Ballantine Books imprint: 2188 books

The first stand-alone thriller by critically acclaimed author Charlie Huston, The Shotgun Rule is a raw tale of four teenage friends who go looking for a little trouble–and find it. Blood spilled on the asphalt of this town long years gone has left a stain, and it’s spreading. Not...

Fifteen-year-old Matthew Moore seems to have a charmed life . . . until a mysterious fire forces his grandmother to move in with his family. The elderly woman insists on recreating the bedroom of Cynthia, her favored child who died tragically more than a decade ago. Soon Matt's life insidiously begins...

For more than two decades Peter Straub has engrossed, entertained, and terrified us with his dazzling blend of cool artistry and mad, spine-tingling imagination. With Mr. X, the bestselling author of Ghost Story, The Talisman (with Stephen King), and The Hellfire Club takes us into the darkest dimensions...

For more than three decades, bestselling novelist John Saul has been summoning macabre masterpieces from the darkest realms of his imagination. With each new book, his instinct for playing upon our deepest dread has grown only stronger and more sinister. He’s never been afraid to push the boundaries...

**#1 New York Times Bestselling author - The spellbinding classic that started it all - Book I of the Vampire Chronicles Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight,...

She’s drop-dead gorgeous. But one of the guys she’s met online might be a stone-cold killer. A chilling game of lies, secrets, and manipulation awaits in R. L. Stine’s dark, sexy thriller—now an MTV original series starring Victoria Justice. Lindy Sampson is a beautiful twenty-three-year-old...

A Hindi film star, an American missionary, a pair of twins separated at birth, a diminutive chauffeur, and a serial killer collide in a riotous novel by the author of The World According to Garp “His most entertaining novel since Garp.”—The New York Times Book Review “A Son of...

In this captivating contemporary romance, sure to delight readers of Rachel Gibson and Susan Elizabeth Phillips, a small-town wallflower learns that in the game of love, being shy gets you nowhere.   Kate Bloom’s ordered world is turned upside down when notorious bad boy and superstar athlete Jesse...

Hailed as a classic of speculative fiction, Marge Piercy’s landmark novel is a transformative vision of two futures—and what it takes to will one or the other into reality. Harrowing and prescient, Woman on the Edge of Time speaks to a new generation on whom these choices weigh more heavily than...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • With richly layered characters and a gripping moral dilemma that will lead readers to question everything they know about privilege, power, and race, Small Great Things is the stunning new page-turner from Jodi Picoult. SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE “[Picoult]...

"Candy is beside me, drenched in sweat. She's breathing gently, long slow breaths. I imagine her soul going in and out: wanting to leave, wanting to come back, wanting to leave, wanting to come back. The day will soon harden into what we need to do. But for now we have each other. . . ." He...

Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense. She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far. It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods...

BONUS: This edition contains a The Scent of Rain and Lightning discussion guide. One beautiful summer afternoon, Jody Linder receives shocking news: The man convicted of murdering her father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-three...

The notorious novel of dark obsession How far will a woman go to express her love? In this exquisite novel of passion and desire, the answer emerges through a daring exploration of the deepest bonds of sensual domination. “O” is a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer, determined to understand...