Books like 'Compulsory Games'
Readers who enjoyed Compulsory Games by Robert Aickman & Victoria Nelson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
29 ratingsAn Alabama boy’s innocence is shaken by murder and madness in the 1960s South in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song. It’s 1964 in idyllic Zephyr, Alabama. People either work for the paper mill up the Tecumseh River, or for the local dairy. It’s a simple life, but it stirs the impressionable imagination of twelve-year-old aspiring writer Cory Mackenson...Categorized as:
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H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection with Accompanying Facts by H.P. Lovecraft
24 ratingsH. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection. Classed as one of the greatest American horror fiction writers of our time, you can now have H.P Lovecraft's work all in one kindle download (with easy navigation). Over 2,000 kindle pages long! (2,195) 62 Short Stories and 5 Novellas. This collection is unabridged, and appears as he first intended it. (And how the editors at the time first published it)...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
The Complete Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft
24 ratingsThe Nameless CityThe FestivalThe Colour Out of SpaceThe Call of CthulhuThe Dunwich HorrorThe Whisperer in DarknessThe Dreams in the Witch HouseThe Haunter of the DarkThe Shadow Over InnsmouthDiscarded Draft of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"The Shadow Out of TimeAt the Mountains of MadnessThe Case of Charles Dexter WardAzathothBeyond the Wall of SleepCelephaïsCool AirDagonEx OblivioneFacts...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens anthologies -
The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre by H.P. Lovecraft
26 ratings“H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.”—Stephen King“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”—H.P. LovecraftThis is the collection that true fans of horror fiction must have: sixteen of H.P... -
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At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror by H.P. Lovecraft
27 ratingsA complete short novel, AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS is a tale of terror unilke any other. The Barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless--or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found the strange fossils of unheard-of creatures...and the carved stones tens of millions of years old...and, finally, the mind-blasting terror of the City of the Old Ones...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens anthologies -
The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
20 ratingsA definitive edition of stories by the master of supernatural fictionHoward Phillips Lovecraft's unique contribution to American literature was a melding of traditional supernaturalism (derived chiefly from Edgar Allan Poe) with the genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1920s...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook cosmic-horror -
Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub
20 ratingsA twentieth-century successor to Edgar Allan Poe as the master of “weird fiction,” Howard Philips Lovecraft once wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook cosmic-horror -
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales by H.P. Lovecraft
24 ratingsOriginally written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, H. P. Lovecraft's astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction, and cosmology that are as powerful today as they were when first published. This tome presents original versions of many of his most harrowing stories, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, in order of publication... -
More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
25 ratingsStorytellers know — just as they have for hundreds and hundreds of years — that everyone enjoys a good, scary story!Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories 3 joins his other popular collections of scary folklore, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark and More Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, to give readers spooky, funny and fantastic tales guaranteed to raise goose bumps... -
The Portable Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
14 ratingsThe essential collection of the American literary master of terror, death, murder, fantasy, and revengeThe first new edition of this landmark anthology since 1945, The Portable Edgar Allan Poe presents a more complicated, perverse, and culturally engaged Poe...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies fiction -
The Dreams in the Witch House & Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
16 ratingsOne of the masters of 'weird fiction', H. P. Lovecraft expanded the vast boundaries of the horror genre with his vividly imagined stories of exotic and fantastical otherworlds, nightmarish dreamscapes or the supernatural terrors lurking beneath the surface of small-town America...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century anthologies cosmic-horror cthulhu dark -
The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft: Dreams of Terror and Death by H.P. Lovecraft, E. Hoffmann Price
18 ratingsThis volume collects, for the first time, the entire Dream Cycle created by H. P. Lovecraft, the master of twentieth-century horror, including some of his most fantastic tales:THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH--Hate, genocide, and a deadly curse.THE NAMELESS CITY--Death lies beneath the shifting sands, in a story linking the Dream Cycle with the legendary Cthulhu Mythos... -
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
24 ratingsIncantations of black magic unearthed unspeakable horrors in Providence, Rhode Island... -
Complete Ghost Stories by M.R. James
10 ratingsM. R. James wrote his ghost stories to entertain friends on Christmas Eve, and they went on to both transform and modernize a genre. James harnesses the power of suggestion to move from a recognizable world to one that is indefinably strange, and then unforgettably terrifying... -
