Most Popular Books by Daniel Kraus

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “This novel leaves you breathless.” —Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author “A thunderous gallop of a war novel, a new classic, a best-in-class example of speculative fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review The critically acclaimed author of the “crazily enjoyable” (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war. Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade. What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell. Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall, The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, Scowler, and more, comes Rotters. Grave-robbing. What kind of monster would do such a thing? It's true that Leonardo da Vinci did it, Shakespeare wrote about it, and the resurrection men of nineteenth-century Scotland practically made it an art. But none of this matters to Joey Crouch, a sixteen-year-old straight-A student living in Chicago with his single mom. For the most part, Joey's life is about playing the trumpet and avoiding the daily humiliations of high school. Everything changes when Joey's mother dies in a tragic accident and he is sent to rural Iowa to live with the father he has never known, a strange, solitary man with unimaginable secrets. At first, Joey's father wants nothing to do with him, but once father and son come to terms with each other, Joey's life takes a turn both macabre and exhilarating. Daniel Kraus's masterful plotting and unforgettable characters make Rotters a moving, terrifying, and unconventional epic about fathers and sons, complex family ties, taboos, and the ever-present specter of mortality.

Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks’s The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy spanning adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Angel Down and Whalefall. Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue. The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fém is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.

"Sophie tells a picture perfect Graveyard Girls tale."--

"Kraus gets under your skin with brutal, elegant efficiency. Necessarily horrifying, devastatingly timely."—Kiersten White, New York Times-bestselling author of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein and Slayer From New York Times-bestselling author Daniel Kraus comes a breakneck, genre-defying YA thriller perfect for fans of Kiersten White, Neal Shusterman, and M. T. Anderson. Liv Fleming's father went missing more than two years ago, not long after he claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Liv has long accepted that he's dead, though that doesn't mean she has given up their traditions. Every Sunday, she and her lifelong friend Doug Monk trudge through the woods to check the traps Lee left behind, traps he set to catch the aliens he so desperately believed were after him. But Liv is done with childhood fantasies. Done pretending she believes her father's absurd theories. Done going through the motions for Doug's sake. However, on the very day she chooses to destroy the traps, she discovers in one of them a creature so inhuman it can only be one thing. In that moment, she's faced with a painful realization: her dad was telling the truth. And no one believed him. Now, she and Doug have a choice to make. They can turn the alien over to the authorities...or they can take matters into their own hands. On the heels of the worldwide success of The Shape of Water, Daniel Kraus returns with a horrifying and heartbreaking thriller about the lengths people go to find justice and the painful reality of grief. " Bent Heavens is the darkest, angriest alien horror story that I've ever encountered. Hell. Yes."—Stephanie Perkins, New York Times-bestselling author of There's Someone Inside Your House

Soon to be a major motion picture from 20th Century Studios A USA TODAY BESTSELLER From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Angel Down comes a scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year. The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale. Suspenseful and cinematic, Whalefall is an “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) thriller about a young man who has given up on life…only to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.

In Cold War-era Baltimore, a government research facility receives an amphibious man captured in the Amazon, and a stirring romance unfolds between him and a mute janitor who uses sign language to communicate.

In the midst of a 1981 meteor shower in Iowa, a homicidal maniac escapes from prison and returns to the farm where his nineteen-year-old son, Ry, must summon three childhood toys--Mr. Furrington, Jesus Christ, and Scowler--to protect himself, his eleven-year-old sister, Sarah, and their mother.

“A horror landmark and a work of gory genius.”—Joe Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus completes George A. Romero's brand-new masterpiece of zombie horror, the massive novel left unfinished at Romero's death! George A. Romero invented the modern zombie with Night of the Living Dead, creating a monster that has become a key part of pop culture. Romero often felt hemmed in by the constraints of film-making. To tell the story of the rise of the zombies and the fall of humanity the way it should be told, Romero turned to fiction. Unfortunately, when he died, the story was incomplete. Enter Daniel Kraus, co-author, with Guillermo del Toro, of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water (based on the Academy Award-winning movie) and Trollhunters (which became an Emmy Award-winning series), and author of The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch (an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year). A lifelong Romero fan, Kraus was honored to be asked, by Romero's widow, to complete The Living Dead. Set in the present day, The Living Dead is an entirely new tale, the story of the zombie plague as George A. Romero wanted to tell it. It begins with one body. A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won’t stay dead. It spreads quickly. In a Midwestern trailer park, a Black teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family. On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic makes a new religion out of death. At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting while his undead colleagues try to devour him. In DC, an autistic federal employee charts the outbreak, preserving data for a future that may never come. Everywhere, people are targeted by both the living and the dead. We think we know how this story ends. We. Are. Wrong. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

PULITZER PRIZE–WINNING AUTHOR OF ANGEL DOWN “A stroke of genius! This is the definitive love letter to the film, written with such meticulous passion and demented glee that you feel yourself standing on the set during the shoot.” —Greg Nicotero The New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall and Angel Down dives into a horror movie classic to examine his favorite film’s importance to our history, culture, and psychology—a perfect blend of research and memoir for fans of the movie, the genre, and beyond Daniel Kraus first saw George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead when he was five years old. Through watching it approximately three hundred times since, Kraus discovered the many ways the film is tied to his childhood trauma and how its influence has carried into his adulthood. He couldn’t help but wonder: Are there other admirers of the film out there who feel the same? Partially Devoured uses a frame-by-frame deep dive into Night of the Living Dead to produce a kaleidoscopic cultural investigation of the film’s importance and to examine the author’s early life of rural isolation and local violence. Careening from film analysis to rabbit-hole tangents, Partially Devoured will take readers from screaming laughter to the depths of grief, all while illustrating how a beloved genre film has woven itself into so many facets of our lives.

