There Are No Good Horror Novels Left: The Most Formulaic Subgenre 恐怖小说已经没有能看的了，同质化最严重的一派

1. 1 诡 The Eerie Spirit Medium: My Doll Can Really Manifest Spirits 诡异降神师：我的娃娃真能显灵 Clouds Can Smile云会笑Mystery1.4M WordsCompleted [Ghosts in the Book!] [Dark Tone!] [Villain Protagonist!] [Urban Supernatural!] [Horror Aesthetic!] [Invincible from the Start!] A sinister doll saws someone to pieces, a red-clad vengeful ghost claims lives at the airport, a hundred ghosts hunt people down along a ten-mile street, the dead rise again in a crematorium, and corpses dance wildly in an abandoned hospital... None of these things happened to me. They are all stories I wrote. My name is Yang Ning. I am an heir to the Ling Men, a profe 131.2kReads9.5Score11.5kShelves

   Reader note

   🍂This is really scary, watch out if you're easily frightened, and don't watch it while eating 🤦

2. 2 镇 The Dragon-Suppressing Coffin and the King of Hell's Fate 镇龙棺，阎王命 Feiyi匪夷Mystery4.9M WordsOngoing They severed my tendons and buried me alive in a sealed coffin, but they didn’t know I was born with the fate of the King of Hell! [Folk horror, feng shui and talismans, incense offerings] Feng shui and fortune-telling, painted-skin demons and spirit summoning, walking in the shadows and corpse driving, corpse-raising spells and curses, yin tattoos and talismanic needles, puppets controlled by strings, red doors sealed with wax, Dogs digging graves on Burial Mound Ridge, ghosts feasting in the R 310.8kReads9.4Score27.9kShelves

   Reader note

   Look, it's great!

3. 3 死 The House of Deadly Peril 死亡凶间 Nicholas Goudan尼古拉斯狗蛋Mystery1.6M WordsCompleted I work as a specialist crime-scene cleaner, tasked with cleaning up after murders, suicides, and accidental deaths. I’ve seen more than my share of partings and grief, as well as the other side of death. Then, on the Ghost Festival, I encountered something terrifying... 18.2kReads9.2Score1.8kShelves

   Reader note

   This is a very interesting book, not too fast-paced, and the logic has remained consistent throughout. I think it's much better than those supernatural suspense novels with ratings above 9.6 on the bestseller list.

4. 4 恐 Horror After Dark 恐怖在天黑之后 Melancholy Octopus Nose忧郁的章鱼鼻Mystery37k WordsOngoing Gray mist descends, and the night no longer belongs to humanity. People struggle desperately to find a way to survive as they explore the horrors. From the moment they are chosen, they are already living corpses. It's only a matter of time. At night, They toy with humanity; by day, people turn on one another with suspicion. —Reads—Score—Shelves

   Reader note

   The plot development is decent, but it's a bit short.

5. 5 诡 Strange Tales: The Evil God Gets a New Job 诡谈：邪神再就业 Dian Ze Xi Shuai典则蟋蟀Mystery1.2M WordsCompleted [Horror + Twists + Foreshadowing: The Series Where Even the Righteous Gods Are Worshipped by Villains] The supernatural invaded, and Shi Fei received a mission invitation from a dead person. Horror, slaughter, and escape: everyone was fighting to survive. When the supernatural blocked his only way out, Shi Fei calmly tried to talk it down: “Move aside. Don’t make me stop being human.” The creature refused to surrender and launched an attack instead. So Shi Fei really did stop being human, turnin 47.8kReads9.4Score6.9kShelves
6. 6 民 The Folk Feng Shui Master 民间风水之王 Miao Qimiao苗棋淼Mystery3.0M WordsCompleted The Nine Cauldrons Dragon Palace, the Secret Files of the Yellow Springs, the Snow Mountain Corpse Demon, the Yin-Yang Inn... Ever since I borrowed a life from the underworld, I have known no peace. Every time I borrow a life, it becomes a deadly game. After each desperate struggle and narrow escape, I wait for the next secret order from the underworld so I can keep living. Just when I thought I'd escaped the clutches of fate, I discovered that Heaven had prepared a coffin for me too! 52.2kReads9.4Score6kShelves

   Reader note

   These are some of the highest-rated books, but the plots are only so-so; they're not scary at all. They don't give you that chilling feeling you get when the horror revives after watching a horror movie like The Haunted House.

