Books like 'The Return'
Readers who enjoyed The Return by Rachel Harrison also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary horror mystery supernatural psychological monsters/creatures thriller suspense paranormal spooky
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The Magnus Archives: Season 2 by NOT A BOOK
14 ratingsThe Magnus Archives is a horror audiobook written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrates the stories in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly-appointed head archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute; an institution based in London centred on research into the paranormal... -
I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells
25 ratingsJohn Cleaver has called a demon—literally called it, on the phone, and challenged it to a fight. He’s faced two of the monsters already, barely escaping with his life, and now he’s done running; he’s taking the fight to them... -
Watchers by Dean Koontz
42 ratingsOn his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods.That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life... -
Solitary by Alexander Gordon Smith
20 ratingsFurnace Prison ...Where death is the least of your worries.Escape is just the beginning ...We thought we’d made it, we thought we were free. But we should have known there was no way out of Furnace.All we did was slip deeper into the guts of the prison: into solitary confinement, where the real nightmares live - the warden, the Wheezers, and something much, much worse.The clock’s ticking... -
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Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
42 ratingsStephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals... -
The Devil's Only Friend by Dan Wells
19 ratingsJohn Wayne Cleaver hunts demons: they've killed his neighbors, his family, and the girl he loves, but in the end he's always won. Now he works for a secret government kill team, using his gift to hunt and kill as many monsters as he can......but the monsters have noticed, and the quiet game of cat and mouse is about to erupt into a full scale supernatural war... -
Mr. Monster by Dan Wells
26 ratingsIn I Am Not a Serial Killer, John Wayne Cleaver saved his town from a murderer even more appalling than the serial killers he obsessively studies.But it turns out even demons have friends, and the disappearance of one has brought another to Clayton County. Soon there are new victims for John to work on at the mortuary and a new mystery to solve... -
The Last Town by Blake Crouch
34 ratingsWelcome to Wayward Pines, the last town.Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed... -
Over Your Dead Body by Dan Wells, Kirby Heyborne
16 ratingsJohn and Brooke are on their own, hitchhiking from town to town as they hunt the last of the Withered through the Midwest - but the Withered are hunting them back, and the FBI is close behind... -
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson, Stephen King
18 ratingsRemember that monster on the wing of the airplane? William Shatner saw it on The Twilight Zone, John Lithgow saw it in the movie-even Bart Simpson saw it. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is just one of many classic horror stories by Richard Matheson that have insinuated themselves into our collective imagination... -
Reliquary by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
30 ratingsWhen police find two skeletons locked in a bony embrace deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, Natural History Museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid in the investigation. She soon realizes that the expertise the cops want is the result of her ordeal last year, battling the horrific beast loose in the basement corridors of the Museum... -
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
42 ratingsis a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page... -
Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
26 ratingsPendergast-the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent-returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.William Smithback Jr., a prominent New York Times reporter, was killed in a brutal attack in his Upper West Side apartment. His wife, Nora Kelly, an archeologist at the Museum of Natural History, was injured as well... -
Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
26 ratingsWhen you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. And that's both a good, and a bad thing... -
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Live and Let Drood by Simon R. Green
16 ratingsThe Secret Histories Novels combine “witty banter, tough guy standoffs, visceral fight scenes, bad guy atrocities, surprise revelations, and high stakes”* in supernatural adventures that can only come from the imagination of New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.The name is Bond, Shaman Bond... -
Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury
6 ratingsAfter her private school is rocked by a gruesome murder, a teen tries to find the real killer and clear her brother’s name in this psychological thriller perfect for fans of The Taking of Jake Livingston and Ace of Spades.Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer... -
Skeleton Crew by Stephen King
41 ratingsIn this brilliant collection of stories, Stephen King takes readers down paths that only he could imagine.A supermarket becomes the place where humanity makes its last stand against destruction. A trip to the attic becomes a journey to hell. A woman driver finds a scary shortcut to paradise. An idyllic lake harbors a bottomless evil... -
The Outsider by Stephen King
46 ratingsAn unspeakable crime. A confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively readable stories.An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens... -
The Fisherman by John Langan
