Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists: Horror

Outliving the expectations of her Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis, Nicola Laughton marries Anton, but after his death in a car crash goes viral as a supernatural event, a group of spiritualists offering closure hold a séance that unleashes a terrifying force.
(Description from NoveList)

When Samantha inherits her family's lakefront cottage under the condition she stay there a month, she returns to Paynes Hollow to confront buried memories, her father's alleged crime, and a chilling force beneath the lake that threatens her grip on reality.
(Description from NoveList)

Invited to join a popular clique at her university, a misfit artist with a dark imagination is drawn into ritualistic activities that transform her perspectives on reality. (Description from NoveList)

Evil has a one track mind... A woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.
(Description from NoveList)

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe. When a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent.
(Description from NoveList)

Slasher meets satire, in this darkly comic novel set in Nigeria about a woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends.
(Description from catalog)

A modern retelling of the Bigfoot legend is presented as a gripping journal by a woman from a high-tech Pacific Northwest community who becomes cut off from civilization by a volcanic eruption before witnessing the flight of starving humanoid beings.

It’s 1915 and the world is transforming, but for thirteen-year-old Bolt and Eleanor—twins so close they can literally read each other’s minds—life is falling apart. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost uncle Charlie. During a late-night poker game, when one of his rages ends in murder, they decide to flee.
(Description from NoveList)

When Noah Fairchild returns to his childhood home in Richmond to find his parents in a horrifying trance induced by far-right media, he and his young nephew Marcus must flee through a country overtaken by possessed, violent families tearing each other apart.
(Description from NoveList)

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.
(Description from catalog)

Set in Florida in the 1970s, Grady Hendrix's newest novel follows five young women in a home for unwed mothers who find a guide to witchcraft.
(Description from catalog)

Leslie is assigned to the backwoods town of Spar Creek by the Frontier Nursing Service, under its mandate: vaccinate the flock, birth babies, and weather the judgements of churchy locals. Forged in the fires of the Western Front and reborn in the cafes of Paris, Leslie believes he can handle whatever is thrown at him—but Spar Creek holds a darkness beyond his nightmares. Something ugly festers within the local congregation, and its malice has focused on a young person they insist is an unruly tomboy who must be brought to heel. Violence is bubbling, ready to spill over, and Leslie will have to act fast if he intends to be of use. But the woods are haunted in ways Leslie does not understand. (Description from NoveList)

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.
(Description from Amazon)

Mourning the death of his wife, a father and his young son move to Featherbank for a fresh start but find their new town has a dark past involving a serial killer named "The Whisper Man." (Description from NoveList.)

Emerging as the lone survivor of a serial killer's massacre a decade earlier, Quincy Carpenter struggles to ignore traumatic memories and move on as one of a group of other survivors who look to her for answers when one of them is found dead in a suspicious suicide. (Description from catalog.)

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member.--Description by NoveList

Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic.
(Description from Amazon)

"As a child, Brian and his friend Jimmy would make sci-fi films in their yards, convincing their friends to star as victims of grisly murders, smearing lipstick on the 'bodies' to simulate blood. Now a talented artist and aspiring filmmaker, Brian, along with Jimmy, Jimmy's friend Tina, and Laurie--his reluctant muse--sets off to a remote cabin in the woods with an old 16 millimeter camera to make a true sci-fi horror movie, an homage to Brian's favorite movie: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But as Brian's affections for Laurie go seemingly unreciprocated, Brian writes and draws himself into a fantasy where she is the girl of his dreams, his damsel in distress, and his savior wrapped into one. Rife with references to classic sci-fi and horror movies and filled with panels of stunning depictions of nature, film and the surreal, Burns blurs the line between Brian's dreams and reality, imagination and perception." (provided by publisher)

"When college freshman Kat Fields receives a mysterious email urging her to visit a relatively unknown Texas town with a history of witchcraft, strange sightings, and "devil lights"--glowing red stars that appear above the town's hills every night--she ditches her plans for spring break and takes a solo road trip to Estrella Roja to investigate for her podcast, Paranormal Texas, catchphrase: "Y'all stay spooky!" Meanwhile, Marisol "Mari" Castillo, is also headed for Estrella Roja to attend the funeral for her abuela whom she hasn't seen since childhood, when her mom cut ties with the family and left town. Feeling lost and bored, she decides to help Kat after a chance meeting at the local diner--and, okay, it doesn't hurt that Kat is super cute. As the two girls grow closer not only to each other, but to uncovering the dark legacy that the town was built on, they discover that something hungry lurks beneath the strange stars and that in the hills of Estrella Roja, some secrets should stay buried"-- Provided by publisher.