7. 7 扎 The Paper Effigy Shop: Everyone Around Me Is a Big Shot 扎纸铺，我身边都是大佬 Jie Yu界玉Mystery1.0M WordsCompleted In our ancient land of China, many professions have their own rules and taboos. The older and more mysterious the craft, the more this is true. For example, when “asking the rice,” you must never ask how someone died; a coffin maker must never make their own coffin; a paper effigy maker must never draw eyes on a paper figure; and a spirit medium must never conduct a ceremony without all the members of their altar present... If any of these rules and taboos are broken, something terrifying will h 22.1kReads9.3Score2kShelves
8. 8 让 You Hired Me to Collect Bodies, So I Dissected My Ex-Girlfriend 让你当收尸人，你直接解刨了前女友 Ye Wusheng夜无声Mystery4.6M WordsOngoing In anatomy class, the corpse turns out to be my ex-girlfriend... After that, I went through all sorts of unbelievable things. A bus that only goes up, never down, and runs straight to a reservoir. An old scholar tree in the hospital, lush with branches and leaves, that swallows people whole. A giant catfish by the Qingshui River, begging people for help every night. And a deadly brothel hung with human skin, open for business without end. It went on and on, as if it would never come to an end... 62.6kReads9.4Score2.3kShelves
9. 9 一 I Woke Up with 40 Murder Cases on My Hands 一觉醒来：我背上了40起命案 No Joy无喜Mystery1.0M WordsCompleted Chen Xiao wakes up to find everything around him strangely unfamiliar. The only thing beside him is a diary. He thinks it might explain his current predicament, but as he reads, he begins to doubt whether its contents are real. It is clearly a record of crimes committed by “himself.” Just as Chen Xiao is about to read on, the piercing wail of police sirens downstairs jolts him awake, and he can't help imagining the worst... 29.8kReads9.3Score3.2kShelves
10. 10 诡EN The House of Dread 诡舍 The Sound of Wind and Rain at Night,夜来风雨声丶Mystery2.1M WordsCompleted [Infinite-flow + Mild Horror + Survival + One Female Lead] A driverless bus carried a group of cursed people to a strange black lodge… Inside the lodge stood a door stained red with blood. At regular intervals, the cursed were forcibly dragged through the blood-red door and into terrifying worlds, where they had to complete horrifying events… After Ning Qiushui survived one bizarre and terrifying story after another inside the lodge, narrowly escaping death each time, he discovered that none of 707.4kReads9.6Score103.9kShelves
11. 11 诡EN The Horrors Are Hard to Kill? Sorry, I'm the Truly Immortal One 诡异难杀？抱歉，我才是真正不死 Six Gourds六个葫芦Urban2.0M WordsCompleted This book has been signed for publication, so enjoy it with confidence. [Death Regression + Foreknowledge of the Future + Kill the Saintly One First + Dark Tone + Supernatural Resurgence] After accidentally transmigrating to a world invaded by the supernatural, Fang Xiu awakens the ability to return from death, also known as turning back time. Whenever he dies, time rewinds to just before his death. In this perilous and uncanny world, he could have laid low, but instead he chooses to announce to 231.9kReads9.5Score28.4kShelves
12. 12 怪 Strange Tales Livestream! 怪谈直播间！ Stone Giant Monster石头巨怪Mystery1.3M WordsCompleted Welcome to the Rules of the Strange. This is a battle of blood and fire, a test of wit and courage. The power of words cannot be resisted, and the eerie rules must not be broken. In a seemingly hopeless situation, find the one correct answer, break free of your constraints, and search for a way to survive. 173.8kReads9.7Score17.7kShelves
13. 13 当 When the Uncanny Descends on the World, Death Is the End 当诡异降临世界，死亡即是终点 Qingyuan Vocational High School Prodigy庆元职高小天才Mystery2.5M WordsOngoing [Supernatural horrors descend + no System + fresh worldbuilding + survival + semi-infinite-flow + no do-gooder protagonist + not dark + supernatural abilities] In the best years of his life, amid the exuberance of youth, Su Yuan thought his days would remain peaceful and beautiful forever. Then a line of bloody text appeared on the blackboard during evening study. [In the silent night, a terrifying ghost appears outside your dorm room... How long will it take to kill you?] Everyone thought it wa 390.6kReads9.3Score43.5kShelves

