Literary Horror

Victor Frankenstein learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger and more powerful than the average man. Frankenstein rejects the creature, and lives to regret his desire to create life, after it kills his brother William. Frankenstein is a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus.

One of the great literary classics of Western literature and the only published novel written by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray created great controversy on publication because of its homosexual undertones, and was later used as evidence against him at his trial at the Old Bailey in 1895. "If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old...I would give my soul for that!" The wish uttered by Dorian Gray as he gazes on his portrait forms the basis of this story.

It is 1556 and the queen's astrologer, the prophet Nostradamus has uncovered a secret that could destroy the kingdom of France. The queen, Catherine de Medicis, a dabbler in black magic, has decided to get rid of the king's mistress by seeking out the legendary Undying Head of Menander the Magus, known as the Master of All Desires. But she does not know that evil befalls all those who wish upon this accursed object. And the head, in its coffer, has fallen into the possession of a charming, wryly perceptive but stubborn young woman: Sybille Artaud de la Roche.

England 1321: Deep in the countryside lies an isolate village governed by a sinister regime of Owl Masters. But their dark status quo is disturbed by the arrival of a house of religious women. Why do their crops succeed when village crops fail, their cattle survive despite the plague? Accusations of witchcraft and heresy run rife, while the Owl Masters rain down hellfire and torment on the women, who must look to their faith to save them from the lengthening shadow of evil... a shadow with predatory, terrifying talons.

Zehn Menschen wachen in ihren Wohnwagen auf - und nichts ist wie am Abend zuvor. Wo sind sie gelandet? Im Nichts? In der Unendlichkeit? Was sie sehen, ist ein Feld, soweit das Auge reicht. Alles andere ist verschwunden. Das Radio spielt Schlagermusik von Peter Himmelstrand, nichts anderes. Was bloß ist passiert? Sie begeben sich nacheinander auf das Feld hinaus und begegnen dort ihren persönlichen Alpträumen.

The old house waited. For years there had been rumors that the owner, Lilith Martin, had been part of an unholy cult. People spoke of blasphemous rituals, black rites filled with blood, sex...and sacrifices. Then Lilith died and the house sat empty. Until now. Lilith’s nephew, Chris, and his wife, Ellie, are moving in. Ellie isn’t happy about living in such a dark, foreboding place, but she wants to get pregnant and this house has a lot more room to raise a baby than their apartment. Unfortunately, she and Chris will soon learn that Lilith has other plans.

Ronan Szepessy promised himself he’d never return to Hudson. The sleepy upstate town was no place for a restless gay photographer. But his father is ill and New York City’s distractions have become too much for him. Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, his first love, and Dom’s wife, Attalah. The three former misfits mourn what their town has become—overrun by gentrifiers and corporate interests. With friends and neighbors getting evicted en masse and an election coming up, Ronan and Attalah craft a plan to rattle the newcomers and expose their true motives.

El callejón de las almas perdidas nos adentra en el mundo del espectáculo, y las sombras que se amparan en él. Stanton Carlisle es un joven listo y ambicioso que trabaja en una feria ambulante. Junto con otros personajes, como una adivina, un forzudo o un fenómeno humano llamado «el monstruo», la feria viaja de pueblo en pueblo. Pero Stan quiere medrar en el negocio. Y poco a poco, aprenderá a engatusar, engañar y seducir para conseguirlo. Una novela macabra y absorbente que arrastrará al lector hasta las profundidades del mundo del espectáculo.

Mexiko, 1950. Ein verstörender Brief führt die junge Noemí in das entlegene Herrenhaus High Place in den mexikanischen Bergen: Ihre frisch vermählte Cousine Catalina behauptet, ihr Mann Virgil Doyle wolle sie vergiften. Das Ansehen der englischen Familie Doyle ist längst verblasst und ihr Herrenhaus zu einem düsteren Ort geworden. Doch Noemí hat keine Angst – weder vor dem eitlen Ehegatten ihrer Cousine noch vor Howard Doyle, dem widerwärtigen Familienoberhaupt. Aber als Noemí herausfindet, was auf High Place vor sich geht, ist es zu spät: Sie ist längst in einem Netz aus Gewalt und Wahnsinn gefangen.

