Paul Tremblay is one of the most discussed horror writers of the last decade, and the reason is a single habit: he almost never tells you for certain what happened. Is the teenage girl in A Head Full of Ghosts possessed or ill? Are the strangers in The Cabin at the End of the World prophets or fanatics? His books are built so that both readings hold, and readers argue about them long after the last page.
He began with two crime novels, moved into horror with A Head Full of Ghosts in 2015, and has since alternated novels with short story collections. Most of his books are set in and around Massachusetts, many are told by unreliable narrators, and almost all of them are about families under pressure. This guide lists his books in publication order and then suggests where to begin.
The early crime novels
1. The Little Sleep — Paul Tremblay
Tremblay's first novel (2009) is a detective story with a twist in its premise: Mark Genevich is a South Boston private investigator with narcolepsy, and his waking dreams make him unsure whether what he remembers actually happened. It is not horror, but the uncertainty that defines his later books is already here. The Little Sleep is a quick, wry read.
2. No Sleep Till Wonderland — Paul Tremblay
The second Mark Genevich novel (2010). No Sleep Till Wonderland is for readers who enjoyed the first; if you are here for horror, you can skip both and come back later.
The horror novels
3. A Head Full of Ghosts — Paul Tremblay
The book that made his name, published in 2015. When fourteen-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins to behave strangely, her struggling family agrees to let a reality television crew film her exorcism. Fifteen years later, her younger sister Merry tells the story to a writer. It is a possession novel that is also about how we turn other people's suffering into entertainment, and it won the Bram Stoker Award for best novel. A Head Full of Ghosts is where most readers start, and for good reason.
4. Disappearance at Devil's Rock — Paul Tremblay
A fourteen-year-old boy vanishes from a park at night after sneaking out with his friends, and his mother and sister search for answers as strange pages from his diary begin to appear. Published in 2016, Disappearance at Devil's Rock is quieter and sadder than A Head Full of Ghosts, closer to a family drama with a cold supernatural edge.
5. The Cabin at the End of the World — Paul Tremblay
Seven-year-old Wen and her fathers, Eric and Andrew, are on vacation at a remote cabin in New Hampshire when four strangers arrive and tell them that one of them must make an unthinkable sacrifice to prevent the end of the world. Published in 2018, it is Tremblay's most intense book and the basis for M. Night Shyamalan's 2023 film Knock at the Cabin, which changes the ending. The Cabin at the End of the World is the best choice if you want a page-turner.
6. Survivor Song — Paul Tremblay
A rabies-like virus is spreading through Massachusetts, and a pediatrician tries to get her pregnant friend, who has been bitten, to a hospital before the infection takes hold. Written before 2020 and published that year, Survivor Song reads like real-time disaster horror and is the most straightforwardly frightening of his novels.
7. The Pallbearers Club — Paul Tremblay
Presented as the memoir of a lonely teenager who founds a club of volunteer pallbearers in the 1980s, with sharp handwritten notes in the margins from his friend Mercy, who disputes nearly everything he says. The Pallbearers Club (2022) is his funniest book and his most playful with form, and it may or may not be a vampire story.
8. Horror Movie — Paul Tremblay
In 1993 a group of young filmmakers shot a low-budget horror film that was never released and became notorious. Thirty years later, the only surviving cast member is asked to help with a big-budget remake. Horror Movie (2024) alternates between the shoot and the present, and is a natural pick for anyone who loves horror films as much as horror novels.
The story collections
9. Growing Things and Other Stories — Paul Tremblay
His 2019 collection gathers stories written across his career, several of them connected to his novels. Short fiction is where Tremblay takes his biggest risks with structure, and Growing Things is the best introduction to that side of his work.
10. The Beast You Are: Stories — Paul Tremblay
A second major collection, published in 2023, with fifteen stories that range from domestic dread to full-blown monster tales. The Beast You Are is the one to read after Growing Things.
For younger readers
11. Another — Paul Tremblay
Tremblay's first book for middle-grade readers, about a child whose family changes in frightening ways after a traumatic event. Another is a good way to introduce a younger horror fan to his style.
Where to start
Start with A Head Full of Ghosts if you like possession stories and ambiguity, or with The Cabin at the End of the World if you want tension from the first page. If you prefer short fiction, begin with Growing Things. Readers who like horror about the horror genre itself should go straight to Horror Movie.
Read the novels in any order: apart from the two Mark Genevich books, none is a sequel. And if Tremblay's refusal to give a final answer frustrates you, that is part of the design. His books are built for rereading and for arguing about with someone who has finished them too.
