Book picks similar to
I Can Taste the Blood by John F.D. Taff
horror
short-stories
anthology
ebook
Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three
Clive Barker - 1984
For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator's mind. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes: I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore.... We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen--that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing--have gone. I lost their maker a long time ago. These enthusiastic tales are not ashamed of visceral horror, of blood splashing freely across the page: "The Midnight Meat Train," a grisly subway tale that surprises you with one twist after another; "The Yattering and Jack," about a hilarious demon who possesses a Christmas turkey; "In the Hills, the Cities," an unusual example of an original horror premise; "Dread," a harrowing non-supernatural tale about being forced to realize your worst nightmare; "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," about a woman who kills men with her mind. Some of the tales are more successful than others, but all are distinguished by strikingly beautiful images of evil and destruction. No horror library is complete without them. --Fiona Webster
The Outcast Hours
Mahvesh MuradJeffrey Alan Love - 2019
Our stories take place under the sun: bright, clear, unafraid.This is not a book of those stories.These are the stories of people who live at night; under neon and starlight, and never the light of day.These are the stories of poets and police; writers and waiters; gamers and goddesses; tourists and traders; the hidden and the forbidden; the lonely and the lovers.These are their lives. These are their stories. And this is their time:The Outcast Hours.Including stories by Marina Warner, China Miéville, Frances Hardinge, Will Hill, Sally Partridge, Jesse Bullington, Jeffrey Alan Love, Kuzhali Manickavel, Amira Salah-Ahmed, Cecilia Ekbäck, Celeste Baker, Karen Onojaife, Daniel Polansky, Genevieve Valentine, Indrapramit Das, Leah Moore, Sam Beckbessinger, Sami Shah, Lauren Beukes, Dale Halvorsen, Yukimi Ogawa, Lavie Tidhar, Silvia Moreno Garcia, Genevieve Valentine, Maha Khan Phillips, William Boyle, S.L. Grey, M. Suddain, and Omar Robert Hamilton..
Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell
Nathan Ballingrud - 2019
In his first collection, North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud carved out a distinctly singular place in American fiction with his “piercing and merciless” (Toronto Globe and Mail) portrayals of the monsters that haunt our lives—both real and imagined: “What Nathan Ballingrud does in North American Lake Monsters is to reinvigorate the horror tradition” (Los Angeles Review of Books). Now, in Wounds, Ballingrud follows up with an even more confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in “The Visible Filth” to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher’s Table,” Ballingrud’s beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories
Laird Barron - 2007
P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Proboscis" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story.
Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
Ben Loory - 2011
In his singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris wheels. In a voice full of fable, myth, and dream, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination.Contains 40 stories, including "The Duck," "The Man and the Moose," and "Death and the Fruits of the Tree," as heard on NPR's This American Life, "The Book," as heard on Selected Shorts, and "The TV," as found in The New Yorker.A selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program and the Starbucks Coffee Bookish Reading Club.Winner of the 2011 Nobbie Award for Best Book of the Year."This guy can write!" –Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451
Ghastle and Yule
Josh Malerman - 2014
Gordon Ghastle and Allan Yule are promising young directors who help reshape the genre. But as their careers take off, will their need to outdo each other bring them to commit acts more macabre than what they commit to film? Told in intimate detail by their mutual cinematographer, Ghastle and Yule chronicles the rise and fall of two geniuses at the stormy height of their powers—and what happens when obsessions go too far. Josh Malerman is the author of Bird Box and the songwriter for the band the High Strung. He lives in Ferndale, Michigan with his fiancee Allison Laakko. Praise for Bird Box: "This completely compelling novel contains a thousand subtle touches but no mere flourishes- it so well, so efficiently, so directly written I read it with real admiration. Josh Malerman does the job like a fast-talking, wised-up angel." -Peter Straub "Immersive, mesmerizing, and deliciously dark- this the best kind of horror, where your imagination becomes your own worst enemy." -Jamie Ford "Chilling and beautifully told. A must-read." -Hugh Howey, bestselling author of WOOL. "Hitchcockian. A notably strong study of modern psychological terror." -USA Today "Startlingly fresh and potent." -Rue Morgue Magazine Cover design by: Adil Dara
Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft
Jennifer HenshawJack McDevitt - 2015
These visionary stories explore prediction science, quantum computing, real-time translation, machine learning, and much more. The authors used inside access to leading-edge work from Microsoft Research as inspiration, crafting pieces that predict the near-future of technology%mdash;and examine its complex relationship to our core humanity.Future Visions features contributions from: Elizabeth BearGreg BearDavid BrinNancy KressAnn LeckieJack McDevittSeanan McGuireRobert J. Sawyer…along with a short graphic novel by Blue Delliquanti and Michele Rosenthal, plus original illustrations by Joey Camacho.These are some of today’s most visionary creators—and they’ve joined together to give us a preview of tomorrow.
