Book picks similar to
The Coldwater Haunting by Michael Richan
horror
haunted-house
horror-ghosts-hauntings
abandoned
Through a Glass, Darkly
Bill Hussey - 2008
But these are more than nightmares — they are visions of the future that Jack has tried for years to suppress. Something happened to Jack in his childhood — something that means he cannot touch another living person and something that killed his mother—and this something has returned to inspire his visions. In a final race against time, Jack attempts to save a boy’s life in the clearing of Redgrave Forest. Can he face the long-dead Dr. Mendicant and the ancient Darkness of Crowman? Can he face the evil living inside himself? And what will he make of the Doctor’s final, devastating revelation?
The Coffin Path
Katherine Clements - 2018
For fans of Michelle Paver and Sarah Waters, this gothic tale will weave its way into your imagination and chill you to the bone.Maybe you've heard tales about Scarcross Hall, the house on the old coffin path that winds from village to moor top. They say there's something up here, something evil.Mercy Booth isn't afraid. The moors and Scarcross are her home and lifeblood. But, beneath her certainty, small things are beginning to trouble her. Three ancient coins missing from her father's study, the shadowy figure out by the gatepost, an unshakeable sense that someone is watching.When a stranger appears seeking work, Mercy reluctantly takes him in. As their stories entwine, this man will change everything. She just can't see it yet.
The Seance in Apartment 10
Ambrose Ibsen - 2017
The faucet leaks, the water heater barely functions and the lack of air conditioning makes the summer nights brutal... But worst of all is the dark presence that stalks the building. When she and her friends play around with a Ouija board, Tori learns first-hand why the living have no business communing with the dead. Something sinister is roused in the process, and her life begins to spiral into madness soon thereafter. She suffers terrible nightmares, hallucinations, and feels as though she's being watched at all hours of the day. And that's only the beginning. If the spirit has its way, it'll consume her completely. With a terrifying specter on her trail and only a few cryptic clues about the building's curious past to aid her, Tori searches desperately for a way to get rid of the spirit. What has escaped from the underworld will not go back so easily, however.
The Niece of His Highland Enemy
Alisa Adams - 2021
Laird Fergus Brodie has just suffered a terrible and unexpected defeat, but even so, he can not leave a poor lass helpless.Fergus takes Moire, who is half-conscious, with his ship across the Highlands to the Isle of Skye, where his clan resides. When they settle in, Fergus feels like he has a scared animal in his room who can trust no one! Fergus is torn by his defeat, and taking care of Moire works as a therapy; If the lass can recover from her horrible past and forget the pain, maybe he can forget the man who caused him so much anger and shame.But as the days go by, the word revenge echoes louder and louder in his head, and the name of “Ronald Campbell” burns his soul like hellfire. Trying to focus his thoughts elsewhere, as Moire is getting better, he tries to learn more about her. The girl has lost her parents and does not know where most of her siblings are, but Fergus admires that she is still vigorous. All she has now, Moire says, is her uncle and protector, Ronald Campbell...As soon as Fergus hears that Moire is one of the Campbells, he makes unholy thoughts. The lass deserves nothing but rest and safety, but what if he can use her to get close to Laird Campbell and get his revenge? This will be a huge risk, but Fergus is prepared to die rather than disappoint his people and live his life in shame. He only promises not to harm Moire in the process.The two begin the journey back to Moire’s home, but Fergus is not prepared for what he will encounter. The Campbell clan is suffering under the rule of Ronald, and Fergus feels that he must take this man down not only for his clan but also to save the Campbells too. The only problem is that he is now caring for the lass too much, and fate will make him decide between completing his plan and saving Moire.
The Small Hand
Susan Hill - 2010
Compelled by curiosity, he approaches the door, and, standing before the entrance feels the unmistakable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'.Intrigued by the encounter, he determines to learn more, and discovers that the owner's grandson had drowned tragically many years before. At first unperturbed by the odd experience, Snow begins to be plagued by haunting dreams, panic attacks, and more frequent visits from the small hand which become increasingly threatening and sinister ...
