Stephen Graham Jones takes familiar horror tropes—zombies, camping mishaps, damaged children—and intertwines them with the dark forces of human nature to create unique and unforgettable short fiction. These thirteen tales run the gamut, immersing you in worlds you think you’ve seen before, but with outcomes you’ll never see coming.

In “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit,” a dad and his child are lost in a snowstorm and learn what the true cost of survival is. A snake-oil salesman makes his way across Arizona territory, peddling his wares to unsuspecting customers—and leaving ghost towns in his wake—in “Lonegan’s Luck.” While in “Raphael,” four twelve-year-old outcasts, seemingly invisible to everyone around them, make up a “scare” club, pushing themselves further and further into the unthinkable.

As Laird Barron says in his introduction, “The Ones Who Got Away is a slippery collection; it resists and gnaws at the bonds of genre, yet may be the most pure horror book I’ve come across.”

Jump in and hold on for your life . . .