Book picks similar to
Lovesick by Jon Athan
horror
dark
splatterpunk
extreme-horror
The Paper Swan
Leylah Attar - 2015
But on Day 22, she would have given anything for the sweet slumber of death. Because on Day 22, she realizes that her only way out means certain death for one of the two men she loves.A haunting tale of passion, loss, and redemption, The Paper Swan is a darkly intense yet heartwarming love story, textured with grit, intrigue, and suspense. Please note: This is NOT a love triangle.A full-length, standalone novel, intended for mature audiences due to violence, sex and language. Subject matter may be disturbing for some readers.
Someone Like Me
M.R. Carey - 2018
She sounds like me. Now she's trying to take my place.Liz Kendall wouldn't hurt a fly. She's a gentle woman devoted to bringing up her kids in the right way, no matter how hard times get.But there's another side to Liz - one which is dark and malicious. A version of her who will do anything to get her way, no matter how extreme or violent.And when this other side of her takes control, the consequences are devastating.The only way Liz can save herself and her family is if she can find out where this new alter-ego has come from, and how she can stop it.
The Butterfly Garden
Dot Hutchison - 2016
Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...
Quiet Lies
R.L. Griffin - 2015
I swept the ashes of myself into a pile that I kept safe for thirteen years. Believe me it wasn’t pretty, oh but people thought we were perfect. I hate myself most days. I hate that I feel for him as much as I loathe who I’ve become with him. This story is hard to hear. You know what the worst part is? You’ll see part of you in me. You’ll hate that. You won’t tell anyone. My story is about cracks. A description or telling of how cracks in a marriage, a life, a personality, a heart and a mind begin and continue for years without anyone knowing. You don't always see what causes the fissure, but you feel it. Can you remember who you were before all of this started, before your life became a jumble of deceit, longing and regret?This book isn’t for anyone who needs a happily ever after. This book isn’t for anyone who needs a fun time out from their life. This book isn’t for anyone, but me. This is my story. I won’t apologize for it.
Prodigal Blues
Gary A. Braunbeck - 2006
Braunbeck comes Prodigal Blues, his first foray into non-supernatural horror.After he finds himself stranded at a truck stop in Missouri, Mark Sieber gets one of the biggest shocks of his life when he recognizes the face of a little girl on a Missing poster as belonging to the same little girl he saw only a few minutes before. Looking around for some sign of her, he comes back to his table in the restaurant to find the little girl sitting there, waiting for him."I'm sorry, mister," is all she seems capable of saying.As the police and media begin to converge on the truck stop, Mark retreats back to his hotel room to call his wife and let her know what's going on, only to be taken hostage by the same people who released the little girl. But his abductors are little more than children themselves.Ranging in ages from 12 to 19, Mark's abductors are in the process of escaping from a sadistic pedophile known to them only as "Grendel" a man whose practices include torture and mutilation specifically, mutilation of the face.Mark's abductors have all been mutilated by Grendel, who may be very close behind them, and need someone with a "normal face" to help them carry out their plan for justice and return home.For the next few days, Mark will come to understand not only the inhuman horror that these children have suffered, but how they eventually learned to fight back and how they discovered that Grendel and his practices are at the center of a very complex network catering to those whose tastes run toward the molestation and mutilation of children.Prodigal Blues is perhaps Braunbeck's most suspenseful and emotionally powerful work to date; a story of suffering, depravity, redemption, and in the end the individual's compassion for his or her fellow human beings that can lead some people to find reserves of courage and determination they never thought they possessed.Terrifying, suspenseful, sometimes surprisingly funny, and ultimately moving, Prodigal Blues is quintessential Braunbeck.
Bloodstained Beauty
Ella Fields - 2018
Fresh out of college and headed straight for my dream job, I didn’t think things could get any better.
Then I met my dream man.
In an instant, my happy ever after had begun.
The life I’d stumbled into was beautiful, and the man I loved was perfect.
But perfection comes at a cost, and I’d slumbered through all the alarms.
Then I met my nightmare.
The man whose bright eyes held untamed darkness.
The man who disarmed me with his peculiar behavior.
The man whose cold, merciless hands shook me awake.
In an instant, questions started to dismantle my happy ever after.
But whoever said the truth would set you free was wrong.
It wasn’t going to repair the cracks in my naive heart.
It wasn’t going to caress my face with comforting hands and reassure me it was all just a dream.
No, the truth shoved me down a rabbit hole, and I landed in the lair of a real-life monster.
