Books like 'Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements'
Readers who enjoyed Violenzia and Other Deadly Amusements by Richard Sala also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy horror mystery supernatural dark fantasy action / adventure gothic humor dark
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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... -
Kingdom of the Wicked by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThe seventh instalment in the biggest, funniest, most thrilling comedy-horror-adventure series in the universe…Magic is a disease.Across the land, normal people are suddenly developing wild and unstable powers. Infected by a rare strain of magic, they are unwittingly endangering their own lives and the lives of the people around them... -
Bedlam by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe 12th explosive novel in the internationally bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series, BEDLAM will blow your mind – and change everything…On a desperate journey to recover her sister's lost soul, Valkyrie Cain goes up against the High Sanctuary itself, and there's nothing Skulduggery Pleasant can do to stop her... -
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 52 ratingsHarrow the Ninth, the sequel to Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor's haunted space station.She answered the Emperor's call.She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.In victory, her world has turned to ash... -
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The Fall of the House of Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsJohannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, has come into possession of a vital clue that may lead him to his ultimate goal: a cure for death. The path is vague, however, and certainly treacherous as it takes him into strange territories that, quite literally, no one has ever seen before... -
The Brothers Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHorst Cabal has risen from the dead. Again. Horst, the most affable vampire one is ever likely to meet, is resurrected by an occult conspiracy that wants him as a general in a monstrous army. Their plan: to create a country of horrors, a supernatural homeland. As Horst sees the lengths to which they are prepared to go and the evil they cultivate, he realizes that he cannot fight them alone... -
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 74 ratingsThe Emperor needs necromancers.The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse... -
Trick or Treat by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsShort story published on Derek Landy's blog; fits in best between Death Bringer and Kingdom of the Wicked... -
The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction by Neil Gaiman, Marlon James
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn outstanding array—52 pieces in all—of selected fiction from the multiple-award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, curated by his readers around the world, and introduced with a foreword by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon JamesSpanning Gaiman’s career to date, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction is a captivating collection from one of the world’s most beloved...Categorized as:
dark humor 21st-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook contemporary dark-fantasy -
Be Still My Vampire Heart by Kerrelyn Sparks
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIf it was still beating. Angus MacKay has been undead for almost five hundred years and it's not often something, or someone, surprises him. Until Emma Wallace. The sight of this luscious agent from the CIA's elite Stake-Out team was enough to stop Angus in his tracks. But then he discovers that she's a vampire slayer, intent on killing the "monsters" who killed her parents... -
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 86 ratingsUnder the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London... -
The Kill Society by Richard Kadrey
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsSandman Slim has been to Heaven and Hell and many places in between, but now he finds himself in an unknown land: the far, far edge of the Tenebrae, the desolate home of the lost dead. Making his way inland with nothing but his unerring instinct for trouble to guide him, he collides with a caravan of the damned on a mysterious crusade, led by the ruthless Magistrate... -
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos by Jim Turner, H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHoward Phillips Lovecraft forever changed the face of horror, fantasy, and science fiction with a remarkable series of stories as influential as the works of Poe, Tolkien, and Edgar Rice Burroughs... -
Immortal Hearts by Ellen Schreiber
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAthena "Stormy" Sterling is coming to Dullsville, and Raven is both excited and panicked in anticipation of Alexander's little sister's visit. Alexander tells Raven that she and his sister have a lot in common, but can the mini-Raven be everything she hopes for? Alexander calls her Stormy for a reason. Stormy's visit stirs up the perfect immortal whirlwind... -
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Unhinged by A.G. Howard, Nathalia Suellen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsAlyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of... -
Christmas in Dark Moon Vale: A Blood Curse Series Novella by Tessa Dawn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJoin the vampires of Dark Moon Vale in this holiday adventure filled with treachery, vengeance, and mayhem... Marquis Silivasi is an Ancient Master Warrior in the arcane house of Jadon: a clan of lethal vampires living in the Rocky Mountains... -
The Eye of the Moon by Anonymous
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFollowing a massive rampage that left the streets of Santa Mondega soaked with blood, the elusive supernatural serial killer known only as the Bourbon Kid is now himself being haunted. Hot on his heels are several vampire gangs, the Secret Service, a couple of werewolves, corrupt cops, and the Dark Lord himself, and none will rest until he is dead... -
