Love No One Gets Out Alive? Readers share 100 books like No One Gets Out Alive...

By Adam Nevill,

Here are 100 books that No One Gets Out Alive fans have personally recommended if you like No One Gets Out Alive. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Wylding Hall

Amanda Desiree Author Of Smithy

From my list on creepy epistolary horror novels.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always admired epistolary novelsā€”stories told in the form of diaries, letters, or other mass media. They seem so real and so much more believable than plain narratives. When dealing with fantastic subjects, like paranormal phenomena, any technique that can draw the weird back into the real world helps me become more invested as a reader. Itā€™s a quality Iā€™ve also tried to capture as a horror writer. Moreover, the epistolary format pairs well with unreliable narrators, often filtering stories so as to make them more ambiguous and disturbing. From the many epistolary works Iā€™ve read over the years, here are my picks for the most compellingā€”and creepy.

Amanda's book list on creepy epistolary horror novels

Amanda Desiree Why did Amanda love this book?

This phantasmagorical oral history unfolds during one of my favorite time periods, the psychedelic late 60s/early 70s. It also fuses two of my favorite sub-genres, folk horror and haunted houses.

I could easily visualize the setting and the different characters as I read their statements and tried to piece together the reality of what happened during the bandā€™s infamous time at Wylding Hall.

By Elizabeth Hand,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Wylding Hall as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

After the tragic and mysterious death of one of their founding members, the young musicians in a British acid-folk band hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with its own dark secrets. There they record the classic album that will make their reputation but at a terrifying cost, when Julian Blake, their lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen again. Now, years later, each of the surviving musicians, their friends and lovers (including a psychic, a photographer, and the band s manager) meets with a young documentary filmmaker to tell his or her own versionā€¦


Book cover of The Woman in Black

Paula Cappa Author Of Draakensky: A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance

From my list on Horror for the supernatural mystery magick lover.

Why am I passionate about this?

An avid reader, I began a project in 2012 to read one short story a week in supernatural mysteries, ghost stories, and quiet horror genres. I began with the classic authors: Poe, MR James, Lovecraft, Shelley, Stoker, du Maurier, etc. I began a blog, Reading Fiction Blog, and posted these free stories with my reviews (Iā€™m still posting today). Over the years, it turned into a compendium of fiction. Today, I have nearly 400 short stories by over 150 classic and now contemporary authors in the blog Index. I did this because I wanted to learn more about writing dark fiction and who better to learn from than the masters?

Paula's book list on Horror for the supernatural mystery magick lover

Paula Cappa Why did Paula love this book?

If ever there was a perfect ghost story, this is it. Gothic with atmospheric language and vivid scenes that still haunt me. I suppose this could have been written by Jane Austen because of its nightmarish ghostliness on the English moors. So masterfully doneā€”the wreaths of moving fog and haunted cries.

I love the unknown fear of it all. Susan Hill is highly skilled in making ghosts present on the page: the eerie sound of the rocking chair in the old nursery is a spine-tingler, albeit a clichĆ©. Written in a sublime fashion, it fits the ā€œquiet horrorā€ genre. Quiet horror is so savory to me because it digs into the imagination with shadowy phantoms without slamming the reader viscerally. I love that kind of artful creation.

By Susan Hill,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked The Woman in Black as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

The classic ghost story from the author of The Mist in the Mirror: a chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town.
 
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Giffordā€”a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causewayā€”to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. Mrs. Drablowā€™s house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets that lie hidden behind its sheltered windows. The routine business tripā€¦


Book cover of The Feast of All Souls

Catherine Cavendish Author Of The After-Death of Caroline Rand

From my list on transporting you to a haunted house.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m Catherine Cavendish ā€“ writer of Gothic and ghostly horror stories. I lived in a haunted house. It didnā€™t scare me because our ghost seemed to go out of her way to make us welcome. Elsewhere in the building was a different matter. This was occupied by a social club and in one room in particular, an entity targeted lone females, taking delight in poking and shoving them. Since we left there, I wonder about our friendly ghost. Does she continue to watch over her old home? As for the malevolent spirit ā€“ one encounter was quite enough for me! My experiences left me fascinated by the power of buildings to absorb its ghosts.

Catherine's book list on transporting you to a haunted house

Catherine Cavendish Why did Catherine love this book?

Everything about this story worked for me.

Alice ā€“ the main character ā€“ devastated by the loss of her eight-year-old daughter, buys a large, dilapidated house. It will be a big job ā€“ a real fixer-upper that she can get her teeth into ā€“ but it isn't long before she finds out hers is not your everyday normal building.

