Special Collections
Bram Stoker Award Winners (horror)
Description: The Bram Stoker Awards are given by the Horror Writers Association in acknowledgment of superior achievement in the horror genre. Bookshare is pleased to offer the following titles awarded the Bram Stoker Award for best novel. #award
- Table View
- List View
Children of the Dusk
by Janet BerlinerConcluding the saga of Solomon, Erich, and Miriam, Dusk begins as they land on Nosy Mangabé, a small island off the coast of Madagascar, in the midst of one of the most dense rainforests on Earth. Along with their mysterious Malagasy guide Bruqah, 144 Jews, 40 heavily armed Nazis, and Erich's crack canine unit, the three fight to find a place in this strange new world, while also fighting to stay alive. Winner of the Bram Stoker Award
The Reformatory
by Tananarive DueA gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.
Gracetown, Florida
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.
The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.
American Gods
by Neil GaimanFirst published in 2001, American Gods became an instant classic--an intellectual and artistic benchmark from the multiple-award-winning master of innovative fiction, Neil Gaiman. Now discover the mystery and magic of American Gods in this tenth anniversary edition. Newly updated and expanded with the author's preferred text, this commemorative volume is a true celebration of a modern masterpiece by the one, the only, Neil Gaiman.
A storm is coming . . .
Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.
But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.
Life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined-it is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own. Along the way Shadow will learn that the past never dies; that everyone, including his beloved Laura, harbors secrets; and that dreams, totems, legends, and myths are more real than we know. Ultimately, he will discover that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing-an epic war for the very soul of America-and that he is standing squarely in its path.
Relevant and prescient, American Gods has been lauded for its brilliant synthesis of "mystery, satire, sex, horror, and poetic prose" (Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World) and as a modern phantasmagoria that "distills the essence of America" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). It is, quite simply, an outstanding work of literary imagination that will endure for generations.
Nebula Award Winner
Winner of Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
Coyote Rage
by Owl GoingbackBram Stoker Award-Winning author Owl Goingback makes a triumphant return to horror and fantasy in this gripping new novel. Coyote is on a murderous hunt, leaving behind a trail of carnage. The shape-shifter is determined to kill the human representatives to the Great Council in Galun'lati, eliminating the rule of mankind in the New World. But Raven has overheard the Trickster's evil plan, and will do anything to protect Luther Watie and his daughter, Sarah Reynolds, even if it means turning his skin inside out. The forces of evil are aligning in two very different worlds. Can mankind be saved, or will creatures of fur and fangs once again reign supreme?
Ararat
by Christopher GoldenArarat is the heart-pounding tale of an adventure that goes wrong...on a biblical scale.
When an earthquake reveals a secret cave hidden inside Mount Ararat in Turkey, a daring newly engaged couple are determined to be the first ones inside...and what they discover will change everything.
The cave is actually a buried ancient ship that many quickly come to believe is Noah’s Ark.
When a team of scholars, archaeologists, and filmmakers make it inside the ark, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses.
Inside the coffin they find an ugly, misshapen cadaver—not the holy man they expected, but a hideous creature with horns.
Shock and fear turn to horror when a massive blizzard blows in, trapping them thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain.
All they can do is pray for safety. But something wicked is listening to their prayers...and it wants to answer.
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas HarrisFirst published in 1988, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS is the #1 best selling novel by Thomas Harris, author of HANNIBAL.
Dead in the Water
by Nancy HolderThe shipwrecked, vacationing passengers of the ill-fated freighter, Morris, are picked up by the H.M.S. Pandora and sail into a cruise of metaphysical terror, madness, and death.
Winner of Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
The Devil Takes You Home
by Gabino IglesiasThis genre-defying, Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker award-winning thriller follows a father desperate to salvage what's left of his family—even if it means a descent into violence. Buried in debt due to his young daughter&’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel&’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems. As the three complicated men travel through the endless landscape of Texas, across the border and back, their hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation. One thing is certain: even if Mario makes it out alive, he won&’t return the same. The Devil Takes You Home is a panoramic odyssey for fans of S.A. Cosby&’s southern noir, Blacktop Wasteland, by way of the boundary-defying storytelling of Stephen Graham Jones and Silvia Moreno-Garcia. NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: NPR, Harper's Bazaar, Chicago Tribune, Vulture, Oprah Daily, CrimeReads, The Millions, and many more!An Edgar Award Finalist • A Bram Stoker Award Winner • A Shirley Jackson Award Winner • A Book of the Month Club Pick • An August Indie Next List Selection • An ABA Indie Bestseller
Dread in the Beast
by Charlee JacobNovel which culls from the histories and mythologies of humankind. it follows the trail of the Mother Spirit of the worst that the world is capable of producing.
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
by Stephen Graham JonesWinner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that &“will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course&” (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.&“Some girls just don&’t know how to die…&” Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called &“a literary master&” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and &“one of our most talented living writers&” by Tommy Orange. Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw &“a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.&” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold. Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.
