Book picks similar to
The Golden Owl and Other Fairy Tales by Claire Gordon-Bouvier
fantasy
short-stories
giveaway
fiction
Tales from Valleyview Cemetery
John Brhel - 2015
A father hears strange voices on his daughter's baby monitor. A trio of gravediggers faces a swarm of supernatural creatures. A group of teenagers puts a mausoleum legend to the test. A husband and wife take a stroll through a corn maze that they'll never forget. Tales From Valleyview Cemetery contains seventeen interconnected tales of terror -- legends of a town and cemetery entrenched in occult practice, macabre history, and a demon elemental waiting for his people's return. A collection of short horror stories written in the vein of the "Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark" books.
Strings
Allison M. Dickson - 2013
Dickson presents a chilling tale of entrapment and greed.Do you have freedom?Do you have control?After four years of turning tricks in a mob-run New York brothel to pay off a debt, Nina is ready to go back to a quiet life in Iowa. Just one more client and the whole nightmare will be behind her, but this last trick turns into a battle for her soul. Meanwhile, the brothel’s sadistic Madam has been hiding away money in order to move up in her family’s organization, and she only wants the half million dollars the reclusive millionaire pays for the girls. But her driver Ramón has other ideas, making off with the money left behind when Nina’s last trick goes unexpectedly awry. The theft comes at a great cost to the Madam, setting off a horrific chain of events that changes them all. The hooker. The driver. The Madam. All of them on a collision course to a place where only madness holds sway.Who is pulling your Strings?
Uncovering Cobbogoth
Hannah L. Clark - 2011
After her archaeologist uncle’s murder, Norah is asked to translate his old research journal for evidence and discovers that his murder was a cover-up for something far more sinister. When she turns to neighbor and only friend James Riley for help, she realizes that not only is their bitter-sweet past haunting her every step, but James is keeping dangerous secrets. Can Norah discover what they are before its too late to share her own?
The Mahāsiddha Field (The Mahāsiddha Series, #1)
Dwai Lahiri - 2019
Indian mythology is replete with tales of Dévas battling the Asuras constantly. The interesting thing to note is that whether it is a God or an incarnation of a deity in human form, aka an Avatār, there was also a human element involved in these stories. The teachers of the Dévas (gods) and the Asuras were human sages, known as Rishis. Find out what happens when seemingly unconnected individuals get drawn into a world of suspense and action, as mythology collides with their world in the book 'The Mahāsiddha Field', the first in a new sci-fi/fantasy series! An elderly wandering mendicant in South India, two young Indian-American men, two soldiers from the Indian Army and a mysterious sage from high up in the Himalayas are thrown together in an adventure unlike any other; as a most unlikely adversary leaps out of the world of Indian Mythology to challenge their beliefs, their sanity and their courage.
People From My Neighbourhood
Hiromi Kawakami - 2020
These are some of the inhabitants of People From My Neighborhood. In their lives, details of the local and everyday—the lunch menu at a tiny drinking place called the Love, the color and shape of the roof of the tax office—slip into accounts of duels, prophetic dreams, revolutions, and visitations from ghosts and gods. In twenty-six “palm of the hand” stories—fictions small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand—Hiromi Kawakami creates a universe ruled by mystery and transformation.
The Spawning Grounds
Gail Anderson-Dargatz - 2016
A bold new story that bridges Native and white cultures across a bend in a river where the salmon run.On one side of the river is a ranch once owned by Eugene Robertson, who came in the gold rush around 1860, and stayed on as a homesteader. On the other side is a Shuswap community that has its own tangled history with the river--and the whites. At the heart of the novel are Hannah and Brandon Robertson, teenagers who have been raised by their grandfather after they lost their mother. As the novel opens, the river is dying, its flow reduced to a trickle, and Hannah is carrying salmon past the choke point to the spawning grounds while her childhood best friend, Alex, leads a Native protest against the development further threatening the river. When drowning nearly claims the lives of both Hannah's grandfather and her little brother, their world is thrown into chaos. Hannah, Alex, and most especially Brandon come to doubt their own reality as they are pulled deep into Brandon's numinous visions, which summon the myths of Shuswap culture and tragic family stories of the past. The novel hovers beautifully in the fluid boundary between past and present, between the ordinary world and the world of the spirit, all disordered by the human and environmental crises that have knit the white and Native worlds together in love, and hate, and tragedy for 150 years. Can Hannah and her brother, and Alex, find a way forward that will neither destroy the river nor themselves?
