Books like 'December'
Readers who enjoyed December by Phil Rickman also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror mystery supernatural paranormal ghosts dark gothic suspense season-winter
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The Lodge by J.L. Bryan
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMore than a century ago, the Sea Islands of Georgia's coastline were the playground of the ultra-wealthy. Carnegies, Morgans, Rockefellers and other aristocrats of the Industrial Age built luxurious southern beach retreats on islands like Cumberland and Jekyll to escape the icy winters of New York... -
Cabinet Jack by J.L. Bryan
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsClose your doors and cabinets tight, or Jack will climb out to see you tonight.The former railroad stop of Timbermill, Georgia has grown ever more quiet and empty since its boom era faded decades ago... -
Spirit Caller by H.P. Bayne
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne night. One last enemy. One chance to stop him forever. It’s all come down to this. More than two years after Sully took desperate measures to escape his enemies, he finds himself headed for an inevitable showdown with the most dangerous of them. Years of murder and deceit are catching up to Lowell, and the ghosts of those he killed are not about to rest until they’ve watched him fall... -
The Necromancer's Library by J.L. Bryan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe antebellum mansion sits isolated in the overgrown countryside like a forgotten temple. Within it lie the dark, twisting paths of a private library possessing secrets from across the ages. The collection of ancient and medieval occult manuscripts tell of conjuring spirits and raising the dead, of making contact with supernatural realms and beings usually forbidden to living mortals... -
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Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural by Herbert A. Wise, John Collier
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen this longtime Modern Library favorite--filled with fifty-two stories of heart-stopping suspense--was first published in 1944, one of its biggest fans was critic Edmund Wilson, who in The New Yorker applauded what he termed a sudden revival of the appetite for tales of horror... -
Christmas, the Krewe, and Kenneth by Heather Graham
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Short Story" Approximately 6000 wordsNo way out of it—Christmas 2020 was going to be different.But Jackson Crow and Angela Hawkins are “home for Christmas.” Other agents are covering the office and they’ve just bought a home with a yard for their baby daughter and adopted son.But their neighbor, newly widowed, hears strange noises in the yard, a rustling... -
Devil's Door by Lee Mountford
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHalloween night, 1982. Many people were brutally killed or simply vanished at the Blackwater Hotel—formerly Perron Manor. The events of that night have always remained a mystery.Until now...Ray and Rita Pearson, along with their daughter, Chloe, move into the hotel to help with its renovation and grand opening. All under the watchful eye of the mysterious owner, Marcus Blackwater... -
Novels & Stories: The Lottery / The Haunting of Hill House / We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Other Stories and Sketches by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable,” writes A. M. Homes. “It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse... -
Some Can See by J.R. Erickson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe dead have stories to tell. Are you listening?On a sunny August morning, in 1935, thirteen-year-old Sophia Gray finds her friend, Rosemary wandering in the woods. Rosemary’s yellow dress is tattered and stained, she walks with a strange lurch, and her eyes are vacant and glassy. She beckons to Sophia, desperate to show her something, and Sophia follows... -
Dark River Inn by J.R. Erickson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt’s the day of his ex-wife’s wedding when Dan makes the winding mountain journey to a remote cabin for an escape from the life that another man has stepped into.Less than 48 hours into his reprieve, the forest tranquility is shattered when he looks through a telescope and witnesses the violent abduction of a young woman... -
The Final Formula Collection by Becca Andre
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen magic returned almost two decades ago, it found a modern world rooted in science, and those beliefs colored the way new abilities manifested. This New Magic is in sharp contrast to Old Magic, which has always been around, hiding in the dark and forgotten places. Addie isn’t magical, but she can wield power with the best of them... -
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... -
Forty-Four Book Eleven by Jools Sinclair
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNow the prime suspect in a high-profile murder investigation, Abby Craig flees the only place she has ever called home and is forced to live on the run as a fugitive in the shadows of the American Southwest.But Abby soon discovers that she isn't alone. A mysterious stranger is plaguing her every step. A stranger with a dark past who has plans for her... -
Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRose McFarland is a trained killer--a Memphis S.W.A.T. sniper with a secret. Her team knows about the burn scars that lurk under her clothes, a legacy of the house fire that killed her father and brother sixteen years before. Her supervisors know that she spent two years in a rehabilitative facility, healing and learning to cope with the emotional trauma of the fire... -
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44 Book Six by Jools Sinclair
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt’s Christmastime and the nights are far from silent for Abby Craig.She is haunted by a vision unlike anything she has ever experienced before. As a church bell rings out in the lonely night, a young woman is left dying in an alley, her blood staining the snow beneath her... -
