FREE/BARGAIN - Horror/Supernatural

[ZodWallop]

In case you missed it: The Morgow Rises! by British author Peter Tremayne is currently free at Amazon. Here's a link to the thread.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free thread for Canadian small press publisher ChiZine's massive giveaway:

For Canada's 150th anniversary, through midnight Eastern Time, they are offering their entire back catalogue from their (many award-nominated) Canadian authors for free download (modest pay-what-you-want donation suggested). It's mostly horror, but also a good deal of quality fantasy, science fiction, paranormal/sfnal mystery and humour, speculative literary fiction, and even some poetry.

[Kieran Seymour]

Midnight Sun - Ramsey Campbell

Currently free at Amazon UK.

His limbs had been flung wide as if he’d been trying to embrace the night or had been crushed by it; his eyes had been wide and pale as ice, and he might have been smiling or gritting his teeth.


Ben Stirling is a quiet, young boy with a morbid past.

He has run away from his aunt’s house where he lives in search of the real truth about what happened to his grandfather, and his family...

As he struggles to fit in both at home with his strict aunt and at school with the bullies, he eventually meets the similarly reclusive young boy, Dominic.

In Dominic, Ben finds someone else who is enamoured with the world of books. Together they foster each other’s imaginations and provide the friendship they both need.

In his adult years, Ben inherits the ancestral home. He and his family decide to move in... unaware of the strange stories concerning those who stray too close to the nearby woods at night.

Ben is increasingly drawn to Sterling Forest — extensive pinewoods planted around the ancient oak grove where his great-grandfather was found dead so many years before.

Edward Sterling had previously been exploring the icy wastes of the far north, where shamans were said to practise ancient rituals to keep the midnight sun shining over their desolate land.

Found naked and snowblind in this distant wilderness, he had been returned to his wife... but died soon afterwards.

Now, three generations later, Ben unwittingly sets loose an awesome power, and soon the entire countryside falls into the grip of ice and blizzards.

He is soon ready for what he’d been awaiting his whole life...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Kieran Seymour

Midnight Sun - Ramsey Campbell

Currently free at Amazon UK.

It's only $0.99 at Amazon US (not sure what the usual price is). This is the only Ramsey Campbell I've yet read. I remember thinking that it moved too slowly for me. Yet years later, I remember various images from the book, so it has its strengths. I think I should reread it.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

It's only $0.99 at Amazon US (not sure what the usual price is). This is the only Ramsey Campbell I've yet read. I remember thinking that it moved too slowly for me. Yet years later, I remember various images from the book, so it has its strengths. I think I should reread it.

I actually read this when it first came out. I, too, thought it was a bit slow, but I nevertheless remember enjoying it.

I prefer his short stories over his novels.

[haydnfan]

Oh that is funny I have Midnight Sun on mass market paperback, which I thought was a find as it was out of print with no ebook addition when I bought it.

You have to be in the mood for Ramsey Campbell because he is all about atmosphere. The Hungry Moon is pretty good for first exposure to Campbell, it's faster paced than most of his novels and goes for some supernatural thrills and not just psychological horror.

In defense of his typical novels, I've read alot of horror but there are only two novels that have genuinely disturbed me. Last Days by Adam Nevill and Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell.

[ReadingManiac]

A Christmas Tale by Austin Crawley is on Free today.
https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tal.../dp/B019CZURVU

[ZodWallop]

Appropriately enough, I had to dig this thread up.

Anyway, Deborah LeBlanc's Morbid Curiosity is 99 cents at Amazon. I haven't read it yet, but I did read Family Inheritance and Grave Intent by the same author and enjoyed both.

[ZodWallop]

Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home is $1.99 at Amazon. A hit when it came out in 1971, it was turned into the miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

It is a slow horror novel, but a good one.

[ZodWallop]

Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country is 99 cents at Amazon. A mixture of Lovecraftian horror and the Jim Crow South. HBO's in the process of turning it into a TV series.

[ZodWallop]

Ronald Malfi's Snow is $1.99 at Amazon. A stranger is picked up in a snowstorm and things go bad.

I haven't read this one yet, but like the Deborah LeBlanc book mentioned about, I do have the old Leisure paperback. It'll be nice to have the e-book version.

[ZodWallop]

Jack Ketchum's Hide and Seek is going for 99 cents at Amazon.

[ZodWallop]

Richard Laymon's Flesh is 99 cents on Amazon. Another Laymon book, The Lake is $1.99.

If you haven't read Richard Laymon yet, you should. His books are the best kind of schlock. Silly and eye-rollingly dumb, but entertaining even so. (To make things even better, the reviews for Flesh have a fair number that are actually for a Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford book.)

[ZodWallop]

Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates is currently free on Amazon. It's listed as #1 in a series, but each book is a stand alone story without recurring characters.

A group of would-be Mt. Fuji hikers decide to camp overnight in Aokigahara, Japan's infamous suicide forest. I enjoyed the book. It's more about a creepy atmosphere than gore.

[ZodWallop]

John Skipp's The Long Last Call is 99 cents at Amazon. With his writing partner Craig Spector he wrote a string of paperback best sellers in the mid-'80's and helped found the genre of Splatterpunk. Extremely violent, visceral horror stories.

This is a solo book. But from the reviews, he hasn't mellowed with age.