Dark Duets
Christopher GoldenDavid Liss - 2014
Edited by Christopher Golden, it features an extraordinary lineup of collaborative stories, with the authors of each story collaborating for the very first time. And here they are! -TRIP TRAP by Sherrilyn Kenyon & Kevin J. Anderson -WELDED by Tom Piccirilli & T.M. Wright -DARK WITNESS by Charlaine Harris & Rachel Caine -REPLACING MAX by Stuart MacBride & Allan Guthrie -T. RHYMER by Gregory Frost & Jonathan Maberry -SHE, DOOMED GIRL by Sarah MacLean & Carrie Ryan -HAND JOB by Chelsea Cain & Lidia Yuknavitch -HOLLOW CHOICES by Robert Jackson Bennett & David Liss -AMUSE-BOUCHE by Amber Benson & Jeffrey J. Mariotte -BRANCHES, CURVING by Tim Lebbon & Michael Marshall Smith -RENASCENCE by Rhodi Hawk and F. Paul Wilson -BLIND LOVE by Kasey Lansdale & Joe R. Lansdale -TRAPPER BOY by Holly Newstein & Rick Hautala -STEWARD OF THE BLOOD by Nate Kenyon & James A. Moore -CALCULATING ROUTE by Michael Koryta & Jeffrey David Greene -SISTERS BEFORE MISTERS by Sarah Rees Brennan, Cassandra Clare, and Holly Black -SINS LIKE SCARLET by Mark Morris & Rio Youers
A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror
John Hornor Jacobs - 2019
P. Lovecraft, The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky examines life in a South American dictatorship. Centered on the journal of a poet-in-exile and his failed attempts at translating a maddening text, it is told by a young woman trying to come to grips with a country that nearly devoured itself.In My Heart Struck Sorrow, a librarian discovers a recording from the Deep South—which may be the musical stylings of the Devil himself.Breathtaking and haunting, A Lush and Seething Hell is a terrifying and exhilarating journey into the darkness, an odyssey into the deepest reaches of ourselves that compels us to confront secrets best left hidden.
Bend
K. Bromberg - 2014
Reiss
UnRaveled
by K. Bromberg
Come
by J.A. Huss
Red & Wolfe
by Ella James
The Devil In Me
by K.I. Lynn
Worth
by Shay Savage
These Men
by Andrea SmithSTILL by Alessandra TorreKick by C.D. ReissThe first novella in Songs of PerditionFiona Drazen, sex addict, submissive slave, celebutante, trapped in a mental ward until Dr. Elliot Chapman can help her remember why she's there. But once she does, she might not want to go home to the Master she tried to kill.***************************************************************Unraveled by K. BrombergOne night.One mistake.Filled with fear.Sated by pleasure.Robbed of control.Blindfolded and bound.Shamed she liked it.Doomed to want it.Limits tested.Boundaries pushed.Desire awakened.Inhibition unleashed.An identity unraveled.Lives changed forever.***************************************************************COME by J.A. HussHe must have her, take her, control her, keep her. She will submit. But she will do it when she is ready and willing. The bond is uneasy and the future uncertain. But one thing’s for sure.Alone… Harper and James are dangerous.Together… they are unstoppable.***************************************************************Red & Wolfe by Ella JamesAfter years attempting to contact her estranged grandmother, an artist who lives on a remote island, Sarah “Red” Ryder is surprised to receive an invitation. When she arrives at the island, she’s shocked to find it is now the home of J. Wolfe, the reclusive artist, who has his own plans for her.***************************************************************The Devil in Me by K.I. LynnIn search of strength and guidance at a nearby church, Jared happens upon a temptation. One he cannot hope to resist. Each time he sees her, the overwhelming urge to have her consumes him. The lust is overpowering, dragging him deeper and deeper with each encounter, exposing the devil within.***************************************************************Worth by Shay SavageAn injured Roman Tribunus finds comfort in the touch of the slave commanded to tend to his wounds. As a slave, her value is measured as a couple of coins, but as Tribunus Faustus learns more about her, he begins to understand her true worth.Still, a man of his station can never acknowledge feelings for a slave, and she is already owned by another man.***************************************************************These Men by Andrea SmithPaige Matthews has a lot to learn, and more than just about being an intern with the F.B.I. Inexperience with all types of relationships leaves her looking for a new place to live. Eli Chambers and his partner, Cain Maddox, are looking for a roommate. It's the perfect arrangement, but one that will change all their lives forever.***************************************************************STILL by Alessandra TorreI was raised right. To mind my manners, keep my knees together, to put my napkin in my lap. But somehow, with one look at the dark sexuality that is Brett Jacobs, I forgot my Southern graces. They may have gotten lost in the pushmeupagainstthewall and takemehere action that occurred. In the clothes-ripping ohmygod action that followed. They may have, along with my sanity and common sense, deserted me, leaving me with bruised lips, ripped panties, and multiple orgasms.***************************************************************This set will only be available for a limited time, so get it before it disappears.
