Books like 'Pest'
Readers who enjoyed Pest by Michael Cisco also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror humor literary-fiction magical-realism
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The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Book of Fantasy began one night when three friends fell to talking about fantasies and ghost stories...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
![Hades by Mark Z. Danielewski]()
Hades by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen a viral video puts twelve-year-old Xanther under a spotlight of scrutiny at school, her little white cat—still slumbering, still unnamed—offers the only escape, though it comes at a price. Not even Xanther’ parents can deny the strange currents now shuddering around their eldest, touching off inexplicable happenings. Entities troubling the dreams of the twins seem to have singled out Freya... -
![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... -
![Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz]()
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis is the second and final work of Bruno Schulz, the acclaimed Polish writer killed by the Nazis during World War II. In the words of Isaac Bashevis Singer, "What he did in his short life was enough to make him one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction historical -
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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 action-adventure adult anthologies comedy fiction -
![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... -
![Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman]()
Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAnalyzing the complexity, absurdity, and blessedness of seemingly ordinary people, this debut collection examines the metaphysical assumptions surrounding death... -
![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...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies comedy contemporary dark-humor -
![Spot and Smudge by Robert Udulutch]()
Spot and Smudge by Robert Udulutch
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe speculative fiction thriller that masterfully kicks off the series! This darkly humorous, wonderfully twisted, 'boy and his dogs' tale has been bitten, kicked in the crotch, attacked by a pack of wild dogs, and genetically modified into a superbly crafted story...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism action-adventure adult book fiction genetic-engineering horror -
![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... -
![Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella by Brian Evenson]()
Altmann's Tongue: Stories and a Novella by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwenty-five short stories and a detective novella, The Sanza Affair, present a chilling collection of tales in which social institutions and human relationships dissolve without warning and with mayhem. A first collection.Brian Evenson has added an O...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies apocalyptic classics fiction horror -
![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 -
![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... -
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![Moccasin Square Gardens: Short Stories by Richard Van Camp]()
Moccasin Square Gardens: Short Stories by Richard Van Camp
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe characters of Moccasin Square Gardens inhabit Denendeh, the land of the people north of the sixtieth parallel. These stories are filled with in-laws, outlaws and common-laws. Get ready for illegal wrestling moves (“The Camel Clutch”), pinky promises, a doctored casino, extraterrestrials or “Sky People,” love, lust and prayers for peace... -
![The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson]()
The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Here is how monstrous humans are."A sentient, murderous prosthetic leg; shadowy creatures lurking behind a shimmering wall; brutal barrow men: of all the terrors that populate The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, perhaps the most alarming are the beings who decimated the habitable Earth: humans... -
![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... -
![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 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... -
![The Portable Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde]()
The Portable Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIncludes the following works: Novels—The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Plays—Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest; Writings—De Profundis, Critic as Artist, and Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Very Young; and selections from Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and A Woman of No Importance... -
![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 adult anthologies contemporary fiction historical-fiction horror -
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![The Five Masks of Dr. Screem by R.L. Stine]()
The Five Masks of Dr. Screem by R.L. Stine
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWelcome to the Hall of Horrors, HorrorLand's Hall of Fame for the truly terrifying.It's Halloween and Monica Anderson is out Trick-or-Treating with her younger brother. They knock on the door of an old, creepy house and are met by a strange woman who pleads for their help. Every year she must battle for the control of five sacred masks with the evil Dr. Screem... -
![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... -
![Papeles de Pandora: cuentos by Rosario Ferré]()
Papeles de Pandora: cuentos by Rosario Ferré
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAvailable in Spanish for the first time in the United States.From Rosario Ferré (nominated for the National Book Award for The House on the Lagoon), her first work of fiction, long out of print in any edition, in the original Spanish and including a previously unpublished story and two poems...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary feminism fiction horror -
![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... -
![Creature Teacher: The Final Exam by R.L. Stine]()
Creature Teacher: The Final Exam by R.L. Stine
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe infamous, Most Wanted Goosebumps characters are out on the loose and they're coming after you! Catch them all, undead or alive! It doesn't take long for Tommy to find out he's in big trouble. His whole family is obsessed with winning and he's being sent off to a special camp to help make him into a "winner." When Tommy gets there, he sees that something isn't right... -
![The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet by Kelly Link, Gavin J. Grant]()
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet by Kelly Link, Gavin J. Grant
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsUnexpected tales of the fantastic, & other odd musings by Nalo Hopkinson Karen Joy Fowler Karen Russell Jeffrey Ford among many othersContains STORIES by the AMAZING Jeffrey Ford, the FABULOUS Karen Joy Fowler, the UNLIKELY Kelly Link, the THRILLING Nalo Hopkinson, the SHOCKINGLY GOOD Karen Russell, the UNNERVING James Sallis, and dozens of UNCANNY others, as well as USEFUL lists of many...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies female-author female-mc fiction horror -
![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... -
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![Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp]()
Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a yearlong corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world, Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn't once miss his secure American Dream... -
![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... -
![Black Gum by J. David Osborne]()
Black Gum by J. David Osborne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter his life spirals out of control, a young man navigates a world of juggalos, transients, and petty criminals with Shane, an enigmatic small-time drug dealer with a penchant for body modification... -
![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... -
![Verdigris by Michele Mari]()
Verdigris by Michele Mari
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt the tail end of the 1960s, the thirteen-year-old Michelino spends his summers at his grandparents’ modest estate in Nasca, near Lake Maggiore, losing himself in the tales of horror, adventure, and mystery shelved in his grandfather’s library... -
![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 adult anthologies audiobook contemporary dystopia -
![Man V. Nature by Diane Cook]()
Man V. Nature by Diane Cook
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA refreshingly imaginative, daring debut collection of stories which illuminates with audacious wit the complexity of human behavior, as seen through the lens of the natural worldTold with perfect rhythm and unyielding brutality, these stories expose unsuspecting men and women to the realities of nature, the primal instincts of man, and the dark humor and heartbreak of our struggle to not only...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary dark -
![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 20th-century adult anthologies classics death -
![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 -
![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... -
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![The Best of Fritz Leiber by Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson]()
The Best of Fritz Leiber by Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsContents:· The Wizard of Nehwon— · Poul Anderson · in · Gonna Roll the Bones · nv Dangerous Visions, ed... -
![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...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction gothic graphic-violence
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