Book picks similar to
The Novel of the White Powder by Arthur Machen
horror
short-stories
fiction
weird
Coraline and Other Stories
Neil Gaiman - 2009
There's another mother and another father in this house and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home ... but will she escape and will life ever be the same again?Elsewhere in this collection, a sinister jack-in-the-box haunts the lives of the children who ever owned it, a stray cat does nightly battle to protect his adopted family, and a boy raised in a graveyard confronts the much more troubled world of the living. From the scary to the whimsical, the fantastical to the humorous, Coraline & Other Stories is a journey into the dark, magical world of Neil Gaiman.All other stories in this collection beside Coraline were originally published as M is for Magic.
All You Zombies
Robert A. Heinlein - 1959
It further develops themes explored by the author in a previous work, "By His Bootstraps", published some 18 years earlier.
The Night After I Lost You
Sarah Rees Brennan - 2013
You have to keep moving in a Gothic mystery. But sometimes you can take a night to be sad.
The Tailor
Leigh Bardugo - 2013
New scene from Shadow and Bone told from Genya's point of view.
A Face in the Crowd
Stephen King - 2012
It’s Rays/Mariners, and David Price is breezing through the line-up. Suddenly, in a seat a few rows up beyond the batter, Evers sees the face of someone from decades past, someone who shouldn’t be at the ballgame, shouldn’t be on the planet. And so begins a parade of people from Evers’s past, all of them occupying that seat behind home plate. Until one day Dean Evers sees someone even eerier….
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe - 1845
Because the story wasn’t identified as fiction when it was first published in 1845, many readers believed Edgar Allan Poe’s sensational work to be a true account. The writing style Poe adopts for this story, as well as its many references to medically-trained people, lends authenticity to it. He is writing about mesmerism, an early form of hypnotism.Librarian's note: this entry is for "The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.
The Monkey's Paw
W.W. Jacobs - 1902
But every wish has a consequence, and the White family finds they are completely unprepared for what comes next. The Monkey’s Paw is a classic horror tale that gives new meaning to the phrase “be careful what you wish for.”The Monkey’s Paw has become a classic horror story and has been adapted numerous times, including into episodes of such popular television series as The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and Tales from the Crypt.HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.
The Haunted and the Haunters
Edward Bulwer-Lytton - 1859
A rationalist Victorian visits a haunted house in order to explain the nature of its ghostly inhabitants.First published in Blackwood's, August 1859.
Cold Hand in Mine: Strange Stories
Robert Aickman - 1974
The story Pages from a Young Girl's Journal won Aickman the World Fantasy Award in 1975. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1973 before appearing in this collection.Cold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full, being more ambiguous than standard ghost stories. Throughout the stories the reader is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul. There is also a nod to the conventional vampire story (Pages from a Young Girl's Journal) but all the stories remain unconventional and inconclusive, which perhaps makes them all the more startling and intriguing.• The Swords • The Real Road to the Church • Niemandswasser • Pages from a Young Girl's Journal• The Hospice • The Same Dog • Meeting Mr. Millar • The Clock Watcher
Lost in a Pyramid or the Mummy's Curse
Louisa May Alcott - 1869
Extract: “And what are these, Paul?” asked Evelyn, opening a tarnished gold box and examining its contents curiously. “Seeds of some unknown Egyptian plant,” replied Forsyth, with a sudden shadow on his dark face, as he looked down at the three scarlet grains lying in the white hand lifted to him. “Where did you get them?” asked the girl. “That is a weird story, which will only haunt you if I tell it,” said Forsyth, with an absent expression that strongly excited the girl’s curiosity.
The Birds and Other Stories
Daphne du Maurier - 1952
The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of 'Monte Verità' promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject's life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three's a crowd . . .
The Shambler from the Stars
Robert Bloch - 1935
It was later included as part of his first published book, The Opener of the Way (1945), and his 1994 collection The Early Fears. As a Cthulhu Mythos tale it is notable for introducing the forbidden tome De Vermis Mysteriis (Mysteries of the Worm), and being a prequel to Lovecraft's own short story The Haunter of the Dark, which was dedicated to Bloch.-- Wikipedia
The Body Snatcher
Robert Louis Stevenson - 1884
Jekyll and Mr. HydeMedical school students Fettes and Macfarlane are charged with the unenviable task of receiving and paying for the institution’s research cadavers. When Fettes recognizes the dead body of a woman he saw alive and well just the day before, he suspects murder. Macfarlane, however, insists that the authorities would never believe they had nothing to do with her death. Reluctantly, Fettes agrees to keep quiet, but soon regrets his decision when another familiar corpse turns up—and takes on a life of its own.
Slade House
David Mitchell - 2015
Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you’ll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. Every nine years, the house’s residents — an odd brother and sister — extend a unique invitation to someone who’s different or lonely: a precocious teenager, a recently divorced policeman, a shy college student. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late... Spanning five decades, from the last days of the 1970s to the present, leaping genres, and barreling toward an astonishing conclusion, this intricately woven novel will pull you into a reality-warping new vision of the haunted house story—as only David Mitchell could imagine it.
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Harlan Ellison - 1967
It was first published in the March 1967 issue of IF: Worlds of Science Fiction.It won a Hugo Award in 1968. The name was also used for a short story collection of Ellison's work, featuring this story. It was recently reprinted by the Library of America, collected in volume two (Terror and the Uncanny, from the 1940s to Now) of American Fantastic Tales (2009).