Books like 'RETREAT'
Readers who enjoyed RETREAT by J.F. Gonzalez also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror supernatural splatterpunk evil-places dark
-
Call of the Crocodile by F. Gardner
Rated: 4.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA dark fantasy horror novel, set during Halloween. After a boy is eaten alive by a crocodile, his family begins a descent into madness and terror in this odyssey of modern horror.Part of a series of interconnected horror novels that can be read in any order. Each book serves as a stand alone story, yet builds a greater picture behind a sinister mystery in Chicago... -
The Crane Diaries: Stained by Apryl Baker
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsI Am Death. I Am Darkness. I Am Creation. These are the simple truths Emma Rose Crane, AKA Mattie Hathaway, has run from for the last two years, but the situation she finds herself in will not let her flee her past anymore. It’s barreling toward her at the speed of a bullet. Mattie finds herself back in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the trial of Dan’s mother... -
Chaos Volume 2: Books 4-6 by Claire Farrell
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBooks 4-6 in the Chaos series (including bonus novella, Kings). Usurper It’s been a year since Cara returned to the human realm with her daughter, and the fae have come knocking again. The game of kings is still being played, power is the ultimate prize, and Scarlet is an asset every court wishes to acquire... -
Red by Calvin Demmer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsInside, the red raged. Its true intentions had united with near-surface primal instincts. It wanted to hunt, kill, and devour...A short story... -
-
Haunted by Amber Lynn Natusch
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"I cowered away from him, unable to formulate a coherent sentence. Questions ran through my mind though none made it past my lips. I wondered how this could be happening, what he wanted, and what major injustice I'd brought against the universe to bring a fate such as this upon me.Perhaps being born was reason enough... -
The Haar by David Sodergren
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings“I don’t fear death... but they do.”Muriel McAuley has lived in the Scottish fishing village of Witchaven all her life. She was born there, and she intends to die there.But when an overseas property developer threatens to evict the residents from their homes and raze Witchaven to the ground in the name of progress, all seems lost… until the day a mysterious fog bank creeps inland... -
Elemental Dreams by Phaedra Weldon
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLady Darksome! Thought I was gone, didn’t you? So did I. But apparently slipping into that good night wasn’t my plan. I just wish I’d have left myself a note. Or a Facebook message. Hell, even a Snapchat…chat. That way I could have prepared everyone, including me, for what was to come. And I could have saved my love from so much heartbreak... -
Bones by Andrew Cull
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings'Bones' brings together four chilling ghost stories by award winning writer-director Andrew Cull. Four monsters collected in paperback for the first time. 'Did You Forget About Me?'"He had written to me a month or so before he died. I'd ignored the letter the same way I'd ignored all the others... -
By the Light of His Lantern: A Novel by Abe Moss
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA nightmarish tale of revenge, anguish, and human connection, BY THE LIGHT OF HIS LANTERN is thrilling, chilling, and heartfelt in equal measure... Naked in the sand, Lewis coughs seawater from his lungs. Disoriented, he blinks his eyes, rubs them for good measure, but the result is the same. The sky is as black as the beach below it. In this place, the sun and moon and stars are long dead... -
Diablo Snuff: A Foreign Evil by C.C. Genovese, Carver Pike
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Let me tell you about the night I experienced true evil. It started with a gaze. She was eye fucking the shit out of me." Michael is at the tail end of his bachelor party vacation with his buddies and has had enough of all the gambling and flirtatious prostitutes. Then he meets Isabelle, a foreigner herself, and Michael is smitten. But even evil can come in a beautiful package... -
J.A. Konrath Horror Trilogy - Three Thriller Novels by Jack Kilborn, J.A. Konrath
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThree complete horror novels by the master of chills, J.A. Konrath. A F R A I D WELCOME TO SAFE HAVEN, POPULATION 907...Nestled in the woods of Wisconsin, Safe Haven is miles from everything. With one road in and out, this is a town so peaceful it has never needed a full-time police force. Until now...A helicopter has crashed on the outskirts of town and something terrible has been unleashed... -
A Bouquet of Viscera by Bridgett Nelson, Ronald Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn overzealous vigilante, who sees her victims' auras, finds herself in a very uncomfortable situation. A young woman, injected with a microchip in a futuristic America, develops unusual and grisly cravings. Four high school graduates end up on the menu of a giant, mutant sea creature. Diary entries share shocking and disturbing confessions.. -
