Here are 70 books that Silent Invasion fans have personally recommended if you like
Silent Invasion.
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I’ve been fascinated by how people behave and how in-group bias can change who they are. That interest led me into computational sociology (I study human behavior for a living), with my work appearing in The New York Times, USA Today, WIRED, and more. But my deepest fascination has always been with people’s propensity for the horrific. I LOVE the liminal space where fear, secrecy, and belonging collide. Being neurodivergent, living in a small Virginia town with my wife and our neurodivergent, queer son, I see how communities can both shelter and suffocate. That tension is why I’m drawn to stories saturated in dread, beauty, and what lives in the shadows.
This is the book that taught me how powerful loneliness can be.
Every time I return to it, I feel one character’s ache settle into me, that desperate want to belong somewhere, even if it’s a house that doesn’t love you back. I recommend it because it still feels as if I’m attempting to figure out what is happening alongside the characters, the way only great writing can.
Jackson makes you realize that the scariest hauntings aren’t in the walls, they’re the ones we carry within us.
Part of a new six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by Academy Award-winning director of The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro
Filmmaker and longtime horror literature fan Guillermo del Toro serves as the curator for the Penguin Horror series, a new collection of classic tales and poems by masters of the genre. Included here are some of del Toro's favorites, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ray Russell's short story "Sardonicus," considered by Stephen King to be "perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written," to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and stories…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I’m a weirdo, so of course I’m attracted to the idea that the universe may be weird, too. I like the idea that the universe is able to hold itself together ninety-nine percent of the time, but every once in a while it just has to let its freak flag fly. Even if paranormal experiences are nothing more than waking dreams, they may still be worth our attention (the same as any dream). Even if such experiences aren’t objectively “real”, they’re subjectively fascinating. I love exploring the line between reality and unreality. Like Fort, I don’t believe it to be as cut and dry as mainstream science would have us believe.
Charles Fort was the o.g. paranormal investigator. One hundred years ago, he made a sweeping study of all the weird stuff mainstream science refuses to examine. Even now we use the word “Fortean” to describe the study of ghosts, bigfoot, ufos, ESP, etc. Steinmeyer’s biography reveals the complicated man behind the adjective.
Was Fort a kook? Not really. Steinmeyer reveals him to be more of a gadfly, playfully thumbing his nose at science but never investing too much belief in his own eccentric theories, either. For Fort, the real and the unreal were two sides of the same coin. His quarrel was with those who insisted the quarter only had heads and refused to investigate the possible existence of tails.
'I am the first disciple of Charles Fort. Henceforth I am a Fortean'
Since Ben Hecht wrote this line in reviewing The Book of The Damned in 1919, Charles Fort - whose very name spawned an adjective, Fortean, defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as 'relating to or denoting paranormal phenomena' - has so divided opinion that to Theodore Dreiser he was "the most fascinating literary figure since Poe;" to The New York Times he was "the enfant terrible of science;" and to HG Wells he was "one of the most damnable bores who ever cut scraps from out of…
I’ve been fascinated by horror since childhood–when Scooby-Doo: Where Are You! and Doctor Who were my favorite TV shows. I specifically remember watching the Doctor Who serial, The Seeds of Doom, and the 1962 film Day of the Triffids–both about killer plants! As I finished graduate school and then took jobs in higher education, I gravitated back to horror and the gothic, which I am now fortunate enough to teach and research. I’ve written academically about all kinds of horror (most recently folk horror)–and in 2015, myself and two others founded a website, Horror Homeroom, where I write about horror for more popular audiences.
I read Kiernan’s book only recently and found it entrancing. It’s a novel that defies any easy description. In a way, it’s about a grieving writer who takes up residence in an isolated house to try to recover from the death of her partner and to try to start writing again. Nothing more happens except her occasional drives to the local village and walks to the nearby red tree. But the book bursts with richness–with complex storytelling and, we slowly realize, with an increasingly unreliable narrator. As the narrator finds, reads, and transcribes a manuscript of local folklore she found in the house, the novel increasingly blurs the boundaries between past and present, reality and delusion. At times, I found myself unsure of where I was or whose words I was reading. All the stories converge, though, on the red tree, which exerts some force over those that come within…
Sarah Crowe left Atlanta—and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship—to live in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house’s former tenant—an anthropologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property.
Tied to local legends of supernatural magic, as well as documented accidents and murders, the gnarled tree takes root in Sarah’s imagination, prompting her to write her own account of its unsavory history.
And as the oak continues to possess her dreams and nearly almost all her waking thoughts, Sarah risks her health…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I’m a weirdo, so of course I’m attracted to the idea that the universe may be weird, too. I like the idea that the universe is able to hold itself together ninety-nine percent of the time, but every once in a while it just has to let its freak flag fly. Even if paranormal experiences are nothing more than waking dreams, they may still be worth our attention (the same as any dream). Even if such experiences aren’t objectively “real”, they’re subjectively fascinating. I love exploring the line between reality and unreality. Like Fort, I don’t believe it to be as cut and dry as mainstream science would have us believe.
