Playing in the Dark & Other Stories
13 Tales · Cover Art by Matt Seff Barnes
Hey everyone! I just wanted to drop by to remind you I have a new collection releasing on 10/23/2026! Playing In The Dark & Other Stories is a collection of 13 tales with something for everyone, and you can preorder it so it will show up just in time for Halloween! Check out the amazing cover art by Matt Seff Barnes and the book's synopsis.
- A cursed swing creaking in the night.
- A grieving son cooks up a plan to avenge his neglected mother.
- A boy lured from his abusive home by a stranger who promises he'll never need to grow up.
- A scout troop chasing the rainbow to its end… only to find something waiting that should never be found.
In Playing in the Dark and Other Stories, John Durgin delivers thirteen chilling tales where grief festers into terror and innocence is devoured by the horrors lingering just beyond the light. From haunted woods to disease spreading bugs, each story pulls you deeper into the shadows.
Are you ready to play in the dark?
Latest Updates
I Woke Up
a Final Girl
Wow, what a first week! Thank you all so much for the support right out of the gate on this book. It has by far been my most successful launch, and I'm extremely grateful for it. The book is currently #1 in American Horror paperback new releases, and top 5 overall in the category! It's #2 in multiple Kindle categories as well, and already has almost 100 reviews on Goodreads in less than a week!!
I'm also thrilled with how well received it has been so far, averaging almost 4.5 out of 5 stars. I've always wanted to write a slasher, and I hope the fun I had writing it bleeds onto the page. For those of you unaware of the synopsis, check it out below. And for those who have read it already, please PLEASE leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. It is crucial to early success. Thank you!
A pulse-pounding slasher horror novel from bestseller John Durgin that subverts every trope in the book.
Fight back or flatline.
Sabrina Campbell wakes up in a pool of someone else's blood. She's in the Hensley house, a disgusting, ramshackle building. She knows its horrific past but has no memory of hers, and now the doors are sealed and the windows barricaded, the gloomy halls whispering with the echoes of a decades old massacre.
As Sabrina searches for her missing friends and the medication keeping her heart beating, she discovers she is not alone. A ghoulish, masked figure stalks her from the shadows and pushes her to the edge of her physical limits. She must stay calm, think fast, and evade a killer who wants the past remembered — one victim at a time.
Not everything from the past should be remembered, but the house — the house remembers everything.
I Woke Up a Final Girl, by bestseller John Durgin, is a pulse-pounding survival horror that subverts every trope in the book. Perfect for fans of classic slashers with a high-stakes, medical twist.
- Award-Nominated Author
- Amazon Bestseller
- Crystal Lake Publishing
- Wicked House Publishing
- 13 Published Works
- New Hampshire Horror