Sleep and Spirit by Courtney Thorne
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAs the only female born into a royal family in over four hundred years, freedom was never going to be an option.Gifted with the elements of all five kingdoms, Aurelia had never known a minute of peace. No Virium was ever meant to hold all five elements and now they war inside her, keeping her from rest... -
Faces of Beth by Carver Pike
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen Andrew meets Beth at the Myles-Bend State Mental Hospital, he knows she has issues. She checked herself into the place because of her problems, but he can’t help falling in love with her anyway. He’s willing to put up with her constant mood swings and all the baggage she brings into the relationship...Categorized as:
splatterpunk dark horror fiction graphic-violence mental-illness suspense paranormal -
-
Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II by Brian Keene
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe sequel to Conqueror Worms. Free serialized e-novel... -
Left To You by Daniel J. Volpe
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhat would you do to save a loved one?Robert’s mother, Helen, is ravaged with cancer. Every day could be her last, and Robert dreads losing the last member of his family. Robert’s friend and Holocaust survivor, Josef, tells him an unholy story and leaves him a way to save his dying mother. But, as with everything in life, the salvation comes with a steep price... -
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, #2 by Robin Furth, Stephen King
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe Dark Tower is now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris ElbaA Concordance, Volume II is the definitive guide to the many worlds, argots, characters, and cross-references— within Stephen King’s bestselling epic Dark Tower series and among the rest of King's work—that appear in Books V through VII: Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower... -
Rock, Paper, Shivers: ACT Six and Seven by Sara C. Roethle
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"What was to come made one little blood-oath pale in comparison. After all, what was a little blood between acquaintances?" Madeline is playing a dangerous game, with rules not bound by honesty, fair play, or even space and time. When her quest to destroy the charm becomes risky beyond reproach, she'll have to seek the aid of a mischievous Viking to even the odds... -
A Nightmare on Elm Street: Suffer the Children by David Bishop
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen six teenagers volunteer to test a new anti-insomnia drug, all they expect is cash and a good night's sleep... -
Those Who Came Before by J.H. Moncrieff
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPeople are dying at Strong Lake, and the worst is yet to come.An idyllic weekend camping trip is cut short when Reese Wallace's friends are brutally murdered. As the group's only survivor, Reese is the prime suspect, and his story doesn't make much sense... -
Nemesis: The Death of Timmy Quinn by Kealan Patrick Burke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"We no longer need the sun to cast our shadows, for we have become them."For over twenty years Tim Quinn has lived in the shadow of death. Now, the Curtain has come down and the dead no longer need him to facilitate their vengeance... -
Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck, Deena Warner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom award-winning author Gary A. Braunbeck comes Prodigal Blues, his first foray into non-supernatural horror.After he finds himself stranded at a truck stop in Missouri, Mark Sieber gets one of the biggest shocks of his life when he recognizes the face of a little girl on a Missing poster as belonging to the same little girl he saw only a few minutes before... -
Warped: A Menapace Collection of Short Horror, Thriller, and Suspense Fiction by Jeff Menapace
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom award-winning tales of horror, to heart-stopping stories of crime and suspense, WARPED is the short story lover's dream companion. Acclaimed stories like: "The Straw Man and a Murder" - Hiding from his abusive father, a young boy finds solace in the arms of a scarecrow. "Sugar Daddy" - A wealthy slice of suburbia holds a deadly supernatural secret... -
The Devil's Pocketbook by Ross Jeffery
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsErik and Lara are in mourning for their daughter, who was born “incompatible with life”. To get away from their suffocating grief and the ever-present shadow their daughter has cast in their lives since passing, and desperately trying to recover their increasingly rocky relationship, they take a trip to the seaside town of Polperro, in Cornwall... -
-
