Book picks similar to
Painted Devils: Strange Stories by Robert Aickman
horror
short-stories
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weird-fiction
The Conception of Terror: Tales Inspired by M.R. James, Volume 1
M.R. JamesAlice Lowe - 2019
R. James.Casting the Runes, adapted by Stephen GallagherWhen academic Jo Harrington (Anna Maxwell Martin) is sent a paper—The Truth of Alchemy, by Anton Karswell—for peer review, she pulls no punches. Jo writes that the paper has no place in a serious academic publication and that Karswell is a half-bright fool. When the editor writes a rejection note to Karswell, he inadvertently includes Jo’s entire email. Occultist Karswell (Reece Shearsmith) doesn’t take kindly to criticism.On the tube home with her partner Edward Dunning (Tom Burke), Jo spots a poster with her name on it. It reads: "In memory of Joanne Harrington, MLitt, PhD, died September eighteenth, three days were allowed." Is there anything that Edward can do to save Jo from this curse?Lost Hearts, adapted by A. K. BenedictTeenager Stephanie Elliot (Rosa Coduri) is taken to Aswarby House to be fostered by Mrs. Bunch (Susan Jameson). Stephanie strikes up a friendship with Ben (Bill Milner), the adopted son of charismatic community leader Mr. Abney (Jeff Rawle). He tells her that Mr. Abney is a good man—he even took in a child refugee last year, but she stole from him and ran away. Stephanie is troubled by voices and visions of a dead girl clutching at her chest, and when Ben disappears she begins to suspect that all is not right in Aswarby House.The Treasure of Abbot-Thomas, adapted by Jonathan BarnesWhen former Somerton school pupil Greg Parsbury (Robert Bathurst) meets history teacher Mika Chantry (Pearl Mackie) at a memorial service for schoolmaster Sam Abbot-Thomas, he begs for her help. Greg has been sent a postcard by the estate of the mysterious and charismatic Abbot-Thomas. On it is a strange inscription in Latin, which he believes to be an inaugural clue in a treasure hunt much like the elaborate treasure hunts Abbot-Thomas used to set back in the 1970s. There were rumors that Abbot-Thomas possessed a hidden fortune, and Parsbury and Chantry set out to find it.A View from a Hill, adapted by Mark MorrisComedian and podcaster Paul Fanshawe (Andy Nyman) and his wife, Sarah (Alice Lowe), visit the Cotswolds on holiday, trying to rebuild their lives after the death of their young son, Archie. While out walking, they spot a beautiful abbey across the valley on Gallows Hill, but when they reach it, they find the building is little more than rubble. While Sarah explores, Paul records commentary for his podcast. Sarah thinks she hears children’s laughter, but there’s no one there. Later that night, she listens to the recording and hears a child’s voice whisper, "Mummy." Sarah is convinced that Archie is trying to reach them and wants to return to the ruins. But something far worse is waiting for them on Gallows Hill.
Dark Echo
F.G. Cottam - 2008
Yet her history is full of fatal accidents and three of Dark Echo's owners met tragic, violent deaths. Now she has been rebuilt, crossing the Atlantic with new owners. Only the truth about Harry Spalding, the man who built her, can save them from the same fate.
The Virago Book of Ghost Stories
Richard Dalby - 1987
Byatt, Angela Carter, Charlotte Brontë, Antonia Fraser, Penelope Lively, Ruth Rendell, Edith Wharton, and many more. Here lost loves, past enmities, and unwanted memories mingle with the inexplicable as unquiet souls return to repay kindnesses, settle scores, and haunt the imagination. All of the writers demonstrate a subtle power to delight and chill at the same time as they explore the ghostly margins of the supernatural.
