Clay McLeod Chapman

A Novel

Ghost Eaters

"Two narratives--Richard in present day, settingling into a quiet but pleasant life as a newly married art teacher; Sean in 1980s Virginia, when cult leaders, serial killers, and stranger danger are on the rise--converge around a few small lies that spiraled into a terrible tragedy. Thirty years later, it seems someone is out for revenge."--

Whisper Down the Lane

Inspired by a true story, this supernatural thriller for fans of horror and true crime follows a tale as it evolves every twenty years--with terrifying results. Ella Louise has lived in the woods surrounding Pilot's Creek, Virginia, for nearly a decade. Publicly, she and her daughter Jessica are shunned by their upper-crust family and the Pilot's Creek residents. Privately, desperate townspeople visit her apothecary for a cure to what ails them--until Ella Louise is blamed for the death of a prominent customer. Accused of witchcraft, both mother and daughter are burned at the stake in the middle of the night. Ella Louise's burial site is never found, but the little girl has the most famous grave in the South: a steel-reinforced coffin surrounded by a fence of interconnected white crosses. Their story will take the shape of an urban legend as it's told around a campfire by a man forever marked by his boyhood encounters with Jessica. Decades later, a boy at that campfire will cast Amber Pendleton as Jessica in a '70s horror movie inspired by the Witch Girl of Pilot's Creek. Amber's experiences on that set and its meta-remake in the '90s will ripple through pop culture, ruining her life and career after she becomes the target of a witch hunt. Amber's best chance to break the cycle of horror comes when a true-crime investigator tracks her down to interview her for his popular podcast. But will this final act of storytelling redeem her--or will it bring the story full circle, ready to be told once again? And again. And again . . .

The Remaking

“What Kind of Mother mixes Southern Gothic, a missing child story, and body horror into an entertaining brew sure to inform your nightmares.”—Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth—and it’s coming for everyone she holds dear. Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman's reputation as a “star” (Vulture) and “the twenty-first century’s Richard Matheson” (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)

What Kind of Mother

From Vulture's "master of horror" Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and When Evil Lurks

Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reawakening” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help.

Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him.

But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart-–literally-–as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn–-but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes?

This ambitious, searing novel from "one of horror's modern masters" holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake readers to the core.

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes 

After a small coastal town is devastated by a hurricane, the survivors gravitate toward a long out-of-service payphone in hopes of talking out their grief and saying goodbye to loved ones, only for it to begin ringing on its own. As more townspeople answer the call, friends and family believed to have been lost to the storm begin searching for a way back home.

Stay on the Line

An outbreak at a small American college causes an entire dorm to be quarantined with the students inside, which leads to a violent new social hierarchy within. It’s move-in day, and students from across the country converge on the campus of Yersin University to start the new school year. But after a looming pandemic strikes the college, a single dorm complex is quarantined with all of the students inside, and what first starts as youthful freedom from authority soon devolves into a violent new society. Written by author and playwright Clay McLeod Chapman (American Vampire, The New York Times Critics’ Pick Stump Speeches) and illustrated by Jey Levang, Lazaretto is student body horror taken to the extreme.

Lazaretto

"Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite writers. His books are always white-knuckle reads—blazingly original, gorgeously written, and profoundly chilling."—Riley Sager, New York Times best-selling author of Survive the Night "Clay McLeod Chapman's guided tour of a shroom-and-gloom ghost world, where everyone is addicted to death, reads like a scared straight program that horrifies you into choosing life."—Grady Hendrix, New York Times best-selling author of The Final Girl Support Group For fans of Riley Sager and Paul Tremblay, a terrifying supernatural page-turner that explores ghosts, grief, and god complexes. Ever since their on-again, off-again college romance, Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with charismatic but reckless Silas, who’s been chasing the next big high since graduation. When he texts her to spring him out of rehab, she knows enough is enough. She’s ready to start a career, make new friends, and meet a great guy—even if that means cutting Silas off. But when Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart. When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past everywhere. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she’s opened? With propulsive momentum, bone-chilling scares, and dark meditations on the weight of history, this Southern horror will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.

Tamara and Charles are on the run when the virus reaches Phase III: Hallucinations.

Lazaretto #4

Arash Amel

Lee Krieger

Joseph Oxford

In a future where humanity is extinct, the most evolved android on the planet revives her creator to bring back humanity before the Earth is consumed by its AI overlords. HUMANITY IS NO MORE. One thousand years after humans have become extinct after being replaced by artificial intelligence, a single man is brought back to life - David Adams, the man who created the technology that destroyed his people. Even with the help of the same android who brought him back to life, Adams may not be enough to reignite the spark of humanity - and stop the AI overlords who plan to eliminate mankind permanently. Now Adams embarks on the greatest journey of his life, as he seeks to find redemption for his greatest mistake and discover if humanity can - or should - have any kind of future. In a story created by Arash Amel (A Private War), Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Upgrade), Lee Toland Krieger (The Age of Adaline), and Joseph Oxford (Me + Her), acclaimed writer Clay McLeod Chapman (Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety) and Jakub Rebelka (Judas) present a stunning view of the future where humanity's last hope may be its destroyer.

