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- Dracula
universe144 books1897
Start hereDracula · Start here
similar byhorror
"Come freely. Go safely. And leave something of the happiness you bring" — so the Count greets his guest at the threshold of the Carpathians, and the great door shuts behind. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) is the wellspring of the modern vampire: the account of a centuries-old Transylvanian nobleman who quits his crumbling castle for the crowded lodging-houses of London, and the handful of ordinary people — a young solicitor, a doctor of the mad, a professor of stranger learning — who must piece together what he is before he makes the whole city his fold. It is told wholly in fragments: journal entries, letters, telegrams, ships' logs, phonograph cylinders, each hand recording only its own sliver of the dark. Around that single novel a whole crypt of continuations has grown, raised by many writers across a century. Fred Saberhagen's Dracula Sequence hands the Count the microphone, retelling the old events from his own wry, aggrieved lips and following him into later intrigues. Robert Lory's brisk 1970s Dracula Horror Series revives him as a reluctant weapon turned against fouler things; Peter Tremayne's trilogy reaches back along his bloodline; and further sequels, a Quincey Morris spin-off, and Dracula's Children carry the shadow onward. This is a loose shared world built upon a public-domain figure, not one governed continuity — each author remakes him as villain, antihero, or sympathetic narrator. Begin, always, with Stoker's original; the letters and the mounting dread stand entirely on their own. From there follow whichever door tempts you — Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape for the monster's own confession, Lory or Tremayne for tales that never glance back at the Borgo Pass again.
- Johnny Dixon and the Professor
series13 books1983
similar byhorrorcontemporary+1 more
Johnny Dixon is a fictional American boy featured in a series of twelve children's gothic horror novels, 1983 to 1999, written by John Bellairs or his successor Brad Strickland. In each book, 12-year-old Johnny and his group of friends face and overcome evil forces usually bent on ending the world. Alternatively, Johnny Dixon is the book series.
- The Howling
series3 books1977
completed
similar byhorrortensecontemporary
The Howling, Gary Brandner's 1977 novel, sets a woman recovering from trauma against a small California town that turns out to be sheltering a colony of werewolves. Brandner wrote two further novels under the same title banner, The Howling II and The Howling III, but by the author's own account they're only loosely connected sequels rather than a continuous story, and neither maps onto the better-known film series the first book inspired.
- The House That Jack Built
Graham Mastertonstandalone novel1996
similar byhorrortensebritish islescontemporary+1 more
When he and his wife stumble across a derelict house, "Valhalla", Craig Bellman becomes fascinated by it, even to the extent of trying to buy it, regardless of local tales which say the house is dogged by tragedy. As Craig becomes more obsessed day by day, injury and death return to "Valhalla"
- How to Sell a Haunted House
Grady Hendrixstandalone novel2023
similar byhorrortensecontemporary+1 more
How to Sell a Haunted House is a 2023 horror novel by American author Grady Hendrix. The book was first published on January 17, 2023.
- The Night Boat
Robert R. McCammonstandalone novel1980
similar bycurseshorrortensecontemporary
WorldCat: The story begins with a vividly written prologue in which a German U-boat--sometimes known as an "Iron Coffin"--Attacks an unsuspecting merchant vessel, and is itself attacked by a pair of Allied sub chasers. The action then shifts to the present day and to the idyllic Caribbean island of Coquina, where life is about to change in unimaginable ways. David Moore, a young man with a tragic and haunted past, is skin-diving in the waters off Coquina, searching for the salvageable remnants of shipwrecks. He accidentally detonates a long-unexploded depth charge, uncovering and releasing a submarine that has lain beneath those waters, virtually intact, for decades. The battered vessel that rises to the surface contains a bizarre and terrifying cargo that will transform a once peaceful island into a landscape of unrelenting nightmare. The Night Boat is a story of cannibalism, ancient voodoo curses, and shambling, undead entities filled with a bottomless rage and an equally bottomless hunger. But it is also the story of a past that refuses to die, that lies in wait just beneath the surface of the unsuspecting present.
- Lewis Barnavelt
series12 books1973
similar bycontemporary+1 more
Lewis Barnavelt is a lonely orphan who moves in with his uncle Jonathan, an amateur wizard, in a rambling old house that turns out to hide a doomsday clock built into its walls by a previous, malevolent owner. John Bellairs introduced the character in The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973), illustrated by Edward Gorey, and after Bellairs's death Brad Strickland continued the series from his notes and outlines for most of its later volumes. It blends gothic horror atmosphere with a gentler, more whimsical strain of children's fantasy.
- Rivers of London
series32 books2011
similar bybritish islescontemporary
The Rivers of London series is a series of urban fantasy novels by English author Ben Aaronovitch, and comics/graphic novels by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Lee Sullivan.
- Ghost Monster
Simon Clarkstandalone novel2009
similar bycurseshorrortensebritish islescontemporary
The local children call it "ghost monster," a disturbing mosaic on a mausoleum wall in the old cemetery. For centuries the grim portrait has imprisoned the spirits of the notorious Justice Murrain and his vicious gang of misfits. But now somone has taken the portrait, and the spirits of the sadists are free to enjoy the darkest of pleasures.
- Manitou / Harry Erskine
series8 books1975
similar byhorrorcontemporary+1 more
Graham Masterton's Manitou series follows Harry Erskine, a fraudulent New York fortune teller drawn into real supernatural danger when a client's tumor turns out to be the reincarnating spirit of a vengeful centuries-old medicine man. Erskine allies with the modern medicine man John Singing Rock to fight the manitou, a Native American spiritual life-force, across the original novel and its sequels. Blending horror with Algonquian spiritual concepts, the series follows Erskine through repeated returns of ancient evil rather than one continuous plot.
- Rats
series4 books1974
completed
similar byhorrortensebritish islescontemporary
The Rats, James Herbert's 1974 debut novel, imagines a plague of giant mutant rats overrunning London, told through a rotating cast of victims and survivors in the tradition of British disaster horror. It was followed by two sequels, Lair and Domain, which widen the outbreak first to the countryside and then to a besieged, apocalyptic city, completing a three-book trilogy.
- The Invisible Man
series6 books1897
similar bybritish isles+2 more
The Invisible Man is H. G. Wells's 1897 science fiction novel about Griffin, a scientist who works out how to make living tissue invisible and tests the process on himself, only to discover he has no way to reverse it. Unseen and increasingly cut off from other people, he turns to theft and violence while trying to survive and find a cure, making the book as much about his moral collapse as about the invisibility premise itself. It's a single self-contained novel; the two listed titles here are duplicate editions rather than separate books.