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Novels & Stories: The Lottery / The Haunting of Hill House / We Have Always Lived in the Castle / Other Stories and Sketches by Shirley Jackson
12 ratings“The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable,” writes A. M. Homes. “It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse...Categorized as:
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Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. James
14 ratingsThe only annotated edition of M. R. James's writings currently available, Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories contains the entire first two volumes of James's ghost stories, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary...Categorized as:
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The Best Ghost Stories Of Algernon Blackwood by Algernon Blackwood
16 ratingsSelected from the entire body of Algernon Blackwood’s work, this collection contains some of his finest writing. Blackwood’s ability to create and sustain an atmosphere of unrelieved horror is witnessed in ‘The Willows’, a starkly terrifying tale of another dimension impinging on our own. In contrast, ‘The Other Wing’, is a chilling but delicate evocation of the mysteries of childhood... -
The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft
24 ratingsThe Shadow over Innsmouth is a horror novella by H. P. Lovecraft. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilization. It references several shared elements of the Mythos, including place-names, mythical creatures and invocations... -
More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
25 ratingsAll those who enjoyed shuddering their way through Alvin Schwartz's first volume of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark will find a satisfyingly spooky sequel in this new collection of the macabre, the funny, and the fantastic... -
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
33 ratingsFifteen-year-old Oscar Drai meets the strange Marina while he's exploring an old quarter of Barcelona. She leads Oscar to a cemetery, where they watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the last Sunday of each month. At exactly ten o'clock in the morning, a woman shrouded in a black velvet cloak descends from her carriage to place a single rose on an unmarked grave...Categorized as:
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The Amazing Mr Blunden by Antonia Barber
10 ratingsIt was such an old house it sometimes seemed to Lucy that all the past was gathered up inside it as if in a great box; as though it had a life of its own that continued to exist just beyond the reach of her eyes and ears... -
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
35 ratingsThe iconic anthology series of horror tales that's now a feature film!This is a new edition of the complete original book. Stephen Gammell’s artwork from the original Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark appears in all its spooky glory... -
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith
12 ratingsA much-awaited collection of prose and poetry from one of the great cosmic masters of the supernatural Not just any fantasy, horror, and science fiction author could impress H. P. Lovecraft into calling him "perhaps unexcelled by any other writer, dead or living” or compel Fritz Lieber to employ the worthy term sui generis... -
Great Tales of Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
14 ratingsH.P Lovecraft: Great Tales of Horror features twenty of horror master H.P...Categorized as:
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Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James
18 ratingsM. R. James is widely regarded as the father of the modern ghost story, and his tales have influenced horror writers from H. P. Lovecraft to Stephen King. First published in the early 1900s, they have never been out of print, and are recognized as classics of the genre... -
Miss Christina: An Erotic Vampire Novella by Mircea Eliade
18 ratingsMiss Christina stood there, very close to him, with her breasts uncovered, her hair loose, waiting. “Egor, you’re humiliating me!” he could hear her thoughts. “Turn off the lamp, come closer!” Egor tried in vain to resist. He could feel Miss Christina’s command in his brain, he could feel her poisonous calling in his blood. “If she kisses me I’m lost,” he thought... -
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, T.E.D. Klein
19 ratingsH.P. Lovecraft. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales. [Sauk City]: Arkham House, [1986]. Corrected fifth printing. Octavo. 448 pages. Publisher's binding and dust jacket... -
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
20 ratingsrelates the adventures of Satan, the sinless nephew of the biblical Satan, in Eseldorf, an Austrian village in the year 1702. Twain wrote this version between November 1897 and September 1900. "Eseldorf" is German for "Assville" or "Donkeytown"...Categorized as:
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The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
20 ratingsTwo friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River. Throughout the story Blackwood personifies the surrounding environment—river, sun, wind—and imbues them with a powerful and ultimately threatening character...Categorized as:
classics ghosts gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury
10 ratingsJohn Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl... -
The Haunted Looking Glass by Edward Gorey
12 ratingsThe Haunted Looking Glass is the late Edward Gorey's selection of his favorite tales of ghosts, ghouls, and grisly goings-on. It includes stories by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, M. R. James, W. W. Jacobs, and L. P. Hartley, among other masters of the fine art of making the flesh creep, all accompanied by Gorey's inimitable illustrations.ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, "The Empty House"W.F... -
The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman
14 ratingsPeter Straub called Robert Aickman 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories'. Aickman's 'strange stories' (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia. His characters are ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds... -
The Between by Tananarive Due
14 ratingsWhen Hilton was just a boy, his aged grandmother saved him from drowning by pulling him out of a treacherous ocean current, sacrificing her life for his. Now, thirty years later, Hilton begins to think his borrowed time is running out... -
The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales by H.P. Lovecraft
14 ratingsThe Cthulhu Mythos was H. P. Lovecraft's greatest contribution to supernatural literature: a series of stories that evoked cosmic awe and terror through their accounts of incomprehensibly alien monsters and their horrifying incursions into our world... -
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The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, Josephine Leslie
16 ratingsBurdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg...Categorized as:
classics ghosts gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Thing on the Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft
16 ratings"The Thing on the Doorstep" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror fiction. It was written in August 1933, and first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales... -
The Whisperer in Darkness: Collected Stories Volume 1 by H.P. Lovecraft
16 ratingsThat is not dead that can eternal lieAnd with strange aeons even death may die.Millenia ago, the Old Ones ruled our planet. Since that time, they have but slumbered. But when a massive sea tremor brings the ancient stone city of R'lyeh to the surface once more, the Old Ones awaken at last... -
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
16 ratingsNewly orphaned Peggy Grahame is caught off-guard when she first arrives at her family's ancestral estate. Her eccentric uncle Enos drives away her only new acquaintance, Pat, a handsome British scholar, then leaves Peggy to fend for herself. But she is not alone. The house is full of mysteries and ghosts... -
The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
31 ratingsOne of the feature stories of the Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft's 'the Call of Cthulhu' is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens audiobook -
The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft
20 ratings"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.The story is narrated by the scion of the Delapore family, who has moved from Massachusetts to his ancestral estate in England, known as Exham Priory. On several occasions, the protagonist and his cats hear the sounds of rats scurrying behind the walls... -
The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
20 ratingsL. M. Boston's thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century.There are three children: Toby, who rides the majestic horse Feste; his mischievous little sister, Linnet; and their brother, Alexander, who plays the flute. The children warmly welcome Tolly to Green Knowe.. -
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft
19 ratingsThe Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) published by Arkham House posthumously in 1943 in the collection Beyond the Wall of Sleep. Begun probably in the autumn of 1926, it was completed on January 22, 1927 and was unpublished in his lifetime...Categorized as:
classics gothic literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
The Haunting of H. G. Wells by Robert Masello
18 ratingsA plot against England that even the genius of H. G. Wells could not have imagined. It’s 1914. The Great War grips the world—and from the Western Front a strange story emerges…a story of St. George and a brigade of angels descending from heaven to fight beside the beleaguered British troops. But can there be any truth to it?H. G... -
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
16 ratingsArriving in the English countryside to live with her mother and new stepfather, Jenny has no interest in her surroundings, until she meets Tamsin. Since her death over 300 years ago, Tamsin has haunted the lonely estate without rest, trapped by a hidden trauma she can't remember, and a powerful evil even the spirits of night cannot name... -
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Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman, Reece Shearsmith
16 ratingsCold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul... -
The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
16 ratingsJohnny Dixon doesn't believe that the ghost of mad Father Baart haunts the town church. But then he takes an old scroll and a seemingly harmless figurine from the church basement, accepts a magic ring from a mysterious stranger--and is plunged into a terrifying adventure that may cost him his life... -
A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
16 ratingsThis classic tale from the author of The Last Unicorn is a journey between the realms of the living and the dead, and a testament to the eternal power of love.Michael Morgan was not ready to die, but his funeral was carried out just the same. Trapped in the dark limbo between life and death as a ghost, he searches for an escape. Instead, he discovers the beautiful Laura.. -
The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb
14 ratingsAt an end-of-London-season soiree, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumors...Categorized as:
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The Ghost Belonged to Me by Richard Peck
14 ratings"More death! More, if you do not stop it. Others lost, like me in the black water. Save them!"When Alexander first sees the eerie glow in the dormer window of the barn, it sets his heart pounding. And when he ventures into the barn in the dark of night, his breath catches in his throat. Suddenly Blossom Culp's words come back to him: "You can make contact with the Unseen... -
Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck
14 ratingsUpon discovering that she has the gift of Second Sight, Blossom also learns that whether glimpsing the future or traveling into the past, one is powerless to alter history...
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