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- Lockwood & Co.
series6 books2013
similar byfriendshipbritish islescontemporaryeerie+2 more
Lockwood & Co. is a young adult supernatural thriller series by Jonathan Stroud. It follows three young operatives of a psychic detection agency as they fight ghosts in London, England.
- Bod Owens
series3 books2007
similar bybritish islescontemporaryeeriemiddle grade+2 more
The Graveyard Book follows Nobody "Bod" Owens, a toddler who escapes the murder of his family and is raised among the ghosts of an old English graveyard, absorbing their otherworldly customs while a threat from his past waits beyond the gates. Neil Gaiman's 2008 novel won both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and illustrator P. Craig Russell later adapted it into a two-volume graphic novel. Bod's story spans the original novel and that graphic-novel retelling rather than continuing in a prose sequel.
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Neil Gaimanstandalone novel2013
similar byfriendshipbritish islescontemporaryeerie+1 more
A seven year old farm boy becomes friends with an eleven year old neighbor girl, who he discovers is ancient and powerful and intervenes when a nonhuman entity attempts to make a home in earthly reality.
- Dracula
universe144 books1897
Start hereDracula · Start here
similar byhorror+1 more
"Come freely. Go safely. And leave something of the happiness you bring" — so the Count greets his guest at the threshold of the Carpathians, and the great door shuts behind. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) is the wellspring of the modern vampire: the account of a centuries-old Transylvanian nobleman who quits his crumbling castle for the crowded lodging-houses of London, and the handful of ordinary people — a young solicitor, a doctor of the mad, a professor of stranger learning — who must piece together what he is before he makes the whole city his fold. It is told wholly in fragments: journal entries, letters, telegrams, ships' logs, phonograph cylinders, each hand recording only its own sliver of the dark. Around that single novel a whole crypt of continuations has grown, raised by many writers across a century. Fred Saberhagen's Dracula Sequence hands the Count the microphone, retelling the old events from his own wry, aggrieved lips and following him into later intrigues. Robert Lory's brisk 1970s Dracula Horror Series revives him as a reluctant weapon turned against fouler things; Peter Tremayne's trilogy reaches back along his bloodline; and further sequels, a Quincey Morris spin-off, and Dracula's Children carry the shadow onward. This is a loose shared world built upon a public-domain figure, not one governed continuity — each author remakes him as villain, antihero, or sympathetic narrator. Begin, always, with Stoker's original; the letters and the mounting dread stand entirely on their own. From there follow whichever door tempts you — Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape for the monster's own confession, Lory or Tremayne for tales that never glance back at the Borgo Pass again.
- Jerusalem's Lot
series3 books1975
similar byhorrorcontemporaryeerietensevampires
Stephen King's 1975 novel 'Salem's Lot follows writer Ben Mears as he returns to his childhood town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, only to discover that its residents are being turned into vampires by a newly arrived stranger. It transplants Gothic vampire horror into a small New England community, tracking that community's collapse under a supernatural siege. It is a single, self-contained novel.
- The Staircase in the Woods
Chuck Wendigstandalone novel2025
similar byhorrorfriendshipcontemporaryeerietense
While on a camping trip, five high-schoolers bound by an oath to always protect one another discover something in the middle of the forest: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend climbs up but does not come back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later it reappears, and the friends return to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase.
- Lewis Barnavelt
series12 books1973
similar byeeriecontemporarymiddle grade+2 more
Lewis Barnavelt is a lonely orphan who moves in with his uncle Jonathan, an amateur wizard, in a rambling old house that turns out to hide a doomsday clock built into its walls by a previous, malevolent owner. John Bellairs introduced the character in The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973), illustrated by Edward Gorey, and after Bellairs's death Brad Strickland continued the series from his notes and outlines for most of its later volumes. It blends gothic horror atmosphere with a gentler, more whimsical strain of children's fantasy.
- White Crow
Marcus Sedgwickstandalone novel2010
similar byhorrorbritish islescontemporaryeerie+1 more
Sixteen-year-old Rebecca moves with her father from London to a small, seaside village, where she befriends another motherless girl and they spend the summer together exploring the village's sinister history.
- Dreamcatcher
Stephen Kingstandalone novel2001
similar byhorrorfriendshipcontemporarytense
Dreamcatcher is a 2001 science fiction horror novel by American writer Stephen King, featuring elements of body horror, suspense and alien invasion. The book, written in longhand, helped the author recuperate from a 1999 car crash, and was completed in half a year. According to the author in his afterword, the working title was Cancer. His wife, Tabitha King, persuaded him to change the title. A film adaptation was released in 2003.
- Breathe
Cliff McNishstandalone novel2006
similar byhorrorbritish islescontemporaryeerietense
Breathe: A Ghost Story is a novel by English author Cliff McNish published in 2006 as McNish's first stand-alone novel. It is about a group of ghost children trapped inside an old farmhouse by a malignant spirit known as the Ghost Mother. Twelve-year-old Jack, suffering from chronic asthma, has just moved into the old house with his widowed mother, and discovers that the Ghost Mother wants him to herself.
- The Course of the Heart
M. John Harrisonstandalone novel1992
similar bybritish islescontemporaryeerie+2 more
On a hot May night, three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives. Years later, none of the participants can remember what exactly transpired, but their clouded memories can't rid them of an overwhelming sense of dread.
- Skellig
David Almondstandalone novel1998
similar byfriendshipbritish islescontemporaryeeriemiddle grade
Skellig is a children's novel by the British author David Almond, published by Hodder in 1998. It was the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and it won the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British author. In 2007, it placed third in the "Carnegie of Carnegies", after Northern Lights and Tom's Midnight Garden. In the U.S., it was a runner up for the Michael L. Printz Award, which recognises one work of young adult fiction annually. Since publication, it has also been adapted into a play, an opera, and a film. In December of 2011, a prequel, My Name is Mina was published. William Blake's poems feature in the book, the play and the film.
- Johnny Dixon and the Professor
series13 books1983
similar byhorroreeriecontemporarymiddle grade+1 more
Johnny Dixon is a fictional American boy featured in a series of twelve children's gothic horror novels, 1983 to 1999, written by John Bellairs or his successor Brad Strickland. In each book, 12-year-old Johnny and his group of friends face and overcome evil forces usually bent on ending the world. Alternatively, Johnny Dixon is the book series.
- The Stonewalkers
Vivien Alcockstandalone novel1981
similar bycontemporaryeerietensemiddle grade+2 more
"A garden statue of Belladonna, brought to life by a flash of lightning, gathers a stone army from gardens and churches as twelve-year old Poppy and her friend Emma watch, fascinated and terrified." --summary, WorldCat library record of the 1st ed., {{OCLC|8782733}} 12-year-old, friendless Poppy Brown, "talking to a statue in the square", inadvertently releases Belladonna, who will "loose other carelessly destructive statues, ready to 'please or kill with equal unconcern'." --KirkusReviews.com, positive review of the 1st US ed. (contemporary, posted with ISBN for 2009 audiobook?)
- The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe
Dan Poblockistandalone novel2013
similar byhorrorfriendshipcontemporaryeerietensemiddle grade
Since eighth-grader Gabriel Ashe moved into his grandmother's house he has been spending a lot of time playing in the woods with his new friend Seth, but the games Seth invents involve a child-eating monster called the Hunter, and Gabriel is not sure how much is imagination and how much real.
- The Secret of Crickley Hall
James Herbertstandalone novel2006
similar byhorrorbritish islescontemporaryeerietense
The Secret of Crickley Hall is a 2006 supernatural thriller novel by the British writer James Herbert.
