Book picks similar to
Meat by Michael Bray
horror
vampires
vwz
adult-and-new-adult
Suffer the Children
Craig DiLouie - 2014
Soon, they return from the grave…and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were...but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds ten pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?
Highlander’s Trusted Traitor
Alisa Adams - 2020
When their paths cross, Keith feels like thunder hit him! Yet he knows that he is the last man Rose would ever marry.Desperately trying to get her out of his mind, Keith wonders through the castle and witnesses something that would make Rose faint!Keith will use all the courage he has to tell Rose the truth. The result? Not only does Rose not believe him, but she sees him as the treacherous liar.Thus, still hidden in the shadows, Rose's most trusted companion is beyond suspicion planning to kill her...Will Rose finally trust her only true ally or will she condemn herself to doom?"Highlander's Trusted Traitor" is a standalone story by best selling author Alisa Adams, packed with mystery, betrayal, and romance, set on the beautiful backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.
The Man Who Found Out
Algernon Blackwood - 2009
Laidlaw knew him in his laboratory, was one man; but Mark Ebor, as he sometimes saw him after work was over, with rapt eyes and ecstatic face, discussing the possibilities of "union with God" and the future of the human race, was quite another. "I have always held, as you know," he was saying one evening as he sat in the little study beyond the laboratory with his assistant and intimate, "that Vision should play a large part in the life of the awakened man-not to be regarded as infallible, of course, but to be observed and made use of as a guide-post to possibilities-" "I am aware of your peculiar views, sir," the young doctor put in deferentially, yet with a certain impatience.
Strategies Against Nature
Cody Goodfellow - 2015
The lone survivor of a hellish Interstate pile-up follows an otherworldly sound to its source. A father desperate to cure his daughter’s condition uncovers a multinational corporation’s unspeakable plan for solving world hunger. In these eleven stories, Cody Goodfellow explores the bizarre and the deeply human, using the kaleidoscopic language only he is capable of.
A Penny For Your Thoughts
Robert Ford - 2019
He has let go of old habits, especially the ones that turned him into an addict and helped land him in prison.On a hike along the Lowback Trail, Joe stumbles on one of the town's oldest secrets--buried long ago, if not forgotten.It's an unusual but safe enough treasure--a jar of old pennies. What interests Joe isn't the pennies themselves, but the pieces of paper taped to every coin--a child's handwritten wish on each one.When the first few wishes come true, they are simple things. Fun. Harmless.Except as time goes on, Joe realizes they aren't really wishes at all...they're exchanges, and the bill was racking up.Nothing is free in life. Sooner or later, you always pay.
Occultation and Other Stories
Laird Barron - 2010
P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, and Thomas Ligotti. His stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. His debut collection, The Imago Sequence and Other Stories, was the inaugural winner of the Shirley Jackson Award.He returns with his second collection, Occultation. Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation’s nine tales of terror (two published here for the first time) were nominated for just as many Shirley Jackson awards, winning for the novella “Mysterium Tremendum” and the collection as a whole. Occultation brings more of the spine-chillingly sublime cosmic horror Laird Barron’s fans have come to expect. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
The Desert
Bryon Morrigan - 2007
During the opening engagements of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a platoon of U.S. soldiers disappears. The Army attributes this disappearance to the "fog of war," and the subsequent investigation into the disappearance fails to locate even a single body or destroyed vehicle. Six years later, two soldiers on a routine search for "weapons of mass destruction" locate a cave with the remains of one of the missing soldiers and his journal. Unfortunately, Captain Henderson and Specialist Densler find out all too soon that what happened to the "Lost Platoon" is also happening to them. Trapped, they must confront this unspeakable menace, or risk suffering the same fate as that of the soldier in the cave. "Bryon Morrigan's first novel, THE DESERT, is everything you hope to find in a first novel and then some. An original plot, solid characterization and a refreshing change of pace from the standard chains rattling in the attic. A fine mesh of horror and military drama that I can't recommend enough." -James A. Moore, author of BLOOD RED & HARVEST MOON "The Desert by Bryon Morrigan is a weird and wild novel of men againt monsters. In the grand tradition of James Cameron's Aliens, Bryon Morrigan gives a whipcrack tale of U.S. soldiers pitted against the very forces of Hell. It's fun, fast-paced, and deliciously creepy." -Jonathan Maberry, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of GHOST ROAD BLUES & BAD MOON RISING
The Turning
A.L. Masters - 2021
They realize too late that this is no ordinary plague...and that the enemy they have to fight may not be the only thing they need to worry about.Book One of The Salvation Plague series.The Turning includes foul language, graphic violence, and some mature themes.
