Stephen King Read-a-Likes

List of authors similar to Stephen King provided by the staff at the LaPorte Branch Library.

Clive Barker. Cabal and others
For more than two decades, Clive Barker has twisted the worlds of horrific and surrealistic fiction into a terrifying, transcendent genre all his own. With skillful prose, he enthralls even as he horrifies; with uncanny insight, he disturbs as profoundly as he reveals. Evoking revulsion and admiration, anticipation and dread, Barker's works explore the darkest contradictions of the human condition: our fear of life and our dreams of death.

Ray Bradbury. Something Wicked This Way Comes and others
Three hours after midnight, one week before Halloween, Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show rolls into Green Town, Illinois. A carnival like no other, it feeds on the dreams and weaknesses of those drawn to its eerie attractions, destroying every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. Two boys--best friends Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade--are about to learn the secret of its smoke, mazes and mirrors as they confront a nightmarish evil that will change their lives forever.

Ramsey Campbell. Nazareth Hill and others
Oswald Priestley was widowed ten years ago, when his daughter, Amy, was just a child. He's done his best to raise her and give her proper values. But now she's a teenager, convinced she knows everything about life and that her father knows nothing. Amy doesn't remember her mother. She does remember that as a child she was afraid of Nazareth Hill, the abandoned asylum that looms over the town. Now Nazareth Hill has been made into apartments, and she and her father have moved in. Their neighbors are a little eccentric at first, and as time passes, their odd quirks become less amusing and more dangerous.
Orson Scott Card. Homebody and others
Don Lark's cheery name belies his tragic past. When his alcoholic ex-wife killed their daughter in a car wreck, he retreated from the sort of settled, sociable lifestyle one takes for granted. Only refurbishing houses for other people comforts him.  In Greensboro, North Carolina, Lark finds his biggest challenge yet - a huge, sturdy, gorgeous shell that's suffered almost a century of abuse.  As he works on the project, the neighborhood works it's charms on him - he makes friends and finds romance. Then he finds a tunnel under the house and suddenly everyone wants him gone.

John Farris. The Fury and others
Why did Robin's loving father want to kill him? Why did Gillian's doting mother desperately fear her?

Thomas Harris. The Silence of the Lambs and others
On the loose is a psychotic killer; locked away is a psychopathic madman. To catch one, the FBI needs the other.

James Herbert. Once... and others
Bestselling author Herbert opens a door into a place of wonder and terrible danger; where the unexpected becomes the norm, where the separation between dreams and nightmares is thin, and where "Once upon a time . . ." doesn't always lead to a happy ending.

Dean Koontz. From the Corner of His Eyeand others
This is the story of a young boy who loses his sight and then mysteriously regains it. It is the story of a courageous band of seekers, and a relentless killer. It is the story of all that is right with the world and all that is terribly wrong. It is the story of a revelation so terrifying that those who dare to look will be changed forever.

Ira Levin. Rosemary's Baby and others
Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, an ordinary young couple, settle into a New York City apartment, unaware that the elderly neighbors and their bizarre group of friends have taken a disturbing interest in them. But by the time Rosemary discovers the horrifying truth, it may be far too late!

H. P. Lovecraft. The Lurker at the Threshold and others
Ambrose Dewart returns to his ancestral estate and sets about restoring the mansion to his own tastes. In the process he comes across a document signed by his great grandfather invoking a sinister injunction to future generations: "Do not invite he who lurks at the threshold!"

Brian Lumley. The Whisperer and Other Voices and others
This collection presents nine of Lumley's best short works of horror fiction, including the short novel "Return of the Deep Ones", and the stories "Aunt Hester", "The Disapproval of Jeremy Cleave", and the title story, "The Whisperer".
 
Robert McCammon. Boy's Life and others
In 1964 in Zephyr, Alabama, Cory Mackenson and his father, Tom, witness a car plunging into Lake Saxon during a pre-dawn milk delivery.  When Tom dives down, he finds a nude, beaten corpse handcuffed to the steering wheel.  Cory sees a mysterious figure watching them at the edge of the woods but only finds a green feather where he investigates.

Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings and others
The house of Usher is haunted by the Usher's past evil.  Eventually, the evil becomes too great for the house to hold.
Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child. Relic and others
A female graduate student and an FBI agent trace a series of brutal murders in New York's Museum of Natural History to artifacts shipped to the museum from an ill-fated expedition.

John Saul. The Blackstone Chronicles and others
Beginning with "An Eye for an Eye: The Doll", the "Blackstone Chronicles" brings to eerie life the small New England town of Blackstone--and the dark secrets and sins that lay buried there.
 
 
Dan Simmons. Summer of Night and others
A monstrous, timeless entity is devouring children. Adults either refuse to understand what is happening, or are themselves agents for the monster. A group of young boys, in uneasy partnership with an outcast girl, realize they must kill the creature before it devours them all.  - Publisher's Weekly Review

Bram Stoker. Dracula
Nosferatu, vrolok, demon--for centuries he has ruled armies of wolves, hordes of rats, legions of the undead. Six people have faced his horror--and lived. And now these mortals dare to hunt him, dare to risk their lives and souls--to challenge the evil of Dracula.

Peter Straub. Mr. X and others
Ned Dunstan's birthday is fast approaching, and every year on this date, Ned experiences a paralyzing seizure in which he is forced to witness scenes of ruthless slaughter perpetrated by a mysterious and malevolent figure in black whom Ned calls Mr. X.   On her deathbed, his mother tells him the truth about his father.  His determination to find out as much as he can about his absent father ignites a series of extraordinary adventures that gradually reveal the heart of both his own identity and that of his entirely fantastic family.