Book picks similar to
Retreat by J.F. Gonzalez


horror
splatterpunk
novel
thunderstorm

Resurrection


Mike Bennett - 2013
    But when you're a member of the Flinch family, normal has never been easy.For hundreds of years, the eldest male Flinch has been servant and guardian to the vampire, Lord Underwood. While the Flinches have changed through the generations, Underwood has remained eternal. David had hoped to be spared the horror of serving his family's lord and master, but when he is summoned to the Flinch home in Spain by his dying older brother, he knows his luck has run out. After fifty years of slumber, Underwood is to be resurrected from the grave in a ritual of human sacrifice, and David, by right of succession, is to be his resurrector. But there is another Flinch, one who craves the role of guardian to the vampire: David’s sister, Lydia. It’s a job she means to have, even if it means making David’s the first blood shed in this new age of Underwood and Flinch.Winner of the Polidori Award for Best Vampire Novel 2010 and 2011.Finalist in the 2010 Parsec Awards and Winner in 2012.

The Witch's Cabin


Tim Reynolds - 2013
    What they find is a nightmare.Warning: This book contains extreme content and scenes that may be too disturbing or intense for some readers. Your discretion is advised.

Cherokee Sabre


Jamison Roberts - 2020
    While exploring, they make a wondrous discovery and find evidence of an ancient Native American legend. They soon discover that this legend is not as mythical as it may seem, and the students are soon drawn into a race for their very survival.A creature feature of a Cherokee myth, the Wampus Cat.

The Lost Boy


Noel Hynd - 1999
    For Ellen Wilder, editor of the local newspaper, the gruesome killing is as disturbing as the irrational fears that have suddenly woven themselves into her mind and left her doubting her own sanity. For state police detective Michael Chandler, whose haunting near-death experience has left him with an uncanny way of sensing things, the murder is only a hint of what is to come.But nothing could have prepared either of them for the return of Franny Corbett. A hulking child of a man and the blackest sheep in a family of black sheep, his eerie presence may have ushered in all of these bizarre and frightening events. Soon the town of Wiltshire will be shaken again. For in a car sunk beneath the surface of a glimmering blue lake, floats another body. And the killing has just begun....

Retard


Daniel I. Russell - 2015
    Back then, it was par for the course, the situation attracting only gossip and disapproval, but of course everyone was too busy to intervene..." December, 1987. Single mother Christine Stephenson watches with envy as the Birthday boy opens his present. A Fabled Four action figure. Her special son is obsessed with The Fabled Four but how could she possibly afford such a gift? Not that he deserved it. Wesley simply couldn't behave. She'd find a way, being such a good parent.

Blood Kin


Steve Rasnic Tem - 2014
    It's a dark Southern Gothic vision of ghosts, witchcraft, secret powers, snake-handling, Kudzu, Melungeons, and the Great Depression. Blood Kin is told from the dual points of view of Michael Gibson and of his grandmother Sadie. Michael has returned to the quiet Appalachian home of his forebears following a suicide attempt and now takes care of his grandmother; old and sickly but with an important story to tell about growing up poor and Melungeon (a mixed race group of mysterious origin) while bedeviled by a snake-handling uncle and empathic powers she but barely understands. In a field not far from the Gibson family home lies an iron-bound crate within a small shack buried four feet deep under Kudzu vine. Michael somehow understands that hidden inside that crate is potentially his own death, his grandmother's death, and perhaps the deaths of everyone in the valley if he does not come to understand her story well enough.

Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Casebook


Cheryl A. Wall - 2000
    Its popularity owes much to the lyricism of the prose, thepitch-perfect rendition of black vernacular English, and the memorable characters--most notably, Janie Crawford. Collecting the most widely cited and influential essays published on Hurston's classic novel over the last quarter century, this Casebook presents contesting viewpoints by Hazel Carby, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Barbara Johnson, Carla Kaplan, Daphne Lamothe, Mary Helen Washington, and Sherley Anne Williams. The volume also includes a statement Hurston submitted to a reference book on twentieth-century authors in 1942. As it records the major debates the novel has sparked on issues oflanguage and identity, feminism and racial politics, A Casebook charts new directions for future critics and affirms the classic status of the novel.

Return of the Old Ones


Brian M. SammonsChristine Morgan - 2017
    Snyder, Tim Curran, Pete Rawlik, Sam Gafford, Christine Morgan, Cody Goodfellow and many more, Return of the Old Ones: Apocalyptic Lovecraftian Horror continues the Dark Regions Weird Fiction line with 19 original stories from some of the best authors in Lovecraftian horror and weird fiction today. Return of the Old Ones will only have one signed edition (deluxe slipcased hardcover) and will feature a similar stamp design to the popular Cthulhu head stamping featured on the World War Cthulhu hardcovers. It will be signed by all contributors and will feature the original color cover artwork by Vincent Chong as color end sheets.

D.O.A. II


David C. HayesLaura J. Campbell - 2013
    The experience of this collection may be likened to getting run over by a 666-car locomotive engineered by Lucifer. This is the cream of grotesquerie's crop, a Whitman's Sampler of the heinous, and an absolutely gut-wrenching celebration of the furthest extremities of the scatological, the taboo, the unconscionable, and the blasphemous." -Edward Lee, author of THE HAUNTER OF THE THRESHOLD and THE DUNWICH ROMANCE If you thought Volume One was intense, you ain't seen nothing yet! Twenty-eight masters of the extreme contribute their most hardcore tales to the anthology that only Blood Bound Books could publish: D.O.A. II. Wrath James White, Jack Ketchum, Robert Devereaux, J.F. Gonzalez, David Quinn, Shane McKenzie, John McNee and many more. Pull back the coroner's sheet, hold your breath, and enjoy the ride. THIS IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.

