florida and New Mexico, authoring over 50 books and receiving the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award. While she did not identify as queer, she became a famous advocate for justice after her daughter’s unsolved murder, a tragedy that changed the course of her life and writing. Themes: Possession, isolation, artistic genius, the cost of talent, grief, female friendship, the boundaries of the supernatural, exploitation. When Kit Gordy arrives at the exclusive Blackwood Boarding School, she expects a rigorous education, but she soon realizes the few students selected are actually being used as psychic batteries for the dead. As her classmates begin to waste away while channeling the spirits of long-dead geniuses, Kit must find a way to escape the locked gates before the ghosts consume her entirely. In this dark manor, the brilliance of the past is a death sentence for the living.
Date Published:

Lois Duncan was an American pioneer of Young Adult suspense who spent her life in Florida and New Mexico, authoring over 50 books and receiving the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award. While she did not identify as queer, she became a famous advocate for justice after her daughter’s unsolved murder, a tragedy that changed the course of her life and writing. Themes: Possession, isolation, artistic genius, the cost of talent, grief, female friendship, the boundaries of the supernatural, exploitation. When Kit Gordy arrives at the exclusive Blackwood Boarding School, she expects a rigorous education, but she soon realizes the few students selected are actually being used as psychic batteries for the dead. As her classmates begin to waste away while channeling the spirits of long-dead geniuses, Kit must find a way to escape the locked gates before the ghosts consume her entirely. In this dark manor, the brilliance of the past is a death sentence for the living.

Date Published:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Stevenson, Robert Louis.


gothic horror Themes: Duality of human nature, Good vs. evil, Science and morality, Secrets, Identity, Addiction, Violence, Fear, Guilt. A brilliant doctor unlocks the secret to unleashing his darkest self—and London will never be the same. By day, Jekyll is a respected scientist, but by night, the monstrous Mr. Hyde terrorizes the city with cruelty and violence. Can Jekyll control the evil he has created, or will Hyde destroy them both?
Date Published:1981

gothic horror Themes: Duality of human nature, Good vs. evil, Science and morality, Secrets, Identity, Addiction, Violence, Fear, Guilt. A brilliant doctor unlocks the secret to unleashing his darkest self—and London will never be the same. By day, Jekyll is a respected scientist, but by night, the monstrous Mr. Hyde terrorizes the city with cruelty and violence. Can Jekyll control the evil he has created, or will Hyde destroy them both?

Date Published:1981

End of Watch : Bk.3. The Bill Hodges Trilogy.

King, Stephen


The spectacular finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes (winner of the Edgar Award) and Finders Keepers—In End of Watch, the diabolical “Mercedes Killer” drives his enemies to suicide, and if Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney don’t figure out a way to stop him, they’ll be victims themselves. In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense. No one does it better than King.
Date Published:2016

The spectacular finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes (winner of the Edgar Award) and Finders Keepers—In End of Watch, the diabolical “Mercedes Killer” drives his enemies to suicide, and if Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney don’t figure out a way to stop him, they’ll be victims themselves. In Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, something has awakened. Something evil. Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room. Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney—the woman who delivered the blow to Hartsfield’s head that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city. In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the heart-pounding, supernatural suspense that has been his bestselling trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and chilling suspense. No one does it better than King.

Date Published:2016

Execution. Bk.5 : Escape from Furnace /

Smith, Alexander Gordon, 1979-,


Alex Sawyer has escaped his underground nightmare to discover that the whole world has become a horrible prison run by his nemesis, Alfred Furnace, and only Alex can stop him, even if that makes him the executioner.
Date Published:2013

Finders Keepers : Bk.2. The Bill Hodges Trilogy.

