Book picks similar to
Halloween Land by Kevin J. Kennedy
horror
halloween
coming-of-age
novella
The Grump Who Stole Christmas
S. Doyle - 2021
Mistletoe and family. Except my dad broke his leg hanging the family wreath. My brothers are at war over taking proper care of Dad. Oh, and I just found out our family business, the Kringle Inn, is failing!The last thing I need is this mysterious new guy, who runs the Kringle tree farm, interfering. He’s big, bearded and grumpy. He wears a lot of flannel and he does NOT like taking orders. Especially from me. We can’t agree on anything other than saving the business.Even if we have to kill each other doing it. Or kiss each other doing it…Because I might be falling for the guy.My name is Kristen, don’t call me Kris, Kringle and this is a Christmas Romance Emergency!
Witching Hour Theatre
Jonathan Janz - 2005
It's the one exciting thing in Larry Wilson's life, not counting the lovely brunette who works the concession stand. Settling in, he loses himself in the atmosphere of the old place: the crowd, the screams, the popcorn and the blood. But when the second feature ends, only thirteen moviegoers remain. Among them, a woman of nineteen with a fondness for piercings and the macabre, a cop and his wife, a trio of bad-tempered bullies, and a solitary figure sitting silently in the shadows of the back row. On this endless October night, Witching Hour Theatre will become Larry's worst nightmare. For the movie on the screen is growing stranger by the minute. His fellow theatergoers are disappearing one by one. And the figure from the shadows is advancing.
Jedi Summer: With the Magnetic Kid
John Boden - 2016
A summer full of sun and surrealism, Lessons of loss and love. Of growing up and figuring it out. Nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania is a small town, it's not like the others. Things are strange there- people die but hang around, pets too. Everyone knows your name and sometimes, a thing as simple as a movie coming to the local theatre, is all it takes to keep you going.
Butterfly in Frost
Sylvia Day - 2019
But I’m settled now. In a place I love, in a home I renovated, spending time with new friends I adore, and working a job that fulfills me. I am reconciling the past and laying the groundwork for the future.Then Garrett Frost moves in next door.He’s obstinate and too bold, a raging force of nature that disrupts the careful order of my life. I recognize the ghosts that haunt him, the torment driving him. Garrett would be risky in any form, but wounded, he’s far more dangerous. I fear I’m too fragile for the storm raging inside him, too delicate to withstand the pain that buffets him. But he’s too determined…and too tempting.And sometimes hope soars above even the iciest desolation.Emotional and heartrending, Butterfly in Frost marks a brilliant return by global sensation Sylvia Day, the #1 international multimillion bestselling author of the Crossfire saga.
1922
Stephen King - 2010
It’s 1922. Wilfred owns eighty acres of farmland in Nebraska that have been in the family for generations. His wife, Arlette, owns an adjoining one hundred acres.But if Arlette carries out her threat to sell her land to a pig butcher, Wilfred will be forced to sell too. Worse, he’ll have to move to the city. But he has a daring plan. It may work if he can persuade his son.A powerful tale of betrayal, murder, madness and rats, 1922 is a breathtaking exploration into the dark side of human nature from the great American storyteller Stephen King. It was adapted into a film from Netflix.
Don't Tell a Soul
Kirsten Miller - 2021
. . that might just kill her.People say the house is cursed.It preys on the weakest, and young women are its favorite victims.In Louth, they're called the Dead Girls.All Bram wanted was to disappear—from her old life, her family's past, and from the scandal that continues to haunt her. The only place left to go is Louth, the tiny town on the Hudson River where her uncle, James, has been renovating an old mansion.But James is haunted by his own ghosts. Months earlier, his beloved wife died in a fire that people say was set by her daughter. The tragedy left James a shell of the man Bram knew—and destroyed half the house he'd so lovingly restored.The manor is creepy, and so are the locals. The people of Louth don't want outsiders like Bram in their town, and with each passing day she's discovering that the rumors they spread are just as disturbing as the secrets they hide. Most frightening of all are the legends they tell about the Dead Girls. Girls whose lives were cut short in the very house Bram now calls home.The terrifying reality is that the Dead Girls may have never left the manor. And if Bram looks too hard into the town's haunted past, she might not either.
The Last Witness
Claire McFall - 2015
But when the two of them disturb a pagan burial site above the beach, she becomes certain that they have awoken a malevolent spirit. Something is alive out there in the pitch-black dark, and it is planning to seek deadly revenge.One year later, Heather knows she was very lucky to escape Black Cairn Point, but she is still waiting for Dougie to wake up from his coma. If he doesn't, how will she prove her sanity—and her innocence?Additional Praise for The Last Witness:"A taut story of survival...a fast-paced tale that is hard to put down." -
Booklist
"This psychological thriller slowly ratchets up the tension to a nail-biting degree." -
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"A page-turning tale with just the right amount of creepiness for readers who enjoy suspense and dark evildoing." -
School Library Journal
Come Closer
Sara Gran - 2003
A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.The new voice in Amanda's head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. Is she possessed by a demon, or is she simply insane? Described as “a new kind of psychological thriller” by George Pelecanos and “this year's scariest novel” by Time Out New York, Come Closer has become a modern classic “with a kick that will stay with the reader for days afterward” (The Dallas Morning News).