While many readers would cite John Keel’s The Mothman Propheciesas the definitive account of the late ‘60s cryptid sightings in West Virginia, I have a strong preference for Wamsley’s books on the subject. He has reprinted vintage newspaper articles (yes, Mothman sightings were the subject of mainstream local news articles back in the day). He also publishes transcripts of his interviews with witnesses, and photographs of these witnesses. You get to see them and read their accounts, in their own words. They sound credible.
He also makes sure to reprint news articles that offer natural explanations for the sightings. (Was the Mothman just an oversized bird, the sandhill crane? A giant owl? Experimental weather balloons released by a high school science club?)
Look deeper into the mystery of the Mothman legacy with the most extensive collection of data ever assembled. Research materials include: Firsthand eyewitness accounts, Rare documents and press archives, UFO/Men in Black encounters, Silver Bridge disaster, TNT Area archives, Illustrations, maps, and photos.
"Mothman goes under the microscope as Jeff Wamsley continues to dig for more clues to this complex mystery.ﾠ A required investigative resource for those who are searching for answers." - John A. Keel, Author, The Mothman Prophecies.
"More riveting than ever! Once again Jeff Wamsley has put together the definitive, absolutely must-have book on one of the…
I am the author of paranormal, fantasy, and middle-grade novels. The inspiration to write in these genres is because of my attraction towards anything supernatural be it paranormal science, mythology, Wicca, witchcraft, occult, fairy folklore, NDE, OBE, psychometry, clairvoyance, angels, necromancy, etc. I love to read and research about them. Child of Paradise (Listen to your Dreams),” is my sixth fiction book and is a paranormal crime thriller. This book touches upon subjects such as after-life, spirit guides, dream visitations, mediums, ghost hunters, homicide, police investigations, and family ties and are for readers who’d love a thriller or a mystery with a supernatural edge.
This book is an intense psychological thriller that kept me on the edge right towards the end of the book. Cassie Neil has psychic gifts and works with the detectives to locate serial killers wherein her ability to tap into the mind of the killer evoked a chilly feeling in me. But often, her ability to see through the murderer’s eyes didn’t ensure sufficient information to prevent the murders and this often took a toll on her emotionally and spiritually. This was a fresh and exciting read though more than often I was filled with dread hoping there wouldn’t be another victim or guessing who the next one might be! This haunting suspense with an unexpected but interesting twist at the end makes it a delicious paranormal crime thriller.
What if you can enter a madman’s cruel mind as he plans his vicious crimes? What if you can see the terrified face of his prey as he moves in for the kill—but you can’t stop his frenzy once he strikes?
Psychic Cassie Neill helps the L.A. police catch killers—until she makes a terrible mistake and an innocent child dies. Cassie flees to a small North Carolina town, hoping that a quiet life will silence the voices that invade her unwilling mind. But Cassie’s abilities know few boundaries. And she’s become certain—as no one else can be—that a murderer is…
I love noir fiction and the hard-boiled detective novels that often best exemplify the genre. Both Dashiel Hammet’s Sam Spade and Raymond Chander’s Marlowe are two men who will sacrifice everything for the truth, no matter the cost. There is a stark beauty in that. Fantasy, the genre of myth, carries the deepest, most poignant truths. These are the hard truths that can break a hero’s heart, as in Gilgamesh, or give you the bittersweet ending of The Lord of the Rings. Blending them produces some of my favorite stories, stories I love to read as the fog rolls in, listening to the music of heartbreaking jazz.
Not all noir fiction are detective stories, and this is one of the best.
Dolly is a thief with a past who has promised to turn over a hard to acquire a magical mask to pay her debts. As she tightens her noose on her mark for the con she’s going to use to pull off the theft, she must face the biggest danger any con artist must face, getting emotionally involved. The price of failure will be more than just her life, but the lives of people she wishes she didn’t care about.
I was on the edge of my seat and couldn’t put this book down.
Marion Deeds's Comeuppance Served Cold is a hard-boiled historical fantasy of criminality and magic, couched in the glamour of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.
"[A] beautifully constructed magical heist in turn-of-the-century Seattle."-Mary Robinette Kowal
Seattle, 1929-a bitterly divided city overflowing with wealth, violence, and magic.
A respected magus and city leader intent on criminalizing Seattle's most vulnerable magickers hires a young woman as a lady's companion to curb his rebellious daughter's outrageous behavior.
The widowed owner of a speakeasy encounters an opportunity to make her husband's murderer pay while she tries to keep her shapeshifter brother safe.
