The King in Yellow

Victor Frankenstein builds a living creature and abandons it, and both pay for that choice. The novel that invented science fiction horror, in a clean edition with an illustrated cover.

Mary Shelley

Told through diaries and letters, the story of a Transylvanian count who travels to England to feed. The vampire novel that defined the genre, and still one of its scariest.

Bram Stoker

A respected doctor finds a way to release the cruelest side of himself, and loses control of it. A short, gripping novel about the good and evil in every person.

Robert Louis Stevenson

A young man stays beautiful forever while his portrait ages and rots with every sin he commits. A dark, witty novel about vanity, best for older teens ready for adult themes.

Oscar Wilde

A man's cruelty toward his cat drags him into madness and murder. Poe at his most disturbing, with violence that suits readers 15 and up.

Edgar Allan Poe