Books like 'Bethany's Sin'
Readers who enjoyed Bethany's Sin by Robert McCammon also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror supernatural myths folk-horror rural gothic pulp retellings
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Call of Cthulhu: Horror Roleplaying by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsCALL OF CTHULHU is Chaosium's classic roleplaying game of Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary people are confronted by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. CALL OF CTHULHU uses Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying System, easy to learn and quick to play. This bestseller has won dozens of game-industry awards and is a member of the Academy of Adventure Game Design Hall of Fame... -
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume 2 by August Derleth, Robert Bloch
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCthulhu the Terrible...Bringer of death, madness and mutilation beyond man's wildest nightmares. Dweller in the abyssal depths of earth and ocean. Bearer of horrors from beyond time and space. Keeper of unspeakable arcane mysteries from the dark aeons before mankind's spawning. Here are tales of occult abomination that will stretch your nerves to he very limits of supernatural terror...H.P... -
The Master's Apprentice: A Retelling of the Faust Legend by Oliver Pötzsch
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA young man’s destined quest becomes a dance with the devil in a mesmerizing retelling of the Faust legend by the bestselling author of the Hangman’s Daughter Tales series.It’s the fifteenth century and only heretics are curious about the universe.Germany, 1494. Born under a rare alignment of the stars, Johann Georg Gerlach, “the lucky one” to his mother—is fated for greatness... -
Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom, Бром
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past... -
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Dead Stream Curse by J.R. Erickson, Nicole Jatho Swanson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA secret they intended to take to the grave. But the dead will tell.. -
Who Fears the Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman, Mike Resnick
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThere's a traveling man the Carolina mountain folk call Silver John for the silver strings strung on his guitar. In his wanderings John encounters a parade of benighted forest creatures, mountain spirits, and shapeless horrors from the void of history with only his enduring spirit, playful wit, and the magic of his guitar to preserve him... -
Fear by Ronald Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt was a legend in Fear County... a hideous, flesh-eating creature - part snake, part earthbound demon - that feasted on the blood of innocent children in the cold black heart of the Tennessee backwoods. But ten-year-old Jeb Sweeny knows the horrible stories are true. His best friend Mandy just up and disappeared... -
The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen you do a good job for someone, there’s a strong chance they’ll offer you more work or recommend you elsewhere. So Daniel Mackmain isn’t particularly surprised when his boss’s architect brother asks for his help on a historic house renovation in the Cotswolds. Except Dan’s a dryad’s son, and he soon realises there’s a whole lot more going on... -
The Events at Poroth Farm by T.E.D. Klein
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Events at Poroth Farm is a horror novella written by T.E.D Klein, in which Jeremy, a college lecturer, takes a summer vacation in Gilead, New Jersey, to prepare for a course on Gothic literature he'll be teaching in the upcoming semester. He rents an outbuilding from Mennonite couple Sarr and Deborah Poroth, and at first his holiday is happy and productive, but then odd things begin to happen... -
Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA compelling gothic fairytale by bruja and award-winning writer Maria DeBlassie.The women of Sueño, New Mexico don’t know how to live a life without sorrows. That’s La Llorona’s doing. She roams the waterways looking for the next generation of girls to baptize, filling them with more tears than any woman should have to hold... -
Maggie's Grave by David Sodergren
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe small Scottish town of Auchenmullan is dead, and has been for years. It sits in the shadow of a mountain, forgotten and atrophying in the perpetual gloom.Forty-seven residents are all that remain.There's nothing to do there, nothing to see, except for a solitary grave near the top of the mountain. MAGGIE WALL BURIED HERE AS A WITCH reads the faded inscription... -
The Return Of The Sorcerer: The Best Of Clark Ashton Smith by Clark Ashton Smith
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis work offers both readers and scholars a collection of short fiction and short novels by Clark Ashton Smith... -
The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBut there was no Goldilocks in his story. There were only the Wolfs, who lived together in a cave above a town. Big Wolf, Middle Wolf, and Little Wolf. Big Wolf was a brute. Little Wolf was timid. Middle Wolf was the peacemaker... -
Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsM. R. James is widely regarded as the father of the modern ghost story, and his tales have influenced horror writers from H. P. Lovecraft to Stephen King. First published in the early 1900s, they have never been out of print, and are recognized as classics of the genre... -
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Tales Of The Uncanny And Supernatural by Algernon Blackwood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTales include The Doll, Running Wolf, The Little Beggar, The Occupant of the Room, The Man Whom the Trees Loved, The Valley of the Beasts, The South Wind, The Man Who Was Milligan, The Trod, The Terror of the Twins, The Deferred Appointment, Accessory Before the Fact, The Glamour of the Snow, The House of the Past, The Decoy, The Tradition, The Touch of Pan, Entrance and Exit, The Pikestaffe... -
The Red House by Tony Abbott
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCould the road to the afterlife be a two-way street? After diving into Derek's world in books #1 and #2, readers are in for more spooky, sinister adventure in this latest installment.Derek didn't ask for this.It's bad enough that his brother's body is hosting a dead soul. Then there's that whole business of the evil dead waging war... -
