These are stories that will scare you and keep you from sleeping, if they are done right. It was a dark and stormy night… You can also check out these subcategories:
angels & devils | comedy | fairy tale/folklore | ghosts & haunted houses | gothic | litrpg | lovecraftian/cthulhu | man-made horrors | monsters | mythic | noir | occult | post-apocalyptic | psychic talents | psychological | shifters | splatterpunk | vampires | weird horror | werewolves | witches | zombies
Note: these books are currently sorted by release date, with newest first.
Word Count: 90000
Summary: Intenze is the newest designer drug. Take it, and nightmares come alive. “Edging” is a better rush than the Tower of Terror. It’s a fraction of the price of a Six Flags admission. And it’s the most addictive high that the tiny suburb of New London has ever known. For Rick Carlson, the junkies roaming the streets don’t even scratch the surface of what worries him. He’s trying to win back his cheating wife. He’s trying to protect his residents at Belmont Assistant Living from their own drug-addled grandchildren. And he’s trying to save his twin boy and girl from their mother’s murderous paranoia. But he can’t save them all. The fears of all those who edge summon the Thirst—a living miasma that thrives on terror. It is bringing a storm. And time is running out.

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Summary: WILL YOU BE ONE OF THE INVITED? A forbidden midnight market is coming to town. The Night Bazaar isn't new. In fact, it's as old as civilization. Its first recorded appearance was in Sana'a, around 700 B.C.E. with secretive merchants from the East who presented covered stalls of exotic goods and arcane services. Various mentions appear in obscure and controversial works from around the world. The only common element is that the market opens at midnight, closes before sunrise, and may appear for up to a week in the same city . . . Paris, 1796 . . . London, 1888 . . . Berlin, 1936 . . . San Francisco, 1906 . . . but never in the same venue each night. And never again in the same city. There's just one catch: In order to find it, you must be Invited. Tonight, The Night Bazaar opens in a parking garage somewhere in Manhattan. A whole subterranean city full of antique costumes, alchemical treatments, magical dentistry, palmistry, Tarot, tea leaf-reading, and water-, glass-, and crystal-gazing, oddities and objets d’art, medical curiosities and surgical instruments. Other lost arts and body alterations are offered in certain alcoves. Through the narrow aisles throng jongleurs, freaks, charlatans, mountebanks, faeries, prostitutes, and acrobats. The scents of opium, perfume, tobacco, greasepaint, incense, plastic explosive, alcohol, and sex permeate the air. But each object or service comes with a gift, a curse, or a haunting. (This is the summary of volume one. However, The Night Bazaar anthologies need not be read in any particular order; they are all designed to stand alone as well.) The Bazaar sells that which cannot be had elsewhere. Everything you’ve read about but thought had passed away, or perhaps never existed. How wrong you were! Your guide is Madame Vera, a tall, thin woman of uncertain age, ethnicity, and trustworthiness. The stories within are your invitation to join us. It seems you have already spotted something you desire . . . but don’t head off that way, not just yet. You have all night . . . but not a moment more.

- Fantasy
- Fantasy - Comedy
- Fantasy - Contemporary
- Fantasy - Dark Fantasy
- Fantasy - Faery & Fae
- Fantasy - Low Fantasy
- Fantasy - Magical Realism
- Fantasy - Slipstream
- Fantasy - Urban & Magical Beings
- Fantasy - Weird Fantasy
- Fantasy - Young Adult
- Horror
- Horror - LGBTQ+
- Horror - Lovecraftian/Cthulhu
- Horror - Occult
- Horror - People of Color
- Horror - Psychological
- Horror - Weird Horror
- Horror - Witches
- Paranormal
- Paranormal - Magical Beings
- Paranormal - Young Adult
Word Count: 98659
Summary: Many obstacles stand in Warrick Synclaire’s way. A baronet’s son, he’s in love with his best friend, Thomas Smythe. Same-sex love is illegal in early 20th century England. To complicate things, Warrick is heading for Canada, while Thomas is destined for the military college at Sandhurst. Warrick isn’t sure he can bear the separation. The day before Warrick leaves, Thomas persuades him to see a fortuneteller. The old gypsy woman’s warnings don’t scare Warrick, but another gypsy, Nicolae, intrigues, arouses, and terrifies him. Later that evening, Nicolae breaks into Warrick’s bedchamber, bedding then biting him. But Warrick convinces himself it was just a bad dream and sails off to Canada to start a new life. There Warrick renews his acquaintance with Fox Sullivan, who he first met during the war. Soon the two become lovers, but for Warrick, the relationship is purely physical. Thomas still owns his heart. When he can no longer bear their separation, Warrick returns to his ancestral home in Kent, determined to reunite with Thomas, who now has a lover of his own. But the encounter with Nicolae changed Warrick considerably. Every full moon he turns into a ravenous creature, which seems able to rule his life even during daylight hours. Determined to win over Warrick, Fox sells his medical practice and heads for England. But will he be too late to save the man he loves?

