Books like 'Ararat'
Readers who enjoyed Ararat by Christopher Golden also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary horror mystery action / adventure supernatural monsters/creatures psychological thriller suspense paranormal
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I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsJohn Cleaver has called a demon—literally called it, on the phone, and challenged it to a fight. He’s faced two of the monsters already, barely escaping with his life, and now he’s done running; he’s taking the fight to them... -
Watchers by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsOn his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods.That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life... -
Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFurnace Prison ...Where death is the least of your worries.Escape is just the beginning ...We thought we’d made it, we thought we were free. But we should have known there was no way out of Furnace.All we did was slip deeper into the guts of the prison: into solitary confinement, where the real nightmares live - the warden, the Wheezers, and something much, much worse.The clock’s ticking... -
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsStephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals... -
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The Devil's Only Friend by Dan Wells
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsJohn Wayne Cleaver hunts demons: they've killed his neighbors, his family, and the girl he loves, but in the end he's always won. Now he works for a secret government kill team, using his gift to hunt and kill as many monsters as he can......but the monsters have noticed, and the quiet game of cat and mouse is about to erupt into a full scale supernatural war... -
Mr. Monster by Dan Wells
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn I Am Not a Serial Killer, John Wayne Cleaver saved his town from a murderer even more appalling than the serial killers he obsessively studies.But it turns out even demons have friends, and the disappearance of one has brought another to Clayton County. Soon there are new victims for John to work on at the mortuary and a new mystery to solve... -
Reliquary by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen police find two skeletons locked in a bony embrace deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, Natural History Museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid in the investigation. She soon realizes that the expertise the cops want is the result of her ordeal last year, battling the horrific beast loose in the basement corridors of the Museum... -
Live and Let Drood by Simon R. Green
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Secret Histories Novels combine “witty banter, tough guy standoffs, visceral fight scenes, bad guy atrocities, surprise revelations, and high stakes”* in supernatural adventures that can only come from the imagination of New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.The name is Bond, Shaman Bond... -
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 69 ratingsis a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page... -
Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsPendergast-the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent-returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.William Smithback Jr., a prominent New York Times reporter, was killed in a brutal attack in his Upper West Side apartment. His wife, Nora Kelly, an archeologist at the Museum of Natural History, was injured as well...Categorized as:
archaeology crime historical-fiction paranormal religion spirituality suspense thriller -
The Last Town by Blake Crouch
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWelcome to Wayward Pines, the last town.Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed... -
Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsThey found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body, strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.At first they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease.But then they found the truth... -
Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsWhen you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. And that's both a good, and a bad thing... -
Shadow Beast by Luke Phillips
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWe just lost our place at the top of the food chain. Man is just meat."This was on par with Jurassic Park." Courtney L."This story has heart and soul in the midst of its rampaging terror." Bevi Debb"His hero has the potential to be one of the most loved adventure icons, in the mould of Indiana Jones." A.K... -
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Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 32 ratings"That thing is growing again. We must destroy it. The time to act is now..."With these words begins Gideon Crew's latest, most dangerous, most high-stakes assignment yet. Failure will mean nothing short of the end of humankind on earth... -
The Mist by Stephen King
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 70 ratings#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s terrifying novella about a town engulfed in a dense, mysterious mist as humanity makes its last stand against unholy destruction—originally published in the acclaimed short story collection Skeleton Crew and made into a TV series, as well as a feature film starring Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden.In the wake of a summer storm, terror descends. -
Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda — and he begins to move...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction paranormal spooky suspense action-adventure alternate-history apocalyptic -
Bonechiller by Graham McNamee
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWELCOME TO NOWHERE.Danny's dad takes a job as caretaker at a marina on the shore of a vast, frozen lake in Harvest Cove, a tiny town tucked away in Canada's Big Empty. If you're looking for somewhere to hide, this is it.It's the worst winter in years. One night, running in the dark, Danny is attacked by a creature so strange and terrifying he tries to convince himself he was hallucinating... -
