A collection of fiction featuring both real and supernatural horrors of Hollywood from the Golden Age to the present day. In an industry where dreams really do come true, some dreams turn out to be deadly.

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FICTION BARKER

Coldheart Canyon / Clive Barker

Aging star Todd Pickett needs a place to heal after his plastic surgery has gone terribly wrong. His loyal agent finds him just such a place in a luxurious, forgotten mansion high in the Hollywood Hills. The original owner of the mansion was a beautiful woman devoted to pleasure at any cost, and the terrible legacy of her deeds has not yet died. There are ghosts and monsters haunting Coldheart Canyon, where nothing is forbidden. Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby, and as an audiobook through hoopla.

FICTION CHAPMAN

The Remaking / Clay McLeod Chapman

Actress Amber Pendleton is caught in a cycle of horror stemming from a role she played—that of a girl burned at the stake for witchcraft— and sees her chance to finally be free of her curse when a true-crime investigator tracks her down to interview her for his popular podcast. Will this final act of storytelling redeem her? Or will it bring the story full circle, ready to be told once again. And again. And again…

FICTION DANFORTH

Plain Bad Heroines / Emily M. Danforth; illustrations by Sara Lautman

A century after the macabre deaths of several students at Brookhants, a New England girls’ boarding school, the release of a sensational book on the school’s history inspires a horror film adaptation that renews suspicions of a curse when the cast and crew arrive at the long-abandoned building. Past and present become grimly entangled (or perhaps just grimly exploited) and it’s soon impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins. Also available as an ebook and audiobook through Overdrive/Libby.

FICTION HENDRIX

The Final Girl Support Group / Grady Hendrix

 Lynette Tarkington, a real-life “final girl”— the one girl always left standing at the end of a horror movie — survived a massacre 22 years ago. Along with five other final girls, Lynette works to overcome her past until someone becomes determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece. But no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, the final girls will never, ever give up. Also available in Large Print and as an audiobook through Overdrive/Libby.

FICTION JAMES

The Woman in the Castello / Kelsey James

In 1965 Rome, aspiring actress Silvia Whitford seeks out Gabriella, the Italian aunt she’s never met who lives in a crumbling castello where Silvia gets cast in a new horror movie. When her aunt disappears, the film’s make-believe terrors seep into reality, revealing a growing menace. No one else on set seems to share Silvia’s suspicions, but as she delves into Gabriella’s disappearance, she triggers a chain of events that illuminate dark secrets in the past and a growing menace in the present. Also available in Large Print, and as an ebook and audiobook through hoopla.

FICTION MORENO

Silver Nitrate / Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In 1990s Mexico City, talented sound editor Montserrat and her best friend Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, are drawn in by cult horror director Abel Urueta and his claim that shooting the missing scene from his magic film will lift a curse. After agreeing to help Urueta finish his film, they start seeing strange things and must unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city. Also available in Large Print and as an ebook and audiobook through Overdrive/Libby.

FICTION PESSL

Night Film / Marisha Pessl

When the daughter of an enigmatic cult horror film director is found dead in an abandoned Manhattan warehouse, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath, disbelieving the official suicide ruling, probes into the strange circumstances of the young woman’s death while being drawn into the director’s eerie world. The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more. Also available as an ebook and audiobook through Overdrive/Libby.

FICTION RUSSELL

The Devil’s Playground / Craig Russell

In 1927, studio fixer Mary Rourke arrives at the palatial home of movie star Norma Carlton and finds her cold, dead body. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is talking about, a terrifying horror picture called The Devil’s Playground that is rumored to have cursed everyone involved in the production. Forty years later, Paul Conway – journalist and self-professed film aficionado – is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devil’s Playground may exist. Both Mary and Paul discover truths far more sinister than they, or we, could have imagined.

FICTION STEADMAN

The Disappearing Act / Catherine Steadman

A British actress new to Hollywood, Mia Eliot is forced to play the role of a lifetime when friendly fellow auditioner Emily disappears after asking for a favor. Mia is the last person to see her, and the woman who knocks on Mia’s door the following day claiming to be Emily isn’t the woman Mia remembers at all. No one believes her when she claims that the real Emily has gone missing. Mia risks everything to try and uncover the truth about Emily while being forced to question her own sanity.

FICTION THILLIEZ

Syndrome E / Franck Thilliez

Beleaguered detective Lucie Hennebelle investigates an obscure film that causes anyone who watches it to end up dead, and, along with analyst Inspector Franck Sharko, finds herself deep in a worldwide conspiracy of art and darkness, following the trail of cutting-edge neuroscience discoveries and their lethal application by film.

SCIENCE FICTION VO

Siren Queen / Nghi Vo

Chinese American actress Luli Wei, desperate to become a star, bargains with blood and ancient magic to realize her dreams, but the steep price for success may turn her into something she despises. Set in a fantastical pre-Code Hollywood where the monsters are real, and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page. Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby, and as an audiobook through hoopla.

FICTION WHITE

Mister Magic / Kiersten White

Reuniting 30 years after a tragic accident ended their show Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members soon wonder if they’ve been lured into a trap after they find themselves at a remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Only they hold the secret of their close circle, the mystery of the beloved magical host, and the truth of what really happened on that last deadly day.

FICTION WINNING

Burn the Negative / Josh Winning

Journalist Laura Warren is reporting on the remake of a notorious 1990s slasher flick in which eight cast and crew died in ways that eerily mirrored the movie’s on-screen deaths. Laura was the child star of the 90s version, and it ruined her life, but as the body count rises again, she goes on the run with her aspiring actress sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to end the curse once and for all.