Recommendations based on The Ruinsby Scott Smith

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

  1. The Terror

    by Dan Simmons
    A gripping survival story set during the doomed Arctic expedition of the HMS Terror.

    The story begins, in medias res, in the winter of 1847, when HMS, Terror, and HMS, Erebus, have been trapped in ice, 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island , for more than a year. The ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Mist

    by Stephen King
    A group of survivors confront terror and terrorizing creatures in a thick mist.

    The morning after a severe thunderstorm , an unnaturally thick mist gradually envelopes the small town of Bridgton, Maine. Artist David Drayton, along with his son Billy and neighbor Brent Norton ... (Wikipedia)

  3. 'Salem's Lot

    by Stephen King
    A small town is terrorized by a vampire, forcing its citizens to fight for survival.

    Ben Mears, a writer who spent part of his childhood in Jerusalem's Lot , Maine , has returned after 25 years. He quickly becomes friends with high-school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Relic

    by Douglas Preston
    Scientists investigate an ancient secret, hidden deep in the South American jungle.

    In September 1987, Dr. Julian Whittlesey is leading an expedition through the Amazon Basin , in the Brazilian rainforest , in search of the lost Kothoga tribe. He hopes to prove that they still do ... (Wikipedia)

  5. 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)

  6. 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)

  7. Shutter Island

    by Dennis Lehane
    A U.S. Marshal investigates a psychiatric hospital on a remote island, uncovering chilling secrets and an unexpected truth.

    In 1954, widower U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, go on a ferry boat to Shutter Island, the home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate ... (Wikipedia)

  8. We Need to Talk About Kevin

    by Lionel Shriver
    A mother's struggle to come to terms with the monstrous acts of her disturbed son.

    In the wake of a school massacre conducted by Kevin Khatchadourian, the 15-year-old son of Franklin Plaskett and Eva Khatchadourian, Eva begins writing letters to Franklin in November 2000. She ... (Wikipedia)

  9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

    by Jack Finney
    A small town is terrorized by alien pods that duplicate people and steal their souls.

    On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms ... (Goodreads)

  10. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

    by Max Brooks
    A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.

    It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)

  11. The Damnation Game

    by Clive Barker
    A wealthy man hires a convict to participate in a deadly game of supernatural forces. The game has dire consequences for all involved.

    There are things worse than death. There are games so seductively evil, so wondrously vile, no gambler can resist. Amid the shadow-scarred rubble of World War II, Joseph Whitehead dared to challenge ... (Goodreads)

  12. Bird Box

    by Josh Malerman
    A family's fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic world, where creatures lurk in the shadows.

    Something is out there, something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from. Five years after it ... (Goodreads)

  13. Mystic River

    by Dennis Lehane
    Three childhood friends are reunited by a tragedy that exposes their dark past and tests their loyalty.

    The novel revolves around three boys who grow up as friends in Boston — Dave Boyle, Sean Devine, and Jimmy Marcus. When the story opens, Dave is abducted by child molesters while he, Sean, and Jimmy ... (Wikipedia)

  14. 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)

  15. Let the Right One In

    by John Ajvide Lindqvist
    A vampire and preteen boy form an unlikely bond while struggling against loneliness and persecution.

    It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. ... (Goodreads)

  16. I Am Legend and Other Stories

    by Richard Matheson
    A collection of sci-fi horror stories exploring themes of isolation, fear and the unknown.

    Robert Neville appears to be the sole survivor of a pandemic that has killed most of the human population and turned the remainder into " vampires " that largely conform to their stereotypes in ... (Wikipedia)

  17. 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)

  18. The Girl Next Door

    by Jack Ketchum
    A teenage girl is subjected to horrific abuse by her aunt and cousins, while her neighbors turn a blind eye.

    Suburbia. Shady, tree-lined streets, well-tended lawns and cozy homes. A nice, quiet place to grow up. Unless you are teenage Meg or her crippled sister, Susan. On a dead-end street, in the dark, ... (Goodreads)

  19. 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)

  20. 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)

  21. The Cabinet of Curiosities

    by Douglas Preston
    Adventure through a mysterious mansion, uncovering secrets and solving puzzles.

    Dr. Nora Kelly's life as an archaeologist at New York City 's American Museum of Natural History becomes complicated when Aloysius X. L. Pendergast , a secretive and highly resourceful FBI Special ... (Wikipedia)

  22. No Country for Old Men

    by Cormac McCarthy
    A gripping tale of violence and pursuit in Texas' desolate landscape.

    The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh , and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Contagious

    by Scott Sigler
    A deadly virus spreads across the world, causing chaos and destruction. A group of survivors must fight to stay alive and find a cure.

    Perry Dawsey and Margaret Montoya attempt to stop an alien infestation of "hatchlings". Dawsey, former Michigan linebacker, has survived the events in Infected , but remains telepathically linked to ... (Wikipedia)

  24. 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)

  25. The Strain

    by Guillermo del Toro
    A mysterious virus spreads in New York City, turning people into bloodthirsty vampires. A team of unlikely heroes fights to save humanity.

    A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Hellbound Heart

    by Clive Barker
    A man's obsession with a mysterious puzzle box leads him to a world of sadomasochistic demons and eternal suffering.

    In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia are having an affair. Not your ordinary affair. For Frank it began with his own insatiable sexual appetite, a mysterious lacquered box- and then an ... (Goodreads)

  27. Heart-Shaped Box

    by Joe Hill
    A retired rock star's haunted purchase leads to a terrifying confrontation with death.

    Aging, self-absorbed rock star Judas Coyne has a thing for the macabre – his collection includes sketches from infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a trepanned skull from the 16th century, a used ... (Goodreads)

  28. Subterranean

    by James Rollins
    A team of scientists and soldiers descend into a dangerous underground world to uncover a deadly secret.

    Travel to the bottom of the earth to a place you never dreamed existed. Beneath the ice a hand-picked team of specialist makes its way toward the center of the world. They are not the first to ... (Goodreads)

  29. Song of Kali

    by Dan Simmons
    A horror novel set in Calcutta, India, where a writer discovers a cult that worships the goddess Kali.

    Robert Luczak is sent by the American literary magazine Other Voices, where he works as an editor, to Calcutta to locate poetry alleged to have been recently authored by a legendary poet, M. Das. The ... (Wikipedia)

  30. American Psycho

    by Bret Easton Ellis
    A corporate psychopath's descent into homicidal madness, exposing the dark side of 1980s New York.

    Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho follows the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, in his mid-20s when the story begins, ... (Wikipedia)