Clay McLeod Chapman

Be careful what you wish for. Whether searching for love, fame, money or revenge, remember that everything comes with a price. From stepping into an unknown in nature to ignoring the warnings of locals, to finding your perfect match or facing the hidden horrors of your past, beware. The thirteen stories in this brand-new anthology explore the dark side of human nature and take us into the hidden, terrifying recesses of a world we never see. Until it’s too late . . .

A man who’s back from the dead meets a woman who’s from somewhere even worse in the new horrormance from the acclaimed author of Ghost Eaters, about love, possession, and just a little murder. Perfect for fans of Rachel Harrison and Grady Hendrix. After a traumatic accident that almost cost Jordan his life, he’s finally starting to feel normal again. Well, maybe not normal. Everything tastes like ash, and when he looks at the people around him, their faces start to melt. At least he’s not dead, right? His friends are doing their best to get him back on his feet, maybe find someone to talk to, perhaps even find someone to take his mind off his last failed relationship. Then he meets Lilith. The two share an instant connection but after a wild and passionate night together, she ghosts him. Jordan searches the city for Lilith, desperate to see her again. But when a woman claiming to be Lilith shows up, wearing a different face but knowing intimate details about Jordan, he worries he’s losing his grip on reality. As he grows closer to this mysterious woman, he discovers that happily ever afters sometimes come at a cost. How far will Lilith take him, and how much darkness will he embrace to find love?

A man who's back from the dead meets a woman who's from somewhere even worse in Clay McLeod Chapman's new horrormance about love, possession, and just a little murder. After a traumatic accident that almost cost Jordan his life, he's finally starting to feel normal again. Well, maybe not normal. Everything tastes like ash, and when he looks at the people around him, their faces start to melt. At least he's not dead, right? His friends are doing their best to get him back on his feet, maybe find someone to talk to, perhaps even find someone to take his mind off his last failed relationship. Then he meets Lilith. The two share an instant connection but after a wild and passionate night together, she ghosts him. Jordan searches the city for Lilith, desperate to see her again. But when a woman claiming to be Lilith shows up, wearing a different face but knowing intimate details about Jordan, he worries he's losing his grip on reality. As he grows closer to this mysterious woman, he discovers that happily ever afters sometimes come at a cost. How far will Lilith take him, and how much darkness will he embrace to find love?

A chilling supernatural revenge novella from the acclaimed author of Wake Up and Open Your Eyes. Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and Delilah S. Dawson.At sixty-six years old, Winston Kemper has always been a nonentity. No one notices him. His simple existence barely registers for those who come into contact with him. Some call him feeble-minded. He is a janitor at the local church, a groundskeeper by default, and that’s it. No friends, no family. When he’s done with work, he returns home—a remote, single room apartment located above a garage—and that is where his true work begins.Winston Kemper is a collector of voices, and his magnum opus—The Butterfly Girls—is a sprawling epic of untapped imagination. It has no single canvas, no particular frame. It is everywhere—scribbled on the walls, the floor, and countless notebooks.Winston is creating a fantasia which exists in words, images and blood. As part of his 'art' he has been murdering forgotten women. Poor souls who slip through the cracks of society, who no one’s looking for. Mothers, sisters, daughters to someone, but no more.Winston takes their lives, their voices.But now he can hear them. They whisper to him. They talk of revenge.Winston Kemper might not believe in ghosts, but he is about to learn they are very real. And they are very, very angry.

"Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today."--Jordan Peele "If talking politics with family has become a horror show, this book's for you."--New York Times Book Review From master of horror Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media. Noah has been losing his polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the "Great Reawakening" is here, he assumes it's related to one of her many conspiracy theories. But when his phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles and his parents locked in a terrifying trancelike state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it. Then Noah's mother brutally attacks him. But Noah isn't the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart--literally--as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend glued to a screen. In Noah's Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn--but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes? "Surreal, hypnotic, unrelenting, profoundly claustrophobic, and an absolutely scathing sendup of the pitfalls of American divisiveness."--Keith Rosson, author of Fever House

A gripping, genre-bending novel about a mysterious new drug plaguing a small town and one girl who must uncover the terrifying truth behind the haunting side effects--or she will be next. At sixteen Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw as little girl living with her mother's drug addiction. Years later, Kyra doesn't always feel like she belongs--and disturbing dreams come to her at night. When a new party drug reaches her high school, Kyra's life becomes an actual nightmare. A video challenge spreads among the students--and though she doesn't participate, Kyra can't escape the inexplicable side effects. Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to notice the eeriness is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene. When the strangeness begins to feel sinister--or unnatural--Kyra is determined to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug. As she and Logan get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra's past and present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself, or lose everyone she loves. "Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today."--Jordan Peele "The most ambitious novel yet from a writer quietly redefining the emotional contours of contemporary horror."--Vulture on Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