Walking After Midnight: Tales for Halloween
Evan Camby - 2014
Read them by a bonfire on a chilly autumn night, or under a blanket by candle light. Whatever you do, don't look behind you. Hayride The Schultz family's outing to an apple orchard goes terribly awry on the hayride from Hell. Hat Man Graduate student Bernice is plagued by night terrors. As the horrible visions begin to invade her waking hours, she must fight for her sanity...and her safety. A Good Samaritan Newlyweds Jake and Rita Wechsler take a journey down winding country roads in the Hudson River Valley, where danger lurks at every turn. Into the Abyss A group of young girls decide to play with a Ouija board and discover that it might be more than just a board game. Walking After Midnight When childhood friends Teddy and Joseph decide to revisit one of their old childhood haunts, the old town cemetery, they stumble upon true evil and must rely on each other to survive. Trick & Treat Halloween enthusiast Shelley decorates and buys candy for the big night, hoping for lots of Trick-or-Treaters, but she quickly learns the meaning of the phrase "Be careful what you wish for."
The Haunting of Shadow Hill House
Caroline Clark - 2017
Something dark lurks in Shadow Hill House and it is waiting. DOWNLOAD FOR FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED After her husband lost his job Jenny moves her family to the remote and beautiful Shadow Hill House. It is to be a new start. A safe place for daughter Abby to grow up and a new business teaching art for her. Only she cannot shake the feeling that something is wrong. Why won’t the stains go from the carpets? Who is Abby taking to and why is she behaving so badly? Though her husband can’t see it Jenny feels there is something evil lurking in the house and she sets out to discover what it is. As things begin to unravel Jenny fears for the safety of her family. Suddenly she wants to leave behind her dream, her home and everything they have, only leaving may not be possible. In a desperate race against evil she must find the answer or lose all. Find out if the family can escape Shadow Hill House for FREE on Kindle Unlimited. Also available by Caroline Clark The Haunting of Brynlee House The Haunting of Seafield House
Rules for Vanishing
Kate Alice Marshall - 2019
Who is brave enough to find her--and who won't make it out of the woods?It's been exactly one year since Sara's sister, Becca, disappeared, and high school life has far from settled back to normal. With her sister gone, Sara doesn't know whether her former friends no longer like her...or are scared of her, and the days of eating alone at lunch have started to blend together. When a mysterious text message invites Sara and her estranged friends to "play the game" and find local ghost legend Lucy Gallows, Sara is sure this is the only way to find Becca--before she's lost forever. And even though she's hardly spoken with them for a year, Sara finds herself deep in the darkness of the forest, her friends--and their cameras--following her down the path. Together, they will have to draw on all of their strengths to survive. The road is rarely forgiving, and no one will be the same on the other side.
Nightfall
Daniel Barnett - 2020
There were those who saw it happen, who watched the shadow fall, who felt the chop of the guillotine as the world lost its head. Everyone else witnessed only the aftermath, for the event itself lasted no longer than a moment. They stepped outside from windowless rooms, they climbed up from crowded subways, they pulled back the blinds to let in the sun, and found the nightmare waiting for them."But the dark is only the beginning.Nightfall is the first volume of the Nightmareland Chronicles, an ongoing serialized adventure horror epic following one man's journey to reach his estranged daughter in a world claimed by eternal night.
The Christmas Girlfriend
Taylor Hart - 2018
She needs money for a dream. Maybe they'll both get a Christmas miracle!The handsome and kind, Mike Hamilton, doesn't want to go back to his hometown, Snow Valley, to attend his sister's wedding and spend Christmas, especially since he didn't tell anyone he got dumped two weeks ago. So when he discovers a girl standing on a roof praying, running to the top to join her doesn't feel thatdesperate. Too bad they both fall and she accuses him of trying to kill her. Aspiring singer and songwriter, Zoey Harper, doesn't know who this guy is -- but she doesn't need his help. When he offers to pay her to be his FAKE girlfriend to get him out of a little situation, she immediately says no. But when she finds herself without a job, without a car, and with no money to go try out for The Voice and fulfill a life-long dream, she agrees! But ONLY kissing. And only pecks on the cheek! She doesn't know how she finds herself making out with him to keep his ex girlfriend at bay, then cannon balling into the hot springs on his property and spilling all of her secrets. And who would have guessed that her favorite person would be his grumpy grandpa? Her lonely heart doesn't know when things started to change between she and Mike--when he ran up on the roof to save her or when she finds herself singing a song for him in front of his whole family. When their lies fall apart, they are left with a choice--forget the past five days or get the Christmas miracle that could change their lives forever.
To Be Devoured
Sara Tantlinger - 2019
The vultures circling outside her home taunt and invite her to come understand the secrets hiding in their banquet of decay. Fascination morphs into an obsessive need to know what the vultures know. Andi turns to Dr. Fawning, but even the therapist cannot help her comprehend the secrets she’s buried beneath anger-induced blackouts.Her girlfriend, Luna, tries to help Andi battle her inner darkness and infatuation with the vultures. However, the desire to taste dead flesh, to stitch together wings of her own and become one with the flock sends Andi down a twisted, unforgivable path. Once she understands the secrets the vultures conceal, she must decide between abandoning the birds of prey or risk turning her loved ones into nothing more than meals to be devoured.
A Match Made for Thanksgiving
Jackie Lau - 2019
He loves late nights partying and taking women back to his penthouse. And so it is with great reluctance that he returns to his boring hometown of Mosquito Bay for Thanksgiving.This year, however, is even worse than usual. His interfering parents and grandparents, frustrated with the lack of weddings in the family, have invited blind dates for him and his three siblings. Nick’s brother Greg has been set up with Lily Tseng, who just so happens to be Nick’s latest one-night stand, the one he can’t get out of his mind.Although Nick has never been interested in settling down, Lily has him reconsidering. Perhaps he’s good for more than a single night of sex, dumplings, and bubble tea after all. But first, he has to get through this painful weekend with his family and convince her that she should be with him, not Greg…