Novels like Folk Taboos and Strange Tales
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Folk Taboos and Strange Tales, best match first.
- 151 Chronicles of Strange Events 异事簿 When I was eight, I accidentally drowned. The village's mad Taoist came to my house and told my parents to give me a grand seven-day funeral with gongs and drums. After seven days, I would return to life. During the funeral, lightning flashed every day and the rain poured without stopping. Everyone in the village said it was a bad omen. On the seventh day, strange phenomena suddenly appeared in the sky. The mad Taoist returned to my house, told me to take the moon in the sky as my godmother, and 35Reads—Score—14d adds
- 152 Mo Chi Y 墨池Y The inspiration for this novel came from a real supernatural incident involving a residential compound security guard. As cities expand, they inevitably encroach on the homes of the dead. The Dingyuan Estate, where Yao Yan worked as a security guard, had been built on a mass grave abandoned for a thousand years. One late-spring night, deep in the darkness, all was silent beneath a fine drizzle. Suddenly, a girl’s spine-chilling cry for help came from outside the guard booth: “It hurts so much. C 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 153 A Hundred-Year-Old Villager’s Tales of Ghosts and the Supernatural 农村百岁老人口述鬼怪奇谈 I grew up in the countryside, and whenever I had free time, I liked listening to centenarians in the village tell strange tales of ghosts and other uncanny events from days gone by. I have collected, recorded, and adapted these folk stories. There is no overarching plot. Each chapter is a standalone horror story. Not for the faint of heart!!! 32Reads—Score—14d adds
- 154 Welcome to the Nightmare Livestream!!! 欢迎来到噩梦直播间！！！ My new work is out! Everyone is welcome to read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you enjoy it. Your support is what motivates me to write, and I'll do my best to tell every story well! 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 155 Miaojiang Yin-Yang Gu 苗疆阴阳蛊 Miaojiang Yin-Yang Gu 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 156 White Terror 白色恐怖 [Wildly Imaginative Twists] + [Extensive Foreshadowing] + [Social Unrest] + [Mystery and the Supernatural] The campus, bustling by day, is eerily quiet at night... A group of girls playing with a spirit board in their dormitory happen upon the body of a woman who fell to her death. Rumors spread that a ghost is responsible. Then another girl is pushed down the stairs by an evil spirit in the teaching building! Panic grips the campus. Before long, a female teacher is killed by a ghost on camera a —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 157 Slaying Demons and Ghosts Since High School 斩妖灭鬼，从高中开始 [Traditional Supernatural Horror] + [School Life] + [Ensemble Cast] + [Coming of Age] + [Not Overpowered] + [Passionate] It all begins with a student jumping from a school building. Liu Tianyu had expected to spend his student years in peace, but from that day on, his life was never quiet again. Peril at a haunted temple, a school turned into a sacrificial altar, a ghost city beneath the water: one challenge after another awaits. Watch as a group of students turn the tables amid the schemes of g —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 158 36,036 Terrifying Stories You’ll Regret Not Reading 不看后悔的36036个恐怖故事 [Standalone Stories] [Paranormal Events] [Unbelievable] [Forest Spirits] [True Cases] [Rural Ghost Stories] There is no overarching plot. Each chapter tells a self-contained story adapted from the encounters of a shamaness who can see spirits, and the strange, gripping tales surrounding each young friend she meets. 301Reads—Score—14d adds
- 159 The Water Ghost 水鬼 Water Ghost 8Reads—Score—14d adds
- 160 Don't Wake Him in the Middle of the Night 别在深夜惊醒他 [Modern Romance with a Twist] + [Modern Romance] + [Ghost Hunting] This story explores whether love means possession or protection, how memory and identity define who “I” am, and how to face mistakes committed in the name of love. A museum intern on the night shift accidentally gets blood on an ancient god's specimen. Mistaken for the god's reincarnated Daoist partner, she is forced into a relationship with him. Only when the true partner returns does she discover that she herself is the primord 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 161 60 Chilling Stories from Real Life 来自现实的60个惊悚故事 (Purely written by hand, not AI) Schemes! Poisoning! Possession! Framing... evil spirits! Returning from the dead! Ghosts! Curses... Terrifying and chilling stories based on real events, showing you the things that lurk in the dark world! Every story is a horror short drama! 21.3kReads8.9Score2k14d adds
- 162 I Collected 99 Horror Stories 我收集了99个恐怖故事 [Short Story Collection] [Chinese-Style Horror] [Based on True Cases] [Uncanny Reality] [Horror Adventures] [Chilling] The stories of this world are half true and half false; the warmth and coldness of human nature make good and evil hard to tell apart. Light and shadow coexist, as do kindness and malice. If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear when ghosts knock at midnight. But if ghosts and spirits really came calling, could you face them calmly? This book is a collection of 14.5kReads8.7Score1.6k14d adds