Word Count: 75000
Summary: She just wanted an easy case ... Private eye Jacqueline Spadros, recovering from her harrowing experiences the week prior, wants nothing more than a simple, straightforward case - preferably one the Spadros Family won't find out about. Aristocratic jewel merchant Dame Anastasia Louis, aka "The Queen of Diamonds," seems to be offering the perfect arrangement. But Jacqui can't leave the madman "Black Jack" Diamond's crimes unpunished. And the more she learns, the more she begins to believe that this particular job wasn't such a good idea after all ...

Word Count: 62000
Summary:
Sanderson always envied the townies, all smiling faces and holding hands at his performances. He wanted the happy ever after that came with real life, not the pretend one in the twinkling fairy lights of the Moonlight Market. So when the Weaver of Dreams conjured him a normal life, college classes instead of performances, a chance at a boyfriend instead of an audience, he ran for daylight.
Now a year later, he’s learned that connecting with someone physically doesn’t always lead to a lasting relationship. To get closer to the man of his dreams, Sanderson offers to help Cory find his missing sister. This means navigating the twists and turns of the Moonlight Market, the disorienting world of performers and hawkers, bizarre sights, sounds—and dangers. The sinister Weaver of Dreams offers to forgive Sanderson’s obligation in return for a lost soul, for Cory, who is still grieving the death of his parents and the disappearance of his sister. Surrounded by both friends and enemies, Sanderson fights doubts about his budding relationship with Cory while guiding them ever closer to his ultimate dilemma. The debt is valid and the choice is clear–his lover, or his dreams.
The Moonlight Market, a paranormal finalist for the 2017 Southern Magic Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, is a full-length new adult romance brimming with magical realism, fairy tale villains, and quirky characters. If you like your romance to send a shiver down your spine, you’ll love The Moonlight Market! Buy your copy now and enter a world of dark fantasy and magic!

Word Count: 85,000
Summary: Reylan’s last assignment for The Arcadia Trust brought a rebellious human servant under his roof, and a volatile werewolf lover named Jorgas into his bed, leaving the self-reliant Blood Shade—known to the outside world as vampires—in no hurry to risk his immortality for them again. But when a new terror starts disappearing humans from a bad part of town, Reylan must do everything in his power to keep Sydney’s supernatural factions from the brink of war. Having an ambitious, meddlesome human in the mix is only going to make things worse…especially when that human is Jorgas’s father. Reylan will need all his determination and cunning to keep the peace under his roof, between the night’s power brokers, and in his lover’s troubled heart.

Word Count: 54000
Summary: He was the shameful cause of his sister Elena’s death and he stole state papers from England, yet Adrian Hart is feted by the best of society in Rome, and boldly dubs himself ‘Iago’. Determined to avenge Elena, his unrequited love, Lieutenant Andrew Sullivan asks the advice of poet and Shakespearian John Keats, and his artist friend Severn. Soon Percy and Mary Shelley join them, then Lord Byron and his servant Fletcher. But how can the seven of them work against this man, when they can’t even agree what he is? The atheist Shelley insists that Hart is an ordinary man, while Byron becomes convinced he’s the Devil incarnate, and Keats flirts with the idea that he’s Dionysius… As death and despair follow in Hart’s wake, Sullivan knows he must do something to stop Hart before even Sullivan himself succumbs – but what…?

Word Count: 75000
Summary: The once-beautiful domed neo-Victorian city of Bridges is split between four crime families in an uneasy cease-fire. Social disparity increasing and its steam-driven infrastructure failing, a new faction is on the rise: the Red Dogs. Jacqueline Spadros has a dream life: a wealthy husband, a powerful family. But her life is not what it seems. Kidnapped from her mother's brothel and forced to marry, the murder of her best friend Air ten years before haunts her nightmares. She finds moments of freedom in a small-time private eye business, which she hides in fear of her sadistic father-in-law. Air's little brother disappears off his back porch and the Red Dogs are framed for it. With the help of a mysterious gentleman investigator hired by the Red Dogs to learn the truth, Jacqui pushes her abilities to their limits in hope of rescuing the child before the kidnapper disposes of him.

Word Count: 85,000
Summary: A school in turmoil over its senior play, a sly career as a teenage gigolo, an unpredictable girlfriend with damage of her own, and a dangerous housebreaker tied up downstairs. Any of these would make a great plot for budding filmmaker Eric's first movie. Unfortunately, they're his real life. When Julien, a handsome wannabe actor, transfers to Eric's class, he's a distraction, a rival, and one complication too many. Yet Eric can't stop thinking about him. Helped by Eric's girlfriend, Mary, they embark on a project that dangerously crosses the line between filmmaking and reality. As the boys become close, Eric soon wants to cross other lines entirely. Does Julien feel the same way, or is Eric being used on the gleefully twisted path to fame?

