Books like The Ruins by Scott Smith

Stephen King’s 1983 horror classic, *Pet Sematary*, explores the perilous intersection of death, resurrection, and the dark forces that linger in rural Maine.

In a South Carolina penitentiary, a death‑row supervisor encounters an inmate with miraculous healing powers, weaving themes of death, empathy, and the supernatural into a haunting tale of justice and humanity.

A covert scientific team ventures into the isolated Area X, a reclaimed landscape rife with anomalies and unknown life. As discoveries deepen, hidden motives and secrets threaten to unravel the expedition and alter humanity’s understanding of nature.

Nothing, in all it's entirety.

A novel.

A tense psychological thriller that pits FBI agent Clarice Starling against the notorious cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter as they collaborate to catch a new predator.

In Dan Simmons’ chilling historical adventure, the Franklin expedition’s steamships Terror and Erebus are trapped in the Arctic for two years, where crew face starvation, mutiny, and a nameless terror lurking in the ice.

Stephen King’s Revival follows a charismatic preacher’s rise and fall in a small New England town, exploring music, addiction, and religious fanaticism amid family drama and supernatural mystery.

In 1973 North Carolina, a college student begins maintenance work at Joyland, an amusement park haunted by an unsolved murder, and finds himself entangled in a chilling mystery that threatens his life.

In the chilling third entry of the Dollanganger saga, half‑brothers Jory and Bart navigate jealousy, a new family secret, and a mysterious old neighbor, all while the family's dark past looms.

During a Boy Scouts weekend in the Canadian wilderness, a thin, pale intruder appears, carrying a bioengineered horror that spreads faster than fear and forces the young scouts to face unimaginable choices.

Astronauts and researchers dive into the Marianas Trench, desperate to find a cure for the plague that has taken over the world.

Set in a quiet 1950s American suburb, two orphaned sisters, Meg and Susan, are held captive in their aunt’s basement as her deteriorating mental health begins to poison their family and the surrounding community.

A global race follows clues of an underground realm of ancient beings, turning scientific ambition into a quest for power and survival.

When Kara Marshall’s daughter vanishes during a home showing, she suspects a sinister intruder. Joined by a grieving neighbor, they uncover a stalking menace that preys on houses for sale, turning their community into a deadly hunt.

Four university friends venture into the Arctic Circle’s Scandinavian wilderness seeking escape, only to confront ancient rituals and deadly forces lurking among untouched forest.

Two American couples on a vacation in Cancun trail a German tourist as he searches for his missing brother, leading the group toward mysterious jungle ruins.

Joe Hill has been hailed as "a major player in 21st-century fantastic fiction" (Washington Post); "a new master in the field of suspense" (James Rollins); "one of the most confident and assured new voices in horror and dark fantasy to emerge in recent years (Publishers Weekly); a writer who "builds character invitingly and plants an otherworldly surprise around every corner" (New York Times).This gifted and brilliantly imaginative author catapulted to bestsellerdom with the chilling Heart-Shaped Box and cemented his reputation with the prizewinning volume of short fiction 20th Century Ghosts. At last, the New York Times bestselling author returns with a relentless supernatural thriller that runs like Hell on wheels. . . .Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic.But Merrin's death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside. . . .Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge. . . . It's time the devil had his due. . . .