Book picks similar to
Blood Sacrifices by Brian Moreland


horror
horror-after-dark
novella-collection
for-review

Skeleton Run


John L. DeBoer - 2015
    Ever since, they’ve guarded the secret that would’ve ruined their lives and destroyed their future careers. But when one of them succumbs to illness, a blackmailer makes contact, and the survivors realize that, somehow, someone else knows. Now, everything that matters to them is at stake.Las Vegas billionaire Wendell Logan is pursuing the role of political kingmaker, and he’s selected his unsuspecting king: Alan Granger, governor of Pennsylvania. Granger confesses his closet skeleton to Logan, but the tycoon has invested too much time and money into Granger’s future presidential campaign to let him and his old friends endanger Logan’s power play.It’s time to run.

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary


M.R. James - 1904
    "Number Thirteen," "The Mezzotint," "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook," and more. Renowned for their wit, erudition and suspense, these stories are each masterfully constructed and represent a high achievement in the ghost genre. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

Voices in My Head


Mike Evans - 2016
    What if the devil on your shoulder could actually come out and play? Voices in my Head is just that. Meet Mikey, the sweetest five-year-old you've ever met, and his psychotic dark side Michael. When his mother changes his life forever Michael comes out to play.

Pretty Monsters: Stories


Kelly Link - 2008
    Through the lens of Link's vivid imagination, nothing is what it seems, and everything deserves a second look. From the multiple award-winning The Faery Handbag, in which a teenager's grandmother carries an entire village (or is it a man-eating dog?) in her handbag, to the near-future of The Surfer, whose narrator (a soccer-playing skeptic) waits with a planeload of refugees for the aliens to arrive, Link's stories are funny and full of unexpected insights and skewed perspectives on the world. Her fans range from Michael Chabon to Peter Buck of R.E.M. to Holly Black of Spiderwick Chronicles fame. Now teens can have their world rocked, too!

Daphne Byrne #1


Laura Marks - 2020
    The sudden death of her father has left her alone with her irresponsible, grief-stricken mother-who becomes easy prey for a group of occultists promising to contact her dead husband. While fighting to disentangle her mother from these charlatans, Daphne begins to sense a strange, insidious presence in her own body...an entity with unspeakable appetites. What does “Brother” want? And could she even stop him if she tried?

Glimpses: The Best Short Stories of Rick Hautala


Rick Hautala - 2012
    One of 2012’s HWA Lifetime Achievement Award Winners, Rick Hautala has a writing career that spans more than three decades. From Moondeath, his first novel published in 1980, to the republication of his best-selling novel The White Room (DRP, 2012) and his forthcoming “Little Brothers” novella Indian Summer (CD Publications, 2012), his novels and short stories have entertained millions of readers around the world. Now comes Glimpses, a career-spanning “best of” collection that brings together twenty-four stories, including eight from each of Rick’s critically-acclaimed collections Bedbugs and Occasional Demons, and eight previously uncollected stories. And Glimpses delivers what it promises—quick glimpses into the deepest shadows of our lives, around unfamiliar corners of streets we think we know, and down the darkest alleys of strange cities where readers will have to face their worst fears and their most unnerving nightmares. Of course, Glimpses wouldn’t be a Rick Hautala collection if it didn’t included gorgeous original artwork—a wraparound cover and eight new illustrations—from award-winning artist Glenn Chadbourne. So whether it’s in a haunted schoolhouse or an abandoned lighthouse, an iron bridge that spans a fast-moving river or a World War I battlefield, prepare yourself because you never know what you may catch a glimpse of … and by then, it may already be too late.

The Trench


Paul Mannering - 2017
     Marine Biolgist Michael Armitage is recruited to investigate an emergency at a secret military research facility, deep in the Kermadec Trench, 18,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Now trapped with a squad of Marines and the few survivors, they must fight to survive and discover the terrifying secret that lurks in the darkness of The Trench.

Burn the Rabbit: Rabbit in Red Volume Two


Joe Chianakas - 2016
    He's looking forward to learning the craft, renewing last year's friendships, and above all, to seeing Jaime, and finally asking her to be his girlfriend.But before he even gets to see her, one of their own is violently attacked. JB goes on the hunt, and the students learn about his troubled past, which changes their views of him forever. As their project, they create Rabbit in Red's most terrifying and disturbing challenge yet, Hellfire, and use it to recruit a new class of horror students.Then the bodies start piling up, and the mysteries become more and more dangerous. Is this another one of JB's dark games-within-a-game, or will Rabbit in Red--and everyone in it--burn in the end

Defy the Dark


Saundra MitchellCourtney Summers - 2013
    The secrets of the core of the earth. Dreams of other people’s lives. A girl who goes mad in the darkness. Monsters in Bavaria. A generational spaceship where night doesn’t exist. And other mysteries and oddities. The contributors to the enthralling collection are: Sarah Rees Brennan, Tessa Gratton, Rachel Hawkins, Christine Johnson, Valerie Kemp, Malinda Lo, Myra McEntire, Saundra Mitchell, Sarah Ockler, Jackson Pearce, Aprilynne Pike, Dia Reeves, Beth Revis, Carrie Ryan, Jon Skovron, Courtney Summers, and Kate Espy, winner of the Defy the Dark new author contest.