Word Count: 52000
Summary: Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine it could happen to us... In the years since the Twelve-Minute War, the world has fallen into darkness and chaos. The combined impact of nuclear, biological, and chemical agents has rendered the majority of the world's water unfit for human consumption. Only the bravest men and women dare to venture out into the desolate, radioactive wasteland to collect this precious commodity. Matt Freeborn is one such man... a weller. A lone drifter, Freeborn's gaze is fixed ever east, away from the horrors of his past. Danger is always one step behind, however, as the weller's precious cargo makes him a prime target for attack. Savage road pirates, grotesque mutants, ravenous cannibals, and ruthless private armies all lurk behind every dune. Armed with his trusty sidearm, the Well Digger, Freeborn is fully prepared to handle any of these terrors, but there are still things even the weller fears: the bogeymen of the wastes... distillers. A high-octane, post-apocalyptic thrill ride from the author of Birthright and War of the Worlds: Goliath!

Word Count: 80,350
Summary: The sun and moon have been devoured by the cosmic wolves Skoll and Hati. Fimbulwinter has enveloped the world in the cold and darkness. Men prey on each other in order to survive. Amid the chaos, in the struggle for the throne, comes a war between brothers. Hakon, the illegitimate heir to the throne of Norveig, has obtained a horn that can summon a terror from the depths of the ocean. This monstrosity has been sinking the vessels of his half-brother, Jarl Erik Bloodaxe. Erik sends a company of untried heroes to infiltrate Hakon’s stronghold and steal the horn. As with all things political, there are other agendas. Fjorn, the leader of the team, is Erik’s half-brother who could challenge Erik for the throne. Erik's wife Gunnhild is a powerful sorceress with her own ambitions- could her goals derail the heroes? In life, sometimes a Jarl wins, and other times a Jarl wins.

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Summary: The war is over. Resources are scarce. The population is dwindling in the Forkstream Territories. Pinnacle Officer Wilcox has created FERTS amidst the chaos, a facility designed to protect the female population from raiding hordes. Beth 259201, a newly-demoted Epsilon Internee, suspects that there is something more that lurks beneath the carefully constructed order of the facility. She has a gift, one that could brand her a defective. A novice fighter, she must use her intellect to survive. Her own life, and the lives of many more may be at risk. Will she succumb to the plans in store for her or will she conceal her secret long enough to discover her own path? Website: https://www.gracehudson.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracehudsonauthor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracehudsonau Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gracehudsonau.bsky.social Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/grace-hudson Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Grace-Hudson/author/B010TJ6XVG Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@GraceHudsonAU Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/GraceHudsonAU Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/gracehudson

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Summary: “Human civilization has collapsed. Rainey Vidic, MD is a genius, and she has Preston Hayes--her open hand, or hammering fist... ...Only the strongest and smartest will survive in The After. A gifted surgeon, her retired warrior lover, a former Marine, and a taciturn drone pilot fight for survival in a dangerous and pitiless world, while navigating human needs for love, family and community. When one of their own faces a lethal illness, Dr. Rainey Vidic's efforts are compromised by a savage horde of highly intelligent, relentlessly evil creatures that threaten the lives of the entire team. Desperate to save their teammate, the Team encounters an imperiled town of survivors that may hold the key to saving them all. . . or send humanity into extinction. With echoes of McCarthy's "The Road" and the thrill ride of "Jurassic Park," this three volume, four part series, "Love, Death, & The After," tests the limits of romance, loyalty, and community against a violent world hell-bent on devouring it all. This book, Love, Death, & The After: Darkness is the first of three: Book 2: Love, Death, & The After: Abandoned Spaces Book 3: Love, Death, & The After: Never Again”

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Summary: Love defies time, crosses the infinite distance of space, and sparks formidable magics in the hearts of those it touches. And immortality? Yeah, it’s got that covered, too. In this powerful volume, Pop Seagull Publishing presents twelve science fiction and fantasy short stories on the theme of love and its role as a force of nature. Follow an ambitious 1930’s journalist and her high-society boyfriend as they defend the world from evil beings that hide in shadows. Can love prevail when science fails? Take a wild ride with Zephraim Cochrane as he searches for his long lost love through inter-dimensional travel. After all, the best inventions are always made to get dates. Embark on a whirlwind romance with a creature of the Fey in seven days, a beautiful story of friendship and finding self-love before all else. Descend into a very Torontonian sort of hell in search of lost love in Melanie in the underworld... just don’t forget to pet the corgi. You’ll find these adventures, and many more, inside.

