Books like 'When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson'
Readers who enjoyed When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson by Ellen Datlow, Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files & Genevieve Valentine also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy horror mystery supernatural paranormal dark retellings spooky folk-horror
-
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King, Jerry N. Uelsmann
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsStephen King's second novel, the vampire bestseller 'Salem's Lot, tells the story of evil in small-town America. For the first time in a major trade edition, this terrifying novel is accompanied by previously unpublished material from King's archive, two short stories, and eerie photographs that bring King's fictional darkness and evil to vivid life... -
![And With Madness Comes the Light by Karina Halle]()
And With Madness Comes the Light by Karina Halle
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe Man. The Mystery. The Madness.Dex Foray has never been anyone’s fool – until he missed his chance for happiness with Perry Palomino. Broken and alone, Dex has no choice but to rise from the ashes Perry left behind and find his own path to redemption. But nothing in Dex’s life has ever come easily, especially when there’s a dark madness waiting in the wings... -
![The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson]()
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAuthor Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America’s history and legacy of racism in this YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom. When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation... Maddy did it... -
![Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master by K. Ritz]()
Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master by K. Ritz
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSynopsis: For five years Me’acca Mysuth Sheever has lived among his “sworn enemies,” pretending to be one of them. One night he buys a journal, its pages blank. The woman who sells him the journal extracts his promise to record his deeds for study. “Lo, the steps of your life mark the journey of your soul... -
-
![The Crawling Darkness by J.L. Bryan]()
The Crawling Darkness by J.L. Bryan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGhost removal specialist Ellie Jordan must face a dangerous, shape-shifting entity that she and Calvin have encountered once before, with tragic results. The spirit has the power to reach into the minds of living and feed on their fears, taking the shape of their worst nightmares, and it has awoken in search of new victims... -
![Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell]()
Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWe're waiting for you to come and play. Dunvegan School for Girls has been closed for many years. Converted into a family home, the teachers and students are long gone. But they left something behind...Sophie arrives at the old schoolhouse to spend the summer with her cousins... -
![Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot]()
Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSixteen-year-old Charlie Frith has problems. His crush is dating someone else, his sisters have glitter-bombed his prosthesis (again), and he's a seer-of-spirits in York, the most haunted city in England, and all his friends are ghosts.To make matters worse, it seems that famous spirits are mysteriously vanishing from York's haunted streets and alleys... -
![The Prayer of the Night Shepherd by Phil Rickman]()
The Prayer of the Night Shepherd by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt Stanner Hall, a Victorian mansion-turned-hotel, Ben Foley hosts murder-mystery weekends and strives to prove that his hotel is the house on which Arthur Conan Doyle based his immortal Baskerville Hall. As the days shorten and the weather worsens, Foley’s dabbling uncovers more than he can handle... -
![The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman]()
The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs high summer bakes the rich earth of north-east Herefordshire, dark shadows gather around a converted hopkiln where the last owner was savagely murdered. Though the local vicar dismisses claims by its current occupants that the place is haunted, their story is soon splashed over a Sunday newspaper—and Merrily Watkins is directed by the Bishop of Hereford to defuse this situation... -
![The Lamp of the Wicked by Phil Rickman]()
The Lamp of the Wicked by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt appears that the unlovely village of Underhowle is home to a serial killer. But as the police hunt for the bodies of more young women, Rev. Merrily Watkins fears that the detective in charge has become blinkered by ambition. Meanwhile, Merrily has more personal problems, like the anonymous phone calls, the candles and incense left burning in her church, and the alleged angelic visitations... -
![Cold Shadows by J.L. Bryan]()
Cold Shadows by J.L. Bryan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParanormal investigator Ellie Jordan faces a difficult new case. Her new clients are a family haunted by multiple ghosts and a poltergeist that wrecks their home at night. Their seven-year-old son's invisible friends may not be imaginary at all, but the restless spirits of dead children... -
![The Raptor & the Wren by Chuck Wendig]()
The Raptor & the Wren by Chuck Wendig
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsOfficial Amazon description:In the fifth book of the “wildly entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) Miriam Black series, Miriam continues her journey to find answers on how to change her fate and begin to make right some of what she’s done wrong... -
![The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna]()
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... -
![Forty-Four Book Nine by Jools Sinclair]()
Forty-Four Book Nine by Jools Sinclair
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCharlie Modine didn’t find any justice in life. And the afterlife hasn’t been much better. Still, Modine’s ghost is more determined than ever to find the cold-blooded murderer who ran his wife down on the streets of New York City. Tortured and tormented, Modine asks for help from the only person who will listen. The only one who knows he’s there. Abby Craig... -
-
![44 Book Ten by Jools Sinclair]()
44 Book Ten by Jools Sinclair