- 163 The Terrifying School 极度恐怖校园 As the best university in the city, this school admits only outstanding students. But it also has many rules that are hard to understand: no studying after eight o’clock, and no leaving your dorm room after midnight. No matter who calls to you from the corridor, do not answer... The protagonists in this story are all independent, but their countless connections eventually bring them together. What secrets does this school hold? 293Reads—Score—14d adds
- 164 Midnight Terror 午夜惊魂 It started one morning when I stepped outside and found a yuan at my doorstep. I didn't think much of it. The next morning, I found a ten-yuan bill at the door. I thought I was pretty lucky, finding money two days in a row. But on the third morning, when I opened the door and saw a hundred-yuan bill on the ground, I finally realized something was off. After that, strange things kept happening around me, and I began venturing into one forbidden zone after another, all in the name of staying alive 2.1kReads7.3Score14814d adds
- 165 The Godslayer of the Countryside 乡村弑神者 [Chinese-style horror + not a power fantasy + more terrifying the more you think about it] When I was eight, my maternal grandfather took my two uncles and me to Chang'an Village to help harvest rice. Not long after we arrived, someone died under mysterious circumstances. Worried something might happen to me, my grandfather told my eldest uncle to take me home first. Before we left, he repeatedly warned us not to speak to anyone we met on the road. My eldest uncle agreed, and we hurried back. Ha 735Reads8.9Score10514d adds
- 166 Spirit Village 灵村 Thrills and the supernatural! There's an ancient village called Lingzhuang, also known as Bagua Village. I was born there. Lingzhuang is always shrouded in an atmosphere of terror: Enormous pythons, centipedes, black spiders, strange birds, and ferocious beasts roam about, attacking people... Lingzhuang is also rife with strange tales and bizarre happenings: A female ghost haunts the village; a cave in Longmian Mountain holds an arsenal from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; a mysterious master live 69Reads—Score—14d adds
- 167 The Soul Ferryer Between Yin and Yang 阴阳渡魂人 Soul-snatching ghost weddings, bathroom hauntings, the legend of the red-clad senior, Thai black magic, ghost soldiers borrowing the road, man-eating mountain demons, nightmare fiends that enter your dreams, the mystery of the headless woman, a bizarre bride in an escape room, vengeful child spirits, games that summon ghosts, human organ trafficking, a shocking exhibition of human deformities, and long-lost Maoshan secrets... Do these things send a chill down your spine? - The truth is, this wor 177Reads9.2Score10214d adds
- 168 My Master Gave Me a Car for Investigating the Supernatural 师父传我一辆看事儿车 A thousand-year-old van? Built by hand from scratch [Traditional horror]➕ [Even more immersive as an audiobook]➕ [Uncovering the truth about my origins] Greetings, dear readers! [Traditional supernatural horror, primal fear] The original experience of horror is the fear a person feels when experiencing it firsthand. [First person, highly atmospheric] Give me a chance to tell this story from my own point of view. [Uncovering the truth about my origins] Along the way, I met many people. “The gates 14Reads—Score—14d adds
- 169 Chronicles of the Supernatural 异灵实录 At three in the morning, check the list of the dead; let the ferryman guide your soul. Chinese horror stories, spirit-summoning, death notes. Some things can be explained, while other feelings defy description. A terror that makes you shudder as you think it over rises from the depths of your heart. After reading these 99 stories, you'll find yourself questioning your own life. There's a rumor that you should never stay in the last room on the ground floor of a hotel. The author once traveled ou 24Reads9.2Score—14d adds
- 170 The Seventh Night After Death 头七 My grandfather said that whoever a hanged person sees last is the one they’ll come back to haunt. When I was twelve, the village hired a troupe to perform ghost plays. I went to play with them, never imagining that the troupe’s leading performer was hanging from the beam right behind me. 22Reads7.7Score—14d adds
- 171 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—14d adds
- 172 Afterlife Notes Bonus Story: The Corpse Stitcher 还魂笔记番外篇：缝尸匠 Afterlife Notes: Bonus Story: The Corpse Stitcher 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 173 The Spirit Guide 送灵先生 A madwoman from the neighboring village died, but even in death her eyes wouldn’t close. No matter how many people tried, they couldn’t lift her coffin. The living face trials in life, and the dead face trials in death. An infant who cannot pass the trial between life and death cannot enter the new world. A dead person who cannot pass the trial of death cannot move on, and remains by their loved ones’ side. A sprig of green bamboo summons the spirits; a three-foot spirit banner sends the souls o 16Reads8.9Score—14d adds
