18 books like Can Such Things Be? [24 stories]

What to read after Can Such Things Be? [24 stories] — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Campfire Chillers Edith M. Freeman · 1980 · 185p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, First-person Narrative with this book. Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, First-person Narrative

The Damned Thing Ambrose Bierce · 2007 · ★ 4.3 · 24p · ≈ 48m · Light "The Damned Thing" is a horror short story written by American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce. It first appeared in Town Topics on December 7, 1893. Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, Short Stories

The best ghost stories Daniel Defoe · 1919 · 216p · ≈ 7h · Moderate The Apparition of Mrs. Veal, Daniel Defoe Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book, Montague Rhodes James The Haunted and the Haunters, Edward Bulwer-Lytton The Silent Woman, Leopold Kompert The Man Who Went Too Far, E.F. Benson The Woman's Ghost Story, Algernon Blackwood The Phantom Rickshaw, Rudyard Kipling The Rival Ghosts, Brander Matthews The Damned Thing, Ambrose Bierce The Interval, Vincent… Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, Short Stories

The Dark Descent David G. Hartwell · 1987 · ★ 4.0 · 1011p · ≈ 33h · Challenging pt. 1. The color of evil. The reach / Stephen King -- Evening primrose / John Collier -- The ash-tree / M.R. James -- The new mother / Lucy Clifford -- There's a long, long trail a-winding / Russell Kirk -- The call of Cthulhu / H.P. Lovecraft -- The summer people / Shirley Jackson -- The whimper of whipped dogs / Harlan Ellison -- Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Mr. Justice… Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, Short Stories

Never Whistle at Night

Never Whistle at Night Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. · 2023 · ★ 3.8 · 444p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and… Shares Paranormal, Short Stories, Horror

Short Stories Washington Irving · 1989 · ★ 4.0 · 299p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Rip Van Winkle / Washington Irving Young Goodman Brown / Nathaniel Hawthorne Fall of the House of Usher / Edgar Allan Poe The lightning-rod man / Herman Melville The diamond lens / Fitzjames O'Brien The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County / Mark Twain The outcasts of Poker Flat / Bret Harte Damned Thing / Ambrose Bierce The turn of the screw / Henry James The Hiltons' holiday /… Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, Short Stories

South Sea Tales Jack London · 1911 · ★ 3.8 · 157p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in the light breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outside the suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle of pounded coral sand a hundred yards wide, twenty miles in circumference, and from three to five feet above high-water mark. On the bottom of the huge and glassy lagoon was… Shares American Short stories, Short Stories

Winter Dreams F. Scott Fitzgerald · 2004 · ★ 3.7 · 48p · ≈ 1h · Light "Winter Dreams" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that first appeared in Metropolitan Magazine in December 1922, and was collected in All the Sad Young Men in 1926. It is considered one of Fitzgerald's finest stories and is frequently anthologized. In the Fitzgerald canon, it is considered to be in the "Gatsby-cluster," as many of its themes were later expanded upon in his famous novel The… Shares American Short stories, Short Stories

Waifs and Strays O. Henry · 1917 · 78p · ≈ 2h · Moderate Urban teens take center stage in a pair of edgy short story collections. Waifs and Strays presents 15 previously published works by Canadian fantasy writer Charles de Lint, including "May This Be Your Last Sorrow" from The Essential Bordertown and "There's No Such Thing," which appeared in Yolen and Greenburg's anthology Vampires. In its first appearance, "Sisters," tells of precocious… Shares American Short stories, Short Stories

Great American Short Stories [48 stories] Washington Irving · 1984 · 699p · ≈ 23h · Challenging Anthology contains: The legend of Sleepy Hollow -- Rip Van Winkle -- The spectre bridegroom -- Young Goodman Brown Rappaccini's daughter The fall of the House of Usher The gold bug -- Pit and the pendulum The cask of amontillad Captain Kidd's money -- Benito Cereno -- The lightning-rod man -- The diamond lens -- The celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County -- The £1,000,000… Shares Mountain Lions, Inquests, Coroners, Short Stories

Ghost story Peter Straub · 1979 · ★ 4.0 · 507p · ≈ 16h · Moderate In a seedy motel in Florida, a young man holds captive a little girl in a soiled pink dress. He is anxious, tormented, introspective. She is calm, passive, strangely detached. She says her name is Angie Maule. Shares Paranormal, Horror

Whirligigs O. Henry · 1910 · ★ 3.7 · 314p · ≈ 10h · Moderate O. Henry's short, simple stories are noted for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise endings. Contents: The World and the Door; The Theory and the Hound; The Hypotheses of Failure; Calloway's Code; A Matter of Mean Elevation; "Girl"; Sociology in Serge and Straw; The Ransom of Red Chief; The Marry Month of May; A Technical Error; Suite Homes and their Romance; The Whirligig of… Shares American Short stories, Short Stories

The September House

The September House Carissa Orlando · 2023 · ★ 3.9 · 432p · ≈ 14h · Moderate When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would… Shares Paranormal, Horror

Welcome to the Monkey House Kurt Vonnegut · 1950 · ★ 4.2 · 310p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision. Includes the following stories: “Where I Live” “Harrison Bergeron” “Who Am I This… Shares American Short stories, Short Stories

The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories Algernon Blackwood · 1906 · ★ 3.7 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Collection of short fiction horror stories by the weird fiction writer Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951). Shares Short Stories, Horror

Nightfrights Pete Haining · 1972 · ★ 4.5 · 254p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Stevenson, R.L. The body-snatcher. -- Collins, W. The story of a terribly strange bed. -- Poe, E.A. Tell-tale Heart Le Fanu, J.S. Madam Crowl's ghost. -- Lang, A. The man in white. -- Nesbit, N. Man-size in marble. -- Stoker, B. Dracula's guest. -- Wells, H.G. The valley of the spiders. -- James, M.R. The haunted doll's house. -- Bierce, A. The middle toe of the right foot.… Shares First-person Narrative, Paranormal, Short Stories, Horror

America's Literature James David Hart · 1955 · 958p · ≈ 31h · Challenging From The general history of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles / John Smith -- from The history of Plymouth Plantation / William Bradford -- from The bloody tenet yet more bloody ; A letter to the town of Providence / Roger Williams -- Puritan poetry -- Before the birth of cone of her children ; To my dear and loving husband ; The flesh and the spirit ; Verses upon the burning of our… Shares First-person Narrative, Paranormal, Short Stories, Horror

Can Such Things Be? Ambrose Bierce · 1909 · 200p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Ambrose Bierce’s second major short story collection, Can Such Things Be? collected nearly all of Bierce’s supernatural horror stories. Bierce himself was a skeptic of the supernatural, having once written a satirical essay “The Clothing of Ghosts,” in which he insisted that “The materialized spook appealing to our senses for recognition of his ghostly character must authenticate himself… Shares American Short stories, Paranormal, Short Stories

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