UnCommon Bodies: A Collection of Oddities, Survivors, and Other Impossibilities
Jessica WestJordanne Fuller - 2015
Step right up to the modern freakshow. We have mermaids, monsters, and more. You won't be disappointed, but you may not get out alive. UnCommon Bodies presents a collection of 20 beautifully irreverent stories which blend the surreal and the mundane. Together, the authors explore the lives of the odd, the unbelievable, and the impossible. Imagine a world where magic exists, where the physical form has the power to heal or repulse, where a deal with the devil means losing so much more than your soul.The authors: Christopher Godsoe, Philip Harris, Sessha Batto, Rebecca Poole, Brent Meske, Robb Grindstaff, Sally Basmajian, Michael Harris Cohen, Robert Pope, Jordanne Fuller, Deanne Charlton, Bey Deckard, Vasil Tuchkov, SM Johnson, PK Tyler, Laxmi Hariharan, Daniel Smith, Samantha Warren, Bob Williams, Kim Wells, Keira Michelle TelfordContents: * Saltwater Assassin (2015) / short story by Samantha Warren * We Is We / short story by Michael Harris Cohen * Don't Touch Me / short fiction by Bey Deckard * Undead Cyborg Girl / short fiction by Kim Wells * Skin / short fiction by Brent Meske * Scars: First Session / short fiction by Jordanne Fuller * Mermaids / short fiction by Robert Pope * In Her Image / short fiction by Vasil Tuchkov * It Runs in the Family / poem by Deanne Charlton * Brenga's Body / poem by Deanne Charlton * Eternity in a One-Night Stand / poem by Deanne Charlton * Reserved / short fiction by SM Johnson * UnTamed / short fiction by Laxmi Hariharan * Ruby and Deidre / short fiction by Robb Grindstaff * All the Devils / short fiction by Keira Michelle Telford * Ruby / short fiction by Bob Williams * Phantom Pain / short fiction by Philip Harris * Daedalus' Daughter / short fiction by P. K. Tyler * The Zealot [d.o.mai.n] / novelette by Christopher Godsoe * Made for This / short fiction by Sessha Batto * Unbreakable Heart / short fiction by Rebecca Poole * The Well-Rounded Head / short fiction by Sally Basmajian * From the Inside / short story by Daniel Arthur Smith .
Of This New World
Allegra Hyde - 2016
Starting with the Garden of Eden and ending in a Mars colony, the stories wrestle with conflicts of idealism and practicality, communal ambition and individual kink. Stories jump between genres—from historical fiction to science fiction—but all ask that fundamental human question: is paradise really so impossible? Throughout OF THIS NEW WORLD, Hyde writes with a mix of lyricism, humor, and masterful detail. A group of environmental missionaries seeks to start an ideal eco-society on an island in The Bahamas, only to unwittingly tyrannize the local inhabitants. The neglected daughter of a floundering hippie commune must adjust to conventional life with her ungroovy grandmother. Haunted by her years at a collegiate idyll, a young woman eulogizes a friendship. After indenturing his only son to the Shakers, an antebellum vegan turns to Louisa May Alcott’s famous family for help. And in the final story, a former drug addict chases a second chance at life in a government-sponsored space population program.An unmissable debut, the collection charts the worlds born in our dreams and bred in hope.
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Angela Carter - 1979
K. Rowling, Kelly Link, and other contemporary masters of supernatural fiction. In her masterpiece, The Bloody Chamber—which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves—she spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.
Gargoyle
Ben English - 2011
He was smart and strong and goofy, as boys are meant to be, but peculiar - he remembered everything. In the span of a single summer, she made him fearless. Now, even as Mercedes Adams is at the height of her career, forbidding changes loom over the world. That night, in the hushed calm of a spring evening, two plain-faced killers watch her home, waiting to make their approach. A few hundred miles away, a brilliant technologist returns to his childhood home in order to begin a descent into darkness . . . in London, a military game theorist finds himself pursuing kidnappers . . . outside Prague, a hacker and a thief stumble upon plans for a weapon unique to the world . . . an FBI agent faces an unpredictable fugitive in Chicago, while in Germany, a sniper-turned-schoolteacher finds reasons to take up his ancient calling . . . and a sitting United States Senator finds his life and his work invaded to terrifying conclusion. In Paris, a widowed man begins to recognize the hints and patterns of a greater puzzle that will bring them together . . . or kill them all. Mercedes Adams is about to find herself at the center of a vast, tightening knot of mystery, intrigue, and globe-spanning terror borne of her family's legacy. Rising to her aid is a small group of specially-trained men and women. And at their center? A man who remembers everything.
