Social Horror

Four friends. One viral post. A nightmare they'll never tweet about. Mia and her friends were chasing a ghost—an impossibly perfect, sapphire-blue swimming hole hidden deep in the Jersey wilderness, known only by its hashtag. The plan was simple: drive in, get the perfect shot for their feeds, and be home by dark. It was meant to be an escape from their curated lives, a quest for something real to post about. But when their car breaks down and their phones lose signal, the vast, silent forest begins to feel less like an adventure and more like a trap. They are not alone. The strange ...

"This is gory and brutal and beautiful and painful and terrifying and a pure delight." —Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author “Leede’s words and narrator Sosie Bacon’s voice imbue Maeve with thought-provoking realism and earnestness, even as her violent acts become more...

Shadow Altars: Urban Legends from Mexico City and the Ancient Pathways is not a collection of ghost stories. It is a map of fear as it actually operates. Across canals, hospitals, cemeteries, convent ruins, mountain roads, and narrow city streets, Mexican urban legends have long functioned as informal warning systems—quiet instructions about where not to go, when not to linger, and which offers should never be accepted. These stories do not demand belief. They demand attention. From La Llorona’s inverted cry to the sealed grave of El Vampiro de Jalisco, from institutional apparitions ...

Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! By James Bachman When the outbreak spreads to the City of Angels, chaos reigns. Los Angeles descends into a nightmare as wildfires blaze, the infected roam the streets, and survivors scramble to escape a city consumed by death. In a world where the rich hide behind gates and the poor are left to fend for themselves, the lines between life and death blur—and survival comes at an unimaginable cost. Fast-paced, gritty, and unrelenting, Los Angeles, Zombie Apocalypse! plunges readers into a city where every moment is a fight to stay alive. Perfect for fans of ...

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK “THE BEST BOOK OF 2026” (KATIE COURIC MEDIA) “[This] twist-filled thriller… promises to keep readers guessing from the first page to the last.” —Parade Who hasn’t wanted to murder an ex—figuratively, at least? Natalie has only ever wanted one...

The Social Code is the much-anticipated sequel to Patrick Hanlon's widely acclaimed book Primal Branding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future. The book illustrates how to design and attract social communities, using underlying principles that have already created great brands, internal cultures, political and social movements, even civic communities. The new mission is to create a fan community that becomes so passionate about your success, they are willing to create it themselves.

She wanted safety. She found a controlled community instead. Your new neighbors are watching. For your own good. I thought moving to Serenity Heights would fix everything. After my divorce, the manicured lawns, smiling neighbors, and promise of safety felt like a fresh start—exactly what I needed to rebuild a broken life. But insomnia has a way of revealing what daylight hides. While the rest of the neighborhood sleeps, I’m awake—watching residents move through the streets in eerie synchronization. Noticing how questions are quietly discouraged. How people who push too hard suddenly ...

In Captive in Iran, Maryam and Marziyeh recount their 259 days in Evin. It’s an amazing story of unyielding faith - when denying God would have meant freedom. Of incredible support from strangers around the world who fought for the women’s release. And of bringing God’s light into one of the world’s darkest places - giving hope to those who had lost everything, and showing love to those in despair.

For readers of Nightbitch and We Ride Upon Sticks, this strange and sexy novel of queer love in a small town is an unsettling reminder that the horrors of modern life is a monster ready to possess us all. Angelina Sicco was born and raised in Cadenze, an ugly little mountain town that's dead...

From the award-winning director and NYT bestselling author of If Cats Disappeared from the World, the thrilling novelization of his hit film Exit 8, adapting the indie game of the same name. A young man is commuting on a packed Tokyo subway, when he receives a phone call from his ex, with...

BRIX CAME TO RIPLEY UNIVERSITY TO KEEP HIS HEAD DOWN. He’s always been good at making people comfortable—agreeable, polite, easy to like. It’s how he’s survived. But at Ripley, that skill doesn’t make him popular. It makes him useful. When a charismatic inner circle takes an interest in him, Brix finally gets what he’s always wanted: a seat at the table. Friends. Invitations. A sense that he actually belongs. But something about them is too practiced—too coordinated—and the cost of staying close keeps rising. Conversations don’t match his memory. His instincts keep ...

One woman's deadly obsession with a haunted archival film precipitates her undoing in Black Flame, from the USA Today bestselling author of Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin. “[Narrator Dana] Aronowitz's skillful portrayal of Ellen's breakdown will lead listeners to ponder if she can possibly...

A Goodreads Most Anticipated Horror Novel Four unlikely allies in a small town investigate a local teen's disappearance, and what they discover festering at the core of their community is far more sinister and ancient than they could’ve ever imagined. For fans of She is a Haunting, True...

“An eye-opening dazzler” (Stephen King) about a pair of globetrotting, gore-obsessed investigative journalists whose entanglement in a French philosopher’s death becomes a surreal journey into global conspiracy from legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg. Stylish and camera-obsessed, Naomi...

The world is increasingly unthinkable, a world of planetary disasters, emerging pandemics, and the looming threat of extinction. In this book, Eugene Thacker suggests that we look to the genre of horror as offering a way of thinking about the unthinkable world. To confront this idea is to confront the limit of our ability to understand the world in which we live - a central motif of the horror genre. In the Dust of This Planet explores these relationships between philosophy and horror.

"You'll want to read this one with the lights on."—Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author Cold Eternity is the newest action-packed space horror from S.A. Barnes, perfect for fans of Severance, where desperation for eternal life leads to a fate worse than death... Halley is on the run...

In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and...

In the early 20th century, World War I was the most devastating event humanity had yet experienced. New machines of war left tens of millions killed or wounded in the most grotesque of ways. The Great War remade the world's map, created new global powers, and brought forth some of the biggest problems still facing us today. But it also birthed a new art form: the horror film, made from the fears of a generation ruined by war. From Nosferatu to Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War.

"Blood-soaked, heart-wrenching, grim and glorious.”—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep From CJ Leede, the author of Maeve Fly, comes a scorching new apocalyptic novel. American Gods meets The Last of Us in this epic and sweeping story about the end of the world as we...

The Psychology of Horror Movies: Why We Enjoy Fear, How Suspense Hooks the Brain, and What Horror Reveals About Us explores a simple but puzzling fact: many people pay to feel afraid. Some dread horror and avoid it completely. Others actively seek out ghost stories, slashers, possession films, creature features, gore, and slow-building psychological dread. This book explains those reactions in plain language. It looks at how fear works in the body and brain, why suspense can feel gripping rather than unpleasant, and why an imagined threat can leave viewers energized, relieved, or even ...