Literary Horror

Medusa's Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt's short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her listeners beyond the veneer of the ordinary - even beyond the gloss of the fantastical - to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.

The (black) magical season is here - and whether it's a solstice seance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year's with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu, or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously hellish!

Brightness Falls isn't just the name of the TV show that womanizing man-child Andrew Ware has been painstakingly creating for the last couple years, it's also his hometown. A town that he loves as much as he hates. By request of no one, Andrew returns home to help his sister separate from her husband, only to become sidetracked by a beautiful woman. A few drinks and few compliments later the woman is dead, killed in a tragic oral sex accident. In which Andrew would have lost his own life if it weren’t for the dapperly dressed, antler-headed, human skeleton named Doug.

Allison and James Price move to the navy-blue forests of Concordia, Idaho, hoping to leave behind the chaos of Los Angeles and the painful memories of his indiscretions. Once settled in the picturesque town, where time seems to have stalled and life moves at a slower pace, their six-year-old daughter, Reagan, befriends a mysterious young girl who seems too idyllic to be true with her pressed pinafores and perfectly curled pigtails. One late autumn evening, as their playdate winds down, both girls vanish into thin air.

On April 27, 1997, four contestants make it to the final cell of the Quigley House, a full-contact haunted escape room in Lincoln, Nebraska, made famous for its monstrosities, booby-traps, and ghoulishly costumed actors. If the group can endure these horrors without shouting the safe word, “reprieve,” they’ll win a substantial cash prize - a startling feat accomplished only by one other group in the house’s long history. But before they can complete the challenge, a man breaks into the cell and kills one of the contestants.

Thunderstorms are rolling across the summer sky. Every time one breaks, Rose Bowan loses consciousness and has vivid, realistic dreams about being in another woman's body. Is Rose merely dreaming? Or is she in fact inhabiting a stranger? Disturbed yet entranced, she sets out to discover what is happening to her, leaving the cocoon of her family's small repertory cinema for the larger, upended world of someone wildly different from herself.

A new arrival at an isolated school for orphaned boys quickly comes to realize there is something wrong with his new home. He hears chilling whispers in the night, his troubled classmates are violent and hostile, and the Headmaster sends cryptic messages, begging his new charge to confess. As the new boy learns to survive on the edges of this impolite society, he starts to unravel a mystery at the school's dark heart. And that's when the corpses start turning up.

M. R. James (Montague Rhodes James) was a noted British medieval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918) and of Eton College. He is best remembered today for his ghost stories, which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. As a medieval scholar his output in that field was phenomenal and remains highly respected in scholarly circles.

David Binder is a young, successful writer living in Chicago and suffering from writer's block. He stares at the blank page, and the blank page stares back - until inspiration strikes in the form of a ghost story that captivated him as a child. With his pregnant wife and young daughter in tow, he sets out to explore the myth of Virginia Beale, Faery Queen of the Haunted Dell.

Simon Inescort is no longer bodily present in his marriage. It's been several months since he keeled over the rail of a Nova Scotia-bound ferry, a massive heart attack to blame. Simon's widow, Lorca Pell, has sold their farmhouse to newlyweds Zachary and Muriel. He spends time replaying his marriage in his own mind, while also engaging in occasionally intimate observation of the new homeowners. But soon the crisis of a missing child, a local 11-year-old, threatens the tenuous domestic equilibrium, as the weight of the case falls to Zachary, a rookie private detective.

Secolo di orrori occidentali e di scienze in rapida espansione, il Novecento è ruotato attorno a un centro misterioso, da cui ha preso vita tutto: l'ideologia verde che sarebbe mutata geneticamente in certo nazismo, l'importazione delle religioni orientali, la Rivoluzione d'ottobre in Russia, il magnetismo e la psicologia del profondo, la premessa al movimento hippie.

