Psychological Anthology

In the title story of Walk Between the Raindrops, a woman sits down next to a man at a bar and claims she has ESP. In “Thirteen Days,” passengers on a cruise line are quarantined, to horrifying and hilarious effect. And “Hyena” begins simply: “That was the day the hyena came for him, and never mind that there were no hyenas in the South of France, and especially not in Pont-Saint-Esprit—it was there and it came for him.”

These new, recent, and reformulated stories by Joyce Carol Oates showcase a wide range of crime fiction and psychological suspense. A young, insecure woman finds her relationship changing as she grows more and more dependent on a man who likes to take her on long walks beside a dangerously roaring creek. Another woman, nervous around men, not quite knowing how to act when paid a compliment, becomes flustered when a doctor suggests they go out for coffee, or possibly a drink.

Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose.

Tammy Partridge and her boyfriend, Kevin, are on a photo-ready road trip across America in pursuit of influencer fame. Only a couple hundred followers so far, including Roxanne, a superfan of the beautiful young couple. But when Tammy’s body is discovered in the Utah wilderness, and Kevin is nowhere to be found, the picture-perfect adventure suddenly goes wrong—and viral, with three million followers and counting. Motives are questionable. Conspiracy theories cloud the dark corners of the internet. As everyone spins their own version of the truth, reality is getting harder to see.

In the powerful, haunting stories of Munro’s collection, men and women, in the midst of contemporary quandaries and crises, recall the long-buried yearnings, dreams, and hard choices that have given shape to their lives.

After years of traditional treatments and therapies, Derrick still suffers from pain ineluctable enough that it has become his identity. Then he hears of an exclusive, very private New York clinic that promises relief. It comes highly recommended by a friend. The multisession remedy unfolds as a sensorial wonder that’s so illuminating it’s enough to bring tears to Derrick’s eyes. It’s all working so well. So unexpectedly well.

Some truths hide in plain sight. Others whisper from locked doors, static-filled frequencies, and pages that were never printed. Things I Wasn’t Supposed to Know is a haunting anthology of modern supernatural horror—each story a first-person account of knowledge that should’ve stayed buried. From cursed livestreams to echoing tunnels, from unlisted hospital wings to languages that think back, this collection explores what happens when the veil of reality wears thin… and you peer through. They warned you not to look. You did anyway. And now it knows your name.

What if the only thing standing between you and oblivion was a single breath—a single decision not to step forward, not to answer, not to surrender? In this chilling anthology, G.J. Fene spins seven terrifying tales where ordinary people flirt with the edges of darkness—and almost don’t make it back. A man nearly loses himself to a name whispered by unseen lips. A woman is seduced by voices hidden in an antique tapestry. A dreamer finds himself trapped in a perfect family that exists only in sleep. A reflection in the mirror tries to crawl into the real world. A hotel housekeeper ...

In Claire-Louise Bennett's shimmering debut, an unnamed young woman - wry, somewhat misanthropic, keenly observant - chronicles her life on the outskirts of a small coastal village.The charms of bananas and oatcakes in the morning and Spanish oranges after sex; the small pleasures and anxieties of throwing a party, exchanging salacious emails with a new lover, sitting in the bath as it storms outside. Broken oven knobs prompt a meditation on survival that's both haunting and playful.

Are you ready to experience terror at its finest? "Nightmares" is a collection of horror stories that will take you on a journey through the deepest fears of the human psyche. From supernatural entities to psychological terrors, these stories will leave you questioning the very nature of reality. "Nightmares: A Collection of Terrifying Tales" reflects our innate fascination with fear and the unknown, an exploration of the fears that bind us as human beings and make us question reality itself. By sharing these stories, my desire was to provide you with a unique and unforgettable experience, ...

They weren’t supposed to be real. But they found us anyway. In The Things That Found Us, thirteen ordinary people share their extraordinary—and terrifying—encounters with the unnatural. From haunted mirrors and hunger-thin shadows to time-anchored ghosts and whispering drains, each first-person account is a chilling reminder that some horrors don't hide... they hunt. Told in gripping, intimate detail, these stories feel less like fiction and more like confession. If you've ever wondered what might be waiting just past the edge of what we call real—this book is your invitation to ...