The Only Good Indians
by Stephen Graham JonesA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From USA TODAY bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a &“masterpiece&” (Locus Magazine) of a novel about revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition. Labeled &“one of 2020&’s buzziest horror novels&” (Entertainment Weekly), this is a remarkable horror story that &“will give you nightmares—the good kind of course&” (BuzzFeed).From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
The Drowning Girl
by Caitlin R. KiernanIndia Morgan Phelps-Imp to her friends-is schizophrenic. Struggling with her perceptions of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about her encounters with creatures out of myth-or from something far, far stranger...
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
Bag of Bones
by Stephen KingA powerful tale of grief, love&’s enduring bonds, and secrets of the past from #1 New York Times bestselling author and master storyteller Stephen King.Four years after the sudden death of his wife, bestselling novelist Mike Noonan is still grieving. Unable to write and plagued by vivid nightmares set at the western Maine summerhouse he calls &“Sara Laughs,&” Mike reluctantly returns to the lakeside getaway. There, he finds his beloved Yankee town held in the grip of a powerful millionaire, Max Devore, whose vindictive purpose is to take his three-year-old granddaughter, Kyra, away from her widowed young mother, Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie&’s and Kyra&’s struggle—and as he falls in love with both of them—he is also drawn into the mystery of Sara Laughs…now the site of ghostly visitations and escalating terrors. What are the forces that have been unleashed here—and just what do they want of Mike Noonan?
Doctor Sleep
by Stephen KingNow a major motion picture starring Ewan McGregor! From master storyteller Stephen King, his unforgettable and terrifying sequel to The Shining—an instant #1 New York Times bestseller that is &“[a] vivid frightscape&” (The New York Times). Years ago, the haunting of the Overlook Hotel nearly broke young Dan Torrance&’s sanity, as his paranormal gift known as &“the shining&” opened a door straight into hell. And even though Dan is all grown up, the ghosts of the Overlook—and his father&’s legacy of alcoholism and violence—kept him drifting aimlessly for most of his life. Now, Dan has finally found some order in the chaos by working in a local hospice, earning the nickname &“Doctor Sleep&” by secretly using his special abilities to comfort the dying and prepare them for the afterlife. But when he unexpectedly meets twelve-year-old Abra Stone—who possesses an even more powerful manifestation of the shining—the two find their lives in sudden jeopardy at the hands of the ageless and murderous nomadic tribe known as the True Knot, reigniting Dan&’s own demons and summoning him to battle for this young girl&’s soul and survival...
Duma Key
by Stephen KingMaster storyteller Stephen King&’s classic, terrifying #1 New York Times bestseller of what happens when the barrier between our world and that of the supernatural is breached.After a terrible construction site accident severs Edgar Freemantle&’s right arm, scrambles his mind, and implodes his marriage, the wealthy Minnesota builder faces the ordeal of rehabilitation, all alone and full of rage. Renting a house on Duma Key—a stunningly beautiful and eerily undeveloped splinter off the Florida coast—Edgar slowly emerges from his prison of pain to bond with Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick, elderly woman whose roots are tangled deep in this place. And as he heals, he paints—feverishly, compulsively, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. For Edgar&’s creations are not just paintings, but portals for the ghosts of Elizabeth&’s past…and their power cannot be controlled…
The Green Mile
by Stephen KingMasterfully told and as suspenseful as it is haunting, The Green Mile is Stephen King&’s classic #1 New York Times bestselling dramatic serial novel and inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film starring Tom Hanks.Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk &“the Green Mile,&” the lime-colored linoleum corridor leading to a final meeting with Old Sparky, Cold Mountain&’s electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities over the years working the Mile, but he&’s never seen anything like John Coffey—a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. And in this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about John Coffey—a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs…
Lisey's Story
by Stephen King*Now an Apple TV+ limited series starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen* The &“haunting…tender, intimate book that makes an epic interior journey&” (The New York Times), Lisey&’s Story is a literary masterpiece—an extraordinarily moving and haunting portrait of a marriage and its aftermath.Lisey lost her husband Scott two years ago, after a twenty-five year marriage of profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey knew there was a place Scott went—a place that both terrified and healed him, could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it&’s Lisey&’s turn to face Scott&’s demons, to go to that terrifying place known as Boo&’ya Moon. What begins as a widow&’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. &“Intricate...exhilarating&” (The New Yorker), perhaps Stephen King&’s most personal and powerful novel ever, Lisey&’s Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love. It is a beautiful, &“rich portrait of a marriage, and the complicated affection that outlives death&” (The Washington Post).
Misery
by Stephen KingPaul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader--she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident.
But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.
Now Annie wants Paul to write his greatest work--just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an ax. And if they don't work, she can get really nasty.
The Fisherman
by John LanganIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.
Audrey's Door
by Sarah LanganBuilt on the Upper West Side, the elegant Breviary claims a regal history. But despite 14B's astonishingly low rental price, the recent tragedy within its walls has frightened away all potential tenants . . . except for Audrey Lucas. No stranger to tragedy at thirty-two--a survivor of a fatherless childhood and a mother's hopeless dementia-- Audrey is obsessively determined to make her own way in a city that often strangles the weak. But is it something otherworldly or Audrey's own increasing instability that's to blame for the dark visions that haunt her . . . and for the voice that demands that she build a door? A door it would be true madness to open . . .
