More like Benighted
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- Dark Matter
Michelle Paverstandalone novel2010
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Dark Matter is a speculative fiction novel by Michelle Paver. Part horror, part ghost story, it was published in the United Kingdom by the Orion Publishing Group on 21 October 2010.
- The Edge of Running Water
William Sloanestandalone novel1939
similar byearly 20th centuryeerietensehorrorour world+1 more
After the death of his beloved wife, a physicist tries to build a machine that will enable him to communicate with the dead, with horrible consequences.
- Jerusalem's Lot
series3 books1975
similar bytenseeeriehorrorour world+2 more
Stephen King's 1975 novel 'Salem's Lot follows writer Ben Mears as he returns to his childhood town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, only to discover that its residents are being turned into vampires by a newly arrived stranger. It transplants Gothic vampire horror into a small New England community, tracking that community's collapse under a supernatural siege. It is a single, self-contained novel.
- Thin Air
Michelle Paverstandalone novel2016
similar bysurvivalearly 20th centuryeerietensemadnesshorror
In 1935, young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain and one of mountaineering's biggest killers. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time - the 1907 Lyell Expedition. Five men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and 'mountain sickness' at such high altitudes. Lyell became a classic British hero when he published his memoir, Bloody, But Unbowed, which regaled his heroism in the face of extreme odds. It is this book that will guide this new group to get to the very top. As the team prepare for the epic climb, Pearce's unease about the expedition deepens. The only other survivor of the 1907 expedition, Charles Tennant, warns him off. He hints of dark things ahead and tells Pearce that, while five men lost their lives on the mountain, only four were laid to rest. But Pearce is determined to go ahead and complete something that he has dreamed of his entire life. As they get higher and higher, and the oxygen levels drop, he starts to see dark things out of the corners of his eyes. As macabre mementoes of the earlier climbers turn up on the trail, Stephen starts to suspect that Charles Lyell's account of the tragedy was perhaps not the full story...
- The Fog
James Herbertstandalone novel1975
similar bysurvivaltensemadnesshorrorour worldbritish isles
The Fog is a horror novel by English writer James Herbert, published in 1975. It is about a deadly fog that drives its victims insane when they come into contact with it.
- The Other
Thomas Tryonstandalone novel1971
similar byearly 20th centuryeeriemadnesshorrorgothiccountryside & village
On a rural New England farm in 1935, thirteen-year-old identical twins Niles and Holland Perry share an unnervingly close bond, finishing each other's thoughts the way twins in family lore are supposed to. But the boys are not alike underneath: one is gentle and well-liked, the other carries something cold and cruel that the adults around them keep failing to notice. As a string of unsettling accidents and small cruelties start happening around the family's property, the people who love the twins begin, too slowly, to wonder whether both of them are really still there to blame. Thomas Tryon's debut novel, a work of quiet, Gothic-inflected horror.
- The Purple Cloud
M. P. Shielstandalone novel1901
similar bysurvivalearly 20th centuryeerieour world+1 more
Around 1900, the author receives a packet of writings of a psychic, who recounts her vision of the multi-decade diary of an arctic explorer of the future, the first to reach the north pole; but during his multiyear trek, an unknown eruption temporarily poisons the atmosphere with cyanide, killing all human and animal life, sparing only the arctic latitudes and leaving him the last man on earth.
- Good Girls Don't Die
Christina Henrystandalone novel2023
similar bysurvivaleerietensehorrorour world+1 more
Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family—and this life—is not hers… Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip—but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong… Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she’s in a dangerous situation and she doesn’t know who put her there or why. She’ll have to fight with everything she has to survive… Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This captivating novel will keep readers guessing until the very end.
- Breathe
Cliff McNishstandalone novel2006
similar bysurvivaleerietensehorrorbritish islescountryside & village
Breathe: A Ghost Story is a novel by English author Cliff McNish published in 2006 as McNish's first stand-alone novel. It is about a group of ghost children trapped inside an old farmhouse by a malignant spirit known as the Ghost Mother. Twelve-year-old Jack, suffering from chronic asthma, has just moved into the old house with his widowed mother, and discovers that the Ghost Mother wants him to herself.
- Misery
Stephen Kingstandalone novel1987
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Novelist Paul Sheldon finishes the manuscript that will finally kill off Misery Chastain, the heroine who made his career, when a snowstorm sends his car off a Colorado road. He wakes with both legs shattered, in the care of Annie Wilkes, a former nurse and 'number one fan' with no intention of taking him to a hospital. Annie manages his pain with drugs he comes to depend on, and her moods swing between doting and violent. When she learns Misery doesn't survive his new manuscript, her reaction makes clear Paul isn't just her patient, he's her hostage. A Stephen King novel about a writer at his most devoted fan's mercy.