Little Paranoias


Sonora Taylor - 2019
    It tells the stories of terror and sorrow, lust at the end of the world and death as an unwanted second chance. It dives into the darkest corners of the minds of men, women, and children. It wanders into the forest and touches every corner of the capital. Everyone has something to fear — but after all, it’s those little paranoias that drive our day-to-day.

Spells and Spooks


K.E. O'Connor - 2020
    Where nothing is quite what it seems.I’m back in the last place I want to be. A place where my magic went rogue, and people died. Witch Haven should be a haven, but I messed that up big time.I have no friends to help me. No family left. And not even a witch’s familiar to keep me on the right path.Magic used to flow through me, but now I’m a lone witch, drained of power and hoping I can sneak into Witch Haven, clear up the mess my stepmom left behind, and get out alive.If the villagers find out I’m here, I’ll be hunted down. If the Magic Council catch me using anything more powerful than a light spell, I’ll go back to jail. And if my guilt doesn’t choke me, the gnomes will.So yeah. Home sweet home never felt so unwelcoming.***Welcome to a new cozy witch paranormal mystery series, full of magic and puzzles to solve. Meet failed witch, Indigo Ash, as she struggles to get over her past and stay alive, along with a cast of quirky, fun characters who will entertain you throughout this book.Books in this series:Spells and SpooksHexes and HauntsCurses and Corpses

Ritual


Steve Stred - 2019
    Do not purchase this book if you are easily offended or require trigger warnings!Meet Brad.A quiet, hardworking man who goes about his daily routine with joy. He works as a telemarketer, trying his best to sell poorly made, over-priced products to the unsuspecting people on the other end of the phone. Brad doesn't mind though, it's a means to an end.Life's about to change for Brad. Now that Father has anointed him the Chosen one, the one to open the gates and allow them to flock into the Black Heavens.Eternity awaits.But is Brad ready to perform on the big day?

The Secret of Ventriloquism


Jon Padgett - 2016
    With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Schulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Padgett's work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both. A bullied child seeks vengeance within a bed's hollow box spring. A lucid dreamer is haunted by an impossible house. A dummy reveals its own anatomy in 20 simple steps. A stuttering librarian holds the key to a mill town's unspeakable secrets. A commuter's worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign. An aspiring ventriloquist spends a little too much time looking at himself in a mirror. And a presence speaks through them all. Contents: Introduction by Matt Cardin The Mindfulness of Horror Practice Murmurs of a Voice Foreknown The Indoor Swamp Origami Dreams 20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism Infusorium Organ Void The Secret of VentriloquismEscape to Thin Mountain

Witch


Patrick Logan - 2016
    how far would you go to make sure that you and your daughter are fed? After her husband's death, Anne LaForet is alone... alone to raise her young daughter in an area of the swamp that is too foul to grow anything. Anne is no criminal, but circumstances force her to resort to theft. When an encounter threatens to put her away for her crimes, Anne accidentally discovers that she also has another skill, one that helps women who can’t conceive become pregnant. As word of her talent spreads beyond the confines of the swamp, she receives visitor after visitor, fulfilling their dreams while at the same time finally getting the food and money she needs to raise her own child. One visitor in particular promises not only the financial freedom that Anne so desperately seeks, but also a way out… the means to leave the swamp forever. But in her haste, Anne forgets about the three things that the people of the swamp hate most of all: single mothers, thieves, and witches. Anne already has two strikes against her, and it’s only a matter of time before she is accused of all three… And so begins the legend of Anne LaForet, of MOTHER, of mater est, matrem omnium, a tightly woven tale of horror and suspense that spans four centuries. WITCH is a 30,000 word prequel novella to the best-selling Family Values Trilogy that explores the depths of human suffering and how desperation shapes not only who we are, but what we do. And how, through it all, Family is the most important thing both on this Earth and beneath it.

Slave


Tiffani Russell - 2013
    She got in trouble by her parents and did things she wasn't supposed to do. Then one night she is kidnapped by sex traffickers along with her best friend Brittany Beagleman. They are then owned by one of the biggest sex traffickers, Mr. James and is forced into slavery. Ryan Dean, Vada's love interest, sets out into the dangerous world of human trafficking to find them and bring them home even though he battles with demons of his own. As he plunges deeper into danger he realizes finding them won't be easy. Can he save them before it's too late? Can Vada save herself before she loses her mind?