The Last Days of Jack Sparks
Jason Arnopp - 2016
No stranger to controversy, he'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed.Then there was that video: forty seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet was posted from his own YouTube account.Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed - until now.
The Stronger Half
Jeff Coleman - 2018
It was after his identical twin Bill suffered the traumatic brain injury that left him crippled and unable to speak. George would see the man sitting on a bench at the mall, or at the store standing by the magazines. But he never seemed to notice George, not even when he tried to communicate. Twenty years later, after dropping out of college to care for Bill, George has become a junior high school janitor. Between his struggling with debt, working a physically demanding job, and taking care of Bill’s needs, life has not been easy. But George doesn’t know the meaning of difficult until the man finally acknowledges him, triggering a terrifying series of supernatural events that leaves George and Bill running for their lives. And as George struggles to protect his twin from an otherworldly evil, he discovers a startling secret about Bill—one that leaves him questioning decades-old assumptions and wondering which of them truly is the stronger half.
Hex
Thomas Olde Heuvelt - 2013
Whoever settles, never leaves. Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear. The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past. This chilling novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.
You Are Invited
Sarah A. Denzil - 2020
Irene Jobert is the most famous influencer in the world, and now Cath will be one of the five participants chosen to stay with Irene in a renovated Transylvanian monastery.The catch? Their every move will be live-streamed to millions of people around the world. Patrons pay for constant access to their favourite social media stars: Irene, the model; Nathan, the gamer; Jules, the blogger; Daniel, the fitness guru; and Cath, the writer.Nestled halfway up a mountain, the five are isolated, with nothing but the internet to connect them to the world. That is,until eagle-eyed live-stream followers all around the globe notice a sixth participant. A dark figure lurking in the background.They thought they were alone. Perhaps they were wrong.
It Will Just Be Us
Jo Kaplan - 2020
Its labyrinthine halls, built by her mad ancestors, are filled with echoes of the past: ghosts and memories knotted together as one. In the presence of phantoms, it's all Sam can do to disentangle past from present in her daily life. But when her pregnant sister Elizabeth moves in after a fight with her husband, something in the house shifts. Already navigating her tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth, Sam is even more unsettled by the appearance of a new ghost: a faceless boy who commits disturbing acts—threatening animals, terrorizing other children, and following Sam into the depths of the house wielding a knife. When it becomes clear the boy is connected to a locked, forgotten room, one which is never entered, Sam realizes this ghost is not like the others. This boy brings doom. As Elizabeth's due date approaches, Sam must unravel the mysteries of Wakefield before her sister brings new life into a house marked by death. But as the faceless boy grows stronger, Sam will learn that some doors should stay closed—and some secrets are safer locked away forever.
White Smoke
Tiffany D. Jackson - 2021
Jackson!Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its . . . secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone.But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right?As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.
The Haunting of RedRise House
Caroline Clark - 2017
Acts so bad they left a stain on the soul of the building. Now something is lurking there... waiting... dare you enter this most haunted house? Rosie is running from her past. Looking for peace and a new beginning. House sitting in the luxurious and romantic RedRise House seemed like a perfect plan to rediscover herself and rebuild her life. It is so far away from the past that she knows she can look to the future and yet something is not quite right. She hears voices, footsteps in the night. She wakes from terrible nightmares. Strange figures stare down at her bed with hidden faces--was it all just a dream? Then there are the ghostly children. Are they all part of her imagination or did something terrible happen here? Like animals, the children fight for her blood. Will they get it or is something darker waiting and watching for its chance to escape? Find out if Rosie will ever leave RedRise house or if she will join the children to stay in this haunted house for all time.
Pine
Francine Toon - 2020
The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone. In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago. Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust. In spare, haunting prose, Francine Toon creates an unshakeable atmosphere of desolation and dread. In a place that feels like the end of the world, she unites the gloom of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.
Girls of Brackenhill
Kate Moretti - 2020
It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.