Author Guide

Paul Tremblay Books in Order

Complete reading list for the literary horror author Stephen King called "one of the most frightening novelists I have read in decades."

About

Paul Tremblay is an American author who has become the most critically acclaimed literary horror writer of his generation. He won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel for A Head Full of Ghosts (2015). Stephen King called it "one of the most frightening novels I've read in decades," which both helped its success and set high expectations that Tremblay has consistently met. His horror is distinguished by formal experimentation, ambiguous endings, and a refusal to provide easy supernatural explanations for what is happening. His novels demand that you decide for yourself what is real — which is a more unsettling technique than most horror fiction uses. He was a high school math teacher for many years before writing full-time.

Where to start: A Head Full of Ghosts (2015) is the essential entry point. It is his most acclaimed novel and the one most likely to convert readers who are unsure about horror.

All Paul Tremblay Novels

Listed in publication order.

1
A Head Full of Ghosts cover
A Head Full of Ghosts
2015
Essential
A reality TV crew documents a family's claim that their daughter is possessed. Told through a blogger's retrospective. Stephen King called it one of the most frightening novels he'd read. Bram Stoker Award winner.
2
Disappearance at Devil's Rock cover
Disappearance at Devil's Rock
2016
A teenage boy disappears near a local landmark. His mother investigates. Quieter and more melancholy than Head Full of Ghosts.
3
The Cabin at the End of the World cover
The Cabin at the End of the World
2018
Bram Stoker Award
A family on vacation is visited by strangers who claim they must make a terrible choice to prevent the apocalypse. Intense and relentless.
4
Survivor Song cover
Survivor Song
2020
A rabies outbreak spreads through Massachusetts in a single day. A doctor and a nurse race to save a baby. Tremblay's most propulsive novel.
5
The Beast You Are cover
The Beast You Are
2023
Most Recent
Short story collection. Tremblay at his most experimental and formally adventurous.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Paul Tremblay explain the supernatural in his books?
Deliberately not, usually. Tremblay constructs his novels so that both supernatural and rational explanations are plausible. This ambiguity is intentional and is what most distinguishes him from traditional horror fiction.
Is Paul Tremblay's horror very gory?
Not particularly. His horror is psychological rather than visceral. There is violence, but it is not gratuitous. If you are sensitive to body horror, Survivor Song has some intense medical content; otherwise his books are less graphic than most genre horror.
What is the best Paul Tremblay book?
A Head Full of Ghosts for the best first read. The Cabin at the End of the World for pure sustained dread. Survivor Song if you want something faster-paced.