Recommendations based on "The Castle of Otranto: The First Gothic Novel"

Told partly in rhyme, this account of the adventures of sorcerer Beelzebub Preposteror introduces a host of unusual and compelling characters. By the author of The Neverending Story.

The astonishing, beautiful new story for all readers of 10 and over from the bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author of TIME TRAVELLING WITH A HAMSTER.'A wonderful story' Kiran Millwood HargraveThere are stories about people who want to live forever.This is not one of those stories.This is a story about someone who wants to stopAlfie Monk is like any other nearly teenage boy except hes 1,000 years old and can remember the last Viking invasion of England.Obviously no one believes him.So when everything Alfie knows and loves is destroyed in a fire, and the modern world comes crashing in, Alfie embarks on a mission to find friendship, acceptance, and a different way to live which means finding a way to make sure he will eventually die.

The third book in Robertson Davies's acclaimed The Deptford Trilogy, with a new foreword by Kelly LinkHailed by the Washington Post Book World as "a modern classic," Robertson Davies’s acclaimed Deptford Trilogy is a glittering, fantastical, cunningly contrived series of novels, around which a mysterious death is woven. World of Wonders—the third book in the series after The Manticore—follows the story of Magnus Eisengrim—the most illustrious magician of his age—who is spirited away from his home by a member of a traveling sideshow, the Wanless World of Wonders. After honing his skills and becoming better known, Magnus unfurls his life’s courageous and adventurous tale in this third and final volume of a spectacular, soaring work.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Laszlo is afraid of the dark.The dark lives in the same house as Laszlo. Mostly, though, the dark stays in the basement and doesn't come into Lazslo's room. But one night, it does.This is the story of how Laszlo stops being afraid of the dark.With emotional insight and poetic economy, two award-winning talents team up to conquer a universal childhood fear.

Set in a world of ominous landscape and macabre menace, The Dark Tower features one of Stephen King's most powerful creations--The Gunslinger, a haunting figure who embodies the qualities of the lone hero through the ages, from ancient myth to frontier Western legend. As Roland crosses a desert of damnation in a macabre world that is a twisted image of our own, he moves ever closer to the Dark Tower of his dreams--and nightmares.

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, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone 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. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs ... and yours.

This masterfully crafted horror classic, featuring a brand-new introduction by Dan Simmons, will bring you to the edge of your seat, hair standing on end and blood freezing in your veinsIt's the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys' days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic middle-childhood. But amid the sundrenched cornfields their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once idyllic town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood—against an arcane abomination who owns the night...

Not far from the city there is an ancient wood, forgotten by the modern world, where Mystery walks in the moonlight. He wears the shape of a stag, or a goat, or a horned man wearing a cloak of leaves. He is summoned by the music of the pipes or a fire of bones on Midsummer's Evening. He is chased by the hunt and shadowed by the wild girl.

History with the nasty bits left in! 'England' reveals the awful truth behind the rebellions, riots and rumpuses that have made England what it is today (whatever that is). From the cruel Celts right up to the terrible twentieth century it's a tale that will make you quake. Want to know which monk tried to pinch the devil's nose with a pair of tongs? Why some people in the Middle Ages ate dove droppings? Which English king was accused of being a werewolf? Whether it's plague, fire and civil war, or roast beef, fish and chips and a cup of tea, if it's got anything to do with the English it's in this book. Mull over the miseries of Middle Ages monarchs, discover ten ways to be killed down a Victorian mine, and find out which dreadful days in history to celebrate with a day off school. History has never been so horrible!

The second terrifying tale in the Spook's spin-off series from bestselling author Joseph Delaney. Thomas Ward was working as the new County Spook, fighting the Dark with his own apprentice. But a new enemy stirred in the north, and Tomâe(tm)s calling required him to leave his home and lead an uprising against a legion of beasts: creatures of the dark intent on locking the whole earth in a never-ending winter. Then something went horribly wrong, and now Tom lies cold in a grave, while those who remain are in despair. Who can now take up the battle? And how much time remains before the dark army brings the fight back to the County, and the world is changed for ever?