Novels like The Paranormal Files
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Paranormal Files, best match first.
- 101 The Netherworld Inn 阴间客栈 My name is Qin Yu. While on a business trip, I checked into a uniquely styled inn called the Yin Room Inn. It even offered “special services” in the middle of the night. Little did I know it was an inn from the underworld. I began having nightmare after nightmare, and my friends kept getting into trouble... 2.7kReads9.0Score152Shelves
- 102 The Last Descendant of Zhong Kui 最后一个钟馗传人 I was cursed by a thousand-year-old fox demon the moment I was born. As a child, I couldn’t see or hear, and everyone said I was born disabled. But when I was five, a master took me in as his disciple. He said I was a reincarnated ghost god, a tempting morsel in the eyes of ghosts and monsters. The fox demon’s revenge, a frozen corpse in a dry well, a water ghost claiming lives, a hundred ghosts roaming by night... Strange events followed one after another. To protect myself, I had no choice but 5.5kReads9.0Score481Shelves
- 103 The Midnight Gravekeeper 午夜守墓人 A desolate mountain. An ancient tomb. A woman in white. A blood-red moon at midnight. A corpse monk on the move. I’m a high school senior. With the college entrance exam just around the corner, I suddenly came down with a fever that wouldn’t break and missed the test. After recovering at home for more than half a year, I found a job guarding the gate at a cemetery. Seeing how frail I was and how weak my yang energy was, Old Zhang, the gravedigger, found me a protector. But she wasn’t human. She 6.1kReads8.5Score324Shelves
- 104 Do You Believe There Are Ghosts in This World? 你相信，这个世界上有鬼吗？ [Mind-bending] + [Slow-paced] + [Not for the faint-hearted] Thirty-six years ago, deep in the Tibetan grasslands, a secret research base studying the paranormal was rocked by a massive explosion. Only one person managed to escape alive. The male survivor not only made it out, but also brought a pair of pitch-black eyes from the secret base. Even after being removed from their body, they seemed alive. After this devastating disaster, the man deliberately avoided a mysterious organization and went 61Reads—Score—Shelves
- 105 Yin-Yang Eye Realtor: Selling Haunted Houses in Chongqing 阴阳眼中介：我在重庆卖凶宅 A novel inspired by local Chongqing legends and historical anecdotes. This story is entirely fictional. As a child, the protagonist gained the ability to see yin and yang from a Qing dynasty skeleton. His family’s ancestral ledger is filled with secrets of old Chongqing. The folklore is meticulously researched, with traceable details ranging from place names and historical anecdotes to traditional remedies and feng shui formations. Each haunted house seems like a self-contained case, but in trut 194Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 106 Ghost Sightings at the Nightclub 夜场见鬼录 A Long is a DJ at a bar with a legendary “Stage of Death.” Many people have died there under mysterious circumstances. The cause of death could never be determined, and some bodies were never even found! The strange incidents stopped only after the bar was shut down. As the legend of the deaths gradually faded from memory, someone opened the stage once more! After that, disaster struck again and again! A terrifying ghostly figure appears in the girls’ dormitory, a faceless baby clings to a chand 201Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 107 Tales of the Strange in Western Hunan 湘西异闻录 [A friendly warning: This book has no System. It's funny and terrifying, with suspense and clever twists throughout, plus plenty of passion and brains. The more you read, the better it gets.] When I was four, I was kidnapped and taken to a cursed village to be sacrificed alive. A fox spirit risked her life to save me, and secretly pledged herself to me for life. To marry my fox bride, I venture deep into the Miao Valley, tread the Nether River Gorge, and walk the boundary between Yin and Yang. I 6.1kReads9.1Score593Shelves
