Readers have judged these novels to be among the scariest books ever written. Do you agree? They are available to borrow from the Lititz Public Library.
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
A commonplace Maine town’s residents are being wiped out by a voracious and loathsome vampire.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Returning to his childhood home, a man recalls memories of a time when a stranger’s suicide released dark creatures and ancient powers.
The Demonologist by Andrew Pyper
During a visit to Venice, one of the world’s leading authorities on demonic literature watches his daughter disappear before his eyes in a tiny attic room.
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
A gifted child doesn’t understand why she is locked in a cell, kept at gunpoint and only moved after being strapped into a wheelchair.
Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman
A sixteen-year-old boy goes to a mysterious, by-invitation-only carnival to save his comatose brother and learns there is much more at stake.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Only one human remains after every other man, woman and child have been mutated into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures that are determined to destroy him.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
A seventeen-year-old travels to a quarantined Massachusetts city full of vampires with her ex-boyfriend and a mysterious vampire boy.
Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little
Released on a technicality ten years after being incarcerated for the murder of her mother, a young woman goes undercover to chase down the one lead she has on her mother’s killer.
Don’t Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier
Creepy short stories transform the small dramas of everyday life into nightmares.
The Last Temptation by Val McDermid
When a twisted killer starts targeting psychologists across Northern Europe, a reluctant profiler tracks the executioner’s mental and physical journey.
The Ruins by Scott Smith
In Mexico for a peaceful vacation, a group of tourists sets off in search of one of their group who disappeared during an excursion to Mayan ruins.
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Two years after her son murdered seven of his fellow high-school students, a mother communicates with her estranged husband through letters, fearing her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son has become.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Four people arrive at a notoriously unfriendly house looking for solid evidence of poltergeists and inexplicable phenomena.
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
As part of the search for a serial murderer, an FBI trainee is sent to interview a former psychiatrist confined to a high-security facility for the criminally insane.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Based on events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, a fourteen-year-old stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (nonfiction)
When a highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. a secret military team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (nonfiction)
Two ex-cons ruthlessly murder a Kansas family in 1959 in order to steal their non-existent stash of money.
People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry (nonfiction)
A journalist chronicles the 2000 disappearance, massive search, long investigation and trial behind the gruesome murder case of a young Englishwoman in Japan.
March 11, 2016