Recommendations based on Ghost Storyby Peter Straub

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Pet Sematary

    by Stephen King
    A family's terrifying journey of life and death, as the line between the living and the dead blurs.

    Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago , is appointed director of the University of Maine 's campus health service. He moves to a large house near the small town of Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their two ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Floating Dragon

    by Peter Straub
    A small town is plagued by a supernatural force unleashed by a cursed statue. The townspeople must confront their darkest fears to survive.

    Two monstrous evils. This quiet suburban town of Hampstead is threatened by two horrors. One is natural. The hideous, unstoppable creation of man's power gone mad. The other is not natural at all. ... (Goodreads)

  3. The Haunting of Hill House

    by Shirley Jackson
    A group of people investigating a mysterious and haunted house, uncovering its secrets.

    It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted ... (Goodreads)

  4. Firestarter

    by Stephen King
    A young girl with pyrokinetic powers is pursued by a mysterious government agency.

    Andy and Charlene "Charlie" McGee are a father/daughter pair on the run from a government agency known as The Shop. During his college years, Andy had participated in a Shop experiment dealing with ... (Wikipedia)

  5. The Amityville Horror

    by Jay Anson
    A family's terrifying ordeal in a haunted house, where the supernatural lurks in the shadows.

    The book, purportedly based on a true story, describes the house at 112 Ocean Avenue as remaining empty for 13 months after the DeFeo murders . In December 1975, George and Kathleen Lutz bought the ... (Wikipedia)

  6. The Exorcist

    by William Peter Blatty
    A priest's battle against a powerful demon possessing a young girl.

    An elderly Jesuit priest named Father Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and is studying ancient relics. After discovering a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Skeleton Crew

    by Stephen King
    Collection of short stories that explore horror and the supernatural.

    From the Flap: The Master at his scarifying best! From heart-pounding terror to the eeriest of whimsy–tales from the outer limits of one of the greatest imaginations of our time! Evil that breathes ... (Goodreads)

  8. Shadowland

    by Peter Straub
    A young man discovers his family's dark secrets and confronts the evil lurking in the shadows.

    You have been there…,if you have ever been afraid. Come back. To a dark house deep in the Vermont woods, where two friends are spending a season of horror, apprenticed to a Master Magician. Learning ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Long Walk

    by Richard Bachman
    Fourteen boys face a grueling test of endurance and willpower as they compete in a life-or-death march.

    One hundred teenage boys join an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk" or just "The Walk". Each contestant, called a "Walker", must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he ... (Wikipedia)

  10. The Omen

    by David Seltzer
    A family discovers the terrifying truth about their new-born son, who is the Antichrist.

    Now updated, this classic tale of the antichrist who comes to Earth in the form of a young boy is available in time for 20th Century Fox's contemporary remake of the 1976 classic film, starring Liev ... (Goodreads)

  11. Hell House

    by Richard Matheson
    A group of paranormal investigators explore a haunted mansion, facing the horrors within.

    The story of Hell House concerns four people – Dr. Lionel Barrett, a physicist with an interest in parapsychology , his wife Edith, and two mediums (Florence Tanner, a spiritualist and mental medium, ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Whispers

    by Dean Koontz
    A family's battle against a mysterious force that is transforming their lives.

    Hilary Thomas, a screenwriter living in Los Angeles, is attacked in her home by Bruno Frye, a mentally disturbed man whose vineyard in Napa Valley she recently visited. Frye tries to rape her, but ... (Wikipedia)

  13. Something Wicked This Way Comes

    by Ray Bradbury
    A dark fantasy tale of two boys confronting a mysterious and sinister carnival.

    One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes , now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre. For ... (Barnes & Noble)

  14. The Other

    by Thomas Tryon
    Twins Holland and Niles Perry grow up in a small town, but something sinister lurks in the woods.

    Entranced and terrified, the reader of The Other is swept up in the life of a Connecticut country town in the thirties—and in the fearful mysteries that slowly darken and overwhelm it. Originally ... (Goodreads)

  15. Rosemary's Baby

    by Ira Levin
    A woman's descent into darkness as she is unknowingly forced to carry a child of the Devil.

    The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young married woman who has just moved into the Bramford, a historic Gothic Revival-style New York City apartment building, with her husband, Guy, a ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Strangers

    by Dean Koontz
    A man and woman, both haunted by their pasts, are brought together by a terrifying threat.

