Book picks similar to
The Faithful by Matt Hayward


horror
monthly-reading
edited
family

The Girl from the Blood Coven


Brian Moreland - 2013
    Sheriff Travis Keagan is enjoying a beer at the local roadhouse when a blood-soaked girl enters the bar. Terrified and trembling, Abigail Blackwood claims her entire family was massacred at the nearby hippy commune in the woods. But when Sheriff Keagan and his deputies investigate the Blevins House, they discover there’s more to Abigail’s story than she’s told them. Much more.

A Penny For Your Thoughts


Robert Ford - 2019
    He has let go of old habits, especially the ones that turned him into an addict and helped land him in prison.On a hike along the Lowback Trail, Joe stumbles on one of the town's oldest secrets--buried long ago, if not forgotten.It's an unusual but safe enough treasure--a jar of old pennies. What interests Joe isn't the pennies themselves, but the pieces of paper taped to every coin--a child's handwritten wish on each one.When the first few wishes come true, they are simple things. Fun. Harmless.Except as time goes on, Joe realizes they aren't really wishes at all...they're exchanges, and the bill was racking up.Nothing is free in life. Sooner or later, you always pay.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly


Stephanie Oakes - 2015
    As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly is a hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in oneself.

The Strangers


Mort Castle - 1984
    He’s everybody’s buddy, has a great sense of humor, works hard at his typical boring job to provide for the wife and kids. And he is a Stranger. Michael seethes with furious impatience for the coming of the Time of the Strangers, when he and millions like him will be able at last to reveal their true selves to a horrified, helpless world.

Rosemary’s Baby


Roman Polański - 1967
    Things become frightening as Rosemary begins to suspect her unborn baby isn't safe around their strange neighbors.

The 5th Witch


Graham Masterton - 2008
    in a grip of fear. No one can stop them--except the 5th witch!

Devoted


Jennifer Mathieu - 2015
    Rachel has always found solace in her beliefs, but now she can’t shake the feeling that her devotion might destroy her soul.

The Haunting of Stone Street Cemetery: A Halloween Haunting


Cat Knight - 2017
    It was a cemetery afterall. Now she’s paying for it. Perhaps the psychic was right about ghosts and Halloween. When television talk show host Monica Stanford goes out for a night of Halloween partying with her life-long friends, things begin to go awry when they take a short cut through the local cemetery on Stone Street. Charlie is convinced that they have unleashed an angry ghost, as bloodcurdling events begin to unfold with deadly consequences. Can they find a way to put to rest the tormented spirit they have provoked before they all wind up dead?If you love ghosts and Haunted houses, you really should be reading Cat Knight’s other books. List of Books The Haunting of Elleric LodgeThe Haunting of Grayson HouseThe Haunting of Fairview HouseThe Haunting of Weaver HouseThe Haunting of Keira O’ConnellThe Haunting of Ferncoombe ManorThe Haunting of Highcliff HallThe Haunting of Knoll HouseIf you read stories in the occult, occultism, horror, supernatural and paranormal genres then add these to your reading list.

The Stronger Half


Jeff Coleman - 2018
     It was after his identical twin Bill suffered the traumatic brain injury that left him crippled and unable to speak. George would see the man sitting on a bench at the mall, or at the store standing by the magazines. But he never seemed to notice George, not even when he tried to communicate. Twenty years later, after dropping out of college to care for Bill, George has become a junior high school janitor. Between his struggling with debt, working a physically demanding job, and taking care of Bill’s needs, life has not been easy. But George doesn’t know the meaning of difficult until the man finally acknowledges him, triggering a terrifying series of supernatural events that leaves George and Bill running for their lives. And as George struggles to protect his twin from an otherworldly evil, he discovers a startling secret about Bill—one that leaves him questioning decades-old assumptions and wondering which of them truly is the stronger half.

Hollywood Park


Mikel Jollett - 2020
    Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.We were never young. We were just too afraid of ourselves. No one told us who we were or what we were or where all our parents went. They would arrive like ghosts, visiting us for a morning, an afternoon. They would sit with us or walk around the grounds, to laugh or cry or toss us in the air while we screamed. Then they’d disappear again, for weeks, for months, for years, leaving us alone with our memories and dreams, our questions and confusion. …So begins Hollywood Park, Mikel Jollett’s remarkable memoir. His story opens in an experimental commune in California, which later morphed into the Church of Synanon, one of the country’s most infamous and dangerous cults. Per the leader’s mandate, all children, including Jollett and his older brother, were separated from their parents when they were six months old, and handed over to the cult’s “School.” After spending years in what was essentially an orphanage, Mikel escaped the cult one morning with his mother and older brother. But in many ways, life outside Synanon was even harder and more erratic.In his raw, poetic and powerful voice, Jollett portrays a childhood filled with abject poverty, trauma, emotional abuse, delinquency and the lure of drugs and alcohol. Raised by a clinically depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to the unpredictability of troubled step-fathers and longing for contact with his father, a former heroin addict and ex-con, Jollett slowly, often painfully, builds a life that leads him to Stanford University and, eventually, to finding his voice as a writer and musician.Hollywood Park is told at first through the limited perspective of a child, and then broadens as Jollett begins to understand the world around him. Although Mikel Jollett’s story is filled with heartbreak, it is ultimately an unforgettable portrayal of love at its fiercest and most loyal.

Fatal Reaction: The Beginning


M.A. Hollstein - 2016
    People are trying to escape the unknown sickness, but there is nowhere to run… nowhere to hide… The only chance for the survival of the human race is to stay and fight. However, they're unaware of what they're fighting. What they're up against is much greater than anything they could ever imagine. This is just the beginning... Could this be the end of humanity?

Children of the Dark


Jonathan Janz - 2016
    Abandoned by his father, son of a drug-addicted mother, and charged with raising his six-year-old sister, Will has far more to worry about than most high school freshmen. To make matters worse, Mia Samuels, the girl of Will’s dreams, is dating his worst enemy, the most sadistic upperclassman at Shadeland High. Will’s troubles, however, are just beginning. Because one of the nation’s most notorious criminals—the Moonlight Killer—has escaped from prison and is headed straight toward Will’s hometown. And something else is lurking in Savage Hollow, the forest surrounding Will’s rundown house. Something ancient and infinitely evil. When the worst storm of the decade descends on Shadeland, Will and his friends must confront unfathomable horrors. Everyone Will loves—his mother, his little sister, Mia, and his friends—will be threatened. And very few of them will escape with their lives.

This Thing Between Us


Gus Moreno - 2021
    The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago's world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife's death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room...The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape—not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.A bold, original horror novel about grief, loneliness and the oppressive intimacy of technology, This Thing Between Us marks the arrival of a spectacular new talent.

After the Fire


Will Hill - 2017
    Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences.But there are lies behind Father John's words. Outside, there are different truths.Then came the fire.

The Drowning Kind


Jennifer McMahon - 2021
    Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.