- 108 No Living People Allowed 活人勿近 [Inspired by real events, but the setting is entirely fictional] [No cultivation] [Supernatural horror only] The countryside is different from the city. Rural areas are vast and sparsely populated, with too little human presence to suppress what lurks beneath the ground. That's why ghost stories and strange legends keep cropping up. Ask anyone from a village in Sichuan, and they'll have plenty to tell you about supernatural happenings in the mountains and fields in years gone by. Some people 96.7kReads9.3Score8.8kShelves
- 109 Deadly Haunted Grounds: The Death Countdown Begins! 致命诡地：现在开始死亡倒计时！ [Infinite-flow + horror instances + survival + mild scares + no romance] The curse of the Bronze Ghost Mask descends. Those chosen must embark on one deadly journey after another. Time is running out, and death is drawing near. Who will make it out alive this time? [The B&B Butcher] In a creepy old house, ghostly figures appear whenever night falls. Anyone who enc 28.6kReads8.5Score2.9kShelves
- 110 Tales of Folk Taboos 民间禁忌杂谈 A pig butcher never slaughters a pig with five toes. The village guardian never guards a village with a temple. A feng shui master never selects a lair of an evil dragon. A midwife must wash her hands in rooster’s blood. There are three hundred and sixty trades in the world, and every one has its rules. Are these ancient, mysterious rules really nothing more than empty formalities? If I told you that some rules must never be broken, because breaking them means death, would you believe me? 9kReads8.0Score1.2kShelves
- 111 Eerie Tattoos 诡纹 My grandfather was a tattoo artist, but the things he tattooed were seriously sinister… 7.5kReads9.1Score783Shelves
- 112 Secret Art: I Transmigrate and Fight to Survive in a Bizarre World 秘法穿越:我在诡异世界极限逃生 Secret Art Transmigration: My Extreme Escape in a World of the Uncanny 95Reads—Score—Shelves
- 113 The Corpse Collection Files 收尸档案 Since ancient times, the dead have been left with their bodies. But few people know that corpses hold many secrets that remain hidden from the world. Cursed corpses, living corpses, bodies left where they fell, vengeful corpses, bisected corpses... Every corpse has a story of its own! My name is He Yongheng, and I collect bodies for a funeral home. 3.8kReads9.0Score367Shelves
- 114 Midnight Wonders 午夜惊奇 At the stroke of midnight, amid a terrifying atmosphere, strange ghost stories begin to unfold! A bluish-white hand suddenly appears on the window in the middle of the night. Is it looking for someone to take revenge on? A bus still running in the dead of night: does it lead to the world of the living or to hell? The shapewear hanging in the wardrobe at home is made of human skin! During the Qingming Festival, a figure appears in the glass of the bathhouse. After returning to her room, a beautif 416Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 115 Horror's Edge: 100 Absolutely Terrifying Ghost Stories 恐怖边界：100个绝对惊悚的鬼谈 [Standalone Stories + Supernatural Horror + Folk Customs + Feng Shui and Mysticism + Mild Frights + Shocking Twists] Horror tales beyond anything you could imagine. Each story is like a dark door swinging open, drawing you into moments that will make your skin crawl. Listen. A faint whisper, an indescribable shadow creeping closer. Danger by the river, terror in the cemetery, ghost babies in the maternity ward, evil headhunting magic, apparitions at the hot springs, a bloodstained umbrella... On 2.5kReads8.9Score192Shelves
- 116 Midnight Terror: Human Nature Stories That Will Haunt You 午夜惊魂：让人细思极恐的人性故事 At midnight, let's listen together to the little stories that circulate all around us. Maybe they're true. Maybe you've heard them too, or even experienced them yourself. Those moments that grow more terrifying the more you think about them go perfectly with the pitch-black night beyond the window. Red brick walls are common in many places. But we've never stopped to wonder: why are those bricks so red, so vivid? Rideshares at night aren't necessarily safe. Passengers have their concerns, and dr 537Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 117 My Years of Ghost Hunting Among the People 我在民间捉鬼的那些年 Chinese-Style Horror, No Female Lead My name is Xu Jian. I’m 26, and I studied Taoist arts under a Maoshan priest for several years. Over the years, I’ve seen all kinds of things. After doing this long enough, I realized that ghosts aren’t scary. What’s truly frightening are the things people can’t get past in their hearts. All I do is help them say what needs to be said and settle their debts once and for all. People call me a Celestial Master of the Taoist sect, but I’m really just an ordin 4.5kReads—Score304Shelves
