Book picks similar to
The Chosen by Edward Lee
horror
edward-lee
splatterpunk
fiction
Asylum Lake
R.A. Evans - 2010
Through its doors came the weak and the weary, the disabled and the discarded, the frail and the forgotten. But an open door is an invitation, and some visitors, once invited, are loath to leave. The hospital abruptly closed in 1958 under a cloud of mystery. It has remained empty and silent, save for the memories trapped both within its walls and far below the surface of the nearby lake that bears its name. At the bottom of Asylum Lake, the unremembered are growing restless. Brady Tanner is trying to outrun memories of his own. After the sudden death of his wife, Brady retreats to the small town where he spent the summers of his youth. But he soon learns small towns can be stained by memories... and secrets, too. As Brady is drawn into unearthing these secrets, as he discovers a new love in an old friend, he is also drawn into the mystery of Asylum Lake and the evil that lies submerged beneath its sparkling surface. What is the source of this evil - and what does it want with Brady Tanner?
Tortured Dreams
Hadena James - 2013
She has survived attacks by two different serial killers and devoted her life to studying the darker side of human history. A new killer is using medieval torture methods to slay his victims. She can give them a glimpse into his twisted world, but not without a cost. If she opens herself, she risks falling into the depths of her own darkness. Can she afford to help, knowing that the cost could be her own humanity? Aislinn Cain's life is a horror story.
The Carrow Haunt
Darcy Coates - 2018
When she's asked to host seven guests for a week-long stay to research Carrow's phenomena, she hopes to finally experience some of the sightings that made the house famous. At first, it's everything they hoped for. Then a storm moves in, cutting off their contact with the outside world, and things quickly become twisted. Doors open on their own. Seances go disastrously wrong. Red liquid seeps from behind the wallpaper. Their spirit medium wanders through the house during the night, seemingly in a trance. Then one of the guests dies under strange circumstances, and Remy is forced to consider the possibility that the ghost of the house's original owner, a twisted serial killer, still walks the halls. But by then it's too late to escape.
Dead Space: Martyr
B.K. Evenson - 2010
With his girlfriend Ada, he joins a team excavating the underwater crater, determined to find the source of the baffling message. The artifact, named "The Black Marker," possesses a mysterious power. Close proximity to the stone causes strange occurrences: visions of the dead, vivid dreams, and violent murders. When Michael secretly obtains a small piece of the marker, he too begins to dream.The Black Marker has chosen him to hear his message: You need to prove yourself worthy of eternal life, or the slate will be wiped clean on Earth.This is the story of the origin of "The Black Marker," the foundation of the Church of Unitology, and a discovery that will change the world.
A is for Antichrist
Iain Rob Wright - 2014
It’s a time where he becomes a man. It’s a time that brings many changes. But Isaac’s sixteenth birthday brings him more changes than most. He is not quite himself and suddenly his friends don’t seem so much like friends anymore. By the end of the party, Isaac will not just change from a boy into a man, but into something else entirely. GROWING PAINS CAN BE HELL… From Bestselling Author of Horror & Suspense, Iain Rob Wright "Iain Rob Wright scares the hell out of me." J A Konrath "A Master of the Modern Horror Tale." Matt Shaw, author of Sick B*stards "Cuddle up to this novel and it might rip your throat out." David T. Wilbanks - Co-author of Dead Earth: The Vengeance Road "One of the BEST horror books I have read in YEARS!" - Eric S. Brown, author of Last Stand in a Dead Land "Wright has achieved a hell of a lot with this novel, pulling together an enjoyable and quite light-hearted apocalyptic romp" - DREADLOCKSMILE "I found myself identifying with and rooting for some of the characters while being disgusted by others. I'd definitely look up Iain Rob Wright's other works" "Iain Rob Wright brings true excitement to the horror genre, with wholly original stories and characters to route for." - Ryan C Thomas, author of Hissers, Rating's Game, and Origin of Pain
Duma Key
Stephen King - 2008
A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE, BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH . . . A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. A marriage that produced two lovely daughters suddenly ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived the injuries that could have killed him. He wants out. His psychologist, Dr. Kamen, suggests a "geographic cure," a new life distant from the Twin Cities and the building business Edgar grew from scratch. And Kamen suggests something else. "Edgar does anything make you happy?" "I used to sketch." "Take it up again. You need hedges . . . hedges against the night."Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled deep in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural--Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.
Some Kind of Wonderful
Giovanna Fletcher - 2017
Now, after celebrating a decade together, everyone thinks they're about to get engaged. A romantic escape to Dubai is the perfect moment, but instead of the proposal Lizzy hopes for, Ian reveals he's not sure he even wants her anymore.Lizzy is heartbroken. But through the tears, she realises this is her chance to seize the opportunities she missed as Ian's other half. But what does she want? How much of her is really Lizzy, and how much was Ian's influence? Determined to discover who she is at heart, Lizzy sets out to rediscover the girl she was before - and in the meantime, have a little fun . . .