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Summary: The Fright Factory is here to help you as you labor in the control room, on the assembly line, or mixing the chemicals of inspiration and imagination in huge vats that give off dark and eerie vapors. Here you'll find guidance in drawing up the blueprints of your story along with a selection of tools to help you customize your design. The elements of horror include the setting, the tingle of suspense building into genuine fear, and of course the Monster. Those are the basics. From there horror can become ghost stories, tales of suspense, splatter and/or gross-out horror, and what might be called the O. Henry approach (twist endings). Cross-genre writing mixes in police procedurals, P.I. stories, and medical horror. Romance with monsters has become popular. You can also throw in the weird western, the Elder Gods, and Joe R. Lansdale - a category unto himself. Whether you're telling a weird tale in the classic tradition of Clark Ashton Smith or creating cutting edge steampunk frights, the long and venerable history of the horror story has also spawned a set of clichés you'll want to avoid. Now the whistle shrieks, signalling the beginning of a new shift. Time to set the machinery of the factory in motion as we explore the art and craft of building better horror.

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Summary: Josh Caplan is your average late-night convenience store clerk, but the Quik-Mart where he works is nothing like normal with that hell vortex in the parking lot. Waiting on zombies, demons, and other things that go bump in the night might scare some, but they're actually more polite than the stoners, and Josh welcomes the break in the monotony—especially when he acquires himself a sexy new boyfriend with a deadly secret. Will Josh survive this retail nightmare? It's a Big Gulp of a chance, but between the hazard pay and the hottie with a sweet tooth for Josh's candy, it's a chance he's willing to take. This box set includes: - Pretty Monsters (Josh of the Damned, #1) - Peek-a-Boo (Josh of the Damned, #2) - Josh of the Damned Triple Feature #1 - Josh of the Damned Triple Feature #2: The Final Checkout

Word Count: 113,100
Summary: Markus a wizard from a parallel Earth travels to our world in a bid to stop a blight that is destroying his own. Here he meets Alcina, a Wiccan Priestess, who is in a custody battle over her son, Tim, against Carl, the boy’s sire, who abandoned her when she was pregnant eight years before. Carl has the backing of a dangerous religious cult in his bid to take Tim. Together Markus and Alcina face the forces of intolerance and hate to save a child and a world and thaw two warm harts too long trapped in the ice of betrayal. Meanwhile, Markus’ best friend and his ex-fiancée, who is now a vampire, battle the authorities who are likely to hang Markus upon his return because he has done research into forbidden magics.

- Fantasy
- Fantasy - Contemporary
- Fantasy - Magical Realism
- Fantasy - Romance
- Fantasy - Urban & Magical Beings
- Horror
- Horror - Occult
- Horror - Witches
- Paranormal
- Paranormal - Magical Beings
- Paranormal - Psychic Talents
- Paranormal - Reincarnation
- Paranormal - Romance
- Paranormal - Vampires
- Sci Fi
- Sci Fi - Multiverse
- Sci Fi - Science Fantasy
Word Count: 86000
Summary: Regan has her ups and downs. -Dumping her girlfriend: Down. -Moving in with her loving brother: Up. -Waking up to a plague of undead: REALLY down. After the undead began roaming the neighborhood, Regan lost track of her brother. She’s spent the last two years searching for him. In the meantime, she’s fallen in love, only to be told, “Sorry, I’m straight. And you’re a lunatic.” There’s a psycho out there somewhere who caused the outbreak, using nanotechnology, just for the fun of it, and Regan intends to hunt him down. Oh, and the crush she still has on the straight gal? Dangerously distracting, when there’s a zombie around every corner.

Word Count: 254
Summary: Nukekubi are a form of Japanese goblin that during the day look like ordinary folk. At night they separate their head from their body and fly around scaring people to death to feed on the energies released. Ray McAndrues, a Pagan wizard/priest, encounters a Nukekubi that is feasting on the people of Toronto and decides that he has got to put a stop to it. Ray gains allies in his quest in the form of two Japanese martial artists who have made hunting Nukekubi their life’s work and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Cathy, who is also a mystic. Problems arise when east and west do not communicate wall and Cathy is his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Also, what is the centuries-spanning tie that binds Ray to the Nukekubi and will it help or hinder the quest?

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Summary: As the Conover family drives from L.A. to Chicago strange things begin to happen. Nine year old Michael sees a face form in the window of the family car. Two creepy children stare at fourteen year old Alison at a motel. A car follows the family for many miles, then hits their car and drives away. Wherever the Conover family goes, wherever they look, they see a large woman and her children coming closer. The woman and her children are superhumanly strong. They can enter a locked room without opening the door. Confused and scared, the Conovers can’t comprehend what is happening to them. Everywhere they turn they see the woman and her children. The woman is Mama, and as she teaches her children, like a lioness teaching her cubs to hunt, the Conovers realize that they are the prey.

