Books like 'Die Empty'
Readers who enjoyed Die Empty by Kirk Jones also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror satire magical-realism humor literary-fiction
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The Collected Tales by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsCollected here are Gogol's finest tales - from the demon-haunted St John's Eve to the strange surrealism of The Nose and the heartrending trials of the copyist in The Overcoat.St... -
![The Complete Saki by Saki]()
The Complete Saki by Saki
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHector Hugh Munro is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England's "golden afternoon''--those slow and peaceful years prior to the outbreak of World War I. The good wit of bad manners, elegantly spiced with irony and deftly controlled malice, has made Saki stories small, perfect gems of the English language... -
![The Vintage Bradbury: The Greatest Stories by America's Most Distinguished Practioner of Speculative Fiction by Ray Bradbury]()
The Vintage Bradbury: The Greatest Stories by America's Most Distinguished Practioner of Speculative Fiction by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe author of Fahrenehit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, offers a personal selection of his best stories, featuring "Dandelion Wine," "The Illustrated Man," The Veldt, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit," and twenty other classics... -
![The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol]()
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFour works by great 19th-century Russian author - "The Nose," a savage satire of Russia's incompetent bureaucrats; "Old-Fashioned Farmers," a pleasant depiction of an elderly couple living in rustic seclusion; "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich," one of Gogol's most famous comic stories; and "The Overcoat," widely considered a masterpiece of form... -
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![Who's a Good Boy? by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor]()
Who's a Good Boy? by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novels It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Four of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, a foreword by Jonny Sun, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire action-adventure adult anthologies comedy -
![The Magic of Shirley Jackson by Shirley Jackson]()
The Magic of Shirley Jackson by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsExperience The Magic of Shirley Jackson with this generous selection of the author's greatest work.This collection consists of three complete books:The Bird's NestLife Among the SavagesRaising Demonsand eleven short stories--including the world-famous "The Lottery... -
![Cemetery Nights by Stephen Dobyns]()
Cemetery Nights by Stephen Dobyns
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the fabulous storytelling of our dreams to the mute passions of domestic life, Stephen Dobyns explores a full range of human experience in these narrative poems... -
![The Garbage Times/White Ibis: Two Novellas by Sam Pink, Tom Fria]()
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... -
![The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol]()
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe Overcoat which is generally acknowledged as the finest of Gogol's memorable Saint Petersburg stories, is a tale of the absurd and misplaced obsessions... -
![Final Hour by Dean Koontz]()
Final Hour by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Following Last Light comes Final Hour, the second of two standalone eBook original novellas leading in to Ashley Bell, the highly anticipated new novel of suspense from Dean Koontz! Just by touching others, Makani Hisoka-O’Brien can see the darkest secrets they keep. The troubling talent has made the Southern California surfer wary of casual contact... -
![The Buying of Lot 37 by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor]()
The Buying of Lot 37 by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novels It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Three of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, a foreword by Dessa, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations... -
![The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories by Sam Pink]()
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... -
![Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu]()
Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“You should be here; he’s simply magnificent.” These are the final words a biologist hears before his Margaret Mead-like wife dies at the hands of Godzilla. The words haunt him as he studies the Kaiju (Japan’s giant monsters) on an island reserve, attempting to understand the beauty his wife saw...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies fiction horror low-fantasy poc-mc -
![Sredni Vashtar and Other Stories by Saki]()
Sredni Vashtar and Other Stories by Saki
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBorn in Burma in 1870, Scottish writer H.H. Munro (his pseudonym is from FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam) satirized the social conventions, cruelty and foolishness of the Edwardian era with a highly readable blend of flippant humor and outrageous inventiveness, often overlaid with a mood of horror... -
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![The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories by Saki]()
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... -
![The Nightly Disease by Max Booth III]()
The Nightly Disease by Max Booth III
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSleep is just a myth created by mattress salesmen.Isaac, a night auditor of a hotel somewhere in the surreal void of Texas, is sick and tired of his guests. When he clocks in at night, he’s hoping for a nice, quiet eight hours of Netflix-bingeing and occasional masturbation. What he doesn’t want to do is fetch anybody extra towels or dive face-first into somebody’s clogged toilet... -
![Baby of the Family by Tina McElroy Ansa]()
Baby of the Family by Tina McElroy Ansa
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn evocative, delicately comic story of a girl’s coming of age. From the moment of her birth in a rural black hospital in Georgia, Lena McPherson is recognized as a special child, with the power to see ghosts and predict the future. Named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times... -
![Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury]()
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJohn Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
![Rontel by Sam Pink]()
Rontel by Sam Pink
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of 'person' and 'the ice cream man and other stories.' Follow our narrator as he attempts to make it to the end of a journey most magical... -
![No-one Ever Has Sex on Holiday by Tracy Bloom]()
No-one Ever Has Sex on Holiday by Tracy Bloom
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGet ready to enjoy your first holiday abroad with small children. Highlights include: being woken at 5 every morning and working a gruelling day in unbearable heat chasing kids around the pool with a bottle of sunscreen. Added features: screaming during mealtimes and toddlers moaning about sand... -
![The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell]()
The Wrong Boy by Willy Russell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe hilarious, bittersweet novel from the playwright behind EDUCATING RITA, SHIRLEY VALENTINE and award-winning musical BLOOD BROTHERS.Dear Morrissey,I'm feeling dead depressed and down. Like a streetlamp without a bulb or a goose at the onset of Christmas time.Anyroad, I thought I'd pen a few lines to someone who'd understand...It's 1991...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
![The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington]()
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSurrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
![The Amateurs: A Novel by John Niven]()
The Amateurs: A Novel by John Niven
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“Brilliant.” —GQ "Hilarious.” — The Times (London) “A novel about golf that is not only hilarious, but gripping, sexy, violent, and outrageous. . . . Niven combines his increasingly bizarre plots, and some shocking behavior, with considerable skill and, of course, large helpings of humor... -
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![The No Hellos Diet by Sam Pink]()
The No Hellos Diet by Sam Pink
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"The thought of calling off work is like the thought of suicide, just nice to think about."In The No Hellos Diet, Sam Pink brings you straight into a world you've never been to before -- your own life. Find yourself working at a department store where everyone must wear red and khaki clothing. Find yourself throwing out garbage for fifty cents more than minimum wage... -
![Person by Sam Pink]()
Person by Sam Pink
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsYou see him at the liquor store. You see him at the bus stop, trying to look at you without being seen. Who is he? He is a person. In this debut novel, a person walks around Chicago contemplating the possibility of starving to death on purpose. He has sex with his neighbor. He goes out to look for a job but just buys little plastic dogs from homeless people instead... -
![Necrophilia Variations by Supervert]()
Necrophilia Variations by Supervert
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNecrophilia Variations is a literary monograph on the erotic attraction to corpses and death. It consists of a series of texts that, like musical phrases, take up the theme and advance it by means of repetition, contrast, and variation... -
![Love and Hydrogen: New and Selected Stories by Jim Shepard]()
Love and Hydrogen: New and Selected Stories by Jim Shepard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI’ve been a problem baby, a lousy son, a distant brother, an off-putting neighbor, a piss-poor student, a worrisome seatmate, an unreliable employee, a bewildering lover, a frustrating confidante and a crappy husband. Among the things I do pretty well at this point I’d have to list darts, re-closing Stay-Fresh boxes, and staying out of the way...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction satire adult anthologies contemporary fiction historical-fiction -
![Counting Backwards by Binnie Kirshenbaum]()
Counting Backwards by Binnie Kirshenbaum
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA married couple deals with the husband’s decline from Lewy body dementia in a profound and deeply moving novel shot through with Kirshenbaum's lacerating humor.It begins with of a man on stilts, an acting troupe, Ghandi. At first, these seem benign, almost comical, and are likely connected with an ocular issue. It’s something he and his wife can make jokes about... -
![In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser]()
In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe seven stories of In the Penny Arcade blend both the real and the fantastic in a seductive mix that illuminates the full range of Steven Millhauser's gifts, from 'August Eschenburg', the story of a clockmaker's son whose extraordinary talent for creating animated figures is lost on a world whose taste for the perverse and crude supersedes that of the refined and beautiful, to 'Cathay', a...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
![The Girl Who Couldn't Come by Joey Comeau]()
The Girl Who Couldn't Come by Joey Comeau
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis is a book of dirty stories. They are weird and fun and often bewildering, like sex itself... -
![Zod Wallop by William Browning Spencer]()
Zod Wallop by William Browning Spencer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRock yawned. "Gotta get moving," Rock said. A couple of hundred million years went by. A rock is always slow to take action. A rock watches an oak grow from a sapling to a towering tree, and it's a flash and a dazzle in the mind of a rock. What was that? Rock thinks. Or maybe, Huh?That's how Zod Wallop starts... -
![The Origin of the Brunists by Robert Coover]()
The Origin of the Brunists by Robert Coover
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOriginally published in 1966 and now back in print after over a decade, Robert Coover's first novel instantly established his mastery. A coal-mine explosion in a small mid-American town claims ninety-seven lives. The only survivor, a lapsed Catholic given to mysterious visions, is adopted as a doomsday prophet by a group of small-town mystics... -
![Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood]()
Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” SelectionThe author of such towering novels as The Handmaid’s Tale, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood proves her imaginative prowess dazzles just as vividly in her short fiction... -
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![Along the Path of Torment by Chandler Morrison]()
