Skeleton Crew

Stephen King

Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0751504386 In a bumper collection of truly chilling tales, we meet Gramma - who only wanted to hug little George, even after she was dead; The Raft - a primeval sea creature with an insatiable appetite; The Monkey - an innocent-looking toy with sinister powers; the unspeakable horror of The Mist. And there is a gruesome host of other stories, each with the distinctive blend of unimaginable terror and realism that typifies King's writing.

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City of Bones

Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy? This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

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The Odyssey

Homer

Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey. If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance. In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students. -- Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.

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Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch

Emily C. Hughes

A smart, funny crash course in the horror movie canon, from Psycho to Hereditary, for people who love getting the reference but hate being scared. You don't have to miss out just because you don't like to be frightened! Stop trying to read nonsensical Wikipedia plot summaries (we know you’re doing it), and let an expert tell you everything you need to know about the most influential horror films of the past 60 years—without a single jump scare or a drop of gore. With a rundown of the history and significance of horror cinema, explanations of common tropes, and detailed entries on 25 important movies ranging from Night of the Living Dead to The Blair Witch Project to Get Out, Horror for Weenies will turn even the scarediest of cats into a confident connoisseur. Each entry includes: - A detailed plot summary, with enough jokes that it won’t freak you out - Smart, illuminating analysis of the film’s themes and cultural significance - Descriptions of iconic scenes you definitely do not want to look at - Talking points for impressing even the biggest scary-movie buffs Never get left out of a conversation again!

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The Castle on the Inside

Logan Spurgeon

Horatio has long dreamed of finding someone to spend his life with, but he never imaged he would be standing in front of an abandoned castle about to step in. At the insistence of his parents, Horatio has journeyed to Strawberry Hill—the once opulent and thriving royal home—to traverse its maze-like halls and find the princess to wed. The path won't be easy. The castle is filled with ghosts of former residents, magic mirrors, moving portraits, possessed suits of armor, and an enchantress. Yet as he journeys on, Horatio finds himself questioning his own motives and desires. When he encounters a mysterious figure, he'll be set on a course to discover his true self and find the love of his life.

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The Castle on the Inside

Logan Spurgeon

Horatio has long dreamed of finding someone to spend his life with, but he never imaged he would be standing in front of an abandoned castle about to step in. At the insistence of his parents, Horatio has journeyed to Strawberry Hill—the once opulent and thriving royal home—to traverse its maze-like halls and find the princess to wed. The path won't be easy. The castle is filled with ghosts of former residents, magic mirrors, moving portraits, possessed suits of armor, and an enchantress. Yet as he journeys on, Horatio finds himself questioning his own motives and desires. When he encounters a mysterious figure, he'll be set on a course to discover his true self and find the love of his life.

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Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch

Emily C. Hughes

A smart, funny crash course in the horror movie canon, from Psycho to Hereditary, for people who love getting the reference but hate being scared. You don't have to miss out just because you don't like to be frightened! Stop trying to read nonsensical Wikipedia plot summaries (we know you’re doing it), and let an expert tell you everything you need to know about the most influential horror films of the past 60 years—without a single jump scare or a drop of gore. With a rundown of the history and significance of horror cinema, explanations of common tropes, and detailed entries on 25 important movies ranging from Night of the Living Dead to The Blair Witch Project to Get Out, Horror for Weenies will turn even the scarediest of cats into a confident connoisseur. Each entry includes: - A detailed plot summary, with enough jokes that it won’t freak you out - Smart, illuminating analysis of the film’s themes and cultural significance - Descriptions of iconic scenes you definitely do not want to look at - Talking points for impressing even the biggest scary-movie buffs Never get left out of a conversation again!

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The Cairndale Orphan

J. M. Miro

A world-weary detective and a mysterious young boy hunt an unspeakable terror in a haunting short story by the internationally bestselling author of Ordinary Monsters. Horror is loose in the gaslit streets of London. David Pye, an urchin who barely escaped an orphanage fire, saw something terrible crawl out of the inferno. Heeding his warning is Thomas Bromley, a disillusioned detective from Scotland Yard who knows the recent murders on his docket weren’t the work of an ordinary killer. But when your guide has a strange affinity for the dead, where will the search for a monster lead? J. M. Miro’s The Cairndale Orphan is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.

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Battle of the Round House

Tananarive Due

This spellbinding short story from the award-winning author of The Reformatory reimagines the Wild West through the eyes of a young Black girl with a gift. 1871: Ten-year-old Lucy Freeman and her family flee threats in Kentucky for a new life in the post–Civil War frontier. Their refuge is Zipporah Ranch, a hidden settlement founded by Black women and children that thrives, if the folktales are true, on magic. But a mob of bounty hunters is bringing hell to paradise, and it’s Lucy’s own secret magical ability that may be the only defense. Tananarive Due’s Battle of the Round House is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.

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Ghost Tracks: Case Files of Ed & Lorraine Warren

Cheryl A. Wicks

For more than fifty years, Lorraine Warren-a validated clairvoyant-and her husband Ed Warren-a respected demonologist-have been tracking paranormal phenomena around the world. Ghost Tracks pulls together five decades of field research experience, along with historic, scientific, and religious perspectives to reveal that even the paranormal have predictable patterns of behavior. These patterns enable the Warrens to discern what is happening and why. Lectures and selected case studies and letters demonstrate what it is like to live with, investigate, and resolve the mystery of ghosts, poltergeist, and evil infestations. Ghost Tracks has a refreshing style making it an easy read, entertaining as well as informative.

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The Astral Library

Kate Quinn

From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures. Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: books will never let you down, unlike people. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books. The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner and bookmarking their way from volume to volume, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as their enemy draws closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—the Library, the Librarian, or Alix herself?

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These Burning Stars

Bethany Jacobs

A dangerous cat-and-mouse quest for revenge. An empire that spans star systems, built on the bones of a genocide. A carefully hidden secret that could collapse worlds, hunted by three women with secrets of their own. All collide in this twisty, explosive space opera debut, perfect for readers of Arkady Martine and Kameron Hurley. Jun Ironway—hacker, con artist, and occasional thief—has gotten her hands on a piece of contraband that could set her up for proof that implicates the powerful Nightfoot family in a planet-wide genocide seventy-five years ago. The Nightfoots control the precious sevite that fuels interplanetary travel through three star systems. And someone is sure to pay handsomely for anything that could break their hold. Of course, anything valuable is also dangerous. The Kindom, the ruling power of the star systems, is inextricably tied up in the Nightfoots’ monopoly—and they can’t afford to let Jun expose the truth. They task two of their most brutal clerics with hunting her preternaturally stoic Chono, and brilliant hothead Esek, who also happens to be the heir to the Nightfoot empire. But Chono and Esek are haunted in turn by a figure from their shared past, known only as Six. What Six truly wants is anyone’s guess. And the closer they get to finding Jun, the surer Chono is that Six is manipulating them all. ​It's a game that could destroy their lives and devastate the stars. And they have no choice but to see it through to the end.

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