Madhouse
Miguel Estrada - 2017
Faced with his parents’s divorce, eleven-year-old Lucas runs away from his house with the hope that his family will get back together to find him. On his way walking through the empty streets, he is picked up by a mysterious woman who offers to take care of him and provide him with a loving family. The boy then wakes up in shackles, confined to a bed in a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere and will have to face his deepest fears in order to survive in his new home. Join Lucas in a desperate attempt to get back to his family in Madhouse, the first published book from horror-thriller author Miguel Estrada.
Billionaire Ever After
Margo Bond CollinsCaitlyn Lynch - 2017
Feel the sparks fly off the hot romance and action-driven pages of these EXCLUSIVE TITLES—unavailable separately in ebook format anywhere else!From sweet to sensual, they’ll satisfy your most indulgent fantasies as you fall in love with an array of billionaire beaus in this contemporary romance collection by some of today’s hottest New York Times, USA Today, and International bestselling authors.Quench your book-boyfriend addiction with page-turning stories overflowing with decadent luxury, heart-warming love, heated adventure, steamy scenes, and happily-ever-afters.Featuring billionaires from bad boys to Marines and CEOs to cowboys, this set will take you around the country and jet-setting around the globe with intense, passionate men who always get what they want and fulfill the desires of the women they crave.Relish each journey in this LIMITED-TIME collection PACKED with novels and novellas that will provide over one hundred hours of reading. Grab your copy today before these hot billionaires fly off into the sunset!
Rogues
George R.R. MartinCarrie Vaughn - 2014
Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is filled with subtle shades of gray. Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R.R. Martin himself offers a brand-new A Game of Thrones tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire history of Ice and Fire.Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, and Connie Willis, as well as other masters of literary sleight-of-hand, in this rogues gallery of stories that will plunder your heart — and yet leave you all the richer for it.Contents:- Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie (a Red Country story)- What Do You Do? (aka The Grownup) by Gillian Flynn- The Inn of the Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes- Bent Twig by Joe R. Lansdale (a Hap and Leonard story)- Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick- Provenance by David Ball- The Roaring Twenties by Carrie Vaughn- A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch- Bad Brass by Bradley Denton- Heavy Metal by Cherie Priest- The Meaning of Love by Daniel Abraham- A Better Way to Die by Paul Cornell (a Jonathan Hamilton story)- Ill Seen in Tyre by Steven Saylor- A Cargo of Ivories by Garth Nix (a Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz story)- Diamonds From Tequila by Walter Jon Williams (a Dagmar story)- The Caravan to Nowhere by Phyllis Eisenstein (a Tales of Alaric the Minstrel story)- The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives by Lisa Tuttle- How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman (a Neverwhere story)- Now Showing by Connie Willis- The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss (a Kingkiller Chronicle story)- The Rogue Prince, or, A King’s Brother by George R.R. Martin (a Song of Ice and Fire story)
Australia
Skye WarrenWillow Aster - 2020
Each piece was written for this anthology to benefit firefighters and wildlife in Australia. AUSTRALIA is only available for a limited time, so one-click your copy before it's gone.AUTHORS INCLUDE: Penny Reid, Meredith Wild, Carly Phillips, Sierra Simone, Emma Scott, Susan Stoker, Kennedy Ryan, Willow Aster, Skye Warren, Kylie Scott, Aleatha Romig, Willow Winters, AL Jackson, Julia Kent, Rebecca Yarros, Tijan, Giana Darling, Emma Hart, Chelle Bliss, Noelle Adams, A. Zavarelli, Jenika Snow, Dylan Allen, Audrey Carlan, Robin Covington, Mary Catherine Gebhard, Melanie Moreland, Parker S. Huntington, Nana Malone, Jewel E. Ann, Annabel Joseph, Celia Aaron, Michelle Heard, Brighton Walsh, Tamsen Parker, Pam Godwin, Kayti McGeeAll royalties from this project will be donated to relief funds in Australia, with 50% going to a firefighter charity and 50% going to a wildlife charity. We aren't affiliated or endorsed by these charities. We are simply authors who want to support an important cause.