- 118 The Haunted Cabinet Opens by Itself Every Night, Long Hair Drags People Inside 凶柜夜夜自开，青丝缠人拖入柜 The sinister cabinet opens by itself every night, and strands of black hair coil around people and drag them inside. 33Reads—Score—Shelves
- 119 Strange Tales Livestream 怪谈直播间 The sound of meat being chopped eerily echoes through a bun shop in the dead of night. The passengers on the last bus all have the same face. On a freezing, rainy night, someone wearing funeral clothes wanders the streets... The Strange Tales livestream takes you deep into the hidden side of this world! 13.8kReads8.9Score1.2kShelves
- 120 The Parallel World I Transmigrated to Is Actually Haunted 我穿越的平行世界居然有诡 Also known as "The Strange Assimilation" [Infinite flow + supernatural horror + mild scares + no romance] Su Ze finds a book called "The Strange Assimilation" in the library. Because of this book, his body is controlled. Then he is crushed to death by a bookshelf. When he wakes up, he has become himself in a parallel world. He is even chosen by the strange world to become a player! From then on, he dances on the edge of a blade, surviving one near-death experience after another. 53.8kReads8.5Score4.9kShelves
- 121 Taboo of the Living 活人禁忌 When I was nine, I found myself in mortal danger! To save me, my grandfather made a decision that would change my life forever... 16kReads9.2Score2.1kShelves
- 122 Thriller: You Were Told to Escape, but You Became an NPC 惊悚：让你去逃生，你成了NPC [Horror Game + Choices + Comedy + Irreverent + Building a Personal Power Base] Ten years ago, the horror game descended upon Blue Star. As the protagonist, Lin Qi was inevitably dragged into the horror game too. While everyone else struggled to survive, he made choices. At the Death Restaurant, everyone else was careful not to anger the customers. Lin Qi had already become the restaurant owner. At the Ghostly Cemetery, others searched for clues and for the missing Grave No. 7. Lin Qi simply 13.9kReads9.1Score1.3kShelves
- 123 Yellow Springs General Store 黄泉杂货铺 At the end of a street on a quiet, late-night evening stands a grocery shop with old-fashioned decor. Getting something for nothing is simple: just agree to do a ghost a favor, and it'll make it happen. 14.5kReads8.8Score1.5kShelves
- 124 Bureau 747: Special Affairs Division Nine 747局之特殊事物处理九科 Do you really know the colleagues around you? What about your classmates and family? The person you've lived with for years, the one you know best, might not even be human! In this world, humans and demons coexist. Demons can live among you in all sorts of ways. “They” might be the man selling jianbing on the street, or they might be your boss! If a top special forces soldier hadn't awakened his family's bloodline in a panic while carrying out a highly classified special mission, and then joined 702Reads7.1Score—Shelves
- 125 The Sound of Nightmares: 60 Horror Stories That Wake You from Your Dreams 噩梦之声：60个做梦吓醒的恐怖故事 [Standalone Ghost Stories + Supernatural Horror + Not for the Faint of Heart + Rural Tales] When night falls, terrifying ghostly figures emerge. Step into all kinds of bizarre and unbelievable tales, and spend your nights screaming! Haunted houses, ghostly shadows outside the window, a deadly lipstick, someone beneath the mattress, an umbrella that hunts people... Every corner conceals inexplicable phenomena and secrets that will fill you with dread! Every page will make your hair stand on end, 2.1kReads8.9Score176Shelves
