by Lisa Morton
First published 2019
Morton curates terrifying stories from the genre's masters. M. R. James conjures ancient curses that follow academics into their quiet studies. Sheridan Le Fanu traps readers in decaying mansions where family secrets refuse to stay buried. E. F. Benson populates country houses with visitors who should not exist. A porcelain doll's glass eyes shift when no one watches. A figure sits slumped by the fireside, motionless yet somehow aware. Behind broken brick walls, faces appear that blend beauty with torment. These writers understood that true fear comes not from gore but from the moment when the familiar world reveals its hidden cracks. The stories span decades of supernatural fiction, each one a carefully constructed trap that springs when readers least expect it. The dead in these pages want something from the living, and they will not rest until they get it.
Genres: short-stories, 20th-century, horror, ghost-stories, 21st-century, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: gothic-horror, supernatural
Setting: Carcosa
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Scholastic
Content warnings: death