FREE/BARGAIN - Horror/Supernatural

[ZodWallop]

The Ghost That Ate Us: The Tragic True Story of the Burger City Poltergeist by Daniel Kraus is $4 at Amazon and Kobo US.

You remember the brutal crime, don’t you?

Maybe you read about it on Twitter. Maybe a friend sent you a news clip. Maybe you saw it on an episode of Spectral Journeys that night you were flipping through channels, unable to sleep.

Maybe after reading the true story, you won’t ever sleep again.

On June 1, 2017, six people were killed at a Burger City franchise off I-80 near Jonny, Iowa. It was the bizarre and gruesome conclusion to nine months of alleged paranormal activity at the fast-food joint—events popularly known as “the Burger City Poltergeist.”

The story inspired Facebook memes, Twitter hashtags, Buzzfeed listicles, Saturday Night Live sketches, and more. But the case was never much more than a punchline…until bestselling writer Daniel Kraus decided to head to Iowa to dig up what really happened.

Presented here is the definitive story of “the most exhaustively documented haunting in history,” including—for the first time ever—interviews with every living survivor of the tragedy.

The employees of Burger City were a family. They loved one another. At least, at the beginning.

But love can make you do unspeakable things.

[salty-horse]

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk is £2.5 in the UK (Amazon only, but Kobo should be price-matchable)

In September 1913, Mieczysław Wojnicz, a student suffering from tuberculosis, arrives at Wilhelm Opitz's Guesthouse for Gentlemen, a health resort in what is now western Poland. Every day, its residents gather in the dining room to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur, to obsess over money and status, and to discuss the great issues of the day: Will there be war? Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women inherently inferior?
Meanwhile, disturbing things are beginning to happen in the guesthouse and its surroundings. As stories of shocking events in the nearby highlands reach the men, a sense of dread builds. Someone – or something – seems to be watching them and attempting to infiltrate their world. Little does Mieczysław realize, as he attempts to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target.
A century after the publication of The Magic Mountain, Olga Tokarczuk revisits Thomas Mann territory and lays claim to it, blending horror story, comedy, folklore and feminist parable with brilliant storytelling.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk is £2.5 in the UK (Amazon only, but Kobo should be price-matchable)

You got me at "Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature," even though you didn't say it.



Seriously!

[salty-horse]

The book was written several years after winning the award.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The book was written several years after winning the award.

I know, but I didn't have it in my collection. (And I have not read it.)

That will now be rectified.

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to SF&F.
Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

The USA Today bestselling follow-up to Red Rabbit, Rose of Jericho is a supernatural horror where ghosts and ghouls are the least of a witch’s problems in nineteenth-century New England.

Something wicked is going on in the town of Ascension. A mother wasting away from cancer is suddenly up and about. A boy trampled by a milk cart walks away from the accident. A hanged man can still speak, broken neck and all.

The dead are not dying.

When Rabbit and Sadie Grace accompany their friend Rose to Ascension to help take care of her ailing cousin, they immediately notice that their new house, Bethany Hall, is occupied by dozens of ghosts. And something is waiting for them in the attic.

The villagers of Ascension are unwelcoming and wary of their weird visitors. As the three women attempt to find out what’s happening in the town, they must be careful not to be found out. But a much larger—and more dangerous—force is galloping straight for them…

[BetterRead]

Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins is FREE today at Barnes & Noble.

One spring night in London, heiress Denise Thorne disappears while partying at a nightclub, never to be seen again. That very same night, Sonja Blue, a tough-as-nails punk vampire/vampire-slayer, is borne from the city's gutters. Saved by modern medicine before she could die, she is a living vampire who still possesses a soul and is determined to fight for what remains of her humanity. In the years since her bizarre resurrection, Sonja Blue travels the globe, hunting down and disposing of those creatures that prey on the innocent while searching for the vampire Noble who created her.

Acknowledged as one of the first Urban Fantasy novels, Sunglasses After Dark burst onto the fantasy/horror scene in 1989, garnering widespread critical praise and winning the Horror Writers Association's coveted Bram Stoker Award, as well as the British Fantasy Society's Icarus Award.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by BetterRead

Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins is FREE today at Barnes & Noble.

Missed it!

I remember it being a cult book when it was released back in the early nineties.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Missed it!

I remember it being a cult book when it was released back in the early nineties.

I read it when it first came out. I enjoyed it then. I can't remember if the paperback was a First Edition or not.

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to SF&F.
Disgraced Return of the Kap's Needle by Renan Bernardo is $2 on Amazon.com
This is by a small press and is not available elsewhere. Note that since this is a new release, it's not supported by publicly available DRM removal tools.

In 2144 AD, the generation ship Kap’s Needle left Earth to settle a new world. It all went wrong. Now, two years into a desperate return trip, the ship’s biospheres are collapsing and oxygen is nearly depleted. Life Support Manager Reva is now little more than a tax collector, deciding who gets to breathe. When Captain Horvat launches a corruption purge to cover his own failures, Reva knows she’s next. To protect her son, she must do the unthinkable: trust First Officer Torres, the woman who ruined her life, and help bring down the captain no matter how many innocent lives it costs. BONUS CONTENT includes two short stories by the author: "A Lifeline of Silk" and "Callis Praedictionem."

