Book picks similar to
Thrall by Mary SanGiovanni


horror
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horror-paranormal

Of A Feather


Kenneth C. Goldman - 2014
    Pretty Jamie, who works at the Bird Emporium, understands. And the old Indian chief who wears a strange, two-sided bird mask, he understands too.As does the ancient, angry spirit called the Thunderbird and about a million of Wellington County's feathered creatures...They know what Socrates Singer really is.And they know what he can do...

Meany


Peazy Monellon - 2011
    She lives in a two hundred year old farmhouse with her large family, but they’re not alone. There’s a malevolent presence up in the attic and the forest surrounding the farm is alive with folks who just won’t stay dead. Worse is the fact that the cattle have developed a taste for murder and are killing everything in sight. Well…that and the fact that her own father is trying to kill her. All Jenny wants is a childhood--a few moments playing in the sunny yard with her sisters. All she'll have to do to get one is survive. And as Eddie, the one farmhand who’s on her side notes, “this old place is going over.”Will anyone get out of there alive?

The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales


Robert J. Duperre - 2010
    Duperre, author of The Fall: The Rift Book I. Also contributing to this collection are the talented Mercedes M. Yardley, David Dalglish, David McAfee, and Daniel Pyle.

Last Call


Sean Costello - 2015
    Gamble, Trish heads out from her Northern Ontario home that very day to stand at his bedside. But along the way, she crosses paths with a man who will upend her life and the lives of everyone she cares about.Meet Bobcat, a savage serial killer christened The Dentist by the press, a deranged trophy hunter who sees Trish as the ultimate prize.Last Call is a story of lost innocence, sociopathic obsession, and moral redemption that is certain to haunt you long after you’ve read the last page.

Childgrave


Ken Greenhall - 1981
    But then he sees them for himself: weird and uncanny images of the dead appearing in his photographs. The apparitions seem to have some connection to Childgrave, a remote village in upstate New York with a deadly secret dating back three centuries. Jonathan and Joanne feel themselves oddly drawn to Childgrave, but will they survive the horrors that await them there?The third novel by Ken Greenhall (1928-2014), whose works are receiving renewed attention as neglected classics of modern horror, Childgrave (1982) is a slow-burn chiller that ranks among Greenhall’s best.“Writing in Shirley Jackson’s precise, sharp, chilly prose, Greenhall delivers a slippery book that can’t be pinned down, all about spectral photography, little dead girls, snowbound small towns, and the disquieting proposition that maybe God is not civilized.” - Grady Hendrix, author of Paperbacks from Hell“A very well-orchestrated, eerie tale.” - Publishers Weekly

The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories


Robert W. Chambers - 1970
    A treasured source used by almost all the significant writers in the American pulp tradition — H. P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, and many others — it endures as a work of remarkable power and one of the most chillingly original books in the genre.This collection reprints all the supernatural stories from The King in Yellow, including the grisly "Yellow Sign," the disquieting "Repairer of Reputations," the tender "Demoiselle d'Ys," and others. Robert W. Chambers' finest stories from other sources have also been added, such as the thrilling "Maker of Moons" and "The Messenger." In addition, an unusual pleasure awaits those who know Chambers only by his horror stories: three of his finest early biological science-fiction fantasies from In Search of the Unknown appear here as well.

Harvest Home


Thomas Tryon - 1973
    The quiet, peaceful place was straight out of a bygone era, with well-cared-for Colonial houses, a white-steepled church fronting a broad Common. Ned and Beth Constantine chanced upon the hamlet and immediately fell in love with it. This was exactly the haven they dream of. Or so they thought.For Ned and his family, Cornwall Coombe was to become a place of ultimate horror.

Vamped


David Sosnowski - 2004
    He works the graveyard shift. He has a poster of Bela Lugosi on his wall and a box of uneaten Count Chocula in his pantry. He drinks stem-cell-derived blood from cleverly packaged and marketed juice boxes. He is, in short, a vampire. But since his wildly successful scheme to turn as many mortals as possible into vampires -- "vamp" them rather than kill them -- resulted in a new immortal majority, Marty finds little of interest to fill his countless days. From the deeply imaginative mind of David Sosnowski -- who gave us the critically acclaimed junkie-angel classic Rapture -- bursts this neo-vampire novel studded with pint-size vampires known as "screamers" (children who were vamped and are none too happy about it); priest vampires who helped convert their flock into lifetime members of the Church; stripper vampires who lap-danced their way into customers' veins; and one very small, very outspoken human girl. When Marty decides to end his endless life of soul-crushing ennui -- call it vampire affluenza -- a three-foot blond obstacle is thrown in his path: Isuzu Trooper Cassidy, a refugee from a human hunting preserve. At first he thinks "midnight snack," but before the sun comes up, Isuzu is the one snacking on his prized cereal collection as she charms him into staying undead long enough to raise her in a world rife with danger and almost entirely populated by vampires yearning for the taste of real human blood. The critics applauded David Sosnowski when Rapture was published, saying he "staked out a patch of turf somewhere between Franz Kafka and Douglas Adams." Now with Vamped, Sosnowski takes on a time-honored genre and breathes new life into it by turning Martin Kowalski's vampire world upside down and telling his story with rich, masterful, and frequently hilarious prose.