The Haunting of Hardstone Jail by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen the notorious Hardstone Jail is reopened after many years of neglect, nobody cares about the ghost stories. They just want somewhere to put more prisoners.But a ghost has been waiting patiently at Hardstone. The ghost of a little girl walks the corridors, seeking revenge for something that happened a century ago. And anyone who looks into her eyes will be dead within days... -
Dark Carnival by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOver 50 years out of print the October release of DARK CARNIVAL by RAY BRADBURY will be the literary event of the year for Bradbury fans. After many years Ray Bradbury has agreed to allow this classic to be published in a LIMITED edition, with bonus material, edited by his long-time bibliographer Donn Albright... -
Hellbound Hearts by Paul Kane, Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsClive Barker's iconic masterpiece The Hellbound Heart, the novella adapted into the film Hellraiser, unleashed a new mythology of horror, brilliantly conceived and born of the darkest imagination. Now, enter this visionary world - the merciless realm of the demonic Cenobites - in this collection of stories inspired by The Hellbound Heart... -
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSongs of a Dreamer was Thomas Ligotti’s first collection of supernatural horror stories. When originally published in 1985 by Harry Morris’s Silver Scarab Press, the book was hardly noticed. In 1989, an expanded version appeared that garnered accolades from several quarters... -
Infernal Angel by Edward Lee
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe city of Hell. That's what Hell is now, an endless metropolis bristling with black skyscrapers, raging in eternal horror. The moon is black and the sky is blood red. Screams rip down the streets and through alleys. The people trudge down sidewalks on their way to work or to stores, just like in other cities. There's only one difference. In this city the people are all dead... -
Ritualistic Human Sacrifice by C.V. Hunt
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNick Graves is a miserable man. Every day he comes home from his dream job to a stale marriage. On the day he finally summons the courage to tell his wife, Eve, he wants a divorce she has exciting news for him – she’s pregnant. Nick is a spiteful man. He purchases his dream home in an ideal location far away from family, friends, and coworkers... -
Wormwood by Chad Lutzke, Tim Meyer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor some kids, Long Lake, Georgia is home. But for fourteen-year-old Baker Gray, it’s just another stop, another town in another state. Because of his mother’s nomadic lifestyle, he’s never had a best friend, never kissed a girl, and he’s certainly never met anyone like Cassandra Larsson—the enigmatic, older girl whose idea of fun blurs the line between right and wrong... -
Malefic by Ambrose Ibsen
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Something is watching from behind the walls...” The move into 889 Morgan Road was supposed to be a fresh start for Joseph Dubois and his family. What they got instead was a nightmare. Dark shadows in the halls are only the beginning. At night, guttural noises issue from behind the walls, and the family reports seeing a terrifying figure wandering the premises... -
Fright Night by John Skipp, Craig Spector
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on the motion picture written by Tom Holland.Charley has seen the coffin and the bodies drained of blood. He knows he will be the vampire's next victim. But no one will believe him: not the police, not his girlfriend Amy, not even the school weirdo, Evil Ed... -
The Night Girl: The Complete Series by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen she starts a new job at Crestview retirement home, Juliet discovers that something unusual is waiting for her in an abandoned part of the building. At first, she think the mysterious Jennifer Mathis is some kind of ghost. Later, however, Juliet learns that Jennifer has certain powers that could be extremely useful... -
-
Down in the Hollow by Timothy Hobbs
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt all begins with a decapitated head found at the bottom of a dark well. Bertram Stone is a former Texas Ranger running from the changes of an ever-evolving world. Horses were being replaced by cars. Laws were changing how Bertram could deal justice. Wanting to live out his golden years in peace, Stone flees to the quiet town of Hamilton, Texas where he becomes the local sheriff... -
The Prettiest Girl in the Grave by Kristopher Triana
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the author of international horror sensation Gone to See the River Man comes a new tale of terror that will drag you to the darkest corners of the soul.Some girls are fearful, others are brave. One girl’s a princess, the next one, a slave. But all girls are equal, when they’re down in this cave, until just one is left standing—The Prettiest Girl in the Grave.It’s only supposed to be a game... -
Through the Ravenous Night We Ride by Calvin Demmer
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSecret societies, serial killers, malevolent criminals, and other evils stalk these pages.A short story collection... -
