Horror books set in United States of America (27)


Find more books set in United States of America by genre:
1.

Beloved by Toni Morrison EN

Rating: 4 (24 votes)
Description:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past. Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Sethe works at beating back the pas... continue

2.

The Trees by Percival Everett EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Description:
The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till, a young black boy lynched in the same town 65 years before. The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that similar murders are taking place all over the country. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, and does so in a fast-paced style that ensures the reader can't look away.

3.

Don't Tell a Soul by Kirsten Miller EN

0 Ratings
Description:
Stay up all night with this modern day Rebecca! Perfect for fans of Truly Devious--a haunting story about a new girl in an old town filled with dark secrets . . . 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 haunte... continue

4.

Nightbitch : A Novel by Rachel Yoder EN

0 Ratings
Description:
In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. • "A must-read for anyone who can’t get enough of the ever-blurring line between the psychological and supernatural that Yellowjackets exemplifies." —Vulture One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else... An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler's deman... continue

5.

Slewfoot : A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom EN

Rating: 3 (3 votes)
Description:
Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it. Connecticut, 1666. An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector. The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil. To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help. Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake. “If it is a devil y... continue

6.

My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
Protected by horror movies -- especially the ones where the masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them, Jade Daniels, an angry, half-Indian outcast, pulls us into her dark mind when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian lake--


8.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson EN

Rating: 4 (6 votes)
Description:
Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with chilling, even horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers � and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

9.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix EN

Rating: 3 (2 votes)
Description:
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER VOTED GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD BEST HORROR NOVEL OF 2021 A Good Morning America Buzz Pick “The horror master…puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes.”-USA Today A can't-miss summer read, selected by The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Time, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, LitHub, BookRiot, Bustle, Popsugar and the New York Public Library In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after? Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s... continue

10.

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Road • In this taut, chilling story, Lester Ballard—a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape—haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance. "Like the novelists he admires-Melville, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner-Cormac McCarthy has created an imaginative oeuvre greater and deeper than any single book. Such writers wrestle with the gods themsel... continue

11.

Pet Sematary : A Novel by Stephen King EN

Rating: 5 (4 votes)
Description:
A horror story of a children's pet cemetery and another graveyard behind it from which the dead return.

12.

Der Outsider by Stephen King DE

0 Ratings
Description:
Im Stadtpark von Flint City wird die geschändete Leiche eines elfjährigen Jungen gefunden. Augenzeugenberichte und Tatortspuren deuten unmissverständlich auf einen unbescholtenen Bürger: Terry Maitland, ein allseits beliebter Englischlehrer, zudem Coach der Jugendbaseballmannschaft, verheiratet, zwei kleine Töchter. Detective Ralph Anderson, dessen Sohn von Maitland trainiert wurde, ordnet eine sofortige Festnahme an, die in aller Öffentlichkeit stattfindet. Der Verdächtige kann zwar ein Alibi vorweisen, aber Anderson und der Staatsanwalt verfügen nach d... continue

13.

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Description:
#1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book. But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work. In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this s... continue

14.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
“This funny and fresh take on a classic tale manages to comment on gender roles, racial disparities, and white privilege all while creeping me all the way out. So good.”—Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this New York Times best-selling horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town. Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind o... continue

15.

Her Body and Other Parties : Stories by Carmen Maria Machado EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction “[These stories] vibrate with originality, queerness, sensuality and the strange.”—Roxane Gay “In these formally brilliant and emotionally charged tales, Machado gives literal shape to women’s memories and hunger and desire. I couldn’t put it down.”—Karen Russell In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is al... continue

16.

The Sluts by Dennis Cooper EN

0 Ratings
Description:
Set largely on the pages of a website where gay male escorts are reviewed by their clients, and told through the postings, emails, and conversations of several dozen unreliable narrators, The Sluts chronicles the evolution of one young escort's date with a satisfied client into a metafiction of pornography, lies, half-truths, and myth. Explicit, shocking, comical, and displaying the author's signature flair for blending structural complexity with direct, stylish, accessible language, The Sluts is Cooper's most transgressive novel since Frisk, and one of his most innovative works of fiction to ... continue

17.

Carrie by Stephen King EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
Carrie is a 16 year-old girl who is repressed by her fanatical mother. She is humiliated by her classmates for her ignorance of the facts of life. However, she possesses terrifying telekinetic powers that could make inanimate objects move. After being humiliated once too often, her inner rage erupts.

18.

Later by Stephen King EN

0 Ratings
Description:
“Part detective tale, part thriller…touching and genuine.” —The New York Times #1 bestselling author Stephen King returns with a brand-new novel about the secrets we keep buried and the cost of unearthing them. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SOMETIMES GROWING UP MEANS FACING YOUR DEMONS The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using thi... continue

19.

Natural Beauty : A Novel by Ling Ling Huang EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost. Our narrator produces a sound from the piano no one else at the Conservatory can. She employs a technique she learned from her parents—also talented musicians—who fled China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. But when an accident leaves her parents debilitated, she abandons her future for a job at a high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City. Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures—from remoras that suck o... continue

20.

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim EN

0 Ratings
Description:
Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective. Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing. In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. ... continue

21.

Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
The adventures of an English killer who has sex with corpses and eats them. After escaping from jail he kills an American tourist, takes his identity and flees to the U.S. He teams up with a local necrophile and together they feast on a Vietnamese teenager.

22.

Mary : An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
Nat Cassidy’s highly commercial, debut horror novel Mary: An Awakening of Terror, blends Midsommar with elements of American Psycho and a pinch of I'll Be Gone in the Dark. Harper's Bazaar 15 Best Books for Spooky Season USA Today 5 New Books This Week Book Riot Summer Scares (2022) CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime Books 2022 Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself. But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out,... continue

23.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
THE STORY: The home of the Blackwoods near a Vermont village is a lonely, ominous abode, and Constance, the young mistress of the place, can't go out of the house without being insulted and stoned by the villagers. They have also composed a nasty s

24.

This Thing Between Us : A Novel by Gus Moreno EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
A widower battles his grief, rage, and the mysterious evil inhabiting his home smart speaker, in this mesmerizing horror thriller from Gus Moreno. It was Vera’s idea to buy the Itza. The “world’s most advanced smart speaker!” didn’t interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza proj... continue

25.

Christine by Stephen King EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
Arnie Cunningham is in love with his car. Christine, the car, is in complete control. "Vintage King . . . breathtaking, awesome. Carries such momentum the reader must force himself to slow down."--"New York Times Book Review" Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

26.

The Tell-tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe EN

0 Ratings
Description:
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator tries to prove his sanity after murdering an elderly man because of his "vulture eye". His growing guilt leads him to hear the old man's heart beating under the floorboards, which drives him to confess the crime to the police.

27.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury EN

0 Ratings
Description:
The show crept into town late one dark October night to the eerie whine of a calliope. In the terrifying days that followed, everything changed... Two boys stumbled onto the first of the secrets - the nightmare merry-go-round that produced the grisly turnabout of human beings. But not until they actually became part of the dance of death did they discover the final mystery of all...