- 126 Ghostly Whispers at Midnight 夜半鬼语 [Rural + Supernatural + Ghost Stories] Back when my grandfather was young, he learned carpentry. As Old Zhao put it, a sixth-grade carpenter these days was worth half a scholar. But things were different back then. Carpenters belonged to one of the lowest trades. They had to carry their tools around every day, get up before dawn and stay out until the middle of the night, traveling from village to village to find work. And because they went so many places, and made coffins and dealt with the dea 5kReads9.0Score204Shelves
- 127 I'm a Funeral Officiant, So Summoning Immortals Is Only Natural 我个殡葬司仪，会请仙也很正常吧 [One heroine + the author conducted on-site research at funeral homes, crematoriums, and cemeteries, striving for realistic details + traditional supernatural tales + professional knowledge of funerals and spirit-medium practices] (The humorous setups and parody scenes in this book, as well as the original Qingfeng spirit-medium altar, where spirits other than ancestors are invited to take up residence, were published with the approval of the author's own guardian spirits. Readers, please believ 38.7kReads9.4Score3.8kShelves
- 128 Selling Clothes by Day, Sewing Corpses by Night 白天卖衣服，晚上缝尸体 [Traditional supernatural horror, folk terror, decisive and ruthless] I rented an apartment where someone had died, hoping to save money, only to be plunged into endless darkness... My terrifying girlfriend has a mouth full of sharp teeth and haunts me day and night; A headless vengeful infant on the highway frantically tries to steal people’s heads; A horrifying internet celebrity livestreams herself peeling off people’s faces, while the comments turn eerie; At a Cat Immortal shrine in a strang 51.9kReads9.2Score6.2kShelves
- 129 No. 81 on the Yellow Springs Road 黄泉路81号 Night blankets the city, and the things lurking in the shadows begin to stir. The raccoon dog granny who eats raw meat, the fitness girl with fish scales growing on her back. The wild foxes who approach people by the roadside, and the little convenience store in the cemetery. I've experienced all of these. And it all began after I witnessed a car accident... 42.1kReads9.2Score3.4kShelves
- 130 The Yin-Walker 巡阴人 Applying makeup to the dead, reading the winds and assessing the land, preparing bodies for burial, and performing rites on the seventh day after death. Scorched corpses: cleaning the body, applying rouge, painting the features! Bodies cut in half at the waist: removing the organs, filling the cavities, and stitching the body back together! I was born into a family that made its living from the dead, so I grew up dealing with corpses. I’ve seen all sorts of bizarre ways to die and countless inex 8.4kReads9.1Score1.1kShelves
- 131 The Midnight Ghost Market: Living People Keep Out 午夜鬼市，活人回避 [Mystery + supernatural + ghost market + narrow escape from death] My name is Tang Chao. I’m a broke young man scraping by in the antiques business, with hundreds of thousands in debt hanging over me. An ordinary porcelain-buying deal led me to pick up a strange Jun ware bowl at an unexpectedly low price. I thought I’d found a bargain. Little did I know, it was the beginning of my nightmare... On a bus, I met a burly man calling himself Jue Mingzi, who warned me that “a calamity is sure to befal 3.5kReads9.1Score217Shelves
- 132 The One Who Borrows Lives from the Underworld 阴间借命人 [Standalone Stories + Supernatural Horror + Suspense + Folk Customs + Playful Tone + Ensemble Cast + Nonstop Ghost-Hunting Thrills!] Ever since I borrowed a life from the underworld, I’ve known no peace. My name is Quan Ning. I’m a lawyer, and one day I was in a car accident on a mountain road. As I lay dying, I saw a ghostly judge from the underworld come to claim my soul. I struck a deal with him and borrowed a sliver of hope for survival. The price of this life I borrowed was becoming 2.5kReads9.1Score236Shelves
- 133 The Paper Effigy Shop: Everyone Around Me Is a Big Shot 扎纸铺，我身边都是大佬 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
- 134 The Woman in the Closet 柜子里的女人 The Woman in the Cabinet 55Reads—Score—Shelves
