Book picks similar to
The Cthulhu Child by David Brian
horror
short-stories
lovecraftian
anthology
Aickman's Heirs
Simon StrantzasNadia Bulkin - 2015
"Robert Aickman was a master of what he called 'strange stories,' and though his fiction has been categorized as horror, it's actually its own beast.As we move further away from the horror boom of the last century and its focus on the mainstream appeal of small town horrors, we are encountering successive generations of writers open to exploring new avenues of the subtly bizarre, an area Aickman frequently mastered.This book is a sampler of how Robert Aickman's work has beoome a significant source of inspiration for contemporary writers."
The Uncanny Valley: Tales from a Lost Town
Gregory Miller - 2011
Told by individual inhabitants, the stories recount tales of disappearing dead deer, enchanted gardens, invisible killer dogs, and rattlesnakes that fall from the sky; each contribution adds to a composite portrait that skitters between eerie, ghoulish, and poignant. Miller is a master storyteller, clearly delighting in his mischievous creations.” Thirty-Three Tales. Thirty-Three Tellers. One Lost Town.
Terror in the Shadows: Volume II
Emma Salam - 2019
A party girl’s addiction gives birth to a monster within. Man’s best friend must fend off a woman’s greatest nightmare…Scare Street is proud to present eleven chilling tales of the supernatural, in one monstrous volume. Horror authors Ron Ripley, David Longhorn, Sara Clancy, and many more unite to bring you a terrifying collection of short stories, each one guaranteed to haunt your dreams. And each one more chilling than the last.Once you start reading you won’t be able to stop. Because when these authors sink their teeth into you, it’s already too late.The only way to escape from these nightmares… is to wake up screaming.
Jagannath
Karin Tidbeck - 2011
Whether through the falsified historical record of the uniquely weird Swedish creature known as the “Pyret” or the title story, “Jagannath,” about a biological ark in the far future, Tidbeck’s unique imagination will enthrall, amuse, and unsettle you. How else to describe a collection that includes “Cloudberry Jam,” a story that opens with the line “I made you in a tin can”? Marvels, quirky character studies, and outright surreal monstrosities await you in what is likely to be one of the most talked-about short story collections of the year.Tidbeck is a rising star in her native country, having published a collection there in Swedish, won a prestigious literary grant, and just sold her first novel to Sweden’s largest publisher. A graduate of the iconic Clarion Writer’s Workshop at the University of California, San Diego, in 2010, her publication history includes Weird Tales, Shimmer Magazine, Unstuck Annual and the anthology Odd.
Mysteries of the Worm
Robert Bloch - 1981
To know them will be to know him. And thus we have decided to release a new and expanded third edition of Robert Bloch’s Mysteries of the Worm. This collection contains four more Mythos tales–”The Opener of the Way”, “The Eyes of the Mummy”, “Black Bargain”, and “Philtre Tip”–not included in the first two editions.
Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road
D. Alexander WardRachel Autumn Deering - 2018
Moms and dads making long commutes. Teenagers headed to the beach. Bands on their way to the next gig. Truckers pulling long hauls. Families driving cross country to visit their kin.But there are others, too. The desperate and the lost. The cruel and the criminal.Theirs is a world of roadside honky-tonks, truck stops, motels, and the empty miles between destinations. The unseen spaces.And there are even stranger things. Places that aren’t on any map. Wayfaring terrors and haunted legends about which seasoned and road-weary travelers only whisper.But those are just stories. Aren’t they?Find out for yourself as you get behind the wheel with some of today’s finest authors of the dark and horrific as they bring you these harrowing tales from the road.Tales that could only be spawned by the endless miles of America’s lost highways.So go ahead and hop in. Let’s take a ride.Line-up:
Introduction by Brian Keene
doungjai gam & Ed Kurtz — “Crossroads of Opportunity”
Matt Hayward — “Where the Wild Winds Blow”
Joe R. Lansdale — “Not from Detroit”
Kristi DeMeester — “A Life That is Not Mine”
Robert Ford — “Mr. Hugsy”
Lisa Kröger — “Swamp Dog”
Orrin Grey — “No Exit”
Michael Bailey — “The Long White Line”
Kelli Owen — “Jim’s Meats”
Bracken MacLeod — “Back Seat”
Jess Landry — “The Heart Stops at the End of Laurel Lane”
Jonathan Janz — “Titan, Tyger”
Nick Kolakowski — “Your Pound of Flesh”
Richard Thomas — “Requital”
Damien Angelica Walters — “That Pilgrims’ Hands Do Touch”
Cullen Bunn — “Outrunning the End”
Christopher Buehlman — “Motel Nine”
Rachel Autumn Deering — “Dew Upon the Wing”
Josh Malerman — “Room 4 at the Haymaker”
Rio Youers — “The Widow”
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths. Interview with the editor:So what makes Lost Highways: Dark Fictions From the Road so special?Lost Highways comes at the theme of road stories with the desire to push the boundaries of what that theme means. Because of that, it collects authors of diverse levels of experience and notoriety in the worlds of horror and dark fiction. This brings together voices like Joe R. Lansdale, Cullen Bunn, Josh Malerman, Damien Angelica Walters, Rio Youers, Bracken MacLeod, Rachel Autumn Deering, Matt Hayward, doungjai gam with Ed Kurtz, and Kristi DeMeester. All of these unique voices bring a fresh and often unexpected take on the theme.What made you think of this theme for the anthology?Road trips can be fun but they can also be long and boring.
