Others: Mixed A chilling medieval ghost story, retold by bestselling historian Dan Jones. Published in a beautiful small-format hardback, perfect as a Halloween read or a Christmas gift. One winter, in the dark days of King Richard II, a tailor was riding home on the road from Gilling to Ampleforth. It was dank, wet and gloomy; he couldn't wait to get home and sit in front of a blazing fire. Then, out of nowhere, the tailor is knocked off his horse by a raven, who then transforms into a hideous dog, his mouth writhing with its own innards. The dog issues the tailor with a warning: he must go to a priest and ask for absolution and return to the road, or else there will be consequences... First recorded in the early fifteenth century by an unknown monk, The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings was transcribed from the Latin by the great medievalist M.R. James in 1922. Building on that tradition, now bestselling historian Dan Jones retells this medieval ghost story in crisp and creepy prose.
Genres: horror
Lists: …
Lindy Ryan
2024 · 4 reviews
Others: MixedA grieving mother and son hope to survive Christmas in a remote mountain cabin, in this chilling novella of dread, isolation and demons lurking in the frozen woods. Perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians, The Shining and The Babadook. Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire's husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn. Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they'd reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays. It isn't long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it's just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they'd stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody'd find it 'til spring. But moose don't walk upright like the shadowy figure does. They don't call Christine's name with her dead husband's voice. A haunting examination of the horrors of grief and the hunger of guilt, perfect for readers of Stephen King, Christina Henry, and Chuck Wendig.
What made the match, strongest first
T. Kingfisher
2019 · 400 pages · 5 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveWhen Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be? Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants... until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself. Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.
What made the match, strongest first
Caroline Bicks
2026 · 2 reviews
Others: MixedA fascinating, first of its kind exploration of Stephen King and his most iconic early books, based on groundbreaking research and interviews with King—all conducted by the first scholar to be given extended access to his private archivesAfter Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maine's inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writer's creative process—most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring King’s early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by one question millions of King's enthralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked What makes Stephen King’s writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we’ve closed the book?Bicks focuses on five of his most iconic early works—The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, 'Salem's Lot, and Night Shift—to reveal how he crafted his language, storylines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King’s margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print, but that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history.Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archives—authorized by Stephen King himself—is unlike anything ever published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how King crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it’s also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them.
What made the match, strongest first
Yah Yah Scholfield
2022 · 1 review
Others: MixedLone Women meets Sorrowland in this sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut about a woman who escapes her family home to the uncanny woods of northern Georgia and must now contend with haints, ghosts and a literal beast in the woods.When Judith Rice ran away from the house she grew up in, she thought she severed her abusive mother’s hold on her. Seventeen years later, she’s made a home for herself in a cottage secluded deep in the forests of northern Georgia. Jude believes she’s settled into a quiet life.But when an enigmatic woman shows up on her doorstep, Jude’s tentative peace is threatened by the stranger’s presence. The woman is beautiful but unsettling, captivating but uncanny. Caught between her desire for this woman and the violence that seems to simmer just beneath her skin, Jude’s past and present clash as the woman stirs up memories that force her to reckon with the violence of her escape years ago.Haunting and thought-provoking, On Sundays She Picked Flowers is a propulsive debut exploring retribution, family trauma and the power of building oneself back up after breaking down.
What made the match, strongest first
C. Robert Cargill
2018 · 1 review
Others: MixedFrom the critically acclaimed author of Sea of Rust and Queen of the Dark Things comes a hair-raising collection of short fiction that illuminates the strange, humorous, fantastical, and downright diabolical that tantalize and terrorize demons, monsters, zombie dinosaurs, and Death itself. In the novella "The Soul Thief’s Son" C. Robert Cargill returns to the terrain of the Queen of the Dark Things to continue the story of Colby Stevens . . . A Triceratops and an Ankylosaurus join forces to survive a zombie apocalypse that may spell extinction for their kind in "Hell Creek" . . . In a grand old building atop a crack in the world, an Iraq War veteran must serve a one-year term as a punisher of the damned condemned to consume the sins of others in the hope that one day he may find peace in "In a Clean, White Room" (co-authored with Scott Derrickson) . . . In "The Town That Wasn’t Anymore," the village of Pine Hill Bluff loses its inhabitants one at a time as the angry dead return when night falls to steal the souls of the living . . . And in the title story, "We Are Where the Nightmares Go," a little girl crawls through a glowing door beneath her bed and finds herself trapped in a nightmarish wonderland—a crucible of the fragments of children’s bad dreams. These tales and four more are assembled here as testament to Cargill’s mastery of the phantasmagoric, making We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories a collection of unnerving horror and fantasy will keep you up all night and haunt your waking dreams.
What made the match, strongest first
L.P. Hernandez
2024 · 2 reviews
Others: NeutralNahanni National Park is one of last truly wild places on earth. Accessible only by plane, and only when the weather cooperates, it's the perfect place for estranged brothers Joseph and Oscar to have an adventure following the death of their mother. Gillian, Joseph's first love, invites herself along in the spirit of friendship.The park is much more than beautiful. It's mysterious, with legends of giants and hidden, prehistoric animals. And among its few visitors, an outsized number of violent deaths inspire its second, more seductive name.While dreaming of the future, the group finds themselves confronted by the past. Far from home and far from help. In the Valley of the Headless Men."LP Hernandez is one of the most entertaining and much needed voices in horror fiction's new vanguard." - Brian Keene
What made the match, strongest first
Mixedthe tale of the tayor and the three dead Kings by Dan Jones this is a retelling of a ghost story and I liked the intro which taught me about the original but having read that and then the actual story his idea of like making it more interesting more of a proper ghost story like no it wasn't actually that
