Book picks similar to
Destinations Unknown by Gary A. Braunbeck


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Invisible Fences


Norman Prentiss - 2008
    Things stay with us—souvenirs with memories attached. We can't always choose what to keep, what to throw away.Nathan's parents devised cautionary tales for him and his sister—gruesome stories about predatory cars racing along the "Big Street" at one end of their neighborhood, or dope fiends lurking in the woods behind their house and ready to plunge hypodermics into the skin of foolish young trespassers. These stories served their purpose during Nathan's gullible childhood, essentially constructing an invisible fence around the yard and keeping the boy close to home where he'd be safe.Such barriers are not so easy to discard in later life. As an adult, Nathan no longer believes his parents' stories, and yet they still confine him. He lives cautiously, avoiding serious relationships, avoiding risk. But despite his efforts, something from his parents' cautionary tales threatens to creep beneath that invisible border…and the enclosed yard might not be as safe and secure as it always seemed…

Black Butterflies


John Shirley - 1998
    Winner of the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year.

The Panic Hand: Stories


Jonathan Carroll - 1989
    The Panic Hand assembles in one volume the shorter works of this master, including the World Fantasy Award-winning tale Friend's Best Man and the short novels Uh-Oh and Black Cocktail.

Darker


Simon Clark - 1996
    The stranger begging to be let in is being hunted--not by a man or animal, but by something that cannot be seen or heard. It is a relentless, pounding force that has existed for centuries and is now unleashed to terrify, to ravage, and to kill.

American Morons


Glen Hirshberg - 2006
    A woman chases the ghost of her neglectful father to a vanished amusement park at the end of the Long Beach pier. Two recently retired teachers learn just how much Los Angeles has taken from them.In these atmospheric, wide-ranging, surprisingly playful, and deeply mournful stories, grandkids and widows, ice cream-truck drivers and judges, travelers and invalids all discover -- and sometimes even survive -- the everyday losses from which the most vengeful ghosts so often spring.

Dark Screams: Volume Seven


Brian James Freeman - 2017
    LIZARDMAN by Robert McCammon The lizardman thinks he knows about all the mysterious dangers of the Florida swamps, but there are things lurking in the bayou that are older and deadlier than his wildest dreams. A MONSTER COMES TO ASHDOWN FOREST (IN WHICH CHRISTOPHER ROBIN SAYS GOODBYE) by James Renner Although every child dreams of visiting Hundred Acre Wood, only one has ever actually frolicked in that fabled forest—and survived. FURTHEREST by Kaaron Warren She’s been going to the beach since she was a child, daring the other kids to go out past the dunes where those boys died all those years ago. Now she realizes that the farther out you go, the harder it is to come back. WEST OF MATAMOROS, NORTH OF HELL by Brian Hodge After the success of their latest album, Sebastián, Sofia, and Enrique head to Mexico for a shoot under the statue of Santa Muerte. But they have fans south of the border who’d kill to know where they get their inspiration. THE EXPEDITION by Bill Schweigart On a quest to bring glory to the Führer, Lieutenant Dietrich Drexler leads his team into the ruins of the Carpathian Mountains. But the wolf that’s stalking them is no ordinary predator.SNOW SHADOWS by Mick Garris A schoolteacher’s impulsive tryst with a colleague becomes a haunting lesson in tragedy and terror when he’s targeted for revenge by an unlikely, unhinged rival.

The Convulsion Factory


Brian Hodge - 1996
    Thematic collection of 12 stories based around the theme of urban decay.# From Out of the Angry Ruins • Philip Nutman • introduction# • Godflesh • # • Childhood at the Lost and Found • # • Androgyny • # • In a Roadhouse Far, Past the Edge of Town • # • Naked Lunchmeat •# • Cancer Causes Rats •# • Mostly Cloudy, Chance of Kurt •# • Heartsick • # • Extinctions in Paradise •# • The Meat in the Machine •# • Extract • # • Liturgical Music for Nihilists •# • Endnotes: The Ticking of an Unfriendly Clock

Closing Time and Other Stories


Jack Ketchum - 2007
    Ketchum has published acclaimed novels such as RIGHT TO LIFE, LADIES NIGHT and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

The Blood of the Lamb


Thomas F. Monteleone - 1992
    A young priest suddenly develops frightening, miraculous powers, leading to an apocalyptic battle between good and evil...