A gripping, genre-bending novel about a mysterious new drug plaguing a small town and one girl who must uncover the terrifying truth behind the haunting side effects--or she will be next. At sixteen Kyra is still haunted by the horrors she saw as little girl living with her mother's drug addiction. Years later, Kyra doesn't always feel like she belongs--and disturbing dreams come to her at night. When a new party drug reaches her high school, Kyra's life becomes an actual nightmare. A video challenge spreads among the students--and though she doesn't participate, Kyra can't escape the inexplicable side effects. Everyone around her seems to be mysteriously changing, including the people she loves the most. Her brother has a new personality overnight. Her best friend suddenly feels like a stranger. The only other person who seems to notice the eeriness is Logan, the new boy at school. Like Kyra, he has steered clear of the party scene. When the strangeness begins to feel sinister--or unnatural--Kyra is determined to find out exactly what is behind the mysterious drug. As she and Logan get closer to the truth, the line between Kyra's past and present blurs . . . and she will need to face the terrors inside herself, or lose everyone she loves. "Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today."--Jordan Peele "The most ambitious novel yet from a writer quietly redefining the emotional contours of contemporary horror."--Vulture on Wake Up and Open Your Eyes

A house is more than just a place to lay your head at night. Sometimes, the walls remember.Gathering ten modern masters of the strange and unsettling, Unquiet Guests sets fire to the blueprints and reimagines the haunted house from the foundations up. From dreamlike visions of an abandoned future mansion to a sentient building grown tired of its owners, these rooms echo with whispers of the disenfranchised and the lost.Featuring stories by: Chuck Palahniuk, Grady Hendrix, Kirsty Logan, Will Maclean, Irenosen Okojie, Alison Moore, Matthew Holness, Claire Fuller, Clay Macleod Chapman and Ally Wilkes.

A startling, witty and downright terrifying collection of 25 short stories from the "21st century's Richard Matheson" (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.) Perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay, Rachel Harrison and Eric LaRocca.They're feeding on you too.A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace, and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one. From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the Covid-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, Clay McLeod Chapman takes universal fears of parenthood, addiction and political divisions and makes them uniquely his own. Packed full of humanity, humour and above all, relentless creeping dread, Acquired Taste is a timely descent into the mind of one of modern horror's finest authors.

S ance in the Asylum will have you questioning what is real, and what's not...or in this case, who's mad, who's sane, or who's actually possessed? 1865. The Civil War finally reaches its grueling end. Soldiers returning from the frontline come home broken, their minds shattered. An influx of patients overwhelms The Ashcroft Hospital, an asylum in upstate New York. Dr. John James Templeton is busy developing a radical new theory: spiritualism--the act of communicating with the dead--is its own form of therapy. What better way to draw out these mental maladies then with a little assistance from the other side? Templeton enlists Alicia Wilkinson, a medium who as a young girl established herself as a sought-after conduit capable of contacting the dead...but her own past continues to haunt her. These s ance sessions become a cutting-edge form of "spectral therapy," where patients are permitted to converse with, perhaps expunge, their own maladies. By reaching out beyond the veil of our own world, these spirits aid in drawing out the illness of the patient. But something is changing in the patients. They are acting different...possessed, perhaps. Templeton's experiment is a success. Too successful. It is up to Alicia to understand what is happening to the patients of Ashcroft...before it's too late. Collects S ance in the Asylum issues #1-#4.

The Americans meets The Exorcist as a suburban family are radicalised by a demonic force, seeping through social media and twenty-four hour news cycles. Perfect for fans of Delilah S. Dawson, Gretchen Felker-Martin and Jordan Peele.Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the "Great Reckoning" is here, he assumes it's related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help. Then Noah's mother brutally attacks him. But Noah isn't the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart--literally--as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah's Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn--but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes? This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.

"Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today."--Jordan Peele "Surreal, hypnotic, unrelenting, profoundly claustrophobic, and an absolutely scathing send-up of the pitfalls of American divisiveness."--Keith Rosson, author of Fever House From master of horror Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media. Noah has been losing his polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the "Great Reawakening" is here, he assumes it's related to one of her many conspiracy theories. But when his phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles and his parents locked in a terrifying trancelike state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it. Then Noah's mother brutally attacks him. But Noah isn't the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart--literally--as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend glued to a screen. In Noah's Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn--but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes? This ambitious, searing novel from one of horror's modern masters holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.

A New York Times Book Review Best Horror of 2023 selection. "Packed with profoundly unsettling scenes that'll slither under your skin and stay there long after you turn the last page."--Gabino Iglesias, author of The Devil Takes You Home After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It's there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry's palm, she's haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth--and it's coming for everyone she holds dear. Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman's reputation as a "star" (Vulture) and "the twenty-first century's Richard Matheson" (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)

A palm reader is swept into a bizarre missing-child case in terrifying Southern Gothic page-turner with a twist you won't see coming, from the "21st century's Richard Matheson" (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.) Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Paul Tremblay. After striking out on her own as a teen mother, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmer's market. It's at the market that she reconnects with her high school boyfriend Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry's palm, she's haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying monster waiting at the centre of the labyrinth-and it's coming for everyone she holds dear.

Nicholas Sparks meets The Empty Man in this modern Southern Gothic horror about a palm reader swept up in a disturbing missing-child case with a twist you won t see coming. After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry s palm, she s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth and it s coming for everyone she holds dear. Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman's reputation as a star (Vulture) and the twenty-first century s Richard Matheson (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)

Erin hasn t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab again she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin s world falls apart. Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks. Grieving and desperate for closure with Silas, Erin agrees to a pill-popping seance. But the drug has unfathomable side effects and once you take it, you can never go back.