Novels like Strange Tales of Southeast Asia
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Strange Tales of Southeast Asia, best match first.
- 151 Notes on Strange Folk Tales 民间诡事札记 The countryside hides the strangest legends and lays bare the truest depths of the human heart. A single red embroidered shoe beneath an old pagoda tree holds a grievance and a hatred left unspoken. A strange peddler knocking at the door in the dead of night carries no ordinary goods in his pack, only old stories frosted over with time. A bronze mirror rising from an ancient well can reflect ghosts, but not the depths of the human heart... These curious tales scattered across bustling streets an 67Reads—Score—14d adds
- 152 Climbing the Steps 拾级 Climbing the Steps 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 153 The Night of Sacrifice 献祭之夜 The Night of the Sacrifice 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 154 The Pact of the Ancient Book 古书之契 It all began when Lin Zhiyu picked up a strange book. Then he met the equally strange Yu Zhiyan, who seemed to have a secret connection to the book. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 155 The Old Corpse: Strange Happenings in the Mountains 老尸：山中诡事 A thousand skeletons pillow the moonlit stele, their shadows sealed. Autumn tombs wear rosy clouds, blood soaking the steps. The boiling cauldron cooks souls, a thousand years of grievance. A grand feast for ghosts, with every skeleton withered. In the utter silence, corpse oil lights the candle. In a place shrouded from the world, a rotting hand pushes open the door. A lingering soul adorns the dressing table, a spider transformed into a hairpin. A name sinks beneath the mirror, maggots become 155Reads—Score—14d adds
- 156 At Midnight, Don't Stay in Room 404 午夜十二点，别住404 After transferring schools, Lin Xiaoman is assigned to the strangest dormitory of all: Room 404. On the first night, she sees a pair of soaking-wet slippers beneath her bed, but no one admits they belong to her. On the second night, the shared clock turns counterclockwise and stops at the moment Senior Chu fell from the building three years ago. On the third night, her reflection in the bathroom mirror moves three seconds behind her, and unfamiliar bloody marks appear on her wrist. Her roommates 23Reads—Score—14d adds
- 157 Wet Footprints 水脚印 Have you ever heard the legends of water ghosts? Strings of wet footprints beneath the moonlight are proof that they exist... A group of young people, hoping to strike it rich by studying abroad, believed they could cash in on their overseas degrees and build brighter futures. But while attending university abroad, they ran into a series of inexplicable events. The fear of the unknown loomed over them like a dark cloud, and their original reasons for going had long since changed amid frantic esc 10Reads—Score—14d adds
- 158 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
- 159 The Rouge House 脂楼 The Rouge Tower —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 160 Hong Kong’s Yin Chronicles: The Domino Curse 香江陰錄：骨牌劫 Hong Kong Yin Chronicles: The Bone Tile Calamity —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 161 The Sixth Man's Strange Tales 老六诡事 A collection of true stories about all kinds of inexplicable, supernatural events personally experienced by people around me. Just think of it as my attempt to pass off some tales as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio! Not for the faint of heart! Not for the faint of heart! Not for the faint of heart! I’m repeating it three times because it’s important! I don’t make up stories. I’m simply passing them along! 62Reads—Score—14d adds
- 162 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
- 163 The Yin-Yang Geomancer’s Legacy 阴阳地师传 At ten years old, I slew a white serpent and subdued a hundred ghosts. The generals of the underworld called me “little brother.” Using feng shui, the art of Qimen, and Taoist magic, I solved one strange murder case after another! It all began with the corpse of a man in a cornfield! 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 164 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
- 165 Paranormal Encounters: What I Saw and Heard 灵异事件之所见所闻 No System + no transmigration + no power fantasy + no harem + no invincible protagonist + no sweet romance + no clichés + no female lead + no cultivation. Important notice: if this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it! Do you believe there are things in this world that science cannot explain? Have you ever experienced anything supernatural yourself? Treat the events in this novel as stories, and remember: Fear and respect the sp 129Reads—Score—14d adds
