Losing her 4-year-old daughter ended Yuko’s career. How could anyone possibly expect her to go on teaching after what happened to Manami? On her last day of work, Yuko gathers her middle-school students together for one final, searing lecture. You see, Yuko knows exactly who killed Manami, and she’s out to make them pay, come Hell or high water.

Dale could have worked miracles with his ability to raise the dead. Instead, he uses his powers to rape and murder unsuspecting women before resurrecting them. They never remember what happened to them, so Dale has managed to brutalize whomever he wants with no consequences. Until he met Sarah, that is. She’s his next-door neighbor, and she remembers exactly what Dale did to her and her husband. But how do you accuse someone of an unthinkable crime when he leaves no evidence behind?

Vanja has lived her whole life in the big city of Essre, and she knows exactly how to keep herself safe. Like every other person in her community, Vanja grew up naming the things around her — telling them what to be, for fear of them losing their shape. But when she’s sent to a remote commune on the outskirts of civilization, Vanja realizes that her thoroughly modern education in Essre may not have prepared her for the horrors that lurk around every corner in the wilderness.

When Beck’s chance run-in with the cute guy who works at the bookstore turns into the picture-perfect relationship, she thinks it’s all just a happy accident. People have found one another in stranger ways, after all. But Beck’s relationship with Joe is no coincidence. He’s moved every piece into place to get her right where he wants her…and he’s never letting go.

Teo knows everything there is to know about Clarice. She’s everything he’s ever wanted in a lifemate, and he wants nothing more than to make her dreams come true. So when Clarice spurns him, Teo has no choice but to show her exactly what she’s missing out on — by kidnapping her and taking her on a cross-country road trip.

This 2015 novel from the author of Little Secrets and Things We Do in the Dark follows Seaside, Washington’s newly minted deputy police chief as she investigates two seemingly unconnected crimes at the town’s popular amusement park. Wonderland has been an economic boon to Seaside, but one man’s death and a young boy’s disappearance could end the town’s prosperity forever. Vanessa will have to tread carefully if she wants to unearth Wonderland’s secrets without riling the locals.

Years after most of Earth’s animal populations were wiped out in an attempt to save humanity from a fatal zoonotic disease, people around the world have turned to a new source of protein — other humans. Bred for slaughter, these “head” — as in cattle — can be bought and sold, tortured and eaten. Marcos, a middleman in the meat industry, has just received a young female head from his employer, and he’s about to cross the biggest line in his cannibalistic society: forming an emotional attachment to his livestock.

Vegetarianism isn’t common in South Korea. So when Yeong-hye decides to stop eating meat to combat the graphic, bloody visions that haunt her, her family isn’t exactly receptive to the idea. It quickly becomes clear, however, that giving up meat won’t be enough to stop her suffering. As Yeong-hye pursues ever more extreme measures to end the disturbances, her close family push back — with devastating consequences.

Amanda is dying. Her only visitor in the hospital is a strange boy named David. He’s unrelated to Amanda, but that doesn’t stop him from remaining at her side, constantly questioning her. David wants to know exactly when and how she got sick. For her part, Amanda knows a secret about David’s past, about what horror he survived…and why he’s never been the same since. Samanta Schweblin’s debut novel is a taut and psychologically terrifying experience.

John Langan’s Stoker Award-winning novel follows two men, Abe and Dan, who form a hesitant friendship in the wake of their wives’ deaths. They plan a fishing trip to Upstate New York, where a mysterious fishing hole is rumored to give mourners the opportunity to reconnect with those they’ve lost. But something far more sinister lurks at Dutchman’s Creek, and Abe and Dan may not be ready — or willing — to give it what it requires.

Elsie’s marriage to Rupert was supposed to bring an end to her anguish and make up for her traumatic childhood. She didn’t expect to be widowed before she crossed the threshold of her husband’s ancestral home, however. Now, pregnant and alone, Elsie is forced to contend with the legacy of The Bridge — a manor house the locals refuse to step foot in — and its “silent companions:” wooden figures that eerily resemble people she knows.

Everyone has heard the story of the Donner Party, how an ill-fated wagon train left Independence for California, only to spend the winter trapped in an unforgiving mountain range…where they were forced to eat some of their own. In The Hunger, Alma Katsu offers a supernatural explanation for what led to the deaths of 39 people in the Sierra Nevadas.