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Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors

Robert E. Howard

6 of 6 directions open

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  • The Ballad of Black Tom

    Victor LaValle2016

    A street musician in 1920s Harlem becomes involved with an occultist and cosmic horrors. It reimagines a Lovecraft story from a Black perspective.

    Same tense register, still cosmic horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft

    H.P. Lovecraft2003

    A collection of stories following characters who travel into a shared dream world. It focuses on strange geography and cosmic entities.

    tense → dreamlike, still cosmic horror

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Racconti [55 stories]

    Edgar Allan Poe2011

    A collection of 55 stories featuring unreliable narrators and gothic settings. Themes include obsession, premature burial, and the macabre.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

    A collection of Victorian tales where the existence of ghosts is often left to the reader's interpretation.

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

tense → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • This Man

    Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

    An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

    Same tense register

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Ready Player One

    Ernest Cline2008

    A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Real Murders

    Charlaine Harris1990

    A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

    tense → wry

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Rising

    Brian Keene2003

    A father travels across an apocalypse where the dead are possessed by malevolent, intelligent demons. The world is ending permanently.

    tense → bleak

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak+1

  • Shattered

    Dean Koontz1973

    A man and his future stepson drive across America while being stalked by the woman's vengeful ex-husband.

    Same tense register

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Executioner

    Chris Carter2010

    A Los Angeles detective hunts a serial killer who murders victims using their specific phobias. Each crime scene features a blood-scrawled number.

    Same tense register

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Fisherman

    John Langan2016

    Two widowers go fishing at a mysterious creek and discover a local legend involving a dark pact and a gateway to another world.

    tense → elegiac, still cosmic horror

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • The Call of Cthulhu

    H.P. Lovecraft2016

    A man pieces together his late uncle's notes regarding a global cult. The story is told through journals, news clippings, and testimonies.

    tense → cold, still cosmic horror

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft

    H.P. Lovecraft2014

    This collection presents twenty-two stories of cosmic horror alongside extensive footnotes regarding the author's life and influences.

    tense → cold, still cosmic horror

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Mr. Shivers

    Robert Jackson Bennett2010

    A father hunts a scarred vagrant across Depression-era America to avenge his daughter's murder. He joins other men seeking the same killer.

    tense → bleak, still cosmic horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Terror

    Dan Simmons2007

    Two British ships searching for the Northwest Passage in 1845 become trapped in ice and are hunted by a creature.

    tense → bleak, still cosmic horror

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1