The Cowboys of Cthulhu
David Bain - 2011
Darius Darke and other "legends" of the Old West are called upon to fight a band of brain-eating bandits in a three-dimensionally-challenged box canyon. This story is a prequel to David Bain's forthcoming weird Western novel RIDERS WHERE THERE ARE NO ROADS. David Bain is the author of DEATH SIGHT, the first novel in the Will Castleton psychic detective series, GRAY LAKE: A NOVEL OF CRIME AND SUPERNATURAL HORROR and several short story collections. He teaches writing at a community college in Indiana.
Ten Chimes to Midnight: A Collection of Ghost Stories
Amy Cross - 2019
But what's waiting, out on the platform, for the passengers? A woman returns to her childhood home, seeking revenge against the spirit that killed her entire family. But will she be given the chance? An angry husband confronts a faded old magician. Is he about to learn a startling secret about the nature of life and death? Ten Chimes to Midnight is a collection, featuring the brand new stories By the Time You Finish Reading This Short Story..., The Carriage, Probate, The Sleeping Ghost, Bill, The Ghost of Pentarth Asylum, The B*tch and the B*stard and As I Put My Card Back in the Deck..., as well as new versions of The Legend of Bug-Eyed Pete and the 2014 novella Hugo: The Lockton Downs Haunting.
Dark Thoughts
Kevin J. Kennedy - 2019
Kennedy has put together some of the horror worlds best selling horror anthologies. Now, for the first time, he has collected together some of his own short stories in the one place. Features a brand new, eight thousand work, tribute story to Richard Laymon's Dark Mountain.
The Gods of HP Lovecraft
Aaron J. FrenchJames A. Moore - 2015
Lovecraft: a brand new anthology that collects the twelve principal deities of the Lovecraftian Mythos and sets them loose within its pages. Featuring the biggest names in horror and dark fantasy, including many NY Times bestsellers, full of original fiction and artwork, and individual commentary on each of the deities by Donald Tyson.About the book: Lovecraft’s bestiary of gods has had a major influence on the horror scene from the time these sacred names were first evoked. Cthulhu, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth—this pantheon of the horrific calls to mind the very worst of cosmic nightmares and the very darkest signs of human nature. The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft brings together twelve all-new Mythos tales from:Cthulhu (Adam Nevill) – Yog-Sothoth (Martha Wells) – Azathoth (Laird Barron) – Nyarlathotep (Bentley Little) – Shub-Niggurath (David Liss) – Tsathoggua (Brett Talley) – The Mi-Go (Christopher Golden & James A. Moore) – Night-gaunts (Jonathan Maberry) – Elder Things (Joe Lansdale) – Great Race (Rachel Caine) – Yig (Douglas Wynne) – The Deep Ones (Seanan McGuire)With commentary on each deity by Donald Tyson
Gutshot
Amelia Gray - 2015
A medical procedure reveals an object of worship. A carnivorous reptile divides and cauterizes a town. Amelia Gray’s curio cabinet expands in Gutshot, where isolation and coupling are pushed to their dark and outrageous edges. These singular stories live and breathe on their own, pulsating with energy and humanness and a glorious sense of humor. Hers are stories that you will read and reread—raw gems that burrow into your brain, reminders of just how strange and beautiful our world is. These collected stories come to us like a vivisected body, the whole that is all the more elegant and breathtaking for exploring its most grotesque and intimate lightless viscera.
The Starry Wisdom
D.M. Mitchell - 1994
Science Fiction and Fantasy. Graphic Novel. Contemporary visions of cosmic transformation, mutation and madness--many inspired directly by the life and writings of H.P. Lovecraft, others reflecting his strangely presentient themes in their own bizarre subtexts. Here the primal beings of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stalk a postmodern landscape of social collapse, ethnic cleansing, genetic engineering and nuclear devastation--nightmare prophecies from his ulp pages which have now come chillingly true.
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.
North American Lake Monsters
Nathan Ballingrud - 2013
Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are monsters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape.Nathan Ballingrud was born in Massachusetts but has spent most of his life in the South. He worked as a bartender in New Orleans and New York City and a cook on offshore oil rigs. His story "The Monsters of Heaven" won the inaugural Shirley Jackson Award. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his daughter.
The Mammoth Book of Nightmare Stories: Twisted Tales Not to Be Read at Night!
Stephen Jones - 2019
. . of horrors! Here are some of the stories that gave their own authors nightmares—things that go bump at night, hauntings that lurk in the back of the mind, skin-crawling moments between the realms of wakefulness and sleep. In this somnambulistic collection, award-winning editor Stephen Jones asks many of the biggest names in horror fiction to choose their own favorite stories and novellas which, for one reason or another, have been unjustly overlooked or ignored. From Hugh B. Cave’s 1930s “shudder pulp” tale to Ramsey Campbell’s stunning novella of barely concealed hysteria and grim black humor, these are the “forgotten” stories ripe for rediscovery, by such acclaimed authors as Poppy Z. Brite, Basil Copper, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Caítlin R. Kiernan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Tanith Lee, and Michael Marshall Smith. Be warned: do not try to read this book at night, because these superior horror stories—both supernatural and psychological—will leave a lasting chill down your spine long after you have put it down, shut off the lights, and ducked under the covers. As you try to get off to sleep, who knows what dreams may come . . .?