Book picks similar to
The Sorcerers by Daoma Winston


gothic
horror
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witches

The Crow Volume 1: Pain & Fear


James O'Barr - 1992
    He and his fiancée, Shelly, are assaulted by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is shot in the head and is paralyzed, and can only watch as Shelly is savagely beaten and raped. They are then left for dead on the side of the road.He is resurrected by a crow and seeks vengeance on the murderers, methodically stalking and killing them. When not on the hunt, Eric stays in the house he shared with Shelly, spending most of his time there lost in memories of her. Her absence is torture for him; he is in emotional pain, even engaging in self-mutilation by cutting himself.The Crow acts as both guide and goad for Eric, giving him information that helps him in his quest but also chastising him for dwelling on Shelly's death, seeing his pining as useless self-indulgence that distracts him from his purpose.

Unspoken


Sarah Rees Brennan - 2012
    a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.But all that changes when the Lynburns return.The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

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.

The Shapes Of Midnight


Joseph Payne Brennan - 1953
    Hear me! Or don't. For there are those obsessed with uncovering the witcheries that fester in man's foul heart. There are those who would invoke the awful powers that yet remain in Earth's cursed places. Joseph Payne Brenna is such a one. This is his book. Dare you make it yours? (back cover copy)Introduction by Stephen King.Contents:Diary of a Werewolf The Corpse of Charlie Rull Canavan’s Back Yard The Pavilion House of Memory The Willow Platform Who Was He?DisappearanceThe Horror at Chilton CastleThe Impulse to KillThe House on Hazel StreetSlime

Black Spring


Alison Croggon - 2012
    She and her childhood companion, Damek, have grown up privileged and spoiled, and they’re devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But Lina’s violet eyes betray her for a witch, and witches are not tolerated in a brutally patriarchal society. Her rank protects her from persecution, but it cannot protect her from tragedy and heartbreak. An innocent visitor stands witness to the devastation that ensues as destructive longing unleashes Lina’s wrath, and with it her forbidden power. Whether drawn by the romantic, the magical, or the gothic, readers will be irresistibly compelled by the passion of this tragic tale.

The Widow of Pale Harbor


Hester Fox - 2019
    Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife's death, so he moves to Pale Harbor, Maine, where there is a vacancy for a new minister. Gideon and his late wife had always dreamed of building their own church, and Pale Harbor is the perfect opportunity.But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town of Pale Harbor. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople know that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a widow who lives with a spinster maid in the decaying Castle Carver on the edge of town. Sophronia is a recluse, rumored to be a witch who killed her husband.When Gabriel meets her, he knows the charming, beautiful woman cannot be guilty of anything. Together, Gabriel and Sophronia realize that the mysterious events have one thing in common: they all contain an element from the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And when the events escalate to murder, Gabriel and Sophronia must find the real killer, before it's too late for them both.

Four Gothic Novels: The Castle of Otranto; Vathek; The Monk; Frankenstein


Horace Walpole - 1994
    Crammed with catastrophe, terror, and ghostly interventions, the novel was an immediate success, and influenced numberous followers. These include William Beckford's Vathek (1786), which alternates grotesque comedy with scenes of exotic magnificence in the story of the ruthless Caliph Vathek's journey to damnation. The Monk (1796), by Matthew Lewis, is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest, set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid. Frankenstein (1818, 1831) is Mary Shelley's disturbing and perennially popular tale of a young student who learns the secret of giving life to a creature made from human relics, with horrific consequences.This collection illustrates the range and attraction of the gothic novel. Extreme and sensational, each of the four printed here is alos a powerful psychological story of isolation and monomania.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle


Shirley Jackson - 1962
    I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise, I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cap mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead...