It starts with the voices and manifestations... and the children. Local legends and folklore abound. Soon Alice is swept up in events far out of her control in both time and dimension. and the house is a key player in this. It guards its secrets well.

This story stayed with me for a long time, and I believe Simon Bestwick deserves to be far better known than he is. I have yet to be disappointed in anything he has written.

By Simon Bestwick,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Feast of All Souls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Alice has returned to her old home town to put her life back in order.

378 Collarmill Road looks like an ordinary house. But sometimes, the world outside the windows isn't the one you expect to see; sometimes you'll turn around and find you're not alone.

An old flame of Alice's - John Revell - reluctantly comes to her aid when the house begins to reveal its secrets. The hill on which it sits is a place of legends - of Old Harry, the Beast of Crawbeck; of the Virgin of the Height and the mysterious Red Man - andā€¦


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Book cover of The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion

The Curiosity Cycle by Jonathan Mugan,

The Curiosity Cycle is a book for parents and educators who want to teach their children to be active explorers of the world. Learning through curiosity leads to adaptive thinking because your child is continually trying to improve his or her understanding of the world, and new facts and ideasā€¦

Book cover of City of Spells

Catherine Cavendish Author Of The After-Death of Caroline Rand

From my list on transporting you to a haunted house.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m Catherine Cavendish ā€“ writer of Gothic and ghostly horror stories. I lived in a haunted house. It didnā€™t scare me because our ghost seemed to go out of her way to make us welcome. Elsewhere in the building was a different matter. This was occupied by a social club and in one room in particular, an entity targeted lone females, taking delight in poking and shoving them. Since we left there, I wonder about our friendly ghost. Does she continue to watch over her old home? As for the malevolent spirit ā€“ one encounter was quite enough for me! My experiences left me fascinated by the power of buildings to absorb its ghosts.

Catherine's book list on transporting you to a haunted house

Catherine Cavendish Why did Catherine love this book?

Gaby Triana excels at creating and transmitting atmosphere. She transports you into the swamps, oppressive heat, terrors, and scares of the Florida she has created in her Haunted Florida trilogy of which this is the final part.

In City of Spells, Queylin Sanchez runs a shop selling incense, charms, and all manner of items designed to appeal to those interested in the occult, but when an elderly man crosses the threshold and enlists her help in ridding his home of an unwanted ghost, she accepts the commission and sets in motion a frightening chain of events that threaten her sanity and her life ā€“ in fact, much more than that is at stake as she unravels the sinister and disturbing truth.

I can assure you, the tradition of Southern Gothic is alive and well in this authorā€™s capable hands. If you havenā€™t read any of Gabyā€™s work yet ā€“ itā€™sā€¦

By Gaby Triana,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked City of Spells as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A haunted Old Florida home. A ghostly woman in white. Witchcraft from Miami's darker side.When a mysterious old gentleman enters Queylin's trendy new age shop, she hopes he'll buy incense, sage, maybe a nice rose quartz pendulum for his wife. Instead, the man enlists her help getting rid of La Dama de Blanco, a ghostly woman in bloody white dress who's been haunting his 100-year-old Palmetto Bay estate.But when Queylin's rituals and spells uncover terrifying secrets hidden in the walls of the old mansion, she realizes La Dama de Blanco is only the beginning of the haunted home's evil legacy.


Book cover of Maybe This Time

Susan B. James Author Of Time and Forever

From my list on romances with seasoned heroines.

Why am I passionate about this?

My real name is Susan Berger and I'm a certified bookaholic. I'm also an actor and I love my work. Being older has been very lucky for me. I wrote childrenā€™s books as Susan J Berger. COVID closed my publisher and I'm not actively submitting at the moment. I write romance as Susan B James because I didnā€™t want my children to have to acknowledge that their mother knew anything about sex. Falling in love and living happily ever after is an ageless state. But in romance novels heroines are mostly under thirty. I happen to be chronologically gifted myself. And many of my favorite romances feature older heroines. I think we need more.

Susan's book list on romances with seasoned heroines

Susan B. James Why did Susan love this book?

Jennifer Crusie writes some of the funniest heroines I ever met. I adore her voice and I wanted to add her to my list. When I went to Jenā€™s blog ArghInk to ask her which of her heroines was over forty. She said Andie.

Andieā€™s ex-husband North wants one last favor from her as closure. Help him settle the two delinquent orphans he inherited from a distant relative. He knows Andie can handle anything.

