Book picks similar to
A House in the Country by Matt Shaw
horror
short-stories
matt-shaw
short-story
Shadowfires
Leigh Nichols - 1987
She had never seen Eric so angry, so consumed by pure and terrifying hatred. Then, in the heat of the moment, Eric was struck down in a traffic accident. His death was instantaneous. Shocked and relieved, Rachael had nothing left to fear. Until Eric’s body disappeared from the morgue—and Rachael was stalked by someone who looked like her dead husband…
From Twisted Roots
S.H. Cooper - 2018
My sister was not most little girls.Inside you'll experience intimate first hand accounts of modern day murders, kidnappings, and violent revenge. Other stories are heart-warming with whimsical mysteries, gothic fairy tales, and supernatural monstrosities.
Dollhouse
Anya Allyn - 2012
A dollhouse, filled with life-sized toys. A doorway into other realms. And girls who keep disappearing...When Cassie’s best friend, Aisha, vanishes during a school hike, Cassie sets off with Aisha's boyfriend and their friend Lacey, determined to find her. Instead, the three teens fall into a carefully-laid trap—deep into the surreal nightmare and dark secrets of the Dollhouse.Now, Cassie must uncover the mysteries of the Dollhouse and her own connection to it-- before it's too late.With the horror and otherworldliness of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and the gothic romance of A Great and Terrible Beauty, Dollhouse is a tantalizing start to The Dark Carousel series.
Coldheart Canyon
Clive Barker - 2001
His fiercely loyal agent finds him just such a place in a luxurious forgotten mansion high in the Hollywood Hills. But the original owner of the mansion was a beautiful woman devoted to pleasure at any cost, and the terrible legacy of her deeds has not yet died. There are ghosts and monsters haunting Coldheart Canyon, where nothing is forbidden . . .
The Garage
J. Dispenza - 2018
It’s 1996 and high school sweethearts, Zoe and Stefano, are enjoying a valentine’s night in when Zoe realizes she is about to miss her midnight curfew. Worried about losing her car privileges, she jumps into her Ford Escort and begins the long and dark drive home. Meanwhile, Stefano is caught off guard by a troubling psychic premonition of blood – lots of blood. As the clock ticks down to midnight, Zoe comes to the bone-chilling realization that she has a bigger problem than answering to her strict father about the time. Will Zoe and Stefano survive the night? If you like paranormal thrillers, don’t miss this fast paced short story.
89
Stuart Keane - 2016
When his agent requires him to step in as a last-minute replacement for a fellow writer at a lucrative book convention in Sheffield, Greg reluctantly accepts. With only hours to get there, he boards a red-eye coach for the 89-mile trip. With nine hours ahead of him, solitude and silence his only companions, he settles in for the overnight journey. However, the journey doesn’t go according to plan. After a few miles, a woman boards the bus and, despite the coach being empty, takes the seat next to Greg. The woman is a self-proclaimed fan, a bookworm, someone who has followed his work since the early days. Initially flattered by the attention, Greg soon becomes aware of the woman's alternative agenda, one that slowly twists casual conversation into something a lot more sinister…
Kissing Games
Mark Edwards - 2012
Now it stands abandoned and rotting just beyond the woods. Ben and Ollie have agreed to spend a night there. But they are unaware that one of the former inmates has returned to the hospital, roaming the silent corridors at night … and she likes boys. She likes to kiss them. She likes to kill them.KISSING GAMES is an original story from the co-author of CATCH YOUR DEATH and KILLING CUPID and the first in an ongoing series of short thrillers, each of which should take around an hour or two to read.
Come Closer
Sara Gran - 2003
A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.The new voice in Amanda's head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. Is she possessed by a demon, or is she simply insane? Described as “a new kind of psychological thriller” by George Pelecanos and “this year's scariest novel” by Time Out New York, Come Closer has become a modern classic “with a kick that will stay with the reader for days afterward” (The Dallas Morning News).