It Waits on the Top Floor


Ben Farthing - 2021
    She hires a team to reverse-engineer the overnight construction. But she knows more than she’s letting on.A curious 9-year-old decides there’s treasure inside, and goes exploring. His terrified dad chases close behind.Inside, the facade of an empty office building is quickly shattered. Ghostly figures stalk the explorers. The walls themselves are hungry. And something is waiting on the top floor.

Haven


Tom Deady - 2016
    His face, disfigured from a childhood accident, seemed to confirm he was the monster the community hoped to banish. With Paul in prison, the killings stopped.For seventeen years, Haven was peaceful again. But Paul served his time and has now returned to Haven--the town where he grew up, and the scene of his alleged crimes. Paul insists he didn't commit those crimes, and several townspeople believe him including the local priest, a young boy named Denny, and his best friend Billy.Trouble is, now that Paul is back home, the bizarre killings have started again--and the patterns match the deaths from Haven's past. If Paul isn't the killer, who is?Or WHAT is? An unlikely band of adventurers attempts to uncover the truth, delving into long-hidden tunnels that might actually be inhabited by a strange, predatory creature.Haven is a compelling horror epic in the spirit of It or Summer of Night, and a stunning debut novel from a gifted author who knows that the darkest horrors lurk inside human beings, even when there is a monster on the loose.Praise for Haven;"Haven is a big, generous, Stephen King-like small town boys vs. monster epic."— Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country and A Prayer for the Dying"A wonderfully entertaining ride, reminiscent of the Creature Features of yesteryear."— Sloane Kady, author of Irreparable Deeds"Full of well-drawn characters and slow burn suspense, Tom Deady's Haven is a terrific dose of New England horror that harkens back to some of my favorite classic monster fiction from writers like Rick Hautala and Charles L. Grant. If you’re a fan of this sort of thing, you’ll know that’s damn high praise. Give it a read."— Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Snowblind and Dead Ringers"Haven is about scars, both literal and figurative; it's about second chances and broken memories. This is a great small-town horror novel—a bullet-read with deep characters and perfect pacing. Best of all, it's creepy as hell."— Rio Youers, author of Westlake Soul and Point Hollow“If coming-of-age novels with a bad-ass monster sound good to you… if mounting suspense with a true to life cast of characters peaks your interest…then Tom Deady’s HAVEN is right up your alley. Reminiscent of Charles L. Grant, HAVEN is a fun and nostalgic romp that brought me back to my own youth in small-town New England. And who doesn’t love a good monster tale?” – John McIlveen, author of HANNAHWHERE, winner of the 2015 Drunken Druid Award and Stoker Award nominee.

Into the Dread Void: A Cosmic Horror Thriller (The Dread Void Book 1)


Abe Moss - 2021
    The promise of a new start. A new life. A better life.But nothing will prepare Nell for the nightmare that awaits them there, or the many haunting revelations following fast on its heels. Everything Nell thinks she knows—about our world, our reality, and herself—is wrong, and one night of unspeakable terror will prove it.In the dead of night, a killer carves a trail of bloodshed across the quiet mountain landscape. Merciless. Unstoppable. Supernatural. Every victim is left in a similar state: on their knees, their flesh in tatters, with expressions of rapture upon their dying faces. Whatever is doing this, it's clearly not of this world, and only something—or someone—equally otherworldly can possibly stop it.Whatever—or whomever—that may be, they’d better hurry.Because Nell is running out of time.

Harvest Deep: The Descent


Trent Pettry - 2020
    Army Rangers are called in to descend into the depths and find them.A larger threat now stirs with an insatiable hunger and begins to spread rapidly—leaving scores dead or missing…But the military seeks to contain, not to kill.Armed with her dying father’s secrets, Liz, Cody, Scott and their team of rogue civilians seek another way down through an abandoned mine—and are possibly the only hope Salt Lake City has against the scourge.Harvest Deep: The Descent resumes the epic journey of a group of friends through survival, revenge, redemption, and betrayal.An intense, fast-paced, and adrenaline-pumping adventure of subterranean horror that will grip you by the throat and not let go.*Harvest Deep: The Descent is part of a series and is not a stand-alone story. For a better reader experience, one should read in order.

Devil's Day


Kyle M. Scott - 2014
     A small, sleepy town cut off from the hardships and the horrors of the modern world - Blackhaven has enjoyed a fruitful, peaceful history in it's 300 years. That's all about to change... Something is coming. Something unspeakable. Something evil. 300 years ago to the day, the founders of Blackhaven made a deal with an outside force in order to secure their comfort and safety. A deal that now, centuries later, requires payment. A deal that will see the quiet streets run red, and the fires rise. The people of Blackhaven are about to learn the true cost of sacrifice, for Hell is coming to claim what's owed. And the Devil will have his day....

The Disembodied


Anthony Hains - 2016
    He plays basketball at the Y and he’s just learning to talk to girls. But Griffin doesn’t feel normal. He’s been diagnosed with Depersonalization Disorder—he feels disconnected from his body, and at times, he doesn’t know if he’s dead or alive. And it seems to be getting worse.Following the brutal death of his abusive father, Griffin is haunted by a red-haired kid only he can see and who wants him to do things he doesn’t understand. Griffin's only sources of support are his grandfather, Soren - a regional author of Outer Banks ghost stories - and his same-aged cousin, Tanner, a boy coping with his own troubled life.When a rare blizzard strikes the Outer Banks, Griffin recognizes the red-haired boy as a vengeful specter from Soren's tales. To make matters worse, his well-meaning aunt has convinced his mother he’s under some sort of spiritual attack. Unsure if the mysterious boy is a symptom of his disorder or an entity with evil intent, Griffin finds himself in a struggle to save his life, his sanity and maybe his very soul.