Book picks similar to
A Dedicated Friend by Shirley Longford
horror
fiction
weird
1-need2read
Invocations
David AnnandaleJake Ozga - 2019
From the whispering corridors of abandoned hospitals to the shrieking dungeons of ghostly castles, this collection of sinister stories further explores the unspeakable evil at large in the Warhammer worlds. Contains the following stories; Lora Gray - He Feasts Forever Ray Cluley - Flesh and Blood Richard Strachan - The Growing Seasons David Annandale - The Hunt Steven Sheil - The Healer Nick Kyme - Stitches Peter McLean - Blood Sacrifice Jake Ozga - Supplication David Annandale - The Summons of Shadows C. L. Werner - A Sending from the Grave David Annandale - From the Halls, the Silence Justin D. Hill - The Confession of Convict Kline
The Castle of Otranto, Vathek & Nightmare Abbey
David Stuart Davies - 1818
This unique collection presents the best and the most diverse of this fascinating genre. In Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, often regarded as the first true Gothic romance, we have a template for such works, which other writers adopted and adapted. With its dark cruelties and fiercely passionate dramas, the power of Walpole's prose remains magically potent today.
MEGACROC
Julian Michael Carver - 2020
When evidence at the latest scene suggests that a massive predator may be the source of the carnage, a local crocodilian specialist is brought in as a consultant. Soon an effort is launched by the police and the coast guard to successfully locate and capture the ancient creature, which threatens the lives of everyone in the expedition, as well as the surrounding communities.
Room on the Sea
André Aciman - 2022
Catherine was reading a novel. So begins Room on the Sea, André Aciman's scorching and elegiac love-story about a middle-aged man and woman who meet in the bullpen of jury selection and spend a sultry summer’s week trespassing ever further into each other's hearts.What begins as a flirtation quickly evolves into something deeper, something Paul and Catherine must carry on in secret—and with the understanding that anything more than a casual crush is out of the question. But as the week draws to a close, the end of their rendezvous comes into focus, and Paul and Catherine are forced to decide whether to act on their feelings or leave the fantasy of what could have been to the annals of the past.By turns scintillating and philosophical, Room on the Sea is a compulsively listenable story of love, fate, and last chances.©2022 Andre Aciman (P)2022 Audible Originals, Inc.
The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince
Robin Hobb - 2013
Now the truth behind the story is revealed through the account of Felicity, a low-born companion of the Princess Caution at Buckkeep.With Felicity by her side, Caution grows into a headstrong Queen-in-Waiting. But when Caution gives birth to a bastard son who shares the piebald markings of his father's horse, Felicity is the one who raises him. And as the prince comes to power, political intrigue sparks dangerous whispers about the Wit that will change the kingdom forever...
Ghost Camera
Darcy Coates - 2014
This gift comes at a steep price; the ghosts are resentful and hungry, and the cameras offer them a rare chance to reach their favourite prey… humans. Jenine didn’t know any of this when she found an abandoned Polaroid camera in a lighthouse. At first she assumes the ghostly shapes in the photos are a glitch or a prank – but then the spirits begin to hunt her down, and she’s forced into a deadly race to free herself from the camera’s curse.
Mr. Splitfoot
Samantha Hunt - 2016
Splitfoot tracks two women in two times as they march toward a mysterious reckoning.Ruth and Nat are orphans, packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later, Ruth’s niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been? And who — or what — has she hidden in the woods at the end of the road?In an ingeniously structured dual narrative, two separate timelines move toward the same point of crisis. Their merging will upend and reinvent the whole. A subversive ghost story that is carefully plotted and elegantly constructed, Mr. Splitfoot will set your heart racing and your brain churning. Mysteries abound, criminals roam free, utopian communities show their age, the mundane world intrudes on the supernatural and vice versa.
Luckenbooth
Jenni Fagan - 2021
But the real reason she's there is to bear him and his barren wife a child, the consequences of which curse the tenement building that is their home for a hundred years. As we travel through the nine floors of the building and the next eight decades, the resident's lives entwine over the ages and in unpredictable ways. Along the way we encounter the city's most infamous Madam, a seance, a civil rights lawyer, a bone mermaid, a famous Beat poet, a notorious Edinburgh gang, a spy, the literati, artists, thinkers, strippers, the spirit world - until a cosmic agent finally exposes the true horror of the building's longest kept secret. No. 10 Luckenbooth Close hurtles the reader through personal and global history - eerily reflecting modern life today.
On Chesil Beach
Ian McEwan - 2007
Florence is a talented musician who dreams of a career on the concert stage and of the perfect life she will create with Edward, an earnest young history student at University College of London, who unexpectedly wooed and won her heart. Newly married that morning, both virgins, Edward and Florence arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms they struggle to suppress their worries about the wedding night to come. Edward, eager for rapture, frets over Florence’s response to his advances and nurses a private fear of failure, while Florence’s anxieties run deeper: she is overcome by sheer disgust at the idea of physical contact, but dreads disappointing her husband when they finally lie down together in the honeymoon suite. Ian McEwan has caught with understanding and compassion the innocence of Edward and Florence at a time when marriage was presumed to be the outward sign of maturity and independence. On Chesil Beach is another masterwork from McEwan—a story of lives transformed by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.
Lovers and Madmen
Nichole Van - 2018
Summer, 1982. Judith Campbell prides herself on her level head. She’s a scientist with a ten-year plan, a well-managed bank account, and clear understanding of what she wants out of life. Currently, that means a summer of fun touring Europe with her friends. She intends to see some amazing scenery, flirt with a cute guy or two, and return home ready to settle down for good. Falling madly in love with an Italian playboy is definitely not on her life goals to-do list. But then her eyes meet those of Cesare D’Angelo across a crowded piazza. Cesare is everything Judith never knew she wanted. Handsome and charismatic, he challenges her assumptions and forces her rethink her logical approach to everything. Case in point—Judith finds herself falling for him, hard and fast. Definitely not her most carefully thought-out decision. But Cesare keeps devastating secrets that will challenge Judith’s very understanding of reality. And soon Judith finds herself facing the most difficult decision of all— Would you still chose to love someone even if your time together would be brief? Would you accept a relationship, knowing that only heartbreak and grief awaited you in the end? Lovers and Madmen is a prequel novella for the Brothers Maledetti series. Lose yourself in Judith and Cesare’s story and understand where it all began.
The Book of X
Sarah Rose Etter - 2019
From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in.
Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day
Jonathan L. Howard - 2013
But before all that, he fought the terrifying Bonewind, a supernatural being that devours life itself, and he did it all without leaving his house. "Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day" was the story that first introduced the necromancer of some little infamy back in 2004. Long out of print, it makes its belated return on Hallowe'en, of course.
Love Before Midnight: A Sweet Contemporary Western Romance
Kathleen Ball - 2019
Having nowhere to go she walks to the small-town diner to get warm. The owner calls cowboy, Maverick Cole for help. Maverick takes one look at Anora and grows angry. He knows she and her husband are part of a horse stealing operation. But when she runs out of the door into the storm, he takes pity on her and gives her a ride to his place. Never in a million years would he have suspected her secret. She’s listed as a missing person. Once reunited with her family, she leaves town. She also leaves a hole in Maverick’s heart. A year later, she returns to start a new life, but trust doesn’t come easy for Anora. Can Maverick help to heal her soul? New Years is approaching and he’s anxiously waiting to find out if she’ll accept his kiss at midnight. Will Anora accept Maverick’s Heart? Only a long-awaited New Year’s kiss at midnight will tell. ** This book was once offered for free with newsletter sign up. A different book is now offered.