Books like 'Dead Relatives'
Readers who enjoyed Dead Relatives by Lucie McKnight Hardy also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary horror gothic literary-fiction dark spooky season-autumn
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTHE PURLOINED LETTER THE THOUSAND-AND-SECOND TALE OF SCHEHERAZADE A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTRÖM. VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY MESMERIC REVELATION THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR THE BLACK CAT. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER SILENCE—A FABLE THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO... -
![Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke, Alberto Plumed]()
Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke, Alberto Plumed
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA neglected 12-year-old boy does nothing to report the death of his mother in order to compete in a spelling bee. A tragic coming-of-age tale of horror and drama in the setting of a hot New Orleans summer. "Original, touching coming of age." ~Jack Ketchum, author of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR "With OF FOSTER HOMES & FLIES, Lutzke is firing on all cylinders. It's a lean mean emotional machine... -
![I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay]()
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWilliam Gay established himself as "the big new name to include in the storied annals of Southern Lit" (Esquire) with his debut novel, The Long Home, and his highly acclaimed follow-up, Provinces of Night. Like Faulkner's Mississippi and Cormac McCarthy's American West, Gay's Tennessee is redolent of broken souls... -
![Maldoror and the Complete Works by Comte de Lautréamont]()
Maldoror and the Complete Works by Comte de Lautréamont
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAndre Breton described Maldoror as -the expression of a revelation so complete it seems to exceed human potential.- Little is known about its pseudonymous author, aside from his real name (Isidore Ducasse), birth in Uruguay (1846) and early death in Paris (1870)... -
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![If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio]()
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 72 ratings"Much like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, M.L. Rio's sparkling debut is a richly layered story of love, friendship, and obsession...If We Were Villains will keep you riveted through its final, electrifying moments." --Cynthis D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The NestOliver Marks has just served ten years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed... -
![Arising Son: Part Two: Guardians Of The Temple Saga by Marie Montine]()
Arising Son: Part Two: Guardians Of The Temple Saga by Marie Montine
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRyan arrives in Empia to further investigate his bloodline. But while searching the temple and exercising his uniques powers, he meets an ancient entity: one of the Guardians, and it challenges all that he is by asking him to do a task.When the person closest to him commits the worst betrayal, the Dark becomes even more enticing... -
![Dearest by Jacquie Walters]()
Dearest by Jacquie Walters
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA new mom in need of help opens her door to her long-estranged mother—only to invite something much darker inside—in this "fast-paced and frightening debut" (Rachel Harrison) about the long shadows cast by family secrets, perfect for readers of Grady Hendrix or Ashley Audrain. Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early... -
![The Lamb by Lucy Rose]()
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMargot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door—"strays," Mama calls them, people who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm... -
![High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates]()
High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn unprecedented collection of the best of Joyce Carol Oates's short stories combined with eleven new storiesNo other writer can match the impressive oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates, and High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 gathers stories from Oates's seminal collections, including The Wheel of Love (1970), Marriages and Infidelities (1972), and Heat (1991), arranged by decade...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction adult anthologies classics contemporary female-author fiction -
![Fruiting Bodies: Stories by Kathryn Harlan]()
Fruiting Bodies: Stories by Kathryn Harlan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change. Echoes of timeless myth and folklore reverberate through urgent narratives of discovery, appetite, and coming-of-age in a time of crisis... -
![Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates]()
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe sixties and seventies witnessed the emergence of Joyce Carol Oates as one of America's foremost writers of the short story. In 1962, 'The Fine White Mist of Winter, ' composed when the author was 19 years old, appeared in The Literary Review and was selected for both the O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories of that year... -
![In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead]()
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 29 ratings10 hours, 22 minutes Six friends. One college reunion. One unsolved murder.Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has been invited back to her university for a reunion and she is obsessed with dazzling everyone with her beauty and success. This time when they see her, it has to be perfect because she is perfect... -
![Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman]()
Selected Poems & Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor more than a century-and-a-half, Edgar Allan Poe's poems and tales have thrilled readers with chilling accounts of matters mysterious and macabre... -
![Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung]()
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society...Categorized as:
dark gothic literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author -
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![The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction by Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin]()
The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction by Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"I wonder if the reverse is not also in some way true. That the artist is constantly working on anelaborate and fantasticated self-portrait, but at the end has drawn, unbeknownst, a picture of the world... -
![American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown]()
American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJoyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King... -
![Where I End by Sophie White]()
Where I End by Sophie White