24 ratingsIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true... -
Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
20 ratings"That thing is growing again. We must destroy it. The time to act is now..."With these words begins Gideon Crew's latest, most dangerous, most high-stakes assignment yet. Failure will mean nothing short of the end of humankind on earth... -
Phantoms by Dean Koontz
34 ratingsThey found the town silent, apparently abandoned. Then they found the first body, strangely swollen and still warm. One hundred fifty were dead, 350 missing. But the terror had only begun in the tiny mountain town of Snowfield, California.At first they thought it was the work of a maniac. Or terrorists. Or toxic contamination. Or a bizarre new disease.But then they found the truth... -
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron
16 ratingsOver 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... -
The Siren and the Specter by Jonathan Janz
12 ratingsWhen David Caine, a celebrated skeptic of the supernatural, is invited by an old friend to spend a month in “the most haunted house in Virginia,” he believes the case will be like any other. But the Alexander House is different. Built by a 1700s land baron to contain the madness and depravity of his eldest son, the house is plagued by shadows of the past and the lingering taint of bloodshed... -
Shadow Beast by Luke Phillips
8 ratingsWe just lost our place at the top of the food chain. Man is just meat."This was on par with Jurassic Park." Courtney L."This story has heart and soul in the midst of its rampaging terror." Bevi Debb"His hero has the potential to be one of the most loved adventure icons, in the mould of Indiana Jones." A.K...Categorized as:
suspense action-adventure adult alternate-universe animals audiobook book contemporary -
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The Mist by Stephen King
45 ratings#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s terrifying novella about a town engulfed in a dense, mysterious mist as humanity makes its last stand against unholy destruction—originally published in the acclaimed short story collection Skeleton Crew and made into a TV series, as well as a feature film starring Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden.In the wake of a summer storm, terror descends. -
Bone White by Ronald Malfi
16 ratingsA landscape of frozen darkness punctuated by grim, gray days. The feeling like a buzz in your teeth.The scrape of bone on bone. . .Paul Gallo saw the report on the news: a mass murderer leading police to his victims graves, in remote Dread's Hand, Alaska.It's not even a town; more like the bad memory of a town. The same bit of wilderness where his twin brother went missing a year ago... -
The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
18 ratingsI first met my demon the morning that Mum said Dad had gone. Alex Connolly is ten years old, likes onions on toast, and can balance on the back legs of his chair for fourteen minutes. His best friend is a 9000-year-old demon called Ruen. When his depressive mother attempts suicide yet again, Alex meets child psychiatrist Anya... -
Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory
16 ratingsIn 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda — and he begins to move... -
Bonechiller by Graham McNamee
14 ratingsWELCOME TO NOWHERE.Danny's dad takes a job as caretaker at a marina on the shore of a vast, frozen lake in Harvest Cove, a tiny town tucked away in Canada's Big Empty. If you're looking for somewhere to hide, this is it.It's the worst winter in years. One night, running in the dark, Danny is attacked by a creature so strange and terrifying he tries to convince himself he was hallucinating...Categorized as:
dark friendship paranormal suspense action-adventure book coming-of-age contemporary -
Darker Things by Rob Cornell
10 ratingsCraig Lockman—no one had called him that in fifteen years.Not since his days at the Agency. Not since he was trained to kill creatures that were supposed to exist only in nightmares.Yet the teenage girl on his doorstep not only knows his real name, she claims she's his daughter.Before Lockman can learn how the girl found him, he's attacked by a black-ops team of assassins... -
Nathaniel by John Saul
18 ratingsFor a hundred years, the people of Prairie Bend have whispered Nathaniel's name in wonder and fear. Some say he is a folktale, created to frighten children on cold winter nights. Some swear he is a terrifying spirit retumed to avenge the past. But soon . . . very soon . . . some will learn that Nathaniel lives still--that he is darkly, horrifyingly real... -
Origin by J.A. Konrath
18 ratingsThriller writer J.A. Konrath, author of the Lt. Jack Daniels series, digs into the vaults and unearths a technohorror tale from the depths of hell... 1906 - Something is discovered by workers digging the Panama Canal. Something dormant. Sinister. Very much alive. 2009 - Project Samhain. A secret underground government installation begun 103 years ago in New Mexico... -
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
18 ratingsHangsaman is Miss Jackson's second novel. The story is a simple one but the overtones are immediately present. "Natalie Waite who was seventeen years old but who felt that she had been truly conscious only since she was about fifteen lived in an odd corner of a world of sound and sight, past the daily voices of her father and mother and their incomprehensible actions... -
Malorie by Josh Malerman
24 ratingsNow from the mind of a true master of suspense comes the next chapter in Bird Box. This time, Malorie is front and center, and she will confront the dangers of her world head-on.Twelve years after Malorie and her children rowed up the river to safety, a blindfold is still the only thing that stands between sanity and madness... -
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This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