Origins

Cullen Bunn

THE RETURN OF A CLASSIC SYMBIOTE...AND IT'LL BE A SCREAM! Years ago, Patricia Robertson was unwillingly bonded to the clone of Venom that eventually became Mania, and she's been living in fear of symbiotes ever since. But she's also been living with a secret, and with the coming of Carnage, Patricia must take a stand - and will have no choice but to confront her demons head-on! Patricia may know symbiotes, but nothing can prepare her for their god Knull! Plus: Since the conclusion of DEADPOOL VS. CARNAGE, four of the five Life Foundation symbiotes - Riot, Phage, Agony and Lasher - have been bonded to a stray dog, wandering the Midwest. But as Carnage descends on New York, its siblings will find it impossible to resist the siren song of KNULL... Collecting Absolute Carnage: Scream (2019) 1-3, Absolute Carnage: Separation Anxiety (2019) 1

Absolute Carnage: Scream

“Clay McLeod Chapman is one of my favorite horror storytellers working today.” — Jordan Peele A murderous artist is haunted by the spirits of those he has killed in this surreal and chilling supernatural revenge novella. From the acclaimed author of Ghost Eaters, and perfect for fans of Joe Hill and Delilah S. Dawson. At sixty-six years old, Winston Kemper has always been a nonentity. No one notices him. His simple existence barely registers for those who come into contact with him. Some call him feeble-minded. He is a janitor at the local church, a groundskeeper by default, and that’s it. No friends, no family. When he’s done with work, he returns home—a remote, single room apartment located above a garage—and that is where his true work begins. Winston Kemper is a collector of voices, and his magnum opus—The Butterfly Girls—is a sprawling epic of untapped imagination. It has no single canvas, no particular frame. It is everywhere—scribbled on the walls, the floor, and countless notebooks. Winston is creating a fantasia which exists in words, images and blood. As part of his 'art' he has been murdering forgotten women. Poor souls who slip through the cracks of society, who no one’s looking for. Mothers, sisters, daughters to someone, but no more. Winston takes their lives, their voices. But now he can hear them. They whisper to him. They talk of revenge. Winston Kemper might not believe in ghosts, but he is about to learn they are very real. And they are very, very angry. A surreal and dreamlike novella about the ghosts of our past and the dangerous, obsessive pursuit of art, from the "true master of horror." (CJ Leede, Maeve Fly)

A Novella

Bodies of Work

Chilling Stories

Acquired Taste

Web of Venom

Chris Mooneyham

Curse of Carnage

Scream Vol. 1

Lazaretto #1

Edge of Spider-Verse #4

A man who's back from the dead meets a woman who's from somewhere even worse in the new horrormance from the acclaimed author of Ghost Eaters, about love, possession, and just a little murder. Perfect for fans of Rachel Harrison and Grady Hendrix. After a traumatic accident that almost cost Jordan his life, he's finally starting to feel normal again. Well, maybe not normal. Everything tastes like ash, and when he looks at the people around him, their faces start to melt. At least he's not dead, right? His friends are doing their best to get him back on his feet, maybe find someone to talk to, perhaps even find someone to take his mind off his last failed relationship. Then he meets Lilith. The two share an instant connection but after a wild and passionate night together, she ghosts him. Jordan searches the city for Lilith, desperate to see her again. But when a woman claiming to be Lilith shows up, wearing a different face but knowing intimate details about Jordan, he worries he's losing his grip on reality. As he grows closer to this mysterious woman, he discovers that happily ever afters sometimes come at a cost. How far will Lilith take him, and how much darkness will he embrace to find love?

Devil Inside

Since being expelled for giving the Greenfield Middle School student body an "explosive" case of food poisoning and sent to live with his father, Spencer Pendleton hasn't exactly been doing his best to put the past behind him and settle into his new life. What with losing the girl-of-his-dreams, Sully, and gaining a there-but-still-absentee father, his life still has a few kinks to work out. And when his single-minded quest to track down the Tribe and reunite with Sully lands him at camp New Leaf, Spencer is convinced things can't get much worse. WRONG! Not only is Camp New Leaf no ordinary camp, but it appears that the Tribe hasn't laid the past to rest, either. And what better place to catch up with an old member???or recruit a few new ones???than a secluded camp for "troubled" boys. With rebellion in the air, Spencer must find a way to stop the Tribe's plans to put down roots and expand its ranks before someone gets seriously hurt???or worse.

The Tribe: Camp Cannibal

Ella Louise lives with her daughter, Jessica, in the woods surrounding Pilot's Creek, Virginia. Desperate townspeople visit her apothecary for a cure to what ails them -- until Ella Louise is blamed for the death of a prominent customer. Accused of witchcraft, both mother and daughter are burned at the stake. Decades later, Amber Pendleton is cast as Jessica in a '70s horror movie inspired by the event. Amber's experiences on that set ruin her life and career after she becomes the target of a witch hunt. Then a true-crime investigator tracks her down to interview her. Will this final act of storytelling redeem her -- or will it bring the story full circle?

Clay McLeod Chapman

Books

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