Lovecraft Unbound
Ellen DatlowWilliam Browning Spencer - 2009
Howard Phillips Lovecraft may have been a writer for only a short time, but the creations he left behind after his death in 1937 have shaped modern horror more than any other author in the last two centuries: the shambling god Cthulhu, and the other deities of the Elder Things, the Outer Gods, and the Great Old Ones, and Herbert West, Reanimator, a doctor who unlocked the secrets of life and death at a terrible cost. In Lovecraft Unbound, more than twenty of today's most prominent writers of literature and dark fantasy tell stories set in or inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft. 9 • Introduction (Lovecraft Unbound) • essay by Ellen Datlow 11 • The Crevasse • short story by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud 31 • The Office of Doom • [Dust Devil] • short story by Richard Bowes 43 • Sincerely, Petrified • short fiction by Anna Tambour 73 • The Din of Celestial Birds • (1997) • short story by Brian Evenson 85 • The Tenderness of Jackals • short fiction by Amanda Downum 99 • Sight Unseen • short fiction by Joel Lane 113 • Cold Water Survival • short story by Holly Phillips 139 • Come Lurk With Me and Be My Love • short fiction by William Browning Spencer 161 • Houses Under the Sea • (2006) • novelette by Caitlín R. Kiernan 195 • Machines of Concrete Light and Dark • short story by Michael Cisco 213 • Leng • short fiction by Marc Laidlaw 239 • In the Black Mill • (1997) • short story by Michael Chabon 267 • One Day, Soon • short fiction by Lavie Tidhar 277 • Commencement • (2001) • novelette by Joyce Carol Oates 305 • Vernon, Driving • short fiction by Simon Kurt Unsworth 315 • The Recruiter • short fiction by Michael Shea 331 • Marya Nox • short fiction by Gemma Files 347 • Mongoose • [Boojum] • novelette by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette 375 • Catch Hell • short fiction by Laird Barron 413 • That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable • short fiction by Nick Mamatas
The Collection
Bentley Little - 2002
And that's a scary place to be.
Lovecraft's Monsters
Ellen DatlowElizabeth Bear - 2014
P. Lovecraft, published his first story, the monstrosities that crawled out of his brain have become legend: the massive, tentacled Cthulhu, who lurks beneath the sea waiting for his moment to rise; the demon Sultan Azathoth, who lies babbling at the center of the universe, mad beyond imagining; the Deep Ones, who come to shore to breed with mortal men; and the unspeakably-evil Hastur, whose very name brings death. These creatures have been the nightmarish fuel for generations of horror writers, and the inspiration for some of their greatest works.This impressive anthology celebrates Lovecraft's most famous beasts in all their grotesque glory, with each story a gripping new take on a classic mythos creature and affectionately accompanied by an illuminating illustration. Within these accursed pages something unnatural slouches from the sea into an all-night diner to meet the foolish young woman waiting for him, while the Hounds of Tindalos struggle to survive trapped in human bodies, haunting pool halls for men they can lure into the dark. Strange, haunting, and undeniably monstrous, this is Lovecraft as you have never seen him before.Contents"Only the End of the World Again" by Neil Gaiman"The Bleeding Shadow" by Joe R. Lansdale"Love is Forbidden, We Croak & Howl" by Caitlín R. Kiernan"Bulldozer" by Laird Barron"A Quarter to Three" by Kim Newman"Inelastic Collisions" by Elizabeth Bear"That of Which We Speak When We Speak of the Unspeakable" by Nick Mamatas"Red Goat Black Goat" by Nadia Bulkin"Jar of Salts" and "Haruspicy" by Gemma Files"Black is the Pit From Pole to Pole" by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley"I've Come to Speak with You Again" by Karl Edward Wagner"The Sect of the Idiot" by Thomas Ligotti"The Dappled Things" by William Browning Spencer"The Same Deep Waters as You" by Brian Hodge"Remnants" by Fred Chappell"Waiting at the Cross Roads" by Steve Rasnic Tem"Children of the Fang" by John Langan
The Mammoth Book of The Best Of Best New Horror
Stephen JonesLisa Tuttle - 2008
No sharks in the Med / Brian Lumley --1990. The man who drew cats / Michael Marshall Smith --1991. The same in any language / Ramsey Campbell --1992. Norman Wisdom and the Angel of Death / Christopher Fowler --1993. Mefisto in onyx / Harlan Ellison --1994. The temptation of Dr. Stein / Paul J. McAuley --1995. Queen of knives / Neil Gaiman --1996. The break / Terry Lamsley --1997. Emptiness spoke eloquent / Caitlin R. Kiernan --1998. Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff / Peter Straub --1999. White / Tim Lebbon --2000. The other side of midnight: Anno Dracula, 1981 / Kim Newman --2001. Cleopatra Brimstone / Elizabeth Hand --2002. 20th century ghost / Joe Hill --2003. The white hands / Mark Samuels --2004. My death / Lisa Tuttle --2005. Haeckel's tale / Clive Barker --2006. Devil's smile / Glen Hirshberg --2007. The church on the island / Simon Kurt Unsworth --2008. The New York Times at special bargain rates / Stephen King.
