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The Damned Thing

Ambrose Bierce

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Similar in premise + themes

These books are ranked using the premise + themes labels extracted for The Damned Thing. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: inquest, murder mystery, unseen threat, invisible monster, unknown cause, unreliable testimony, natural vs supernatural, fear of the unknown, limited perception, unnatural death, investigation, death in the woods

Themes labels used: fear of the unknown, limits of perception, human ignorance, nature, the paranormal, skepticism, scientific explanation, uncertainty, epistemology, reality vs appearance, primal fear, unseen danger

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + themes embeddings are close.

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The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

H.P. Lovecraft · 2002

A landmark horror anthology of Lovecraft’s signature tales of cosmic dread, forbidden knowledge, and sanity-shattering discovery.

Why this is here

Premise labels: cosmic horror · eldritch terror · forbidden knowledge · ancient evil · occult danger · alien menace · unknown horror · madness from discovery · human insignificance · cults

Themes labels: fear of the unknown · cosmic indifference · insignificance · madness · forbidden knowledge · science versus religion · occult power · xenophobia · racial prejudice · otherness · decay · mortality · atmospheric dread · human fragility

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1700

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A Collapse of Horses

Brian Evenson · 2016

A short-story collection where ordinary situations unravel into uncanny dread, identity loss, and reality-bending horror.

Why this is here

Premise labels: existential horror · uncanny uncertainty · perception breakdown · epistemic dread · paranoid instability · reality slippage · unexplained terror

Themes labels: uncertainty · identity · memory · selfhood · paranoia · madness · perception · knowledge limits · existential dread · alienation · helplessness · loss of self · violence · guilt · torture · despair · self-destruction · control · reality vs illusion · epistemology · human fragility

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1724

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Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft · 1982 · Library of America

A landmark collection of Lovecraft tales of cosmic dread, forbidden knowledge, and sanity under siege.

Why this is here

Premise labels: cosmic horror · forbidden knowledge · occult investigation · encounter with the unknown · mythos collection

Themes labels: fear of the unknown · cosmic insignificance · madness · forbidden knowledge · paranoia · occult truth · racial prejudice · xenophobia · outsiderhood · human limitation · science vs mystery · ancestral guilt · degeneration · acceptance of the alien

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1737

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Attraverso la notte

William Sloane · 2024

A man recounts a night of strange death, eerie marriage, and widening dread to uncover the truth behind a friend’s suicide.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mysterious death · strange woman · cosmic dread · forbidden knowledge · campus return · scientific mystery · suicide mystery · investigation frame · alien presence · uncanny explanation

Themes labels: unknown reality · limits of reason · human insignificance · cosmic insignificance · science vs mystery · science vs the supernatural · knowledge and fear · perception and interpretation · the uncanny · gender roles · misogyny · otherness · madness · existential dread · identity · death · hidden truth · what cannot be explained

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1823

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Bird Box

Josh Malerman · 2014 · Bird Box

In a world where seeing something can drive you mad, a mother must blindfold herself and her children to survive a river escape.

Why this is here

Premise labels: unknown threat · blindfold survival · seen-to-go-mad · post-collapse survival · mother and children · safe haven quest · fear of the unseen · isolation survival

Themes labels: fear of the unknown · blindness and sight · maternal sacrifice · survival instinct · sanity and madness · trust and betrayal · isolation · human nature · parental protection · uncertainty

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1831

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Full Wolf Moon

Lincoln Child · 2017 · Jeremy Logan

An enigmalogist at a remote Adirondacks retreat investigates savage full-moon killings that may be more than a bear attack.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mystery investigation · isolated retreat · animal attack · werewolf rumor · scientific explanation · supernatural-seeming threat · full moon killings · enigma solving

Themes labels: legend versus reality · science versus superstition · truth seeking · human hubris · fear of the unknown · nature as threat · obsession · credulity versus skepticism · identity · hidden experimentation

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1852

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The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror

William Sloane · 2015

Two 1930s novellas unite science, mystery, and dread as brilliant men confront deaths, secrets, and the unknown.

Why this is here

Premise labels: cosmic horror · scientific mystery · forbidden knowledge · investigation · locked-room death · communication with the dead · scientific experiment · otherworldly intrusion · grief-driven obsession · unexplained phenomenon

Themes labels: human limits · forbidden knowledge · death and the soul · grief · loss · obsession · epistemic uncertainty · human insignificance · science versus the unknown · realism versus the irrational · moral judgment · knowledge at a cost

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1907

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The Cavern

Alister Hodge · 2019

A caving expedition in the Australian outback uncovers a hidden predator, and the team must survive the dark below.

Why this is here

Premise labels: sinkhole · cave expedition · monster hunt · survival horror · claustrophobia · hidden predator · exploration gone wrong · remote outback · underwater passages

Themes labels: fear of the unknown · survival · human vulnerability · curiosity versus caution · secrecy · local legend · predation · bodily danger · hubris · trusting warnings

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1914

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Song for the Unraveling of the World: Stories

Brian Evenson · 2019

A short story collection of uncanny horrors where identity, perception, and reality keep slipping out of place.

Why this is here

Premise labels: uncanny horror · paranoia · identity crisis · unreliable reality · psychological horror · cosmic horror · alien encounter · dread

Themes labels: identity · paranoia · doubt · unknowability · existential alienation · unreliable perception · self-deception · madness · reality slippage · transformation · human nature · violence · grief · loss · memory · uncertainty · ambiguity · otherness · survival · mortality

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1920

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The House on the Borderland

William Hope Hodgson · 1990

A found manuscript leads two men into a remote Irish house where a recluse’s horrors escalate into cosmic visions.

Why this is here

Premise labels: found manuscript · haunted house · remote isolation · cosmic horror · cosmic journey · siege · out-of-body experience · end of time

Themes labels: fear of the unknown · cosmic insignificance · madness · solitude · grief · mortality · time · space · reality fracture · human limits · mystery · belief and disbelief

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1948

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Szczelina

Jozef Karika · 2018

A jobless graduate uncovers recordings tied to a mountain of vanishings, and the truth may be more terrifying than legend.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing persons · haunted landscape · urban legend · forbidden investigation · found recordings · real-or-fake mystery · paranormal ambiguity · descent into madness · unexplained disappearance · research into legend

Themes labels: reality vs fiction · truth and testimony · fear of the unknown · madness · memory reliability · skepticism · paranoia · human vulnerability · media and attention · internet culture · lost in nature · legend formation

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1958

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L'Appel de Cthulhu

François Baranger, H.P. Lovecraft · 2017

An heir pieces together documents and clues about a secret cult and an ancient sea-born terror stirring beneath the world.

Why this is here

Premise labels: cosmic horror · forbidden knowledge · investigation · secret cult · ancient god · awakening threat · madness · eldritch horror

Themes labels: human insignificance · madness · forbidden knowledge · ancient evil · epistemic uncertainty · reality vs illusion · cosmic indifference · race prejudice · doom

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1960

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