Small town horror books full of the best small town horrors

When Jack Brooks moves to Chapel Croft with her teenage daughter Flo to become a vicar, she is excited about new surroundings after tragedy strikes her previous church. But the town has a seemingly ghostly history of disappearances and burnings, not to mention that the last vicar committed suicide. As ghost visions appear before their eyes and the couple adjust to their new town, it’s clear that something more sinister is afoot than they originally thought.

Jade Daniels is a teenager obsessed with the slasher genre. She’s devoured them all. While working as a janitor to make ends meet in her small town, she soon notices evidence that a real slasher is taking place in her own town. She’s determined to use her knowledge of the genre to protect her best friend and herself.

Ten years after leaving her small North Carolina town, Mira receives a wedding invitation from an old friend she’s lost touch with. Curious about the chance to see her childhood friend again, Mira accepts the invitation, though she’s hesitant because the venue is a renovated plantation. Flashbacks to a traumatic night in her childhood and the history of the house collide, making her wish she’d listened to her gut from the start.

Needing a fresh start, Marigold’s mother moves into an old house in a small Midwestern town as an artist. The family’s move from California doesn’t exactly go smoothly, however. There’s a strange smell in the house and the neighborhood is eerily quiet. Then Marigol’s stepsister starts seeing someone she thinks is an imaginary friend, until she starts seeing shadows herself and isn’t so sure if the move was really the right decision.

After the loss of her mother, Quinn and her father move to Kettle Springs, a small town where they hope to find a quiet life to grieve. Quinn quickly makes friends and things are looking up. The only strange thing is the town’s obsession with its mascot Frendo, a clown she doesn’t understand but sees everywhere. The class differences in the town reach a horrific climax at a party Quinn attends one night where Frendo becomes creepy. Now Quinn must do what she can, with the help of her new friends, to get out alive.

To get money to pay for college, Jade agrees to live with her estranged father for the summer with her little sister Lily. Her father wants her to work while he converts the old colonial house into a bed and breakfast and asks Jade to create a website for the house. When strange events convince her that the house is haunted, Jade wonders if the money for college is worth it.

After her grandmother’s death, Lena desperately needs money to care for her ailing mother and pay off her debts. Strangely, she receives an invitation to participate in a medical study called the Lakewood Project. Despite having limited information, she jumps at the chance to help her loved ones and enrolls in Lakewood, Michigan. However, she soon discovers that the medical advances the project seeks come at the expense of people of color.

Liz returns home for one reason only: her best friend’s wedding. But there, her best friend’s child disappears in the very same woods where Liz experienced a tragic incident years before. In fact, there has been a history of black girls disappearing in these woods for decades. Liz and the rest of the wedding party must find out what lurks in the woods before it’s too late.

After a scandal forces her to flee her hometown, Ada Byrd takes a job as a teacher in Lowry Bridge. As she adjusts to the community around her, she soon befriends the vicar’s wife and singles out students who need more help. However, the town soon turns against her teaching style and she learns that she is not the first in this position to have received the same treatment. Ada’s own diary entries tell of how the slow, creeping horror of a small town drives her to extremes.