Books like 'Black Gum'
Readers who enjoyed Black Gum by J. David Osborne also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror comedy humor crime literary-fiction rural noir transgressive-mc
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Hookah by Cameron Jace
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA Plague Scarier than Death Alice and the Pillar have to stop a Wonderland Monster who'd lashed out an incurable disease onto the world. Their biggest challenge is that the world loves this monster so much. A Cure Larger than Life The only way to save the world is to travel to the other side of the globe, and peek into one of Lewis Carroll and the Pillar's darker pasts... -
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsArguably the masterpiece of a novelist as highly praised and scarcely read as any living writer, the Vintage Contemporaries reprint of Suttree should help to bring McCarthy the readers to match his many awards and voluminous reviews... -
Autumn Bleeds Into Winter by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings1979. Somebody has been abducting children in Fairbanks, Alaska. One of the victims was fourteen-year-old Curtis Black's best friend Todd.Curtis saw it happen. He knows exactly who did it. But he can't prove that it was his neighbor Gerald Martin. The authorities find no evidence of the crime. There's nothing they can do.So he's going to confront Mr. Martin himself... -
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, author who wrights against marriage who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with a honeymoon with the woman he loves and has recently agreed to marry... -
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The Garbage Times/White Ibis: Two Novellas by Sam Pink, Tom Fria
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the freezing alleys of Chicago to the dew-blanketed bayou of Florida. From bouncing drunks and cleaning up puke to biking through the swamp laughing at peacocks. Freeze to thaw. Filth and broken glass and black water backed up in showers; lizards and Girl Scouts and themed birthday parties...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies comedy contemporary dark-humor -
Lone Wolf by L.T. Vargus, E.M. Smith
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe package arrives first class. A manila envelope bulging with bubble wrap. With the top slit open, what lies within can just faintly be seen: A swath of human flesh sealed in plastic.When a popular podcaster receives a disturbing package in the mail, FBI profiler Victor Loshak heads to Denver to investigate. The grisly contents of the bubble mailer are unlike anything he’s seen... -
The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories by Sam Pink
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Pink is a keen observer of the culture of minimum-wage jobs and low-rent studio apartments that is the reality of life for all those who don't find a cog space in today's hyper-capitalist economy." —The GuardianIt was maybe the first job I'd ever had where people were happy to see me. An odd feeling indeed, to wield this kind of power. To be this kind of force... -
The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories by Saki
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe whimsical, macabre tales of British writer H. H. Munro—better known as Saki—deftly, mercilessly, and hilariously skewer the banality and hypocrisy of polite upper-class English society between the end of Queen Victoria’s reign and the beginning of World War I... -
ClownFellas: Tales of the Bozo Family by Carlton Mellick, III
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“Carlton Mellick III goes past silly, through weird, detours around dumb, blasts through bizarre, and gets to a place where the normal physics of narrative no longer apply. You will never be the same... -
The Complete Stories of Robert Louis Stevenson: Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Nineteen Other Tales by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe complexity and range of Robert Louis Stevenson's short fiction reveals his genius perhaps more than any other medium. Here, leading Stevenson scholar Barry Menikoff arranges and introduces the complete selection of Stevenson's brilliant stories, including the famed masterpiece Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr... -
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I Know What You Did Last Wednesday by Anthony Horowitz, Nickolas Grace
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen the Diamond Brothers receive an invitation to a school reunion on a remote Scottish island, things seem to be looking up. But Nick’s got a bad feeling, and it’s not indigestion... -
A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEach society gets the serial killers it deserves...How sick are you of our vapid celebrity culture, reality TV shows and tawdry talent contests? Not as sick as Simon Darcourt—but let’s face it, nobody is as sick as Simon Darcourt... -
Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt was a junket, a freebie. A 'team-building' weekend in the highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, specially solicited for his renowned and voluble scepticism - Jack Parlabane... -
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Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIrina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle.Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema... -
Maldoror and Poems by Comte de Lautréamont
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsInsolent and defiant, the Chants de Maldoror, by the self-styled Comte de Lautréamont (1846-70), depicts a sinister and sadistic world of unrestrained savagery and brutality... -
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsFrom its bravura opening onwards, THE CROW ROAD is justly regarded as an outstanding contemporary novel. 'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach...Categorized as:
crime humor literary-fiction transgressive-mc 20th-century adult audiobook bildungsroman -
Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA dark, quasi-detective novel, Cosmos follows the classic noir motif to explore the arbitrariness of language, the joke of human freedom, and man’s attempt to bring order out of chaos in his psychological life.Published in 1965, Cosmos is the last novel by Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) and his most somber and multifaceted work... -
