Subtle Chills: Books with Creepy Undertones
Dive into a selection of books that masterfully weave creepy undertones into their narratives. These stories will keep you on the edge of your seat without being overtly scary, perfect for those who enjoy a slow build of tension. Embrace the thrill of the unexpected as you explore these haunting tales.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
162 pages
Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books | 50 Covers competition For the seventieth anniversary of Penguin Classics, the Penguin Orange Collection celebrates the heritage of Penguin’s iconic book design with twelve influential American literary classics representing the breadth and diversity of the Penguin Classics library. These collectible editions are dressed in the iconic orange and white tri-band cover design, first created in 1935, while french flaps, high-quality paper, and striking cover illustrations provide the cutting-edge design treatment that is the signature of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions today. We Have Always Lived in the Castle Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is perhaps the crowning achievement of Shirley Jackson’s brilliant career: a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the dramatic struggle that ensues when an unexpected visitor interrupts their unusual way of life.
Faithful Place
711 pages
This book begins as a gripping crime procedural but takes a chilling turn towards the end, making it a captivating read for those who enjoy suspenseful twists.
Baby Teeth
317 pages
It's a gripping read that offers a chilling perspective, much like 'We Need to Talk about Kevin', but with a uniquely unsettling twist as it's told through the eyes of a young girl.
And Then There Were None
294 pages
One by one, the guests arrived at the mansion on Indian Island, summoned by a mysterious host. And one by one, with terrifying meticulousness, they were stalked by a cunning murderer. Utterly baffling...and yet there was a pattern, concealed in a nursery rhyme hanging over the fireplace.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
256 pages
Now a Netflix original movie, this deeply scary and intensely unnerving novel follows a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. You will be scared. But you won’t know why… I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always. Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.” And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here. In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic Under the Skin, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, “your dread and unease will mount with every passing page” (Entertainment Weekly) of this edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, I’m Thinking of Ending Things pulls you in from the very first page…and never lets you go.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
162 pages
Shirley Jackson's beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family's dark secret Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
House Of Leaves
It's a unique and immersive experience, but having a physical copy really enhances the reading journey.
Pet Sematary
416 pages
Stephen King’s #1 New York Times bestseller and “wild, powerful, disturbing” (The Washington Post Book World) classic about evil that exists far beyond the grave—now featuring a stunning vintage cover! When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better…
Kafka on the Shore
481 pages
Kafka's works are some of the scariest fiction I've ever read, leaving you with an unsettling feeling that you can never quite grasp.
Coraline
193 pages
The bewitching classic children's novel by Neil Gaiman, featuring spellbinding illustrations from Chris Riddell and an exclusive new introduction by the author 'I was enthralled ... a marvellously strange and scary book' Philip Pullman 'A masterpiece' Terry Pratchett There is something strange about Coraline's new home. It's not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It's the other house – the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back. This deliciously creepy, gripping novel is packed with glorious illustrations by Chris Riddell, and is guaranteed to delight and entrance readers of all ages.
The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance
756 pages
The second book in the trilogy is particularly unsettling, creating a haunting atmosphere without relying on overt scares or gross elements.
The Yellow Wallpaper (Illustrated)
49 pages
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a 6,000-word short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's physical and mental health. Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house he has rented for the summer. She is forbidden from working and has to hide her journal from him, so she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency," a diagnosis common to women in that period. The windows of the room are barred, and there is a gate across the top of the stairs, allowing her husband to control her access to the rest of the house. The story depicts the effect of confinement on the narrator's mental health and her descent into psychosis. With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the wallpaper. "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper - the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell." In the end, she imagines there are women creeping around behind the patterns of the wallpaper and comes to believe she is one of them. She locks herself in the room, now the only place she feels safe, refusing to leave when the summer rental is up. "For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way." A woman gradually suffers a mental breakdown as a result of confinement and denial of her creative energies by her husband.
Night Film
689 pages
Night Film is a breathtakingly suspenseful literary thriller that makes you question how you decide what is real and what isn't from the critically acclaimed author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics On a damp October night the body of beautiful Ashley Cordova is discovered in a Manhattan warehouse. Though her death is ruled a suicide, investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. The last time McGrath got too close to the Cordova dynasty, he lost his marriage and his career. This time he could lose his mind.
Lord of the Flies
356 pages
This book dives into the darker sides of human nature, making it a compelling read that explores the theme of civilization versus savagery.
The Little Stranger
482 pages
From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules. Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds. But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely. Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today.
Slade House
162 pages
This book offers a blend of sunshine and beautiful imagery with a lighthearted tone, while keeping you intrigued about the underlying mysteries. Plus, its short length makes it a low-commitment read!
The Stand
1202 pages
#1 BESTSELLER • NOW A PARAMOUNT+ LIMITED SERIES • Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting—and eerily plausible—as when it was first published. One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years! This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition. A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge—Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them—and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity. "A master storyteller."—Los Angeles Times
The Hound of the Baskervilles
241 pages
This Sherlock Holmes story is captivating as it explores the eerie and supernatural elements surrounding the murder of an entire bloodline.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
320 pages
A frightening suspense novel about nine-year-old Trisha, who becomes lost in the woods as night falls.
Annihilation
209 pages
This book is unsettling yet utterly captivating, making it impossible to put down.
Speech Acts and Clause Types
383 pages
Every chapter keeps you on edge with a sense that something is off, making it a thrilling read.
