FREE/BARGAIN - Horror/Supernatural

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by radbaddude

Not yet, I just found out about it. Have not read the book either. You?

Haven't read the book, but I did enjoy the movie.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Dark Voyage by Helen Susan Swift is FREE at Amazon US.

I've read this, it's good!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

I've read this, it's good!

She has a similar book, Dark Mountain. Have you read that one yet?

[ZodWallop]

The Damnation Game by Clive Barker is on sale for $0.99 at Amazon US.

This was his first novel. A buck is a very good price for it.

Marty Strauss, a gambling addict recently released from prison, is hired to be the personal bodyguard of Joseph Whitehead, one of the wealthiest men in the world. The job proves more complicated and dangerous than he thought, however, as Marty soon gets caught up in a series of supernatural events involving Whitehead, his daughter (who is a heroin addict), and a devilish man named Mamoulian, with whom Whitehead made a Faustian bargain many years earlier, during World War II.

As time passes, Mamoulian haunts Whitehead using his supernatural powers (such as the ability to raise the dead), urging him to complete his pact with him. Eventually Whitehead decides to escape his fate after a few encounters with Mamoulian and having his wife, former bodyguard, and now his daughter Carys taken away from him. With hope still left to save Carys, Marty Strauss, although reluctant to get involved in the old man Whiteheads deserved punishment, decides to get involved and attempt to save the innocent gifted addict from being another victim to the damnation game.

[ZodWallop]

Positive by David Wellington is $1.99 at Amazon US.

Wellington made a bit of a splash years back with his zombie trilogy Monster Island, Monster Nation and Monster Planet. I'll be honest, I read Monster Island and just didn't care for it. But hey, what do I know?

In the bestselling vein of Guillermo Del Toro and Justin Cronin, the acclaimed author of Chimera and The Hydra Protocol delivers his spectacular breakout novel—an entertaining page-turning zombie epic that is sure to become a classic.
Anyone can be positive . . .

The tattooed plus sign on Finnegan's hand marks him as a Positive. At any time, the zombie virus could explode in his body, turning him from a rational human into a ravenous monster. His only chance of a normal life is to survive the last two years of the potential incubation period. If he reaches his twenty-first birthday without an incident, he'll be cleared.

Until then, Finn must go to a special facility for positives, segregated from society to keep the healthy population safe. But when the military caravan transporting him is attacked, Finn becomes separated. To make it to safety, he must embark on a perilous cross-country journey across an America transformed—a dark and dangerous land populated with heroes, villains, madmen, and hordes of zombies. And though the zombies are everywhere, Finn discovers that the real danger may be his fellow humans.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome meets World War Z and I Am Legend in this thrilling tale that has it all: a compelling story, great characters, and explosive action, making Positive the ultimate zombie novel of our time.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

She has a similar book, Dark Mountain. Have you read that one yet?

Not yet. I'll grab a sample.

[BetterRead]

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron is currently $1.99 at various etailers.

WINNER OF THE BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR BEST FICTION COLLECTION 2013

Over the course of two award-winning collections and a critically acclaimed novel, The Croning, Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic. Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron’s stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards.

Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Collecting interlinking tales of sublime cosmic horror, including “Blackwood’s Baby,” “The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven,” and “The Men from Porlock,” The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All delivers enough spine-chilling horror to satisfy even the most jaded reader.

https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Thi.../dp/B07H48PYJC
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the...=9781597804684
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...waits-us-all-1
https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=lTltDwAAQBAJ

[ZodWallop]

A couple of Mike Carey's Felix Castor books are on sale for $1.99 each.

Carey used to write the John Constantine Hellblazer comic series. Felix Castor is in a somewhat similar vein:

Thicker Than Water (Felix Castor Book 4)

Author of The Girl With All the Gifts Mike Carey presents the fourth book in his hip supernatural thriller series featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor.
Old ghosts are coming back to haunt Felix.
Names and faces he thought he'd left behind in Liverpool resurface in London, bringing Felix far more trouble than he'd anticipated. Childhood memories, family traumas, sins old and new, and a council estate that was meant to be a modern utopia until it turned into something like hell....These are just some of the sticks life uses to beat Felix Castor with, as things go from bad to worse for London's favorite freelance exorcist.
See, Castor's stepped over the line this time, and he knows he'll have to pay. The only question is: how much? Not the best of times, then, for an unwelcome confrontation with his holier-than-thou brother, Matthew. And just when he thinks things can't possibly get any worse, along comes Father Gwilliam and the Anathema.
Oh joy....

The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor Book 5)

Author of The Girl With All the Gifts Mike Carey presents the fifth book in his hip supernatural thriller series featuring freelance exorcist Felix Castor.
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but if you ask Castor, he'll tell you there's quite a bit of arrogance and reckless stupidity lining the streets as well.

He should know. There's only so many times you can play both sides against the middle and get away with it. Now, the inevitable moment of crisis has arrived and it's left Castor with blood on his hands.

Castor drowns his guilt in cheap whiskey, while an innocent woman lies dead and her daughter comatose, his few remaining friends fear for their lives, and there's a demon loose on the streets. But not just any demon---this one rides shotgun on Castor's best friend's soul, and can't be expelled without killing him.

