Dark Books Where Surviving Was Only the Beginning

Dark Books Where Surviving Was Only the Beginning Growls and Grimm

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Dark Books Where Surviving Was Only the Beginning

There are so many stories where survival is the goal. No matter what waits for the characters or what they have to do to get through it, the objective is simple: survive.

But what happens after they do?

What is waiting for them on the other side? How do they move forward now that they’ve survived? And what do they bring home with them when survival was only the beginning of the journey?

These stories begin with people who made it through something. Living with what came next is another matter entirely.


Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi Book Cover
Final Girls by Riley Sager Book Cover
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager Book Cover
Priest of Bones by Peter McLean Book Cover

Dark Books Where Surviving Was Only the Beginning

Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi

For nearly two decades, Jamie Warren has been running from the darkness of his childhood and from the brother, friends, and memories he left behind.

Then a series of strange events pulls them back together. With it comes everything that happened during one long-ago summer: the strange magic they were taught, the man who taught it to them, and a terrible act that followed them all into adulthood.

Jamie survived his childhood by leaving. Now survival means going back and confronting the thing that never really stopped following him.

Add this one to your shelves through Better World Books or Amazon.


Final Girls by Riley Sager

Three women survived three different massacres. That’s the bond. That’s the curse.

They’re famous for what they lived through, stuck inside identities they didn’t choose and constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it finally does, the past doesn’t feel very past at all.

Surviving something doesn’t necessarily mean escaping it. Sometimes it freezes you there while everyone else expects you to move on.

Add this one to your shelves through Better World Books or Amazon.


Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Twenty-five years ago, Maggie and her parents fled Baneberry Hall after spending only three weeks inside the sprawling Victorian estate.

Her father’s account of what happened became a bestselling horror memoir filled with ghosts and malevolent forces. Maggie grew up famous because of a story she doesn’t remember and isn’t entirely sure she believes.

Now she’s returning to Baneberry Hall herself, looking for answers about what really happened there.

Her family escaped the house decades ago. Maggie has been living with what they brought out of it ever since.

Add this one to your shelves through Better World Books or Amazon.


Priest of Bones by Peter McLean

The war is over, and Tomas Piety has survived it. Now he has to go home.

Unfortunately, the Ellinburg waiting for him isn’t the one he left behind. His criminal empire has been stolen, his people are starving, and the streets he once controlled have become something else in his absence.

Tomas sets out to reclaim what was his, only to find himself pulled into political intrigue and another kind of war.

Sometimes surviving the battlefield only means you get to find out what happened while you were gone.

Add this one to your shelves through Better World Books or Amazon.


Survival gets you to the other side. What you carry with you and what you decide is still worth keeping is where the next story begins.

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