The Missing
by Sarah LanganA remote and affluent Maine community, Corpus Christi was untouched by the environmental catastrophe that destroyed the neighboring blue-collar town of Bedford. But all that will change in a heartbeat . . . The nightmare is awakened when third-grade schoolteacher Lois Larkin takes the children on a field trip to Bedford. There in the abandoned woods, a small, cruel boy unearths an ancient horror--a contagious plague that transforms its victims into something violent, hungry . . . and inhuman. The long, dark night is just beginning. And all hope must die as the contagion feeds--for the malevolence will not rest until it has devoured every living soul in Corpus Christi . . . and beyond.
The Traveling Vampire Show
by Richard LaymonThree friends are determined to see the Traveling Vampire Show, featuring the only known vampire in captivity, when it arrives in the summer of 1963. Janks Field, where the show will take place, has been declared off-limits because of its sinister history, but the three teens don't want to miss the performance... and their efforts yield far more than they ever imagined.
Bram Stoker Award winner in 2000.
Mine
by Robert McCammonA psychopathic female fugitive provokes a mother&’s vengeance in this terrifying thriller by the New York Times–bestselling author of Gone South and Boy&’s Life. Back in the 1960s, Mary Terrell shot and killed a man. A former member of the fanatical Storm Front Brigade—a splinter group of the notorious Weathermen—Terrell has stayed one step ahead of the FBI for decades. Living with numerous identities and menial jobs, Terrell&’s only constants in life have been LSD, psychotic delusions of motherhood, and murderous rage. The sixties are long gone, but Mary is still out there. Now, provoked by a message she reads in Rolling Stone, she&’s convinced that the surviving leader of her old band of radicals wants to build a life with her. So one night, Mary sneaks into the maternity ward of an Atlanta hospital. Laura Clayborne has a successful career and now, a newborn baby. She&’s the type of person who is sensitive to suffering and injustice. But the kidnapping of her infant son has brought out a white-hot fury. She&’s not going to sit and wait while the FBI investigates. She&’s going after Mary herself—headlong and relentless—on a twisting and violent cross-country pursuit to get her child back. But to track a madwoman, Laura will have to think like one . . . A Bram Stoker Award winner, this &“expertly constructed novel of suspense and horror&” (Publishers Weekly) from the author of Swan Song, Speaks the Nightbird, and other acclaimed works is &“feverishly exciting . . . a page-whipping thriller&” (Kirkus Reviews).
Swan Song
by Robert McCammonNew York Times Bestseller: A young girl&’s visions offer the last hope in a postapocalyptic wasteland in this &“grand and disturbing adventure&” (Dean Koontz).A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick Swan is a nine-year-old Kansas girl following her struggling mother from one trailer park to the next when she receives visions of doom—something far wider than the narrow scope of her own beleaguered life. In a blinding flash, nuclear bombs annihilate civilization, leaving only a few buried survivors to crawl onto a scorched landscape that was once America. In Manhattan, a homeless woman stumbles from the sewers, guided by the prophecies of a mysterious amulet, and pursued by something wicked; on Idaho&’s Blue Dome Mountain, an orphaned boy falls under the influence of depraved survivalists and discovers the value of a killer instinct; and amid the devastating dust storms on the Great Plains of Nebraska, Swan forms a heart-and-soul bond with an unlikely new companion. Soon they will cross paths. But only Swan knows that they must endure more than just a trek across an irradiated country of mutated animals, starvation, madmen, and wasteland warriors. Swan&’s visions tell of a coming malevolent force. It&’s a shape-shifting embodiment of the apocalypse, and of all that is evil and despairing. And it&’s hell-bent on destroying the last hope of goodness and purity in the world. Swan is that hope. Now, she must fight not only for her own survival, but for that of all mankind. A winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, Swan Song has become a modern classic, called &“a chilling vision that keeps you turning pages to the shocking end&” by John Saul and &“a long, satisfying look at hell and salvation&” by Publishers Weekly.
Boy's Life
by Robert R. MccammonIn me are the memories of a boy's life, spent in that realm of enchantments. These are the things I want to tell you....
Boy's Life is a richly imagined, spellbinding portrait of the magical worldview of the young -- and of innocence lost.
Zephyr, Alabama, is an idyllic hometown for eleven-year-old Cory Mackenson -- a place where monsters swim the river deep and friends are forever. Then, one cold spring morning, Cory and his father witness a car plunge into a lake -- and a desperate rescue attempt brings his father face-to-face with a terrible, haunting vision of death. As Cory struggles to understand his father's pain, his eyes are slowly opened to the forces of good and evil that surround him. From an ancient mystic who can hear the dead and bewitch the living, to a violent clan of moonshiners, Cory must confront the secrets that hide in the shadows of his hometown -- for his father's sanity and his own life hang in the balance....
Winner of Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel