Each year, our social media feeds are filled with news of the latest books in horror, true crime, and paranormal.
So many chilling new books come out each year—and our TBRs are often stacked with delectable spooky books by the latest emerging authors. We truly are in a golden age of horror fiction.
But sometimes we're in the mood for something older—books that have stood the test of time.
These are the classics that are the most disturbing. They’re strange and unnerving in uncanny ways—often calling us back to something old and ancient and unsettling.
Every month, we’re bringing you a selection of free ebooks to read that are perfect for lovers of all things spooky, mysterious, gruesome, strange, and macabre.
The Beetle
Heralded as one of the great “sensational novels,” The Beetle centers on an ancient Egyptian entity from another time seeking revenge on a British Member of Parliament, Paul Lessingham.
What follows is a classic tale of Gothic horror, in which the shape-shifting being paralyzes not only the inhabitants of London in terror but also the reader.
Can Paul and his friends find a way to stop the beast before it’s too late?
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Adventurer Richard Hannay craves excitement—and it seems his pleas have been answered when a strange American man turns up at his doorstep, warning him of a disastrous plot that will unsettle the political balance of Europe.
Hesitantly, Richard accepts him into his home until he returns one day to find the man murdered.
Afraid that the police will identify him as a primary subject, he’s on the run and must find a way to ensure the safety of England—with only the dead man’s encrypted notes as a guide.
A Book of Remarkable Criminals
In this seminal work, H. B. Irving identifies the public’s fascination with murder and divulges one of the vilest serial killers in American history.
Beginning with the Pitezel murders, he reveals the gruesome nature of H.H. Holmes and the many faces evil can assume.
The Yellow Wallpaper
After a woman is diagnosed by her physician husband as having a nervous breakdown, she is sent away to live in an old mansion for the summer.
With nothing else to do, the woman passes her time peeling a yellow wallpaper, only to discover it mutates at nightfall.
In a spine-tingling masterpiece of horror, she resolves to unlock the mysteries behind the wallpaper but will only spiral further into madness…
