Similar books?

[Paradox 99]

Hi folks.

I need some guidance.
For marketing purposes my publisher is asking for comparable titles to the one I've written. So I'm looking for books with the following...

• Must not have sold more than 50,000 copies (so it can't be incredibly well known like Frankenstein)
• Released within the last 5 years
• Lovecraftian in style (my book is set in 1923)
• Involves a small group of survivors trapped in a mansion being picked off one by one
• Victims are having specific body parts taken
• There's an overarching hive mind controling murderous skeletal creatures in the village

Those are the main elements of the book.
So far, I can only think of two that are similar:

'That Which Should Not Be' - Brett J Talley
'Demon Theory' - Stephen Graham Jones

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Randy M.]

Hi folks.

I need some guidance.
For marketing purposes my publisher is asking for comparable titles to the one I've written. So I'm looking for books with the following...

• Must not have sold more than 50,000 copies (so it can't be incredibly well known like Frankenstein)
• Released within the last 5 years
• Lovecraftian in style (my book is set in 1923)
• Involves a small group of survivors trapped in a mansion being picked off one by one
• Victims are having specific body parts taken
• There's an overarching hive mind controling murderous skeletal creatures in the village

Those are the main elements of the book.
So far, I can only think of two that are similar:

'That Which Should Not Be' - Brett J Talley
'Demon Theory' - Stephen Graham Jones

Any ideas? Thanks!

Those criteria narrow down the possibilities a lot. I really can only come up with a few current Lovecraftian novels, no ideas how many copies sold:

The Red Tree and The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan
The Croning by Laird Barron (present day, but flashbacks back to the 1950s)
Reanimators by Pete Rawlik (published just this year; set in 1905 into the late 1920s, taking off from "Herbert West, Reanimator" and incorporating several characters from other HPL stories)

Your 4th criteria reminds me of many, many stories like Tim Lebbon's novella "White" or John W. Campbell Jr.'s novella "Who Goes There?" or, for that matter, Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (though it's much older than you want), and it's a classic set up, minimizing the number of characters, increasing suspense by implying one of the on-stage characters is the villain while also forcing the characters to pick and choose who to trust. Really, if played well, it's one of the great thriller plots and on that point alone, you should be able to come up with several examples.


Randy M.

 

[Paradox 99]

Much appreciated, Randy.
I'll go check those out.