Under Rotting Sky by Matthew V. Brockmeyer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwenty unforgettable tales of transgression and horror from Matthew V. Brockmeyer, the award-winning author of KIND NEPENTHE. In "Mine" a child hangs precariously between the isthmus of innocence and evil, shedding his humanity for the altar of a wolf pup.A horrifying and ancient legend reveals itself with a shocking new twist in "A Dirty Winter Moon... -
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve by Ellen Datlow, Paul Tremblay
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Ellen Datlow (“the venerable queen of horror anthologies” (New York Times) comes a new entry in the series that has brought you stories from Stephen King and Neil Gaiman comes thrilling stories, the best horror stories available. For more than three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror... -
Everything Has Teeth by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA city where people are turning gleefully insane. Inescapable blood-sucking bugs. A serial killer who may have discovered proof of alien life. A kinky proposal to "even out" an instance of infidelity. A man whose fingernails are growing at an out of control rate. Twisted new spins on the legends of John Henry and Humpty Dumpty. The all-time worst bathtub in which to bathe a child... -
The City by S.C. Mendes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsChinatown, 1910. Violence is nothing new to these streets, but the discovery of three bodies—little more than piles of flesh and organs, the bones stolen—have proven to be the most bizarre murders to date. The police turn to Max Elliot, an unstable homicide detective, who six months earlier lost his wife and daughter under similar circumstances... -
Weathercock by Glen Duncan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe confession of Dominic Francis Hood - Roman Catholic, sadist, conspirator to murder, witness to a miracle. His childhood had the usual benefits, but after watching a miracle performed by Father Malone, Dominic realises a part of him is skewed, and that mere fantasy will never be enough... -
Savages by Greg F. Gifune
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt began as a vacation to the Cook Islands. But when seven friends are lost in the South Pacific after their boat goes down in a storm, they must survive at sea for several days in a small raft. Blown miles off course from their original position, and deep into open waters, they eventually encounter a small uncharted island... -
Scary Stories by Barry Moser, Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGoose bumps along your arms, the hairs rising on the back of your neck, these are the sure signs you're immersed in a great scary story. Featuring classic stories by such timeless authors as Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and H.G...Categorized as:
dark splatterpunk anthologies children-books female-author fiction ghosts graphic-violence -
-
They Feed by Jason Parent
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe night uncovers all we wish not to see. A troubled man enters a dusky park before sunset. A young woman follows, hidden in shadow. Both have returned to the park to take back something the past has stolen from them, to make right six long years of suffering, and to find justice or perhaps redemption - or maybe they'll settle for some old-fashioned revenge... -
Welcome to the Show by Doug Murano, John Skipp
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings17 horror Stories. One legendary music venue. We all know the old cliché: Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Now, add demons, other dimensions, monsters, revenge, human sacrifice, and a dash of the truly inexplicable. This is the story of the (fictional) San Francisco music venue, The Shantyman... -
The Bookshop From Hell by David Haynes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHorror is what Dan Law enjoys.He loves to read horror novels as a way to escape from his teaching job, from his loneliness, from the everyday dullness of life in Silver Lake. That’s what Dan lives for.When a new bookstore opens in town, every visitor receives a free book of their own. A book that tells their own personal story…a story they have to follow to the brutal end... -
The Grief Frequency by Kealan Patrick Burke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter losing his wife in a car accident, a husband struggles with survivor's guilt. But in the dark, he realizes that the dead are never very far away. Not when there are secrets yet to be uncovered. Because Paul hasn't lost everything. Not yet... -
The Third Parent by Elias Witherow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNo one knows where he came from. No one knows what he wants. No one dares ask about his strange physical abnormalities. For a quiet suburban neighborhood, things are about to change. And it starts with a knock at the door.Follow his rules. Don't call the police. Listen to his lessons. That's what Jack and his family were told... -
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.