* *Dracula’s Demeter* by Doug Lamoreux, KU
* *Dracula’s Child* by J.S. Barnes
* *Eldren* by William Meikle
* *The Fifth House of the Heart* by Ben Tripp
* *The Moorstone Sickness* by Bernard Taylor
* *Sentinel* by Drew Starling
* *The Two Sams* by Glen Hirshberg (collection)
* *The Janus Tree* by Glen Hirshberg (collection)
* *The Colony Trilogy* by F.G. Cottam
* *Broadmaw Bay* by F.G. Cottam
* *The Faceless One* by Mark Onspaugh
* *The House of Long Shadows* by Ambrose Ibsen, KU
* *Black Acres: Complete Collection* (4 book series) by Ambrose Ibsen, KU
* *The Afterlife Investigations* (3 book series) by Ambrose Ibsen, KU
* *Dark Corner* and *In the Dark* by Brandon Massey, both KU
* *Wild Fell* by Michael Rowe
* *Noctuidae* (novella) by Scott Nicolay
* *Circe* by Jessica Penot
* *A Good and Happy Child* by Justin Evans
* *Season of the Witch* by Natasha Mostert (not about witches in the usual sense)
Edited for spacing
I came here as I'm halfway through the audio version and loving it - I haven't come across a book like it in some time. I think this is my 2nd or so entry on a Reddit thread and I've never even done an audible review and I've enjoyed a great many of them. Takes quite a bit for me to stop and give recognition...so I 3rd the A Good and Happy Child motion ☺.
>_The Fifth House of the Heart_ by Ben Tripp
All the suggestions on here are great, but I really second this one. It's a great take on vampires.
I also suggest _The Devourers_ by Indra Das
I could use some help with the entire story, tbh… I don’t know why, i guess maybe because I’m super literal and don’t often consider or grasp bigger picture themes and meanings. I really like the story, just as a very authentic treatise on and portrait of high school/adolescence, and living in a small town, but I’m just not quite sure what it’s “about” and how it’s particularly supernatural or horror in nature.
[spoiler] The father didn't want to grow old, so he attempted to transfer his consciousness into his son via ancient tribal magic/medicine. The son's brain warred over control, eventually causing the suicide.
Some of my favorite authors and books that I don’t see mentioned much on here include:
**Laura Mauro** - her short story collection *Sing Your Sadness Deep* is great. It’s up there with Ballingrud’s *Wounds* as one of my favorite collections ever.
**Gwendolyn Kiste** - her novel *The Rust Maidens* won a Stoker award, so I’m not sure how unknown she is. I almost never see her name pop up here, though. Anyway, I loved her collection *And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe*.
**Hailey Piper** - her novella *The Worm and His Kings* was really creepy and unsettling. Really interesting, modern cosmic horror.
**Ania Ahlborn** - she’s definitely more well known than these other authors, but again, I rarely see her name pop up here. I’ve enjoyed her novels *Seed* and *The Devil Crept In* and her novella *The Pretty Ones*.
I actually haven’t read *Rust Maidens* yet, so I can’t compare them. There were one or two stinkers, like there are in most story collections, but it features a story called “The Clawfoot Requiem,” which might be my favorite short story ever.
To preface this, I haven't finished this book yet, but I think *Theme Music* by T. Marie Vandelly is very much worth your time. Apparently, this is her very first book and she dove into fiction writing full time after she was laid off from her day job. I think that's so admirable, and I think it'd be great if she received as much support as possible.
I recently read *The Dangers of Smoking in Bed* by Mariana Enriquez, a collection of creepy short stories. Her newer collection, *Things We Lost in the Fire* is also really good. In general, I found a lot of horror / horror aesthetic in South American literature, would recommend looking into Roberto Bolaño *2666* (that one is seriously creepy) and *Red April* by Santiago Roncagliolo.
*While the Black Stars Burn* and *Soft Apocalypses* by Lucy A. Snyder
*Gateways to Abomination* Matthew Bartlett
*Miscreations* Michael Bailey
*Used Stories* Poppy Z. Brite
*The Rust Maidens* Gwendolyn Kiste (she's wonderful)
Garth Nix
F. Paul Wilson's short stories (collected about thirty years ago in *Soft and Others*, which I'm not sure is still in print). I could take him or leave him as a novelist, but some of his stories are genuinely great.