The Ghost of Tobacco Road by Dale J. Young
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn the banks of the Skeleton River in a remote part of North Carolina lies the small town of Starlight. Once known for its tobacco fields and rural charm, Starlight has seen better days. Now most of the stores on Main Street are boarded up, and many of the residents have left town for good... -
Rag Doll Bones: A Northern Michigan Asylum Novel by J.R. Erickson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEach book in the Northern Michigan Asylum Series is a stand alone novel. Their mothers told them monsters weren’t real, but they were wrong. It’s the start of summer vacation in 1983. Twelve-year-olds Ashley and Sid are excited for three months of swimming at the pit, playing arcade games, and getting lost in the woods. But the woods aren’t safe. Kids are going missing in their small town... -
Perron Manor by Lee Mountford
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDescriptionPerron Manor—a place evil calls homeSisters Sarah and Chloe inherit a house they could never have previously dreamed of owning. It seems too good to be true.Shortly after they move in, however, the siblings start to notice strange things: horrible smells, sudden drops in temperature, as well as unexplainable sounds and feelings of being watched... -
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... -
Selected Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 27 ratings'And much of Madness and more of Sin And Horror the Soul of the Plot'This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues, and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind... -
The Ravenous Dead by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsHe'll never let go...Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard’s new groundskeeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They’ve been desperately waiting for help moving on—and only Keira can hear them. But not every restless spirit wants to be saved.Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace... -
Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story by Shani Struthers
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPrequel to the Amazon #1 bestselling, THE HAUNTING OF HIGHDOWN HALL, by Shani Struthers.What do you do when a whole town is haunted? In 1899, in the North Yorkshire market town of Thorpe Morton, a tragedy occurred; 59 people died at the market hall whilst celebrating Christmas Eve, many of them children... -
Touching the Dead by Wendy Cartmell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA mummified body washed up on a beach near Chichester.A tormented detective cursed with a gift she didn't want. When the autopsy reveals the victim's heart was torn from her body, Detective Inspector Jo Wolfe and her team wonder if someone is continuing the work of Anubis, the Egyptian God of Death. With the body count rising, Jo must touch the dead, to help her solve the case... -
Black Hill Farm by Tim O'Rourke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen sixteen year-old Ben McCloud moves to Black Hill Farm, he soon falls in love with the mysterious and seductive Andrea Black.Finding themselves alone on this remote farm and desperate to stay together, Ben and Andrea’s world spirals out of control. As they fight for survival, every step they take leads them into an ever darker world of forbidden love and despair... -
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Band of Demons by Rob Blackwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe highly anticipated sequel to the Kindle bestseller A Soul to StealThe past is always at your heels…Quinn O’Brion and Kate Tassel, two community journalists, tapped into a dark power last Halloween in order to stop a vicious serial killer. But they are still grappling with their new abilities—and wondering if what they unleashed may soon consume them... -
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society... -
The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories by Michael Cox
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Victorians excelled at telling ghost stories. In an age of rapid scientific progress, the idea of a vindictive past able to reach out and violate the present held a special potential for terror. Throughout the nineteenth century, fictional ghost stories developed in parallel with the more general Victorian fascination with death and what lay beyond it... -
Shepherd's Warning by Cailyn Lloyd
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor years the abandoned MacKenzie mansion remained hidden in rural Wisconsin. Rumors and stories of apparitions, odd noises, accidents, and strange deaths in or near the property were enough to convince the townsfolk it was haunted and they stayed away... -
The Stars We Walked Upon by M.L. Bullock
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCarrie Jo Stuart's dream catching has gotten out of control and threatens to wreck her happy home. She decides to tell her husband a secret that changes everything, but Ashland has ghosts of his own. Ashland's childhood friend Detra Ann Dowd battles a frightening supernatural being but travels across time to receive help from an unexpected ally... -
The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights by Bridget Collins, Susan Stokes-Chapman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the creators of The Haunting Season comes a dazzling collection of never-before-seen ghostly tales.The tradition of a haunted tale at Christmas has flourished across the centuries... -
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... -
Night Music by John Connolly
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of the Charlie Parker mysteries—"the finest crime series currently in existence" (The Independent)—comes a new anthology of chilling short fiction... -
Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce by Ambrose Bierce
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis volume contains 24 of Bierce's best tales of the unknown. Morbid, cynical, eerie, they take you to a twilight region of flesh and spirit — and into the darkest recesses of the human mind... -
Click-Clack the Rattlebag by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNarrated by Neil Gaiman."Click-Clack the Rattlebag" is your Halloween treat from Neil Gaiman and Audible, free through October 31. It's not available anywhere else, and for a limited time, each download from Audible benefits educational charities at DonorsChoose.org... -
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Don't Look Back by Ben Cheetham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAdam’s eyes swelled in horror at the sight that confronted him. Henry was standing with his back against the front door, pale and rigid, his left hand pressed to his neck. Blood was seeping between his fingers, running down his wrist and dripping from his elbow onto the back of Jacob’s head... -
The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSometimes the dead reach back...Leigh Harker’s quiet suburban home was her sanctuary for more than a decade, until things abruptly changed. Curtains open by themselves. Radios turn off and on. And a dark figure looms in the shadows of her bedroom door at night, watching her, waiting for her to finally let down her guard enough to fall asleep... -
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... -
Paper Dolls by Anya Allyn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe DARK CAROUSEL series is a heart-stopping mix of American Horror Story and the fantastical elements of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. ~In Book One, Cassie, Ethan and Lacey sought their missing friend, Aisha, in the deep of the forest... -
The Good Sisters by Helen Phifer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings‘So frightening I had to stop reading it at night’ – Judy (Netgalley)The chilling new horror from bestselling author, Helen Phifer 1933, Mother Superior Agnes offers sanctuary to a desperate young woman fleeing for her life. Only to wake in the morning to discover a terrible fate has befallen one of the Sisters – in a room locked from the inside... -
The Cold Calling by Will Kingdom
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLife isn't easy for Detective Inspector Bobby Maiden. Death is even harder. When Maiden is revived in hospital after dying in a hit and run incident, his memories are not the familiar ones of bright lights and angelic music, only of a cold, harsh place, he has no wish to revisit - ever... -
Unrest by Michelle Harrison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Elliott hasn’t slept properly for months. Ever since the accident that nearly killed him, a shadowy figure has made its presence felt – a figure only he can see. Elliott is convinced his near death experience has enabled him to contact the dead... -
Quarter to Midnight: Fifteen Tales of Horror and Suspense by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"Push past the curtains of the rational, safe world and explore the un-nameable horrors living in the darkest corners of our conscience... -
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... -
Grave Girl by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Sam Marker ran away from her old life, all she needed was a job and somewhere to live. Anything would do. And then, one fateful day, she saw that the town of Rippon was looking for a new gardener...Unfortunately for Sam, the 'garden' is actually a cemetery, and it just so happens to contain the deadliest grave in the world... -
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Wife of the Left Hand by M.L. Bullock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAvery Dufresne had the perfect life--a rock star boyfriend, a high-profile career in the anchor chair on a national news program. Until a dangerous threat brings her perfect world to a shattering stop. Avery loses everything but when she emerges from the darkness she finds she has a new ability--a supernatural one... -
I Have the Sight by Rick Wood
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEddie was eleven-years-old when he was hit by a car, wounding him and killing his sister.That’s when he first saw her.He was twenty-three when he had his second near-death experience. He saw her once more, overpowered by the demonic, destitute exterior that scarred his mind.Now he sees her when he’s awake. Everywhere he looks, every time he closes his eyes, she is there, making him weaker... -
Whispers in the Dark by Jonathan Aycliffe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this second chilling novel by Jonathan Aycliffe, orphaned Charlotte Metcalf arrives on the doorstep of her relatives, the mysterious Ayrtons, in the hope of locating her younger brother Arthur. Their home, Barras Hall, is at first a welcome refuge, until Charlotte realizes that the manor has become her prison, and that she is surrounded by a horror she cannot escape... -
Ghosts: A Treasury of Chilling Tales Old & New by Marvin Kaye, Nigel Kneale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMarvin KayeSaralee KayeIntroduction (Ghosts) • Marvin KayeA Prologue of Last Words • Marvin KayeMinuke • (1949) • Nigel KnealeThe Wind in the Rose-Bush • (1902) • Mary E. Wilkins FreemanLegal Rites • (1950) • Isaac Asimov and Frederik PohlSmee • (1929) • A.M...Categorized as:
ghosts gothic literary-fiction paranormal anthologies children-books classics fiction -
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... -
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940's Until Now by Peter Straub, John Collier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLike its companion volume, this Library of America hardcover contains 750 pages of classic tales of horror, hauntings, terrifying obsessions, and unearthly presences...
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