Her new fiancĆ©e isnā€™t pleased. When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren't your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What's worse, Andie's fiancĆ© thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right.

I readā€¦

By Jennifer Crusie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Maybe This Time as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Andie Miller is ready to move on with her life. She wants to marry her fiancĆ© and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, North asks one last favor: Since the death of a distant cousin, he's become the guardian of two orphans who have already driven away three nannies. North needs someone to take care of the situationā€•and he knows Andie can handle anything.

Carter and Alice aren't your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeperā€¦


Book cover of The Elementals

Mia Dalia Author Of Haven

From my list on renting a haunted house for vacation.

Why am I passionate about this?

My name is Mia Dalia. I write dark speculative fiction across genres. A lot of it is psychological horror, which I love! My latest novel features a rather unique haunted house and a family who spend their summer vacation there. Hauntings are a theme I have visited before in shorter forms and were very excited to explore in full. My goal here was to deconstruct the myth of an all-American happy family within the frame of a classic may-or-may-not-be-haunted house. Those who have dared to stay in Haven have been profoundly unsettled. It is a hungry house, always looking for more visitors. I hope youā€™ll come for a stay!

Mia's book list on renting a haunted house for vacation

Mia Dalia Why did Mia love this book?

Most vacations take place in the summer, and this next book is a perfect example of how wrong they can go. I love how unique this take on the genre is: it actually takes place over three houses on Beldame, a small island on the Gulf Coast of Alabama.

I really appreciated the dramatic tensions between the two families, amplified by heat, secrets, and worse. This gem of Southern Gothic fiction does a stellar job of walking the line between real and supernatural. Like a tidal island, the reader may find themselves slowly submerging into horror. The way each characterā€™s nightmares are slowly revealed and realized has stayed with me for a long time.

By Michael McDowell,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Elementals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The finest writer of paperback originals in America." - Stephen King

"Surely one of the most terrifying novels ever written." - Poppy Z. Brite

"Beyond any trace of doubt, one of the best writers of horror in this or any other country." - Peter Straub

"Readers of weak constitution should beware!" - Publishers Weekly

"McDowell has a flair for the gruesome." - Washington Post

After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three Victorian housesā€¦


Book cover of Hell House

Charlotte Greene Author Of Gnarled Hollow

From my list on haunted houses to scare the bejesus out of you.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a writer of sapphic horror and romance fiction, and a professor of nineteenth and twentieth literature and Womenā€™s and Gender Studies. Iā€™ve been an avid reader of ghost-focused fiction since I was a little kid. This fascination was, in part, encouraged by my horror-loving parents, but I think Iā€™ve just always loved being scared, and for me, the scariest thing imaginable is a haunted house. Iā€™ve read widely in the genre, by turns spooked, thrilled, and baffled, and this reading eventually encouraged me to write my own haunted house novels. If you love a chilling tale, youā€™re going to love the books on this list.

Charlotte's book list on haunted houses to scare the bejesus out of you

Charlotte Greene Why did Charlotte love this book?

As the name might suggest, this novel is very much a spiritual descendant of Shirley Jacksonā€™s Hill House, with a very similar setup: ghost hunters visit a haunted house thatā€™s been abandoned for decades. That, however, is where the similarities end. In Mathesonā€™s work, the haunting is more physical, with bodily threats to the ghost hunters at every turn, and the psychological and spiritual terror it inflicts does far more damage to them at each step, turning them against each other in violent and sometimes deadly ways.

By Richard Matheson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Hell House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Hell House is the scariest haunted house novel ever written. It looms over the rest the way the mountains loom over the foothills." -- Stephen King

From the author of I Am Legend comes Richard Matheson's Hell House, the basis for the supernatural horror film starring Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill.

Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newspaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.

Dr. Lionelā€¦


Book cover of The Crying Child

Linda Griffin Author Of Stonebridge

From my list on good old-fashioned haunted house.

Why am I passionate about this?

Maybe because I grew up in San Diego, a city that boasts what ghost hunter Hans Holzer called the most haunted house in America, Iā€™ve always loved ghost stories. I never encountered a ghost when I visited the Whaley House Museum, as Regis Philbin did when he spent the night, but I once took a photograph there that had an unexplained light streak on it. Although I conceived a passion for the printed word with my first Dick and Jane reader and wrote my first story at the age of six, it took me a few decades to fulfill my long-held desire to write a ghost story of my own.

Linda's book list on good old-fashioned haunted house

Linda Griffin Why did Linda love this book?