Kayla and the Devil
Bryan Smith - 2011
Stunning looks, smarts, and loads of money thanks to her privileged upbringing. But something’s gone wrong. Ever since the start of her sophomore year, people have been avoiding her. Her friends shun her. Guys no longer flock to her. Even her former stalker, an awkward geek, now wants nothing to do with her.She is on the brink of utter despair when she encounters a young man in the park. The man is charming and movie star handsome. Kayla thinks maybe her luck has taken a turn for the better. But she couldn’t be more wrong. Because this man is the Devil. Capital D definitely intended. The ultimate embodiment of evil. And he has something to tell Kayla.Kayla hasn’t always been the nicest girl in the world. At times she has been downright mean. She’s grown past that, but now her past has come back to haunt her. Someone wants revenge. Bad enough to engage the services of the devil. But the tables have turned again and the devil now has his own deal to offer Kayla.He can end her suffering. End the shunning spell. But only at a very high price. And Kayla must decide whether she has it within herself to surrender her soul and commit an act so heinous it will damn her forever.
Heat
R. Lee Smith - 2009
A world quarantined since its discovery by the Far-Reachers of Jota's history. And where the fortunes of slavers and chemists have been made ever since.It was to Earth that Kanetus E'Var, the son of Jota's most ruthless slaver, escaped to make Vahst, a powerful drug manufactured from the human brain. And it was to Earth that Tagen Pahnee, Fourth-ranking officer of the Jotan Off-World Security Fleet, was sent to bring the criminal back to justice. Neither of them could have anticipated that at that moment, E'Var's hunting grounds were experiencing the worst heat wave in years, triggering the Jotan breeding cycle in both males.Home is not an option for either of them. Both are determined to find a way to work on this hostile planet, surrounded by humans, surrounded by dangers, surrounded by Heat.Adult readers only, due to graphic gore, violence, and explicit sexual situations.617 pages, 285,862 words
Josie and Jack
Kelly Braffet - 2005
The only adult in their lives is their rage-prone father, a physicist, whose erratic behavior finally drives them away. Without a moral compass to guide them, Jack leads Josie into a menacing world of wealth, eroticism, and betrayal. His sociopathic tendencies emerge, and soon Josie must decide which is stronger: the love and devotion she feels for her brother or her will to survive.From its opening page to its shocking climax, this contemporary Hansel and Gretel story is compulsively readable and hugely entertaining.
Sharp Objects
Gillian Flynn - 2006
For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming.Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0307341550 (ISBN 13: 9780307341556)
Doll Face (Doll Face #1)
Sadie Grubor - 2017
Most kids don't grow up wanting a dead-beat dad. Those kids don't understand how much worse it can truly be. How it feels to grow up wishing your father was a neglectful dead-beat and not a living nightmare. I did. I do. And my safest place is to hide among the monsters. So, that's what I do. I blend into a sea of criminals and the depraved. Any of them are far better company than my father. It's been over two years I've stayed safe, over two years of keeping the balance, over two years of being someone else and living their life. Then he walks through the dark red lacquered doors of my hiding place. His eyes searching, probing, and knowing. Now, this temptation swirls on the tip of my tongue, teasing my taste buds, making me want to confess all my sins to a man who could punish me and free me in the most wonderfully worst ways. This isn't a romance. This isn't a love story. This is primal. This is raw. This is obsession. ~*~ Doll Face is a dark erotic tale suitable for ages 18+. This contains DARK subjects. If you require trigger warnings, guaranteed HEAs, are easily turned off by dark subjects, or just have any hard 'limit/requirement for a story, this isn't the book for you (Check out The Falling Stars Series instead). If you like dark subjects, over the top obsessive controlling alpha males, and aren't afraid of how bloody love can truly get... Then enjoy. ~*~
The Mafia And His Angel: Part 1
Lylah James - 2017
Ruthless. Killer. I am respected and feared by all. I wasn’t put on this earth to love or be loved. I was put here to wipe out every last member of the damn Abandonato mafia, to pay them back for my mother’s death. When I find a strange girl hiding, beaten, under my bed, I don’t let her live out of compassion. She’s a trinket, my plaything. Ayla… I thought Alessio was only one more man who wanted to use me, hurt me, and throw me away. I don’t know what it is to trust anymore. I can’t find my heart under the pain. Alessio found it. He touched it, and brought it alive again. But if he discovers just how dangerous I am to him…I’ll lose my life.
The Last House on Needless Street
Catriona Ward - 2021
A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...
Broken
W. Winters - 2016
Ruthless. Stone Cold Killer.That’s me. I destroy anything in my path to get what I want.Then she showed up. Olivia Bell. She’s sweet and innocent, and in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Now she’s mine. My property. I own her. Given to me as a bargaining chip.She’s not a part of my plans, but plans change. Her pouty lips and gorgeous curves beg me to break her. Taking her lush curvy body, and ravaging it for all its worth would be easy, but I want to earn her submission. It’s addictive. I want it. I want her.They wanted me to break her. I am. And I’m enjoying it. Now they want to take her from me. Over my dead body.Let them come for us. I’ll kill them all.By the time I’m done, everyone will know. She belongs to me.**This is a DARK romance. A full-length standalone novel with HEA and no cheating**
Brother
Ania Ahlborn - 2015
The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard. But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…