    Reader note

    😏😏

14. 14 极 The Ultimate Corpse Cultivator 极道尸修 Time for Tribute Fruit整点贡果Eastern Fantasy473k WordsOngoing [Taoist priest + psychosis/multiple personalities + Lovecraftian horror + Chinese-style horror + suspense + narcissism] “Grant me~ grant me~ grant me~ the Supreme Secret Essentials.” There are gods three feet above your head, gods above your head. Don’t look up! When you gaze at a statue of a god, it is gazing back at you. “I saw it all, but they said that even what you witness with your own eyes isn’t necessarily real.” The hallucination’s densely packed words of blood on the Three Pure Ones st 72Reads8.2Score—Shelves
15. 15 天 How Could I, Coughing Up Blood Every Day, Possibly Be the Mastermind? 天天咳血的我怎么可能是幕后黑手 A Blank Stretch of Time空白的时间Mystery545k WordsCompleted Also known as My Life in a Wheelchair: I Write Strange Tales, and They All Come True Single male protagonist + no romance but doted on by everyone + tragic yet strong + urban fantasy + strange tales + mastermind behind the scenes (not from the start) (female-oriented!!!!!) [System binding successful] [Hello, Host! This System is called the Strange Tale Author Development System. The Host must write one strange tale each month. If you don't write well, you'll die~] [P.S. To clarify, Host, you wer 6kReads9.0Score914Shelves
16. 16 你 You Became Human, Yet You Still Linger Outside the Door 你成为人，却依旧徘徊在门外 Red Maple and Green Pine红枫与青松Urban143k WordsOngoing The protagonist is an impostor who transmigrates into the body of a living person. In this new identity, it will gradually become a complete and genuine human being. It starts out in an orphanage and has a System, though it isn't much help. The protagonist doesn't actually have a name, or rather, no definite name. There are a lot of heartbreaking moments, so read with caution. —Reads—Score—Shelves
17. 17 无 Infinite: This Player Has Just a Tiny Bit Too Many Tags 无限：这个玩家的标签有亿点多 Lightning Who Never Slacks Off绝不摸鱼的闪电Urban3.5M WordsCompleted [Name: Gao Yi] [Equipped tag (1/1): Journalist Lv. 2 (Common)] [Unequipped tags: Debtor Lv. 1 (Common), Heartbroken Lv. 1 (Common), Good Samaritan Lv. 1 (Common), Internet Surfing Pro Lv. 1 (Common), Friend to Elderly Women Lv. 2 (Rare)] Cursed by the goddess of luck, Gao Yi got the “Tag System” at the most unlucky point in his life. It made him thrive in the sudden era of instance dungeons. “Let’s combine the trait I got in the last instance with one of my current tags...” Gao Yi’s hand slipped 28.7kReads8.9Score3.2kShelves
18. 18 开 Going Wild with Misinterpretations from the Start, I Turn Out to Be the Evil God 开局疯狂迪化，结尾邪神本人 Dreaming of Dreams戏梦梦Eastern Fantasy1.4M WordsOngoing [Western fantasy + mass misinterpretation + no female lead + a few secret identities + a touch of cosmic horror] [The first two chapters set things up; the misinterpretations begin in Chapter Three] Ji Ping sometimes reflects on the past few years of his life. His routine is simple: go home, eat, study books, then take on commissions to make ends meet. Nothing seems particularly wrong with that. At most, he worships a sufficiently benevolent evil god, and as a result, keeps running into all sort 16.2kReads8.9Score1.7kShelves
19. 19 诡 Lord of the Mysteries: I'm an Actor 诡秘：我是演员 Sunbathing on the Roof房顶晒太阳Urban1.1M WordsCompleted [Showbiz + Actors + Cthulhu + Lord of the Mysteries + Steampunk Machinery + Incarnations + Role-Playing] I am a screenwriter, manipulating fate from behind the scenes. I am a knight, pursuing justice and fairness. I am an alchemist, seeking the truth. I am a profane priest, deceiving the gods. I am a magical thief, stealing my way through adventures. I am an actor, taking on a thousand forms. 2.6kReads9.0Score228Shelves
20. 20 规 Rule Horror: I Ascended to Godhood in a Death Game 规则怪谈：我在死亡游戏中封神 Silver Vow银色誓言Mystery914k WordsOngoing [Not Mindless Wish Fulfillment + Rule-Bound Horror + Death Games + No Female Lead + Lighthearted Humor + Special Abilities] Welcome to the Land of Divine Relics! This is a world ruled by rules, a playground for the supernatural, and the birthplace of [Miracles]! Here, flipping a coin, counting fingers, playing cards: these games may seem simple, but each has only one path to survival! All you can do is exploit loopholes in the rules and awaken your own [Miracle]! Through countless death games, I 3.8kReads8.6Score348Shelves
