Ocean State Libraries

More traditional and modern-day stories of ghosts, witches, vampires, "jump" stories, and scary songs.

George meets a friendly ghost named Fred when he enters a haunted house to get out of the rain.

"Harper doesn't trust her new home from the moment she steps inside, and the rumors are that the Raine family's new house is haunted. Harper isn't sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael, starts acting strangely. She knows that the memories she's blocking will help make sense of her brother's behavior and the strange and threatening sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in time?"--Provided...

On falling in love with a woman half his age, novelist Michael Noonan of Maine is drawn into a custody battle for the woman's daughter. The father-in-law, a nasty millionaire, is trying to take the girl away and to complicate matters malevolent spirits are at work. Part love, part ghost story.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a timeless collection of chillingly scary tales and legends, in which folklorist Alvin Schwartz offers up some of the most alarming tales of horror, dark revenge, and supernatural events of all time.

Molly and Michael dislike their spooky new stepsister Heather but realize that they must try to save her when she seems ready to follow a ghost child to her doom.

"Twelve-year-old Calista Wynn will lose her ability to speak with the dead on her thirteenth birthday. And with only a few weeks left, children have started going missing. When Calista meets The Tall Lady--an angry spirit with a grudge against Calista, her family, and the entire town--she knows she's found the ghost responsible for the disappearances. It's up to Calista, the only one who can see The Tall Lady, to stop her. If she doesn't, Calista...

A collection of ghost stories by American and English authors. These spectral stories span more than a hundred years, from modern-day creations by Joyce Carol Oates and Chet Williamson, to pulp yarns from August Derleth and M.L. Humphreys, to the atmospheric Victorian tales of Kipling and Lovecraft, not to mention modern works by Donald E. Westlake and Isaac Asimov. Whether you prefer possessive poltergeists, awful apparitions, or friendly phantoms,...

"While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Then she hears a woman humming an old Scottish ballad and smells the delicate scent of lavender. Soon, strange happenings start to occur in Thyme and Seasons: misplaced items, a ringing bell, and the appearance of lavender sprigs in odd places. When a customer mentions seeing a mysterious woman picking flowers nearby...

Relying little on conventions of the genre, these 28 subtly disturbing, enigmatic modern tales are distinguished by global settings, some memorable ghostly narrators and the depiction of various religious beliefs about the spirit world. In general, they derive their chilling effect from their authors' skillful use of nuance. Setting the collection's almost-rational tone, the first story, M.F.K. Fisher's "The Lost, Strayed, Stolen," follows an American...