If you’ve finished The Encanto and and looking for what to what to read while you’re waiting for LA FOG part two, Wayob’s Revenge, here are my top thirteen scary stories:

13. NOS482  – Joe Hill. A little wakeup call for the child inside us who wishes every day could be like Christmas.

12. Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin. I guess it’s considered a fantasy novel because of the setting? For me it was a gut wrenching nightmare of caring about someone and then losing them again and again. 

11. The Outsider – Stephen King. This novel bewildered me at first. Until the reveal it was spectacular, and then afterwards remained spooky all the way to the final battle. 

10. The Road – Cormac McCarthy. A journey through a profoundly hopeless future which examines the worst we are capable of and why we must keep going no matter how bad things get.

9. Coraline – Neil Gaiman. Never trust anyone with buttons for eyes.

8. Dark Matter – Black Crouch. Early on, I figured out the twist, but the tension kept me reading, and then–it totally surprised me. Who’s the last person you’d want to fight to the death? The last person you’d want to kill for the sake of your own survival? Before answer out loud, try answering inside your own head. Does that sound like the truth? Be honest.

7. The Poet – Michael Connelly. Riviting, disturbing. A murderer so terrible, he’s almost unpleasant to read. But yet you have to know what happens.

6. Christine – Stephen King. Talk about a fun ride. Maybe not for the characters in the novel, but for the reader.

5. The Stand – Stephen King. One of the best post apocalypse tales ever told. More characters than I typically like, but with more than a thousand pages they all have plenty of room to develop. 

4. Those Who Wish Me Dead – Michael Koryta. Imagine an evil villain who can be in two places at once—that’s the Blackwell brothers—a single bad guy in two bodies, their minds so in tuned they’re like one as they move together on their deadly purpose, and the way they think out loud in front of their victims… chilling.

3. 1922 – Stephen King. My favorite short story from the Full Dark, No Stars collection.

2. Fevre Dream – George R.R. Martin. A historical vampire fantasy set on a riverboat in the 1880s with plot twists and superb characterization. Abner Marsh is so distinct you could pick him out of a crowd, or from just from a single sentence. Fevre Dream is not only my favorite vampire novel by also my favorite by George R.R. Martin.

1. The Raven – Edgar Allen Poe. Yes, a poem, but also the best tale ever told on the horrors of grief and longing.