The New York City subway system is a pretty safe place in real life. Not so, in the realms of horror and fantasy. Check out these tales of terror and magic set in the underworld of the Big Apple.
7. Awakened
by James S. Murray, Darren Wearmouth
A grand opening gala celebrating a new subway expansion slips into chaos when it is revealed that the excavation has roused a subterranean horror unlike anything humanity has ever seen. Miles beneath the surface of the Earth, an unexpected fight for survival begins.
6. Survive the Night
by Danielle Vega
Casey and her friends thought that they were going underground for a rave, but now they’re trapped in the dark with something that is trying to kill them. Can they survive the night?
5. The Lesser Dead
by Christopher Buehlman
It’s 1978 in New York City — a perfect time and place for a vampire like Joey Peacock. At least, it was until the night that Joey saw the twinkle-eyed child bloodsuckers for the first time. They’re different from Joey and the other vampires that call the city’s subway system home; dangerous, too. For the first time in their un-lives, these predators will know what it feels like to be prey.
4. The Manhattan Hunt Club
by John Saul
College student Jeff Converse retreats to the subterranean world beneath New York City’s streets after he is accused of a crime he did not commit. He finds refuge among this the misfits and madmen who call the miles of dark tunnels their home, unaware that someone else is using them as a private hunting preserve.
3. Zone One
by Colson Whitehead
The zombie apocalypse came and went, and now it’s time to get the country back on its feet again. Mark Spitz is one of a crew of government employees tasked with ridding Manhattan of lingering zombies following a massive Marine Corp offensive. While Zone One takes place all Manhattan, Mark and the rest of the cleaners have to venture into the subway system during the events of the novel.
2. Clive Barker’s Books of Blood 1-3
by Clive Barker
There’s a lot of great reasons to read Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, but at the very least, check out “The Midnight Meat Train”: the story of a man who crosses paths with a serial killer who stalks the New York subway system. It’s a gruesome thriller with a supernatural twist that will leave you wondering just what lurks in the forgotten tunnels beneath the streets.
1. Enclave
by Ann Aguirre
When war destroyed New York City, the survivors fled to the tunnels. Now their descendants live in tribal societies of hunters and explorers. After two young people discover that a nearby enclave has been destroyed by hostile tunnel mutants, they’re banished from their own tribe — practically a death sentence in the harsh world of New York.
