From the late ’80s through the early 2000s, Christopher Pike wrote around 50 books to entertain and scare teenagers. Before he was a bestselling author of young adult and children’s fiction, Pike (whose real name is Kevin Christopher McFadden) had dropped out of college and worked various jobs like house painting and computer programming.

Turning to writing, his earliest efforts was in adult mystery and science fiction, then he moved on to teen thrillers based on a suggestion from his editor. Pike’s first work in this new genre was 1985’s Slumber Party, about a group of teens who are faced with violent events during a ski weekend. It was an instant hit and launched his successful career.

He had two books published a year later and by 1990, another four books. Throughout the ’90s, Pike wrote two dozen thrillers for young adults, including Bury Me Deep, Monster, The Immortal, The Visitor, and The Grave. His popular series have included Chain Letter, Final Friends, Remember Me, and The Last Vampire.

Outside of teen fiction, he wrote books for a younger audience, such as the Spooksville series, which added another two dozen books that were published in the mid-’90s. Among his adult novels was the 1990 hit Sati.

Pike became popular at the same time as Goosebumps and Fear Street author R.L. Stine, though his books were often considered more mature. It’s been noted that Pike’s books are the segue between Stine’s books aimed at those in the early teens and Stephen King’s horror for adults.

Jumping to the small screen, Pike’s novel Fall Into Darkness was adapted into a TV movie in 1996, starring Jonathan Brandis of SeaQuest 2032 and Tatyana Ali from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It was recently announced that Pike’s The Midnight Club has been picked up for a series on Netflix. The spooky book is about a group of terminally ill teenagers at a hospice who gather at midnight to tell scary stories and make a pact that whichever of them dies first will try to contact the others from beyond the grave.

With the show’s announcement, it’s likely that Pike’s popular books of the ’80s and ’90s are clearing off shelf space to scare a new generation of readers.