In this action-packed prelude to the hit series, acclaimed horror writer Daniel Kraus (George Romero’s The Living Dead, The Autumnal) unveils four globe-spanning tales from the earliest days of the zombie apocalypse when even the wildest rumors couldn’t measure up to the horror to come. A streetwise Russian cop patrols the back alleys of the opportunistic black market that emerges in response to the crisis…a North Korean soldier observes strange happenings on the DMZ…An E.R. nurse in the rural South fights to protect her hospital from threats without and within…A transgender flight attendant who has observed disturbing clues as she crisscrosses the globe keeps a wary eye on the passenger in seat 23C.

The Graveyard Girls navigate an evil smart home, public humiliation, and turbulent middle school friendships in this consuming fourth installment by New York Times bestselling authors Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus. The Graveyard Girls are back together but they’ve never felt further apart. The excitement of finding Silas Hoke’s bones quickly fades as tension between the five friends threatens the future of their beloved club. Frannie secretly struggles with life-changing news and unexpected Internet fame. Sophie betrays her bestie to get ahead. Gemma’s plan to win Zuzu’s love backfires. Whisper can’t balance her new friendship with Paisley, her old one with the Graveyard Girls, and her latest crush. And Zuzu’s Spirit Squad summons her to find out what—or who—has possessed Frannie's new “smart” house. Can the fighting friends put their differences aside and banish the evil force threatening Frannie’s home? Or will their club—and lives—be gone for good? Fans of author Lisi Harrison’s Monster High books and Daniel Kraus’s Trollhunters will devour this clownishly creepy installment in the Graveyard Girls series. Young readers looking for scary stories for kids ages 8 to 12 will delight in this frightfully fun mystery series.

"The story follows Zebulon Finch, a teenager murdered in 1896 Chicago who inexplicably returns from the dead and searches for redemption through the ages."--

The heart-pounding sequel to They Threw Us Away, about a group of teddy bears looking for a place to call home...and answers to life's biggest questions. The teddies—clever Buddy, brave Sunny, sweet Sugar, and wise Reginald—have managed to find a child. Life with Darling is far better than any they've known. But something's not right—the promised bliss of Forever Sleep hasn't come. And they are kept a secret from Darling's mother, hidden underneath the child's bed in the dusty darkness. Then the inevitable happens: Mama discovers the teddies. And like all adults they've met thus far, she responds with fear and anger. The teddies must watch as one of their friends is destroyed. The remaining trio barely escape, thrust back into a world that does not want them. Disillusioned and lost, the teddies embark on a journey back to the factory where they were created. En route, they find a civilization of discarded teddy bears. The comfort of a town of teddies has its allure...but the need for answers weighs heavy. And there's something definitely off about these new teddies. Will our heroes accept their strange rules? Or must they dig deep for one more grand adventure to finally learn why they were thrown away?

The book that inspired the Netflix original series. In San Bernardino, California, children are going missing. The townspeople don't believe the rumours of trolls, but fifteen-year-old Jim Jnr knows that they're a very real threat. At night, is anyone safe? TROLLHUNTERS is a funny, gruesome and undeniably del Toro-esque adventure perfect for teen readers and fans of Pan's Labyrinth.

"The conclusion to Daniel Kraus's saga about a murdered teen who is resurrected to walk the earth for decades to come"--

A terrifying tale of supernatural horror set in a cursed Louisiana bayou, from the minds of legendary director George Romero and bestselling author Daniel Kraus. In 2019, while sifting through University of Pittsburgh Library System’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, novelist Daniel Kraus turned up a surprise: a half-finished novel called Pay the Piper, a project few had ever heard of. In the years since, Kraus has worked with Romero’s estate to bring this unfinished masterwork to light. Alligator Point, Louisiana, population 141: Young Renée Pontiac has heard stories of “the Piper”—a murderous swamp entity haunting the bayou—her entire life. But now the legend feels horrifically real: children are being taken and gruesomely slain. To resist, Pontiac and the town’s desperate denizens will need to acknowledge the sins of their ancestors—the infamous slave traders, the Pirates Lafitte. If they don’t . . . it’s time to pay the piper. Perfect for fans of George A. Romero’s pioneering horror movies or his previous collaboration with Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead, Pay the Piper is a thrilling taleof dark folklore, grisly murders, and the horrors that manifest when a community must confront its shadowy past. Readers looking for gothic horror books will enjoy the chilling supernatural elements and haunting Southern setting, and anyone who enjoys scary books for adults will appreciatethe chance to dive into this lost work by a celebrated horror icon

Her estranged mother's death brings Kat Somerville back to Comfort Notch, New Hampshire, a home town she can barely remember. As she and her daughter Sybil try to settle into a new life, Kat discovers that sometimes home is best forgotten. WELCOME TO COMFORT NOTCH! HOME OF AMERICA'S PRETTIEST AUTUMN. YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE. Following the death of her estranged mother, Kat Somerville and her daughter, Sybil, flee a difficult life in Chicago for the quaint--and possibly pernicious--town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire. From NY Times best-selling author, Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water, Trollhunters, The Living Dead), and rising star Chris Shehan, comes a haunting vision of America's prettiest autumn. Collects the complete eight issue series. “Superb, fall-toned art plays on a recurring theme of leaves. The gripping, violent plot and the sharply drawn mother-daughter dynamic at its core are a complex combo that will easily satisfy genre fans.” --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'Bestselling Kraus makes his graphic debut with another terror-inducing narrative, brilliantly illustrated by Shehan and Wordie (lettered by Jim Campbell). The full-color, saturated visuals never slow down, the unpredictable panels constantly in motion as if unable to hold the story back. The petrifying horror won’t be contained - "She grows. She waits." ' - BOOKLIST Starred Review