Along the Path of Torment by Chandler Morrison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTy Seward is a sick man. Anorexic, sexually aberrant, and haunted by a ghostly apparition residing in his closet. Living in the shadow of an in-remission cancer he fully expects to return, Ty bitterly earns his meager living by working as an assistant to his uncle, a business-and-media mogul who runs a lucrative child prostitution ring catering to the Hollywood elite... -
![Remember Why You Fear Me by Robert Shearman]()
Remember Why You Fear Me by Robert Shearman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDeliciously frightening, darkly satirical, and always unexpected, Robert Shearman has won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Edge Hill Reader's Prize. Remember Why You Fear Me gathers together his best dark fiction, the most celebrated stories from his acclaimed books, and ten new tales that have never been collected before... -
![Hunters & Collectors by Matt Suddain]()
Hunters & Collectors by Matt Suddain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJohn Tamberlain is The Tomahawk, the universe’s most feared food critic – though he himself prefers the term ‘forensic gastronomer’. He’s on a quest, in search of the much-storied Hotel Grand Skies, a secretive and exclusive haven where the rich and famous retreat to bask in perfect seclusion... -
![Clusterfuck by Carlton Mellick III]()
Clusterfuck by Carlton Mellick III
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA bunch of douchebag frat boys get trapped in a cave with subterranean cannibal mutants and try to survive not by using their wits but by following the bro code . . . From master of bizarro fiction Carlton Mellick III, author of the international cult hits Satan Burger and Adolf in Wonderland, comes a violent and hilarious B movie in book form... -
![Before and Ever Since by Sharla Lovelace]()
Before and Ever Since by Sharla Lovelace
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFans of Jodi Thomas and Lori Wilde will love this sparkling romance from Sharla Lovelace, the bestselling author of Just One Day and The Reason Is You. Emily Lockwood has her hands full with a stubbornly independent daughter, an ex-husband who sometimes tests her patience, and a mother who often does... -
![Citizen in Space by Robert Sheckley]()
Citizen in Space by Robert Sheckley
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsContentsThe Mountain Without a NameThe AccountantHunting ProblemA Thief in TimeThe Luckiest Man in the WorldHands OffSomething for NothingA Ticket to TranaiThe BattleSkulking PermitCitizen in SpaceAsk a Foolish... -
![Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell]()
Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell's extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
![Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman, India Fisher]()
Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman, India Fisher
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first love song in the world, as composed by a pig in the Garden of Eden…The Devil, alarmed when his hobby of writing romantic fiction begins to upstage his day job…A man finding love with someone who has an allergy to his happiness, another losing love altogether when his wife gives him back his heart in a Tupperware box…By turns macabre and moving, horrific and laugh-out-loud funny, Robert... -
![Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky]()
Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe stakes are wildly high in Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's fantastic and blackly comic philosophical fables, which abound in nested narratives and wild paradoxes...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century adult anthologies classics -
![Sticky Fingers by J.T. Lawrence]()
Sticky Fingers by J.T. Lawrence
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDiverse, dark-humoured, and deliciously bite-sized, this compelling collection of 12 short stories by JT Lawrence include:'Escape' -- a story about about a suicidal baby who knows he was born into the wrong life, and has to get creative to take measures correct the mistake, much to his mother¹s horror...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary dark -
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![The Nose by Catherine Cowan, Nikolai Gogol]()
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]()
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... -
![Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall]()
Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLyrical and tender, quirky and cutting, Helen Marshall’s exceptional debut collection weaves the fantastic and the horrific alongside the touchingly human in fifteen modern parables about history, memory, and cost of creating art... -
![Sausagey Santa by Carlton Mellick III]()
Sausagey Santa by Carlton Mellick III
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor Matthew Fry, inventor of the 'Sly Guy' haircut, life at the North Pole just isn't what he expected. The elves are way too obsessed with playing Dungeons and Dragons, Frosty has a Hitler mustache made of coal, the reindeer have a tendency of exploding for no apparent reason, and Santa is a piratey mutant with a body made of sausages... -
![A Handbook of American Prayer by Lucius Shepard]()
A Handbook of American Prayer by Lucius Shepard
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA man walks into a bar. A dispute ensues, and the bartender kills him. He's sentenced to ten years for manslaughter. In prison, the convict, Wardlin Stuart, writes prayers addressed to no god in particular. Inexplicably, his prayers — whether it's a request for a girlfriend or a special favor for a fellow inmate — are answered, be it in days or weeks...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult alternate-history book fiction horror low-fantasy -
![The Bizarro Starter Kit (blue) by Steve Aylett, Bradley Sands]()
The Bizarro Starter Kit (blue) by Steve Aylett, Bradley Sands
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThere's a new genre rising from the underground. Its name: BIZARRO. For years, readers have been asking for a category of fiction dedicated to the weird, crazy, cult side of storytelling that has become a staple in the film industry (with directors such as David Lynch, Takashi Miike, Tim Burton, and even Lloyd Kaufman) but has been largely ignored in the literary world, until now...
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