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to Mystery.
The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

At night, the garden comes alive... Mexican Gothic meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in Christina Li's completely addictive and beautifully haunting gothic page-turner.

Vivian Yin is dead. The trailblazing starlet was the first Chinese actress to win an Oscar - but at what should have been the peak of her career, she became a recluse. The rest of her life was shrouded in mystery...

Now, her daughters gather for the reading of her will. They expect to inherit their childhood home: a grand Southern California manor house with a sprawling, labyrinthine garden. But due to a last-minute change to the will, the house is passed on to another family instead. The two families haven't seen each other for decades - not since the tragedy that fractured all of their lives.

Vying for the estate, both families move into the crumbling, vine-covered manor. As Vivian's daughters race to piece together what happened in the last weeks of their mother's life, they soon discover they are being haunted by something far more sinister and vengeful than just their memories.

After so many years of silence, will the families finally confront the truth behind the house's origins and the last, tragic summer they spent there? Or will the manor of dreams - and its deadly secrets - finally lay claim to its owners?

[Cactus Chef]

Picked these up last night.

Strange Pictures by Uketsu is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

“Uketsu’s strange riddles are chilling and addictive – I couldn’t put it down.” —R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface

“Delightfully macabre and fiendishly clever. Seemingly unconnected stories tie themselves into a complicated knot, which Uketsu masterfully unravels.”—G. T. Karber, author of the national bestseller Murdle

“Wonderfully complex and carefully crafted . . . Uketsu keeps readers guessing until the very end.” —New York Times Book Review

The spine-tingling "triumphant international debut" (Publishers Weekly starred review) that has taken Japan by storm—an eerie fresh take on mystery-horror in which a series of seemingly innocent pictures draws you into a disturbing web of unsolved mysteries and shattered psyches.

An exploration of the macabre, where the seemingly mundane takes on a terrifying significance. . . .

A pregnant woman's sketches on a seemingly innocuous blog conceal a chilling warning.

A child's picture of his home contains a dark secret message.

A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth down a rabbithole that will reveal a horrifying reality.

Structured around these nine childlike drawings, each holding a disturbing clue, Uketsu invites readers to piece together the mystery behind each and the over-arching backstory that connects them all. Strange Pictures is the internationally bestselling debut from mystery horror YouTube sensation Uketsu—an enigmatic masked figure who has become one of Japan's most talked about contemporary authors.

Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Strange Houses by Uketsu is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

**“Deliciously unsettling and refreshingly unique, Strange Houses will lure you in and keep you captive with every clever twist.” —**Kristen Perrin, New York Times bestselling author of How to Solve Your Own Murder

From the bestselling author of the wildly inventive Strange Pictures and a phenomenon in Japan—unnatural layouts, trap doors, windowless rooms— a sinister conspiracy is concealed within a house’s warped and unsettling floor plans

When a writer fascinated by the macabre is approached by an acquaintance, he finds himself investigating an eerie house for sale in Tokyo. At first, with its bright and spacious interior, it seems the perfect first home. But upon closer inspection, the building’s floor plans reveal a mysterious "dead space” hidden between its walls. Seeking a second opinion, the writer shares the floor plans with his friend Kurihara, an architect, only to discover more unnerving details throughout.

What is the true purpose behind the house’s disturbing design? And what happened to the former owners who disappeared without a trace? When a body suddenly appears and a young woman reaches out about a second house, it soon becomes clear that the writer and his friend may be in over their heads. Structured around a series of chilling floorplans, with Strange Houses, mystery-horror YouTube sensation Uketsu casts readers in the role of detective, inviting them to help map out the truth hidden within these puzzling floor plans . . . and the terrifying plot behind it all.

Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion

[salty-horse]

Should cross-post to Mystery. When it was on sale in the UK I only posted there

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

Picked these up last night.

Strange Pictures by Uketsu is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)



Strange Houses by Uketsu is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Those sound fun. Thank you for sharing!

[ZodWallop]

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling is $2 at Amazon and Kobo.

From the nationally bestselling author of The Luminous Dead and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a transfixing fever dream of medieval horror following three women in a besieged castle that descends ravenously into madness under the spell of mysterious, godlike visitors.

Aymar Castle has been under siege for six months. Food is running low and there has been no sign of rescue. But just as the survivors consider deliberately thinning their number, the castle stores are replenished. The sick are healed. And the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints have arrived, despite the barricaded gates, offering succor in return for adoration.

Soon, the entire castle is under the sway of their saviors, partaking in intoxicating feasts of terrible origin. The war hero Ser Voyne gives her allegiance to the Constant Lady. Phosyne, a disorganized, paranoid nun-turned-sorceress, races to unravel the mystery of these new visitors and exonerate her experiments as their source. And in the bowels of the castle, a serving girl, Treila, is torn between her thirst for a secret vengeance against Voyne and the desperate need to escape from the horrors that are unfolding within Aymar’s walls.

As the castle descends into bacchanalian madness—forgetting the massed army beyond its walls in favor of hedonistic ecstasy—these three women are the only ones to still see their situation for what it is. But they are not immune from the temptations of the castle’s new masters… or each other; and their shifting alliances and entangled pasts bring violence to the surface. To save the castle, and themselves, will take a reimagining of who they are, and a reorganization of the very world itself.