- 166 The Strange and Supernatural Things I’ve Heard and Seen 那些我所闻所见的灵异事 I’ll tell stories about the strange things that have happened to me over the years, along with the folk secrets and I Ching mysticism I’ve learned. At the start of each story, I’ll say whether I experienced it myself or heard it from someone else. I may not tell them in chronological order. I need to remember and organize everything, so I’ll just talk about whatever comes to mind. Things I experienced myself may be exaggerated, but they’re absolutely true. As for some of the stories I’ve heard, 2.4kReads—Score15614d adds
- 167 You Were Told to Guard a Village, So Why Did You Make the City God Cry? 让你守个村儿，你把城隍打哭了？ After the old madman died, I always thought I was the only person left in the village. Then one year, two men showed up carrying a camera and said they wanted to film a documentary about walking marriages... 458Reads8.5Score—14d adds
- 168 I Have the Body of a Ghost King, Yet Became the Strongest Exorcist 我，鬼王之体，却成了最强术士 [Traditional supernatural horror, folk horror, strange tales and bizarre encounters, taboos of yin and yang] On the third day of the third lunar month, ghosts go mad. Chen Sansan was born on just such a day. Because of him, his father was buried alive by his master in the old house in Heilong Village. For his sake, his master was trapped in a tiny room. As for Chen Sansan, he has no choice but to keep signing contracts between yin and yang with ghosts to prolong his life. Otherwise, he won't sur 38Reads6.8Score—14d adds
- 169 A Rural Guide to the Supernatural 乡野灵异手册 I was born in a remote village, with a faint red, triangular birthmark on my forehead. On the day I was born, every fish in the village pond died. After my birth, one strange event after another began happening in the village: cooked chunks of a corpse in an abandoned well, a neighbor's grandmother coming back from the dead, a doll that wept bloody tears. The villagers started calling me a harbinger of disaster, and everyone avoided me. 131Reads8.7Score—14d adds
- 170 The Laughing Underworld Chronicles 笑冥录 “If an almanac could turn you into a ghost right on schedule, but the price was wearing a dead person’s clothes once a day, would you use it?” Top-voted answer (by the poster “Lord Wuchang Has No More Years of Life Today”): “Thanks for the invite. I’m in the underworld, just got off the night shift.” 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 171 Tieling Storms: The Blue Butterfly Dances 铁岭风云：蓝蝶舞 Tieling Chronicles: The Blue Butterfly —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 172 The Second Night: Zhaodi's Ghost Wedding 第二夜：招娣的阴婚 The Second Night: Zhaodi’s Ghost Wedding 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 173 The Autobiography of a Yin Walker 一位走阴人的自传 Adapted into a full-cast audiobook on Tomato Listen. [This story is based on the true account of someone who walks between the worlds of the living and the dead. The horror is off the charts, so timid readers beware!] Have you ever heard of someone who walks between the worlds of the living and the dead? I'm the only son in three generations of the Guo family. My name is Guo Lideng. I've had the yin-yang eyes since I was a child, and can see things ordinary people cannot. As an adult, I stumbled 5.7kReads7.1Score32514d adds
- 174 Don't Ask! I'm an Evil Cultivator Gone Mad Over Appraising Treasures, on My Way to Godhood 别问！问就是邪修鉴宝发癫成神 [Overworked office worker fights back + no romance + strong female lead + livestreamed antiques appraisal + mystery and the paranormal + making money to stay alive + fantastical ideas + lighthearted comedy + sharp-tongued troll] After being reborn, overworked office worker Lu Tianyi is forced to bind herself to a deadly evil-cultivation System! She thought surviving a disaster meant getting a satisfying new life, but it turns out to be a pay-to-survive game! Time left to live: one day! This isn’ 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 175 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
- 176 Horror: Death Comes at Midnight 恐怖：夜半索命 I lived a routine life until the death of Old Chen changed everything. Beside his body lay a pile of handmade paper figures. One had been painted blood red and clutched in his stiff, dead hand. Blood-red words began appearing in the mirror: “Get out.” “He’s still in the building.” Then I received an ultimatum: his daughter needed a living substitute. Paper figures weren’t enough. Neither were his belongings. She wanted a living person in the building, someone warm and breathing. Tomorrow, at mid 17Reads—Score11014d adds
- 177 Girls’ Dorm Rule Horror: Survive! 女寝规则怪谈：请活下去！ The Dormitory Girls’ Rules of the Strange: Survive! 102Reads—Score314d adds
