FREE/BARGAIN - Horror/Supernatural

[salty-horse]

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Discussed on the podcast The Writer and the Critic

On this season of The Catch, contestants must compete for love. And their lives.

When the final four women in competition for an aloof, somewhat sleazy bachelor’s heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and, of course, the salacious drama eager viewers nationwide tune in to devour. Each woman came on The Catch for her own reasons—brand sponsorships, followers, and, yes, even love—and they’ve all got their eyes steadfastly trained on their respective prizes.

Enter Patricia, a temperamental and woefully misunderstood local living alone in the dark, verdant woods, and desperate for connection. Through twists as unexpected as they are wildly entertaining, the self-absorbed cast and jaded crew each make her acquaintance atop the island’s tallest and most desolate peak, finding themselves at the center of an action-packed thriller that is far from scripted—and only a few will make the final cut.

A whirlwind romp careening toward a last-girl-standing conclusion, and a scathing indictment of contemporary American media culture, Patricia Wants to Cuddle is also a love story: between star-crossed lesbians who rise above their intolerant town, a deeply ambivalent woman and her budding self-actualization, and a group of misfit islanders forging community against all odds.

[salty-horse]

Three Miles Past by Stephen Graham Jones is £2 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Three stories that uncover what’s lurking just beyond your headlights . . .

Take a road trip into your darkest nightmares with three stories from the modern master of horror and “one of the best writers working today” (NPR). Here, Bram Stoker Award–winning author Stephen Graham Jones gives evil an all-too-familiar face, whether it’s the man from the dog shelter, a colleague at a work convention, or even just your phone. Horror can reach you everywhere and when you least expect it . . .

In “Interstate Love Affair,” a serial killer’s unique way of disposing of his victims’ bodies gives roadkill an even more gruesome meaning. “No Takebacks” tracks how an app goes from an idea to coding to letting loose its creator’s darkest impulses. And there’s nowhere to hide during “The Coming of Night,” when a predator’s latest kill sets off a creepy-crawly timebomb inside of him.

The Least of My Scars by Stephen Graham Jones is £2 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

The New York Times–bestselling author “shows how a serial killer’s paradise and a serial killer’s hell are really the same place” (Brian Evenson, O. Henry Award–winning author).

When a serial killer hits the top of his game, where does he go from there? William Colton Hughes finds out. Not interested in notoriety, Hughes just wants to do what he’s good at: torture and murder. It never occurs to him that he could make a living at it . . . until the yoga instructor.

She happens to be the girlfriend of a powerful and cunning crime boss who catches Hughes literally red-handed. In a twist even Hughes never sees coming, he’s not immediately put down. Instead, he’s set up in a warren of apartments. Hughes’s own private high-rise sanctuary, where his new benefactor feeds victims to him. He couldn’t ask for more. But when his supplies stop coming, Hughes begins to lose his already tenuous grip on reality—and learns that even monsters have their own boogeymen to deal with . . .

[BetterRead]

The Joe Hill E-Book Bundle (containing Heart-Shaped Box, 20th Century Ghosts, Horns, and NOS4A2) is currently $3.99 at Amazon US.

[salty-horse]

Echoes by edited Ellen Datlow is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Cross-posted to SF&F.
Contents

The essential collection of beloved ghost stories, compiled by the editor who helped define the genre—including stories from award-winning, bestselling authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Hoffman, Seanan McGuire, and Paul Tremblay.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Echoes by edited Ellen Datlow is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Cross-posted to SF&F.
Contents

Got it!

Thank you!

[salty-horse]

Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo is $2 on Amazon.com (not listed on Kobo)

A haunted woman stalked by a serial killer confronts the horrors of fairy tales and the nightmares of real life in a breathtaking novel of psychological suspense by a Bram Stoker Award–winning author.

It started the night journalist Briar Thorne’s mother died in their rambling old mansion on Chicago’s South Side.

The nightmares of a woman in white pleading to come home, music switched on in locked rooms, and the panicked fear of being swallowed by the dark…Bri has almost convinced herself that these stirrings of dread are simply manifestations of grief and not the beyond-world of ghostly impossibilities her mother believed in. And more tangible terrors still lurk outside the decaying Victorian greystone.

A serial killer has claimed the lives of fifty-one women in the Chicago area. When Bri starts researching the murders, she meets a stranger who tells her there’s more to her sleepless nights than bad dreams—they hold the key to putting ghosts to rest and stopping a killer. But the killer has caught on and is closing in, and if Bri doesn’t answer the call of the dead soon, she’ll be walking among them.

[SomeSteve]

The Lamb by Lucy Rose is around £1/€1 at various European Amazons and Kobos.

As I've probably said before, I'm not much of a horror fan, but this sounds kind of interesting, if in a yucky way -- perhaps too yucky for me -- so as long as I'd spotted it, I thought I'd mention it for the horror aficionados here, if for no other reason than that it was the Sunday Times #2 bestseller. Not #1, but for a change #2.

