Scary Science Fiction

Featuring stories from R.L. Stine and Madeleine Roux, this middle-grade horror anthology, curated by New York Times best-selling author and master of macabre Jonathan Maberry, is a chilling tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Flesh-hungry ogres? Brains full of spiders? Haunted houses you can’t escape? This collection of 35 terrifying stories from the Horror Writers Association has it all, including ghastly illustrations from Iris Compiet that will absolutely chill listeners to the bone.

When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer, with no electricity or cell service. Still, he loves spending time with Nali and with his uncle Jet, though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds someone extraordinary: a Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story - a Water Monster - in need of help.

Fly into a fiery and fantastical future with number one best-selling author David Walliams, in an epic adventure of myth and legend, good and evil, and one small boy who must save the world.... It is 2120 and London is in ruins. The young Prince Alfred has never known a life outside Buckingham Palace – but when strange goings-on breach its walls and stalk the corridors in the dead of night, he is thrust into a world of mystery, adventure and monsters.

Risk-averse Greg Belmont is content with being ordinary. He's got a friend - that's right, just one - at his fancy prep school, and a pretty cool dad (even if he is obsessed with organic soaps that smell like a mix of salted pork and Icelandic bog). The problem is, Greg isn't ordinary... he's actually a fantastical Dwarf! He discovers the truth the day his dad brings home a gross new tea - one that awakens bizarre abilities in Greg. Then a murderous Bro-Troll kidnaps his dad and Greg is whisked away to the Underground, where Dwarves have lived for centuries right beneath Chicago.

The dark is full of terrifying creatures. And Tom Ward - the seventh son of a seventh son, and the Spook's last apprentice - hasn't seen all of them. Far from the county, one named Slither has lived for hundreds of years, hunting blood. But a dying father binds the monster to a bargain. If Slither will take his two youngest daughters safely to their family in the south, then the eldest daughter, Nessa, is his.

Isolated and left on their own at a wild animal safari park at the beginning of a zombie uprising, the boys and girls from the school field trip must learn how to survive on their own. They are safe behind the tall fences and strong walls, but what about all the wild animals inside the gates with them?

Jason Segel, multitalented actor, writer, and musician, teams up with New York Times bestselling author Kirsten Miller for the hilariously frightening middle-grade novel Nightmares!, the first book in a trilogy about a boy named Charlie and a group of kids who must face their fears to save their town. Sleeping has never been so scary. And now waking up is even worse! Charlie Laird has several problems.

"I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I'm a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever. Now I'm running for my life with three of my supernatural friends: a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch, and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying."

Evie Von Rathe has been home for only a few weeks from her adventure in the strange world of seven houses when Blight Harbor’s beloved ghosts begin to disappear. Did they leave without saying goodbye, or has something gone horribly wrong? Soon Evie is invited to a mysterious council meeting, where she learns about the Dark Sun Side and a terrible secret.

Yes, the ghosts have gone missing. And that means serious trouble.

When a plane crash-lands in the Arctic, eight young survivors step from the wreckage expecting to see nothing but ice and snow. Instead they find themselves lost in a strange jungle with no way to get home and little hope of rescue. Food is running out. Water is scarce. And the jungle is full of threats unlike anything the survivors have ever seen before - from razor-beaked shredder birds to carnivorous vines and much, much worse.

Sisters Moria and Ashyn are the Keeper and Seeker of Edgewood. Or at least they were. Their village is gone. Their friends have betrayed them. And now the emperor has sent them on a mission to rescue the captured children of Edgewood - accompanied by Prince Tyrus and a small band of imperial warriors. But the journey proves more perilous than any of them could have imagined. And with treachery and unrest mounting in the empire, the girls are running out of places to turn.

When Ashley finds a doll in her garden, she's determined to keep it. Little does she know that its previous owner - who's been dead for seven years - wants it back.

In the Clandoms, every person is born with wings, along with the ability to fly. But there has always been one deadly restriction to this gift—a rule that must never be broken. Flying in cloudy skies summons gargols, vicious stone monsters that will tear any poor trespassers apart. History doesn't tell where the gargols came from, or why they're so intent on punishing those who soar too high. But now Ellie Meadows thinks she knows why. An aspiring knight turned wanted fugitive, Ellie has seen the truth with her own eyes.

It's hard to fit in when your nightmares open portals to the Netherworld, where horrible creatures live: like the class 3 Netherstalker that invaded a sleepover and tried to eat the other children. Luckily there's a place for Charlie: the Nightmare Academy. Built from wrecked ships set in the branches of the world's most incredible tree fort, the Academy trains people to use their unique gifts to fight the monsters that rush in when the lights go out.

This house is keeping secrets...When 11-year-old Olive and her parents move into the crumbling mansion on Linden Street and find it filled with mysterious paintings, Olive knows the place is creepy - but it isn’t until she encounters its three talking cats that she realizes there’s something darkly magical afoot. Then Olive finds a pair of antique spectacles in a dusty drawer and discovers the most peculiar thing yet: She can travel inside the house’s spooky paintings to a world that’s strangely quiet...and eerily sinister.

Then you don't mind sitting by a vampire's tomb at midnight. Or being locked up with the mummies in a dark museum. Or you might like to join the mysterious boy who lurks in the shadows at Saint Michael's. Or the ghost who waits by the side of the road. Or maybe, when you are home alone, you'd like to listen to these spine-chilling tales...and try to believe they won't happen to you!

Percy Jackson has a lot on his plate. A powerful goddess has gone missing. The Greek gods are on the brink of war with the Titans. And there's the minor threat of a mystery beast that could destroy Mount Olympus forever. This time, Percy's going to need help and he's found two powerful demigods for the job. . . There's just the small problem of the prophecy. The one that has predicted not all of them will survive.

Claire has absolutely no interest in the paranormal. She's a scientist, which is why she can't think of anything worse than having to help out her dad on one of his ghost-themed Chicago bus tours. She thinks she's made it through when she sees a boy with a sad face and dark eyes at the back of the bus. There's something off about his presence, especially because when she checks at the end of the tour...he's gone.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Beast Awakens by Joseph Delaney, read by Lee Ingleby. They heard shouting and cries of fear. Crafty looked down the slope and realised what had happened to cause so much panic. Without warning, the dark wall of the Shole had advanced. Crafty can't remember a time before the Shole - the terrifying mist that has engulfed most of Britain, leaving those trapped in it to either die or be transformed into horrifying monsters: the aberrations.

Samantha and Rachel used to be friends. But then Rachel betrayed Samantha...and Samantha decided to make her life a living nightmare. Then one day, Sam and Rachel found themselves in a fight by a lake. Samantha pushed Rachel...and watched as Rachel fell back. And back. Into the water. And gone. No way to save her. No way she could be alive. The next day, Rachel shows up to school as if nothing happened. And now she's the one who wants to make her former friend's life a living nightmare....