Dead Inside
Chandler Morrison - 2015
Along the way, lines will be crossed, taboos will be violated, and common decency will take an extended leave of absence. This is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Or anyone who enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey. A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery as they shatter societal norms while engaging in destructive and abhorrent behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither of them seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive...and that it might not always be a good thing.
A Dark Autumn
Kristopher Rufty - 2013
"He s a writer seeking solitude. They are four women on vacation looking for fun and relaxation. But when they meet they will find only terror. An appalling crime will lead to an unthinkable, gruesome revenge. In the deep woods of Mountain Rock, no one will hear the screams, the agony, the mayhem. No one will hear them die. "
Hellfire
John Saul - 1986
Still, the people of Westover, Massachusetts, remember...and whisper of that terrible day when horrifying flames claimed eleven innocent young lives The day the mill's doors slammed shut - forever.But now, the last of the once-powerful Sturgess family is about to unlock those doors again...and unleash an elemental fury. For behind the padlocks, deep within the dark, abandoned building, a terrible vengeance waits. A vengeance conceived in...HELLFIRE
Relentless
Dean R. Koontz - 2009
He makes a handsome living doing what he enjoys. His wife, Penny, a children's book author and illustrator, is the love of his life. Together they have a brilliant six-year-old, Milo, affectionately dubbed "Spooky," and a non-collie named Lassie, who's all but part of the family.So Cubby knows he shouldn't let one bad review of his otherwise triumphant new book get to him — even if it does appear in the nation's premier newspaper and is penned by the much-feared, seldom-seen critic Shearman Waxx. Cubby knows that the best thing to do is ignore the gratuitously vicious, insulting, and inaccurate comments. Penny knows it; even little Milo knows it. If Lassie could talk, she'd tell Cubby to ignore them, too.Ignore Shearman Waxx and his poison pen is just what Cubby intends to do. Until he happens to learn where the great man is taking his lunch. Cubby just wants to get a good look at the mysterious recluse whose mere opinion can make or break a career — or a life.But Shearman Waxx isn't what Cubby expects, and neither is the escalating terror that follows what seemed to be an innocent encounter. For Waxx gives criticism; he doesn't take it. He has ways of dealing with those who cross him that Cubby is only beginning to fathom. Soon Cubby finds himself in a desperate struggle with a relentless sociopath, facing an inexorable assault on far more than his life.
Seed
Matt Shaw
Over the past couple of weeks she has been growing more and more distant and shudders at his very touch. Determined to keep his new marriage afloat he confronts her only to find the truth of the situation is far more horrific than he could have ever envisioned. With the truth out in the open - only one thing is sure - things will never be the same again.From Matt Shaw (ART, Sick B*stards, The Cabin, Happy Ever After) comes a new psychological horror and a new warning to readers: some scenes of this book may be upsetting.
The Uninvited #1
Mike Evans - 2016
The Uninvited will leave you checking your doors, locking your windows and skipping the weekend camping trip. Meet the stranger, a killer who is unbiased about who it chooses to be the victim, and never tires of the killing. If Dexter and Leather face had a baby The Uninvited would be their offspring. Smart, dark, twisted and disturbing is The Uninvited
The Ghost Hunters
Neil Spring - 2013
Equal parts brilliant and charming, neurotic and manipulative, Harry has devoted his life to exposing the truth behind England’s many ‘false hauntings’, and never has he left a case unsolved, nor a fraud unexposed.So when Harry and Sarah are invited to Borley Rectory – a house so haunted that objects frequently fly through the air unbidden, and locals avoid the grounds for fear of facing the spectral nun that walks there – they’re sure that this case will be just like any other. But when night falls and still no artifice can be found, the ghost hunters are forced to confront an uncomfortable possibility: the ghost of Borley Rectory may be real. And, if so, they’re about to make its most intimate acquaintance.
Stinger
Robert R. McCammon - 1988
Inferno is a town in trouble, driven to the brink by racial tension, gang violence, and a collapsing economy. But things can always get worse, and they do so with astonishing speed when an unidentified spacecraft crash lands in the desert outside of town, followed by a second craft bearing the alien being who will soon be known as Stinger. Stinger is a kind of interstellar hunter on a mission he intends to complete, whatever the cost. He brings with him an endless array of technological marvels and an infinite capacity for destruction that threaten the existence of Inferno, its inhabitants, and the larger world beyond"--Dust jacket flap.