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMy mother.At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her.Through our thin shared wall, I can hear the makings of my mother gurgle through her body just like the water in the walls of the house...Teenage Aoileann has never left the island. Her silent, bed-bound mother is a wreckage, the survivor of a private disaster no one will speak about... -
![Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti]()
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis collection features tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns, as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives... -
![The September House by Carissa Orlando]()
The September House by Carissa Orlando
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings... -
![The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes]()
The Haunting of Aveline Jones by Phil Hickes
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAveline Jones loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it once belonged to Primrose Penberthy, who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose's disappearance.Now someone... or something, is stirring... -
![Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell]()
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn these wildly imaginative, devilishly daring tales of the macabre, internationally bestselling author Mariana Enriquez brings contemporary Argentina to vibrant life as a place where shocking inequality, violence, and corruption are the law of the land, while military dictatorship and legions of desaparecidos loom large in the collective memory... -
![Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yōko Ogawa]()
Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yōko Ogawa
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon’s jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman... -
![Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson]()
Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFor the first time in one volume, a collection of Shirley Jackson's scariest stories, with a foreword by PEN/Hemingway Award winner Ottessa Moshfegh After the publication of her short story "The Lottery" in the New Yorker in 1948 received an unprecedented amount of attention, Shirley Jackson was quickly established as a master horror storyteller... -
![The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga]()
The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories by Horacio Quiroga
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHoracio Quiroga's short stories are infused with the themes of life and death that so obsessed him. They span many fiction genres; jungle tale, Gothic horror story, psychological study, and morality tale- and possess a universality that has made him a classic Latin American writer... -
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![The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates]()
The Carrow Haunt by Darcy Coates
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratings"The dead are restless here..." Remy is a tour guide for Carrow House, a notoriously haunted building. When she's asked to host seven guests for a week-long stay to research Carrow's phenomena, she hopes to finally experience some of the sightings that made the house famous. At first, it's everything they hoped for... -
![Crossroads by Laurel Hightower]()
Crossroads by Laurel Hightower
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHow far would you go to bring back someone you love? When Chris's son dies in a tragic car crash, her world is devastated. The walls of grief close in on Chris's life until, one day, a small cut on her finger changes everything. A drop of blood falls from Chris's hand onto her son's roadside memorial and, later that night, Chris thinks she sees his ghost outside her window... -
![Petrified Women by Jeremy Ray]()
Petrified Women by Jeremy Ray
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSome pranks go too far. This one could be deadly.Harley has the perfect boyfriend. Why can’t her best friend see that? He’s nothing like the others, especially the one who still haunts her memories. She’s finally picked a “keeper” with Aiden.Sure, he’s a bit eccentric. His wood carving hobby is a little odd. His need for isolation while he carves his life-size female figurines is strange... -
![Miriam by Truman Capote]()
Miriam by Truman Capote
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMiriam" is about a 61-year-old widow named Mrs. H. T. Miller who wants to spend the remaining years of her life alone in her apartment near the East River after the death of her husband, H. T. Miller. She is very lonely, has no friends to speak of and does not keep in touch with any of her relatives.One day, going into a movie theater, she meets a young, intelligent girl named Miriam. Mrs... -
![Carnival Master by Selena Winters]()
Carnival Master by Selena Winters
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSome daughters inherit empires; I chose to inherit chaos when I fell for the ringmaster.I thought I knew what it meant to be a mobster’s daughter—glitz, glam, and a family legacy that haunted my every move. But the moment I collided with Tyson, the charismatic ringmaster of the carnival, my life spiraled in a direction I never saw coming... -
![A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers]()
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFood critic Dorothy Daniels loves what she does. Discerning, meticulous, and very, very smart, Dorothy’s clear mastery of the culinary arts make it likely that she could, on any given night, whip up a more inspired dish than any one of the chefs she writes about... -
![Play Nice by Rachel Harrison]()
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty.Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous she grew up in a haunted house... -
![Quicksilver & Shadow, Volume 2: Collected Early Stories: Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, and Science Fiction Stories by Charles de Lint]()
Quicksilver & Shadow, Volume 2: Collected Early Stories: Contemporary, Dark Fantasy, and Science Fiction Stories by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsQuicksilver & Shadow is the second volume (of a projected three) of Charles de Lint's Collected Early Stories. At nearly 150,000 words it's even larger than volume one, A Handful of Coppers, and includes the very obscure 20,000 word novella, "Berlin," and its over 30,000 word counterpart "Death Leaves an Echo... -
![Weathercock by Glen Duncan]()
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... -
![American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps by Peter Straub, Edgar Allan Poe]()
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps by Peter Straub, Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStraub, a contemporary master of literary horror and fantasy, offers an authoritative and diverse gathering of stories calculated to unsettle and delight. Ghostly narratives of the Edwardian era, lurid classics from the pulp heyday, and modern-day masterpieces are included in these collections...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction season-autumn adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
