Looking for something different in a werewolf novel? Author Ray Garton "reworks the werewolf myth to great effect" (Publishers Weekly) in Ravenous. A rapist is assaulting women in the small California town of Big Rock--even worse, he's a werewolf (lycanthropy is a sexually transmitted disease that he passes on to his victims) and he doesn't mind killing a few people either. Sheriff Arlin Hurley and his men discover that the havoc wreaked by these creatures is far worse than the legends; luckily, a werewolf hunter, Daniel Fargo, is also in town. If you like gory stories with lots of sex, check this one out.

What are those strange welts appearing on ex-football player Perry Dawsey's body? They're blue and triangular...and a sure sign that he's been infected! Perry is the latest victim of a new disease that causes ordinary people to turn into paranoid murderers who hear imaginary voices, but the smart, bioengineered parasite causing the epidemic may have bigger plans for Perry... Infected has received lots of buzz and is this season's hot horror book (the author got a publishing deal after self-podcasting his books and there's already talk of a movie)--catch it while you can.

You've probably seen the 1991 The Silence of the Lambs movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, but have you read the 1988 Stoker Award-winning book that the film was based on? Criminally insane psychiatrist--and imprisoned serial killer--Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter agrees to help FBI Academy trainee Clarice Starling track down a serial killer known only as Buffalo Bill--but only if she provides information about herself. If you like complex characters and psychological suspense, you must read this chilling book, which many think is better than the Oscar-winning movie.

Lisey's Story, winner of the 2006 Stoker Award, is a love/horror story from Stephen King, where one of the characters seems oddly familiar--well, except for the being dead part. Scott, an award-winning, bestselling horror writer from Maine (sound like someone you know?), has died. His grieving widow, Lisey, faces an office of unpublished works and miscellanea--as well as threatening people who want Scott's papers. To survive, Lisey looks to her life with Scott, to Scott's troubled childhood, and to the place he found ideas and inspiration: Boo'ya Moon, a world as dangerous as it is fruitful. Kirkus Reviews calls this meditation on love, fear, and creativity "one of King's finest works."

Ever pass by an abandoned building and wonder what it would be like to wander through it? That's exactly what urban explorers ("creepers") do, armed with flashlights and caving gear. Sometimes it's a factory or a railway station, but reporter Frank Balenger joins a group one cold October night on the New Jersey shore to break into and explore a long-abandoned hotel built by a wealthy eccentric. They are unprepared for the danger, terror, and death awaiting them, for at least two of them have an agenda other than merely exploring, and one is not exactly who he says he is... David Morrell's "creepy" book won the Stoker Award in 2005.

Tim Underhill (Straub fans will recognize him from earlier books, such as Koko), a novelist and Vietnam vet, suddenly receives bizarre emails from dead people and sees his dead sister. Willy Patrick, an award-winning young-adult novelist whose husband and daughter were both murdered, is engaged, but discovers her fiancé, Mitchell Faber, isn't who she thinks he is. When Willy and Tim's lives intersect, the two realize that there is a strange tie that binds them together. While this 2004 Stoker winner is something of a sequel to Straub's award-winning Lost Boy Lost Girl, it can be enjoyed on its own by those interested in exploring the line between fantasy and reality.