Bad Chili by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWith his trademark knack for gut-busting laughter and head-splitting action, Joe R. Lansdale serves up a bubbling cauldron of murder and mayhem that only he could create.Hap Collins has just returned home from a gig working on an off shore oil rig. With a new perspective on life, Hap wants to change the way he's living, and shoot the straight and narrow... -
Rumble Tumble by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHap Collins and Leonard Pine are in for an action-packed adventure when they cross paths with a towering Pentecostal preacher, a midget with a giant attitude, and a gang of bikers turned soldiers of fortune... -
Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"There's no bullshit in a Joe Lansdale book. There's everything a good story needs, and nothing it doesn't. Joe pulls up the truck, says, 'Get in the back, we're going for a ride.'You know it might get a little scary and it might get a little crazy, but you get in, because you know in the end, it's going to be a fun ride... -
The Blurred Man by Anthony Horowitz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe man in the photo is so blurry, it's impossible to make out what he really looks like... -
The Red Mohawk by Anonymous
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe new book from the anonymous author of the international bestselling Bourbon Kid series. Everything seems peaceful in the small town of B Movie Hell until a mysterious serial killer in a skull mask topped with a red mohawk shows up and starts butchering the locals. Government agents Jack Munson and Milena Fonseca are sent to track down and eliminate the masked psychopath... -
Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 'Zombies', the absurdity of both life and death are on full display as the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze - electronic shocks from cardiac defibrillators.Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant - this story represents everything listeners have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk.©2015 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd... -
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The Odds by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsAfter a disastrous evening playing slot machines, Ethan Caustin wonders how he's going to explain his massive loss to his wife and kids. As he tries to find his way out of the casino, sick to his stomach and filled with self-loathing, he's approached by a stranger who offers a solution to his problem. It's a simple game. A 99% chance for him to win ten thousand dollars... -
Strawberries by Casey Bartsch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsStrawberries is the name he has been given. When they let him out, they had no way of knowing what he was. A psychopath. A killer. The body count is at twenty already, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Agent Harry Bland can’t see one anyway. He doesn’t have a single clue to go on. It doesn’t help that his mind won’t focus. His heart just isn’t in it anymore... -
Paint it Black by John G. Hartness
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGoblins and Witches and Trolls . . . oh crap!In the fourth installment of The Black Knight Chronicles, Jimmy Black is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and a darned fine pity party, serving the finest alcohol, when a call from his not-quite-girlfriend-cop forces him to sober up and stare at jawbones... -
Single White Psychopath Seeks Same by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe second book in the wildly popular series of horror/comedy novels featuring Andrew Mayhem!"Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you just know it’s going to be the kind of day where you end up tied to a chair in a filthy garage while a pair of tooth-deprived lunatics torment you with a chainsaw. So as I struggled against the ropes, I can’t say I was all that surprised... -
The Complete Tales of Washington Irving by Washington Irving
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWashington Irving (1783–1859) was the first American literary artist to earn his living solely through his writings and the first to enjoy international acclaim. In addition to his long public service as a diplomat, Irving was amazingly prolific: His collected works fill forty volumes that encompass essays, history, travel writings, and multi-volume biographies of Columbus and Washington... -
Osbert the Avenger by Christopher William Hill, Chris Riddell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first book in the gruesomely funny Tales from Schwartzgarten series. Meet Osbert Brinkhoff, the unlikeliest of avengers. His is a tale of dark delights and ghastly goings-on, of injustice and revenge. The villains are vicious. The settings are sinister. And good does NOT always prevail...If you prefer cleavers to kittens and fiends to fairies.. -
Rose's Run by Dawn Dumont, Daniel Grenier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRose Okanese, a single mother with two kids, has been pushed into a corner by Rez citizens to claim some self-respect, and decides that the fastest way to do that is to run the reserve’s annual marathon. Though Rose hasn’t run in twenty years, smokes, and initially has little motivation, she announces her intention to run the race... -
The After Days by Amy Ginsburg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a world without power, you need the power of friendship and love to survive."This is far and away the most compelling read I’ve experienced in a long time. No lie. This is seriously good. It’s fresh, entertaining, and thought-provoking...Categorized as:
literary-fiction humor dystopia fiction post-apocalyptic sci-fi apocalyptic female-mc -
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.But there are rules:He cannot look inside the box.He cannot ask questions... -
Captains Outrageous by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHapless chicken-plant guard Hap Collins gets into trouble when he takes his best friend Leonard on a Caribbean cruise. The two find themselves abandoned in Mexico, saved from armed attackers by a geriatric fisherman and his lovely daughter, who's currently having to fend off a Mexican mobster who is also a practising nudist.. -
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Graverobbers Wanted: No Experience Necessary by Jeff Strand
