Stephen Graham Jones' 6 scary books with deeper meanings
The best-selling author recommends works by Stephen King, Sara Gran, and more

When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.
Stephen Graham Jones' new novel, "The Angel of Indian Lake," completes his trilogy about a horror superfan's encounter with an Idaho slasher. Below, the best-selling author of "The Only Good Indians" names six books he can't live without.
'Love Medicine' by Louise Erdrich (1984)
The way this book moves in stories, but then manages to bring it all home at the end with a single magical image — I'll never stop reading this novel. It's the standard I always try to write...not "to," I'm not that presumptuous. But "toward," anyway, the best I can. Buy it here.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
'Solaris' by Stanisław Lem (1961)
This is truly an encounter with an intelligence not human. And it's thrilling and terrifying and wondrous and restorative. You can come back to Solaris again and again, and, just like the book's titular vast ocean planet, it's going to have something different for you. Buy it here.
'It' by Stephen King (1986)
This novel's nostalgia for a world that existed before I was born somehow makes me miss the '80s I grew up in. It isn't about a place, or a clown in the sewers. It's about childhood, and friendship, and growing up. Buy it here.
'Watchmen' by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1987)
What if superheroes were real? This comic book is a model for how to truly engage with a premise, and then go beyond that premise. At its core, it's a murder mystery, but that's just the dramatic mechanism Watchmen uses to suggest and expose truths about the world, and us. Buy it here.
Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear (1999)
I'm not sure my heart's ever beaten as hard from reading fiction as it did while I read Darwin's Radio. This is science fiction set pretty much in the world of today, but... it's a world undergoing a profound change, one that's maybe even necessary. That doesn't mean it's not scary. Buy it here.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
'Come Closer' by Sara Gran (2003)
Come Closer is a possession story that, each time I read it, completely possesses me all over again. Gran has done something magical and terrifying, here, in such a short space, and in such a spare style. Read this one at night if you can, and then: Good luck catching some sleep. Buy it here.
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
-
Sex, drugs and a royal ruckus: the US play with a future gay Prince George
Talking Point The controversial off-Broadway show is a hit with audiences in New York
-
Labour's brewing welfare rebellion
The Explainer Keir Starmer seems determined to press on with disability benefit cuts despite a "nightmare" revolt by his own MPs
-
A potentially mutating bat virus has some scientists worried about the next pandemic
Under the Radar One subgroup of bat merbecovirus has scientists concerned
-
Grilled radicchio with caper and anchovy sauce recipe
The Week Recommends Smoky twist on classic Italian flavours is perfect to grill, drizzle and devour
-
Echo Valley: a 'twisty modern noir' starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney
The Week Recommends This tense thriller about a mother and daughter is 'American cinema for grown ups'
-
Larry Lamb shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The actor picks works by Neil Sheehan, Annie Proulx and Émile Zola
-
Stereophonic: an 'extraordinary, electrifying odyssey'
The Week Recommends David Adjmi's Broadway hit about a 1970s rock band struggling to record their second album comes to the West End
-
Shifty: a 'kaleidoscopic' portrait of late 20th-century Britain
The Week Recommends Adam Curtis' 'wickedly funny' documentary charts the country's decline using archive footage
-
Lollipop: a single mother trapped in a 'hellish catch-22'
The Week Recommends Daisy May Hudson's moving debut feature is a gut puncher in the Ken Loach tradition
-
Marfa, Texas: Big skies, fine art, and great eating
Feature A cozy neighborhood spot, a James Beard semifinalists, and more
-
6 light-filled homes on the Jersey Shore
Feature Featuring a Victorian with a wraparound porch in Beach Haven and a condo with ocean views in Asbury Park