By the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window-shutters, I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened... Frankenstein is the most celebrated horror story ever written. It tells the dreadful tale of Victor Frankenstein, a visionary young student of natural philosophy, who discovers the secret of life. In the grip of his obsession he constructs a being from dead body parts, and animates this creature. The results, for Victor and for his family, are catastrophic. Written when Mary Shelley was just eighteen, Frankenstein was inspired by the ghost stories and vogue for Gothic literature that fascinated the Romantic writers of her time. She transformed these supernatural elements an epic parable that warned against the threats to humanity posed by accelerating technological progress. Published for the 200th anniversary, this edition, based on the original 1818 text, explains in detail the turbulent intellectual context in which Shelley was writing, and also investigates how her novel has since become a byword for controversial practices in science and medicine, from manipulating ecosystems to vivisection and genetic modification. As an iconic study of power, creativity, and, ultimately, what it is to be human, Frankenstein continues to shape our thinking in profound ways to this day.

A gritty and thrilling anthology of 28 new short stories in tribute to pulp noir master, Cornell Woolrich, author of 'Rear Window' that inspired Alfred Hitchock's classic film. Featuring Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, James Sallis, A.K. Benedict, USA Today-bestseller Samantha Lee Howe, Joe R. Lansdale and many more. An anthology of exclusive new short stories in tribute to the master of pulp era crime writing, Cornell Woolrich. Woolrich, also published as William Irish and George Hopley, stands with Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and Dashiell Hammett as a legend in the genre. He is a hugely influential figure for crime writers, and is also remembered through the 50+ films made from his novels and stories, including Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, I Married a Dead Man, Phantom Lady, Truffaut's La Sirene du Mississippi, and Black Alibi. Collected and edited by one of the most experienced editors in the field, Maxim Jakubowski, features original work from: Neil Gaiman Joel Lane Joe R. Lansdale Vaseem Khan Brandon Barrows Tara Moss Kim Newman Nick Mamatas Mason Cross Martin Edwards Donna Moore James Grady Lavie Tidhar Barry N. Malzberg James Sallis A.K. Benedict Warren Moore Max Decharne Paul Di Filippo M.W. Craven Charles Ardai Susi Holliday Bill Pronzini Kristine Kathryn Rusch Maxim Jakubowski Joseph S. Walker Samantha Lee Howe O'Neil De Noux David Quantick Ana Teresa Pereira William Boyle

The Christmas Gothic (with thanks to author Marina Favila for the suggestion) is a seasonal celebration of the dark and moody, the ghastly, the ghostly and the magical Christmas short story. New stories from open submissions join the classic tales of Algernon Blackwood, James Joyce, E.F. Benson, Elizabeth Gaskell and more. Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

A brooding marquess And a mysterious widow On the outside Henry Spencer, Marquess of Clairborne, has it all: title, fortune and dashing good looks, but inside he's haunted by nightmares. Seeking sanctuary at his Scottish estate, his peace is disturbed by a new tenant, widow Genevieve de L'Omont. Her beauty and spirit lead to a growing desire that distracts him from his troubles, but as he unravels a mystery from his past, he discovers Genevieve has secrets of her own...

In this atmospheric, terrifying novel that draws strongly from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the author of Alice and Lost Boy works her trademark magic Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt's grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that's just legend, the village gossips talking. Twenty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play "Sleepy Hollow boys," reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the sinister discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow have ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?