Cinder Heart: A Cinderella Retelling
Amy Linnabary
When she finds out she’s the girl prophesied about in the fairytale Cinderella, her world gets turn upside-down. Things get worse when the cute senior, Hal Charm, finally discovers that she exists. Add a fairy godmother, the powers of fire and speed, and a villain other than her stepmom and Gabbie’s life goes up in flames. Now she's forced to decide between ignoring her destiny to save her friendships, or risking discovery to become the hero she needs to be.1544223528 Alternative Cover Edition
Cry Wolf: A Tale of Beauty and the Beast
Jacque Stevens - 2020
When a new wolf is spotted near the forest, the men of her village are convinced that another monster is on the rise. Isabelle is less certain, until her father is killed in the hunt.Alone and hungry for revenge, Isabelle strikes out on her own to face the dreaded beast. But in this darker twist of a timeless fairytale, things might not be what they seem.Can Isabelle find beauty in the beast?If you like inspirational heroines, unique love stories, and some darker thrills and chills this paranormal/shifter romance is for you! One-click now to start the magic, romance, and heart-pounding adventure!CRY WOLF is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, inspired by the Beast of Gévaudan and the French Revolution. An early version of this novel was published in the Kingdom of Mirrors and Roses Anthology (2019).What are HighTower Fairytales?HighTower Fairytales lean more toward the original sources (NOT Disney) with rich semi-historical settings. They have magic. They have scary monsters. And, most importantly, they have unique and complex characters who are trying hard to improve themselves.They also include plenty of humor and all the heroes marry their prince/princess charming and live happily ever after at the end!Basically, these stories meant to inspire, but have a very difficult and occasionally dark tower to climb. They are conservatively marked at 14+ and are appropriate for teens and young adults.Currently these stories include:Winter Falls: A Tale of the Snow Queen (2017)Cry Wolf: A Tale of Beauty and the Beast (2020)Depths: A Tale of the Little Mermaid (2020)Letters by Cinderlight: A Tale of Cinderella (2021)Robin's Hood: A Tale of Sherwood Forest (2021)And more on the way!!!
Into the Fold (Kan Savasci Cycle, #3)
Chase Blackwood - 2019
Within its shadowy depths the greatest of the old gods had carved a world unto himself. A place unrivaled in its beauty, obscurity, and danger.Trapped within The Fold, under the tutelage of the last arkeinists, Aeden must overcome his greatest obstacle, or die trying.
Gossip from the Forest
Sara Maitland - 2012
Both evoke a similar sensation in us — we find them beautiful and magical, but also spooky, sometimes horrifying.In this fascinating book, Maitland argues that the two forms are intimately connected: the mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils of the forests were both the background and the source of fairytales. Yet both forests and fairy stories are at risk and their loss deprives us of our cultural lifeblood. Maitland visits forests through the seasons, from the exquisite green of a beechwood in spring, to the muffled stillness of a snowy pine wood in winter. She camps with her son Adam, whose beautiful photographs are included in the book; she takes a barefoot walk through Epping Forest with Robert Macfarlane; she walks with a mushroom expert through an oak wood, and with a miner through the Forest of Dean. Maitland ends each chapter with a unique, imaginitive re-telling of a fairystory.Written with Sara's wonderful clarity and conversational grace, Gossip from the Forest is a magical and unique blend of nature writing, history and imaginative fiction.
Foxfire, Wolfskin and other stories of shapeshifting women
Sharon Blackie - 2019
These stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness - and wilderness - within. Beautifully illustrated by Helen Nicholson, Foxfire, Wolfskin and Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women is her first collection of short stories. All are either reimaginings of older tales, or contain characters, beings and motifs which appear in older tales.