21. 21 规 Rule Horror: An SSS Talent? I Switch Them Up 规则怪谈：SSS天赋？我换着玩 Silver Vow银色誓言Mystery1.1M WordsCompleted Jiang Ran swapped souls with his counterpart in a parallel world and found himself in a world of strange tales, where one rule after another was impossible to distinguish as true or false, and one malicious horror after another lay in wait. He ventured through mountains, forests, the deep sea, and even hell, taking on bizarre roles such as tourist, wolf, sailor, and shepherd. With all kinds of outrageous tricks, Jiang Ran hired a creepy little girl as a child laborer one moment, then struck up a 14kReads9.3Score1.2kShelves
22. 22 一 Confessions of a Mentally Ill Person 一个精神病人的自述 Multiply by Two乘二Mystery169k WordsCompleted Sometimes I wonder what I am, what the world is, and what my existence means to it. Am I an NPC? Or just a virus that doesn't matter? A virus, yes. I feel like I've caught some kind of virus, or maybe I've always been one. My name is Zhang Shun. I'm an ordinary person, and on an ordinary day, I suddenly saw things no one else could see... 1.5kReads9.3Score376Shelves
23. 23 别 Don't Be Fooled by My Golden Finger-Like Look, I'm Really Just an NPC 别看我像金手指，我真只是NPC Nuo Yizhen诺以浈Mystery1.4M WordsOngoing [Powerhouse + role-playing + secret identities + horror and the supernatural + people reading too much into things + chosen ones + no romance] A three-in-one blend of three horror genres: psychological horror games, Cthulhu livestreams, and real-world supernatural arts. Xiao Gui'an, a bit-part actor, died, but not entirely. He was chosen to play an NPC in a world of horror and the supernatural. After becoming a ghost, Xiao Gui'an thought he would no longer have anything to fear. Who could have 49.1kReads9.5Score3.7kShelves
24. 24 我 I'm Frail, but I Really Am the Savior 我虽然病弱，但真的是救世主 A Blank Stretch of Time空白的时间Mystery813k WordsCompleted Also known as: “Don’t Worry, I’m Not Dead Yet. I Can Still Save the World” “The Sickly Beauty’s Journey to Save the World” “As the Savior, I Got Eliminated Right After Landing” One day, a System called “Death Game” descended upon reality. One person in every ten thousand worldwide became a player, and Earth’s apocalypse began. “Earth players, attention! The Death Game has finished loading. Are you ready?” As the voice rang out, Luo Jing stared blankly at the glowing orb floating before him. 26.5kReads9.4Score7.6kShelves
25. 25 当 When an Evil Cultivator Becomes a Cannon-Fodder Fake Heiress 当邪修穿成炮灰假千金 Gu Jiuru故久如Mystery500k WordsCompleted [Female-led story, with a male lead. If that's not your thing, don't read. Half supernatural, half cultivation, with little romance.] A genius heretic cultivator failed to overcome her tribulation and transmigrated to the modern world, where spiritual energy was scarce, charlatans ran rampant, and sinister forces were everywhere. Rong Yi: “Isn't this the perfect place for me to practice cultivation?” To absorb baleful energy and restore her cultivation, she casually took care of one supernatural 15.2kReads9.5Score1.9kShelves
26. 26 非 Fantasy Conquest Beyond the Protagonist 非主角系幻想攻略 I'm Not Reading, Okay不是读啊Mystery349k WordsCompleted (Note: All worlds are original. The protagonists' abilities are random. There is no brainless-protagonist halo. If you're interested, check the comments first before deciding. I'm exhausted.) [Horror] [Conquest] [Cultivation vs. future technology] [Wild imagination] [No female lead] [Elements from multiple anime and games] How do you become a qualified strategist? Here, you'll find all kinds of worlds. All you have to do is complete the missions issued above. Whether the one standing in your way 413Reads9.1Score107Shelves
27. 27 雾 The Thing in the City of Fog 雾都里的它 Yu Jiumiao魚九秒Mystery157k WordsOngoing According to the older generation, Xuanshang Village is almost completely cut off from the outside world. Whenever torrential rain falls on the village, every household hurries to shut its doors and windows. The air grows so tense that even breathing feels like a mistake. Day after day, even the children learn to “read the skies and predict the rain.” The rich smell of earth can barely mask the strange fragrance wafting from the old mulberry tree at the village entrance. Villagers who happen to 1Reads—Score—Shelves

    Reader note

    Sigh...

Other lists with The Eerie Spirit Medium: My Doll Can Really Manifest Spirits