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![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... -
![Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enríquez]()
Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enríquez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA boy explores the abandoned house of a dead fascist…A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink…A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas…The mountain fog is not what it seems…Kermit the Frog dreams of murder…In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr... -
![Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte by Horacio Quiroga]()
Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte by Horacio Quiroga
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThis collection of stories includes tales about illness, despair, exile, and human brutality. The author himself compiled the selection. Held to be among the greatest writers of short-fiction, Horacio Quiroga has been compared to Kipling and Poe...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction spooky 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
![Withered Hill: A dark and unsettling British folk horror novel by David Barnett]()
Withered Hill: A dark and unsettling British folk horror novel by David Barnett
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIf you find your way here, you’re already lost.InsideA year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is.Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions... -
![Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson]()
Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP ANOTHER PERSON. PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP NOT A PERSON AT ALL.”From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships... -
![I Am No One You Know by Joyce Carol Oates]()
I Am No One You Know by Joyce Carol Oates
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI Am No One You Know contains nineteen startling stories that bear witness to the remarkably varied lives of Americans of our time. In "Fire," a troubled young wife discovers a rare, radiant happiness in an adulterous relationship. In "Curly Red," a girl makes a decision to reveal a family secret, and changes her life irrevocably...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction adult anthologies coming-of-age contemporary female-author fiction -
![Ghost Stories by Henry James]()
Ghost Stories by Henry James
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWith an Introduction and Notes by Martin Scofield, University of Kent at Canterbury. Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. His stories explore the region which lies between the supernatural or straightforwardly marvellous and the darker areas of the human psyche... -
![100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories by Al Sarrantonio, Charles Dickens]()
100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories by Al Sarrantonio, Charles Dickens
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsScared? You will be! Feel your nerves jangle and chills run up and down your spine thanks to the hair-raising genius of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, E. F. Benson, H. P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen Crane, Charles Dickens, Robert Barr, and many others who know well how to manipulate a reader's emotions... -
![Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw]()
Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNEW ORLEANS FANG FEST, 1995. MINA'S HAVING A SUMMER TO DIE FOR.17-year-old Mina, from England, arrives in New Orleans to visit her estranged sister, Libby. After growing up in Whitby, the town that inspired Dracula, Mina loves nothing more than a creepy horror movie. She can't wait to explore the city's darkest secrets - vampire tours, seedy bars, spooky cemeteries, disturbing local myths.. -
![Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories by Taeko Kōno]()
Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories by Taeko Kōno
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"A sense of unease permeates this disturbing and exceptional collection of stories centered on unhappy women in postwar Japan...," wrote Publishers Weekly. World Literature Today proclaimed: "Reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor’s works, Kono’s stories explore the dark, terrifying side of human nature that manifests itself in antisocial behavior...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary female-author female-mc -
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![On Quiet Nights by Till Lindemann]()
On Quiet Nights by Till Lindemann
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThere’s a place inside us that is cloaked in darkness, rubbed raw with silence. It’s a shadow wrapped in a shadow and it screams, but it screams in harsh whispers. This collection explores the blackness within, the gritty underground that hides inside memories and cowers just outside fear... -
![Le Visage vert by Gustav Meyrink]()
Le Visage vert by Gustav Meyrink
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA stranger enters a magician's shop. Inside, among several strange customers, he sees an old man, who makes him sick with horror. The rest of the novel chronicles his quest for the elusive and horrible old man... -
![Swansong by Kerry Andrew]()
Swansong by Kerry Andrew
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this stunningly assured, immersive and vividly atmospheric first novel, a young woman comes face-to-face with the volatile, haunted wilderness of the Scottish Highlands.Polly Vaughan is trying to escape the ravaging guilt of a disturbing incident in London by heading north to the Scottish Highlands... -
![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:
gothic literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary fiction graphic-violence horror -
![The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories by John Biguenet]()
The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories by John Biguenet
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThis brilliant debut collection of stories by O. Henry Award winner John Biguenet is as notable for the rigor of its intellect as for the sweep of its imagination... -
![Rag: Stories by Maryse Meijer]()
Rag: Stories by Maryse Meijer
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne of Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Tor.com's Books to Read in February From the author of Heartbreaker, a disquieting collection tracing the destructive consequences of the desire for connectionA man, forgotten by the world, takes care of his deaf brother while euthanizing dogs for a living. A stepbrother so desperately wants to become his stepsibling that he rapes his girlfriend...
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