The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings" West Virginia boasts an unusually rich heritage of ghost tales. Originally West Virginians told these hundred stories not for idle amusement but to report supernatural experiences that defied ordinary human explanation. From jealous rivals and ghostly children to murdered kinsmen and omens of death, these tales reflect the inner lives-the hopes, beliefs, and fears-of a people... -
The Ammonite Violin & Others by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Ammonite Violin & Others, one of contemporary dark fantasy s most bewitching and distinctive voices is back with another banquet of the weird and unexpected. In his introduction, Jeff VanderMeer (City of Saints and Madmen, Finch) writes, Kiernan creates her own light in this remarkable collection, and shines it on dark places... -
Fantastic Tales: Visionary and Everyday by Italo Calvino
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCompiled by Italo Calvino, one of the essential writers of the twentieth century (and editor of the best-selling Italian Folktales), Fantastic Tales is a rich and wide-ranging collection of twenty-six classic, uncanny tales from the nineteenth century written by an intriguing panoply of European and American authors... -
The Shadow at the Bottom of the World by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA longtime Lovecraft devotee, who has extended the weird tale to the next level via the likes of Borges and Burroughs, Thomas Ligotti is usually published as part of a general anthology of horror writers. But now Ligotti has pulled together a collection of his favorite fiction, both old and new, representing his best and most characteristic works... -
The Children of Old Leech: A Tribute to the Carnivorous Cosmos of Laird Barron by Ross E. Lockhart, Justin Steele
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThere are Things - terrifying Things - whispered of in darkened forests beyond the safe comfort of firelight: The Black Guide, the Broken Ouroboros, the Pageant, Belphegor, Old Leech... These Things have always been here. They predate you. They will outlast you. This book pays tribute to those Things. For We are the Children of Old Leech...and we love you... -
The End of the Story by Clark Ashton Smith
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPublished in chronological order, with extensive story and bibliographic notes, this series not only provides access to stories that have been out of print for years, but gives them a historical and social context. Series editors Scott Conners and Ronald S... -
Gather Her Round by Alex Bledsoe
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn critically-acclaimed Alex Bledsoe’s latest Tufa novel, a monster roams the woods of Cloud County, while another kind of evil lurks in the hearts of menLove and tragedy are not strange bedfellows among the Tufa. Young Kera Rogers disappears while hiking in the woods by Needsville... -
Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFour unusually literate horror novellas, by the former editor of "The Twilight Zone" magazine... -
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Small Favors by Erin A. Craig
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the critically-acclaimed author of House of Salt and Sorrows comes a mesmerizing and chilling fairy-talesque novel about Ellerie Downing, a young woman in a small town with monsters lurking in the trees and dark desires hidden in the shadows--in Amity Falls, nothing is more dangerous than a wish come true. Unique, enchanting, and haunting... -
Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsKnock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life.Driving home late one night, Etain Larkin finds a corpse on a pitch-black country road deep in the Irish countryside. She takes the corpse to a remote farmhouse... -
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Proboscis" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story... -
Curfew by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOn the border between England and Wales lies the tiny town of Crybbe, not picturesque enough for the tourist trade, quietly sliding into decay. Max Goff means to change all that. Goff has made millions in the record business, but his heart is in New Age philosophy. He has learned that Crybbe was once a spiritual center of sorts, surrounded by ancient standing stones that were emblems of power... -
The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLook out for C.J. Cooke's atmospheric new novel . . . In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore—old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who was not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth... -
Beware!: R.L. Stine Picks His Favorite Scary Stories by R.L. Stine
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDim the lights. Lock the doors. Pull down the shades—and BEWARE! It's time to read the favorite scary stories of R.L. Stine, bestselling children’s author and master of the spooky tale.R.L. Stine has gathered a selection of all things scary, and even added two new tales of his own! Short stories, fables old and new, comics, and poems... -
Pilgrim: A Medieval Horror by Mitchell Lüthi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSet in 12th-century Jerusalem, Pilgrim follows the treacherous journey of a German knight and his companions as they return home after seven arduous years battling for God in the Holy Land. Within this sprawling tale lies a tapestry of medieval horror, intertwining history and folklore, encompassing both a metaphysical and literal odyssey... -
Dark Companions by Ramsey Campbell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA brilliant collection of stories by one of the masters of horror. Not all companions are friendly. There are many that you most definitely do not want to see. When Elaine was working late at the office, she thought she was all alone. But something sinister was in the elevator shaft…working its way to her floor... -
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps by Peter Straub, Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStraub, a contemporary master of literary horror and fantasy, offers an authoritative and diverse gathering of stories calculated to unsettle and delight. Ghostly narratives of the Edwardian era, lurid classics from the pulp heyday, and modern-day masterpieces are included in these collections... -
At Fear's Altar by Richard Gavin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“Richard Gavin's new collection has some of the finest weird fiction I have ever read, tales that are unique and effective. His sequel to H. P. Lovecraft's 'The Hound' is especially delicious. This is a wonderful book, highly recommended!” —W. H. Pugmire “Richard Gavin is one of the bright new stars in contemporary weird fiction... -
