Scary Stories For Adults

A boy discovers the answer to one of the great urban mysteries: Why are pigeons always pooping in parks? A second-grade class learns why they should always be nice to their math teacher. An ancient predator uses the internet to search out its prey. A young girl and her little brother escape a campfire weenie only to encounter something even more terrifying: a troop of Girl Scouts singing campfire songs.

It’s the end of the world as she knows it! Thirteen-year-old Kelly Ferguson’s secret life as a monster-hunting babysitter is taking a beastly turn. Now she has to go on a rescue mission to Monster Island - where monster royalty is turning kids into hairy mutant monsters! To pull it off, she’ll have to face off against internet trolls, trash monsters, and her fear of screwing up - plus the biggest, baddest Boogey of all. With the fate of humanity on the line, can Kelly save the kids, the world, and her own social life before the big school dance?

From the award-winning author of Hidden Talents, two remarkable short-story collections - Kidzilla and The Witch's Monkey - together for the first time. Plus several brand-new stories. Each hilarious and harrowing. A substitute teacher finds out she has some monsters for students. A group of kids attempts a levitation trick with hair-raising results. A neighborhood is so boring the grown-ups are turning into...well...you know. And dozens more.

All Esma Siban wants this summer is to stay out of her stepmother's way. When her stepsister, Morgan, suggests a road trip to Oregon to visit a friend from high school, Esma jumps on the idea. A camping trip sounds like the perfect way to help Esma recover from breaking up with her boyfriend. But when Esma and Morgan encounter a stalker, Esma's fangs come out. The death of a Sasquatch hunter wasn't on their itinerary. A terrified Esma is unsure what to do next, so she texts her ex-boyfriend for help.

Secret Seekers Society and the Beast of Bladenboro follows the young protagonists Hunter Glenn and Elly Ann through an adventure ripe with adversity, paranormal monsters, secret societies, and most haunting of all, a life without their parents. Both siblings suffer emotional struggle from the sudden loss of their parents, as well as their physical journey into a new and strange “home”: an ancient and creepy mansion known only as the Belmonte Estate.

New York Times best-selling authors Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs team up to co-author this thrilling first book in a darkly suspenseful middle grade series. Everyone in Timbers knows Still Cove is off-limits, with its creepy Beast sightings and equally terrifying legends. But when a bullying incident sends 12-year-old Nico Holland over a cliff and into Still Cove's icy waters, friends Tyler and Emma - and even Opal Walsh, who usually runs with the popular kids - rush to his rescue...and discover a mysterious island hiding in the murky, swirling mists below.

Finn was born to stop the monsters from invading his town. But he’d really rather not. He dreams of having an ordinary life, and right now, things can’t get any worse. Legends are running riot. Half-Hunters are out of control. And Darkmouth has been taken away from him.

In the zombie apocalypse, no one is safe. Not even children. That’s what twelve-year-old Josh and his friends in the Zombie Hunters Club discovered when the undead invaded their school in The Living Dead Boy. Now, Josh and the remaining Zombie Hunters are stuck on a city bus traveling across zombie-infested Texas. With fires burning on the horizon, mass evacuations underway, zombies roaming the countryside, and in-fighting among the adults on the bus creating tension, Josh has never felt so helpless. Despite his father’s insistence that the adults can handle the situation, Josh knows far too well from watching zombie movies that one person can put everyone else at risk.

Joining Omega Phi Delta is the best thing that’s ever happened to Maxie. Since she pledged with Salem University’s coolest sorority, she’s never had trouble finding a party to go to or a boy to date. Her new life is perfect - until death strikes Omega House. The terror starts when Maxie’s sorority sister Erica’s jewelry box goes missing, with all of her valuables - including her grandmother’s priceless ring - inside. Erica is tearing her room apart when she gets a package: the box, with all the jewelry safe inside.

