Book picks similar to
The Arte Mephitic by Phil Breach


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modern-weird-fiction
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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 Nosferatu Conspiracy: The Sleepwalker


Brian James Gage - 2020
    This contrasts suppressed documents citing the royal family mysteriously disappeared after fires ravaged Saint Petersburg in December 1916 (OS).Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was supposedly murdered by high-ranking Russian officials on December 16, 1916 (OS), for his unprecedented and perceived nefarious influence over the royal family. He was poisoned, shot twice, and clubbed into submission, yet remained alive. His attackers finally drowned him underneath the icy Neva River.Rasputin’s autopsy was reportedly performed three days later by Professor Kossorotov, a high-ranking Okhrana agent and future Kremlin operative. Cause of death: drowning. The document states Rasputin broke free of his bindings and his fingernails showed signs he’d tried to claw through the ice.The stories surrounding Rasputin’s death are gross falsifications. His body was never recovered for examination, and his status within the Russian intelligence community to this day remains: At Large.This is the true story of Rasputin’s paranormal coup d'etat and his conjuring of ancient vampires that destroyed Saint Petersburg, Russia, in December 1916.History is a lie. The truth will be exposed.

Articles on Novels By George R. R. Martin


Hephaestus Books - 2011
    This book contains articles available free on Wikipedia and other free sources.

The Culling


Peter Meredith - 2020
    It’s time to tear down and start again. And what better way to eradicate humanity than by unleashing the monsters inside each of us? Destroying mankind is simple compared to perfecting a new version of mankind. Just as evil resides within all of us, the hero does as well. It’s just much harder to bring out. The Chosen are those few who survive the process. They become greater in every regard. The other 98% however, become the stuff of nightmares. Wickedly cunning and ferociously strong, they are insatiable demons that make the average zombie look like it's made of sticks and string.Into this cataclysm Bryce Carter is thrown wearing nothing but a hospital gown. He dared to defy Magnus, who felt injecting him with the serum just wasn’t punishment enough. Barefoot and bleeding, Bryce has to fight his way out of a city overrun with zombies.Led by the demons, the dead sweep across the streets like a grey river, forcing him to crawl through sewers and down into the dark tunnels beneath the blood-soaked streets. He’s hounded relentlessly and growing desperate as he only has so much time. Nuclear weapons are being readied and soon the city will be nothing but dust and ash.

Shade King: An Urban Fantasy Military Adventure (The Awakened World Book 2


William Stacey - 2020
    Seven days ago, I was struggling to survive without my magic. Now I’m on the run with a family of werewolf super-soldiers. Not gonna lie. I’m in trouble—a lot of trouble: a cult of dragon-worshipping fanatics wants to cut my heart out, vampire assassins hunt me, and even my own countrymen want to hang me for treason.Oh, and a dark empire plots to conquer the entire West Coast. It may be led by a pair of dragons, honest-to-god dragons.Did I mention I’m possessed by an ancient entity of unimaginable power?Last week was hell on Earth, literally. I think this week is gonna be worse.At least my magic’s back—wow, is it ever back!Warning: Contains scenes of sexual situations, realistic violence, and soldiers talking like soldiers.If you like Myke Cole, Michael Anderle, K.F. Breene, and Shayne Silvers, you’ll love this exciting new series.

The King in Yellow - True Detective Edition: Tales of the Carcosa Mythos


Ambrose Bierce - 2014
    Chambers, Ambrose Bierce, and H. P. Lovecraft. This anthology, edited with an explanatory introduction by a noted weird fiction scholar, collects the tales of those writers that are relevent to True Detective. Unlike other ebook collections, that contain dozens of unrelated stories, such as Chambers's victorian romances and random Lovecraft stories that have nothing at all to do with True Detective, this anthology includes only those stories that directly reference The King in Yellow, Carcosa, and other important themes. This is the only collection that contains all of the stories by these authors that reference Hastur, the ancient god of Carcosa, who appears among the tattoos on Reggie Ledoux. It also includes the correct Lovecraft story that connects all of these works with the Cthulhu Mythos. This is the ideal collection for those who want to understand the many references to early weird fiction that have appeared in True Detective.

The Color Out of Time


Michael Shea - 1984
    But visitors Gerald Sternbruck and Ernst Carlsberg soon realise that the still waters of the lake conceal a frightful evil that preys on flora, fauna - and human beings.Then they discover that the same evil first manifested itself before the valley was flooded - and may have been the basis for H.P. Lovecraft's classic story The Colour out of Space.For fifty years one waman has been planning her revenge on the monstrous force which caused the strange shimmering colours -- and sucks the very life from the people in its clutches....

The Dollmaker


Nina Allan - 2019
    Like him, they are diminutive but graceful, unique, and with surprising depths. Perhaps that's why he answers the enigmatic personal ad in his collector's magazine.Letter by letter, Bramber Winters reveals more of her strange, sheltered life in an institution on Bodmin Moor, and the terrible events that put her there as a child. Andrew knows what it is to be trapped, and as they knit closer together, he weaves a curious plan to rescue her.On his journey through the old towns of England, he reads the fairy tales of Ewa Chaplin--potent, eldritch stories which, like her lifelike dolls, pluck at the edges of reality and thread their way into his mind. When Andrew and Bramber meet at last, they will have a choice--to break free and, unlike their dolls, come to life.A love story of two very real, unusual people, The Dollmaker is also a novel rich with wonders: Andrew's quest and Bramber's letters unspool around the dark fables that give our familiar world an uncanny edge. It is this touch of magic that, like the blink of a doll's eyes, tricks our own.

