Occult Horror Fiction

Edgar Allen Poe's masterful poem, The Raven, is a strange and haunting story of lost love. It tells of a distraught young man who, while lamenting the loss of his lover, Lenore, is visited by a talking raven, adding a supernatural element to an already mysterious experience. The story traces the man's slow, sorrowful descent into madness. This edition of The Raven includes historical information about the author and the story.

When you first enter The Halloween Store, things seem normal. Fun and frightful decorations, ghastly costumes and masks of the season, and bags of candy galore. Then, as you travel farther into its shadowy depths, things begin to change. The air smells of damp autumn leaves and candle-scorched pumpkin. The shelves of All Hallows’ Eve fare grow darker and more disturbing. Strange and unsettling things of Halloweens past and present lurk amid the cobwebs and dust....

In this stunning new collection of four horror stories, Bram Stoker Award nominee Rachel Harrison explore themes of body image, complicated female friendship, heartbreak and hauntings.

Hildreth House. On a moonlight night in early spring, 27 people entered the mansion's labyrinthine halls, to partake in an orgy of diabolical debauchery, the likes of which beggared description. And one by one, 26 of them were butchered in place. The 27th body was never recovered.

Aiden Anderson got off to a tough start in life. He had a small family to begin with, and they were all gone by the time he turned 16. He did his best to shake off his grief and go on to a successful life as a musician. He was talented, but just missed the big time. When Aiden dies in a car crash, he couldn't be more surprised to open his eyes in his grandmother's kitchen in 1961. He has a second chance at everything: family, friends, and fame. Even in Middle Falls, second chances don't always turn out right.

The powerful sense of evil – darkness, creepy hairy presences, cloaks, hoods, talons and tentacles – pervades these classic ghost stories by M.R. James. A Cambridge scholar himself, James explored what happens when academics dabble in things they don’t understand and unleash forces of which they know nothing.

At the age of 11, Mel Smith’s life found its purpose when she met Sarah Ross. Ten years later, Sarah’s sudden death threatens to break her. To fulfill a final promise to her best friend, Mel travels to an idyllic small town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. Yet Morgan’s Gap is more than a land of morning mists and deep forest shadows.

The pack is balancing on an edge, trying to hold together after the last fight tried to tear them apart. Calli throws herself into trying to learn as much magic as she can, and her mates watch on helplessly as her obsession starts to take over. But old enemies are rising, and a surprising party reaches out, requesting aid. Now, facing everything she's lost, Calli needs to make a decision. Can she rise above the hate, the loss, the heartbreaking reality of what's happened and help those who need it?

Demon Accords number 10. When a hunter is brutally mauled in northern Maine, it's presumed that a black bear is the killer. But an astute local deputy suspects a more supernatural element. His call for assistance is answered by the supernatural community sending one of their very best. If it takes a thief to catch a thief, who do you use to catch a werewolf? But nothing is ever simple in the preternatural world. There's more here than meets the eye... nose... ear... or fang.

After Cora Glass’s life was stolen by Harrow Faire, things just keep going from bad to worse. Unable to run, unable to escape, there seems to be no way to avoid what she’s become - the Contortionist. But a girl can only take so much. Haunted by an abandoned and seemingly sentient circus? Fine. The life of her best friend threatened unless she sacrificed herself? Fine. Tormented and stalked by a grinning madman who wanted to kill her, and now wants to do worse? That’s where Cora has to draw the line.

Haunted Castles is the definitive, complete collection of Ray Russell's masterful Gothic horror stories, including the famously terrifying novella trio of "Sardonicus", "Sanguinarius", and "Sagittarius", The characters that sprawl through Haunted Castles are frightful to the core: the heartless monster holding two lovers in limbo; the beautiful dame journeying down a damned road toward depravity (with the help of an evil gypsy); the man who must wear his fatal crimes on his face in the form of an awful smile.

With everyone bailing on my holiday party, I didn't think the night could get any worse. Then three scorching hot men storm the club and demand I come with them. Thinking they're cops, I run only to discover the flu vaccine is turning people into monsters. Now my survival depends on Mason, Gabriel, and Liam. I should be terrified of their glowing eyes and the way they destroy any threat in our path, but all I can think about is claiming the fierce men as my own. All three of them....

In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found—and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and then died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands—lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods. Is it suicide or… sacrifice?

In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: 'rokuro-kubi', whose heads separate from their bodies at night; 'jikininki', or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless 'mujina' who haunt lonely neighbourhoods.

When Hilton was a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African-American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors - macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.... Dan Tate feels like his life is spiraling out of control. His PTSD symptoms have returned, fueled by the terrifying ordeals he has faced. His ex-wife has dragged him into court, threatening to take custody of their children. And worst of all, Beverly’s sinister partner has finally revealed herself.... Consumed by her obsessive desire for revenge, this evil mastermind is willing to do whatever it takes to make the town of Anger pay.

A vicious attack at a ranch in California thrusts archaeologist Erin Granger back into the fold of the Sanguines. Following the prophetic words found in the Blood Gospel, Erin must join forces with Army Sergeant Jordan Stone and Father Rhun Korza to discover and protect a boy believed to be an angel given flesh. But an enigmatic enemy of immense power and terrifying ambition seeks the same child, not to save the world, but to hasten its destruction.

Poppy Wilkinson is thrilled to be chosen as a contestant on The Great British Baking Contest. As an American with English roots, winning the crown as Britain’s Best Baker would open doors she’s dreamed of. In more ways than one. Appearing on the reality show is her chance to get into Broomewode Hall and uncover the secrets of her past. But strange things are happening on the show’s set: Accusations of sabotage, a black cat that shadows Poppy, suspiciously unsociable residents at Broomewode Hall - and the judges can be real witches.

After inheriting her mother’s fortune-telling business as a young woman, Imelda Burova has spent her life on the Brighton pier practicing her trade. She and her trusty pack of Tarot cards have seen the lovers and the liars, the angels and the devils, the dreamers and the fools. Now, after a lifetime of keeping other people’s secrets, Madam Burova is ready to have a little piece of life for herself. But she still has one last thing to do—to fulfill a promise made in the 1970s, when she and her girlfriends were carefree, with their whole lives still before them.

Someone has been slipping the Sanctuary’s secure information to a pharmaceutical company. Now it’s up to Ria Rodriguez to pose as a clerk and uncover the leak. Yet she has no idea of the danger she’s about to encounter—or the passion she’s about to ignite in one of the greatest Breeds ever created.