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTrapped between confusing visions and a terrifying ghost, all Abby Craig knows for sure is that she is running out of time. But as a wildfire rages out of control in the mountains west of town, an even larger blaze burns deep within her heart... -
![When Irish Eyes Are Haunting by Heather Graham]()
When Irish Eyes Are Haunting by Heather Graham
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDevin Lyle and Craig Rockwell are back, this time to a haunted castle in Ireland where a banshee may have gone wild—or maybe there's a much more rational explanation—one that involves a disgruntled heir, murder, and mayhem, all with that sexy light touch Heather Graham has turned into her trademark style... -
![The Body at Auercliff by Amy Cross]()
The Body at Auercliff by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"We'll bury her so deep, even her ghost will have a mouth full of dirt!" When Rebecca Wallace arrives at Auercliff to check on her aged aunt, she's in for a shock. Her aunt's mind is crumbling, and the old woman refuses to let Rebecca stay overnight. And just as she thinks she's starting to understand the truth, Rebecca makes a horrifying discovery in one of the house's many spare rooms... -
![Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury]()
Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie in this evocative and mind-bending psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend... -
![The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman]()
The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn 1934, the dying composer Sir Edward Elgar feebly whistled to a friend the theme from his Cello Concerto and said, "If you're walking on the Malvern Hills and hear that, don't be frightened. It's only me... -
![Ghostwritten by Ronald Malfi]()
Ghostwritten by Ronald Malfi
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFour brand-new horror novellas from “a modern-day Algernon Blackwood” all about books, stories, manuscripts – the written word has never had sharper teeth…From the bestselling author of Come with Me, four standalone horror novellas set in a shared universe! In The Skin of Her Teeth, a cursed novel drives people to their deaths. A delivery job turns deadly in The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride... -
![The Suffering by Rin Chupeco]()
The Suffering by Rin Chupeco
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Tark knows what it is to be powerless. But Okiku changed that. A restless spirit who ended life as a victim and started death as an avenger, she’s groomed Tark to destroy the wicked... -
![Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman]()
Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLibrarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.The post of Diocesan Exorcist in the Church of England has changed to the preferred term Delivery Ministry. It sounds less sinister, more caring, so why not a job for a woman? When offered the post the Rev. Merrily Watkins cannot easily refuse, having suffered uncanny experiences of her own... -
![The Red House by Tony Abbott]()
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... -
![Cemetery Tours by Jacqueline E. Smith]()
Cemetery Tours by Jacqueline E. Smith
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSome secrets are best kept laid to rest.At least, that's as far as Michael Sinclair is concerned. At twenty-seven, he has spent his entire life pretending that the ghosts he encounters on a daily basis do not exist. Now, if only the dead would let him rest in peace.Unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely, especially after Kate Avery and her ailing brother, Gavin, move in next door... -
-
![Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap]()
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Am I dead?”Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask.Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, 'A Spell for Foolish Hearts' to the terrifying tension of the urban legend 'Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez'... -
![The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman]()
The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPerfectly preserved in black peat, the Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But for the isolated community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign—a danger to the ancient spiritual tradition. In the weeks approaching the Celtic feast of the dead, tragedy strikes again and again in Bridelow... -
![The Ghost Next Door by Wylly Folk St. John]()
The Ghost Next Door by Wylly Folk St. John
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSherry Alston had never been told about her dead half-sister Miranda. So when Sherry came to visit her Aunt Judith, no one could explain the odd things that started to happen... -
![Uncertainty by Abigail Boyd]()
Uncertainty by Abigail Boyd
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLast year, Ariel's life was ripped apart. She's finally started to put the pieces together again, and is looking forward to summer break. That's when a dream brings her back to the mysterious Dexter Orphanage... -
![The Nurse by Amy Cross]()
The Nurse by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Twenty years ago, something very bad happened in this house. But it's over now. I promise.” When Rachel moves to a new house with her mother, she immediately realizes that something isn't quite right. Although she's blind, Rachel can tell that the stories about the house's past don't add up. And slowly, she starts to worry that someone or something from that past might still be around... -
![American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown]()
American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJoyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King... -
![The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies by John Langan, Laird Barron]()
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies by John Langan, Laird Barron
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJohn Langan has, in the last few years, established himself as one of the leading voices in contemporary horror literature. Gifted with a supple and mellifluous prose style, an imagination that can conjure up clutching terrors with seeming effortlessness, and a thorough knowledge of the rich heritage of weird fiction, Langan has already garnered his share of accolades... -
![The Elementals by Michael McDowell]()
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOn a split of land cut off by the Gulf, three Victorian summer houses stand against the encroaching sand. Two of the houses at Beldame are still used. The third house, filling with sand, is empty...except for the vicious horror which is shaping nightmares from the nothingness that hangs in the dank, fetid air... -