- 174 Sewing Up Corpses at the Funeral Home, Until I Stitched Up My Blind Date 殡仪馆缝尸，缝到相亲对象 I learned corpse sewing from my grandma as a child. Before I even graduated from vocational school, funeral homes everywhere were clamoring to hire me. My monthly salary was 100,000 yuan, plus commission. Everyone said it was easy money, but nobody knew that a corpse seamstress stitches flesh and skin while laying restless souls to rest. My very first job went horribly wrong. When the body bag opened, I recognized that face at once. Wasn’t she the girlfriend who had slept beside me last night? A 1.5kReads6.9Score11914d adds
- 175 The Life-Devouring Ancient Formula 噬命古方 The Life-Devouring Ancient Formula 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 176 The Curse of the Manicure 美甲之咒 The Nail Art Curse 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 177 Qingchuan Ghost School 青川鬼校 Ordinary high school student Su Bei takes shelter from the rain one day and discovers he is trapped in the abandoned grounds of Qingchuan Middle School, a place rumored to be haunted. It is no longer an empty ruin, but a living hell where time is warped, space behaves strangely, and real, terrifying ghosts lurk everywhere. There are no superpowers, no talismans or magical artifacts, and no apocalyptic technology. The only things Su Bei can rely on are his cool head, keen powers of observation, a 10Reads—Score—14d adds
- 178 The Coffin of Life and Death 生死棺材 In our line of work, there’s a type known as the miscellaneous school. They follow unorthodox paths, dabbling in everything but mastering nothing. They have no sect above them and no helpers below them, and nobody takes them seriously. I’m an heir to the miscellaneous school, yet I turned their world upside down and left them in chaos. Only when I decided to retire did I discover a shocking mystery hidden within me... 491Reads8.7Score10014d adds
- 179 The Thirteenth Eye 第十三只眼 As a kid, I was a mischievous little brat, and I once caused a whole lot of trouble. As a result, I hit the jackpot and ended up with three shadows. One black, one red, and one blue. I bragged about them plenty, even though I was the only one who could see them. One night, the red shadow slipped away from beneath my feet and sprinted into the darkness... I panicked and chased after it! If you run off, what am I supposed to brag about? You've been with me this long. The least you could do is say 36Reads8.8Score—14d adds
- 180 The Earth Master 地先生 Every title in the occult arts has a special meaning: tomb raiders are called grave diggers, those without a school or sect are called Mr. Bai, and those who sew heads onto corpses are called Old Madam Butian... Our trade calls us Earth Masters. Ghostly incense, the flayed-skin curse, the pecking-eye gu, the Cave of Nine... Every job I take on is full of twists and hidden dangers. Fight your way through, and the spirits and ghosts will fear you, and you’ll reign supreme in the occult world. Fail 84Reads7.0Score—14d adds
- 181 The Black Dog of Misty Mountain 雾山黑犬 Black Dog of Mist Mountain 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 182 Twelve Ghosts 十二鬼魂 Twelve Ghosts 17Reads—Score214d adds
- 183 The Vengeful Ghost Curse 怨诡咒 (Traditional supernatural horror + No System + Not a power fantasy + Deduction + Suspense) My coworker died. He died in his own bathtub. By the time the police arrived at his home, his corpse had already begun to rot and stink. His limbs had been gnawed down to the bone, and the coroner found undigested flesh in his stomach. That very night, I received a WeChat message from my dead coworker. It said I was next... 19.3kReads8.6Score1.4k14d adds
- 184 Chenyu Midnight Teahouse: A Collection of Strange Tales 宸宇午夜茶馆：短篇志怪故事集 Midnight. The tea boils. The lamps dim. When the city falls silent, stories from another world are just beginning. The Midnight Teahouse of Chenyu gathers dozens of Chinese-style tales of the strange and supernatural, told with the easygoing voice of a storyteller in an old teahouse. They unfold strange local happenings, the secrets of old houses, and eerie tales from the streets and alleys. Written in modern vernacular while carrying on the spirit of classical anecdotal tales, these stories wea 8.3kReads—Score43314d adds
- 185 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—14d adds
- 186 Strange Tales from Across the Land: A Hundred Chilling Stories 各地诡事：惊情百篇 A hundred cities, a hundred kinds of strange mysteries. Every location hides taboos the locals never dare discuss, and every story unearths a chilling truth from the folds of the land. When you open this book, perhaps a pair of eyes is already watching your page number from a corner of your city. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 187 Route 44 Ticket Seller 44路售票员 In 2005, an 18-year-old bus conductor mysteriously dropped dead on the bus. The cause of death was unknown. In 2009, a last bus hit and killed a pregnant woman at an intersection, even though its brakes had not failed. In 2014, a woman suddenly pulled out a sanitary pad on the bus and slapped the driver in the face with it, despite showing no signs of mental illness. On the last Route 44 bus, I've seen far too many strange and bizarre things, and heard all kinds of spine-chilling rumors. Unless 56Reads6.3Score—14d adds
- 188 Walking Marriage 走婚 A friend took me out to clear my head, and we ended up in a village. Not only was the whole village full of women, it even had a custom called “walking marriages”… 115Reads7.8Score—14d adds
- 189 I'm Generous: I'll Give You Half My Soul 大方的我，灵魂分你一半 [Supernatural Mystery + Urban Fantasy] [Unmentionable Things Between One Man and Many Ghosts] [Not a Romance for Women! Don't Be Misled by the Title!] My summer job turned out to be helping Taoist Second Master cut souls loose and capture ghosts. Since then, a cool, aloof female teacher, a resentful young woman, a professional assassin, the wronged ghost of a cat… They’ve all moved into my body. Everyone says I’m stingy, but this time I’ve given away half my soul. That’s generous enough, right? 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 190 Return from the Forbidden Zone: I Brought the Missing Back from the Warp 禁地归人之我从亚空间带回失踪者 Every year, a million people mysteriously vanish around the world, and none ever return. Then Zhong Jiale discovered that the window in his bedroom was actually a gateway to forbidden pocket dimensions! Ruined ghost cities, deep-sea prisons, apocalyptic exclusion zones, ancient ruins... Everyone else went in to die, but he went in to save people, seize treasures, and become a god! He rescued billionaires from hell and brought back relatives who had been missing for a century through a rift in ti 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 191 Weeping Evil 哭邪 People watch over a temple for ten years; the temple watches over them for a lifetime. 107Reads6.9Score—14d adds
- 192 I Work as a Gravekeeper in an Unknown Cemetery 我在无名墓园当守墓人 [Infinite Flow + Mild Horror + Mild Suspense + Survival + Plot Twists] The protagonist isn’t a do-gooder, the villains aren’t idiots, the plot doesn’t drag, and every mystery gets resolved; An unnamed Taoist temple deep in the Hundred Thousand Mountains; A merchant ship adrift across a vast sea; A mysterious ruin in an ancient forest; An endless desert stretching beyond the horizon; Snow-capped mountains where the snow never melts; A breathtaking woman in red who is a ghost, and an entity that c —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 193 Notes from a Folklore Archaeology Team 民俗考古队手记 The true experiences of Lin Ye, a 24-year-old graduate student in folklore. I went to the countryside with my advisor to survey funeral customs. On my first day in the village, I saw five words carved into the stone tablet at the entrance: “Do not enter the village at dusk.” The village elders taught me: If someone calls your name at night, don’t answer. A funeral basin must be smashed in one blow. When you leave the village, don’t look back. I wrote down each rule in my notebook, treating it as 15Reads—Score—14d adds
- 194 Don't Look Back During Evening Study at School 学校晚自习别回头 Don’t Look Back During Evening Study at School 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 195 From the Start, I Received a Letter from a Dead Man 开局收到一封死人来信 No romance, no harem, no cultivation The year he graduated from university, Ji Yao received a letter from his grandmother, who had been dead for six years. Five kinds of insurance and a housing fund, twenty thousand a month, and just six hours of work a day. Could there really be a job like that? What he didn’t expect was that, after the letter arrived, one misfortune after another would befall him… A train hijacked by ghosts, an old woman made of candle wax crawling out of a flame, a bizarre 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 196 Soul Collection, Volume Two 集魂录二 A pair of golden eyes, a whip, and a book. Bearing a new mission, Yao Yinsheng sets out to find a secret realm, a place that inspires longing yet no one has ever explored. The Soul-Gathering Record has returned to her hands, more mysterious than ever. Greater challenges and darker sides of human nature begin to emerge. Where, exactly, does hell lie? 20Reads—Score—14d adds
- 197 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—14d adds
- 198 The Ghost Candle Craftsman 诡烛匠人 In a narrow alley in the old part of town stands a candle shop that has been in the same family for three generations. No one knows that it only takes on business involving the cursed. Those driven to despair by ghosts, possession, or paranormal hauntings all come knocking on its door late at night. Zhong Ling, the third-generation heir, doesn't burn talismans or summon deities. He simply hands them a candle. “Light it. Before it burns out, either you die, or the truth comes to life.” Ghostly 13Reads—Score214d adds
- 199 Strange Little Tales from the Urban-Rural Fringe 城乡结合灵异小故事 This collection of little supernatural tales is drawn from stories told by elderly villagers and young people. It's hard to tell what's true and what's not, so just enjoy them as little stories to pass the time over tea. 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 200 Fifth Watch 五更 The stories my grandpa used to tell me were probably meant to scare me into staying put, or maybe to lull me to sleep. He always told them with such conviction and vivid detail that I often found myself dreaming of the very scenes he had lived through. I met the old flower-growing woman on Yinshan Mountain, and one villager after another from Sangen Village. Their faces were gloomy and strange, and their deeds served as a warning, reminding us that “the gods are watching from three feet above yo 705Reads7.2Score10014d adds
