8 Meta-Horror Books About Authors to Terrify You

Stephen King has written his fair share of horror tales with an author at the center. However, perhaps his most famously author-centric horror book is Misery.

Paul Sheldon is a well-known novelist famous for his Victorian romance series. When he kills off his main heroine, Misery Chastain, in a bid to explore more exciting career horizons, readers are understandably upset.

After Paul gets into a disastrous car accident in rural Colorado, he's rescued by his self-proclaimed number-one fan: Annie Wilkes. Annie is a nurse who takes him home to nurse him back to health, but not before giving him some vital feedback.

She loved Misery Chastain, and Paul is going to find a way to bring her back in a brand new novel. Or else.

Andrew Holland is an acclaimed horror author who knows a thing or two about terror. In fact, terror seems to become his life when, after his wife runs off with another man, he consumes himself with writing.

But when Andy finds the body of a murdered child near his house, his fictional expertise gets a whole lot more real. The fact that the police clear him of any involvement doesn't seem to matter—the media has suggested that his dark novels have a disturbing connection to the devastating crime.

Now Andy's neighbors, once thrilled to have a celebrity on the block, begin to turn on him. Vandalism and threatening phone calls pour in.

It seems like more than Andy can bear. And then the body of another child turns up.

The Finch house stands overgrown and abandoned in the dark countryside of Kansas. Now, for the first time in decades, it is about to see some new guests—and the presence waiting in the shadows is eager.

Best-selling horror author Sam McGarver has been invited to spend Halloween in one of America's most haunted houses. He only agrees because he's assured he won't be alone, accompanied by three other stars of modern horror writing.

But as these authors embark on their publicity stunt, they soon find themselves fighting for their lives. They have awakened something, and it plans to torment them until they become a part of Kill Creek's bloody legacy.

In the market for a read as short as it is satisfying? Try this novella by David Niall Wilson.

An author struggling with imposter syndrome finds herself slipping inextricably into a dark world. Brimming with nuance, this gripping book leaves readers uncertain as the lines between reality and fiction.

Andrew J. Rush is an author with the kind of career dreams are made out of. With a top agent in New York, he's had a 28-book mystery series rake in millions of dollars and immeasurable acclaim.
 
But behind his wild success is a dark secret. Using the pseudonym “Jack of Spades,” Rush writes a series of noir thrillers pack with lurid violence and staggering masochism.

These novels are so twisted that the squeaky clean Rush can't even be seen reading them, let alone writing them himself. But when his daughter stumbles across a copy, she begins to ask questions.

At the same time, Rush receives a court summons bearing an accusation of plagiarism. A local woman claims he's stolen her self-published fiction, and now his reputation is on the line.

Under the stress, he starts to hear the mocking voice of the Jack of Spades in the back of his mind…

During the summer of 1988, a small town in Maryland finds several missing girls dead and mutilated. The police can't help but conclude that their peaceful suburb has become the hunting grounds of a serial killer.

Before long the rumor mill starts cranking, and whispers generate that the evil nabbing local teens is beyond human. Both the local police and the FBI are sure it's a human threat—a madman that's keen on confusing them with games.

As the once quiet community becomes gripped with fear and paranoia, recent college graduate Richard Chizmar returns home. As he juggles his upcoming wedding and his own writing career, he finds himself at the center of a very real horror story.

The darkness inspires him, pushing him to pen a personal account of the chaos the serial killer has wrought. But these dark deeds will haunt Chizmar for years to come.

True crime meets horror fiction in this irresistible work of metafiction.

It's an exclusive opportunity of a lifetime: 10 authors whisked away on a summer writing retreat with an acclaimed—and extremely reclusive—author.

Roderick Wells is as handsome as he is talented, and he promises to show all of his new pupils everything they need to know about writing, magic, and the potential lying dormant in each of them.

But they are also here to explore the depths of darkness living in their own hearts. While this group of writers thinks they're on the path of wealth and prestige, they are really on a nonrefundable trip to madness.

Roderick is a deranged genius whose twisted imagination has concocted a lethal content pitting all of the writers against one another. As they fight for their lives, they must work their way through Roderick's most horrific creation yet.

In Oregon in 1981, three 14-year-old boys witness a brutal murder in the woods near their houses. Afterward, they are dragged into covering it up as accomplices, swearing between them that they will never, ever speak about what happened.

30 years later, one of the boys, Tommy Devereaux, is finding huge success as an author. For decades he has used writing as therapy, and now he's finally ready to tell the world what happened all those years ago—even if the murder is hidden behind fiction.

But moving on isn't so easy, and his life is suddenly held in the balance when a woman who asks for an autograph leaves him behind a note which reads: “You didn't even change my name.”

Suddenly an old nightmare has come to life, bringing with it a figure from his past who threatens to take everything from him unless he does everything she asks.