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
As well as being a novelist, I am also a script editor for film and TV. I specialise in thriller narratives and big themes in screenwriting, so it's no accident I am drawn to them in fiction too. Dystopian worlds offer such a rich backdrop for the BIG questions and observations. By putting new societies and threats under the microscope in stories, it can hold a mirror up to what's going on in real life. I think of dystopian novels as being akin to the canaries in the coal mine: they are not only cathartic, they sound the warning bell on where we are going as a society ourselves.
I loved this book because it smashed every expectation I had of post-apocalyptic fiction.
The characters felt so real; Grimes is a badass soldier without fanfare, Bryce is unexpectedly tender, and Edgar is a flawed, fascinating antihero. It left me exhilarated, like I’d run across the country with them myself.
A powerful post-apocalyptic thriller, perfect for fans of The End of the F*cking World. 'A real find' STEPHEN KING
When the world ends and you find yourself stranded on the wrong side of the country, every second counts.
No one knows this more than Edgar Hill. 550 miles away from his family, he must push himself to the very limit to get back to them, or risk losing them forever...
His best option is to run. But what if your best isn't good enough?
The Number One race-against-time bestseller as featured on Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Book Club
I’ve always loved horror stories. At the age of 7 or 8, I’d be reading The Pan Book Of Horror Stories or Aidan Chambers’ Haunted Houses by flashlight with the bed sheets pulled over my head (not because I should have been asleep, but to guard against vampires creeping up on me!) I always found these stories strangely comforting, a world of adventure into which a shy kid like me could retreat. Ghosts and monsters became part of my cultural DNA, constant companions through life. That’s why I write horror today, to make my own tiny contribution to the genre, which has given me so much.
This is a comprehensive anthology of non-Dracula short stories (although it does include Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s Guest!) covering the whole of the nineteenth century and beyond, including John Polidori’s The Vampyre and Sheridan le Fanu’s influential Carmilla.
It even has an extract from the hugely popular Victorian ‘penny dreadful’ Varney The Vampire, which is so awful that it’s hilarious.
They're lurking under the cover of darkness and between the covers of this book. Here, in all their horror and all their glory, are the great vampires of literature: male and female, invisible and metamorphic, doomed and daring.
Their skin deathly pale, their nails curved like claws, their fangs sharpened for the attack, they are gathered for the kill and for the chill, brought frighteningly to life by Bram Stoker, Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Charles L. Grant, Tanith Lee, and other masters of the macabre. Careful they are all crafty enough to steal their way into your imagination…
It wasn’t until high school when I read Stephen King’s Night Shift that illuminated the genre for me—horror. My first short story was The Dark Shadow, and it fit me like a glove. My writing is inspired by the books I like to read, as I’m sure it is with all writers, and I write characters that I know and in settings I am familiar with for authenticity. The years of experience have honed my craft, and my books are a culmination of my favorite things—supernatural horror, suspense, heart, drama, westerns, and action.
This book had me at the main character hiring a private eye to follow him because he is waking up in a different location each morning with no memory of how he got there but his pockets are filled with diamonds.
This story delved into the madness of psychos while also plummeting me into other worlds and satisfying my hunger for supernatural elements. I couldn’t love this book more.
Frank Pollard awakens in an alley, knowing nothing but his name and that he is in danger. Over the next few days he develops a fear of sleep because when he wakes he finds blood on his hands and bizarre and terrifying objects in his pockets. Distraught and desperate, Frank begs husband-and wife detective team Bobby and Julie Dakota to get to the bottom of his mysterious, amnesiac fugues. It seems a simple job, but they are drawn into ever-darkening realms where they encounter the nightmare, hate-filled figure stalking Frank. And their lives are threatened, as is that of Julie's…
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I love noir fiction and the hard-boiled detective novels that often best exemplify the genre. Both Dashiel Hammet’s Sam Spade and Raymond Chander’s Marlowe are two men who will sacrifice everything for the truth, no matter the cost. There is a stark beauty in that. Fantasy, the genre of myth, carries the deepest, most poignant truths. These are the hard truths that can break a hero’s heart, as in Gilgamesh, or give you the bittersweet ending of The Lord of the Rings. Blending them produces some of my favorite stories, stories I love to read as the fog rolls in, listening to the music of heartbreaking jazz.
In this noir story with a philosophical bent, Miles has been hired to track the reincarnation of a demonic guardian by a Tibetan monk on the eve of a visit of the Dali Lama to New York, and Miles finds himself over his head as an apparent gang war erupts in Chinatown, killings that some on the force think he had a role in. He must avoid capture by the cops so that he can find the killer and the demon, if they are not the same, and avoid becoming the demon's next victim.
I loved the weaving of Tibetan myth into a story of gang warfare and revenge.
Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast.
Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals. The year is 1991, and a series of grisly murders has rocked New York City in the run up to a visit from the Dalai Lama.