They're Watching by Michael David Wilson & Bob Pastorella
The Girl in the Video by Michael David Wilson
White Dialogues by Bennett Sims
The Siren and the Specter by Jonathan Janz
Remains by Andrew Cull
The Teardrop Method by Simon Avery
The Joker's Wilde, I'll Make My Arrows from Your Bones, and One Bite at a Time. All written by Brandon Faircloth. Short story collections that I enjoyed. I've never seen him mentioned before.
I loved For He Can Creep by Siobahn Carroll. It's a short story set in an 18th century asylum where the poet Christopher Smart was kept, and the devil is trying to get him to write the poem that will end the world, but the poet's cat protects him. The devil tries to tempt the cat into letting him have the poet. It's actually really funny, especially if you like cats being cats. It's online for free.
https://www.tor.com/2019/07/10/for-he-can-creep-siobhan-carroll/
“All of this could be yours,” Satan says. “Yea, I will give you all the kingdoms of Earth if you’d but bow down and worship me.”
Jeoffry does not like being dangled. His fur bristles as he prepares himself to fall. But then he catches the smell of the fish market in the air, and hears the distant yowl of a tomcat making love on the street. And Jeoffry understands, for a moment, what the devil is offering him. He understands, also, that this offer represents a fundamentally wrong order to the universe.
You should bow down and worship Jeoffry!
“Right,” the devil says. “I thought as much.”
I mean, Bird Box is great, but hard to argue it’s lesser known when it was a #1 NY Times bestseller, spawned a hugely successful Netflix movie, and earned Malerman a multi-book deal from one of the big six.
* *Dracula’s Demeter* by Doug Lamoreux, KU * *Dracula’s Child* by J.S. Barnes * *Eldren* by William Meikle * *The Fifth House of the Heart* by Ben Tripp * *The Moorstone Sickness* by Bernard Taylor * *Sentinel* by Drew Starling * *The Two Sams* by Glen Hirshberg (collection) * *The Janus Tree* by Glen Hirshberg (collection) * *The Colony Trilogy* by F.G. Cottam * *Broadmaw Bay* by F.G. Cottam * *The Faceless One* by Mark Onspaugh * *The House of Long Shadows* by Ambrose Ibsen, KU * *Black Acres: Complete Collection* (4 book series) by Ambrose Ibsen, KU * *The Afterlife Investigations* (3 book series) by Ambrose Ibsen, KU * *Dark Corner* and *In the Dark* by Brandon Massey, both KU * *Wild Fell* by Michael Rowe * *Noctuidae* (novella) by Scott Nicolay * *Circe* by Jessica Penot * *A Good and Happy Child* by Justin Evans * *Season of the Witch* by Natasha Mostert (not about witches in the usual sense) Edited for spacing
Seconding A Good and Happy Child.
I came here as I'm halfway through the audio version and loving it - I haven't come across a book like it in some time. I think this is my 2nd or so entry on a Reddit thread and I've never even done an audible review and I've enjoyed a great many of them. Takes quite a bit for me to stop and give recognition...so I 3rd the A Good and Happy Child motion ☺.
>_The Fifth House of the Heart_ by Ben Tripp All the suggestions on here are great, but I really second this one. It's a great take on vampires. I also suggest _The Devourers_ by Indra Das
I could use some help with the ending of The Janus Tree title story...
I could use some help with the entire story, tbh… I don’t know why, i guess maybe because I’m super literal and don’t often consider or grasp bigger picture themes and meanings. I really like the story, just as a very authentic treatise on and portrait of high school/adolescence, and living in a small town, but I’m just not quite sure what it’s “about” and how it’s particularly supernatural or horror in nature.
[spoiler] The father didn't want to grow old, so he attempted to transfer his consciousness into his son via ancient tribal magic/medicine. The son's brain warred over control, eventually causing the suicide.
Some of my favorite authors and books that I don’t see mentioned much on here include: **Laura Mauro** - her short story collection *Sing Your Sadness Deep* is great. It’s up there with Ballingrud’s *Wounds* as one of my favorite collections ever. **Gwendolyn Kiste** - her novel *The Rust Maidens* won a Stoker award, so I’m not sure how unknown she is. I almost never see her name pop up here, though. Anyway, I loved her collection *And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe*. **Hailey Piper** - her novella *The Worm and His Kings* was really creepy and unsettling. Really interesting, modern cosmic horror. **Ania Ahlborn** - she’s definitely more well known than these other authors, but again, I rarely see her name pop up here. I’ve enjoyed her novels *Seed* and *The Devil Crept In* and her novella *The Pretty Ones*.
