Book picks similar to
Pitfall by Ronald Kelly


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Dark Mountain


Richard Kelly - 1987
    What they will find instead is terror in the form of a violent psychopath and his mother, a powerful witch.(Previously published as Tread Softly, by Richard Kelly)

The Hatching


Mark Gillespie - 2021
    Now Dani, along with her four companions, must fight against incredible odds to survive a night that no one will ever forget.A night that will forever be known as ‘the hatching.’The Hatching is a horror novel inspired by John Carpenter movies, as well as the classic stories of Stephen King and Richard Matheson. If you love taut, fast-paced claustrophobic horror, you’ll love The Hatching.

Nighteyes


Garfield Reeves-Stevens - 1989
    Then the shadows, with their dark, inhuman eyes, are everywhere, surrounding her as she sobs silently, realizing with horror that they have taken her daughter once again. And now they have come bcak for- for her!

Mama's Boy


Charles H. King - 1992
    NYPD detective Jake Harrowing spree and suicide, but proving it was murder seems impossible--until Jake discovers the small child who witnessed the slaughter from his secret hiding place.

Little Deaths


Ellen DatlowKathe Koja - 1994
    A gasp of pleasure. The exquisite danger of nakedness...In Little Deaths some of the most gifted writers inside and outside the horror genre have come together to peer into this realm of desire and dread, love and violence, tenderness and shame in a stunning collection that takes its title from the French phrase for orgasm: le petit mort.The lady of situations / Stephen Dedman --Hungry skin / Lucy Taylor --Becky lives / Harry Crews --The swing / Nicholas Royle --Lover doll / Wayne Allen Sallee --The careful geometry of love / Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg --The pain barrier / Joel Lane --Ménage à trois / Richard Christian Matheson. On Amen's shore / Clive Barker --Fever blisters / Joyce Carol Oates --An outside interest / Ruth Rendell --And Salome danced / Kelley Eskridge --That old school tie / Jack Womack --Ice palace / Douglas Clegg --Serial monogamist / Pat Cadigan --Dying in Bangkok / Dan Simmons

Thrall


Mary SanGiovanni - 2011
    Tucked away in the wilds of the northwestern corner of the state, Thrall has always been a very strange place to live. The town was a poison that affected people's minds, their souls, their bodies, and their perspectives. So Jesse abandoned his friends and the one woman he loved, and left everything behind.Seven years later, Jesse has found a reason to return — a reason that, in spite of his best attempts otherwise, he can't ignore. His old love, Mia Dalianis, has left him a voicemail message begging him to come back, if not for her, then for the daughter Jesse never knew he had. Jesse needs to go back. He's been running for a long time — from relationships, friendships, everything he is afraid of and feels guilty over. He realizes that the nightmares will never stop until he goes to Thrall. With help from Nadia Richards and some old surviving friends from Thrall, Jesse intends to find his daughter or die trying. He goes looking for redemption, but what he discovers about his old hometown may destroy him and everyone he's ever cared about.Black Voltage Series #7

Katie


Michael McDowell - 1982
    As the cellar filled with corpses, the family coffers filled with cash.Pretty young Philo Drax didn't have a family anymore. Katie had finished off her grandfather and her mother, and promised to put Philo out of her misery very soon now.It was a hard, cruel world for an innocent girl alone, but Philo was glad to be alive, and eager to continue so. She had prospeccts of a romantic marriage to sustain her through her trials. While Katie, poor creature, had only her cunning... and her hammer.DON'T EVER TURN YOUR BACK ON KATIE!

Borderlands 4


Elizabeth MonteleoneGary A. Braunbeck - 1991
    WuMorning Terrors — Peter CrowtherMisadventures in the Skin Trade — Don D’AmmassaCircle of Lias — Lawrence C. ConnollyWatching the Soldiers — Dirk StrasserOne in the A.M. — Rachel DrummondA Side of the Sea — Ramsey CampbellPainted Faces — Gerard Daniel HournerMonotone — Lawrence GreenbergDead Leaves — James C. DobbsFrom the Mouths of Babes — Bentley LittleThe Late Mr. Havel’s Apartment — David HerterUnion Dues — Gary BraunbeckEarshot — Glenn IsaacsonFee — Peter Straub

Nightblood


T. Chris Martindale - 1989
    . . and more.

The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, 3: The Continuing Story


Jeffrey Cooper - 1987
    Freddy is back; now neither man nor beast, but a chilling embodiment of evil itself. And as the nightmares become reality, and Freddy's twisted will becomes the children's command, panic, terror and murder stalk the streets of Springfield again...

Keeper of the Children


William H. Hallahan - 1978
    It could be someone's pet cat, or a stuffed teddy bear, or a smiling marionette doll.But whatever it is that comes creeping up the stairs will have two qualities: it will be animated by a terrifying, diabolical force, and it will have only one intention -- murder.If Edward Benson wants his daughter back, he will have to fight a battle no human has ever fought before. And he must win, for only the victor will return with his life -- and his soul.

A Small Dark Place


Martin Schenk - 1997
    Until they hear the story of a little girl who slipped down an abandoned mine. Americans respond with prayers. And cash. Now the Wileys hatch their own desperate plan. But something goes terribly wrong, as their precious daughter Andromeda--scared of shadows, monsters, and most of all, the dark--falls into the darkest place of all.Years later, she returns home, all grown up and recovered from the incident that made her famous. Beautiful, alluring, Andromeda is coming back to the town where it began. To share with everyone the secrets of a small, dark place--and to show them the evil they have made. . . .From the Paperback edition.

Under the Overtree


James A. Moore - 2000
    The girl of his dreams is for the taking, and the kids who bullied him are disappearing one by one. Even his stepfather has started treating Mark like a real son. But at what cost is Mark's every wish coming true?

The Forbidden Zone


Whitley Strieber - 1993
    With The Forbidden Zone, he continues his journey beyond the cutting edge of terrifying suspense into the sphere of a relentless psychological thriller only he could have written. Every small town has a special place like the mound. Lovers go there to woo, families picnic in summer, children sled in winter. For the community of Oscola, New York, the mound has never been dangerous...until now. Now something beyond cunning or imagining, something that appears undeniably evil is hiding beneath the mound. The terror comes from out of time, space, and the depths of the human mind with its alien needs and desires. It spreads its roots in secret...changing, transforming, reshaping reality. It seeks to sweep aside all that the good townfolk love and cherish: their past, their hopes, the promise of their souls. It fills the innocent earth with its presence - it screams with power. How can ordinary people protect themselves from this evil? How can they fight its weapon of soulbreaking potency - a sweetly seductive yet unspeakably savage pleasure too intense to resist? Brian Kelly, a courageous physicist still grieving over the hideous death of his first wife and child, suspects that the shell of reality must have been torn to let in this monstrosity. He must discover a way to repair the rift. His very pregnant second wife, Loi, a beautiful and brilliant refugee from the pain of Vietnam, has battled demons before. She's ready to dare anything to save her unborn son. The tough yet dangerously vulnerable EllenMaas, a big-city reporter trying to revive the local paper, must finally commit to destroying the beast - or perish herself. Bob West, a cop who saw every kind of madness and violence during the war, will return to the law of the jungle - or worse - if it will save his family. They

Son of Rosemary/Rosemary's Baby


Ira Levin - 2013