Raven Girl


Audrey Niffenegger - 2013
    The unlikely couple falls in love and conceives a child — an extraordinary raven girl trapped in a human body. The raven girl feels imprisoned by her arms and legs and covets wings and the ability to fly. Betwixt and between, she reluctantly grows into a young woman, until one day she meets an unorthodox doctor who is willing to change her.Complete with Audrey Niffenegger’s bewitching etchings and paintings, Raven Girl explores the bounds of transformation and possibility in a dark fairy tale full of wonderment and longing.

The Humanity of Monsters


Michael MathesonNeil Gaiman - 2015
    We are none of us monsters. Through the work of twenty-six writers, emerging to award-winning and masters of their craft, The Humanity of Monsters plumbs the depths of humane monsters, monstrous humans, and the interstices between. Monstrous heralds of change, the sight of whom only children can survive. Monsters born of the battlefield, in gunfire and frost and blood, clothed in too-familiar flesh. Monsters, human and otherwise, born of fear, and love, and retribution all, wrapped tight and inextricable one from the other: the Fallen outside of time, lovers and monsters in borrowed skin, and creatures from beyond the stars and humans who have travelled to them. Dreams of lost and siren-song depths - of other half-held, half-remembered lives. And the things we have survived, and the things we might yet survive, in the face of greater, eviscerating loss. In stories by turns surreal, sublime, brutal, and haunting, there are no easy answers to be found, no simple nor uncomplicated labels to be had. Only the surety that though there be monsters, you will name them false. And when you meet those who truly are, you will not know them.“Tasting Gomoa” by Chinelo Onwualu“Dead Sea Fruit” by Kaaron Warren“The Bread We Eat in Dreams” by Catherynne M. Valente“The Emperor’s Old Bones” by Gemma Files“The Things” by Peter Watts“muo-ka’s Child” by Indrapramit Das“Six” by Leah Bobet“The Nazir” by Sofia Samatar“A Handful of Earth” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia“In Winter” by Sonya Taaffe“Ghostweight” by Yoon Ha Lee“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” by Neil Gaiman“Night They Missed the Horror Show” by Joe Lansdale“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky“Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream” by Maria Dahvana Headley“The Horse Latitudes” by Sunny Moraine“Boyfriend and Shark” by Berit Ellingsen“Never the Same” by Polenth Blake“Mantis Wives” by Kij Johnson“Proboscis” by Laird Barron“Out They Come” by Alex Dally MacFarlane“and Love shall have no Dominion” by Livia Llewellyn“You Go Where It Takes You” by Nathan Ballingrud“Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” by A.C. Wise“Theories of Pain” by Rose Lemberg“Terrible Lizards” by Meghan McCarron

Clovenhoof's Diary: October


Heide Goody - 2018
     He has spent six years living the quiet life in the suburbs after losing his job as Lord of Hell and now he thinks it’s time to indulge in all that life has to offer. Whether it’s dating the older woman, demonstrating supreme loyalty to his local coffee shop or fighting the scourge of the lollipop lady, Clovenhoof knows how to enjoy himself to the fullest. Join Clovenhoof as he continues his year-long journey to tackle the big issues in life.

Mr. Gray (aka The Meridians)


Michaelbrent Collings - 2011
    Eight years ago, he lost his wife and child at the hands of a killer known only as Mr. Gray. But now, Mr. Gray is back, and with strange powers that allow him to appear anywhere at will. Scott must protect a new family – a woman and her autistic son – from the madman's attacks. All they can do is run...and try to find the secret behind THE MERIDIANS.

Grim


Christine JohnsonShaun David Hutchinson - 2014
    Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: Ellen Hopkins Amanda Hocking Julie Kagawa Claudia Gray Rachel Hawkins Kimberly Derting Myra McEntire Malinda Lo Sarah Rees-Brennan Jackson Pearce Christine Johnson Jeri Smith Ready Shaun David Hutchinson Saundra Mitchell Sonia Gensler Tessa Gratton Jon Skrovon

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart


Jesse Bullington - 2009
    The year is 1364, and the brothers Grossbart have embarked on a naïve quest for fortune. Descended from a long line of graverobbers, they are determined to follow their family's footsteps to the fabled crypts of Gyptland. To get there, they will have to brave dangerous and unknown lands and keep company with all manner of desperate travelers-merchants, priests, and scoundrels alike. For theirs is a world both familiar and distant; a world of living saints and livelier demons, of monsters and madmen. The Brothers Grossbart are about to discover that all legends have their truths, and worse fates than death await those who would take the red road of villainy.

Forty-Four Book Thirteen (44 13)


Jools Sinclair - 2016
     But not without a fight. Trapped between the evil that is Nathaniel Mortimer and the mysterious Samael, whose terrible secret she has finally unearthed, Abby doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance. Is there any way she can overcome impossible odds and make it out alive? Or will she eternally be trapped by the darkness, with home forever being just a dream, a mirage, a wisp of a ghost always disappearing in the wind? Read the unforgettable last chapter in the Forty-Four series and find out.