Book picks similar to
Victoria by Ruby Jean Jensen


horror
novels
fiction
paperbacks-from-hell

Moondeath


Rick Hautala - 1981
    But when darkness falls and the full moon rises, an uneasy feeling filters through the air; an unnerving foreboding that causes the skin to prickle and the body to tense.Because faintly, from across the water, a low moaning howl begins to rise and a massive black shadow with burning green eyes stalks the night. It is part man, part beast -- a victim of the past, a creature of evil -- who hungers for flesh, thirsts for blood, and lives to kill ... again and again and again...

Nightscape


Stephen R. George - 1992
    That's when they came. The people who wanted to take him away...change him. Make him like them. They were more horrible than words could describe. And there was nothing he could do to stop them.Bonnie Laine watched her son in terror. Every day he changed a little, grew weaker, paler. Each night he woke up screaming "Don't let it get me!" And somehow she knew the horror was just beginning. Soon it would grow far beyond a little boy's nightmares.Shep Thomas had dedicated his life to destroying the creatures that killed his brother. And Evan was going to lead him right to their hiding place, the place they called the creche. And even though they were far fro human, he was going to send them straight to Hell!

Soul Eater


Dana Brookins - 1985
     The mansion in Pellam Woods had been shipped in, piece by piece, and reconstructed in the forest at the edge of town. The citizens of Edgar Falls wondered who would build such a grand house in their sleepy little backwater. But the house sat vacant…. THEN THE DYING BEGAN…. A mother lights her home ablaze, burning her six children alive… A young boy drowns himself in a lake.... Twelve year old Bobby Topin sensed something evil inside the house. Something that tried to crawl inside his mind. One by one, the townsfolk are falling victim to their darkest impulses. And only Bobby knows that the house where no one lives is home to a malevolent force... SOUL-EATER

Darkly the Thunder


William W. Johnstone - 1990
    A good man, that Sand, and when he died, the forces of darkness had taken root in Willowdale, Colorado. Now the isolated little town, nestled in the Rockies, was about to give birth to an evil beyond comprehension, beyond imagining... a reign of terror so insatiable that Al Watt could do nothing to stop it.CHILD PRODIGYSomething bad was going to happen. Eleven-year-old Howie Ingram could feel it in his bones. Of course no one ever listened to Howie Ingram, the twerp. All they did was make fun of him for being so smart he was already taking high school and college courses. Howie tried not to care. Except now he really needed someone to listen to him when he told them about the townspeople turning into zombies and the strange noises coming in over the air waves. And the distant sound of thunder. He and his computer didn't stand much of a chance, alone, against a force as powerful and primitive as Satan himself...

Moonfall


Tamara Thorne - 1996
    Gertrude’s Home for girls. As autumn fills the air, the townspeople prepare for the festive Halloween Haunt, Moonfall’s most popular tourist attraction. Even a series of unsolved deaths over the years hasn’t dimmed Moonfall’s renown. Maybe because anyone who knew anything about them has disappeared.Now, Sara Hawthorne returns to her hometown…and enters the hallowed halls of St. Gertrude’s where, twelve years before, another woman died a horrible death. In Sara’s old room, distant voices echo in the dark and the tormented cries of children shatter the moon—kissed night.But that’s just the beginning. For Sara Hawthorne is about to uncover St. Gertrude’s hellish secret…a secret she’ll carry with her to the grave…

Blood Kin


Ronald Kelly - 1996
    But tonight, his ancestors have awakened their Great-Grandpa Craven. They're planning a party in the backwoods of Tennessee. And the folks of Green Hollow are in for the night of their lives. The last night of their lives...A teenage girl is found with her throat torn open and her body completely drained of blood... A young bride sprouts fangs and turns on her husband ...A little girl's pet rat develops a murderous mind of its own ...A preacher goes insane and slaughters his entire congregation before feasting on their blood...

Child's Play


Andrew Neiderman - 1985
    Alex had taught them well. They helped with the house, set the table for meals, and went straight upstairs after dinner to do their homework. They did as they were told -- that is, as Alex told.Sharon didn't miss the glances that passed between her husband and the foster children. From the day they arrived, they had looked up to Alex., worshipped him. Why, it even seemed they were beginning to act like Alex -- right down to the icy sarcasm, the terrifying smile, the evil gleam in their eyes when they looked at her.Oh yes, they'd do anything to please Alex. Anything at all...

I Am Dracula


C. Dean Andersson - 1993
    Learn how he struggled with Satan and how he terrorized in blood and evil for five centuries ... and up to the present day.Told over a series of long winter nights to master horror author C. Dean Andersson, this is the shocking, mesmerizing account of Dracula's history that renders all other versions anemic by comparison. Now is the time of revelation. I AM DRACULA. I bid you welcome to my world...

