Book picks similar to
Cellars by John Shirley


horror
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The Wolfen


Whitley Strieber - 1978
    The savage killing of two New York City policemen leads two detectives, a man and a woman bound together by a strange, tough passion, to hunt down the wolfen, called werewolves in former days.

The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck


Alexander Laing - 1934
    Why did the brilliant, but cruel, Dr. Gideon Wyck perform an unnecessary amputation on one of his patients? Why does that patient now insist that black devils are trying to steal his soul? What is behind the series of monster babies being born to apparently normal, healthy women? And when Wyck is found dead under peculiar and inexplicable circumstances, who is responsible--and why? The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck, Alexander Laing's odd hybrid of horror, crime and science fiction, was an unlikely bestseller and critical success when first published in 1934, and it was later selected by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the top horror novels of all time. This new edition reprints the unabridged text of the first edition along with a reproduction of its dust jacket art and frontispiece by Lynd Ward.

Darkness Wakes


Tim Waggoner - 2006
    A powerful thing. Its home is in the shadows of a bizarre, hidden club named Penumbra, where it is worshipped by followers who need the pleasure it gives them. They are addicted to it. They live for it. And they kill for it. When Aaron was first introduced to Penumbra, he thought it was just a secret club where members could indulge their kinkier fantasies. Bit by bit, as he learned the club's true purpose, he began to change in subtle, horrible ways. Now it's time for Aaron to prepare his first human sacrifice to the waiting darkness. It's too late for him to back out now, but murder is the least of Penumbra's sins. The true terror is still to come when . . . Darkness Wakes.

In This Skin


Simon Clark - 2004
    From Vaudeville, through the big bands and up to the hottest rock acts, the Luxor had them all. It's closed now, a boarded-up relic, standing alone in a run down industrial part of town. But the old dance hall isn't empty. A hideous presence lives there, a monstrous evil that has the ability to invade people's fantasies and nightmares . . . and bring them to life. Three strangers will soon learn the extent of the dance hall's power. As their lives become more and more entangled in its inescapable web, they will come to see that what haunts the Luxor is far worse than any ghost.

Death Angel's Shadow


Karl Edward Wagner - 1973
    Kane knew he'd lost his strength, and perhaps his soul, when he entered the erotic web of the vampire. . . .

Dead in the Water


Nancy Holder - 1994
    Pandora and sail into a cruise of metaphysical terror, madness, and death.

The Spirit


Thomas Page - 1977
    . .Yeti. . .Sasquatch.But whatever it is, it's out there in the woods and leaving a trail of blood and severed heads behind it.For John Moon, a half-mad Indian, it is a spirit that holds the key to his inner self. He worships its power and he'll kill to protect it. Desperate, exhausted, half-starved, Moon will follow it wherever it goes.For Raymond Jason, killing it has become an obsession. He was the only survivor of a hunting trip to the Rockies where the hunters became the monster's prey. Now he is determined to track the creature down and destroy it.But when the two men finally corner their quarry they set loose a flood of terror and destruction that me leave no survivors. . .RUNNING TIME ➼ 7hrs. and 41mins.©2019 Thomas Page (P)2019 Valancourt Books LLC

Urban Gothic


Brian Keene - 2009
    They thought it was abandoned. They thought they would be safe there until morning. They were wrong on all counts. The residents of the row house live in the cellar and rarely come out in the light of day. They're far worse than anything on the streets outside. And they don't like intruders. Before the sun comes up, Kerri and her friends will fight for their very lives... though death is only part of their nightmare.

Night of the Ripper


Robert Bloch - 1984
    Historical fiction featuring Jack the Ripper, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, and, yes, the Elephant Man.

Somebody Come and Play


Clare McNally - 1987
    except in the rambling mansion where Myrtle Hollenbeck paced up and down like a mad woman, waiting for the return of her children.But Myrtle's waiting is soon over: one night she is found hanging from her daughter's skipping rope. Everyone believes Myrtle's death to be a case of routine suicide; everyone, that is, apart from Cassie Larchmont, the ten-year-old child who witnessed Myrtle's death, and Robert Landers, an investigating police officer who hears from Cassie how a dark shadow stood by Myrtle's side that fearful night.At the same time, Nicole Morgan comes into Cassie's life. Dark-haired, malevolent, dressed in quaint old-fashioned clothes popular decades before, Nicole seems bent on luring the other children into Myrtle's haunted mansion. The fabulous playroom they discover conceals untold horrors, while outside the terror that has lain quietly on the lake bed for thirty years rises slowly towards them. Only Landers can save them before that evil kills them all...

Predator: Concrete Jungle


Nathan Archer - 1995
    At the height of the heat, NYPD detectives Rasche and Shafer encounter the most brutal homicides they've ever seen. But a close encounter with one of the murderers and a warning from the government leads Shaefer to suspect an alien influence and a government cover-up.

Bethany's Sin


Robert R. McCammon - 1980
    Bethany's Sin was a weird name, but the village was quaint and far from the noise and pollution of the city.But Bethany's Sin was too quiet. There were no sounds at all...almost as if the night had been frightened into silence.Evan began to notice that there were very few men in the village, and that most of them were crippled. And then there was the sound of galloping horses. Women on horses. Riding in the night.Soon he would learn their superhuman secret. And soon he would watch in terror as first his wife, then his daughter, entered their sinister cabal.An ancient evil rejoiced in Bethany's Sin. A horror that happened only at night...and only to men.

Prodigal


Melanie Tem - 1991
    The voice could only belong to one person, her brother Ethan, but his body, broken by drugs, lies cold in the morgue. An invisible hand has opened the door for Lucy and her sisters and though Lucy questions her parents they have receded into their private existence where nothing can touch them. Lucy is quickly losing touch with her reality of white fences and pristine lawns. She is drawn beyond that door into the dark abyss where her brother waits and evil is hiding in the shadows. Each day the voice grows stronger, demanding that she journey far away to the place that stole her brother's mind and body. As the secret unfolds, the Prodigal emerges.

Down in the Darkness


Dean Koontz - 1987
    Short story from Horror Show magazine (Summer/Jul 1986), anthologized in The Architecture of Fear (1987) and collected in Strange Highways (1995)

Burnt Offerings


Robert Marasco - 1973
    They find a beautiful old country mansion on Long Island -- restful, secluded, with pool and private beach -- perfect, for the right people. But their "perfect" summer home hides terrors beyond their wildest imaginings. During that long summer the house becomes a nightmare from which there seems to be no escape.