16 ratingsIt was Vera's idea to buy the Itza. The "world's most advanced smart speaker!" didn't interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse... -
The Hollow City by Dan Wells
14 ratingsMichael Shipman is paranoid schizophrenic; he suffers from hallucinations, delusions, and complex fantasies of persecution and horror. That’s bad enough... -
The Anomaly by Michael Rutger, Michael Marshall Smith
20 ratingsNot all secrets are meant to be found.If Indiana Jones lived in the X-Files era, he might bear at least a passing resemblance to Nolan Moore -- a rogue archaeologist hosting a documentary series derisively dismissed by the "real" experts, but beloved of conspiracy theorists... -
The Croning by Laird Barron
18 ratingsStrange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults, and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us... -
The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn
18 ratingsThey only come when it snows, and nobody ever gets away. A group of close friends gathers at a secluded cabin in the wintry mountains of Colorado for a final holiday hurrah. Instead, it may be their last stand. First a massive blizzard leaves them marooned. Then the more chilling realization: something is lurking in the woods, watching them, waiting.. -
Meg by Steve Alten
24 ratingsRevised and Expanded. On a top-secret dive into the Pacific Ocean's deepest canyon, Jonas Taylor found himself face-to-face with the largest and most ferocious predator in the history of the animal kingdom. The sole survivor of the mission, Taylor is haunted by what he's sure he saw but still can't prove exists - Carcharodon megalodon, the massive mother of the great white shark... -
Button, Button: Uncanny Stories by Richard Matheson
14 ratingsWhat if every time you pushed a button you received $50,000...but someone you didn’t know died? Would you still push the button? How many times? "Button, Button", which inspired a memorable Twilight Zone episode, is just one of a dozen unforgettable tales in this new collection by Richard Matheson, the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come... -
29. Oda by Jennifer McMahon
24 ratingsOnce the thriving attraction of rural Vermont, the Tower Motel now stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of Amy, Piper, and Piper's kid sister, Margot. The three played there as girls until the day that their games uncovered something dark and twisted in the motel's past, something that ruined their friendship forever... -
Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol
18 ratingsShortly after World War I, a troubled man accepts a solitary assignment as a "weather official" on a tiny, remote island on the edges of the Antarctic. When he arrives, the predecessor he is meant to replace is missing and a deeply disturbed stranger is barricaded in a heavily fortified lighthouse... -
Seed by Ania Ahlborn
24 ratingsFans of Stephen King, Jack Kilborn, and Blake Crouch… prepare to meet the Devil.In the vine-twisted swamps of Louisiana, the shadows have teeth.Jack Winter has spent his entire life running from something no one else can see. His childhood is his darkest secret, but after a near fatal accident along a deserted road, the darkness he was sure he’d escaped rears its ugly head… and smiles... -
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Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay, Erin Bennett
24 ratingsIn a matter of weeks, Massachusetts has been overrun by an insidious rabies-like virus that is spread by saliva. But unlike rabies, the disease has a terrifyingly short incubation period of an hour or less. Those infected quickly lose their minds and are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before they inevitably succumb... -
The Devil Crept In by Ania Ahlborn
18 ratingsAn unforgettable horror novel from bestselling sensation Ania Ahlborn—hailed as a writer of “some of the most promising horror I’ve encountered in years” (New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire)—in which a small-town boy investigates the mysterious disappearance of his cousin and uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden for years... -
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
33 ratingsJohn Wayne Cleaver is dangerous, and he knows it.He's spent his life doing his best not to live up to his potential.He's obsessed with serial killers, but really doesn't want to become one. So for his own sake, and the safety of those around him, he lives by rigid rules he's written for himself, practicing normal life as if it were a private religion that could save him from damnation... -
The Returned by Seth Patrick
10 ratingsIn an Alpine town reeling from a devastating accident, the families of dead wish their lost loved ones could come back...only to wake up one day to the chilling reality of their prayers being answered. But the victims of the accident are not the only ones to have returned from the dead... -
Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis
14 ratingsSomeday I'll wake up and they will have built a maze around me. And I will be relieved. Sixteen-year-old Maren wants the same thing every girl her age wants. She wants to be loved. She wants to be accepted. She wants to be normal. But she'll never be any of those things. For Maren has dark urges. There is a hunger inside her she can't control and no one is safe, not even the people she loves... -
Road of Bones by Christopher Golden
14 ratingsA stunning supernatural thriller set in Siberia, where a film crew is covering an elusive ghost story about the Kolyma Highway, a road built on top of the bones of prisoners of Stalin's gulag.Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, is a 1200 mile stretch of Siberian road where winter temperatures can drop as low as sixty degrees below zero...
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