Darker Things by Rob Cornell
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCraig Lockman—no one had called him that in fifteen years.Not since his days at the Agency. Not since he was trained to kill creatures that were supposed to exist only in nightmares.Yet the teenage girl on his doorstep not only knows his real name, she claims she's his daughter.Before Lockman can learn how the girl found him, he's attacked by a black-ops team of assassins... -
Origin by J.A. Konrath
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThriller writer J.A. Konrath, author of the Lt. Jack Daniels series, digs into the vaults and unearths a technohorror tale from the depths of hell... 1906 - Something is discovered by workers digging the Panama Canal. Something dormant. Sinister. Very much alive. 2009 - Project Samhain. A secret underground government installation begun 103 years ago in New Mexico... -
Malorie by Josh Malerman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsNow from the mind of a true master of suspense comes the next chapter in Bird Box. This time, Malorie is front and center, and she will confront the dangers of her world head-on.Twelve years after Malorie and her children rowed up the river to safety, a blindfold is still the only thing that stands between sanity and madness... -
The Hollow City by Dan Wells
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMichael Shipman is paranoid schizophrenic; he suffers from hallucinations, delusions, and complex fantasies of persecution and horror. That’s bad enough... -
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger, Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsNot all secrets are meant to be found.If Indiana Jones lived in the X-Files era, he might bear at least a passing resemblance to Nolan Moore -- a rogue archaeologist hosting a documentary series derisively dismissed by the "real" experts, but beloved of conspiracy theorists... -
The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThey only come when it snows, and nobody ever gets away. A group of close friends gathers at a secluded cabin in the wintry mountains of Colorado for a final holiday hurrah. Instead, it may be their last stand. First a massive blizzard leaves them marooned. Then the more chilling realization: something is lurking in the woods, watching them, waiting.. -
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Meg by Steve Alten
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsRevised and Expanded. On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists - Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark... -
Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShortly after World War I, a troubled man accepts a solitary assignment as a "weather official" on a tiny, remote island on the edges of the Antarctic. When he arrives, the predecessor he is meant to replace is missing and a deeply disturbed stranger is barricaded in a heavily fortified lighthouse...Categorized as:
historical-fiction suspense 21st-century action-adventure adult book classics contemporary -
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay, Erin Bennett
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn a matter of weeks, Massachusetts has been overrun by an insidious rabies-like virus that is spread by saliva. But unlike rabies, the disease has a terrifyingly short incubation period of an hour or less. Those infected quickly lose their minds and are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before they inevitably succumb... -
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsJohn Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it.He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation... -
The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAn unforgettable horror novel from bestselling sensation Ania Ahlborn—hailed as a writer of “some of the most promising horror I’ve encountered in years” (New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire)—in which a small-town boy investigates the mysterious disappearance of his cousin and uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden for years... -
Road of Bones by Christopher Golden
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA stunning supernatural thriller set in Siberia, where a film crew is covering an elusive ghost story about the Kolyma Highway, a road built on top of the bones of prisoners of Stalin's gulag.Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, is a 1200 mile stretch of Siberian road where winter temperatures can drop as low as sixty degrees below zero... -
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsArea X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another... -
The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Publishers WeeklyNew Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric ward has a new resident. It also has a very, very old one... -
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsIt is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it—the Southern Reach—has collapsed on itself in confusion... -
The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA promising talent makes her electrifying debut with this unforgettable novel, set in the Alaskan wilderness, that is a fusion of psychological thriller and coming-of-age tale in the vein of Jennifer McMahon, Chris Bohjalian, and Mary Kubica... -
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Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
Rated: 3.54 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsThe bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach TrilogyAfter thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach... -
The Deep by Nick Cutter
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Troop—which Stephen King raved “scared the hell out of me and I couldn’t put it down.…old-school horror at its best”—comes this utterly terrifying novel where The Abyss meets The Shining.A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale...
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