Books like 'A Prayer for the Dying'
Readers who enjoyed A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror 20th century mystery small town psychological violent-conflict historical-fiction literary-fiction civil-war
-
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms...Categorized as:
classics dark gothic historical-fiction 20th-century audiobook bildungsroman black-mc -
![The Colour Out Of Space: With The Essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Colour Out Of Space: With The Essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsFirst published in 1927, "The Colour Out of Space" is H. P. Lovecraft's signature science-fiction horror story, finely presented here in a single volume with Lovecraft's landmark essay on "weird" fiction, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" - a must-read for all students and lovers of horror. Quixotic Books are reprints of important classic and historic texts, handsomely formatted and presented... -
![The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie]()
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsBurdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg...Categorized as:
classics gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult audiobook book -
![Summer of Night by Dan Simmons]()
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIt's the summer of 1960 in Elm Haven, Illinois, and five 12-year old boys are forming the bonds that a lifetime of changes will never erase. But then a dark cloud threatens the bright promise of summer vacation: on the last day of school, their classmate Tubby Cooke vanishes. Soon, the group discovers stories of other children who once disappeared from Elm Haven...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age -
-
![Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite]()
Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late... -
![Eventide by Sarah Goodman]()
Eventide by Sarah Goodman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMADNESS, SECRETS, AND LIES Wheeler, Arkansas, 1907 When their father descends into madness after the death of their mother, Verity Pruitt and her little sister Lilah find themselves on an orphan train to rural Arkansas. In Wheeler, eleven-year-old Lilah is quickly adopted, but seventeen-year-old Verity is not. Desperate to stay close to her sister, Verity indentures herself as a farmhand... -
![The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer]()
The Wicker Man by Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFirst published in 1978, five years after the release of the classic horror film from which it is adapted, The Wicker Man is a gripping horror classic.It is the tale of Highlands policeman, Police Sergeant Neil Howie, on the trail of a missing girl being lured to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle. As May Day approaches, strange, shamanistic and erotic events erupt around him... -
![Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia]()
Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRenowned author Silvia Moreno-Garcia's first thriller, UNTAMED SHORE, is a coming-of-age story set in Mexico which quickly turns dark when a young woman meets three enigmatic tourists.Baja California, 1979. Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun... -
![Maynard's House by Herman Raucher]()
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAustin Fletcher, a disturbed young Vietnam War vet, is willed a small house deep in the woods of northern Maine. He comes to own it by the generosity of a brother-in-arms—a fellow soldier and confidante, Maynard Whittier, killed in action by a wayward mortar shell. The rugged landscape of Maine is an intoxicating blend of claustrophobic interiors and endless frozen wastelands... -
![Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman]()
Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
Rated: 3.65 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFailed academic Frank Nichols and his wife, Eudora, have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family's old estate-the Savoyard Plantation- and the horrors that occurred there. At first, the quaint, rural ways of their new neighbors seem to be everything they wanted...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction violent-conflict war 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Vampire of Ropraz by Jacques Chessex]()
The Vampire of Ropraz by Jacques Chessex
Rated: 3.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Silky prose in this harrowing account of crime and punishment.”—Kirkus Reviews“Using spare, effective prose, Chessex brilliantly renders both the inhospitable winter landscape of the mountains and the harshness of a society that makes monsters of its victims... -
![Blackwater: The Complete Saga by Michael McDowell, Nathan Ballingrud]()
Blackwater: The Complete Saga by Michael McDowell, Nathan Ballingrud
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsBlackwater is the saga of a small town, Perdido, Alabama, and Elinor Dammert, the stranger who arrives there under mysterious circumstances on Easter Sunday, 1919. On the surface, Elinor is gracious, charming, anxious to belong in Perdido, and eager to marry Oscar Caskey, the eldest son of Perdido’s first family. But her beautiful exterior hides a shocking secret... -
![Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation by Miles Hyman, Shirley Jackson]()
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation by Miles Hyman, Shirley Jackson
Rated: 3.66 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe classic short story—now in full colorShirley Jackson's "The Lottery" continues to thrill and unsettle readers nearly seven decades after it was first published. By turns puzzling and harrowing, it raises troubling questions about conformity, tradition, and the specter of ritualized violence that haunts even the most bucolic, peaceful village...Categorized as:
classics dark dystopia gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