The Gorge: A Thriller


Scott Nicholson - 2010
    Miss him at your peril." - Blake Crouch, Wayward Pines An experimental rafting expedition, an FBI manhunt for a delusional killer, and the worst storm in decades collide in the remote mountain wilderness...and then THEY come out. THE GORGE Bowie Whitlock and a team of celebrity athletes are commissioned to test two experimental rafts in the rugged Unegama Gorge in the remote Appalachian Mountains, considered the most dangerous whitewater rapids in the eastern United States. FBI agent Jim Castle and his partner are in the gorge looking for Ace Goodall, a deranged abortion clinic bomber. Ace, accompanied by a fragile young woman, is suffering visions that guide his murderous behavior. An accident during the manhunt releases a long-hidden species to the world. The race is on as dark storm clouds gather, the river swells to a torrent, and Ace hijacks the rafting expedition to make his escape. But the bloodthirsty creatures swooping down from the high cliffs have been too long without prey. Ace has one more bomb. God is talking to him. And he’ll kill Bowie or anyone else who stands in his way. But killing isn't what it used to be, because the dead no longer stay dead. (Originally published in mass market paperback as THEY HUNGER) ------------------------------------------- Scott Nicholson is the author of more than 30 thrillers, including the After and Next post-apocalyptic series. His first novel The Red Church was a Stoker Award finalist. He's sold more than 700,000 ebooks worldwide. Look for his dark A.I. series MIM*X on Kindle. "Like Stephen King, he knows how to summon serious scares. Buy everything he writes. This guy's the real deal."-- Bentley Little, The Disappearance "Always surprises and always entertains."-- Jonathan Maberry, Patient Zero "Keep both hands on your pants, because Nicholson is about to scare them off."-- J.A. Konrath / Jack Kilborn, Origin and Draculas "This is one author who aims for the kill and never misses."- Jeremy Robinson, Instinct

Monster


A. Lee Martinez - 2009
    Meet Judy. Two humans who don't like each other much, but together must fight dragons, fire-breathing felines, trolls, Inuit walrus dogs, and a crazy cat lady - for the future of the universe. Monster runs a pest control agency. He's overworked and has domestic troubles - like having the girlfriend from hell. Judy works the night shift at the local Food Plus Mart. Not the most glamorous life, but Judy is happy. No one bothers her and if she has to spell things out for the night-manager every now and again, so be it. But when Judy finds a Yeti in the freezer aisle eating all the Rocky Road, her life collides with Monster's in a rather alarming fashion. Because Monster doesn't catch raccoons; he catches the things that go bump in the night. Things like ogres, trolls, and dragons. Oh, and his girlfriend from Hell? She actually "is "from Hell.

The Mother


Brett McBean - 2006
    As the search becomes an obsession, the lonely highway begins to transform her.Each driver she meets could be the killer; each lift she takes could be her last

The Hellfire Club


Peter Straub - 1996
    Their murderer remains at large. Nora Chancel, wife of publishing scion Davey Chancel, fears she may be next. After all, her past has branded her a victim. . . . Then Davey tells Nora a surreal story about the Hellfire Club, where, years before, he met an obsessed fan of Chancel House’s most successful book, Night Journey—a book that has a strange history of its own. . . . Suddenly terror engulfs Nora: She must defend herself against fantastic accusations even as a madman lies in wait. And when he springs, Nora will embark on a night journey that will put her fears to rest forever, dead or alive. . . .From the Paperback edition.

From Away - Series One, Book One (From Away #1)


Deke Mackey Jr. - 2015
    An arcane and eldritch horror. For fifty years, it's waited. Fading into myth. Allowing those who fought off its last invasion to succumb to age. Now, with the island all but unprotected, this ancient evil prepares to mount one last attack. The first chilling installment of this serialized story finds Dawn Lesguettes accompanying her father to the island. Though he is reluctant to return to his birthplace, Dawn has always wanted to learn more about her origins and hopes to reconnect with the family her wayward father abandoned before she was born. But Mossley Island is not welcoming to those from away, and investigating her unusual family background will soon lead Dawn to uncover chilling secrets best left buried, even as her arrival heralds the return of a darkness long thought vanquished.  Featuring creepy nuns with mysterious motives, a sinister cabal of strangely robust senior citizens, and a militia of lighthouse keepers watching the ocean in case unspeakable terrors rise from the depths, this eerie seven-part serial will draw readers in with atmospheric tension and surprising twists, and refuse to let go as it hurtles towards a startling cliffhanger conclusion sure to leave everyone desperate for the next gripping chapter.

Light


M. John Harrison - 2002
    John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up the rules as you go along and break them just as fast, where there’s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.In contemporary London, Michael Kearney is a serial killer on the run from the entity that drives him to kill. He is seeking escape in a future that doesn’t yet exist—a quantum world that he and his physicist partner hope to access through a breach of time and space itself. In this future, Seria Mau Genlicher has already sacrificed her body to merge into the systems of her starship, the White Cat. But the “inhuman” K-ship captain has gone rogue, pirating the galaxy while playing cat and mouse with the authorities who made her what she is. In this future, Ed Chianese, a drifter and adventurer, has ridden dynaflow ships, run old alien mazes, surfed stellar envelopes. He “went deep”—and lived to tell about it. Once crazy for life, he’s now just a twink on New Venusport, addicted to the bizarre alternate realities found in the tanks—and in debt to all the wrong people.Haunting them all through this maze of menace and mystery is the shadowy presence of the Shrander—and three enigmatic clues left on the barren surface of an asteroid under an ocean of light known as the Kefahuchi Tract: a deserted spaceship, a pair of bone dice, and a human skeleton.

The Monarch of the Glen


Neil Gaiman - 2006
    He only knew that he had not found it.Shadow Moon has been away from America for nearly two years. His nights are broken with dangerous dreams. Sometimes he almost believes he doesn't care if he ever returns home.In the Highlands of Scotland, where the sky is pale white and it feels as remote as any place can possibly be, the beautiful and the wealthy gather at a grand old house in the glen. And when the strange local doctor offers him work at the party, Shadow is intrigued. He knows there is no good reason for him to be there. So what do they want with him?