Wireless
Charles Stross - 2009
The Hugo Award-winning author of such groundbreaking and innovative novels as "Accelerando, Halting State," and "Saturn's Children" delivers a rich selection of speculative fiction- including a novella original to this volume- brought together for the first time in one collection, showcasing the limitless imagination of one of the twenty-first century's most daring visionaries.
She Walks in Shadows
Silvia Moreno-GarciaAngela Slatter - 2015
The pale and secretive Lavinia wanders through the woods, Asenath is a precocious teenager with an attitude, and the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Nitocris has found a new body in distant America. And do you have time to hear a word from our beloved mother Shub-Niggurath?Defiant, destructive, terrifying, and harrowing, the women in She Walks in Shadows are monsters and mothers, heroes and devourers. Observe them in all their glory. Iä! Iä!TABLE OF CONTENTS“Bitter Perfume” Laura Blackwell“Violet is the Color of Your Energy” Nadia Bulkin“Body to Body to Body” Selena Chambers“Magna Mater” Arinn Dembo“De Deabus Minoribus Exterioris Theomagicae” Jilly Dreadful“Hairwork” Gemma Files“The Head of T’la-yub” Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia)“Bring the Moon to Me” Amelia Gorman“Chosen” Lyndsey Holder“Eight Seconds” Pandora Hope“Cthulhu of the Dead Sea” Inkeri Kontro“Turn out the Lights” Penelope Love“The Adventurer’s Wife” Premee Mohamed“Notes Found in a Decommissioned Asylum, December 1961″ Sharon Mock“The Eye of Juno” Eugenie Mora“Ammutseba Rising” Ann K. Schwader“Cypress God” Rodopi Sisamis“Lavinia’s Wood” Angela Slatter“The Opera Singer” Priya Sridhar“Provenance” Benjanun Sriduangkaew“The Thing in The Cheerleading Squad” Molly Tanzer“Lockbox” E. Catherine Tobler“When She Quickens” Mary Turzillo“Shub-Niggurath’s Witnesses” Valerie Valdes“Queen of a New America” Wendy N. Wagner
Nyctophobia
Christopher Fowler - 2014
One, there's never been an actual authenticated haunted house. Two, it's not the house that's haunted, but the person.Callie is a young architectural student who marries Mateo, a wine importer, and moves to a grand old house in Southern Spain. Hyperion House is flooded with light, it also has a mute gardener, a sinister housekeeper and a sealed, dark servants' quarters that nobody has the keys for. And although initially happy, and taking care of Mateo's daughter, Callie can't help being drawn to the dark empty rooms at the back of the house, and becomes convinced that someone is living in there.Uncovering the house's history, she discovers the shocking truth. As Callie's fear of the darkness returns, she comes to understand the true nature of evil.
A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home
Jason Arnopp - 2012
I did not even post it myself. The postmark on the envelope will not help you, should you ever attempt to locate me.When this letter is complete, I shall entrust a friend in another country with repackaging and sending it on my behalf. This letter also may or may not have been translated from its original language.You do not know me. You must never know me.Neither do I know you, beyond your name, address and appearance. I have seen you in person but you have not seen me.Think back to the day that you moved into your home. I contrived to casually pass by as you stood outside. I saw your face, but you did not so much as glance my way. I did not stop walking. I simply committed your face to memory and moved on before you became aware of my presence.Why did I want to see you?I suppose my conscience drove me to it. Just as it compels me to finally write this letter.I wanted to see exactly who I was passing the entity on to."A NEW CONCEPT IN FEAR...Imagine a supernatural horror story in which the paranormal activity happens within YOUR home. A SINCERE WARNING ABOUT THE ENTITY IN YOUR HOME takes the form of an anonymous letter sent to YOUR address. It details the terrifying events which happened in your home and which continue to this day.You have inherited a curse and are being preyed upon by a bone-chilling apparition. This 10,000-word letter from the previous resident advises you how to cope, while detailing the unthinkable ordeal they suffered before you.A SINCERE WARNING ABOUT THE ENTITY IN YOUR HOME is the ultimate way to scare yourself in your own home, because it's the only ghost story which takes place IN your home. Dare you read it?
