Book picks similar to
Omens by Richard Gavin
horror
short-stories
weird-fiction
weird-tales
A Collapse of Horses
Brian Evenson - 2016
In these stories, Brian Evenson unsettles us with the everyday and the extraordinary—the terror of living with the knowledge of all we cannot know.
Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three
Clive Barker - 1984
For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator's mind. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes: I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore.... We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen--that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing--have gone. I lost their maker a long time ago. These enthusiastic tales are not ashamed of visceral horror, of blood splashing freely across the page: "The Midnight Meat Train," a grisly subway tale that surprises you with one twist after another; "The Yattering and Jack," about a hilarious demon who possesses a Christmas turkey; "In the Hills, the Cities," an unusual example of an original horror premise; "Dread," a harrowing non-supernatural tale about being forced to realize your worst nightmare; "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," about a woman who kills men with her mind. Some of the tales are more successful than others, but all are distinguished by strikingly beautiful images of evil and destruction. No horror library is complete without them. --Fiona Webster
With a Voice that is Often Still Confused But is Becoming Ever Louder and Clearer
J.R. Hamantaschen - 2015
Hamantaschen returns with another collection of his inimitable brand of weird, dark fiction. At turns despairing, resonant, macabre and insightful, these nine stories intend to stay with you.
Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks
Richard Christian Matheson - 1987
'Red' seems to me to be a masterwork. 'Vampire' is a breathtaking work of virtuosity."—Dennis Etchison, from his Introduction"An impressive debut. These stories are all beautifully written and very, very disturbing."—Fangoria"Richard Christian Matheson's prose is elegant, yet spare. He is undoubtedly the master of the contemporary horror short story. His potent, subtle horror sneaks up on the reader and its echoes linger long after the story has ended."—Ellen Datlow, fiction editor, Omni
Ghost Stories
Henry James - 1898
Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. His stories explore the region which lies between the supernatural or straightforwardly marvellous and the darker areas of the human psyche. This edition includes all ten of his ghost stories, and as such is the fullest collection currently available. The stories range widely in tone and type. They include 'The Jolly Corner', a compelling story of psychological doubling; 'Owen Wingrave', which is also a subtle parable of military tradition; 'The Friends of the Friends', a strange story of uncanny love; and 'The Private Life', which finds a shrewd, high comedy in its ghostly theme. The volume also includes James's great novella The Turn of the Screw , perhaps the most ambiguous and disturbing ghost story ever written.
Unseaming
Mike Allen - 2014
A childhood doll arrives to tear its owner’s reality limb from limb. A portal to the spirit realm stretches wide on the Appalachian Trail, and something more than human crawls through on eight legs. Words of comfort change to terrifying sounds as a force from outside time speaks through them. The buttons in the bin will unseam your flesh to bare your nastiest secrets.
This Dreaming Isle
Dan CoxonAlison Littlewood - 2018
Every few generations this strangeness crawls out from the dark places of the British imagination, seeping into our art and culture. We are living through such a time.This Dreaming Isle is an anthology of new horror stories and weird fiction with a distinctly British flavour. It collects together fifteen brand new horrifying or unsettling stories that draw upon the landscape and history of the British Isles for their inspiration. Some explore the realms of myth and legend, others are firmly rooted in the present, engaging with the country’s forgotten spaces.Featuring new and exclusive stories from:Ramsey Campbell, multi-award winning author of over 40 novels.Andrew Michael Hurley, author of The Loney and Devil’s Day.Catriona Ward, author of Rawblood and Little Eve.Robert Shearman, World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award and Shirley Jackson Award winning author of four collections.Jenn Ashworth, author of Fell, Cold Light and more.Gareth E. Rees, author of Marshland and The Stone Tide.Tim Lebbon, screenwriter and author of over 35 books including Dusk, The Silence and Relics.Alison Littlewood, author of The Crow Garden, The Hidden People and more.Aliya Whiteley, author of The Beauty, The Arrival of Missives and The Loosening Skin (forthcoming from Unsung Stories).Stephen Volk, screenwriter and author of Whitstable, Monsters in the Heart and more.Kirsty Logan, author of The Gloaming, The Gracekeepers, A Portable Shelter and The Rental Heart.James Miller, author of UnAmerican Activities, Lost Boys and Sunshine State.Jeannette Ng, author of Under the Pendulum Sun.Richard V. Hirst, co-author of The Night Visitors.Alison Moore, author of The Lighthouse, Missing and more.Gary Budden, author of Hollow Shores.Angela Readman, author of Don’t Try This at Home and The Book of Tides.
The Cranes That Build the Cranes
Jeremy Dyson - 2009
In this collection he explores the dark depths of the human condition, offering tales of death, disaster and - just occasionally - redemption.
