Recommendations based on "A Descent Into the Maelstrom"

“Barker’s the best thing to happen to horror fiction for many moons. . . [he] never fails to deliver the compelling prose and relentless horror his readers expect.” —Chicago Tribune The classic tale of supernatural obsession from the critically acclaimed master of darkness—and the inspiration for the cult classic film Hellraiser From his scores of short stories, bestselling novels, and major motion pictures, no one comes close to the vivid imagination and unique terrors provided by Clive Barker. The Hellbound Heart is one of Barker’s best—a nerve-shattering novella about the human heart and all the great terrors and ecstasies within its endless domain. It is about greed and love, desire and death, life and captivity, bells and blood. It is one of the most frightening stories you are likely to ever read. Frank Cotton's insatiable appetite for the dark pleasures of pain led him to the puzzle of Lemarchand's box, and from there, to a death only a sick-minded soul could invent. But his brother's love-crazed wife, Julia, has discovered a way to bring Frank back—though the price will be bloody and terrible . . . and there will certainly be hell to pay.

Zothique est le nom d’un continent. Un monde mythique de sortilèges, de prodiges, d’incongruités, de maléfices et de terreurs innombrables. Dans cet univers, l’amour et la mort ont les couleurs de l’illusion, et les hallucinations sont toujours moins effrayantes que la réalité. Dans les villes et villages, dans les forêts et les campagnes, les morts, les momies, les squelettes ne laissent aux vivants aucun répit et, sans cesse, les assaillent et les poursuivent. Si les contes de ce recueil dépaysent totalement, ils n’en restent pas moins l’exacte expression de nos terreurs les plus profondes.Zothique dépeint les destins des habitants du dernier continent de la Terre, lorsque celle-ci est à son agonie… et met en scène l’une des fantasy les plus envoûtantes et splendides que la littérature ait produite.

The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula&;s true origins but Bram Stoker&;s&;and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them.It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here...A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen&;a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen&;and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning.

The astonishing, beautiful new story for all readers of 10 and over from the bestselling and Costa-shortlisted author of TIME TRAVELLING WITH A HAMSTER.'A wonderful story' Kiran Millwood HargraveThere are stories about people who want to live forever.This is not one of those stories.This is a story about someone who wants to stopAlfie Monk is like any other nearly teenage boy except hes 1,000 years old and can remember the last Viking invasion of England.Obviously no one believes him.So when everything Alfie knows and loves is destroyed in a fire, and the modern world comes crashing in, Alfie embarks on a mission to find friendship, acceptance, and a different way to live which means finding a way to make sure he will eventually die.

Walter Wangerin's profound fantasy concerns a time when the sun turned around the earth and the animals could speak, when Chauntecleer the Rooster ruled over a more or less peaceful kingdom. What the animals did not know was that they were the Keepers of Wyrm, monster of evil long imprisoned beneath the earth ... and Wyrm, sub terra, was breaking free.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill, a chilling tale of modern-world dangers, dark academia, and the unexpected consequences of revenge as six friends dabble in the occult and are tragically, horrifyingly successful... calling forth an evil entity that demands regular human sacrifice. "A brilliantly Faustian fable with a heart as huge as a dragon's, and a stinging twist in its tail. I devoured it." --Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Suite 11 Arthur Oakes is a reader, a dreamer, and a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters, exceptional library, and beautiful buildings. But his idyll--and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot--is shattered when a local drug dealer and her partner corner him into one of the worst crimes he can imagine: stealing rare books from the college library. Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others--brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen--don't hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world. But there's nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year--or become his next meal.

As the Spooks apprentice Tom's first duty is to protect the county from the dark. But now Mam needs his help in her homeland of Greece. A dangerous god, the Ordeen, is about to return there. Meanwhile, the Devil himself is still loose and if he and the Ordeen join forces, a new age of darkness will descend.

Four of the best novellas from one of the most underrated names in horror and weird fiction. Writers such as H. P. Lovecraft rated Blackwood as one of the very best writers of the genre. This title features an introduction and notes contextualizing this characterful author. "It is my firm opinion that...The Willows is the greatest weird tale ever written." - H.P. Lovecraft From one of the greatest and most prolific authors of 20th century weird fiction come four of the very best strange stories ever told. In "The Willows," two men become stranded on an island in the Danube delta, only to find that they might be in the domain of some greater power from beyond the limits of human experience. "The Wendigo" features a hunting party in Ontario who begin to fear that they are being stalked by an entity thought to be confined to legend. In "The Man Whom the Trees Loved," a couple is driven apart as the husband is enthralled by the possessive and jealous spirits dwelling in the nearby forest. And lastly, in conversation with the occult detective and physician Dr. John Silence, a traveler relates his nightmarish visit to a strange town in Northern France, and the maddening secret from his past revealed by its inhabitants, in "Ancient Stories."

In the summer of 1960 in Elm Haven, Illinois, five 12-year-old boys forge the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. An ancient, sinister evil lurks in the dark, and when a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the deepest night, the people know it marks the beginning of terror. Now Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a fraternal war of blood against an arcane abomination.

Sister Fidelma must entreat the chieftain of a Druid clan to allow the construction of a Christian church and school in the region. On their way, she and Brother Eadulf find the slaughtered bodies of 36 young men--all covered with pagan ritual scars. Fidelma must learn who or what is behind the massacre. Martin's Press.