- 178 A Collection of Spine-Chilling Stories 惊骇故事集 The world is in turmoil, with strange and wondrous things hiding everywhere. Mysteries deep in the starry sky remain unsolved, while shocking cases unfold around a small town. Science fiction and suspense perform a double act, as Lovecraftian murders rise with the tide. The secrets in people’s hearts are hard to fathom. Just wait and see this collection unleash its waves of terror. The horror here is bizarre and grotesque, not some childish little scare. In an abandoned village shrine, a white- 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 179 The Haunted Inn 凶灵旅店 At Qiyun Inn, tucked deep in the mountains, terrifying ghost stories have been passed down for years. In this isolated place, the shadow of a desperate death looms! Is it the curse of an evil spirit, or a sinister plot by ruthless criminals? In these fog-shrouded, pitch-black mountains and wilderness, a strange dark shape suddenly appears up ahead! Is it a person? An animal? Or... a ghost? Through the dark rain and fog, a solitary, old-fashioned courtyard comes into view. A towering tree with an 159Reads8.9Score—14d adds
- 180 The Corpse Plague 尸瘟 Corpse Plague 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 181 The Mystic Arts Curse Master 玄门咒神 On the day Yang Xuan was supposed to get engaged, a blood-red coffin inexplicably appeared in his home. Inside lay a beautiful woman with skin like jade. On the first day, his father died. On the second day, a yin-yang master told Yang Xuan: If he wanted to survive this calamity, he had to consummate his marriage with her... 115Reads—Score—14d adds
- 182 A Corrupted Heart 糜烂之心 Deep inside the Luocheng Police Department, a metal filing cabinet labeled “Bloodstained Files” holds dozens of long-unsolved, grisly cases. Each one once shocked the nation with its bizarre deaths, but limited forensic technology at the time meant they were ultimately filed away as “unsolved.” In 2025, advances in forensic science prompted the department to launch the “Bloodstained Files Resolution Project.” The first case to be reopened was the most controversial of them all: the “Terrifying P 42Reads—Score—14d adds
- 183 The Silent Pact 不语契 I thought I would follow in my god-grandfather's footsteps and calmly enter Peking University's archaeology department. Then an unexpected ancient clay tablet, covered in strange runes, changed everything. Its cryptic clues, like hooks of fate, dragged me from the misty rain of Jiangnan to the mysterious, sweltering lands of Dian in Yunnan. Buried beneath the miasma-choked jungle was not only the legendary tomb of the ancient Dian king, lost for a thousand years, but also the start of a breathta —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 184 My Pale Life 我苍白的一生 My name is Zhang Yuan, though my childhood nickname was Ergou. I'm male, born in 1990. Everyone encounters all kinds of strange, inexplicable things in life. By the way, do you believe in ghosts? 491Reads8.4Score10114d adds
- 185 The Coffin Bearer 抬棺者 I’m a coffin bearer. After carrying coffins for decades, I’ve seen all kinds of sinister coffins: mother-and-child coffins, coffins without mourners, coffins for those who died violent deaths… And behind these coffins, a shocking secret was hidden… 195Reads6.7Score10514d adds
- 186 Visitor from Hell 狱下来客 A modern supernatural mystery. Not wish fulfillment, not brainless, and no System. In this life, you pass countless people on the street. What makes you so sure they're all human? I never believed in this stuff either, until my landlord tricked me into moving to a place called Happy Community. The people around me didn't seem to be people at all. Footprints on the ceiling, dolls made of human skin, bloated drowned giants, people raising zombies, mother-and-child ghosts... Just how many secrets l 596Reads8.0Score10014d adds
- 187 Something Wicked Lurks Behind Me 背后有诡 A game I played because I couldn’t sleep late at night somehow led me to experience paranormal events. Were these incidents one by one the work of people, or something supernatural? From then on, the paranormal seemed bound to me. Wherever I went, strange events followed. Survive. 139Reads—Score—14d adds
- 188 The Soul-Returning Soup 还魂汤 I was born in a remote village. The day my mother gave birth to me, she died a horrible death! I was born disabled, missing an arm, and with a red birthmark shaped like a coiled snake on my foot. My master said I had been cursed by an evil spirit, and that the curse could only be lifted if I found the one who cast it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t live to see twenty... 96Reads—Score—14d adds
- 189 The Most Terrifying Class on Campus 高校里最恐怖的班级 A classmate who had been dead for two years suddenly spoke in the group chat. At first, everyone thought it was someone's prank, until the first classmate died unexpectedly. Only then did they realize this was no prank... 792Reads—Score—14d adds