- 135 Oh No! The Horror Boss Is Both Fierce and Clingy 糟糕！惊悚boss又凶又黏人 The print edition has been published under the title Beneath the Mask, Lost Without End [Infinite Flow + Multiple Instances + Mystery + Devoted Couple + Rivals-to-Lovers] [The male lead is a horror boss disguised as a player. At first, both leads want to kill each other. The story mainly follows the infinite-flow instances.] Jiang Lian is dragged into a horror game. While everyone else avoids it at all costs, she has spent three years painstakingly searching for it. On her first instance, she l 69.4kReads9.3Score8.9kShelves
- 136 Horror Script: It Begins in the Baby-Crying Dormitory 惊悚剧本：从婴啼寝室开始 (Dark tone) (Escape-room survival) (No System) (Not invincible: the protagonist dies if he is killed) (Not a conventional power fantasy) Chen Xian is pinned against the wall by a female ghost in a bathroom, and finds himself plunged into a terrifying instance! The cries of a baby in the dead of night... Students with eyes as blue as ghostly flames... A wedding dress stained crimson with blood... A mermaid covered in wriggling maggots... And... Teammates dying one after another... To stay alive a 14.1kReads9.2Score1.4kShelves
- 137 Northeastern China's Forbidden Secrets 东北禁忌手札 [Extreme horror + a folk-horror story set in the countryside] In a remote mountain village, deep within the forest, countless taboos remain unknown to outsiders. The people here follow ancient rules of life and death: pregnant women must never encounter a coffin, and anyone who dies of old age at a hundred years old is destined to become an evil spirit. But in a single day, the old Yu family breaks both taboos, drawing every kind of demon and ghost to their door! At midnight, someone hears the s 912Reads8.8Score108Shelves
- 138 I Learn to Slay Ghosts on a Paranormal Forum 我在怪谈论坛学斩鬼 [The printed edition of Strange Tales Forum is in production] [The short drama adaptation of Strange Tales Forum is in production] Gao Shen joined a strange tales forum by chance. The forum often posts eerie stories, describing every detail so vividly that they seem to have really happened. Users who reply seriously analyze the source of each incident and discuss how to deal with it. They even address each other as Heavenly Masters, Soul Tamer 50.1kReads8.7Score6.4kShelves
- 139 The Haunted Teahouse: I Only Sell Objects of Ill Omen 恐怖茶馆：我只卖大凶之物 The world is divided between yin and yang. Some people do business with the living, while others trade with the dead. I deal in the business of the dead, but I don’t sell coffins, paper money, funeral clothes, or paper effigies. What I sell are things you’ve never seen before, things far stranger still… 31kReads9.2Score2.9kShelves
- 140 Rule Horror: Who Taught You to Study Like That? 规则怪谈：谁教你这样读书的 [Strong Female Lead, No Romance, Rule-Based Horror, Infinite Realms, Chinese-Style Horror] Traditional culture has been distorted on a massive scale in modern society. Altered pronunciations, words smeared with stigma, and ancient sayings twisted out of shape are gnawing away at the human soul. Su Muyu, the thirtieth-generation descendant of Su Shi and the sole inheritor of the Soulcrafter lineage, joins Li Guazi, a girl whose past is a mystery, and Mr. Dongli, a word spirit from the handwritt 50Reads9.4Score—Shelves
- 141 The Divine Qilin 麒麟神相 I was born with a Qilin by my side. To save me, my grandfather peeled off his own human skin and gave it to a nine-tailed fox. That day, dead trees bloomed again, and all the beasts came to pay their respects! 10.8kReads9.4Score1.2kShelves
- 142 The Horror Livestreamer 恐怖女主播 My name is Yuan Junyao, a name that doesn't suit me at all. I've had a chronic illness since birth, and I'm so hideously deformed that tumors started growing on my face when I was little. My father left me when I was just three months old. At fifteen, I was blamed for my mother's death. Only my grandmother raised me and my stepbrother, who shared neither parent with me. But after an accident, I was offered up to a man who should never have crossed my path. To get revenge and see justice done, I 18.3kReads9.1Score2.3kShelves
- 143 Tales of Strange Happenings in the Countryside 乡村诡事录 The strange happenings in a mountain village. I was born and raised in the countryside. Deep in the mountains, there are always ghosts and spirits, and my village was no exception. Heaven, earth, black, yellow, the cosmos vast: demons and ghosts send shivers down your spine. One year, the start of spring fell on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. That year, so many strange things happened. Just bringing them up is enough to scare people. Meeting the Black and White Impermanence on a night wa 1.9kReads9.0Score137Shelves