White Crow
Marcus Sedgwick - 2010
Rebecca is an unwilling visitor to Winterfold - taken from the buzz of London and her friends and what she thinks is the start of a promising romance. Ferelith already lives in Winterfold - it's a place that doesn't like to let you go, and she knows it inside out.
Old Blood
Karina Halle - 2012
But beyond the horrid makeup and piercing stare lies Pippa, a woman just like everyone else.Well, not quite.When Perry discovered Pippa’s message to her and Dex on the EVP recordings, she thought she heard the last of the old woman’s message. She was wrong. In the novella Old Blood, Pippa relays the tale of her troubled and tortured past, revealing how an aspiring actress and loving mother fell into madness and how an unfathomable betrayal led to her untimely death. For Perry, the repercussions of her message are life-shattering.Old Blood is #5.5 in the series and occurs between books #5 On Demon Wings and #6 Into the Hollow
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys
April Genevieve TucholkeDanielle Paige - 2015
There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat. From bloody horror to supernatural creatures to unsettling, all-too-possible realism, this collection has something for any reader looking for a thrill.Fans of TV’s The Walking Dead, True Blood, and American Horror Story will tear through tales by these talented authors:Stefan BachmannLeigh BardugoKendare BlakeA. G. HowardJay KristoffMarie LuJonathan MaberryDanielle PaigeCarrie RyanMegan ShepherdNova Ren SumaMcCormick TemplemanApril Genevieve TucholkeCat Winters
The Nameless City
H.P. Lovecraft - 1921
P. Lovecraft in January 1921 and first published in the November 1921 issue of the amateur press journal The Wolverine. It is often considered the first Cthulhu Mythos story.The Nameless City of the story's title is an ancient ruin located somewhere in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and is older than any human civilization.
Insanity
Susan Vaught - 2014
It is a crossways, a place where the dead and the living can find no peace. Not that Forest, an 18-year-old foster kid who works the graveyard shift at Lincoln Hospital, knew this when she applied for the job. Lincoln is a huge state mental institution, a good place for Forest to make some money to pay for college. But along with hundreds of very unstable patients, it also has underground tunnels, bell towers that ring unexpectedly, and a closet that holds more than just donated clothing....When the dead husband of one of Forest's patients makes an appearance late one night, seemingly accompanied by an agent of the Devil, Forest loses all sense of reality and all sense of time. Terrified, she knows she has a part to play, and when she does so, she finds a heritage that she never expected. With her deep knowledge of mental illness and mental institutions, Susan Vaught brings readers a fascinating and completely creepy new book intertwining the stories of three young people who find themselves haunted beyond imagining in the depths of Lincoln Hospital.
The Masque of the Red Death - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story
Edgar Allan Poe - 1842
He and many other wealthy nobles, hold a masquerade ball using seven rooms in the abbey, each decorated with a different color. The last one is velvet black.In the midst of their revelry, a mysterious figure disguised as a Red Death victim enters and makes his way through each of the rooms. The story follows many traditions of Gothic fiction and is often analyzed as an allegory about the inevitability of death, though some critics advise against an allegorical reading. Many different interpretations have been presented, as well as attempts to identify the true nature of the titular disease.Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story "The Masque of the Red Death." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.
Bad Games
Jeff Menapace - 2013
Some fishing, some barbecue, some games...The Fannelli brothers are heading to Crescent Lake too. Some stalking, some kidnapping, some murder, definitely some games...though not necessarily the type of games the Lamberts had in mind. But it doesn't matter. The Lamberts are going to play whether they like it or not.An intense psychological thriller, Bad Games has the dark, mind-bending chills of The Bad Seed combined with the fish-out-of-water dread and suspense of Deliverance. So let Jeff Menapace's highly anticipated suspense thriller keep you up all night as it delves into the mystery of nature versus nurture when comprehending the evil in man, along with the will and determination an innocent family must summon to fight back against horrific odds.