Reddit mentions: The best gothic fiction books

Some of my favorite books available on Kindle Unlimited:

They Mostly Come Out At Night and Where the Waters Turn Black by Benedict Patrick

Paternus by Dyrk Ashton

Danse Macabre by Laura M. Hughes

The Half Killed by Quenby Olson

A Star Reckoners Lot by Darrell Drake

Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe

Jaeth's Eye by K. S. Villoso


Here are some that I haven't read, but have heard mostly positive things about:

The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes

Revenant Winds by Mitchell Hogan

Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R Fletcher

A Warrior's Path by Davis Ashura

Valley of Embers by Steven Kelliher

Faithless by Graham Austin-King. He also has another series, The Riven Wyrde Saga, beginning with Fae - The Wild Hunt

Ours is the Storm by D. Thourson Palmer

Path of Man by Matt Moss

Threat of Madness by D.K. Holmberg

To Whatever End by Claire Frank

House of Blades by Will Wight

Path of Flames by Phil Tucker

The Woven Ring by M. D. Presley

Awaken Online: Catharsis by Travis Bagwell

Wolf of the North by Duncan M. Hamilton

Free the Darkness by Kel Kade

The Cycle of Arawn Trilogy by Edward W. Robinson

Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw

Benjamim Ashwood by AC Cobble

The Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson

The Queens Poinsoner by Jeff Wheeler

Stiger's Tigers by Marc Alan Edelheit 

Rise of the Ranger by Philip C. Quaintrell 

Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron

Devil's Night Dawning by Damien Black


Here are some older fantasy and sci-fi books that I enjoyed:

Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delany - African inspired S&S by an extremely talented writer.

Witch World as well as other good books by Andre Norton

Swords and Deviltry The first volume of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser by Fritz Leiber - Many of the tropes of the rogue/thief came from this legendary duo created by Leiber. And it's worth noting that Leiber actually coined the term Sword & Sorcery. This collection contains 3 stories, two average origin stories for each character and the final story is the Hugo and Nebula winning novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar" detailing the first meeting of Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser.

Swords Against Darkness - A '70s S&S anthology. It has few stinkers, a few mediocre stories, and a some really good ones. Poul Anderson and Ramsey Campbell both have awesome stories in this anthology that are well worth checking out. For some reason, there were quite a few typos in this book, it was slightly distracting, but may have been fixed since I read it.

The Best of C. L. Moore by C. L. Moore. I read this earlier this year and I absolutely loved it. The collection is all sci-fi and one Jirel of Joiry story, which is her famous female Sword & Sorcery character. I was suprised by how well her sci-fi stories held up, often times pulp sci-fi doesn't age well, but this collection was great. Moore was married to the writer Henry Kuttner, and up until his death they wrote a bunch of great stories together. Both of their collections are basically collaborations, although I'm sure a few stories were done solo. His collection The Best of Henry Kuttner features the short story that the movie The Last Mimzy was based on. And, if you are into the original Twilight Zone TV series there is a story that was adapted into a memorable season 1 episode entitled "What You Need". Kuttner and Moore are two of my favorite pulp authors and I'm not even that into science fiction, but I really enjoy their work.

I started out, with my grandmother's influence, falling in love with A Little Princess and The Secret Garden when I was but a wee Meglet, then moved onto the neo-Gothic Victoria Holt novels that my mom had read as a teen, then I went into a flurry of 19th century literature, from Jane Austen through Mrs. Gaskell (I absolutely LOVE "the Cranford novellas" to Henry James and on into the 20th century. Cold Comfort Farm is an odd but charming comedy with a take-charge lead character in young Flora Poste, and it has an ever-so subtle sci-fi undertone, in throewaway references to commercial jet travel and such years before it happened.

You'd get a kick out of the very funny Texts From Jane Eyre, and other conversations with your favorite literary characters (so many Jane Eyre references in these titles!) for some clever sendups of famous characters and authors, from Medusa to Thoreau to Scarlett O'Hara.

And of course, Madwoman in the Attic was a fascinating study of feminist literature in the 19th Century. It introduced me to the charming Lolly Willowes, among other enchanting works.

If I can figure out if Kindle still allows lending, I'll lend any of those you want!

Any recommendations for me? 🤓

Dark One's Mistress is a clean fantasy romance along the vein of beauty and the beast...
>Seventeen-year-old Clarabelle Weaver has only known the quiet village of Everdark where everyone lives under the protection, and shadow, of the Great Lord's fortress. But although his men patrol the land and keep them safe, no one in the village has seen much of the lord himself for years.

>When news of the Great Lord's passing reaches the village, Clara is abducted by the Great Lord's men and whisked off to his fortress. Rumour whispers that his son, Lucias, is hunting for a mistress to beget him an heir to ensure the kingdom safety and she's it.