Step into the world of Dark Academia with this stunningly presented box set featuring three vivid and mesmerising titles from the best in the genre. Perfect for collectors, novices, and graduates of the dark academy alike. A collection of three gruesome tales for fans of Dark Academia. This box set includes A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee, The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith, and The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino. A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee After the death of her girlfriend, Felicity Morrow returns to Dalloway School for a second chance at senior year. Subject to pity and whispers, she retreats into her studies and her obsession with the school's dark and witchy past. Felicity's only distraction is Ellis Haley, a prodigy working on a novel about what drives a person to kill. Ellis recruits her to help plot the perfect hypothetical murder for her book, which she swears will banish the guilt and ghosts of Felicity's past. Their attraction and intense commitment to Ellis' plan grows - but not everyone will make it out alive... The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith Claire is Head Librarian of a space in Hell where all the stories never finished by their authors reside. Her job involves keeping an eye on restless tales that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero breaks out of his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must capture him, but what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong... The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino When Tess and Eliot stumble upon an ancient book hidden in a secret tunnel beneath their school library, they accidentally release a devil from his book-bound prison. To stay free, he'll manipulate, murder and bleed into every inch of Tess's life until his freedom is permanent. Forced to work together, Tess and Eliot have to find a way to re-trap the devil before he kills everyone they know and love, including, increasingly, each other. And compared to what the devil has in store for them, school stress suddenly doesn't seem so bad after all.

The No. 1 bestselling author Stephen King's timeless coming-of-age novella, The Body - set in Castle Rock and originally published in his 1982 short story collection Different Seasons, and adapted into the film classic Stand by Me - is now available as a stand-alone publication. We'd all listened to the Ray Brower story . . . he was a kid our age The small town of Castle Rock is tuning in to the news of a young boy who has gone missing from a nearby town. Gordie Lachance and his three friends set off along the railway tracks on a quest, determined to become famous by officially finding the boy's body. But their journey becomes a rite of passage, and as they cross the railway trestle and the tracks begin to hum, the boys encounter an intimation of their own mortality. Adapted into the 1986 classic film Stand By Me, The Body is an iconic exploration of friendship, loneliness and adventure, an unforgettable coming-of-age story by master chronicler of small-town adolescence and universal experience, Stephen King.

Winner of the Ladies of Horror Fiction Award for Best Novel, this is a deliciously dark feminist tale of witches, bad ex-boyfriends, good coffee and friendly spiders. All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her long-time boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching job that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. Her new home is picturesque and perfect. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is lovely too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation. Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That's how Sophie lives. Annie can't help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the town seems... a little afraid of her. And, okay. Sophie's appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power... but she couldn't be... could she?

This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first edition of the novel, published in 1851 by Ticknor, Reed and Fields. Robert S. Levine's insightful introduction, revised headnotes, expanded explanatory footnotes and note on the text and annotations. A generous selection of carefully chosen primary materials-three of them new to the Second Edition-intended to provide readers with essential backgrounds on the novel's major themes. An extensive selection of critical responses to The House of the Seven Gables from the time of its publication to the present day, including eight new to the Second Edition. A chronology of Nathaniel Hawthorne's life and work and a selected bibliography. About the Series Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format-annotated text, contexts and criticism-helps students to better understand, analyse and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

The latest bestseller from the ultimate craftsman of the dark fantastic, Ramsey Campbell. Joe Hunter has begun to adjust to the loss of his wife when he hears her calling from beyond, “Where am I?� His urge to help leads him into her afterlife, which is made up of their memories. Even the best of those is no refuge from the restless dead, and Joe can only lure them away from her. Soon they begin to invade his everyday life, and every journey he makes to find her leaves him less able to return. When her refuges turn nightmarish he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep her safe…  FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.

Six women - mothers, daughters, sisters - gone missing. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this is the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims. Arcade and Daffodil are twin sisters born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for an escape, they form an unbreakable bond nurtured by their grandmother's stories. Together they disappear into their imagination and forge a world where a patch of grass reveals an archaeologist's dig, the smoke emerging from the local paper mill becomes the dust rising from wild horses galloping deep beneath the earth, and an abandoned 1950s convertible transforms into a time machine that can take them anywhere. But no matter how hard they try, Arc and Daffy can't escape the generational ghosts that haunt their family. And so, left to fend for themselves in the shadow of their rural Ohio town, the two sisters cling tight to one another. Years later, as the sisters wrestle with the memories of their early life, a local woman is discovered dead in the river. Soon, more bodies are left floating in the water, and as the killer circles ever closer, Arc's promise to keep herself and her sister safe becomes increasingly desperate - and the powerful riptide of the savage side more difficult to survive. Drawing from the true story of women killed in Chillicothe, Ohio, acclaimed novelist and poet Tiffany McDaniel has written a moving literary testament and fearless elegy for missing women everywhere. PRAISE FOR TIFFANY McDANIEL'S BETTY 'A coming-of-age story filled with magic in language and plot' Observer 'Breahtaking' Vogue 'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson 'A page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story told in undulating prose that settles right into you' Naoise Dolan 'Vivid and lucid, Betty has stayed with me' Kiran Millwood Hargrave