    A group of people are brought together by their different and equally strange maladies. There is Dominick who suffers from somnambulism , Ginger has unexplained lapses into a fugue state , Father ... (Wikipedia)

  17. Intensity

    by Dean Koontz
    Thriller of a young woman's race against time to save the life of an innocent child.

    Chyna Shepherd is a college student visiting the family of her friend, Laura Templeton, for a long weekend. Chyna, who was abused and neglected by her mother as a child, finds that the Templeton ... (Wikipedia)

  18. NOS4A2

    by Joe Hill
    A supernatural adventure of a young girl trying to save her family and others from an evil immortal.

    The book opens in a hospital in 2008. Charles Manx, a convicted child abductor, briefly wakes from a coma to threaten a nurse. Her coworkers don't believe her claim, because he exhibits only limited ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Jaws

    by Peter Benchley
    A small beach town is terrorized by a great white shark, leading to a thrilling battle of man versus nature.

    The story is set in Amity, a fictional seaside resort town on Long Island , New York. One night, a massive great white shark kills a young tourist named Chrissie Watkins while she skinny dips in the ... (Wikipedia)

  20. Carrion Comfort

    by Dan Simmons
    A group of powerful psychics with the ability to control the minds of others use their powers for sinister purposes.

    The story begins in 1942, with a man named Saul Laski who fears for his life while at the Chełmno extermination camp built by Germans during World War II in Poland . He is determined to resist being ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Roadwork

    by Richard Bachman
    A man struggles to keep his sanity as his home is destroyed to make way for a new highway.

    During a man-on-the-street news interview in August 1972, an unnamed man (later identified as Barton George Dawes) gives his angry opinion of a new highway extension project. The narrative then jumps ... (Wikipedia)

  22. The Witching Hour

    by Anne Rice
    A dark and mysterious tale of secret families and supernatural forces.

    From the author of the extraordinary Vampire Chronicles comes a huge, hypnotic novel of witchcraft and the occult through four centuries. Demonstrating, once again, her gift for spellbinding ... (Goodreads)

  23. The Great and Secret Show

    by Clive Barker
    A battle between two men with supernatural powers for control of a dream sea that can grant unlimited power.

    In 1969, while working in a dead letter office in Nebraska , disgruntled postal clerk Randolph Jaffe discovers hints to a mysterious society known as The Shoal, which ostensibly practises a form of ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Summer of Night

    by Dan Simmons
    A group of boys in a small town uncover a sinister force lurking in their midst during the summer of 1960.

    Set in Elm Haven, Illinois, in 1960, Summer of Night recounts its five pre-teen protagonists' discovery that eerie, terrifying events are unfolding in the Old Central School. Operatives, including a ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Carmilla

    by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
    Gothic horror novella following a young woman's mysterious encounter with a female vampire.

    Le Fanu presents the story as part of the casebook of Dr. Hesselius, whose departures from medical orthodoxy rank him as the first occult detective in literature. , Laura, the teenage protagonist, ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Keep

    by F. Paul Wilson
    Adventure to save humanity from an ancient evil force, with unexpected allies.

    German soldiers and SS Einsatzkommandos are being slowly killed off in a mysterious castle (the "keep" of the title) high in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania in April 1941. Theodore Cuza, a Jewish ... (Wikipedia)

  27. 2001: A Space Odyssey

    by Arthur C. Clarke
    An interstellar journey of exploration, confronting humanity's place in the universe.

    A mysterious alien civilization uses a tool with the appearance of a large crystalline monolith to investigate worlds across the galaxy and, if possible, to encourage the development of intelligent ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Secret History

    by Donna Tartt
    A small group of misfit college students uncover a sinister secret and their lives become entangled with dangerous consequences.

    Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the ... (Goodreads)

  29. Psycho

    by Robert Bloch
    A chilling thriller of suspense and horror, confronting a psychopathic murderer.

    Norman Bates , a middle-aged bachelor, is dominated by his mother, a mean-tempered, puritanical old woman who forbids him to have a life outside of her. They run a small motel together in the town of ... (Wikipedia)

  30. 20th Century Ghosts

    by Joe Hill
    A collection of horror stories exploring the darker aspects of the human soul.

    A collection of short stories. Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for ... (Goodreads)