Novels like My Years in the Funeral Business
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as My Years in the Funeral Business, best match first.
- 1 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—14d adds
- 2 Short Tales of Terror: A Collection of Strange Stories 短篇微恐：志怪故事集 Do you think the footsteps behind you when you walk alone late at night are just the wind? Do you think the unfamiliar object that suddenly appears in an old storage box is just something you forgot about? Do you think the blurry shadow that sometimes flickers across the mirror is just a trick of the light? This collection of strange tales has no blunt, bloody shocks. It is filled only with eerie everyday moments hidden in the folds of ordinary life. Each story stands alone, yet after you close 59Reads—Score—14d adds
- 3 A Collection of Northeast China's Folk Horror Stories 东北民间恐怖故事合集 This is a collection of horror stories that peels back the mysteries of Northeast China. Every tale comes from stories passed by word of mouth in the countryside. When the lamps are lit tonight, let me tell them to you slowly: strange happenings deep in the mountains, ghost stories from old houses, rural taboos and legends, and the chilling truths and terrors hidden behind the warmth of everyday life. Are you ready to hear the “old stories” of the black soil? 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 4 The Uncanny Path: Invasion of the Aliens 诡道：异形入侵 Aliens + ghosts + demons + parasites + lurking horrors. Maximum terror! The protagonist comes down from the mountain to investigate aliens and ghosts, honing his Daoist arts in real combat. Chapters 1–12 focus on aliens. From Chapter 13 onward, the story combines evil ghosts and aliens. Later, certain aliens will transform into demons, but the sense of oppression and the level of danger will stay just as high. The sect is the Hidden Immortal Sect, founded by Laozi’s disciple. Its history can be 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 5 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. 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 6 Professional Funeral Watcher 职业守灵人 At funerals, there is a ritual called “keeping vigil.” I am a professional vigil keeper. People pay me to keep watch over their dead. Over the course of my career, I have witnessed far too many touching stories and tragic circumstances. But most of all, I have encountered strange and terrifying events. And it all began the first time I saw a ghost while keeping vigil... 191Reads6.9Score13714d adds
- 7 The Temple That Eats People 吃人的庙 The Man-Eating Temple 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 8 You Want Me to Catch Ghosts? 你让我去抓鬼？ My name is Lin Fan. I'm twenty-two, and I graduated with a college diploma in marketing. While other graduates had job offers in hand and were charging ahead, I graduated straight into a pit of misery. I was two months behind on rent, my pockets were emptier than my face was clean, and my only possession was a beat-up electric scooter that clanked at the slightest touch and looked ready to fall apart at any moment. Five yuan per delivery. I raced around in the wind and sun, but I couldn't plug t 37Reads—Score114d adds
- 9 The Haunting of the New Home 搬家诡事 [Mystery + Thriller + Supernatural + Horror + No Female Lead + Smart Protagonist] His name was Yi Jibo. After he was wrongfully imprisoned, his mother fell ill and died. To pay off his gambling debts, his father sold her ashes to the Japanese through a crematorium driver. To get his mother's ashes back, Yi Jibo went to work at a Japanese funeral home. And so he burned Japanese corpses while searching for his mother's ashes… 19Reads—Score—14d adds
- 10 Multiple Fears 多重恐惧 An invitation to a party brings together nine writers, each with a very different style. At the party, the novelist who invited them traps everyone inside and demands that each guest tell a story. With no other choice, they comply. One story after another unfolds at the party: will they reveal the clash of human nature or unleash ghostly terrors? Everything will come to light here. "This is my debut work. I hope you'll show it plenty of support." 10Reads—Score—14d adds