King, Stephen


A masterful, intensely suspenseful novel about a reader whose obsession with a reclusive writer goes far too far—a book about the power of storytelling, starring the same trio of unlikely and winning heroes King introduced in Mr. Mercedes. “Wake up, genius.” So begins King’s instantly riveting story about a vengeful reader. The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel. Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years. Not since Misery has King played with the notion of a reader whose obsession with a writer gets dangerous. Finders Keepers is spectacular, heart-pounding suspense, but it is also King writing about how literature shapes a life—for good, for bad, forever.
Date Published:2016

A masterful, intensely suspenseful novel about a reader whose obsession with a reclusive writer goes far too far—a book about the power of storytelling, starring the same trio of unlikely and winning heroes King introduced in Mr. Mercedes. “Wake up, genius.” So begins King’s instantly riveting story about a vengeful reader. The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel. Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years. Not since Misery has King played with the notion of a reader whose obsession with a writer gets dangerous. Finders Keepers is spectacular, heart-pounding suspense, but it is also King writing about how literature shapes a life—for good, for bad, forever.

Date Published:2016

Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde : With an Introduction by Stephen King /

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851.


“Within the pages of this volume you will come upon three of the darkest creations of English nineteenth-century literature; three of the darkest in all of English and American literature, many would say…and not without justification…These three creatures, presented together for the first time, all have a great deal in common beyond their power to go on frightening generation after generation of readers…but that fact alone should be considered before all others.”—From the Introduction by Stephen King A diabolical, bloodthirsty Count draws an unsuspecting young man into a world of terrors. A scientist oversteps the bounds of conscience and brings to life a tortured creation. A man of medicine explores his darker side only to fall prey to it. These three legendary tales have held readers spellbound for more than a century. The titles alone—Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—have become synonymous with horror. They are part of a universal language that serves to put a monster’s face on the good-and-evil duality of our very human nature. Inventive and subversive, these classic tales of terror can shake even the modern reader with something far more profound than fear....
Date Published:1978

“Within the pages of this volume you will come upon three of the darkest creations of English nineteenth-century literature; three of the darkest in all of English and American literature, many would say…and not without justification…These three creatures, presented together for the first time, all have a great deal in common beyond their power to go on frightening generation after generation of readers…but that fact alone should be considered before all others.”—From the Introduction by Stephen King A diabolical, bloodthirsty Count draws an unsuspecting young man into a world of terrors. A scientist oversteps the bounds of conscience and brings to life a tortured creation. A man of medicine explores his darker side only to fall prey to it. These three legendary tales have held readers spellbound for more than a century. The titles alone—Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—have become synonymous with horror. They are part of a universal language that serves to put a monster’s face on the good-and-evil duality of our very human nature. Inventive and subversive, these classic tales of terror can shake even the modern reader with something far more profound than fear....

Date Published:1978

Fugitives. Bk.4. Escape from furnace

Smith, Alexander Gordon, 1979-


After achieving the impossible by escaping the laboratories and cells of Furnace Penitentiary, Alex, injected with superhuman abilities, must uncover the last of Furnace's secrets--the truth about the man who built the prison.
Date Published:2010

The graveyard book

Gaiman, Neil.


fantasy, horror, paranormal, ghosts, supernatural. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead. There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more. But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family. A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean.3.
Date Published:2008

fantasy, horror, paranormal, ghosts, supernatural. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead. There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more. But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family. A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean.3.

Date Published:2008

Horrorstor

Hendrix, Grady,


Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination. A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, Horrorstör delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.
Date Published:2014

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking. To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination. A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, Horrorstör delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.

Date Published:2014

I am legend : The Book That Inspired the Hit Motion Picture /

Matheson, Richard, 1926-2013.


Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone. An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him. By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn....
Date Published:2007

The institute : a novel /

King, Stephen, 1947-,


horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, paranormal, sci-fi. In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis' parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents -- telekinesis and telepathy -- who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and 10-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, "like the roach motel," Kalisha says. "You check in, but you don't check out." In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don't, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from The Institute.
Date Published:2019

horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, paranormal, sci-fi. In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis' parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents -- telekinesis and telepathy -- who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and 10-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, "like the roach motel," Kalisha says. "You check in, but you don't check out." In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don't, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from The Institute.