Lesser Demons


Norman Partridge - 2010
    Cross-genre blowtorches with bad guys and worse guys. Love stories both dark and bittersweet. A brand new novella and extensive story notes. You’ll find this and more in the fifth collection from three-time Bram Stoker award-winner Norman Partridge, an author Locus calls “one of the most dependable, exciting, and entertaining practitioners of dark suspense and dark fantasy… emphasis on the dark.”In Lesser Demons, Partridge explores the kind of fiction that made him both a horror fan and a writer. Using the shotgun prose of a crime novel, the title story draws a deadly bead on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. “The Iron Dead” introduces Chaney, a monster-hunting pulp hero with a mechanical hand built in hell. “Carrion” cuts a mean swath through Robert E. Howard territory, while “The Big Man” explores dark shadows of American life never imagined in the atom-age horror movies of the fifties.Part celebration, part reinvention, Lesser Demons only serves to underscore RevolutionSF’s verdict: “Norman Partridge is the finest writer of short horror fiction going.” Table of Contents Second Chance The Big Man Lesser Demons Carrion The Fourth Stair up from the Second Landing And What Did You See in the World? Road Dogs The House Inside Durston The Iron Dead A Few Words AfterDust jacket by Vincent Chong

Old House of Fear


Russell Kirk - 1961
    Logan is continually thwarted and threatened on his journey. But no matter how bad his travels, his arrival onto the island brings much worse trouble. Carnglass is under the control of evil genius Dr. Edmund Jackman, a Soviet-educated political revolutionary convinced that Logan is a spy who must die. Will Jackman's plot be thwarted? Will Logan be able to rescue the lovely niece of the noble owner of Old House? Will anyone get off the island alive? Debuting in the 1960s, Old House of Fear was Russell Kirk's most popular book, selling more than all his other books combined. Yet this Gothic tale is more than just a fascinating work of fiction. As in all of Kirk's stories, a deeper meaning emerges -- in this case, a satirization of Marxism and liberalism -- demonstrating the acute sense of the moral that sets Kirk apart from other genre writers.

House of Leaves


Mark Z. Danielewski - 2000
    No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth—musicians, tattoo artists, programmers, strippers, environmentalists, and adrenaline junkies—the book eventually made its way into the hands of older generations, who not only found themselves in those strangely arranged pages but also discovered a way back into the lives of their estranged children.Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story—of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

The Phantom of the Opera


Gaston Leroux - 1909
    Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine's childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous 'ghost' of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.Leroux's work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik's past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

Daughters of the Sea


H.R. Mason - 2021
    A new town filled with old secrets. One woman is determined to uncover the truth about her past, but Everwine Manor won’t easily give up the truth.Runa Brandon is naïve and uncertain, and she has been taken advantage of more than once. After disentangling herself from an abusive relationship, Runa begins a new life in Departure Cove, Oregon. Her mother, Asta, believes Departure Cove holds too many secrets that are better left buried, including the identity of Runa’s father.When Runa arrives in Departure Cove, strange things begin to happen. She experiences frightening visions, disturbing dreams, and unexplained physical changes. Then Runa meets Chase Everwine, a wealthy, mysterious man who pursues Runa with a passion that sweeps her off her feet.Runa falls hard for Chase, in spite of Asta’s warnings that his family cannot be trusted. Secrets and puzzles follow in Chase’s wake, and when Runa sees his family’s estate, Everwine Manor, she feels drawn to it. She doesn’t understand why the house calls to her but is compelled to find out.What Runa doesn’t know is that she is part of a long line of women who are blessed with inexplicable gifts and drawn to the power of the sea. As Runa uncovers the astounding secrets of her family tree, she also comes to realize there is more to her husband than meets the eye.

The Color Out of Time


Michael Shea - 1984
    But visitors Gerald Sternbruck and Ernst Carlsberg soon realise that the still waters of the lake conceal a frightful evil that preys on flora, fauna - and human beings.Then they discover that the same evil first manifested itself before the valley was flooded - and may have been the basis for H.P. Lovecraft's classic story The Colour out of Space.For fifty years one waman has been planning her revenge on the monstrous force which caused the strange shimmering colours -- and sucks the very life from the people in its clutches....

Observatory Mansions


Edward Carey - 2000
    One of them is Francis Orme, who earns his livelihood as a living statue. When not practicing “inner and outer stillness,” Francis steals the cherished possessions of others to add to his private museum. The other tenants are equally as odd: his mother and father, who haven’t interacted in years; a man who continually sweats and cries; a recluse who prefers television to reality; and a woman who behaves like a dog. When Anna Tapp arrives among them she stirs their souls, bringing long forgotten memories to the surface–and arousing fears that this new resident intends to provoke a metamorphosis.