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen you're desperate for money, searching for a little adventure, and aren't the most responsible person in the world, you can end up doing some outrageous things. Which is how Andrew Mayhem, an extremely married father of two, ends up accepting $20,000 to find a key ... a key buried with a body in a shallow grave... -
Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsIn Switch Bitch four tales of seduction and suspense are told by the grand master of the short story, Roald Dahl.Topping and tailing this collection are The Visitor and Bitch, stories featuring Dahl's notorious hedonist Oswald Hendryks Cornelius (or plain old Uncle Oswald) whose exploits are frequently as extraordinary as they are scandalous...Categorized as:
crime humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
The Nose by Catherine Cowan, Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAfter disappearing from the Deputy Inspector's face, his nose shows up around town before returning to its proper place... -
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey, محمد غفوری
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOnce the Orme family’s magnificent ancestral estate, Observatory Mansions is now a crumbling apartment complex, home to an eccentric group of misfits. One of them is Francis Orme, who earns his livelihood as a living statue. When not practicing “inner and outer stillness,” Francis steals the cherished possessions of others to add to his private museum... -
How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings[i]Lazarus Dying[/i]: the man Jesus raised from the dead is alive and living in New York City. [i]The Fecalist[/i]: an author whose best selling work is his latest poop. [i]Christmas[/i]: she loves you, you love her, she has a gun in your mouth. Welcome to the award-winning short fiction of Owen Egerton... -
Grundish and Askew by Lance Carbuncle
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStrap on your athletic cup and grab a barf bag. The Dr... -
Negrophobia by Darius James
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEvery racial stereotype is brought to life in this wry and raucous debut by James, a cutting-edge African American writer with an already established underground reputation. "By far the best novel to emerge from New York's Lower East Side literary scene".--Kirkus... -
The Wine Club by Laurie Lisa
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBe ready to get hooked, with The Wine Club.Most people can’t tell a good wine from a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck.At least that’s what best friends Reggie and Audrey decide one night while celebrating their daughters’ election to the elite Mohave High Tigerette Pom Squad. But cheerleading in Scottsdale Arizona doesn’t come cheap, and both women are strapped for cash and going through a rough patch... -
The Scarecrow by Ronald Hugh Morrieson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings'The same week our fowls were stolen, Daphne Moran had her throat cut.' The greatest opening line in New Zealand literature opens this hilarious Gothic melodrama. Klynham is a sleepy little New Zealand town in which not a lot happens. But then one moonlit night the Scarecrow arrives, swilling brandies and looking for victims. Something sordid and even macrabre lies ahead... -
Fireproof by Gerard Brennan
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsEqual parts crime fiction, dark urban fantasy and black comedy.Hell hath no fury for Mike Rocks. He's fireproof; an anomaly caused by a slip-up in afterlife bureaucracy. Lucifer bundles him off as an embarrassing problem with a mission to introduce Satanism to Northern Ireland. And while he's at it, Mike can exact revenge on the men who took his life... -
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Rock-a-bye Baby by Willow Rose
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLisa Rasmussen just had a baby and everything in her life seems perfect at this point. Only she wishes that everyone else around her would be as flawless as she is and stop getting in her way. And if they won't listen, then she'll make them.ROCK-A-BYE BABY, is a thriller novella from Willow Rose, author of the International Bestselling horror-series starring the Danish reporter Rebekka Franck...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies comedy contemporary fiction -
Blackburn by Bradley Denton, Marcella Dallatorre
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsBlackburn is a serial killer. But, like the rest of us, he confronts the same hypocrisies and frustrations of the world and, unable to help himself, or at the mercy of circumstance, he crosses a dangerous threshold--and he kills. In this novel, we meet many of his twenty-one victims: law enforcers, writers, adulterers, auto mechanics, and other liars... -
A Bloodsmoor Romance by Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSet in a nineteenth century similar to our own, A Bloodsmoor Romance follows the beautiful Zinn sisters, five young women who refuse-for the most part-"the obligations of Christian marriage... -
Lint by Steve Aylett
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSteve Aylett has always gone a step farther than his contemporaries. In Slaughtermatic, he pushed the limits of science fiction, and for that he was named a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. Now, in Lint, he offers the first-ever biography of one of the great minds of our time: Jeff Lint, author of some of the strangest and most inventive satirical SF of the late twentieth century... -
Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe basis for the new TV series Hap and LeonardA rip-roaring, high-octane, Texas-sized thriller, featuring two friends, one vixen, a crew of washed-up radicals, loads of money, and bloody mayhem.Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, yet they couldn't be more different. Hap is an east Texas white-boy with a weakness for Texas women. Leonard is a gay, black Vietnam vet... -
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsLord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories is a collection of short semi-comic mystery stories that were written by Oscar Wilde and published in 1891. It includes Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, The Canterville Ghost, The Sphinx Without a Secret and The Model Millionaire...
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