Jen Noonan's father thinks a move to Harmony House is the key to salvation, but to everyone who has lived there before, it is a portal to pure horror. After her alcoholic mother's death, Jen's father cracked. He dragged Jen to a dilapidated old manor on the shore of New Jersey to start their new lives - but Jen can tell that the place has an unhappy history. She can feel it the same way she can feel her anger flowing out of her, affecting the world in strange ways she can't explain.

For 13 years, Gracen Sullivan dreamed about a red-eyed demon named Hart Blackwell who tortured her every night. Her mother freaked when she found out about her daughter's "hallucinations" and forced Gracen to go to the doctor, who prescribed some very powerful medication, which kept Hart out of her head for five years. A week ago, Hart came back and brought a friend. But something has changed, and Gracen is seeing Hart when she's awake too. And the other "friends" in her dreams? They're dead.

In a heart-racing thriller described as Left Behind for the Hunger Games Generation, Jennie struggles to find a safe place for what’s left of her family. But it seems as though there is no place sacred, no place secure. First the aliens attacked the sun, making it dimmer, weaker, and half what it used to be. Then they attacked the water supply, killing one-third of Earth’s population with a bitter contaminate. And when they unleash a new terror on humankind, the victims will wish for death, but will not find it…

Reed Monroe chose Salem University for one reason: the opportunity to study with Victoria McCoy, writer-in-residence and best-selling author of horror fiction. When she learns that a lingering illness is preventing McCoy from teaching any classes, Reed starts a fan club for other McCoy obsessives. Although it only attracts a few members, the club is her passion until she hears about the opportunity of a lifetime: Victoria McCoy is hiring a new assistant. It’s a job that any horror fan would kill for.

There's something strange about Martin, and Tess can't work out what it is. He's a Switcher, with the same amazing powers that she has, but there's a sinister side to him. As Tess begins to unravel the awful secret Martin is hiding, she is dragged into the dark night-time world in which he lurks. And there she is faced with the most terrifying choice of her life.

The second volume in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading is chock-full of mystery, intrigue, and nefarious activity. Featuring some of the best writers around, and compiled by certified guy Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: Thriller is a pulse-pounding collection of brand-new short stories, each one guaranteed to keep you riveted until the final page.

When Daisy Fitzjohn's mother leaves their crumbling Gothic home early one morning and doesn't return, Daisy, with no one to help her but her imaginary friends, must fight to save her home and her life from a dangerous and mysterious stranger.

It all started as stories - playground tales handed down for generations, stories of plague graves, vanished children and hidden steps leading to a festering underworld. A world so real you could almost smell it.... But when another child goes missing, Fraser wonders if there's some truth in the tales.

Colby Blanchard is the popular cheerleader with the grades, the hunky boyfriend, and the homecoming crown in the bag. Then things go bad - like turning-into-a-vampire bad. And complicating things is the fact that her orthodontist father has removed her canine teeth to give her a perfect smile, so she can't even do the vampire thing properly. Luckily, he's fitting her with some new headgear so she can feed. (So now she's not just a vampire but a dork.)

Working at the mall is supposed to be fun. Trish’s job at Muffin-Mania is hardly intellectually challenging and her boss is a piece of work, but it’s worth it to have a job in the same building as her two best friends, the Hanson twins. And the hot guys who hang out there are an added bonus. But something isn’t right about this mall. It’s the oldest mall in the state, remodeled over a dozen times without rhyme or reason, and there are many strange nooks and secret passages behind the bright gleaming storefronts. Someone has been stealing housewares, furniture, and food, and now a mysterious man with ash-gray hair and a whisper-soft voice has started harassing Trish on the phone.

Teenager Murray Keifer just doesn't fit in at school. And it doesn't help that his mother is too busy entertaining male friends to be involved in his life. His only friends are "Dearly" and "Beloved": dead people buried in the local cemetery. That's right, Murray talks to the dead. But Murray's peaceful and unusual world is torn asunder when he hears the voice of missing teen Nikki Parker, buried in someone else's grave.