House of Fear
Jonathan OliverJonathan Green - 2011
The wind whistling through the eves, carrying the voices of the dead. The figure glimpsed briefly through the cracked window of a derelict house. Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of haunted house stories by some of the finest writers working in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Weston Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.
Devils & Demons: A Treasury of Fiendish Tales Old & New
Marvin KayeM. Lucie Chin - 1987
The individual copyright date for each story ranges from 1925 to 1987."The Queen of Sheba’s Nightmare" by Bertrand Russell "The Brazen Locked Room" by Isaac Asimov "Sir Dominick’s Bargain" by Sheridan LeFanu "Tapestry" by C. H. Sherman "Seven Come Heaven?" by Diane Wnorowska "The Temptation of Harringay" by H.G. Wells "The Tenancy of Mr. Eex" by Paula Volsky "The Demon Lover" by Anonymous "The Imitation Demon" by Robert Kuttner "Just a Little Thing" by Joan Vander Putten "The Devil’s Wager" by William Makepeace Thackeray "Rachaela" by Poul Anderson"Hell-Bent" by Ford McCormack "Damned Funny" by Marvin Kaye "Me, Tree" by Morgan Llywelyn "Enoch" by Robert Bloch "Catmagic" by M. Lucie Chin "The Hound" by H. P. Lovecraft "The Princess and Her Future" by Tanith Lee "Novel of the White Powder" by Arthur Machen "The Celery Stalk in the Cellar" by Saralee Terry "The Vampire Cat of Nabeshima" by Bernhardt J. Hurwood "Caliban’s Revenge" by Darrell Schweitzer "The Trilling Princess" by Jessica Amanda Salmonson "The Graveyard Rats" by Henry Kuttner "Daddy" by Earl Godwin "The Well-Meaning Mayor" by Leslie Charteris "A Madman" by Maurice Level "The Devilish Rat" by Edward Page Mitchell "Rokuro-Kubi" by Lafcadio Hearn "The Burial of the Rats" by Bram Stoker "High-Tech Insolence" by Russell Baker "Ulalume" by Edgar Allan Poe "Boogie Man" by Tappan King "The Maze and the Monster" by Edward D. Hoch "Father Meuron’s Tale" by Robert Hugh Benson "The Philosophy of Sebastian Trump or, the Art of Outrage" by William E. Kotzwinkle and Robert Shiarella "Don Juan’s Final Night" by Edmond Rostand "A Friend in Need" by W. Somerset Maugham "Armageddon" by Fredric Brown"Secret Worship" by Algernon Blackwood"Devil in the Drain" by Daniel Manus Pinkwater"I Am Returning" by Ray Russell"The Shadow Watchers" by Dick Baldwin"The Demons" by Robert Sheckley"A Ballad of Hell" by John Davidson"The Generous Gambler" by Charles Pierre Baudelaire"A Midnight Visitor" by John Kendrick Bangs"Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson"Lost Soul" by Jay Sheckley"The Last Demon" by Isaac Bashevis Singer"Influencing The Hell Out Of Time And Teresa Golowitz" by Parke Godwin
Starve Acre
Andrew Michael Hurley - 2019
Richard and Juliette Willoughby’s son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place.Juliette, convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree.Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.
All Hallows' Eve
Vivian Vande Velde - 2006
A girl is dragged into a crypt during a field trip to an eighteenth-century cemetery. A group of friends meet their fate after an unsettling visit with a backwoods psychic. And that's just the beginning. Celebrated author Vivian Vande Velde is at her spine-tingling best in this collection of thirteen scary stories, all of which take place on Halloween night. With tales that range from the disturbing to the downright gruesome, this is one collection that teens will want to read with the lights on . . . and the doors locked.