Her Billionaire's Bargain
Yvette Hines - 2016
Whether in business or his personal life. Not many people tell him, “No.” Until Kourtney Deen, a striking beauty, refused to sell her business to him so that he could put up a luxury spa and golf course. Business is business that’s what Zac has always believed. He refuses to get caught in the marriage trap like his cousins. However, the day he meets the feisty shop owner face to face, he can’t resist the attraction he has for her. Kourtney refuses to allow herself to get distracted. No matter how tall, grey-eyed and handsome he maybe. That road has already been traveled. Years ago, she made some mistakes and had to make some tough choices. Now, the only two things she cares about are her daughter and the success of her shop. In Zac’s structured life, things have always gone how he planned it, but one unexpected event leads to another. When he discovers that nothing is what it seems and there are secrets, yet revealed, he learns quickly that it is not his wallet he has to lean on, but his heart.
Mary: The Summoning
Hillary Monahan - 2014
Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them--Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna--must link hands, follow the rules . . . and never let go. A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY." A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a specter trapped behind the mirror. Once is not enough, though--at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary's wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.A haunting trail of clues leads Shauna on a desperate search to uncover the legacy of Mary Worth. What she finds will change everything, but will it be enough to stop Mary--and Jess--before it's too late?
Exiled
M.R. Merrick - 2011
On his fifteenth birthday, Chase stepped up to the altar to claim his elemental power, but it never came. Elemental magic is passed down to a hunter through the bloodline, but on Chase's birthday, the bloodline stopped. Exiled without the Circle's protection, Chase has spent two years trying to survive a world riddled with half-demons and magic. When he has a run in with a frightened and seemingly innocent demon, he learns the Circle's agenda has changed: the Circle plans to unlock a portal and unleash pure-blood demons into the world. Vowing to stop them, and knowing he can't do it alone, Chase forms a reluctant alliance with Rayna — a sexy witch with an attitude and a secret. In their attempt to stop them, Chase and Rayna find themselves in the middle of the Circle's plan, leaving one of them to decide what their friendship is worth, and the other's life depending on it.
The Hollow Places
T. Kingfisher - 2020
Pray they are hungry.Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
Monolith
Shaun Hutson - 2015
A stunning creation of glass and concrete that will be a new landmark on London's skyline. And people are dying because of it...Dozens of mysterious unexplained accidents have claimed the lives of workmen during the construction and journalist Jessica Anderson is convinced that the owner of the building, a billionaire Russian businessman, knows more about the accidents than he is revealing.Enlisting the help of a former colleague, Jess tries to investigate the shadowy industrialist but finds that far harder than she imagined. Protected by a private security force and cocooned by his entourage, this powerful man proves to be as elusive as anyone she has ever known. He values his privacy and seems willing to go to any ends to protect it. But what is he hiding?As she delves into his background she discovers that one of his ancestors lived in London during the 1930's on the same site where the Crystal Tower was constructed and death and destruction surrounded that ancestor too. Is there a link between these two men? Jess is convinced there is and when a series of horrific attacks and murders take place, perpetrated against men who want to stop the Russians next building project, she finds herself plunged into a maelstrom of fear and events that threaten not just her life but her very sanity... Something from the darkest reaches of myth and superstition has been unleashed upon a modern world and it seems no one can stop it...
Heku
T.M. Nielsen - 2010
For thousands of years he’s sat on the Equites Council, ruling body of his heku faction, and for thousands of years his every order has been followed immediately and without question.One of the most important rules of the heku, is that no one is to feed from unwilling donors. Following a tip that a young mortal woman is being brutally attacked by his own kind, he seeks her out and immediately begins to experience unnatural feelings for the woman.Emily, a beautiful rancher from Montana, has spent her entire life being violently attacked by beings she assumed were vampires. It isn’t until she meets Chevalier that she learns of her startling family history, a history that immediately throws her into the volatile world of the heku.In a bid to protect her, Chevalier moves Emily into his isolated coven, which marks her as a prime target for the Valle and the Encala, enemy factions of the heku. Emily fights to fit into the militaristic world of the heku as her head-strong personality and independent ways turn their perfectly balanced world on end. She immediately befriends Kyle, a heku from Chevalier’s coven, and together they find Emily a niche among the immortal.Emily’s violent past interferes with Chevalier’s plans, and he must first undo what her abusive ex-husband did before he can convince her how much he cares about her, and how much she’s worth to his faction. Chevalier’s growing feelings for Emily are unnatural to his kind, and must be hidden from the rest of the Equites Faction if he’s to remain a formidable part of their Council.His jealous tendencies rage as Emily gets closer to Kyle, and both heku struggle to make her realize how important she is to the faction and how endangered she now is.
The Immortal Rules
Julie Kagawa - 2012
By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for
again.Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.