Lord of Misrule by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsIn the college town of Morganville, vampires and humans coexist in (relatively) bloodless harmony. Then comes Bishop, the master vampire who threatens to abolish all order, revive the forces of the evil dead, and let chaos rule. But Bishop isn't the only threat... -
Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe wait is over. dig into the feast...In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though, especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town's living and its dead is unthinkably sinister... -
The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA short story written by Derek Landy dedicated to the winner of the character competition, Charlie Smith, containing the winning entry of "Geoffrey Scrutinous"... -
Coraline and Other Stories by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Coraline explores her new home, she steps through a door and into another house just like her own - except that things aren't quite as they seem. There's another mother and another father in this house and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. Coraline must use all of her wits and every ounce of courage in order to save herself and return home .. -
Gold, Babies and the Brothers Muldoon by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA jolt of Skulduggery Pleasant action for free.Midnight. Valkyrie Cain approaches an old, ramshackle church to make a delicate deal with a trio of ugly, hairy goblins. To her absolute non-surprise, the goblins have no intention of honouring that deal- but not to worry. Skulduggery Pleasant is standing by to deliver a surprise of their own.Things, however, don’t go exactly according to plan... -
The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsJohannes Cabal and his rather inexact powers of necromancy are back once more. This time, his talents are purchased by The Fear Institute as they hunt for the Phobic Animus - the embodiment of fear... -
Full Throttle by Joe Hill
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns... -
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Johannes Cabal the Detective by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsJohannes Cabal is back -- a little older, a little wiser, but just as sharply funny, cuttingly sarcastic, and unexpectedly violent as ever. For necromancer Johannes Cabal, dealing with devils, demons and raising the dead is pretty much par for the course. But when his attempt to steal a rare book turns sour, he is faced by a far more terrifying entity -- politics... -
The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe secret is, vampires are real and I am one.The secret is, I’m stealing from you what is most truly yours and I’m not sorry—New York City in 1978 is a dirty, dangerous place to live. And die... -
The Slightly Ignominious End to the Legend of Black Annis by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings... -
ImPerfect Curse by C.N. Rowan
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙨? 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚'𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙖 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙖𝙮.I’m exhausted. Done in. Needing a stiff drink and about a week’s sleep. But that’s not going to happen.Because Franc is dying, struck by a curse placed on him by the Sistren Of Bordeaux, one of the most powerful groups of Talented in France... -
The Meadows by London Clarke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA decades-old murder. A strange, blood-thirsty cult. And a house full of spirits.It was supposed to be a new beginning, a fresh start in the Shenandoah Valley, where Scarlett’s memories weren’t riddled with drug addiction and rehab. But after purchasing an abandoned house with a checkered past in the hopes of transforming it into a luxury bed and breakfast, strange things start to happen... -
Dominion by Peter McLean
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the tunnels deep under London, the Earth elementals are dying. Hunted by something they know only as the Rotman, the elementals have no one trustworthy they can turn to. Enter Don Drake, diabolist and semi-reformed hitman, and an almost-fallen angel called Trixie. When the Matriarch tells Don that Rotman is actually the archdemon Bianakith, he knows this is going to be a tough job... -
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsEach of the Empire's houses keeps secrets, even from themselves. For the bookish academics of the Sixth, every secret is a mystery, and every mystery is a puzzle to be solved or a paper to be published. Deep in the bowels of their house, one such secret is about to reveal itself... -
That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMiskatonic University has a long-whispered reputation of being strongly connected to all things occult and supernatural. From the faculty to the students, the fascination with other-worldly legends and objects runs rampant. So, when Carter Weston’s professor Dr... -
Low Red Moon by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeveral years after the events in Threshold, Chance and Deacon have married. They're looking ahead to the future, trying to put the past behind them. But new nightmares await them as a woman with a need for violence enters their lives. And something even worse has followed her.. -
The Wide Game by Michael West
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOn the advice of his wife, Paul Rice is making plans to attend his 10th year High School reunion. Returning to his boyhood home of Harmony, Indiana, he finds that he is still haunted by memories of that time-memories of Deidra, his first love, and memories of the Wide Game... -
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The Whispering by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFosse House, home of the reclusive Luisa Gilmore, harbours curious secrets - secrets that stretch back almost a century, to the ill-fated Palestrina Choir in its remote Belgian convent. When Oxford don Michael Flint travels to the house to trace the origins of the long-dead Choir, he is at once aware of the house's eerie menace... -
