Ghosts & Haunted Houses

You might find yourself locking the doors and closing the curtains with these hair-raising tales of haunted places.

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
When Johnny Truant attempts to organize the many fragments of a strange manuscript by a dead blind man, it gains possession of his very soul. The manuscript is a complex story about a house that defies all the laws of physics. The exploration of a seemingly endless, totally dark and constantly changing labyrinth in the house becomes an examination of truth, perception and darkness itself. The book also contains more than 400 footnotes to works real and imagined, thus illuminating both the text and Truant's mental disintegration.

The Good House by Tananarive Due
The home that belonged to Angela Toussaint's late grandmother is so beloved that townspeople in Sacajawea, Washington, call it the Good House. But that all changes one summer when an unexpected tragedy takes place behind its closed doors...and the Toussaint's family history – and future – is dramatically transformed.

Year of Past Things: A New Orleans Ghost Story by M.A. Harper
Phil Randazzo, owner of the trendy Tasso Restaurant in New Orleans, is being haunted and he's not at all happy about it. Strange supernatural events are taking place in the home he shares with his new wife, Michelle. Michelle's late husband, the legendary Cajun musician A.P. Savoie, begins to appear at will and inhabit everyday objects. As Savoie's presence grows stronger, the couple asks for help – psychics and exorcists are consulted until Phil narrowly escapes a deadly accident.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
A collector of obscure and macabre artifacts, unscrupulous metal band musician Judas Coyne is unable to resist purchasing a ghost over the Internet, which turns out to be the vengeful spirit of his late girlfriend's stepfather. Also try 20th Century Ghosts, a collection of ghostly short stories.

Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff
Tony Foster, fledgling wizard and production assistant on the syndicated TV series Darkest Night, is forced to draw on his magical ability to see and hear the dead when the show goes on location to shoot an episode at Caulfield House, an actual haunted house filled with dark forces that can destroy the living. This is the second novel in the Tony Foster novels; the first is Smoke and Shadows.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
The 1820 Washington Irving classic is a chilling tale of romantic rivalry and supernatural terror. The story begins with Ichabod Crane becoming the new schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod comes to the idea of marrying local wealthy farmer’s daughter Katrina Van Tassel. But Ichabod must compete for her affections with Brom Bones, the town rowdy. Then, one night Ichabod sees and is pursued by the Headless Horseman and he is never heard from again.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Four seekers arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers – and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The story unfolds with the arrival of a new governess at a remote country estate. She has been hired by the uncle of two young orphans to take complete charge of the children's lives and upbringing. Her first peaceful weeks are disturbed by the apparition of the ghosts of two evil servants who once served in the house.

Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Forty-year-old novelist Mike Noonan is unable to stop grieving, even four years after the sudden death of his wife, Jo, and can no longer bear to face the blank screen of his word processor. Now his nights are plagued by vivid nightmares of the house by the lake. Despite these dreams, or perhaps because of them, Mike finally returns to Sara Laughs, the Noonans' isolated summer home. He finds his beloved Yankee town familiar on its surface, but much changed underneath. Also try The Shining.

A House Divided by Deborah Leblanc
Keith Lafleur, Louisiana’s largest and greediest building contractor, thinks he’s cut the deal of a lifetime. The huge, old, two-story clapboard house is his for the taking as long as he can move it to a new location. It’s too big to move as it is, but Lafleur’s solution is simple: divide it in half. He has no idea, though, that by splitting the house he’ll be dividing a family – a family long dead, a family that still exists in the house, including a mother who will destroy anyone who keeps her apart from her children in this creepy Southern ghost story.

Hell House by Richard Matheson
An aging millionaire seeking proof of life after death employs an unusual team of investigators to probe the mysteries of the supposedly haunted and evil Belasco House. The house gets its moniker due to the horrible acts of blasphemy carried out under the previous owner, Emeric Belasco. Hell House corrupts all who enter, causing acts of depravity, sexual abandon and depravity within.

Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels
Recovering from the demise of her unhappy marriage and planning to open the antique clothing store of her dreams in Georgetown, Karen is suddenly confronted with a series of ominous and deadly events that threaten to turn her dream into a nightmare.

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult
A developer has slated an ancient Abenaki Indian burial ground for a strip mall, and now strange happenings have the inhabitants of tiny Comtosook, Vermont, talking of supernatural forces at work. Ross Wakeman is a ghost hunter who's never seen a ghost – all he's searching for is something to end the pain of losing his fiancée, Aimee, in a car accident. Searching the site for signs of the paranormal, Ross meets the mysterious Lia, who sparks him to life for the first time in years. But the discoveries that await Ross are beyond anything he could dream of in this world – or the next.

Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice
Azriel is ghost, genii, demon, angel—pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to Europe of the Black Death and on to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.

Black Creek Crossing by John Saul
Thirteen-year-old Angel Sullivan falls in love with her family's new home – the house that stands at Black Creek Crossing in the small town of Roundtree, Massachusetts. But the idyll is soon shattered as Angel learns a shocking secret about the house. It seems that a double murder took place there, and no one has lived at Black Creek Crossing since.

A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
On Halloween, Dale Stewart returns to the dying town of Elm Haven, his childhood home, to pick up the pieces of his shattered life. He leases an empty farmhouse of a long-dead friend, who had been murdered in the summer of 1960, and finds that he is not alone here. He has been followed to this house of shadows by private demons who are now twisting his reality into horrifying new forms.

Ghost Story by Peter Straub
In life, not every sin goes unpunished. For four aging men in the terror-stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past – and get away with murder.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
After being summoned to treat a patient at dilapidated Hundreds Hall, Dr. Faraday finds himself becoming entangled in the lives of the owners, the Ayres family, and the supernatural presences in the house.