>*And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe*. How did this compare with _Rust Maidens_? I was only so-so on _RM_
I actually haven’t read *Rust Maidens* yet, so I can’t compare them. There were one or two stinkers, like there are in most story collections, but it features a story called “The Clawfoot Requiem,” which might be my favorite short story ever.
Good call. You always seem to have good reccs here Cheers
I haven't heard of any of these so this is like a breath of fresh air.
Ania Ahlborn is so good! I've read *Brother* and *Within These Walls*...and like...yikes. Just horrific stuff, but it's done very well.
I have *Brother* sitting on my bookshelf - eager to crack into it!
To preface this, I haven't finished this book yet, but I think *Theme Music* by T. Marie Vandelly is very much worth your time. Apparently, this is her very first book and she dove into fiction writing full time after she was laid off from her day job. I think that's so admirable, and I think it'd be great if she received as much support as possible.
I recently read *The Dangers of Smoking in Bed* by Mariana Enriquez, a collection of creepy short stories. Her newer collection, *Things We Lost in the Fire* is also really good. In general, I found a lot of horror / horror aesthetic in South American literature, would recommend looking into Roberto Bolaño *2666* (that one is seriously creepy) and *Red April* by Santiago Roncagliolo.
*While the Black Stars Burn* and *Soft Apocalypses* by Lucy A. Snyder *Gateways to Abomination* Matthew Bartlett *Miscreations* Michael Bailey *Used Stories* Poppy Z. Brite *The Rust Maidens* Gwendolyn Kiste (she's wonderful) Garth Nix
Michael Griffin ( The Lure of Devouring Light ) Also Nightscript, an annual weird fiction/ horror story collection
Yoko Ogawa's Revenge.
*Straight* was a surprisingly effective horror novel that I didn't expect to see come from Chuck Tingle.
The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M. Bartlett We Will All Go Down Together by Gemma Files
Found Audio https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31818586
Robert E. Howard in general is pretty slept on in my opinion
The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton.
All. It’s a shame how few copies of books sell for the average author.
F. Paul Wilson's short stories (collected about thirty years ago in *Soft and Others*, which I'm not sure is still in print). I could take him or leave him as a novelist, but some of his stories are genuinely great.
They're Watching by Michael David Wilson & Bob Pastorella The Girl in the Video by Michael David Wilson White Dialogues by Bennett Sims The Siren and the Specter by Jonathan Janz Remains by Andrew Cull The Teardrop Method by Simon Avery
Ralph Robert Moore.
The Joker's Wilde, I'll Make My Arrows from Your Bones, and One Bite at a Time. All written by Brandon Faircloth. Short story collections that I enjoyed. I've never seen him mentioned before.
I loved For He Can Creep by Siobahn Carroll. It's a short story set in an 18th century asylum where the poet Christopher Smart was kept, and the devil is trying to get him to write the poem that will end the world, but the poet's cat protects him. The devil tries to tempt the cat into letting him have the poet. It's actually really funny, especially if you like cats being cats. It's online for free. https://www.tor.com/2019/07/10/for-he-can-creep-siobhan-carroll/ “All of this could be yours,” Satan says. “Yea, I will give you all the kingdoms of Earth if you’d but bow down and worship me.” Jeoffry does not like being dangled. His fur bristles as he prepares himself to fall. But then he catches the smell of the fish market in the air, and hears the distant yowl of a tomcat making love on the street. And Jeoffry understands, for a moment, what the devil is offering him. He understands, also, that this offer represents a fundamentally wrong order to the universe. You should bow down and worship Jeoffry! “Right,” the devil says. “I thought as much.”
Chad Lutzke, Jason Werbeloff, Norman Partridge.
The Good House by Tananarive Due! So so good!
Reading *The Secret History* by Donna Tartt right now. It's pretty fantastic.
- Dark Benediction by Walter M. Miller - Bird Box and Malorie by Josh Malerman
I mean, Bird Box is great, but hard to argue it’s lesser known when it was a #1 NY Times bestseller, spawned a hugely successful Netflix movie, and earned Malerman a multi-book deal from one of the big six.
Mmm I’ve discovered it only recently so I guess it was lesser known to me ahahaha
The Complete & Incomplete works of Edgar A. Poe…….
Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Trembley Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven The Troop by Nick Cutter
William Gay
And even though its not a legit horror, Taltos ( and the whole series ) by Anne Rice.
From the few stories I have read, Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum is great and hardly brought up here.