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The Ghost Road by Tony Abbott
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCould the road to the afterlife be a two-way street? Reader reviews are in, and Tony Abbott is capturing the middle-grade fantasy audience with this new series!Derek can't claim to be a normal fourteen-year-old anymore. Not after what he discovered at the Red House. His role in the war against the dead is more pivotal --- and more terrifying --- than he could have imagined... -
Eternity by Tamara Thorne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIf you always wanted to see Dexter visit Eureka or Haven, the small town of Eternity is the place for you to be.WELCOME TO ETERNITYA LITTLE BIT OF HELL ON EARTHWhen Zach Tully leaves Los Angeles to take over as sheriff of Eternity, a tiny mountain town in northern California, he's expecting to find peace and quiet in his own private Mayberry. But he's in for a surprise... -
The White People and Other Weird Stories by Arthur Machen
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsMachen's weird tales of the creepy and fantastic finally come to Penguin Classics. With an introduction from S.T. Joshi, editor of American Supernatural Tales, The White People and Other Weird Stories is the perfect introduction to the father of weird fiction. The title story "The White People" is an exercise in the bizarre leaving the reader disoriented and on edge... -
Withered Hill: A dark and unsettling British folk horror novel by David Barnett
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIf you find your way here, you’re already lost.InsideA year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is.Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions... -
When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson by Ellen Datlow, Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA chilling anthology in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson. Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and readers... -
L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the award-winning, bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland comes Catherynne M. Valente's dark fantasy tale "L’Esprit de L’Escalier", a Tor.com Original.In this provocative and rich retelling of the Greek myth, Orpheus, the musician son of Apollo and Calliope, successfully rescues his wife Eurydice from Hades after her untimely death... -
The Accursed Huntsman by Douglass Hoover
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn ancient wooden barrier buried deep in the granite cliffs of Nova Scotia’s rural coastline.A long abandoned Victorian mansion sighing in the salty ocean breeze.A patchwork team of nobodies ready to breathe new life into humanity’s most ancient mystery... -
The Horror in the Museum by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSome tales in this collection were inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, others he revised, two he co-authored – but all bear the mark of the master of primordial terror.The Horror in the Museum –Locked up for the night, a man will discover the difference between waxen grotesqueries and the real thing.The Electric Executioner – Aboard a train, a traveler must match wits with a murderous madman... -
Candlenight by Phil Rickman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJournalist Giles Freeman and his wife Claire are thrilled when they inherit a cottage far from the noise of the city. And though the locals are slow to welcome them, the Freemans believe that in time they will be accepted. But the Freemans have fallen under an ancient Celtic curse--and soon they will learn the truth about what it means to be outsiders. HC: Pan (UK)... -
The Summer of the Ubume by Natsuhiko Kyogoku
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA bizarre set of mysteries have befallen the Kuonji household. Kyoko Kuonji is said to be with child for the last twenty months, and her husband Makio disappeared a few months prior to her pregnancy. The odd circumstances have left the family with no one to turn to for help, until a freelance writer asks his exorcist friend to take on the case. The catch-the exorcist does not believe in ghosts... -
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Little Eve by Catriona Ward
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWinner of the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel and the August Derleth Prize for best horror novel, Catriona Ward's Little Eve is a heart-pounding literary gothic with a devastating twist.Eve and Dinah are everything to one another, together day and night. They are raised among the Children, a clan ruled by a mysterious figure they call Uncle... -
Japanese Gothic Tales by Kyōka Izumi
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsResisting the various forms of realism popular during the Meiji enlightenment, Izumi Kyoka (1873-1939) was among the most popular writers who continued to work in the old-fashioned genres of fantasy, mystery, and romance... -
Immortal Remains by Sean Cummings
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHe's not a detective and he doesn't give a crap if your spouse is cheating on you. Human and supernatural beings avoid him like the plague because if you get too close he'll gleefully tell you the time and date of your own demise and that's before he punches you in the face... -
The Fog by Dennis Etchison
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA novelization of the 1980 John Carpenter film.From the back cover...Tonight the fog that rises off the California coast is different. And deadly. A writhing icy mist pulsing with terror. It is too late to escape. Even now the people of Antonio Bay are cut off, engulfed. Along darkened streets, death searches them out. There is no sanctuary for the living. Those who are doomed will die horribly... -
Bone Harvest by James Brogden
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStruggling with the effects of early-onset dementia, Dennie Keeling now leads a quiet life. Her husband is dead, her children are grown, and her best friend, Sarah, was convicted of murdering her abusive husband. After Sarah's tragic death in prison, Dennie has found solace in her allotment, and all she wants is to be left to tend it in peace... -
Aickman's Heirs by Simon Strantzas, Nina Allan
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Robert Aickman was a master of what he called 'strange stories,' and though his fiction has been categorized as horror, it's actually its own beast...
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