Read the following quotation at your own risk!

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

...

A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.

Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot isn't at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lamb-litera.../dp/B0CSNPYT9W

https://www.amazon.de/Lamb-literary-.../dp/B0CSNPYT9W

https://www.amazon.fr/-/en/Lucy-Rose.../dp/B0CSNPYT9W

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-lamb-13

https://www.kobo.com/de/de/ebook/the-lamb-13

https://www.kobo.com/fr/fr/ebook/the-lamb-13

ISBN: 9781399619738

[ZodWallop]

'Salem's Lot by this upcoming Steve King guy is $2 at Amazon and Kobo. Give it a gander. I think he's going places.

When two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work. In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.

With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

'Salem's Lot by this upcoming Steve King guy is $2 at Amazon and Kobo. Give it a gander. I think he's going places.

It might even make a great film or a mini-series for me to watch on my new Sony Triniton television! I hope this guy writes things that are really different.

[salty-horse]

Time to plug a Stephen King podcast:
https://rangedtouch.com/just-king-things/

[salty-horse]

Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell is $3 on Amazon.com (only)
Contents

Ramsey Campbell is perhaps the world’s most decorated author of horror fiction. He has won four World Fantasy Awards, ten British Fantasy Awards, three Bram Stoker Awards, and the Horror Writers’ Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Three decades into his career, Campbell paused to review his body of short fiction and selected the stories that were, to his mind, the very best of his work. Alone With the Horrors collects nearly forty tales from the first thirty years of Campbell’s writing, including several award winners.

Campbell crowns the book with a lengthy preface—revised for this edition—that traces his early publication history, discusses his youthful correspondence with August Derleth, and illuminates the influence of H. P. Lovecraft on his work.

Alone with the Horrors provides readers with a close look at a powerful writer’s development of his craft.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

It might even make a great film or a mini-series for me to watch on my new Sony Triniton television! I hope this guy writes things that are really different.

Sorry for a little OT, if you would like to check its healtiness: https://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php?...40p_test_suite
(I recall there is a version that runs easily on emulators, but can't remember which one at the moment).
...and off course, even if it doesn't needs to be said: seriously never open and touch the insides, as the encosures keeps really high amperes and volts even after having switched it off or detached the plug (it needs a technician within proper instruments, and to knowledge the whole thing).
Ps: if you can, don't miss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemetery_Man, it has been dubbed in english last year.
Sorry again for the OT.

[salty-horse]

Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

The USA Today bestselling novel from Gretchen Felker-Martin, where a group of teens must stay true to themselves while in a conversion camp from hell.

"A soaring, boundless ode to queer survival. It's flat-out mesmerizing."—Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie

Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body. It wears your skin.

In the summer of 1995, seven queer kids abandoned by their parents at a remote conversion camp came face to face with it. They survived—but at Camp Resolution, everybody leaves a different person.

Sixteen years later, only the scarred and broken survivors of that terrible summer can put an end to the horror before it's too late.

The fate of the world depends on it.

[salty-horse]

The Wilding by Ian McDonald is £1 in the UK (Amazon only, but Kobo should be price-matchable)

Strange things have been happening at Lough Carrow.

Local villagers have told dark rumours about the vast peat bog ever since the huge project to rewild it began.

Strange tracks have been seen leading into and out of the site. Livestock has been mutilated in the area. And on their trek to a camp site in the heart of the bog some of Lisa's group - five teenagers and three teachers she's guiding on a wilderness experience - spot wolves, wolverines, and something that looks older and scarier than either . . . even though Ireland's lost wild animals are yet to be introduced to the park . . .

They have planned one cosy campout in this strange wilderness, where time and space themselves seems to be shifting, but as darkness falls it's clear they have a very different night ahead.

The camp is attacked.

The campers are trapped.

And something out there has only just begun to hunt . . .

[salty-horse]

The Underhistory by Kaaron Warren is £2 in the UK (Amazon only ATM, but Kobo should be price-matchable)
Was on my wishlist. Old lady and ghosts fend off a home invasion.

* SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALASIAN SHADOWS NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD *

**'Eerie, atmospheric, full of suspense and surprises' - GUARDIAN
'A gothic-tinged tale with all the suspense and menace of page-turning crime fiction' - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

People come to visit my home and I love to show them around. It's not the original house of course. That was destroyed the day my entire family died. But I don't think their ghosts know the difference.**

Pera Sinclair was nine the day her family home was destroyed, killing everyone inside. Over the decades she rebuilt Sinclair House, each room telling a piece of her story and that of the people who died there. And while she doesn't believe in ghosts, she's not above telling visitors a ghost story or two.

As Pera guides a family through her home on the last tour of the season, an unexpected group of men arrive. Dangerous men, who will hurt the family and see no reason to keep an old woman alive. But these men will learn that Pera is far from helpless. After all, death seems to follow wherever she goes...

Sinister and lyrical, The Underhistory is a haunting tale of loss, self-preservation and the darkness beneath.