>With nowhere to run and no one to trust, Clara quickly realises she must match her will against a man with dark magic at his beck and call. But the more she tries to escape and the more she learns of Lucias, the more she is drawn to the quiet, patient man. Will her desire for the man finally win over her longing for freedom?


In Pain and Blood is currently free on my blog, with one new chapter a month. It's a mature m/m fantasy romance...
>It wasn’t meant to be like this.

>Dylan’s life in the spellster tower has everything he should want: magical knowledge, safety from the King’s Hounds and frequent clandestine affairs with women. All at the cost of his freedom. So when the chance to leave the tower—even as a leashed weapon for the King’s Army—arises, he seizes it.

>When his first scouting mission goes awry, Dylan is left alone in a hostile world with the tower a distant beacon of safety. Only the flirtatious Tracker, an elven man whose very presence awakens Dylan’s long-repressed desire, can help him return to his old life before the crown discovers his unleashed status.

>But the risk of being branded a deserter may be the least of his concerns as whispers of an armed presence in the North threatens his home. Dylan must rely on Tracker to protect him even as everything he thought he knew begins to unravel around them.


Willow is a free short story set in the same world as IPaB, only much earlier. It is about a young dwarven woman and what becomes of her when she's captured by the enemy brought before their most powerful weapon.

I self-pubbed Order of the Blood in Oct of last year. It's standing at five stars so I'm happy. Just looking for more reviewers (if you're interested in reviewing I can email you a .mobi file for free). Here's the blurb and link (it's a new description so it's not up o n Amazon yet, I think).

John Grissom and Henrietta Isherwood are to the Bow Street Odd Crimes Division, what Mulder and Skully were to the FBI X-Files.

In this Regency Gothic suspense, a flawed vampire bacteriologist searches for a cure but stumbles upon a conspiracy against the Crown instead. Limited by his disabilities, yet determined nonetheless, the sleuthing newbie finds unlikely allies in his attractive new human research assistant and the vampire-hunting Gerhardt Van Helsing.

Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic War, the trio find themselves at odds with a powerful peer of the realm and his entourage of blood slaves.

Questions of what it is to be human and what makes a monster are counterbalanced by vampiric humor - sardonic with a bit of bite. With its realistic portrayal of the inner turmoil of a vampire who retains his freewill, and its spunky heroine who unerringly rises to the occasion, Order of the Blood is a perfect read for those of modern sensibilities and a love of paranormal historical fiction.

"Reads like an episode of Penny Dreadful..." William, Goodreads giveaway winner

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01516SYCS/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1473652036&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Order+of+the+blood&dpPl=1&dpID=51koFFkZbHL&ref=plSrch

My favorite is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. And yes, it's a show now, but I've been reading the series for like 20 years lol. It's just an amazing series that taught me my love of history and all types of other hobbies. I'm an archaeologist now because of that book. It was very hard to pick just one of my penny books, so here is Lair of the lion, by Christine Feehan.

I've had a lot of luck recently with allowing some of my Reddit short stories to be narrated on a few horror channels. I wanted to gift you my latest short story collection in pdf, epub or mobi format. I invite you to narrate any of the stories in it and hopefully leave an Amazon review. All I ask is that you plug the name of the book, "Bittersweet: 14 Macabre Tales of Love and Loss" and include the link to the Kindle store page so folks can download a copy.

https://www.amazon.com/Bittersweet-Macabre-Tales-Love-Loss-ebook/dp/B07BJG9FRB

Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in, and I hope to hear from you soon!

You have quite the appropriate username. I must warn you that if you're looking for "scary", you might be disappointed. However, because you asked, these are the titles that I can wholeheartedly recommend:

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville

Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs

Sanatorium under the sign of the Hourglass by Bruno Schulz

Oyasumi Punpun by Inio Asano (translation: "Goodnight Punpun." This one is actually a manga series. If you've never read manga before, check this one out. You won't be disappointed.)

Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (I have a bit of a personal attachment to this one for reasons that may seem obvious)

Memoirs of my Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber (This one was recommended by one of my readers, and I'm very glad I added it to the rotation)

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone

We are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor (a bit of science fiction fantasy that really makes you question the concept of identity)

The Masks of Time by Robert Silverberg

Tales of 1,001 Nights, author(s) unknown

A few other authors and stories I would recommend:
Philip K. Dick;
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler;
Patricia Highsmith;
James Lee Burke;
Jorge Luis Borges;
William Gibson;
Dashiell Hammett;
Haruki Murakami;
Charles Baudelaire;
Ambros Bierce;
Nikolai Gogol;
Alberty Camus;
Nathaniel Hawthorne;
M R James;
H G Wells;
J G Ballard;
Thomas Ligotti;

That's about all I can think of right now, but I think it's a pretty good place to start.

whhattt? Really?! Wow. I thought it was better then most books I have read. Then again, I don't read many 'romance' novels.