Dopo avere affrontato i temibili chupacabra e avere scoperto che si tratta di animali mutanti creati nell'ambito dì un progetto segreto dal governo degli Stati Uniti, Jerry ritrova un po' di serenità nella famiglia ricostituita (dopo la sua ultima, terrificante avventura, i genitori si sono riappacificati), ma la tranquillità dura poco. E stavolta il ragazzino si ritrova a combattere contro un enorme bigfoot che minaccia l'ultima bestia, l'ultimo chupacabra rimasto in vita.

Alla lettura del testamento di sua zia Zelda, morta improvvisamente, Sibilla Oracoli in Predieri scopre di avere ereditato la sua vecchia casa, a Limoges, in Francia. Per questo, la famiglia Predieri al completo decide di cambiare meta per le vacanze e va a vedere la grande villa. Ma fin dall'arrivo tutto si dimostra misterioso e minaccioso. Strane presenze aleggiano in casa e fuori... Sembra esserci una maledizione. Quale segreto nasconde Sibilla? Ma, soprattutto, la maledizione ha colpito la casa o la famiglia? O forse entrambe?

Nelle vene di Marco Predieri scorre sangue di strega buona: questo è il segreto che sua madre gli ha tenuto nascosto. Essendo il figlio di Sibilla, Marco deve frequentare la scuola di Miss Orwell, dove imparerà a capire quali siano i suoi poteri. Già il ragazzo si è reso conto di poter viaggiare nel passato. Ma quali altre misteriose doti possiede? Nella nuova scuola conoscerà ragazzi e ragazze come lui, ma minacciose presenze diaboliche faranno di tutto per indurli a scegliere la via del Male, e della magia nera, anziché quella del Bene e della magia bianca.

Sembrava una chiesa come tante altre, quella di Ponte Romeo, solo molto antica e qua e là diroccata. L'unica cosa strana era che appariva regolarmente nei sogni di Marco. Sogni spaventosi, che lo facevano svegliare in un bagno di sudore, attanagliato dalla paura. Ma un giorno succede qualcosa che sembra un incubo, e invece è realtà. Durante una visita alla chiesa in compagnia di Rico, il becchino del paese, Marco scopre un dipinto che raffigura una donna che brucia su un rogo dalle fiamme altissime. E sotto, una misteriosa iscrizione in latino.

Al risveglio da una caduta, Caterina, detta Caty, si ritrova davanti un gatto nero che parla. E non è l'unica stranezza: lei è diventata invisibile, impalpabile... Incredibile, è diventata un fantasma! Nella nuova dimensione, Caty entra in contatto con spettri buffi, antichi e moderni, con cui riesce a comunicare. Ma come mai è diventata uno di loro? Come è morta? Mentre i ricordi affiorano, Caty scopre di essere stata assassinata. Adesso, però, non c'è un minuto da perdere: l'assassino sta per colpire ancora e l'omicidio di Caty è solo l'inizio.

Will Shaw just wants a simple life. A former Army Ranger and ex-con, he’s trying to leave his past and demons behind...but he can’t escape what he is. Something inside of him wants to come out. Everyone has an animal spirit, but very few can call upon their primal power. Some are heroes, others monsters. They are skinwalkers...skinners. Children have been going missing. When the mysterious and seductive Janae Jones comes to Will for help taking down a ring of child traffickers known as “The Pack", Will knows he can’t refuse.

In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure.

Unique to this title is: A historical introduction and a study of the themes present in A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol and The Chimes. Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He was born in 1812 in Portsmouth. When his father was sent to jail because of unsettled debt, Dickens had to leave school and get a job in a factory. Dickens is believed to be the best novelist of the Victorian era and he became very popular during his lifetime. His novels are still widely read and translated.

Novela clave en la literatura latinoamericana del siglo veintiuno, Vivir abajo es un audiolibro de aventuras, un relato de horror, un misterio policial, una historia hecha de mil historias y una crónica de viajes por los territorios de la locura y el espanto. También es una novela de humor quijotesco, poblada por artistas enloquecidos, espías eruditos, poetas fantasmales y venganzas equivocadas. Comienza en Perú, cuando un cineasta americano comete un tenebroso homicidio en el sótano de una casa el día de la captura de Abimael Guzmán, líder de Sendero Luminoso.