Ghost Light


Clare McNally - 1982
    Bonnie Jackson, the sweetest little girl ever to hit the stage, dies in a fiery spectacle of evil in front of her adoring fans. Now, 60 years later, Bonnie has returned to the stage. But on opening night, she won't be thrilling audiences with her smile--but terrifying them with her demonic revenge. Reversion.

Shadow Child


Joseph A. Citro - 1987
    Joseph A. Citro's widely read publications about the more haunting history, legends, and lore of New England have earned him a reputation as an expert on themes of the supernatural. In this book (first published in 1987), however, he deftly melds real-life ancient ruins, a keen eye for the social fabric of small-town Vermont, and a soaring imagination to fashion a gripping tale of a family's life-or-death struggle to save their farm from an enemy far more devastating than banks, taxes, or land developers. Eric Nolan is a man already too familiar with death. His brother's long-ago disappearance, the loss of his parents, and his wife's recent demise in an auto accident have left him near the edge physically and emotionally. In desperation he returns to his boyhood haunt, the family farm in rural Antrim, Vermont, now occupied by his cousin, Pamela, her husband, Clint, and Luke, their four-year-old son. But any solace Eric might find there is short-lived. Something terrible is going on in the woods on Pinnacle Mountain and it seems to be centered around a mysterious stone structure that, a local historian believes may be the relic of an ancient race. The mystery deepens as people begin to vanish one by one, first a village policeman, then a local hermit, a researcher, and finally Clint himself. As baffling and violent incidents continue it becomes harder to deny that a powerful and malevolent force is at work in the Green Mountains, a force that has targeted young Luke. Though it defies Eric's every rational instinct, he must ultimately confront a reality he can neither accept nor deny. As he and the others struggle to quell the rising tide of evil, the siege escalates to a brutal battle for life itself. Citro twists every shock possible out of this finely crafted gothic thriller that tests the limits of legend and belief.

Hell Hound


Ken Greenhall - 1977
    What if some morning as the old woman stood at the head of the staircase she were suddenly to feel a weight thrusting against the back of her legs? What if she were to lunge forward, grasping at the air, striking her thin skull against the edge of a stair? What would become of me if she were found unmoving at the bottom of the stairway?’Such are the thoughts of Baxter, a sociopathic bull terrier on the hunt for the perfect master, as he contemplates the demise of his first victim. The basis for the acclaimed 1989 film Baxter, Ken Greenhall’s utterly chilling and long-unobtainable Hell Hound (1977) has earned a reputation as a lost classic of horror fiction. This first-ever reissue includes a new introduction by Grady Hendrix.

Obsession


Ramsey Campbell - 1985
    Until it came time to pay. The letters said, “Whatever you most need, I do. The price is something that you do not value and which you may regain.” To four teenagers, it seemed an offer too good to pass up. They filled out the enclosed forms. Indeed, they soon got what they needed most, but in shocking ways they never imagined. Twenty-five years later, they have never been able to forget the horror. But it’s not over yet. In fact, it’s about to get much worse. Now it’s time to pay the price.

Mirror


Graham Masterton - 1988
    He has long obsessed over the tragic story of Boofuls, a beautiful and successful actor who was slaughtered and dismembered by his grandmother. However, he soon discovers that this dream buy is in fact a living nightmare; the mirror was not only in Boofuls house, but witness to the death of this blond-haired and angelic child, which in turn has created a horrific and devastating portal to a hellish parallel universe. So when Martin’s landlord loses his grandson it is soon apparent that the mirror is responsible. But if a little boy has gone into the mirror, what on earth is going to come out?

The Light at the End


John Skipp - 1986
    The newspapers scream out headlines that spark terror across the city. Ten murders on the New York City subway. Ten grisly crimes that defy all reason -- no pattern, no m.o., no leads for police to pursue. The press dubs the fiend the "Subway Psycho"; the NYPD desperately seeks their quarry before the city erupts in mass hysteria. But they won't find what they're looking for.Because they all think that the killer is human.Only a few know the true story -- a story the papers will never print. It is a tale of abject terror and death written in grit and steel... and blood. The tale of a man who vanished into the bowels of the urban earth one night, taken by a creature of unholy evil, then left as a babe abandoned on the doorstep of Hell. Now he is back, driven by twin demons of rage and retribution.He is unstoppable. And we are all his prey... unless a ragtag band of misfit souls will dare to descend into a world of manmade darkness, where the real and unreal alike dwell in endless shadow. A place where humanity has been left behind, and the horrifying truth will dawn as a madman's chilling vendetta comes to light...Filled with gripping drama and harrowing doomsday dread, The Light at the End is the book that ushered in a bold new view of humankind's most ancient and ruthless evil; a mesmerizing novel from two acknowledged masters of spellbinding suspense.

Shrine


James Herbert - 1983
    Suddenly Alice can speak, hear, and perform miracles. The visitation site becomes a shrine. But Alice is no longer the guileless child overwhelmed by her new saintliness. She has become the agent of something corrupt, a vile force centuries old.