- 11 From the Start, I Took My Colleagues Back to Town 开局带着同事回镇 I grew up in Luoyin Town, but when I was six, I fled the ancient town overnight with my family. The town's baleful energy sealed away all my memories of it, leaving only scattered fragments of terrifying nightmares. My parents vanished mysteriously many years ago, leaving behind just one final warning: Never return to the mountains, and never touch anything red. To uncover the truth behind their disappearance, I follow the clues in a fragmentary ancient text and return to Luoyin Town. I am the o —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 12 The Paper Effigy Yama 纸扎阎罗 Before Grandpa died, he left me with a warning: a paper effigy maker must never make three kinds of figures. On my very first day taking over the shop, I broke every rule. I made a wedding dress for a girl who died violently, a filial son for a childless widow, and finally... a stand-in for a living person. Now all the paper figures I made come alive at night and gather around me, calling me “Master.” Outside the window, the girl who should have been dead for three years is knocking on the door. 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 13 The Yin-Yang Twin 阴阳双生人 [Mild Horror + The Supernatural] Ming Ye grew up living in a cemetery. Her parents went missing seven years ago and were eventually found dead under bizarre circumstances in the mountains. Seven years later, she became an emergency room doctor. One midnight, she met the Taoist priest Xu Baoyang on a bus as he was out catching ghosts. Later, while tracking clues about his missing master, Xu Baoyang came to the hospital where Ming Ye worked and discovered that a strange hospital orderly had set up —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 14 My Days Working at a Funeral Home 我在殡仪馆工作的那些事儿 My name is Ling Yu. I work at a funeral home with Big Fatty. One day, a beautiful corpse wearing Chanel arrived at the funeral home. I stole the Chanel outfit and gave it to my girlfriend. Then a string of sinister things began to happen... Deaths kept piling up, closing in on Big Fatty and me step by step. How can we escape Death's pursuit? 2kReads5.9Score10614d adds
- 15 Before the Strange Things Begin 在一切诡异之前 [Supernatural resurgence + horror + no System + semi-infinite survival + no saintly protagonist + not dark + no female lead] When ghosts invaded reality, a group of survivors gained the protection of the “Rules.” They became employees of the “Rules,” and to keep enjoying their protection, they had to complete tasks. But the power of the “Rules” was limited... I didn't really care about any of that. I didn't want to bother figuring out what was the cause and what was the effect. So what if this w 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 16 The Haunted Hearse 灵车诡事 I'm an ambulance driver for the dead. When I first started the job, Third Master told me a few rules every hearse driver must follow. Then one day, to pay off my loan, I transported a bizarre corpse... 328Reads6.6Score—14d adds
- 17 Northeastern Folk Taboos 东北民间禁忌 The black soil of the Northeast holds too many stories, and hides too many rules. If you hear someone call your name in the middle of the night, never look back. On New Year’s Eve, if a dumpling wrapper breaks, it’s for the “good brothers” to eat. If you meet a woman in red while walking at night, remember to pull your hat down low... These taboos passed down by the older generation are superstition if you don’t believe in them. But if you break them, they become a ghostly gateway that leads str 1.6kReads—Score10314d adds
- 18 Strange Tales of the Northeast 东北鬼事异闻 A collection of strange tales about ghosts and supernatural happenings in Northeast China. Some are hearsay, while others are terrifying paranormal events that happened right before the storyteller's eyes. A weasel spirit gaining human form, a fox stealing an elixir, a corpse crushed beneath a millstone... 1.7kReads—Score10614d adds
- 19 After My Face Was Stolen, I Drew the Six Realms of Living Beings 我的脸被夺走后我画出六道众生相 My face was stolen. It wasn’t disfigured. It wasn’t disguised. My face was literally gone. To stay alive, I had no choice but to paint one new face after another onto my own. Human, ghost, demon, beast, god, immortal. Every face I painted gave me a new ability. As I tried to reclaim my original face, I gradually discovered that this world was far more complicated than it seemed. 96Reads—Score12614d adds