Borderlands 3


Thomas F. MonteleoneMarthayn Pelegrimas - 1991
    Yet the fiction books in the Borealis imprint certainly belong to a world other than our own. This line encompasses our science fiction, fantasy and horror novels and anthologies.

The Dark: New Ghost Stories


Ellen DatlowGahan Wilson - 2003
    The Dark takes a look at the tormented and unquiet dead; the darkness in us, the living; and the sometimes tenuous boundary between the two.

The Ends Of The Earth


Lucius Shepard - 1991
    The Ends of the Earth is a testimonial to a genius of the genre, and a major American writer. Winner of the 1992 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection.Contents:The Ends of the Earth (1989)Delta Sly Honey (1987)Bound for Glory (1989)The Exercise of Faith (1987)Nomans Land (1988)Life of Buddha (1988)Shades (1987)Aymara (1986)A Wooden Tiger (1988)The Black Clay Boy (1987)Fire Zone Emerald (1985)On the Border (1987)The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter (1988)Surrender (1989)

Dark Screams: Volume Eight


Richard Chizmar - 2017
    WALPUSKI’S TYPEWRITER by Frank Darabont They say that genius is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration. For Howard Walpuski, it’s an IBM Selectric II typewriter, a nefarious secret, and a whole lot of blood. THE BOY by Bentley Little Christine has found the perfect neighborhood to raise her family: a quaint, quiet, friendly place where everyone gets along. Everyone, that is, except for the boy. TUMOR by Benjamin Percy He dodged death in the nick of time when the golf ball-sized tumor was surgically removed from his head. But the tumor isn’t done with him. TWISTED AND GNARLED by Billie Sue Mosiman He’s smart. Smarter than anyone knows. No one has linked him to the string of bodies he’s left up and down the California coast. Only one woman has ever come close—and she’s no match for his intellect. THE PALAVER by Kealan Patrick Burke It’s time for Oscar Dennihy to close his failing barber shop and retire—until a mysterious customer tells him a truly hair-raising tale . . . and gives Oscar a wonderful and terrible new purpose. INDIA BLUE by Glen Hirshberg Like most Americans, Enrico never gave much thought to the sport of cricket. Not until America’s Rockin’ Professional Cricket game—a spectacle that will live forever in his most horrible nightmares. Praise for the Dark Screams series “A wicked treat [featuring] . . . some of the genre’s best.”—Hellnotes, on Volume One “Five fun-to-read stories by top-notch horror scribes. How can you lose? The answer: you can’t.”—Atomic Fangirl, on Volume Two “If you have not tried the series yet, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of any (or all) of the books for yourself.”—Examiner.com, on Volume Three “Fans of horror of every variety will find something to love in these pages.”—LitReactor, on Volume Four “[Volume Five] runs the gamut from throwback horror to lyrical and heartbreaking tales.”—Publishers Weekly

Midnight Solitaire


Greg F. Gifune - 2011
    But then, so is God.As a massive blizzard descends on New England, four troubled strangers find themselves stranded at an old roadside motel on a desolate highway in the middle of nowhere. But there’s a killer on the road. Something is stalking them, a maniac within the storm. Known as The Dealer, he is a deranged and inhumanly sadistic serial killer mercilessly butchering everything in his path to fulfill his ancient demonic rituals and depraved destiny. Four doomed souls with nothing left to lose will have one chance to survive, one cold and violent night to stop The Dealer. But how do you stop destiny? How do you rewrite what a greater power has already preordained? How do you kill something that may not be alive?In a spray of bloody ice and snow, the horrifying truth behind The Dealer and the stranded strangers is revealed, and nothing will ever be the same again.Game on.

The Gentling Box


Lisa Mannetti - 2008
    Adversaries both mortal and supernatural lurk in the shadows, waiting to strike without mercy. Imre, a half-gypsy horse trader, understands the danger to his small family all too well.Cursed with a hideously-disfiguring and fatal disease by the vengeful sorceress Anyeta, he watches those around him suffer and fall. Mimi, his wife, who is tricked into cutting off her own arm to create a powerful talisman. His friend Constantin, struck mute by Anyeta's wrath. And Lenore, his and Mimi's young daughter, who has been placed in the greatest jeopardy of all. With his health deteriorating and death imminent, his wife possessed by the witch's ghost and Lenore being groomed for a fate far worse than death, Imre turns to desperate measures and a hellish memory from his childhood—to still the sorceress and end her reign of bloodshed. A presence even more powerful and terrifying to him than Anyeta: the gentling box.