Family Horror

John Updike reads six stories he has selected from the hundred-odd he has published. "A&P", recounting a moral crisis on the checkout counter, is his most anthologized story. "Pigeon Feathers," the longest story included, tells of a fourteen-year-old boy's fear of death and the answer he finds...

Jennifer's dream vacation in sunny Portugal has suddenly turned into an unending nightmare! The two brothers she encounters are bound by the same strange family heritage: a fascination with fire. Jennifer is attracted to both Neil and Philip Alenquer, but one of them is lying about the tragedy that has taken place in their castle overlooking the Atlantic.

Alexis is thrilled when her sister joins a club; new friends are just what Kasey needs. It's strange, though, to see how fast the girls in The Sunshine Club go from dorky and antisocial to gorgeous and popular. Soon Alexis learns that the girls have pledged an oath to a seemingly benevolent spirit named Aralt.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic and Velvet Was the Night comes a sizzling noir about desire, danger, and greed, in which seduction is the ultimate con. Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to...

An uncompromising and sensually charged collection from one of the great practitioners of the short story The debut story collection from Los Angeles writer Kate Braverman assembles a vivid patchwork of interconnected narratives set in Southern California. Through brief, often haunting snapshots...

Set against the Rocky Mountains, this emotionally charged Western noir explores themes of fathers and sons, men and masculinity, and religion and spirituality through the lens of an unimaginable act—one best friend murdering the other “Langsfeld’s writing hits like a brushfire: sparks that...

A profound portrait of contemporary Pakistan from the award-winning author of The Return of Faraz Ali In seven searing, atmospheric stories, Aamina Ahmad finds a world of pathos in the narrowest circumstances, from the fugitive intimacies of villages where nothing escapes notice to the crevices...

A year in the life of a family as they strike out into the unknown (aka Vermont), leaving all the comforts of home behind—a rollicking, lyrical novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason, the bestselling author of North Woods and one of America’s greatest living writers Miles Krzelewski...

A gripping collection of propulsive, psychologically suspenseful stories by the legendary Joyce Carol Oates “who is surely on any shortlist of America’s greatest living writers” (The New York Times Magazine) “A genius in the truest sense of the word.”—Rebecca Makkai “One of the...

Guilt, shame, and suspicion swirl as a small community in upstate New York turns on itself in this moody, propulsive thriller, from the award-winning writer of In West Mills The year is 1982 and the people of Fervent-on-Hudson have begun to move on from a local double homicide that upended the...

In this darkly-comic retelling of the Prodigal Son parable, Jesus talks of a man who must overcome strange horrors in order to convince his family he is real. "Prodigal Son" by Daniel M. Lavery is one of 9 short horror stories in Nightfire's audio anthology. Come Join Us by the Fire S2...

Granny’s dying, but Zoraida can save her with a magic crystal of smoky quartz. Too bad the crystal is in Scotland - in a haunted castle - guarded by mind-reading, psychopathic sorcerers. Getting inside Castle Logan is easy. Getting out - not so much. Before she can snatch the stone, Zoraida stumbles into a family feud, uncovers a wicked, ancient curse, and finds herself ensorcelled by not one, but two handsome Scottish witches. Zoraida and her best friend, Zhu, discover Granny hasn’t told them everything. Not by a long shot.

In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds. October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn’t remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is...

Call me Drood, Eddie Drood. Some know me as Shaman Bond and most simply don' t want to know me at all. For centuries, my family has been keeping the things that lurk on the darker side of existence as far away as possible from humans like you, without you even knowing we' re there. Unfortunately for us, not everybody appreciates what we Droods do. Recently, I personally managed to survive yet another attempt on my life, but the rest of my relatives weren' t so lucky.

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE FINALIST FOR THE 2023 JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE From the author of the award-winning debut story collection We Show What We Have Learned, an "atoundingly original” (The New York Times Book Review) work of historical fiction with shocking and eerie...

Terrorists are not born to love Sarmad was trained as a terrorist to be ruthless, to be fearless, and to take away innocent lives. He has caused pain that he can’t undo. For years, he has been living without a heart, without a soul, without her. Mehar is an army general’s daughter. After...

When Ailsa returns to her childhood home, an eerie sense of danger overwhelms her. Her unease only grows when she notices small things out of place and the odd fact that no animals will step foot on the grounds of the house… Ailsa Calder has inherited half of a house. The other half belongs...

In his fictional Falls, North Carolina–a watchful zone of stifling mores–Allan Gurganus’s fond and comical characters risk everything to protect their improbable hopes from prejudice, poverty, betrayal. Seeking warmth and true connection, they shield themselves and loved ones while...

Krista is convinced her sister, Sadie, is possessed by a demon. It’s the only plausible explanation for how cold and distant she’s become since reaching high school. And it’s why Krista bought the strange book online: to destroy the demon and get her sister back. But when their summoning ritual goes terribly right, Krista and Sadie realize too late that what they brought into the world hasn’t come to help.

The missing dead call to Violet. They want to be found.Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life. As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession.