Novels like Calling the Dead
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Calling the Dead, best match first.
- 1 Daily Horror Stories: The Uncanny Invades the Human World 侵入人间每日恐怖故事 [Horror + folk legends + ghost stories + paranormal terror + spine-chilling tales to enjoy with a meal + mysteries + no female lead + short folk horror stories] Read one every day and feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. 90Reads—Score—Shelves
- 2 After Restarting Three Times, I Became a God in the Horror Game with Just One Life 重开三次，我在恐怖游戏一命封神 [Infinite flow + mild horror + not brainless + no cheat powers + no romance] (By the original author of Restart the Trial, Clear in One Life) One night, in a psychiatric hospital in Dachuan City. Chen Shu and his wife, Li Jiahui, were undergoing repeated joint interrogations by the hospital's attending psychiatrist and the police. The two of them had joined forces to kill their parents, a family of four. They hadn't even spared the golden-shaded cat or the husky at home, chopping them into a —Reads—Score3.8kShelves
- 3 Strange Tales: The Secret History of Spirit Hauntings 诡事异闻录：灵祟秘史 By chance, the protagonist visits relatives in a remote mountain village, only to find an eerie atmosphere hanging over the place. The villagers behave strangely, and at night there are odd sounds and flickering lights. While investigating, the protagonist discovers an ancient book describing mysterious rituals, setting off a string of supernatural events... —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 4 Five Horror Stories That Will Keep You Up at Night 五个让你不敢熬夜的恐怖故事 Five Horror Stories That Will Make You Afraid to Stay Up Late 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 5 The Train I Drive Leads to the Abyss 我开的火车通往深渊 My name is Lin Muhai. I'm twenty-one and a trainee train driver at the Ancheng Locomotive Depot. Before my first run, I heard a woman's voice in the crew waiting room. "One sleeper, two sleepers, three sleepers..." She counted to six, then paused. "Lin Muhai, it's your turn to count." 23Reads—Score—Shelves
- 6 I Transmigrated into the Horror Novel I Wrote in Middle School 我穿进初中写的恐怖小说 I Was Transported Into the Horror Novel I Wrote in Middle School —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 7 Nightmare of Terror: Entering the Haunted World on the Red-Eyed Bus 惊悚噩梦：从红眼巴士进入诡世界 [Infinite flow + ghost survival + mild suspense + horror instances + no romance] “Ghosts cannot be killed. Only ghosts can deal with ghosts. Learn their patterns.” Lin Xi unexpectedly boarded a bus with no driver. The passengers here disappeared at regular intervals, and as more and more vanished, the survivors gradually uncovered the secret to escaping... Possessing a Nightmare Invitation means setting foot on a one-way road. At regular intervals, you are forced into the nightmare world to comp 56Reads—Score—Shelves
- 8 The Person Under the Bed, the Eye on the Wall, the Peeping Tom Outside the Door 床下的人，墙上的眼，门外的窥 The person beneath the bed, the eye on the wall, the peeping outside the door 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 9 Forbidden Strange Tales: The Taboos of the Folk 禁忌聊斋：民间禁忌的那些事 What you’re reading isn’t just an ordinary supernatural story. It may be a set of rural survival rules that can keep you safe. The taboos of the countryside aren’t just old people’s nagging. Every “don’t touch that” carries the weight of lives lost long ago. When dusk seeps into an abandoned village, the names on the road markers glisten with a deathly aura in the rain; white crows on the eaves of a birthing room beckon a newborn’s soul; copper coins in an old mansion rust into blood scabs; an 706Reads8.2Score—Shelves
- 10 The Ghost Fan's Grave: Crossing the Yin-Yang Divide 鬼扇坟之阴阳渡 I saw a ghost for the first time when I was five. Using a ghost fan and a pair of eyes that could see through evil, my grandfather led me into the crack between the worlds of yin and yang. From then on, I became someone who mended fissures, patching up secrets that the living should never see and the dead could never tell. This is a story about eyes that see through evil and a ghost fan, two souls sharing one body and the Six Fiends, sacrifice and protection. From the first ghostly wail in Yinsh 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 11 Forbidden Tales of the Desolate Village: A Midnight Whistle, and a Shrouded Corpse Spirit at the Door 荒村禁忌：夜半吹哨，白布尸魂找上门 Taboos of the Abandoned Village: A Whistle in the Dead of Night, and a White-Cloth Corpse Spirit Comes Calling —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 12 The Corpse Mother 尸母 Every year on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, a lantern made of human skin appears in the mass grave on Shiping Mountain. A little girl carrying a skull follows behind it at a leisurely pace. The girl is named Qiyue. Born with a corpse-bound yin fate, she has spent her life searching for the truth about her Corpse Mother’s past. When all the evidence points to a mysterious ghost village...! 67Reads6.9Score—Shelves
- 13 Reincarnation Notes: An Extra Story, The Painted-Skin Debt 还魂笔记番外篇：画皮债 The Reincarnation Notebook: Extra Story: The Painted Skin Debt —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 14 This 24-Hour Convenience Store Uses the Living as Shopping Baskets 这家24小时便利店，用活人抵购物篮 This 24-Hour Convenience Store Uses Living People as Shopping Baskets 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 15 My Mockumentary Came True 我的伪纪录片成真了 Luo Luo thinks he's just one “good ghost” away from becoming famous. As a struggling paranormal content creator, he throws himself into digging up a sealed videotape. Hidden inside is an urban legend called the Mirror Palace Puppet, said to appear only between two mirrors facing each other. His followers skyrocket and his popularity soars. Luo Luo brags to the camera, “Guys, I'm totally cashing in on this wave of traffic!” Then he realizes that all the strange footage is starting to invade reali 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 16 A Record of Yin-Yang Ghost Hunting 阴阳抓鬼实录 [High-intensity warning! This is not fiction, but a true record from the depths of the countryside!] Think the “filthy things,” “spirit collisions,” and “ghosts walking walls” the old folks talk about are just legends? It wasn't until I inherited my grandfather's tattered book of exorcism records that I understood reality is far more spine-chilling than any story. The sound of a woman crying by the reservoir in the middle of the night, tombstones moving by themselves in a desolate graveyard, a d 31Reads—Score—Shelves
- 17 My Husband Sacrificed Me to a Freezer, Saying It Was the Night-Shift Rule 丈夫把我献祭给冰柜，说这是夜班规则 My Husband Sacrificed Me to the Freezer, Saying It Was the Night Shift Rules 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 18 I Was Putting Makeup on an Unknown Female Corpse When She Revealed the Cause of My Sister's Death 我给无名女尸化妆，她却说出我妹妹的死因 I Put Makeup on an Unidentified Woman's Corpse, and She Told Me How My Sister Died 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 19 Afterlife Notes: The Eyeless Locust Tree Maiden Bonus Story: Blood Silkworm Thread 还魂笔记之无眼槐娘番外：血蚕丝 Afterlife Notes: The Eyeless Locust Tree Maiden Bonus Story: Blood Cocoon Silk 5Reads—Score—Shelves
- 20 The Haunted House: The End of the Mist World 2 诡舍：迷雾世界终点2 [Transmigrate into a book + infinite flow + mild horror + instances + single heroine] Fu Jinyue unexpectedly transmigrates into the world of a book. After going through one bizarre, uncanny instance mission after another, Fu Jinyue gradually gets closer to the truth: the secrets of the four great families, and whether rebirth truly exists... 128Reads—Score—Shelves
- 21 Ghost Master of the Yellow Springs 黄泉鬼师 A Master of Water Divination, also known among the people as a Ghost Master or Celestial Master, possesses powers that reach from heaven to earth and can speak with ghosts and gods. He treads the Yellow Springs, wields the Yin Lamp, glimpses fate, and cultivates the Great Dao. One day, my grandfather told me that I was actually dead... 170Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 22 Notes on Returning Souls: The Eyeless Huai Tree Maiden 还魂笔记之无眼槐娘 The plum rains have swollen every brick in Green Tile Alley. When Lin Yan grips her grandmother’s death notice and opens the door to the old house, the sixty-year-old locust tree in the courtyard seems to be watching her through its cracked bark. The year her great-great-grandmother planted it, three children went missing from the alley. During all the years her grandmother kept watch over it, she would bury bloodstained silver locks beneath its roots in the dead of night. The last page of her g 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 23 Grandpa Started the Trouble, Three Generations Must Pay 爷爷闯下的祸，三代来还 The trouble Grandpa caused will take three generations to repay. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 24 The Haunted House: The End of the Foggy World 诡舍：迷雾世界终点 [Transmigrate into a Book + Infinite Flow + Mild Horror + Survival + One Heroine] Fu Jinyue accidentally transmigrated into the world of a book. After going through one bizarre and eerie instance after another, he finally learned the answer... 369Reads—Score105Shelves
- 25 The Temple That Eats People 吃人的庙 The Man-Eating Temple 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 26 The Qingqiu Royal Clan Abandoned and Humiliated Me. With the Mystic Stone, I Connected the Three Realms and Made Them All Regret It 青丘王族弃我辱我，我凭玄石连通三界，让全族追悔莫及 The Qingqiu royal clan cast me aside and humiliated me. With the Mystic Stone, I connected the Three Realms and made my entire clan regret it beyond measure. 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 27 Strange Tales from the Countryside 乡村诡故事 Before you start this book, a warning: if you scare easily, don't read it. If you live alone, be careful. Every short ghost story here is based on an ordinary person's real-life experience. Not a single word is made up. From the damp old alleyways of the south to the frozen, deserted villages of the north; from late-night overtime in office buildings to lights-out in university dorms; the taboos our elders forbade us to talk about, and the moments you dare not dwell on in the middle of the night 120Reads—Score—Shelves
- 28 Better Not to Meet Again 看见不如不见 “You’re not a curse. You’re the key!” “If you don’t want to die, stay away from me.” “Liu Yan, stop licking your lips! You might poison yourself!” “Mind your own business and you’ll live longer!” “Praying to gods? Worshipping Buddha? You’d be better off kowtowing to me.” “I decide whether you stay or go.” Better not to see me than to see me. I’m not talking about myself. I mean all of you. 11Reads—Score—Shelves
- 29 Chronicles of the Ashen Earth 烬土录 You can try it, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The book was signed too early, so I can’t change the title anymore. It can only be called Records of the Ashen Earth now. I originally wanted to change it to The Mountain Keeper: I Slay Demons with My Sharp Tongue. Synopsis Deep in the Qinling Mountains lies a town called Ashen Earth, where generations have served as mountain keepers. I, Chen Nian, had kept watch for seventeen years, but on the day the peachwood tablet shattered, my entire clan tre 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 30 The Black Dog of Misty Mountain 雾山黑犬 Black Dog of Mist Mountain 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 31 Twelve Ghosts 十二鬼魂 Twelve Ghosts 14Reads—Score—Shelves
- 32 One Hundred Thousand and One Folk Horror Stories 十万零一个民间恐怖故事 A collection of short horror stories in an episodic format, with a new story every chapter. No dragging things out! Haunted houses in the countryside, mountain spirits, urban legends, old customs and taboos... Every kind of Chinese-style horror is covered, with nonstop thrills and no filler. Anti-superstition disclaimer: This story is entirely fictional. Believe in science and read rationally. Please don’t apply it to real life~ 304Reads—Score101Shelves
- 33 Folk Tales: A Daily Dose of Horror 民间怪谈：每日恐怖奇说 Which is more terrifying, humans or ghosts, or perhaps something unseen and even more frightening? With its distinctive narrative style, this book brings readers a series of spine-chilling horror stories. In this book, you will follow different protagonists into worlds filled with terror and eerie unease. From mysterious ancient buildings to remote, desolate places, and from ordinary everyday life to bizarre supernatural phenomena, every story is packed with unexpected twists and horrifying mome 338Reads—Score—Shelves
- 34 A Haunted House for 500 a Month, and I'm the Only One Who Knows How to Survive 月租五百的凶宅，只有我知道怎么活 A Haunted House for 500 Yuan a Month, and I’m the Only One Who Knows How to Survive 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 35 Haunted University: I’m the Only Living Person on Campus 诡大学：全校就我一个活人 [Supernatural + one female lead] He scored 320 on the college entrance exam and just wanted to find a decent university to attend. He never expected to meet a ghostly version of Zhang Xuefeng, who recommended a ghost university 😭 His classmates and teachers are all ghosts 👻 —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 36 The Calamity of Gui Water 癸水之祸 If even your memories are fake, who are you? Lin Zhou receives a death invitation from his younger sister, Lin Yao, who died twenty years ago. To uncover the truth, he enters the "Constellation Instances": twenty-eight prisons holding beings more ancient than the corruption itself. Each instance demands that he trade memories for power, and every dead person bears the cost on his behalf. When he finds his own file in the archives, stating that he cleared the Ghost Golden Sheep instance at age —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 37 Xue Family Paper Effigy Shop 薛记纸扎铺 On the surface, this world is an ordinary modern city. But hidden from sight is something called “Filth.” A person’s obsessions, resentment, fear, regrets, and other powerful negative emotions can coalesce under certain conditions, attaching themselves to objects, places, or even people, where they can influence or even devour the living. Most people don’t know Filth exists, but certain specialized trades can deal with it. Paper effigy crafting is one of them. As the name suggests, paper effigy 21Reads—Score—Shelves
- 38 The Spirit-Sealing Corpse Shroud 镇灵尸衣 On the day I was born, ghosts surrounded our home. I only survived because a master gave his life to save me. Only later did I learn the truth: I was born on a yin year, yin month, and yin day, making me a Yin Child. My master said that anyone born under all three yin signs would have a life full of misfortune and spend their days wandering from place to place. 140Reads—Score—Shelves
- 39 I Won’t Survive the Night 活不过今夜 At some point, a strange old beggar showed up in our neighborhood. The strange thing was, he never spent the money people gave him. He’d burn it or destroy it instead. Then one day, the woman downstairs was burned to death, and the butcher was brutally murdered. That was when I finally realized the truth. He wasn’t begging for money. He was begging for lives! 1.1kReads8.2Score102Shelves
- 40 Paper Cutting to Prolong Life 剪纸续命 Three days after his master's death, Chen Zhi's name was pressed into a paper-cut figure. Someone cut paper outside his door late at night. A paper figure bearing his name appeared at the doorstep, and from then on, the blue-black mark on his hand began to seep inward along his veins. Paper can ward off evil and bind souls. And the darkest art of the Paper-Cutting Sect is called Name Binding. To stay alive, Chen Zhi can only follow the torn pages his master left behind, the black sand beneath t 10Reads—Score—Shelves
- 41 In an Old Apartment Building, the Voice-Activated Lights Only Shine on the Dead 独居老楼，声控灯专照亡魂 Alone in an old apartment building, the motion-sensor lights only shine on the dead. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 42 A True Account of a Terrifying Experience 真实记录一段可怕经历 A true account of a terrifying experience 9Reads—Score—Shelves
- 43 I Sat at the Wrong Table on a Blind Date, and My Date Was the Demon Lord Who Would Destroy the World 相亲走错桌，我的相亲对象是灭世魔主 I Sat at the Wrong Table on a Blind Date, and My Date Was the Demon Lord Who Would Destroy the World 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 44 Strange Tales of Yanyun: Every Night, Singing Emerges from the Soul-Snatching Well 燕云诡事：那口落魂井里，每晚都会传出唱戏声 Strange Happenings in Yanyun: Every night, the abandoned well echoes with the sound of opera singing 14Reads—Score—Shelves
- 45 Born with Eyes That See Sin, I Can Discern Murderers. The Bones in the Unfinished Building Mark the Start of a Ten-Year Showdown 天生罪眸能辨凶，烂尾楼白骨案，是十年对局的开场 Born with eyes that can spot a criminal, he investigates the bones in an abandoned building. This case marks the opening move in a ten-year game 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 46 Mountain Village Tales: The Book of Taboos 山村怪谈：禁忌录 For ten days, Mo Yuan endured the sinister opera at Suolong Town and survived, gritting his teeth. Three years later, a crack appeared in the mirror of his rented apartment. A clown in a red-and-white opera costume clutched a copper bell and crawled out. “Follow the taboos, and you’ll live.” He believed it. But old souls lurk in the eye sockets you must never look into; human fingernails are wrapped in candy wrappers; and even the words “haunted house” can turn a person into bloody mush in the c 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 47 The Rosewood Clock Stopped for Ten Years. Only Then Did I Discover the Secret Grandma Hid Inside 那架红木古钟停摆十年，我才知道外婆藏在钟里的秘密 That redwood grandfather clock had been stopped for ten years. Only then did I learn the secret my grandmother had hidden inside it. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 48 The Night I Rented a Tenement Room, a Disconnected Phone Rang All Night 租筒子楼那晚，断线电话响了整夜 The night I rented a room in a tenement block, the disconnected phone rang all night. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 49 I Faked Being a Gentle Boyfriend for Ten Years, Until a Woman from the Republic Era Exposed Everything in the Video 我伪造十年温柔男友，录像里民国女人揭穿一切 I faked being a gentle boyfriend for ten years. A woman from the Republican era exposed everything in the footage. 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 50 Someone Keeps Knocking on My Door in the Hallway Late at Night. After Discovering Who It Is, I Can’t Sleep a Wink 深夜楼道总有人拍我家门，查清来历我整夜难眠 Someone Keeps Knocking on My Door in the Hallway Late at Night. After I Learned Who It Was, I Couldn't Sleep a Wink 9Reads—Score—Shelves