Looks like Felix Castor's got some tough choices to make, because expel the demon he must---or all Hell will break loose.

[ZodWallop]

Terminal Island by Walter Greatshell is $1.99 at Amazon US.

The synopsis sounds great, but the reviews are fair to middlin', so be aware.

I do have Greatshell's Xombie books in paperback, but haven't read them.

Henry Cadmus grew up on Catalina Island, a scenic vacationland off the Southern California coast. But Henry's experiences were far from idyllic. Today, even though Henry has seen firsthand the horrors of war, the ghastly images that haunt his dreams is one he associates with his childhood… and the island: a snarling pig-man holding a cleaver; a jackal-headed woman on a high balcony, dripping blood; strange occult rituals… and worse. If it was up to Henry, he would avoid the island entirely.

But Henry is returning to Catalina Island. At his wife Ruby’s insistence, Henry, Ruby, and their infant daughter are coming to Avalon, so that Henry can face his fears, exorcise his demons, and reconcile with the one he fears most… his mother.

From Walter Greatshell, author of Xombies comes Terminal Island, a novel of cosmic horror.

[ZodWallop]

Ghost Story by Peter Straub is $1.99 at Amazon US.

If you haven't yet read Ghost Story, you really should. It is one of the best horror novels I've ever read.

What was the worst thing you’ve ever done?

In the sleepy town of Milburn, New York, four old men gather to tell each other stories—some true, some made-up, all of them frightening. A simple pastime to divert themselves from their quiet lives.

But one story is coming back to haunt them and their small town. A tale of something they did long ago. A wicked mistake. A horrifying accident. And they are about to learn that no one can bury the past forever...

[ZodWallop]

Earthcore by Scott Sigler is $0.99 at Amazon US.

A Billion-Dollar Find

Deep below a desolate Utah mountain lies the largest platinum deposit ever discovered. A billion-dollar find, it waits for any company that can drill a world’s record, three-mile-deep mine shaft. EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company’s driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure.

But at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting … and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out firsthand why this treasure has never been unearthed.

I've previously read a different book by Scott Sigler, which is also on sale:

Infected by Scott Sigler is $2.99. I read this book years ago and loved it. A fun gross-out page turner of a book. Highly recommended.

Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common—they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey—a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey—awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

[ZodWallop]

The House Without a Summer by DeAnna Knippling is $0.99 at Amazon US.

The year is 1816, in Northamptonshire. A red, spiderwebbed haze covers the sun. Temperatures drop, fields flood and freeze, grain rots on the stem. The people are starving, and even the wealthy and titled are affected by shortages. Sickness spreads as a red fungus overtakes fields, seals over windows, and infiltrates cellars.

On the way back from the Napoleonic Wars in France, Marcus, the younger son of the Earl of Penderbrook, returns to find his brother dead, the estate covered in fungus, and his father sinking into madness.

The last thing Marcus wants to do is be responsible for Penderbook; he wants only to spend the rest of his life playing cards, drinking, and seducing other men’s wives. But even the responsible life of an heir escapes from his grasp, as his brother’s body disappears, his father turns violent, and pale monsters horrify the countryside.

As Marcus pieces together the truth, he discovers a past more tainted with evil than he could have suspected.

From the family wine cellar to the folly behind the house—from the pond where he played as a child to the new cotton mill built along the stream—

None of what happens at Penderbrook is innocent.

And the monstrosities that have been committed may still be carried in Marcus’s blood…

A tale of transformation and terror, set in the year Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.

[ZodWallop]

Anyone seen the trailers for Lovecraft Country yet? I read and enjoyed the book years ago and heard it was being turned into a series, but then things went silent. I figured the project died, but now trailers are showing up for it.

Lots I remember from the book and some I don't (I don't remember any character actually saying 'Lovecraft Country' for one). But the series looks very good.



And if you haven't read the book, I recommend it. It's not on sale currently, but it goes on sale from time-to-time. I wrote a short review of it on Goodreads, if interested.

[Dr. Drib]

^ It is, however, currently available as a Kindle Unlimited title, for anyone who may be a member.

[ZodWallop]

Nightscape by Stephen R. George is $0.99 at Amazon US.

I bought the book, but haven't read it yet. I mainly know Stephen R. George because his books were published by Zebra Horror in the '80's. I posted the original glorious cover below the synopsis.

Eight-year-old Evan Laine is afraid. He'd lost a finger in a car accident, but now it is slowly growing back. There are other changes, too. Changes he can't hide from his mom. And dreams. Dreams from which he wakes, screaming. They are after him… the beautiful redheaded woman, and the drooling boy/man. They want him to change. They are making him change, shaping him into something just like them.

Bonnie Laine knew there was something wrong with her son. She'd seen the skin sloughing off his belly in long, wet sheets. She'd heard his screams in the night. And now she'd seen them. The followers, hunting her son. They want Evan for something, something too terrible to imagine. But Bonnie will do anything to save her son. Even if it means joining forces with a murderous man who may be far more dangerous than the creatures pursuing them.