- All the White Spaces
Ally Wilkesstandalone novel2022
similar bysurvivalearly 20th centuryeeriehorrorour world
All the White Spaces is an alternate history, horror and supernatural novel by English writer Ally Wilkes. It is her debut novel and was first published in the United Kingdom in January 2022 by Titan Books. It is about a trans man who joins an expedition to Antarctica in 1920, where he is tormented by supernatural apparitions.
- The Dark
James Herbertstandalone novel1980
similar bysurvivaltensemadnesshorrorour world
WorldCat: It came like a malignant shadow with seductive promises of power. And somewhere in the night, a small girl smiled as her mother burned. Asylum inmates slaughtered their attendants. In slimy tunnels, once-human creatures gathered. Madness raged as the lights began to fade and humanity was attacked by an ancient, unstoppable evil.
- Near the Bone
Christina Henrystandalone novel2021
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Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all. There's something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws. When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.
- The Little Stranger
Sarah Watersstandalone novel2009
similar byeerietensegothicbritish islescountryside & village+1 more
The Little Stranger is a 2009 gothic novel written by Sarah Waters. It is a ghost story set in a dilapidated mansion in Warwickshire, England in the 1940s. Departing from her earlier themes of lesbian and gay fiction, Waters' fifth novel features a male narrator, a country doctor who makes friends with an old gentry family of declining fortunes who own a very old estate that is crumbling around them. The stress of reconciling the state of their finances with the familial responsibility of keeping the estate coincides with perplexing events which may or may not be of supernatural origin, culminating in tragedy.
- Ice
Anna Kavanstandalone novel1967
similar bysurvivaleeriemadnessour worldliterary & general
Ice is a novel by British writer Anna Kavan, published in 1967. Ice was Kavan's last work to be published before her death, the first to land her mainstream success, and remains her best-known work. Generally regarded as genre-defying, it has been labelled a work of science fiction, Nouveau roman, and slipstream fiction.
- The Folcroft Ghosts
Darcy Coatesstandalone novel2017
similar bysurvivaleerietensehorrorgothicour world
"Tara and her brother Kyle are sent to stay with their estranged grandparents when their mother is hospitalized. May and Peter Folcroft seem warm and charming at first, and the house, hidden in the base of the mountains, is idyllic. But strange things keep happening. The swing moves on its own. Peter paces around the house late at night. Doors slam and curtains shift when no one is inside. Tara begins to suspect the old house is haunted. When a storm cuts the phone line, May shifts from doting to obsessive. Tara and Kyle must try to keep up the pretext of a happy family, but an empty journal and locked room provide clues to the unforgivable lies, secrets and decades-old murders entwined with the Folcrofts' history. And the ghosts are growing restless..." – quoted from this book's product page on Amazon.com as of 2018-01-21.
- The Hunting Ground
Cliff McNishstandalone novel2011
similar bysurvivaleerietensehorrorour worldbritish isles
When Elliott and his brother, Ben, move into the old and crumbling Glebe House they don't expect to find themselves sharing it with ghosts. But soon sinister events are unfolding. An old diary reveals glimpses of the mansion's past - and of a terrible tragedy. A mysterious woman talks to the dead. And evil lurks in the East Wing - a hideous labyrinth of passageways devised by a truly twisted mind. Can Elliott and his family escape the clutches of Glebe House? Or will they be trapped in the maze of corridors, forever hunted by the dead?
- Last Days
Adam Nevillstandalone novel2012
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Last Days is a 2012 horror novel by the British author Adam Nevill. The book was first published in the United Kingdom on 24 May 2012 by Pan Macmillan and was published in the United States on 26 February 2013 through St. Martin's Griffin. It won the 2013 British Fantasy Award for Best Horror Novel and film rights for Last Days were first optioned by Adam Storke in early 2014. The option has subsequently passed to another film production company.
- I Am the River
T. E. Graustandalone novel2018
similar bysurvivaleerietensemadnesshorror
During the last desperate days of the Vietnam War, American soldier Israel Broussard is assigned to a secret CIA PSYOP far behind enemy lines meant to drive terror into the heart of the North Vietnamese and end an unwinnable war. When the mission goes sideways, Broussard is plunged into a nightmare that he soon finds he is unable to escape, dragging a remnant of that night in the Laotian wilderness with him no matter how far he runs. Five years later, too damaged to return home and holed up in the slums of Bangkok, where he battles sleep, guilt, and a creeping sense of madness, Broussard discovers that he must journey back to the jungles of Laos in an attempt to set things right and reclaim what is left of his life.
