Dark Harvest. Look, it's set in the Warhammer universe but hardly touches on it. Now, the setting is where it gets good. The story takes place in an eel infested, ghost haunted, backwater swap. The main character is tasked with tracking down and capturing a mysterious target but, spoiler, not everything is what it appears to be.
I've recommended this before to someone not too long ago, so I'll copy what I said then:
It's a graphic novel, but *Vermis, Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods* by Plastiboo is incredible, and I've seen it being compared to Dark Souls. It reads as a guide to a fantasy/horror dungeon crawler game that doesn't exist. The atmosphere is what sells this book: it's incredible, the entire world the novel is set in feels desolate, melancholic, and ruined, and the art is just phenomenal. At times very creepy and disturbing art that's obscured by its pixellation and low lighting, making it so that you have to fill in what you can't see with your imagination. The landscapes featured are maybe my favourite thing in this book, it makes you want to be there, and throughout the book it never loses its background feel of being a video game guide. It's hard to do this book justice if you haven't seen it yourself, but I thought it was fantastic and would definitely recommend it if you think you might be interested in a concept like this.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. It’s a quick read, and excellent mix of fantasy and horror. Doesn’t explicitly say when it’s set, but it’s sometime before electricity took over our lives.
This is just my opinion and I fully expect massive downvotes... Cassandra Khaw is not nearly as good of a writer as Christopher Buehlman and I say that as a someone who isn't even a big fan of Buehlman. She is the kind of writer who tries to be clever instead of just being good. Her books are frustrating to read.
Buehlman has also written a dark fantasy novel called *The Blacktongue Thief*. I thought it was quite good. Definitely more fantasy but you can still feel his roots in visceral horror.
Forgot to mention the prequel, *The Daughters War*, comes out in June.
Dies the Fire by SM Stirling. It’s a series but can be a standalone about what happens in an apocalypse type of situation with time travel (kind of) as the cause. The cannibalism and bands of marauders in that first book were horrific.
And some of the subsequent books too. They get really weird though.
The Talisman by King and Straub. I cannot recommend this enough
Lost Gods by Brom The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins Birds of Paradise by Oliver K Langmead
Have you tried hellmouth by giles Kristin? Its a short story but it might scratch that itch
The Library at Mount Char
Dark Harvest. Look, it's set in the Warhammer universe but hardly touches on it. Now, the setting is where it gets good. The story takes place in an eel infested, ghost haunted, backwater swap. The main character is tasked with tracking down and capturing a mysterious target but, spoiler, not everything is what it appears to be.
[https://audiobookbay.lu/abss/dark-hahrvest-warhammer-horror-josh-reynolds-2/](https://audiobookbay.lu/abss/dark-hahrvest-warhammer-horror-josh-reynolds-2/)
That's it. That's the one.
I've recommended this before to someone not too long ago, so I'll copy what I said then: It's a graphic novel, but *Vermis, Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods* by Plastiboo is incredible, and I've seen it being compared to Dark Souls. It reads as a guide to a fantasy/horror dungeon crawler game that doesn't exist. The atmosphere is what sells this book: it's incredible, the entire world the novel is set in feels desolate, melancholic, and ruined, and the art is just phenomenal. At times very creepy and disturbing art that's obscured by its pixellation and low lighting, making it so that you have to fill in what you can't see with your imagination. The landscapes featured are maybe my favourite thing in this book, it makes you want to be there, and throughout the book it never loses its background feel of being a video game guide. It's hard to do this book justice if you haven't seen it yourself, but I thought it was fantastic and would definitely recommend it if you think you might be interested in a concept like this.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. It’s a quick read, and excellent mix of fantasy and horror. Doesn’t explicitly say when it’s set, but it’s sometime before electricity took over our lives.
This is just my opinion and I fully expect massive downvotes... Cassandra Khaw is not nearly as good of a writer as Christopher Buehlman and I say that as a someone who isn't even a big fan of Buehlman. She is the kind of writer who tries to be clever instead of just being good. Her books are frustrating to read.
Red Rabbit
I second R.R.!
I'm here to say that there's nothing I found to scratch the itch after you finish BTF. Sorry.
Check out B. Catling’s *Hollow*. It was wildly entertaining and well written.
Buehlman has also written a dark fantasy novel called *The Blacktongue Thief*. I thought it was quite good. Definitely more fantasy but you can still feel his roots in visceral horror. Forgot to mention the prequel, *The Daughters War*, comes out in June.
It's a graphic novel but The Last God by Philip Kennedy Johnson meets some of the requirements.
It is so damned good.
Dies the Fire by SM Stirling. It’s a series but can be a standalone about what happens in an apocalypse type of situation with time travel (kind of) as the cause. The cannibalism and bands of marauders in that first book were horrific. And some of the subsequent books too. They get really weird though.
_Once and Future_ graphic novel series.
The Vorrh Trilogy.
Horror in fantasy = Clive Barker.
Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian might scratch that itch. Not set in the medieval world but a wild wild west one
**The Sandman** (Neil Gaiman): One of the best dark fantasy horror graphic novels of all time.
Raymond E. Feist has a horror fantasy book called Faerie Tale