Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists: Here There Be Monsters

In World War Z, life as we know it ends the way many horror fans knew it would: zombies rise up! After the post-war devastation, author Max Brooks "interviews" survivors and records their stories as well as details on what causes zombies, how they spread, what will stop them, and effective strategic warfare methods against them. (Description about NoveList.)

A security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment that only six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte can stop. (Description from catalog.)

While climbing Mount Ararat in Turkey, an avalanche forces a couple to seek shelter inside a massive cave uncovered by the snow fall. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that they speculate is really Noah's Ark. But when a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark for the first time, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses; the cadaver within is an ugly, misshapen thing with horns. Now a massive blizzard has them trapped in the cave thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain... but the team is not alone. (Description from catalog)

While on a birthday-weekend getaway with her best friend, Sloane Parker, after a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers takes a horrifying turn, changing both their lives, must come to terms with some eternal consequences as she discovers it's never too late to find satisfaction.
(Description from NoveList)

A chilling historical horror novel set in the American west in 1912 following a Lutheran priest who transcribes the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow.
(Description from NoveList)

Pray they are hungry. Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she's discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle's house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area-only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts...and the more one fears them, the stronger they become.
(Description from catalog)

Black Spring is home to the ghost of Katherine van Wyler, an alleged witch who was tortured and hanged in the 1600s. Eyes and lips sewn shut, she visits the town's residents, ominously coming and going in their houses whenever she wants. But for residents to leave Black Spring would be to invite disaster, so the town's leaders have taken measures to keep it quarantined. Then a group of boys decides Katherine needs an Internet presence, and horrendous chaos breaks out. (Description from NoveList.)

The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when 14-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of what at first seems to be acute schizophrenia, a condition which only gets worse, leading them believe its actually demonic possession, as they become the center of a reality TV show. (Description from NoveList.)

"Chinese American twins, Milly and Billy, are having a tough time. On top of the multiple failures in their personal and professional lives, they're struggling to keep their restaurant afloat. Luckily their parents, Ipo and Keon, are in town for their annual visit. Having immigrated from Hong Kong before the twins were born, Ipo and Keon have supported their children through thick and thin and are ready to lend a hand--but they're starting to wonder, has their support made Milly and Billy incapable of standing on their own? When Ipo forces them to help her clean up the house next door--a hellish and run-down ruin that was the scene of a grisly murder--the twins are in for a nasty surprise. A night of terror, gore, and supernatural mayhem reveals that there is much more to Ipo and her children than meets the eye."--Cover jacket.

High school senior Magdalena Herrera already has adult responsibilities and a deadly secret hidden in the dark of the basement, one that drains her of energy and leaves her bleeding--until the return of her childhood friend, Nessa, forces her to face her secrets. (description from catalog)