ISSUES 101-150 Collected together for the first time. TODD McFARLANE unleashed his signature creation, SPAWN, in 1992. In doing so, he created the most successful independent comic book in history. Now for the first time Issues 101-150 are collected in FULL Color. Some of these issues have neven been collected before! Spawn: Compendium 3 presents the continued tales of Spawn, as he discovers the true meaning of becoming a Hellspawn. He settles on a path of bloody revenge in search of a way back to his humanity! Collects SPAWN #101-150

The land outside of the Old City was supposed to be green, lush, hopeful. But the verdant fields are nothing but ash-and hope is nowhere to be found. Still, Alice and Hatcher are on a mission to find his daughter: a quest they will not Forsake even as it takes them deep into the clutches of the mod White Queen or into the realm of the twisted and cruel Black King. The pieces are set and the game has begun, and each move brings Alice closer to her destiny.

They went to the shrine. They confronted the creepy shrine maidens...but then everything that could go wrong did. Turns out, Mitsue's teacher is one of the shrine maidens! And so, in a desperate struggle, master and apprentice face off-with the fates of Miko and Rom hanging in the balance!

Welcome to Desperation. Once a thriving copper mining town in the middle of the Nevada desert, Desperation is now eerily abandoned. It's the last place that travellers like the Carver family, bound for vacation, and writer Johnny Marinville, astride his Harley, would expect to be stopped and charged. But Desperation still has a local cop - a unique regulator who patrols the wilderness highway. The secrets buried in Desperation are as terrifying as the forces summoned to encounter them. A terrifying transformation is taking place and the travellers will soon discover the true meaning of desperation . . .

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Anne Rice, this sensuously written spellbinding classic remains 'the most successful vampire story since Bram Stoker's Dracula' (The Times) In a darkened room a young man sits telling the macabre and eerie story of his life - the story of a vampire, gifted with eternal life, cursed with an exquisite craving for human blood. When Interview with the Vampire was published the Washington Post said it was a 'thrilling, strikingly original work of the imagination . . . sometimes horrible, sometimes beautiful, always unforgettable'. Now, more than forty years since its release, Anne Rice's masterpiece is more beloved than ever. ***The Vampire Chronicles is soon to be a major TV show*** Also in the Vampire Chronicles: The Vampire Lestat The Queen of the Damned

"A wild trip that keeps you wondering what the hell is going on, it's an amazing experience. It is highly entertaining read." - Sci-Fi & Scary Jayce's twenty-year-old daughter Emory is missing, lost in a dark, dangerous realm called Shadow that exists alongside our own reality. An enigmatic woman named Nicola guides Jayce through this bizarre world, and together they search for Emory, facing deadly dog-eaters, crazed killers, homicidal sex toys, and - worst of all - a monstrous being known as the Harvest Man. But no matter what Shadow throws at him, Jayce won't stop. He'll do whatever it takes to find his daughter, even if it means becoming a worse monster than the things that are trying to stop him. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

"With tinges of Rosemary's Baby as well as a touches here and there of the Robin Hardy-directed film, The Wicker Man, this is a tense as well as intense tale of ancient religious fervor directed against someone accidentally coming between a cult and its end purpose." - New York Journal of Books When family man Joe Crawford confronts a young mother abusing her toddler, he has no idea of the chain reaction he's setting in motion. How could he suspect the young mother is part of an ancient fire cult, a sinister group of killers that will destroy anyone who threatens one of its members? When the little boy is placed in a foster home, the fanatics begin their mission of terror. Soon the cult leaders will summon their deadliest hunters-and a ferocious supernatural evil-to make Joe pay for what he's done. They want Joe's blood and the blood of his family. And they want their child back. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.