Book picks similar to
What a Thought by Shirley Jackson


horror
short-stories
short-story
fiction

The Beautiful People


Charles Beaumont - 1952
    She didn't want to be beautiful. And she wasted time doing mad things--like eating and sleeping...This story was the basis for a classic episode of "The Twilight Zone" TV show!

Babycakes


Neil Gaiman - 1990
    Second publication Born to Be Wild (October 1991). Collected in short story form Angels & Visitations: A Miscellany (1993). Illustrated by Jouni Koponen and published in fanzine form 2002.

Girl in the Green Villa (Mansol Mysteries)


Yash Pawaskar - 2021
    Their honeymoon plans go puff as India announces a nationwide lockdown.Months after living under the pressures of joint family, social distancing rules, and work-from-home stress, they get an opportunity to venture out. Viraj plans a trip to the inviting Green Villa for an intimate weekend getaway. But something is lurking beneath the surface.Will it pan out to be the exciting honeymoon that Viraj thinks they desperately need?What is Jhanak scared about?Who is the girl in the Green Villa?Key highlights of the story:• Fast-paced narration• Non-linear storytelling• Interesting twists and turns• Flavours of the supernatural• Imminent dread, doom, and deceit

The Demon Awakens (1 of 3)


R.A. Salvatore - 2009
    A. Salvatore creates an astonishing new world for readers to explore--and an intrepid hero to lead the way: Elbryan Wynden, who must confront the dark tides of destiny in his epic search for justice and peace . . .A great evil has awakened in the land of Corona, a terrible demon determined to spread death and misery. His goblin armies and fearsome giants ravage the settlements of the frontier, and in the small village of Dundallis their merciless attack leaves behind two shattered orphans: Pony and her lifelong friend, the youth Elbryan. Taken in by elves, Elbryan is raised to become a formidable ranger--a fateful role that will lead him into harrowing confrontation.Meanwhile, on a far-off island, a shower of gemstones will fall onto the black sand shores. These heaven-sent stones carry within them an incredible power--the key to all that is good in the world and all that is evil, and it is up to one young monk to liberate them from the corrupt monastery that harvests them. Pray that they don't fall into the wrong, clawed hands . . .

Black Gate Tales


Paul Draper - 2020
    A disused London Underground lift goes way beyond the bottom floor.A psychic boy discovers what terrors are buried in the fallow field.A handshake seals a midnight fate in an old farming dispute.A corpse must be buried by dawn.BLACK GATE TALES: Fourteen short stories of dread, hope, death and wonder.

Dharma


Charles de Lint - 2007
    Gerry Weiss & Helen S. Weiss; Tor Books, 2007.Set in Newford during 1967's Summer of Love, Beirut-born teen Dharma, runs away from his Muslim home and reinvents himself as a hippie poet-musician. Street-busking one day at an impromptu music jam, Dharma meets a lovely young hippie girl called Button. Love is in the air. Button and Dharma share a gorgeous, magical night at a huge music festival. But is this newfound love as perfect it seems?

Hell's Bells


Vincent Bivona - 2013
    Andrew and James are looking forward to meeting their favorite author, but when a homeless woman, who claims to be the author’s “biggest fan,” begins to stalk the two friends, they have to wonder if this creepy old woman is who she appears to be, and why the sound of bells follows her wherever she goes.

Something Evil This Way Comes: Haunted House (The Haunting of Briar Park Book 1)


Carrie King - 2018
    Journey to Briar Park if you dare... Brother Nicholas is tempted by evil forces to read from an ancient book. His fellow monks are the first victims of this awful and irreversible act. Brother Nicholas is taken from the monastery to live in a remote house Briar Park, compelled to live out the rest of his days in tormented solitude. Constantly tortured by the whispering voices, he is instructed to commit a terrible crime. Can anything end the evil hold on the house in Briar Park? How far will the unholy acts reach? And can anything silence the whispering voices? Keep your wits about you and look carefully over your shoulder as you learn the history of the house in Briar Park…. What was that sound? Is that a faint whispering you can hear in the dark of the night? Scroll up now to read for FREE on Kindle Unlimited or just 0.99 do it before your nerve breaks. Also available With Wicked Intent Silent Screaming The Darkness in the Shadows

Two Crocodiles


Fyodor Dostoevsky - 2013
    Dostoevsky's crocodile, cruelly displayed in a traveling sideshow, gobbles whole a pretentious high-ranking civil servant. But the functionary survives unscathed and seizes his new unique platform to expound to the fascinated public. Dostoevsky's Crocodile is a matchless, hilarious satire.Hernandez's Crocodile, on the other hand, while also terribly funny, is a heartbreaker. A pianist struggling to make ends meet as a salesman finds success when he begins to weep before clients and audience alike, but then he can't stop the crocodile tears.

Voyage to Hell


Matt Shaw - 2017
    There's something happening on the posh liner... The people - staff and passengers alike... They're changing...From Matt Shaw comes a claustrophobic new horror.

Terror in the Shadows: Volume 3


Ron Ripley - 2019
    A dark ritual turns a woman obsessed with supernatural powers against the people who love her most. A possessed TV proves that old B-Movie monsters can still terrify an unsuspecting audience…Scare Street’s roster of authors brings you eleven new tales of supernatural horror, in one blood-chilling volume. This macabre collection of short stories is guaranteed to get your pulse racing, and send shivers down your spine.Each deliciously dark tale will haunt your dreams, and keep you reading long past the witching hour. But wait…What was that noise? Did something move in the shadows?Just keep telling yourself… it’s only a story.

Wang's Carpets


Greg Egan - 1995
    One of the copies of Cater-Zimmermann, Paolo Venetti, arrives at Orpheus; a water-world inhabited by floating mats that perform as a Turing machine.

Life of Ma Parker


Katherine Mansfield - 1921
    Parker has had a hard life, even the neighbours say so. As a girl in Stratford-on-Avon, she had never heard of Shakespeare. In her first position in London, she wasn’t allowed out of the cellar except to pray with the family. After two years of being run off her feet in a doctor’s house, she married a baker who died of consumption while their six surviving children were still young.Life of Ma Parker by Katherine Mansfield is the story of a woman who has always “kept herself to herself,” but can bear her burdens no longer.

The Serpentwar Saga: The Complete 4-Book Collection


Raymond E. Feist - 2013
    Feist. This bundle includes the complete Serpentwar Saga.The bundle includes: Shadow of a Dark Queen (1), Rise of a Merchant Prince (2), Rage of a Demon King (3), and Shards of a Broken Crown (4).Return to the world of Midkemia…Ancient powers are readying themselves for a devastating confrontation, and a dark queen has raised a standard and is gathering armies of unmatched might.Into this battleground of good and evil a band of desperate men are forced whose only hope for survival is to face this ancient power and discover its true nature. Their quest is at best dangerous and at worst suicidal.Among them are some unlikely heroes – Erik, a bastard heir denied his birthright, and his friend Roo, an irrepressible scoundrel with a penchant for thievery are accompanied by the mysterious Miranda upon whom all must wager their lives. She appears to be an ally but also possess a hidden agenda and may prove to be a more deadly foe when the final confrontation is at hand…This ebook bundle contains Shadow of a Dark Queen (1), Rise of a Merchant Prince (2), Rage of a Demon King (3), and Shards of a Broken Crown (4).

The Lost Phoebe


Theodore Dreiser - 1918
    Short story from the story collection FREE AND OTHER STORIES.