Date Published:2019

Lockdown. Bk.1. Escape from furnace

Smith, Alexander Gordon, 1979-


When fourteen-year-old Alex is framed for murder, he becomes an inmate in the Furnace Penitentiary, where brutal inmates and sadistic guards reign, boys who disappear in the middle of the night sometimes return weirdly altered, and escape might just be possible.
Date Published:2009

Lord Loss

Shan, Darren.


Themes: Family, Trauma, Survival, Fear, Courage, Good vs evil, Secrets, Magic, Revenge, Loss, Identity. Grubbs Grady thought his biggest problem was getting out of gym class—until the night his family was slaughtered by demons. Now he’s trapped in a nightmare world of blood, magic, and monsters, where survival is a fight he can’t afford to lose. If Grubbs wants to live, he’ll have to face Lord Loss himself—and the cost of failure is unthinkable.
Date Published:2005

Themes: Family, Trauma, Survival, Fear, Courage, Good vs evil, Secrets, Magic, Revenge, Loss, Identity. Grubbs Grady thought his biggest problem was getting out of gym class—until the night his family was slaughtered by demons. Now he’s trapped in a nightmare world of blood, magic, and monsters, where survival is a fight he can’t afford to lose. If Grubbs wants to live, he’ll have to face Lord Loss himself—and the cost of failure is unthinkable.

Date Published:2005

The Lottery

Jackson, Shirley, 1919-1965.


Themes: Conformity, tradition, violence, societal pressure, fear, scapegoating, human nature, morality, suspense, power. In a small American town, the local residents are abuzz with excitement and nervousness when they wake on the morning of the twenty-seventh of June. Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win.
Date Published:

Themes: Conformity, tradition, violence, societal pressure, fear, scapegoating, human nature, morality, suspense, power. In a small American town, the local residents are abuzz with excitement and nervousness when they wake on the morning of the twenty-seventh of June. Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win.

Date Published:

Morpheus Road: The Light : Book One.

MacHale, D. J.


It is the first book in the Morpheus Road trilogy. American writer and director from Connecticut who is a legendary figure in YA horror, most notably for creating the iconic TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?. While he does not identify as queer, his career has been defined by a unique ability to craft high-stakes adventures and spine-tingling suspense for young audiences across both television and literature. What themes does this book have? themes: Grief, guilt, fear, the afterlife, mystery, friendship, courage. fantasy, horror, paranormal, supernatural, mystery, ghosts. Sixteen-year-old Marshall Seaver is expecting a boring summer when his best friend goes away, but instead he finds himself haunted - and hunted - by ghosts that want something from him which he cannot decipher. Marshall Seaver thinks he’s just a normal sixteen-year-old until his best friend Cooper disappears and a terrifying, skeletal figure begins to stalk his every move. As the "Black" closes in, Marshall realizes he is being haunted by something much worse than a typical ghost—a vengeful force that knows his deepest fears. To save himself and find out what happened to Cooper, Marshall must follow a trail of clues that leads straight into the heart of a nightmare known as Morpheus Road.
Date Published:2010

It is the first book in the Morpheus Road trilogy. American writer and director from Connecticut who is a legendary figure in YA horror, most notably for creating the iconic TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?. While he does not identify as queer, his career has been defined by a unique ability to craft high-stakes adventures and spine-tingling suspense for young audiences across both television and literature. What themes does this book have? themes: Grief, guilt, fear, the afterlife, mystery, friendship, courage. fantasy, horror, paranormal, supernatural, mystery, ghosts. Sixteen-year-old Marshall Seaver is expecting a boring summer when his best friend goes away, but instead he finds himself haunted - and hunted - by ghosts that want something from him which he cannot decipher. Marshall Seaver thinks he’s just a normal sixteen-year-old until his best friend Cooper disappears and a terrifying, skeletal figure begins to stalk his every move. As the "Black" closes in, Marshall realizes he is being haunted by something much worse than a typical ghost—a vengeful force that knows his deepest fears. To save himself and find out what happened to Cooper, Marshall must follow a trail of clues that leads straight into the heart of a nightmare known as Morpheus Road.

Date Published:2010