- 144 The Little Taoist of Green Mountain 青山小道士 [Taoist priest + supernatural mysteries + technically detailed + magic arts + urban + no power fantasy + slow growth + no heroine] (The central idea of the first book: Heaven and humanity) This novel is told in the first person and explores knowledge and experiences from many perspectives, including Taoist culture, astronomy, feng shui, Qimen Dunjia, physiognomy, palmistry, humanities, society, and science. Everything unknown in the world is like a vast darkness. Science is like a flashlight ill 4.2kReads9.2Score706Shelves
- 145 Bro, You're a Cop, Not a Taoist Priest! 大哥，你是警察啊，不是道士！ [If you dislike cutesy, whimpering heroines, read no further] [Also known as: Me, a humble paper effigy maker, and you want me to crack a major case] When Yue Dong went to a telecom service center to cancel his late grandfather’s phone service, the staff gave him a hard time. “Rules are rules. The account holder has to be here in person!” “You have to follow the rules!” Yue Dong laughed in exasperation, then waved his hand and used his paper effigy-making skills to summon his late grandfather. T 71.6kReads9.2Score7.4kShelves
- 146 True Tales of the Spirit Mediums: My Ten Years Serving at a Ghost Hall 出马仙纪实：我供奉鬼堂的那十年 My name is Zhou Tie. In this book, I'll tell the true story of my ten years running a spirit hall and serving ghosts. You've heard of spirit mediums... but have you heard of a ghost spirit hall? At eighteen, I established a ghost spirit hall and served ghost immortals! The presiding master was the sister my grandfather said had gone mad and died! This book has no female lead. It's not fantasy, and it's definitely not a cultivation novel! It's the true story of how I, born with an ominous yin con 86.4kReads9.6Score8.2kShelves
- 147 The Haunted Tomb 诡坟 [This is no ordinary paranormal story. It's all about horror and suspense: no mindless wish fulfillment, forbidden yin-yang lore, no cultivation, and a ghost wife. If it's not good, you can break my legs.] People laugh at my family's poverty and say that all my blood relatives have died, so there must be a ghost in our house. I don't dare argue... because there really is a ghost buried in our ancestral grave! ...My name is Zhang Asi... I was born at four in the morning on the fourteenth day of t 40.2kReads8.8Score3.7kShelves
- 148 After the Goddess Died Tragically, I Drew My Sword and Slayed Ghosts! 女神惨死后，我拔剑斩鬼！ That day, I received a strange food delivery order. A goddess who had died a tragic death was begging me for help. After that, I became a spirit courier. I clear the way for wronged souls and guide the dead on their final journey! 40.5kReads9.2Score3.4kShelves
- 149 Uncle Nine: Simplifying Cultivation Starting at the Funeral Parlor 九叔：从义庄开始简化修仙 [Uncle Jiu + charity hall + Taoist priest + growth + System + cultivation + cunning schemer] Lin Luo transmigrates to Uncle Jiu’s world and becomes his eldest disciple. After ten years of keeping a low profile, he finally awakens the Simplification System! Every skill and cultivation method can be simplified! The Shangqing Breathing Technique is simplified: breathe! The Shangqing Great Grotto Scripture is simplified: breathe deeply! The Shangqing Lightning Fist is simplified: generate static ele 37.9kReads8.9Score3.3kShelves
- 150 I Smell a Ghost! 我嗅到了鬼味！ [Infinite Flow]+ [Mild Horror]+ [No Romance]+ [Despairing Tone] One night, Gu Quan walks out of the funeral home carrying two memorial portraits, having just attended a funeral. His father calls to tell him that his mother has been in a car accident and is at death's door. In a panic, Gu Quan heads to the underground garage, hoping to drive over and see his mother one last time. On the way, he unexpectedly catches the scent of his natural enemy! Terrified, he gets into a car without thinking, un 195.3kReads8.6Score13.8kShelves
