Books like Face in the Crowd and the Longest December by Stephen King

Stephen King’s 1986 horror classic follows seven children terrorized by a shape‑changing entity that takes the form of the iconic clown Pennywise, using their deepest fears to hunt them.

A weary father and his young son journey across a bleak, post‑apocalyptic America, battling cannibals, starvation, and a harsh winter in a desperate quest for safety and a glimpse of remaining civilization.

Dan Torrance, a middle‑aged former Shining survivor, must protect a young girl with extraordinary psychic powers from the deadly True Knot, a traveling cult that feeds on children’s “shining.”

John Irving’s narrative follows two eleven‑year‑old boys in New Hampshire whose friendship is shattered when a foul ball kills one boy’s mother. The survivor, Owen Meany, believes he is a divine instrument, and the novel traces the impact of that belief on his life and the lives of those around him.

The story of two boys and their dark journey through a haunted carnival

During a Mexican vacation, two couples lose a friend and delve into a jungle ruin, only to confront a terrifying, ancient presence.

"I very much need to be dead." These are the chilling last words left by a man who had everything to live for but took his own life. In the void that remains stands his widow, FBI agent Jane Hawk, surrounded by questions destined to go unanswered unless she does what all the grief and fury inside her demand: Find the truth, no matter what. People of talent and accomplishment, people seemingly happy and sound of mind, have recently been committing suicide in surprising numbers. A disturbing pattern is beginning to emerge. Jane is determined to give up everything to find out why. And if that means going rogue and becoming America's Most Wanted, then so be it. Those arrayed against her are legion, and devoted to protecting something profoundly important-or terrifying-enough to exterminate any and all in their way. But Jane is as clever as these enemies are cold-blooded, as relentless as they are ruthless. And she is driven by a righteous rage they can never comprehend. Because it is born of love.