FREE/BARGAIN - Horror/Supernatural

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

...and yet some writers - the lazy ones, I might add - continue to do just that.

Oh, and don't forget the reflective pool of water!

Or sometimes very clever ones.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

And don't forget how mirrors are used to offer writers an easy way to describe their character(s)!

Silly as that can be, I've noticed a trend in more modern fiction to just not describe things at all. I hate that. Give me the "he checked out his shoulder length brown hair in the mirror".

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Desertway

Misery by Stephen King is $2.99 at Amazon (US. I don't know about elsewhere.)

Kobo as well. Misery by Stephen King.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Silly as that can be, I've noticed a trend in more modern fiction to just not describe things at all. I hate that. Give me the "he checked out his shoulder length brown hair in the mirror".

I'm not here to promote, but the seemingly constant overuse by writers was so hilarious that I purposely overused it in a short piece I wrote.

I still contend that writers who use this are creatively bankrupt. And not clever.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Silly as that can be, I've noticed a trend in more modern fiction to just not describe things at all. I hate that. Give me the "he checked out his shoulder length brown hair in the mirror".

Both are lazy.

[salty-horse]

Undertow Publications has 5 titles on sale until the end of the month:
https://undertowpublications.com/ebooks

I Would Haunt You if I Could
To Drown in Dark Water
Shadows & Tall Trees, Vol. 8
The Ghost Sequences
Aickman's Heirs

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to SFF and "everything else".
The Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Literary horror. Translated by Anton Hur. Review by Ian Mond

Equal parts bone-chilling, wryly funny and deeply political, The Midnight Timetable is a masterful work of literary horror from one of our time's greatest imaginations.

In a labyrinthine research facility, where those who open the wrong door might find it's disappeared behind them or that the echoing footsteps they're running from are their own, an unnamed protagonist begins their night shift under the watchful eye of the building's enigmatic senior guard.

Each evening, as the fluorescent lights flicker and the silence grows heavier, the guard shares another tale of cursed objects and lives unspooled by vengeance, sorrow or revelation. But these are not mere ghost stories. They're warnings. Lessons. Or, perhaps, confessions . . .

As the nights stretch on and reality frays, our protagonist starts to suspect that the building itself is alive with malevolent intent and that the objects they guard aren't just cursed. They're waiting. Watching.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Midnight Timetable

On Publisher's Weekly "best of 2025" list:
https://best-books.publishersweekly....fantasy-horror

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Silly as that can be, I've noticed a trend in more modern fiction to just not describe things at all. I hate that. Give me the "he checked out his shoulder length brown hair in the mirror".

I know. I hardly know what my main characters look like anymore unless it's a romance and they have to mention their perfection often.

[radbaddude]

Dark Stars: New Tales of Darkest Horror by by John F.D. Taff (Author, Editor), Josh Malerman (Author, Foreword), Ramsey Campbell (Author, Other Contributor)
Amazon US $0.50

Within these pages you'll find tales of dead men walking, an insidious secret summer fling, an island harboring unspeakable power, and a dark hallway that beckons. You'll encounter terrible monsters—both human and supernatural—and be forever changed. The stories in Dark Stars run the gamut from traditional to modern, from dark fantasy to neo-noir, from explorations of beloved horror tropes to the unknown—possibly unknowable—threats.

It's all in here because it's all out there, now, in horror.
Dark Stars features all-new stories from the following award-winning authors and up-and-coming voices: Chesya Burke, Ramsey Campbell, Gemma Files, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, John Langan, Livia Llewellyn, Josh Malerman, Usman T. Malik, Priya Sharma, and John F.D. Taff. Created as an homage to the 1980 classic horror anthology Dark Forces, edited by Kirby McCauley, Dark Stars features an afterword from original contributor Ramsey Campbell—a poignant finale to this bone-chilling collection.

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to SFF.
The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and An Education in Malice who are hungry for something more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If they don't, this school will eat them alive...

[salty-horse]

Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner is $3 in the US (Amazon only, but price-matchable on Kobo)

Girl in the Creek is a pulse-pounding story about the horrors growing all around us, perfect for fans of Jeff VanderMeer and T. Kingfisher.

Buried secrets only spread.

Erin's brother Bryan has been missing for five years.

It was as if he simply walked into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Erin heads to the foothills of Mt. Hood where Bryan was last seen alive. He isn’t the first hiker to go missing in this area, and their cases go unsolved.

When she discovers the corpse of a local woman in a creek, Erin unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of very powerful forces—from this world and beyond—hell-bent on keeping their secrets buried.

[ZodWallop]

All the Fiends of Hell by Adam Nevill is $1. Seems to be an Amazon exclusive, sadly.

The red night of bells heralds global catastrophe. Annihilation on a biblical scale.
Seeing the morning is no blessing. The handful of scattered survivors are confronted by blood-red skies and an infestation of predatory horrors that never originated on earth. An occupying force intent on erasing the remnants of animal life from the planet.

Across the deserted landscapes of England, bereft of infrastructure and society, the overlooked can either hide or try to outrun the infernal hunting terrors. Until a rumour emerges claiming that the sea may offer an escape.

Ordinary, unexceptional, directionless Karl, is one of the few who made it through the first night. In the company of two orphans, he flees south. But only into horrifying revelations and greater peril, where a transformed world and expanding race of ravening creatures await. Driven to the end of the country and himself, he must overcome alien and human malevolence and act in ways that were unthinkable mere days before.