- Southern Reach Trilogy
series4 books2014
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The Southern Reach Series is a series of novels by the American author Jeff VanderMeer first published in 2014—Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, and Absolution. The series takes its name from the secret agency that is central to the plot. In 2013, Paramount Pictures bought the movie rights for the series, and a film adaptation of Annihilation was made with Alex Garland as writer-director. The film was released in 2018. The most recent book in the series, Absolution, was released on 22 October 2024.
- Claimed
Francis Stevensstandalone novel1966
similar byearly 20th centuryeeriemadnesshorrorgothicour world
From the flaps of the Avalon edition: "It was in the first decade of the twentieth century that the British merchant sailing ship, Portsmouth Belle, was thrown off her course by undersea volcanic convulsions, and entered an area of floating scoria and ashes. For three days the vessel plowed through this area, her best speed being three knots despite a fair breeze, with all canvas set; and on the second day, an island was sighted. The Portsmouth Belle's instruments had been affected in some way by the seismic disturbances; it was not possible to estimate her location by other than dead reckoning. If this was correct, there should be no island here. And all the appearances, as the ship approached, were of an area of land thrown up recently by volcanic action. It was, in fact, a mass of dark, chocolate-colored rock, striated with metallic red, all coated with ashes. Some of the ash had been washed away by rain since the upheaval, and the rock, in the distance, gave the appearance of ruins. Indeed, the captain of the Portsmouth Belle thought, these might be the remains of some ancient city. They were too far away to investigate under the circumstances. A landing indicated many hot, ill-smelling fissures, from which poisonous vapors might be coming. Captain Charles Jessamy and Seaman James Blair were the only ones to set foot, briefly, on the island; and Blair asked the skipper's permission to carry away a keepsake. Scattered about the surface were many irregular blocks and ball-shaped masses of greenish-black lava. One of the smaller blocks had a very regular rectangular shape; the lava was deep-green in color, flecked with brilliant scales of matallic scarlet. Jessamy gave Seaman Blair permission to take it away and keep it. The Portsmouth Belle was lost before returning to port, but Blair and the others aboard were saved. By that time, in attempting to saw the block open, Blair discovered a great casket inside. He concealed it from the others. And the events which followed were such that, in terror, he sold the casket to a curio-shop dealer. Thus it passed into the hands of the fabulously wealthy Jesse Robinson, whose creed was, "What I want, I get - and what I get, I keep." And with Robinson's keeping of the box, despite Blair's attempt to warn him and urge him to sell it back, the terror passed to the Robinson household, to his niece, Leilah, and to young John Vanaman, M.D., whom Leilah summoned to look after her uncle. For some being, some thing, claimed this box; and whatever the being was, it had tremendous powers of illusion. Night after night, sitting beside old Robinson, Dr. Vanaman heard the surge of the sea, saw the waves emerge under closed doors and flood the room, and soon found that this was only the beginning of the manifestation. What was the secret of the box, of a substance which no one could identify? What was the writing on the box, the symbols which seemed to be on whatever side one turned it, then to sink down into the middle of the box? Why did the owner of the curio ship, who had had the box for a short time, suddenly disappear with a large sum of money, then reappear, obviously insane, leading a blooded white horse, which he had purchased for several thousand dollars? What did he mean by his ravings about the "archangel"?"
- Dust
Arthur Sladestandalone novel2003
similar bysurvivalearly 20th centuryeerietensecountryside & village
Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in Saskatchewan in the 1930s.
- House of Many Shadows
Barbara Michaelsstandalone novel1974
similar byeerietensegothicmadnesshorrorour worldcountryside & village
Meg Rittenhouse fears she is losing her mind. The doctors tell her the strange and disturbing hallucinations she's been experiencing ever since her accident are all in her head, and that, with a little rest, the haunting visions will vanish. But accepting an invitation to stay with her cousin in the country may be the worst decision Meg has ever made. Here, in a remote old house miles from anywhere, the terrible sights and sounds have gotten even worse. Suddenly eerie black shapes dance in the shadows—mocking Meg, haunting her . . . threatening her. And the presence of kind, considerate Andy Brenner, the caretaker, both reassures her and terrifies her—because Andy also sees these dark specters . . .
- The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Stephen Kingstandalone novel1999
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A nine year old girl becomes lost in the Maine forest while on a day hike with her family, and finds the strength to survive in her idolizing of the Red Sox closing pitcher.
