IndyPL Staff Picks 2024- Best of SuspenseLike this list

16 items

• Incidents Around the House

  a Novel

  Malerman, Josh,

  Add Incidents Around the House to your for later shelf

  Josh Malerman is an underrated horror author. The writing is basic and simple since it's from the perspective of eight-year-old Bella, but honestly this book has the creepiest character descriptions I've ever read. Bella tells us about “other mommy”…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We Used to Live Here

  Kliewer, Marcus,

  Add We Used to Live Here to your for later shelf

  Charlie and Eve are a young queer couple in the middle of flipping a house, when a family shows up claiming they used to live in the home and want to show their kids around. However, as soon as the family enters, weird things start happening.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The God of the Woods

  Moore, Liz, 1983-

  Add The God of the Woods to your for later shelf

  In August of 1975, Barbara Van Laar goes missing from summer camp-- a camp that her family owns, surrounded by woods that swallowed a different Van Laar child (Bear Van Laar) 14 years ago. Liz Moore has written a gorgeous double mystery that deftly…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. Book Two

  Ferris, Emil,

  Add My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. Book Two to your for later shelf

  The follow up to Ferris's 2017 My Favorite Thing is Monsters returns to Chicago and the life of 10 year-old Karen Reyes. The ballpoint pen drawing on lined notebook paper are spectacular and Karen's coming of age story, including coming to terms…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• All the Colors of the Dark

  a Novel

  Whitaker, Chris,

  Add All the Colors of the Dark to your for later shelf

  A boy disappears after rescuing a young girl from a serial killer, but that is only the beginning of the story. This decade spanning book allows readers to see how one event changes the course of many lives. Recommended by IndyPL_ElizabethT, Youth…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bad Dreams in the Night

  Horror Stories

  Ellis, Adam,

  Add Bad Dreams in the Night to your for later shelf

  Debut graphic novel full of terrifying and beautiful stories that will keep you up at night. My personal favorites are the retelling of the classic 'The Green Ribbon' and 'Viola Bloom'. Just thinking of that one makes me shudder! Recommended by…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Thirst

  a Novel

  Yuszczuk, Marina, 1978-

  Add Thirst to your for later shelf

  Thirst follows a European vampire who immigrates to Buenos Aires in the 1800s, and a modern day mother grappling with the emotional strain of her mother's terminal illness. Eventually, the two women meet, and understand each other's morally…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Angel of Indian Lake

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

  Add The Angel of Indian Lake to your for later shelf

  Stephen Graham jones is back with the third and final installment in The Indian Lake Trilogy. I'm a huge fan of SGJ's writing. 2021’s My Heart is a Chainsaw was a revelation as it recontextualized the slasher formula in an empathic and meta way. The…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Model Home

  Solomon, Rivers,

  Add Model Home to your for later shelf

  Siblings Ezri, Eve, and Emanuelle grew up tortured by the house they lived in-- acid came from the taps, animals died, other children disappeared. These horrors were compounded by an emotionally distant mother, a Black studies professor who refused…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Where They Last Saw Her

  a Novel

  Rendon, Marcie R.,

  Add Where They Last Saw Her to your for later shelf

  Quill's idyllic life is endangered when she hears a blood-curdling scream during one of her marathon training sessions deep in the Minnesota woods. She knows in her heart that it was yet another Indigenous woman being brutalized, but the official…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Middle of the Night

  a Novel

  Sager, Riley,

  Add Middle of the Night to your for later shelf

  When Ethan Marsh was 10 years old, his best friend Billy was kidnapped from the tent they were sleeping in in the middle of the night. Now 40, Ethan has returned to his childhood home and is plagued with signs that Billy might still be around. Kept…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Talent for Murder

  a Novel

  Swanson, Peter, 1968-

  Add A Talent for Murder to your for later shelf

  Swanson delivers a tense psychological thriller teeming with deliciously complex characters, unsettling plot twists, and several harrowing scenes that will move readers to the edge of their seat. This bird's-eye view into the mind of a killer is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• That Night in the Library

  a Novel

  Jurczyk, Eva,

  Add That Night in the Library to your for later shelf

  This book is much bloodier than I expected! It all involves students who, for the most part, work in their university library's rare books area and gather there one night for drugs and a secret ritual . I'd thought it was going to be sharing…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Woman on the Ledge

  a Novel

  Mancini, Ruth,

  Add The Woman on the Ledge to your for later shelf

  A great psychological thriller with many twists and turns. Tate Kinsella is the black sheep of her family thast aspired to be an actress but it never took off. She takes a temp job at a French bank to help pay the bills. Surrounding the events of a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

  a Novel

  Kleeman, Alexandra,

  Add You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine to your for later shelf

  BEST OF THE BACK CATALOG- A weird, shapeless blob of a book that nonetheless offers a searing critique of orthorexia. A young woman, A, feeling out of control of her life turns to increasingly restrictive eating habits and consumerism in an attempt…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Texas Outlaw

  Patterson, James, 1947-

  Add Texas Outlaw to your for later shelf

  BEST OF THE BACK CATALOG- Texas Ranger Rory Yates is called to a small town to investigate the death of a local councilwoman. Whilst there, he untangles a web of small town secrets. Recommended by an anonymous Glendale staff member