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHave you ever loved a magical book above all others? Have you ever wished the magic were real? Welcome to The Land of Laughs. A novel about how terrifying that would be.Schoolteacher Thomas Abbey, unsure son of a film star, doesn't know who he is or what he wants--in life, in love, or in his relationship with the strange and intense Saxony Gardner... -
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 54 ratings“A prodigiously imaginative collection.”—New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice “Dazzling tales from a master of the fantastic... -
The Pit and the Box by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn an isolated mountain, a stone labyrinth provides rough shelter for a band of mercenaries. At its core lies a centuries-old mystery. But in part two of The Boy in the Iron Box, no secret is safe.A concealed pit; an iron box, wrapped in chains; a statue of a boy. What unknowns await the anxious, disoriented team in this strange ruin? Night will tell... -
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsMultiple award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume... -
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn this uproarious and clever debut, it's time to give the Devil his due. Johannes Cabal, a brilliant scientist and notorious snob, is single-mindedly obsessed in heart and soul with raising the dead. Well, perhaps not "soul" . . . He hastily sold his years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. But now, tormented by a dark secret, he travels to the fiery pits of Hell to retrieve it... -
Drachenfels by Jack Yeovil, Kim Newman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDetlef Sierck, the self-proclaimed greatest playwright in the world, has declared that his next production will be a recreation of the end of the Great Enchanter Drachenfels - to be staged at the very site of his death, the Fortress of Drachenfels itself... -
Gustav Gloom and the People Taker by Adam-Troy Castro
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsEnter an exciting new world of shadows from Hugo Award nominee Adam-Troy Castro. Meet Gustav Gloom.Fernie What finds herself lost in the Gloom mansion after her cat appears to have been chased there by its own shadow... -
Death Watch by Ari Berk
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThey say the dead should rest in peace. Not all the dead agree.One night, Silas Umber’s father Amos doesn’t come home from work. Devastated, Silas learns that his father was no mere mortician but an Undertaker, charged with bringing The Peace to the dead trapped in the Shadowlands, the states of limbo binding spirits to earth... -
Shadowland by Peter Straub
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsYou have been there…if you have ever been afraid.Come back. To a dark house deep in the Vermont woods, where two friends are spending a season of horror, apprenticed to a Master Magician.Learning secrets best left unlearned. Entering a world of incalculable evil more ancient than death itself. More terrifying. And more real.Only one of them will make it through... -
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He Who Walks in Shadow by Brett J. Talley
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Incendium Maleficarum has been lost and Carter Weston presumed dead, but the story of That Which Should Not Be is only just beginning. Now Carter’s only daughter, Rachel Jones, and his oldest friend, Henry Armitage, must embark on an epic journey that will take them from the hell-blasted Tunguska forest to the catacombs of Paris to the shores of the Scottish Isles... -
The Clown Service by Guy Adams
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsToby Greene has been reassigned. The Department: Section 37 Station Office, Wood Green.The Boss: August Shining, an ex-Cambridge, Cold War-era spy.The Mission: Charged with protecting Great Britain and its interests from paranormal terrorism.The Threat: An old enemy has returned, and with him Operation Black Earth, a Soviet plan to create the ultimate insurgents by re-animating the dead... -
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAt the Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, you will definitely learn your lesson. An atmospheric, heartfelt, and delightfully spooky novel for fans of Coraline, Splendors and Glooms, and The Mysterious Benedict Society.Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence... -
Blood Follows by Steven Erikson
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAll is not well in Lamentable Moll. A sinister, diabolical killer stalks the port city's narrow, barrow-humped streets, and panic grips the citizens like a fever. Emancipor Reese is no exception, and indeed, with his legendary ill luck, it's worse for him than for most. Not only was his previous employer the unknown killer's latest victim, but Emancipor is out of work... -
Autumn Rose: A Dark Heroine Novel by Abigail Gibbs
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAutumn Rose has the chance to save the world she loves. But how much will she have to sacrifice? Autumn Rose lives in a sleepy seaside town, but buried deep under the surface of her quiet life are dark secrets. Her grandmother is dead, murdered eighteen months ago, and the vibrant London social scene in which she was brought up is a world away... -
The Black Stone by Robert E. Howard
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"The Black Stone" is a horror short story by American writer Robert E. Howard, first published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales. The story introduces the mad poet Justin Geoffrey and the fictitious Unaussprechlichen Kulten by Friedrich von Junzt. The story is part of the Cthulhu Mythos, and follows the same pattern and has the same features as much of H. P. Lovecraft's classic work...
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