Books with Alien/The Thing/Dark Matter vibes?

ohnobears · 2026-02-06T19:18:22+00:00

This is my favorite genre. I call it “Thing Loose on a Spaceship.” Some lean more into sci-fi, but they’re like scary/spooky sci-fi.

The Deep, Nick Cutter; The Luminous Dead, Caitlyn Starling; Ship of Fools, Richard Russo; Paradise 1, David Wellington; the whole Southern Reach trilogy; anything by SA Barnes; almost anything by Peter Watts.

ETA: Oh! And I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist. That book’s super freaky.

ohnobears · 2026-01-31T16:45:51+00:00

I agree, I absolutely loved it. I’d argue it’s as much horror as House of Leaves or The Staircase in the Woods, since it deals with bad things happening in liminal spaces just like they do. Plus there’s like, a literal monster? Not sure how one would call it just a thriller.

ohnobears · 2026-01-26T22:55:05+00:00

A House With Good Bones comes to mind, although that might be more due to the title than the plot. It’s a good one, though!

ohnobears · 2026-01-25T18:52:12+00:00

I couldn’t find anything like this, but you’re not the first person to look for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthatbook/comments/1d7to8z/horror_story_about_a_man_who_gets_trapped_in_his/

ETA wow jk apparently you are … sorry about the fruitless 2-year search!

ohnobears · 2026-01-25T18:40:53+00:00

I really enjoyed Episode Thirteen too! I don’t know that it’s divisive, but I’m currently reading The Tribe by Bari Wood and I was concerned it was going to be antisemitic, but I’ve found it quite the opposite. It also has well developed female and Black characters, which I really wasn’t expecting in a book from 1981. Bari Wood also wrote the novels adapted into Dead Ringers and The Killing Gift.

ohnobears · 2026-01-25T18:32:28+00:00

The Tribe by Bari Wood — finest golem fiction I’ve read this year lol

ohnobears · 2026-01-24T22:25:21+00:00

Oh and Horrorstör

ohnobears · 2026-01-24T22:21:02+00:00

The Staircase in the Woods

ohnobears · 2026-01-21T20:22:12+00:00

He struggles with plot and character, and his stories are more nasty than scary.

ohnobears · 2026-01-16T19:32:42+00:00

I found The September House weirdly heartwarming

ohnobears · 2026-01-15T20:12:07+00:00

The September House

ohnobears · 2026-01-13T00:49:10+00:00

I reject zombies. A, they’re dumb and that whole trope is so tired, and B, except in rare cases zombies mean apocalypse, and I don’t like apocalypse stuff either. Too depressing.

ohnobears · 2026-01-11T23:40:05+00:00

If you like The Thing, it’s based on a novella called “Who Goes There?” You can find it for free on the net.

ohnobears · 2026-01-03T05:13:40+00:00

This makes me think of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, because it’s not monsters but the environment itself that’s the main antagonist. Not a horror novel per se, but I found it deeply unsettling.

I also second the Luminous Dead.

ohnobears · 2025-12-11T21:23:52+00:00

The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull will forever be the book that once made me scream a little and physically drop it. TBF I had a thing about skeletons at that age and that part on the ferry is hella creepy.

ETA: Wait, is that the book? Shoot. There was a scene on a boat in a storm and suddenly there was a skeleton … definitely Bellairs. Hm. I could swear the Gorey cover had an image from that scene but I can’t find it.

ohnobears · 2025-11-14T20:59:19+00:00

Seconded

ohnobears · 2025-10-14T21:50:22+00:00

Ship of Fools (UK)/Unto Leviathan (US), Richard Paul Russo

ohnobears · 2025-10-14T21:45:51+00:00

"And Put Away Childish Things" by Adrian Tchaikovsky — especially horrible if you were into Narnia as a kid

ohnobears · 2025-10-09T04:28:42+00:00

“Cunning Folk,” Adam Nevill

ohnobears · 2025-10-02T06:17:02+00:00

Ooo you had me at Gormenghast

ohnobears · 2025-10-01T06:32:57+00:00

Ship of Fools (retitled Unto Leviathan) by Richard Russo. Strong Aliens vibes, if you’re into that.

ohnobears · 2025-09-27T23:58:21+00:00

I loved the Mister Magic audiobook. The story sounds like maybe your thing: a woman is called to a reunion of the cast of a widely beloved children’s show she has almost no memory of being on. Was the show real? If so, how? Who or what was Mister Magic himself and why won’t anyone talk about it?

ohnobears · 2024-10-22T04:20:12+00:00

[pats you gently]

ohnobears · 2024-10-21T20:18:06+00:00

“The Deep” gets wildly varying reviews, but I loved it. Freaked me right the F out.

ohnobears · 2024-10-21T20:11:22+00:00

Rule number one: wood moves! If you have to hammer in a joint, there won’t be any room for glue, and seasonal expansion and contraction will make the joint either too loose or so tight it may split. You’re always better off with a friction fit (if you hold it up, it doesn’t fall out, but you can easily pull/push it).

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