It started out with the hoariest of romance novel clichesā€”the bickering couple I knew would end up in loveā€”but the setting alone was enough to guarantee spookier plot developments.

Barbara Michaels, better known for her mystery novels as Elizabeth Peters, never fails to entertain, and the descriptions of eerie ghostly manifestations here are top-notch.

By Barbara Michaels,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Crying Child as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Joanne McMullen's fears for her sister's sanity have brought her to remote King's Island, Maine. Mary's grief over the loss of her child is threatening to send her over the edgeā€”and her insistence that she has heard an eerie, childlike wailing in the woods fuels Joanne's anxiety. And now Mary's taken to disappearing at midnight in search of the source of the heartrending moans. But it's not just her sister's encroaching madness that is chilling Joanne's bloodā€”it's her own. Because suddenly, impossibly, she also hears the crying child.


Book cover of Horrorstƶr

Rebecca Turkewitz Author Of Here in the Night

From my list on nightā€™s tantalizing and terrifying potential.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always been intrigued by the way night transforms familiar landscapes, creates a sense of loosened boundaries, and seems to be rich with almost magical potential. One of my most beloved books as a kid was The BFG, partly because of its magnificent passage about the witching hour, ā€œthe special momentā€¦when all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves.ā€ Later, I discovered Hamletā€™s take on it and was equally charmed. Itā€™s no surprise that many of the key moments in my debut collection, Here in the Night, take place after dark. Here are my five favorite books that capture the beguiling power of nighttime. 

Rebecca's book list on nightā€™s tantalizing and terrifying potential

Rebecca Turkewitz Why did Rebecca love this book?

This horror novel about a haunted IKEA-like store is playful and fun in every wayā€”from its inventive narrative structure to the bookā€™s mimicry of an IKEA catalogue, complete with a store map and advertisements for furniture that become increasingly deranged.

During daylight, Orsk is a regular furniture store in the suburbs of Cleveland, but when several employees attempt to stay overnight to find out why products keep getting damaged, the buildingā€™s dark history begins to bleed into the present. This book perfectly captures the uncanny way nighttime makes familiar landscapes, such as stores and schools, seem entirely unfamiliar, a phenomenon that has always fascinated me. 

By Grady Hendrix,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Horrorstƶr as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It's a classic old-fashioned haunted house story - set in a big box Swedish furniture superstore. Designed like a retail catalogue, Horrorstor offers a creepy read with mass appeal-perfect for Halloween tables! Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Bracken glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofabeds-clearly, someone or something is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-til-dawn shift-and they encounter horrors that defy imagination. Along the way, author Grady Hendrix infuses sly social commentary on the natureā€¦


Book cover of Priory

Paulette Kennedy Author Of Parting the Veil

From my list on haunted houses where setting is a character.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been fascinated by haunted houses and the lore behind them ever since childhood. I spent my summers walking our neighborhood cemetery and devouring novels by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Shirley Jackson. It was only natural, then, that my debut novel had to be a haunted house storyā€”my own love letter to the genre. Having lived in a haunted house myself, the experiences I had within those walls did little to discourage my fascination with the paranormal. While I may have left my ghosts behind me, you can still sense their lingering presence inside Parting the Veil.

Paulette's book list on haunted houses where setting is a character

Paulette Kennedy Why did Paulette love this book?

I love a classic, gothic haunted house story with an unexpected twist, and Priory delivers. When Oliver Hardacre returns to his namesake home, located outside the gloriously atmospheric Yorkshire town of Whitby, he opens the door to his past. The narrative is told from Oliverā€™s modern perspective and his motherā€™s point of view in the 1970s, when Oliver and his brother were children at Hardacre Priory. Replete with dark, twisted secrets and multi-layered, complex characters, Wrightā€™s sentient, menacing estate comes alive under her masterful touch. This is a short read, easily finished in one sitting. Crack it open on a foggy morning, with a spot of tea and a blanket to cut the chill.

By Becky Wright,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Priory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book 1 in The Ghosts of Hardacre series.

Memories are like ghosts. They linger in doorways, whisper with the howling wind when lightning strikes. They are the dark phantoms of my youth. My mind buried my memories for good reason, and I spent forty years believing I could escape them.

Until with one phone call, I found myself in my childhood home: Hardacre Priory.

I knew from the first step through the door that it was all over. The forgotten events of 1979 leapt to the surface and screamed their truths. Everything I thought to be true was a lie.ā€¦


Book cover of Wylding Hall
Book cover of The Woman in Black
Book cover of The Feast of All Souls

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