Recommendations based on "The American Boy"

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE - Stephen King's terrifying classic.'They float...and when you're down here with me, you'll float, too.'To the children, the town was their whole world. To the adults, knowing better, Derry Maine was just their home town: familiar, well-ordered for the most part. A good place to live.It is the children who see - and feel - what makes the small town of Derry so horribly different. In the storm drains, in the sewers, IT lurks, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one's deepest dread. Sometimes IT reaches up, seizing, tearing, killing . . .Time passes and the children grow up, move away and forget. Until they are called back, once more to confront IT as IT stirs and coils in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.

“An extraordinary work of humane imagination...Call it magic realism with soul. The closest compatriot of The Between is Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Not shabby.”—LocusA man risks his soul and his sanity to save his family from malevolent forces in this brilliant novel of horror and the supernatural, now updated with new material, from the award-winning pioneer of speculative fiction and author of the classic My Soul to Keep—now available as a Harper Perennial Olive Edition.When Hilton was a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake.When Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors—macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are these bizarre dreams the dark imaginings of a man losing his hold on sanity—or are they harbingers of terrible events to come?As Hilton battles both the sociopath threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep, the line between reality and fantasy dissolves . . .Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between is the haunting story of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves as he slowly loses himself.

A small town hides big secrets in The Dry, an atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper. After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke’s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn’t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead. Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there’s more to Luke’s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.

Originally published in 1971, The Exorcist remains one of the most controversial novels ever written and went on to become a literary phenomenon. Inspired by a true story of a child’s demonic possession in the 1940s, William Peter Blatty created an iconic novel that focuses on Regan, the eleven-year-old daughter of a movie actress residing in Washington, D.C. A small group of overwhelmed yet determined individuals must rescue Regan from her unspeakable fate, and the drama that ensues is gripping and unfailingly terrifying.Two years after its publication, The Exorcist was, of course, turned into a wildly popular motion picture, garnering ten Academy Award nominations. On opening day of the film, lines of the novel’s fans stretched around city blocks. In Chicago, frustrated moviegoers used a battering ram to gain entry through the double side doors of a theater. In Kansas City, police used tear gas to disperse an impatient crowd who tried to force their way into a cinema. The three major television networks carried footage of these events; CBS’s Walter Cronkite devoted almost ten minutes to the story. The Exorcist was, and is, more than just a novel and a film: it is a true landmark.Purposefully raw and profane, The Exorcist still has the extraordinary ability to disturb readers and cause them to forget that it is “ just a story.” It remains an unforgettable reading experience and will continue to shock and frighten a new generation of readers.

To coincide with the publication of Stephen King and Peter Straub's extraordinary new thriller, BLACK HOUSE, here is the story that started it all.On a brisk autumn day, a twelve-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America--and into another realm.One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin. . . .

An eccentric scientist lies dead in his coffin reflecting on the past and his last experiment--collecting random incidents from human history and finding the underlying pattern that connects them. His reveries lead him to tell two other tales--one of a doomed lighthouse keeper on a Swedish island and the other of a rivalry among Renaissance artists--and finally he tells a startling tale from his own youth.For readers of Michael Ondaatje and Isak Dinesen, Erik Fosnes Hansen's imaginative narration brings an original and searching inquiry into why things happen the way they do and suggests a theory of "seriality"--a half-science about the power of human connections.

Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth -- musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies -- the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The International Bestseller And Modern Classic - Over 20 Million Copies Sold Worldwide 'shadow Is The Real Deal, A Novel Full Of Cheesy Splendour And Creaking Trapdoors, A Novel Where Even The Subplots Have Subplots. One Gorgeous Read' Stephen King 'an Instant Classic' Daily Telegraph The Shadow Of The Wind Is A Stunning Literary Thriller In Which The Discovery Of A Forgotten Book Leads To A Hunt For An Elusive Author Who May Or May Not Still Be Alive... Hidden In The Heart Of The Old City Of Barcelona Is The 'cemetery Of Lost Books', A Labyrinthine Library Of Obscure And Forgotten Titles That Have Long Gone Out Of Print. To This Library, A Man Brings His 10-year-old Son Daniel One Cold Morning In 1945. Daniel Is Allowed To Choose One Book From The Shelves And Pulls Out 'the Shadow Of The Wind' By Julian Carax. But As He Grows Up, Several People Seem Inordinately Interested In His Find. Then, One Night, As He Is Wandering The Old Streets Once More, Daniel Is Approached By A Figure Who Reminds Him Of A Character From The Book, A Character Who Turns Out To Be The Devil. This Man Is Tracking Down Every Last Copy Of Carax's Work In Order To Burn Them. What Begins As A Case Of Literary Curiosity Turns Into A Race To Find Out The Truth Behind The Life And Death Of Julian Carax And To Save Those He Left Behind... A Sunday Times Bestseller And Richard & Judy Book Club Choice.

St. Vincent’s Orphanage for Boys.Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania.Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work and learn and worship. They live their lives in a methodical way and get along despite different personalities and pasts. Peter Barlow, orphaned by a nighttime murder at his childhood home, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future…family.Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, his body covered with occult symbols carved into his flesh. Upon his death, an ancient evil is released that infests St. Vincent’s and the children within. Soon, boys begin acting differently, forming groups. Taking sides.Others turn up dead.Now Peter and those dear to him must choose sides of their own, each of them knowing their lives- and perhaps their eternal souls- are at risk.

"The basis for the classic movie starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. Novels that inspired great films"--Cover.