Book picks similar to
Devils' Spawn by Charles Birkin
horror
short-stories
valancourt-books
horror-supernatural
The Dead of Night: The Ghost Stories of Oliver Onions
Oliver Onions - 2010
His stories are powerfully charged explorations of psychical violence, their effects heightened by detailed character studies graced with a powerful poetic elegance. In simple terms Oliver Onions goes for the cerebral rather than the jugular. However, make no mistake, his ghost stories achieve the desired effect. They draw you in, enmeshing you in their unnerving and disturbing narratives.This collection contains such masterpieces as The Rosewood Door, The Ascending Dream, The Painted Face and The Beckoning Fair One, a story which both Algernon Blackwood and H. P. Lovecraft regarded as one of the most effective and subtle ghost stories in all literature. Long out of print, these classic tales are a treasure trove of nightmarish gems.
The Coming of the Old Ones
Jeffrey Thomas - 2019
P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. AROUND THE CORNER - A man whose parents raised him in a cult suspects the new tenants in his apartment complex belong to a similar cult, and are summoning up powers that will change the world...and not for the betterment of humankind. AFTER THE FALL - Around the world, after a great storm the sky becomes filled with the fossilized remains of vast monsters locked in an ancient conflict, leaving humans to interpret this vision and to consider their own humble existence. SCRIMSHAW - In this alternate history story set in 1851, men in seafaring ships do not harvest whale blubber, but seek strange treasures in the bodies of immense alien creatures. From Jeffrey Thomas -- the author of Punktown.
Nightmare Seasons
Charles L. Grant - 1982
Four Oxrun Station horror novellas each from a different 20th century decade starting with 1950, keyed to the seasons.
The Phantom Coach: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories
Michael SimsW.W. Jacobs - 2014
Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula's Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity's oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising, often legendary cast, from Charles Dickens and Margaret Oliphant to Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W.F. Harvey. Amelia Edwards' chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce (“The Moonlit Road”), Elizabeth Gaskell, (“The Old Nurse's Story”) and W. W. Jacobs (“The Monkey's Paw”) will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Michael Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.
The Cottage: A True Haunted House Story
Jess Breitling - 2017
But before long they can’t deny something is very wrong with their new residence, and they find themselves trying to make sense of the unexplainable. After a year of coping with disembodied voices, flying objects, phantom footsteps, and apparitions of red eyes, the family moves away. But things will get even stranger at their new house. The Cottage details the true paranormal experiences of a real family in Southern California. If you enjoy The Cottage, please look for its sequel, The Bungalow.
The Other: Encounters With The Cthulhu Mythos Book Two
Troy Young - 2020
The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 1
James D. JenkinsLuigi Musolino - 2020
All the foreign-language stories in this book appear here in English for the first time, while the English-language entries from countries like the Philippines are appearing in print in the U.S. for the first time.The book includes stories by some of the world's preeminent horror authors, many of them not yet known in the English-speaking world:Pilar Pedraza, 'Mater Tenebrarum' (Spain)Flavius Ardelean, 'Down, in Their World' (Romania)Anders Fager, 'Backstairs' (Sweden)Tanya Tynjälä, 'The Collector' (Peru)Frithjof Spalder, 'The White Cormorant' (Norway)Jose María Latorre, 'Snapshots' (Spain)Luigi Musolino, 'Uironda' (Italy)Martin Steyn, 'Kira' (South Africa)Attila Veres, 'The Time Remaining' (Hungary)Lars Ahn, 'Donation' (Denmark)Bernardo Esquinca, 'Señor Ligotti' (Mexico)Cristina Fernández Cubas, 'The Angle of Horror' (Spain)Christien Boomsma, 'The Bones in Her Eyes' (Netherlands)Elisenda Solsona, 'Mechanisms' (Catalonia)Michael Roch, 'The Illogical Investigations of Inspector André Despérine' (Martinique)Solange Rodríguez Pappe, 'Tiny Women' (Ecuador)Bathie Ngoye Thiam, 'The House of Leuk Dawour' (Senegal)Marko Hautala, 'Pale Toes' (Finland)Yvette Tan, 'All the Birds' (Philippines)Ariane Gélinas, 'Twin Shadows' (Québec)Flore Hazoumé, 'Menopause' (Ivory Coast)
All the Fabulous Beasts
Priya Sharma - 2018
writer Priya Sharma, All the Fabulous Beasts collects 16 stunning and monstrous tales of love, rebirth, nature, and sexuality. A heady mix of myth and ontology, horror and the modern macabre.