- 190 My Hopeless Life Became Even More Desperate 我无望的人生更加绝望 After something happened to her family, Mu Xia could never move on from that day. She went through life in a daze. Until one day, she accidentally entered a world of horror. And so began a fantastical journey. She made new friends, faced all kinds of events, and lived a new life. 1Reads6.4Score—14d adds
- 191 The Midnight Mantou Shop 午夜馒头铺 Have you ever noticed that some breakfast shops serve food that's delicious most of the time, but for a couple of days each month, it suddenly tastes dry and is hard to swallow? Have you ever wondered if perhaps that breakfast food was never meant for people to eat...? 377Reads7.4Score—14d adds
- 192 Paranormal Tales That Give You Cold Sweats 冷汗直冒的灵异故事 This Book: Start reading at midnight, and you won’t sleep before dawn! ⚠️Warning: This book contains intense horror. Readers who scare easily, proceed with caution! The night-shift nurse keeps hearing sobbing from an empty hospital room; The reflection in the mirror of an old house suddenly grins at you; On the last bus of the night, the feet of the passenger in the back row... dangle above the floor. Tomato’s No. 1 supernatural horror pick: ✅ One self-contained horror story per chapter, shor 115Reads—Score—14d adds
- 193 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. 133Reads—Score—14d adds
- 194 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
- 195 The Corpse of a Mountain Village Woman 山村女尸 [Feel-Good Read + Urban + Suspense + Supernatural] He Xi is an ordinary security guard. One day, the west gate of Chaoxi Psychiatric Hospital desperately needs a guard. The pay is 30,000 yuan a month, but nobody dares take the job! Nobody else dares, but He Xi does! Only after arriving does he realize something is wrong. The west gate isn’t meant for people to pass through at all. It’s a gate for ghosts! 7.7kReads7.7Score35314d adds
- 196 Ghosts in the High-Rise, Yet You Still Want Me to Go Undercover as a Security Guard 大厦闹鬼，你还让我去做卧底保安 My name is Ma Rui, and I’m a police cadet. Recently, a series of bizarre cases have taken place inside an office building: a little finger in a food delivery order; hair in a steamed bun filling; bloodstained banknotes; a strange tile cat; and a headless woman’s corpse in a woven sack… To solve the cases as quickly as possible, the police need to send an undercover agent into the building to work as a “night security guard.” So I took on this important assignment! 856Reads7.0Score—14d adds
- 197 Ghost Stories at Three in the Morning 三更讲鬼 This book recounts some strange events from the 1980s. One place holds far more than a hundred stories. Perhaps it would be more fitting for me to be a bystander, or a listener. I have written down the stories I heard to remember the past. You can simply take the people and events in these pages as a joke, if you like. Or you can read them as stories that invite self-reflection. Who knows... the characters in them might bear a resemblance to you. Or perhaps they reflect someone close to you. Wit 156Reads8.4Score—14d adds
- 198 Surviving in a Haunted Mountain Village 在恐怖山村里活下去 Gu Xi enters a real-game scenario called “Horror Mountain Village,” where she's cast as a young bride sold into a remote mountain village to bring good luck to her sick husband. In just a few days in the village, the System's missions have her beating up her brother-in-law, smashing a family heirloom, and even catching her husband in bed with her maid... She's managed to offend every member of the family. She thought this was the limit of reckless behavior, but the missions that follow only get 699Reads8.2Score10114d adds
- 199 I’m a Funeral Director, but They Call Me the Lusheng Immortal 我送葬者，他们却叫我芦笙仙人 [A new cultivation system + guide + immortality + plot-focused + invincible + corruption] When Yang Tian was dug up, he honestly wanted to kill someone. He’d paid five taels of silver to have himself buried, and after spending so long alone in the river of time, he really didn’t want to go on living. His farewell to his son beside the River of Calamity was still vivid in his mind. So was the pain of personally guiding his beloved’s soul into the afterlife. The sight of his twenty-eighth-generati 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 200 Whispers by the Candlelit Ruins 幽庭烛烬语 In the dead of night, countless eerie secrets lurk in the dark folds of the city. The knocking in an old apartment, known as “Knocking at Midnight,” rings out like clockwork at three in the morning. When a woman living alone peers through the peephole, all she sees is a roiling cloud of scarlet blood mist in the hallway, while a damp scratching comes from the doorknob. In the basement of a century-old apothecary, “Whispers in the Medicine Crock” never cease, day or night. Every night at midnight 3Reads—Score—14d adds