Edit: And just looked at the reviews on goodreads and amazon. Like every book, there will be people who love it and people who hate it. There were way more people who loved the book then hated it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2595138-the-gargoyle

http://www.amazon.com/Gargoyle-Andrew-Davidson/dp/0307388670

This might be a bit obscure or generic, but I just recently read the book Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - it's a really short vampire novella from 1872 that predates 'Dracula' by about 25 years and clearly influenced it in many ways.

The title character, Carmilla, is a young-looking female vampire who is very vividly described in the book if you wanted to go as her. A lot of people would probably assume you're just a female vampire, but you could probably still have some fun with it. It's worth a read even if you're not big reader because it's really short, and you can get it on Amazon for less than $4.

The newest one and the one I'm most proud of is a short collection - https://www.amazon.com/Bittersweet-Macabre-Tales-Love-Loss-ebook/dp/B07BJG9FRB

It has one review so far, though I have many review requests out - I do not know who left the initial review.

Another one, with the STORY I'm most proud of (The Sands) is at https://www.amazon.com/Mustard-Bottle-Other-Weird-Tales-ebook/dp/B00XWSKS3Q

And here's a narration like the one in my example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaFlM9D5hfU

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

Hi all! I have recetly put out a poetry collection which can be found in paperback and ebook here:

https://www.amazon.com/Sacrilege-Kelly-Stolle/dp/1694383970/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1570484598&sr=8-1

These poems are about what it means to be human even when you don't feel like it. The styling is mostly lyric and free verse with confessional and mystical attributes. What I'm trying to do is capture a feeling or a moment with words. The result of this is strong imagery and sensory details in addition to many story-telling metaphors. It is my debut in the self publishing world and as a result of the time it has taken to create, there are almost 100 poems in this book.

A short sample poem is here:

Reverie in Green

You came to me

in a dream

dripping

in all your old ivy.

The green

was winding

up your thighs,

and when you opened your mouth

that was all that tumbled out.

​

For paperback, it can be yours for $9.99 or $2.99 for an ebook

Sure, I just ask that you let me know when it comes out and include a link to my Kindle book - that OK? Thank you!

https://www.amazon.com/Bittersweet-Macabre-Tales-Love-Loss-ebook/dp/B07BJG9FRB

The Joss is a creepy 19th century novel by the guy who wrote The Beetle, which was one of the best (and most obscure) things I read this year. It's so weird that the author is largely unknown know. In his day, he outsold Stoker's Dracula.

I read his short story "Windeye" from The New Black anthology by Richard Thomas and really enjoyed it—it was probably my favorite from the anthology. I have a copy of his collection that collects the story and shares the same title and it seems to have good ratings but I haven't read it yet.

1. Verland: The Transformation by B.E. Scully
   
2. 5/5
   
3. Literary horror/ Gothic fiction
   
4. This was one of the most intense, thought-provoking novels I've read. Critically acclaimed (Kirkus loved it!)
   
5. buy it here

Mr. Splitfoot. Best (fiction) book I've read in years. Bellevue for nonfiction.

The illimitable Laura Hughes addresses this specifically in her review posted at Goodreads and Amazon.uk:

"Despite its somewhat grim setting and its hero's tragic past, Aching God is by no means a grimdark novel. Auric is a hero - not an antihero - in every way; there are lots of moments of levity, along with exciting action sequences along the way, and of course there's tomb raiding aplenty."

The Color by Matthew Warren Boatner.
It's brand new, but it's good. I know the author.

If anyone is interested in reading some historical fiction, David Morrell weaves a really nice tale around these assassination attempts. Its from the De Quincey Mystery series and is called Inspector of the Dead.

definitely the dublin murder squad for me, by tana french, which i think i recommended a couple of weeks ago, too. that's a series. if you want a one-off, i'd say grab the shining girls by lauren beukes. and finally the gargoyle by andrew davidson.

1. Verland: The Transformation by B.E. Scully
   
2. 10/10
   
3. Literary horror
   
4. One of the most thought-provoking, powerful novels I've read!
   
5. Buy it here!

Danse Macabre is a dark fantasy-horror novelette that gradually unveils the tragic life of a mysterious young girl named Blue. T.O. Munro, author of Lady of the Helm, called it "an ingenious and captivating piece". He also said that "even now, re-reading bits of it, I am struck by the careful structure that lies beneath an ethereal tale, like the outline of furniture beneath a ghostly sheet."

Blurb: The dead beckon and the little girl obeys. Night after night she answers the graveyard’s call, though she dreads her encounters with the creature that dwells there. But she’ll soon come to learn that memories are much more dangerous than monsters…