Mayan Blue
Michelle Garza - 2016
He stalked the night in the guise of a putrefied corpse, with the head of an owl and adorned with a necklace of disembodied eyes that hung from nerve cords. He commanded legions of shapeshifting creatures, spectral shamans, and corpses hungry for the flesh of the living. The Mayans feared him and his realm of horror. He sat atop his pyramid temple surrounded by his demon kings and demanded sacrifices of blood and beating hearts as tribute to him and his ghostly world. These legends, along with those that lived in fear of them, have been dead and gone for centuries. Yet now, a doorway has been opened in Georgia. A group of college students seek their missing professor, a man who has secretly uncovered the answer to one of history’s greatest mysteries. However, what they find is more than the evidence of a hidden civilization. It’s also a gateway to a world of living nightmares.
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories
Al SarrantonioE.F. Benson - 1993
F. Benson, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen Crane, Charles Dickens, Robert Barr, and many others who know well how to manipulate a reader's emotions. From Washington Irving comes "The Adventure of My Grandfather" and from Saki, "The Cobweb." Bill Pronzini plays a horrifying game of "Peekaboo," while Frances Garfield portrays "The House at Evening" to alarming effect. This unique and very special collection is like a carnival ride of terror that you'll want to go on again and again.
Lesser Demons
Norman Partridge - 2010
Cross-genre blowtorches with bad guys and worse guys. Love stories both dark and bittersweet. A brand new novella and extensive story notes. You’ll find this and more in the fifth collection from three-time Bram Stoker award-winner Norman Partridge, an author Locus calls “one of the most dependable, exciting, and entertaining practitioners of dark suspense and dark fantasy… emphasis on the dark.”In Lesser Demons, Partridge explores the kind of fiction that made him both a horror fan and a writer. Using the shotgun prose of a crime novel, the title story draws a deadly bead on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. “The Iron Dead” introduces Chaney, a monster-hunting pulp hero with a mechanical hand built in hell. “Carrion” cuts a mean swath through Robert E. Howard territory, while “The Big Man” explores dark shadows of American life never imagined in the atom-age horror movies of the fifties.Part celebration, part reinvention, Lesser Demons only serves to underscore RevolutionSF’s verdict: “Norman Partridge is the finest writer of short horror fiction going.” Table of Contents Second Chance The Big Man Lesser Demons Carrion The Fourth Stair up from the Second Landing And What Did You See in the World? Road Dogs The House Inside Durston The Iron Dead A Few Words AfterDust jacket by Vincent Chong
Deathbird Stories
Harlan Ellison - 1975
The collection contains some of Ellison's best stories from earlier collections and is judged by some to be his most consistently high quality collection of short fiction. The theme of the collection can be loosely defined as God, or Gods. Sometimes they're dead or dying, some of them are as brand-new as today's technology. Unlike some of Ellison's collections, the introductory notes to each story can be as short as a phrase and rarely run more than a sentence or two. One story took a Locus Poll Award, the two final ones both garnered Hugo Awards and Locus Poll awards, and the final one also received a Jupiter Award from the Instructors of Science Fiction in Higher Education (discontinued in 1979). When the collection was published in Britain, it won the 1979 British Science Fiction Award for Short Fiction.His stories will rivet you to the floor and change your heartbeat...as unforgettable a chamber of horror, fantasy and reality as you'll ever experience.-Gallery "Brutally and flamboyantly shocking, frequently brilliant, and always irresistibly mesmerizing."-Richmond Times-Dispatch
Tales from the Nightside
Charles L. Grant - 1981
A mysterious white wolf appears as a portent of doom... An aged seamstress holds, in her needle, dominion over life and death...A bizarre world of dark fantasy awaits, strangely, horribly compelling. From the demon-cursed town of Oxrun Station to the terrifying byways of Hawthorne Street, prepare for fear as you enter the nightside...Stories included in this collection:Tales from Oxrun Station"Coin of the Realm""Old Friends""Home""If Damon Comes""A Night of Dark Intent"Tales from Hawthorne Street"The Gentle Passing of a Hand""When All the Children Call My Name""Needle Song""Something There Is"Tales from the Nightside"Come Dance With Me on My Pony's Grave""The Three of Tens""Digging""From All the Fields of Hail and Fire""The Key to English""White Wolf Calling"
Mysteries of the Worm
Robert Bloch - 1981
To know them will be to know him. And thus we have decided to release a new and expanded third edition of Robert Bloch’s Mysteries of the Worm. This collection contains four more Mythos tales–”The Opener of the Way”, “The Eyes of the Mummy”, “Black Bargain”, and “Philtre Tip”–not included in the first two editions.
Carnacki, the Ghost Finder
William Hope Hodgson - 1913
Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder is a collection of supernatural detective short stories by author William Hope Hodgson.