- 20 Ghosts Knock at Midnight! 半夜鬼敲门！ Zhou Ming moved into an old, cheap apartment, unaware that it concealed a terrifying secret from twenty years ago. Every night at midnight, three knocks sounded on his door, right on time. But when he looked through the peephole, no one was there. Then, one rainy night, he looked through the peephole and saw a twisted, misshapen face staring fixedly at him… As he investigated further, Zhou Ming discovered that the apartment had once been home to Lin Xiaowan, a girl who had gone missing. Her d 17Reads—Score—14d adds
- 21 A Call from Three Lives, A Call Three Times 三生来电，三声来电 The heroine's family fortune is seized through the schemes of three utterly evil forces: bandits, the military, and merchants. Her parents are wrongly accused and die in prison, while she is repeatedly violated by bandits beside their funeral altar, until she takes her own life before her parents' spirits. In a time of chaos, human lives are worth no more than weeds. The heroine can only become a vengeful ghost, embarking on a century-long revenge spanning three lifetimes. She calls the three f 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 22 Shadows in the Daylight 白昼暗影 The criminal he hunts is himself. The shadow he cannot escape is his only protector. Lin Mo, the police department’s star profiler, cracks one extraordinary case after another with his precise criminal psychology analyses. But he doesn’t know that every night, another self awakens: Shen Ye, a “dark vigilante” who fights violence with violence, hunting down criminals who escaped justice through Lin Mo. The massacre that destroyed his family when he was a child split ten-year-old Lin Mo’s mind, cr —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 23 Ghostly Tales from Fengdu 丰都鬼事 In her previous life, young artist Lin Wan set out alone for the fabled ghost city of Fengdu to search for her missing older sister, Lin Zhixia. Naively, she trusted the seemingly kind innkeeper and local gentry, unaware that she had stepped into a carefully laid trap. Coveted for her yin constitution, she was ultimately sacrificed in an old mansion behind Fengdu's famous mountain by the so-called “good Samaritans” to a traitor in the underworld who had disguised himself as Black Impermanence. H 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 24 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 52Reads—Score—14d adds
- 25 My Paranormal Memoirs 我的灵异自传经历 The story follows the male protagonist through a series of supernatural and terrifying events he personally experienced as a boy and later as an adult. Each chapter is a new story, beginning with memories from his childhood, as the paranormal incidents grow steadily more frightening. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 26 Don't Be Afraid, She's the Person Closest to Me 别怕，她是我最亲密的人 [Handcrafted from Scratch] [Flesh-and-Blood Vengeful Ghosts] [Chinese Horror] [Character Growth] [Not Mindless Wish Fulfillment] [Tightly Plotted] [Absolutely Ruthless] [50,000-Word Outline] If you were given the chance to change your fate, would you rather keep working hard as a delivery driver, or suddenly become a 182-centimeter-tall, golden-haired older man who never has to worry about food or clothing? Yu Fa had no choice. He was forced to transmigrate into the latter. But before he could e —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 27 Rift in the Abyss: We Awakened the Old Ones 深渊裂隙：我们唤醒旧日支配者 In 1992, U.S. Army Major Austin takes charge of the top-secret project "Abyss Watch." One hundred and thirty meters beneath the desert, a strange fissure spreads madness into the world above. Five elite soldiers are ordered into the abyss, with Austin directing their investigation remotely. A videotape that appears out of nowhere exposes a horrific secret from the past: To spy on the secrets underground, the military sacrificed living people. A thousand meters below ground, an ancient stone gate —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 28 Medium's Notes: My Left Eye Can See Ghosts 灵媒笔记：我的左眼能见鬼 The Cangye lineage of the Southern Frontier unleashes chaos. The Cherry Blossom Curse, Yin Soil summoning, Ruin Spirits, and malevolent earth veins emerge one after another, leaving the seals protecting the land on the brink of collapse. In a desperate battle, pure Yang Heavenly Energy collides with the turbid qi of Yin Soil inside him, forming a yin-yang vortex whose blessings and dangers are impossible to predict. His old enemies flee into the Hundred Thousand Mountains, seeking a chance to p 12Reads—Score—14d adds