The Best of Subterranean
William SchaferCherie Priest - 2017
From Hugo and Nebula winners to Pulitzer and Booker Prize finalists to New York Times bestsellers, this anthology collects 30 pieces of Subterranean’s best, representing diverse, breathtaking short fiction from today’s modern masters.In “Last Breath” Joe Hill spins the tale of a man who collects the breaths of the dying for his haunting museum. Catherynne M. Valente’s “White Lines on a Green Field” chronicles what might happen if Coyote became a small town high school quarterback. Karen Joy Fowler’s “Younger Women” finds a woman confronting her daughter’s new boyfriend, who happens to be a vampire. Visit the Twilight Zone via George R.R. Martin in the script “The Toys of Caliban”. In Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” the narratives of a journalist and a young man are told in contrast, both impacted by technology and literacy. And in Kelley Armstrong’s “The Screams of Dragons” a boy is declared a changeling and things only get stranger from there. Other pieces visit far-flung space and intimate sick rooms, the futuristic pyramids of the rich and a jungle where a man-eating tiger stalks a village.Contents:- Perfidia (2004) by Lewis Shiner- Game (2012) by Maria Dahvana Headley- The Last Log of the Lachrimosa (2014) by Alastair Reynolds- The Seventeenth Kind (2007) by Michael Marshall Smith- Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind (2007) by Rachel Swirsky- The Pile (2008) by Michael Bishop- The Bohemian Astrobleme (2010) by Kage Baker- Tanglefoot (2008) by Cherie Priest- Hide and Horns (2009) by Joe R. Lansdale- Balfour and Meriwether in The Vampire of Kabul (2011) by Daniel Abraham- Last Breath (2005) by Joe Hill- Younger Women (2011) by Karen Joy Fowler- White Lines on a Green Field (2011) by Catherynne M. Valente- The Least of the Deathly Arts (2012) by Kat Howard- Water Can't Be Nervous (2012) by Jonathan Carroll- Valley of the Girls (2011) by Kelly Link- Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill! (2012) by Hal Duncan- Troublesolving (2009) by Tim Pratt- The Indelible Dark (2013) by William Browning Spencer- The Prayer of Ninety Cats (2013) by Caitlín R. Kiernan- The Crane Method (2011) by Ian R. MacLeod- The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn (2011) by Robert Silverberg- The Toys of Caliban (script) (2005) by George R.R. Martin- The Secret History of the Lost Colony (2008) by John Scalzi- The Screams of Dragons (2014) by Kelley Armstrong- The Dry Spell (2009) by James P. Blaylock- He Who Grew Up Reading Sherlock Holmes (2014) by Harlan Ellison- A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong (2011) by K.J. Parker- The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling (2013) by Ted Chiang- A Long Walk Home (2011) by Jay Lake
All-Night Terror
Adam Cesare - 2013
Don't look for help, your weaker friends will be too scared to attend, but you’re in for the nightmare of your life. Sit down in front of the TV and prepare for a late-night odyssey of wicked shocks as a horror movie marathon becomes a bloodbath before your very eyes. It starts when a disgruntled cable host seizes control of a television station, determined to give his viewers an evening they won’t soon forget. One where monsters of all shapes and sizes rise up against mankind. One where deranged killers prowl the night for a variety of victims. And one where cinema itself haunts its creators and creations. Join modern horror stars Adam Cesare (Tribesmen, Zero Lives Remaining) and Matt Serafini (Feral, Island Red) as they bring you ten tales of fear that will have you shivering between the pages. All NIGHT TERROR—good to the last slash.
Entropy in Bloom
Jeremy Robert Johnson - 2017
His short stories present a brilliantly dark and audaciously weird realm where cosmic nightmares collide with all-too-human characters and apocalypses of all shapes and sizes loom ominously. In “Persistence Hunting,” a lonely distance runner is seduced into a brutal life of crime with an ever-narrowing path for escape. In “When Susurrus Stirs,” an unlucky pacifist must stop a horrifying parasite from turning his body into a sentient hive. Running through all of Johnson’s work is a hallucinatory vision and deeply-felt empathy, earning the author a reputation as one of today’s most daring and thrilling writers.Featuring the best of his previously independently-published short fiction, as well as an exclusive, never-before-published novella “The Sleep of Judges”—where a father’s fight against the denizens of a drug den becomes a mind-bending suburban nightmare—Entropy in Bloom is a perfect compendium for avid fans and an ideal entry point for adventurous readers seeking the humor, heartbreak, and terror of JRJ’s strange new worlds.
The Sea Was a Fair Master
Calvin Demmer - 2018
There are tales of murder, death, loss, revenge, greed, and hate. There are also tales of hope, survival, and love.For the sea was a fair master.
cold, thin air: Volume 2
C.K. Walker - 2015
Curl up in front of a warm fire on a silent night and choose your poison.
From the Depths and Other Strange Tales of the Sea
Mike AshleyJames Francis Dwyer - 2018
In this anthology, we see a thrilling spread of narratives; sailors are pitched against a nightmare from the depths, invisible to the naked eye; a German U-boat commander is tormented by an impossible transmission via Morse Code; a ship ensnares itself int eh kelp of the Sargasso Sea and dooms a crew of mutineers, seemingly out of revenge for her lost captain . . .The supernatural is set alongside the grim affairs of sailors scorned in these salt-soaked tales, recovered from obscurity for the 21st century.
Ana Kai Tangata: Tales of the Outer the Other the Damned and the Doomed
Scott Nicolay - 2014
"A sprawling treatise of the macabre" in short stories, novelettes, and novellas.