First published 2017
Folklorist Alvin Schwartz presents a collection of horror tales drawn from American folklore and urban legends. These stories emerge from dark corners of tradition, where vengeful spirits exact their price and supernatural forces intrude on ordinary life. A woman discovers something terrible lurking in her basement. A hitchhiker vanishes from a moving car. Dead fingers tap against bedroom windows in the dead of night. Each tale carries the weight of whispered warnings passed down through generations. Schwartz gathers these narratives of dark revenge and otherworldly encounters, preserving the oral tradition that has frightened listeners for decades. Stephen Gammell's unsettling artwork accompanies each story, amplifying the dread that seeps from every page. The collection captures the primal fear that lives in shared stories, the kind told around campfires and at sleepovers when darkness falls.
Genres: short-stories, horror, folklore, urban-legends
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: horror, supernatural
128 pages · Paperback · HarperCollins