![Lanny by Max Porter]()
Lanny by Max Porter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThere’s a village sixty miles outside London. It’s no different from many other villages in England: one pub, one church, red-brick cottages, council cottages and a few bigger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might do anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs... -
![The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn]()
The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThis book is the physical edition of a series of posts from Reddit’s r/nosleep subreddit, containing the first major storyline of “How to Survive Camping”. It is largely unaltered, with only minor edits for readability in print form.Every year, campground manager Kate sends out a pamphlet titled “How to Survive Your Camping Experience... -
-
![Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson]()
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]()
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... -
![The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates]()
The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratings"The dead are restless here..." Remy is a tour guide for Carrow House, a notoriously haunted building. When she's asked to host seven guests for a week-long stay to research Carrow's phenomena, she hopes to finally experience some of the sightings that made the house famous. At first, it's everything they hoped for... -
![The Farm by Amy Cross]()
The Farm by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne farm. Two tragedies, thirty years apart. And a tortured figure whose presence connects both incidents... In 1979, the Bondalen family farm in Norway is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries... -
![Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror & Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron]()
Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror & Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsNight of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible, exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation... -
![The Chalice: A Glastonbury Ghost Story by Phil Rickman, Dion Fortune]()
The Chalice: A Glastonbury Ghost Story by Phil Rickman, Dion Fortune
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGlastonbury, legendary resting place of the Holy Grail, is a mysterious and haunting town. When Diane Ffitch returns home, it’s with a sense of deep unease. As the town becomes increasingly split by violence and death, Diane and her friends face up to the worst of all possibilities: the existence of an anti-Grail—the Dark Chalice... -
![Dark and Deadly Things by Kelly Martin]()
Dark and Deadly Things by Kelly Martin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSince Elise Morgan left her father’s reality television show, Dark and Deadly Things, she put the ghost-hunting life behind her, able to comfortably watch from her couch. Her father has resorted to faking the hauntings that thrill America, but he could never fool Elise. She can see the dead. When the Halloween episode airs live on television, something goes horribly wrong... -
![A Place for Vanishing by Ann Fraistat]()
A Place for Vanishing by Ann Fraistat
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA teen girl and her family return to her mother's childhood home, only to discover that the house's strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That's what Libby's mom said... -
![Search and Rescue Woods by Kerry Hammond]()
Search and Rescue Woods by Kerry Hammond
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSearch and Rescue Woods is an eight-part Creepypasta by Kerry Hammond, published on Reddit under the username searchandrescuewoods. It was originally posted to the Nosleep subreddit in August of 2015, with its final update being in December of that year. Currently, a novelization is in progress... -
![The Devil's Woods by Brian Moreland]()
The Devil's Woods by Brian Moreland
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFear wears many skins. Deep within the Canadian wilderness, people have been disappearing for over a century. There is a place the locals call “the Devil’s Woods,” but to speak of it will only bring the devil to your door. It is a place so evil that even animals avoid it... -
-
![Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes]()
Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Josie and her brothers uncover a haunted camera, the Mothman legend becomes a terrifying reality that threatens their entire town in this spooky and action-filled novel. Josie may live in the most haunted town in America, but the only strange thing she ever sees is the parade of oddball customers that comes through her family's auction house each week... -
![Three Heart Echo by Keary Taylor, T.L. Keary]()
Three Heart Echo by Keary Taylor, T.L. Keary
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWelcome to Roselock, where the ground bleeds, and the night screams.After the senseless murder of her fiancé, Iona Faye can’t move on. There was no happily ever after, and no goodbye. Desperate for closure, she goes to see Roselock’s one and only reclusive inhabitant... -
![Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham]()
Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsEveryone has wanted their favorite book to be real, if only for a moment. Everyone has wished to meet their favorite characters, if only for a day. But be careful in that wish, for even a history laid in ink can be repaid in flesh and blood, and reality is far deadlier than fiction . . . especially on Addington Isle... -
![The Whispering Dead by Darcy Coates]()
The Whispering Dead by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsHomeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned groundskeeper's cottage. Her new home is tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering... -
![The Fisherman by John Langan]()
The Fisherman by John Langan
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true... -
![The Howling by Gary Brandner]()
The Howling by Gary Brandner
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsKaryn and her husband Roy had come to the peaceful California village of Drago to escape the savagery of the city. On the surface Drago appeared to be like most small rural towns.But it was not.The village had a most unsavory history. Unexplained disappearances, sudden deaths.People just vanished, never to be found...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