'Salem's Lot
529 pages
This book is a masterclass in building tension, with each chapter more intense than the last. It's so gripping that you might find yourself taking breaks just to catch your breath. Even in a crowded room, the fear it instills is palpable, making it a thrilling read that you won't want to put down.
Speaker for the Dead
305 pages
This sequel to Ender's Game offers a unique blend of creepy undertones that build suspense until the very end, making it an intriguing read.
Night Film
782 pages
It's a creepy mystery thriller that keeps you invested without being overly scary.
And Then There Were None
180 pages
It's not overtly scary, but it definitely has a way of creeping you out!
The Angel's Game
437 pages
'A heady brew of detective thriller, supernatural horror tale, magical realist fable and a heartbreaking love story' DAILY MAIL 'Readers familiar with The Shadow of the Wind will find themselves back in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books where, from a labyrinthine library, volumes seem to select their readers . . . rattling good gothic fun' SPECTATOR In an abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at an unsolved mystery. Like a slow poison, the history of the place and an impossible love bring David close to despair. But then he receives a letter from a reclusive French editor who makes him the offer of a lifetime . . . 'Will grip you from start to finish' DAILY EXPRESS
Malorie
312 pages
A tão aguardada sequela do bestseller de sucesso mundial Às Cegas , adaptado a filme pela Netflix. A tão aguardada sequela do bestseller de sucesso mundial Às Cegas, adaptado a filme pela Netflix. Doze anos depois, ainda não há explicação. Ainda não há solução. Mantenha os olhos fechados. Ainda há perigo lá fora. Doze anos depois de Malorie ter fugido com os filhos pelo rio, a venda continua a ser a única coisa que a protege. Basta um vislumbre das misteriosas criaturas para que as pessoas enlouqueçam e cometam atos de violência extrema. Sem qualquer solução à vista, resta-lhe tentar sobreviver e continuar a proteger Tom e Olympia. Quando um estranho surge à porta do abrigo onde ela se encontra, trazendo-lhe notícias inesperadas e até inverosímeis acerca da possibilidade de sobrevivência de alguém muito próximo, Malorie permite-se a si própria sentir esperança pela primeira vez em muito tempo. Malorie anseia por recuperar um pouco da sua vida antiga, mas regressar ao mundo lá fora é uma possibilidade assustadora que poderá pôr em risco a sua vida e a dos filhos. Perante os seus maiores medos, Malorie terá de escolher entre viver segundo as regras que a mantiveram segura até ao momento ou enfrentar novamente as trevas em busca de alguma luz ao fundo do túnel. Finalista do Prémio Goodreads 2020 para Melhor Livro de Terror e finalista do Prémio Bram Stoker Escolha da Amazon para Melhor Mistério, Thriller e Suspense. Elogios da crítica: «Maisum thriller sobrenatural tenso e de cortar a respiração. Josh Malerman evoca com mestria os horrores apocalíticos.» — Publishers Weekly
American Gods Volume 1: Shadows (Graphic Novel)
268 pages
This book offers a unique blend of the creepy and exciting, introducing readers to unexpected aspects of life that leave a lasting impression.
I Am Not A Serial Killer
272 pages
John Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it. He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential. He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation. Dead bodies are normal to John. He likes them, actually. They don't demand or expect the empathy he's unable to offer. Perhaps that's what gives him the objectivity to recognize that there's something different about the body the police have just found behind the Wash-n-Dry Laundromat---and to appreciate what that difference means. Now, for the first time, John has to confront a danger outside himself, a threat he can't control, a menace to everything and everyone he would love, if only he could. Dan Wells's debut novel, I Am Not a Serial Killer, is the first volume of a trilogy that will keep you awake and then haunt your dreams. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
The Killer Inside Me
160 pages
This book offers a gripping exploration of a psychopath Deputy Sheriff in a small Texas town during the 1950s, making it a must-read for fans of crime fiction.
You Are Not Alone
330 pages
This thriller builds a palpable sense of anticipatory fear that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Rebecca
160 pages
Rebecca creates a haunting atmosphere that lingers, offering a sense of suspense without being overtly scary.
Drood
808 pages
Drood combines mystery and horror, exploring the unsettling possibilities that could have haunted Charles Dickens, making it a captivating read.
The Terror
798 pages
The Terror delves into the mystery of the Franklin Expedition, creating a heavy atmosphere of tension and dread that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
409 pages
This book is a perfect blend of humor and horror, making it an entertaining read that keeps you on the edge of your seat!
Dean Koontz's Fear Nothing Graphic Novel
114 pages
Christopher Snow, who has a rare genetic disorder where he is vulnerable to light, witnessees a series of disturbing events that sweephim into a violent mystery only he can solve.
The Winter People
308 pages
This book is a gripping tale that intertwines the past and present, exploring themes of loss and the supernatural. The eerie atmosphere of a Vermont village and the mystery of a mother's disappearance make it a compelling read.
Red Dragon
463 pages
This book is creepy and filled with dark elements, making it a thrilling read, especially as the suspense builds up to a chilling conclusion.
Verity – Der Epilog zum Spiegel-Bestseller
64 pages
Bislang unveröffentlichtes Zusatzkapitel! 6 Monate später ... Jeremy und Lowen wollten die Vergangenheit hinter sich lassen und sind fortgezogen, weit weg von dem Haus, in dem sie mit Verity lebten. Doch dann kommt es zu einer schicksalhaften Begegnung ... Der Epilog zum Bestseller, der alles verändert!
Her Body and Other Parties
265 pages
This collection of short stories is a perfect fit for those seeking unique and thought-provoking narratives.