Matthew, Claire, Ian, and Mason haven’t set foot on the Merle family property since the summer they were sixteen. They tried for years to put their history behind them, to forget the mystery of the girl who vanished so long ago. But a powerful force from their past is still at play. This time, there’s no hiding from it.

Lottery is a novella taking place in Hugh Howey's World of Wool. In the world of the silo, falling in love comes with its own set of rules. As young Tabitha and Justin begin their lives together, they know what they can and cannot do. Then the impossible happens and Tabitha finds out she is with child. With no lottery ticket to redeem, the consequences for pregnancy are harsh: every addition requires a subtraction. From the Down Deep to the Up Top, there is nowhere to hide. It won't be long before the truth comes out and her husband is sent outside and put to cleaning. There is just one way...

The two strikingly original short novels brought together here - in new translations by award-winning translators - were both literary gambles of a sort for Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first real expression of his genius, The Double is a surprisingly modern hallucinatory nightmare in which a minor official named Goliadkin becomes aware of a mysterious doppelgänger. Written 20 years later under the pressure of crushing debt, The Gambler is a stunning psychological portrait of a young man's exhilarating and destructive addiction.

The brilliance of this story is in how a normal bureaucrat, a judge in this case, has a small accident that winds up gradually taking his life. As he deals with this incident, with hope at first and then despair, he comes to terms with his family, his life, and the mediocrities that we all suffer with, except for the exceptional few. This story rings a particularly poignant note for those in early middle age facing the next part of their lives. This story is considered Tolstoy's best.

Brian Evenson’s hallucinatory and darkly comic stories of paranoia, pursuit, sensory deprivation, amnesia, and retribution rattle the cages of the psyche and peer into the gaping moral chasm that opens when we become estranged from ourselves. From sadistic bosses with secret fears to a woman trapped in a mime’s imaginary box, and from a post-apocalyptic misidentified Messiah to unwitting portraitists of the dead, the mind-bending world of this modern-day Edgar Allan Poe exposes the horror contained within our daily lives.

The Forgotten Warnings: Lessons We Ignored A Myth-Inspired Horror Anthology They told us not to stray from the path. Not to speak certain names. Not to touch what was buried. We didn’t listen. In this haunting collection of first-person horror stories, The Forgotten Warnings reimagines ancient myths, folklore, and cautionary tales through the eyes of those who ignored them—and suffered the consequences. Each story is a confession from the edge of madness: a streamer haunted by his own reflection, a researcher seduced by sentient code, a wanderer who finds forbidden fruit beneath the ...

They’ve been here longer than us. And they’re still watching. From the shadows of abandoned buildings to the glow of our screens, spiders weave secrets few dare to see. In this gripping horror anthology, Arachnid: True Accounts of the Webbed Unknown, G.J. Fene spins eight chilling tales that expose the hidden threads binding fear, obsession, and the monstrous unknown. A woman discovers human teeth embedded in spider eggs behind her apartment vent. A social media star wakes each morning sewn into living silk. A mother learns every spider she’s ever killed remembers—and wants revenge....

Neighbors are shocked when Harold Pardee reports his wife dead. No one even knew the eccentric TV repairman was married. Within hours, horrible rumors spread about what that poor woman must have endured for 30 years. Until the Pardees' carefully guarded world is exposed. New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Haigh delivers an endearing short story about our misguided perception of strangers, the nature of love, and the need for secrets.

The most terrifying thing that you can possibly imagine is your own body in the hands of a monster. Or worse, in the hands of another human being. In this definitive anthology of body horror selected by a World Horror Grandmaster, you'll find the unthinkable and the shocking: a couture designer preparing for an exquisitely grotesque runway show; a vengeful son seeking the parent who bred him as plasma donor; a celebrity-kink brothel that inflicts plastic surgery on sex workers; and organ-harvesting doctors who dissect a living man without anesthetic.