A glimpse of eight-year-old Ivor in a pretty market town inspires young artist Gemma Palmer to write and illustrate a children’s book. Gemma next meets Ivor when she is 29 and he 16. They become lovers, to the consternation of Gemma’s friends…for the real Ivor is quite different from the sunny character she turned him into in her much-loved books. Lurking in the secret places of his heart are impulses that are dangerous and malign. It can only be a matter of time before they are released, ready to strike. But when? Where? At whom?

Sally, a cynical 15-year-old schoolgirl, is much too clever for her own good. When partnered with her best friend, Pamela—a mouthy girl who no one else much likes—Sally finds herself unable to resist the temptation of rebellion. The pair play truant, explore forbidden areas of the old school and—their favourite—torment posh Sylvia Rose, with her pristine uniform and her beautiful voice that wins every singing prize. One day, Sally ventures up to the greenhouse on the roof alone. Or at least she thinks she's alone, until she sees Sylvia on the roof, too.

Il romanzo si apre con Jonathan Harker che si reca in Transilvania presso il Castello del Conte Dracula per fargli firmare dei documenti per l'acquisto di una casa in Inghilterra. Si accorge subito che il conte ha qualcosa di sovrumano e di diabolico e soprattutto discutibili abitudini notturne ma nello stesso tempo ne è attratto e non riesce a fuggire. Così come tutti quelli che entrano in contatto con il conte e che vengono, inesorabilmente, coinvolti in un'avventura mostruosa.

J. Jacob Potashnik's collection of short stories about Montreal and other places is in the tradition of Saul Bellow, Mordechai Richler, and reminiscent of the work of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholom Aleichem, among others.

The Loney - ein verregneter, unwirtlicher Landstrich an der nordenglischen Küste. In der Karwoche des Jahres 1976 pilgert eine kleine Glaubensgemeinschaft aus London dorthin, um in der Wallfahrtskirche der heiligen Anna für ein Wunder zu beten: Möge Hanny, äußerlich schon fast ein Mann, doch von kindlichem Gemüt, von seiner Krankheit erlöst werden. Dreißig Jahre später legt ein Erdrutsch bei The Loney die Leiche eines Babys frei.

In the dawning years of the 20th century, Bessie Daniels leaves her home town of Hot Springs and travels east over the mountains to live with her new husband Fletcher Elliott in the Broad River section of North Carolina. In 1906, they purchase 400 acres of the old Zachariah Solomon Plantation which includes a small house with a shack beside it, a branch of Cedar Creek and a row of dilapidated slave cabins... And ghosts.

Brad's mostly been a loner, content with his job and his tiny apartment. He's never thought much about being part of something. He's never really thought about the bigger picture. Until he meets a beautiful (and possibly psychotic) girl named Dawn. Dawn leads Brad into a vicious world as hedonistically carnal as it is brutal, forcing Brad to decide if he's going to dig deep within himself and continue to resist the community he's remained apart from his entire life or embrace it and accept his new reality.

El retrato de Dorian Gray es considerada una de las últimas obras clásicas de la novela de terror gótica con una fuerte temática faustiana, además muestra un pintor con afecto íntimo y directo con el personaje principal. El libro causó controversia cuando fue publicado por primera vez; sin embargo, es considerado en la actualidad como «uno de los clásicos modernos de la literatura occidental.

Mike is a tattoo artist running his own shop, and Deb is the piercing artist he hires to round out his studio’s motley crew of four. The last either expects is romance, but that’s what they get as they follow their off-kilter careers and love lives into complete and total disaster. When Mike follows a growing trend and tattoos the ashes of deceased loved ones into several customers’ tattoos, he has no idea that it will one day provide the solution - and solace - he will sorely need.

James Wentworth has a secret. He lives quietly in Salem, Massachusetts, making few ties anywhere. One night his private world is turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife, Elizabeth. Though it is years since Elizabeth's death, James cannot move on. Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings, being arrested, and dying in jail.

In a city teeming with stories, how do lost souls find one another? It’s a question Meg Rhys doesn’t think she’s asking. Meg is a self-identified spinster librarian, satisfied with living with her cat, stacks of books, and her dead sister’s ghost in her New York City apartment. Then she becomes obsessed with an intriguing library patron and the haunted house he’s trying to research. The house has its own story to tell too, of love and war, of racism’s fallout and the ghost story that is gentrification, and of Brooklyn before it was Brooklyn.