- 29 Hook in the Mist 迷雾之钩 The mist over Qinglan Reservoir never lifts. A pendant and fishhook engraved with the date 1962.7.15 don’t catch fish; they catch the living and the dead. Three years ago, documentary photographer Shen Bozhou’s heart stopped for ten minutes when he jumped into the reservoir to save his partner, who had plunged into the water under mysterious circumstances. Ever since, he has been haunted by visions from beneath the surface. Now he has returned to finish the film he left incomplete, only to find —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 30 The Northern School Yin-Yang Master 北派阴阳师 I'm a corpse carrier and a second-rate Taoist. My father refined my mother into a Yin child to bring him wealth, and now he wants to make me disappear for good. The only person I've ever truly been at odds with is my father, the old fraud known as Chen Banxian... 155Reads—Score—14d adds
- 31 I Tamed the Paranormal 我把诡异收服了 Born with ghostly eyes, I share a desk with the City Lord of the Underworld. A vengeful female ghost wants me to kiss her, I take in a powerful underworld enforcer, and a princess from a thousand years ago swears an oath with me. Onstage, they sing of sorrow and grief. Beneath the stage, I capture every kind of evil. My name is Zhang Qiang. Watch me run rampant through the Underworld! —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 32 I Work as a Mortuary Makeup Artist 我在殡仪馆做化妆师 I used to be a stylist on film and television sets. After reality put me through the wringer, I stumbled into a job as a mortuary makeup artist. Every day, I face all kinds of bizarre corpses, and they have shown me another world... 717Reads8.2Score10014d adds
- 33 Yin-Yang Headhunter: I Find Jobs for Ghosts, and They Ask Me Out 阴阳猎头：我给诡找工作，诡问我处不处对象 On the day he was laid off, Jiang Ye received a death notice: in thirty days, someone would throw him off a rooftop. To stay alive, he was forced to take a job at Yin-Yang Headhunting Co., Ltd., a company that specializes in finding jobs for ghosts. Every time he finds a job for a ghost, he unlocks part of the truth behind his own death. Every time he fails, another corpse spot appears on his body. Once they cover him from head to toe, the company will devour his soul. Every high-level order com 2.3kReads8.4Score34314d adds
- 34 Six Relics to Banish Evil 六器渡邪 On a stormy night, the evil box passed down through my family shattered on its own, and I became a wanted fugitive accused of several murders. My only chance of survival was to recover the six cursed artifacts scattered across the Lin family. But they weren't treasures. They were instruments of torture, each one imprisoning the soul of someone our ancestors had tortured into becoming an artifact. Soul-harvesting rice from the Hungry Ghost Realm, a mending needle used to sew together a hundred —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 35 One Thousand and One Modern Tales of the Supernatural 一千零一个，现代灵异故事 [Based on True Stories] [Folktales] [Horror and the Supernatural] The stories in this novel feel full of everyday life. The people and events in every story are portrayed in a realistic way, bringing to life the supernatural experiences of all the main and supporting characters. If you’re a horror story fan, don’t miss this novel. (If you get scared, call your best hapless friend over… so you can be scared together.) 5.2kReads7.0Score21214d adds
- 36 You Found Me 你找到我了 Modern Supernatural + Female-Led + Fresh Premise + All-Rounder + Wild Imagination + Reincarnation + Spirit Speech + Runes and Formations + Fictional Modern Setting + Pure Wish Fulfillment in the Middle and Later Parts Abandoned and cast out? No. Her god reincarnates for her, life after life. Following the usual formula and old clichés? No. The Heavenly Dao is nothing to her. An ordinary girl dealing with a life that’s a complete mess? No. Other people are the ordinary ones. She is the unique one 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 37 Midnight Tales of the Strange 午夜怪谈录 A collection of a hundred folk tales of the supernatural, with one self-contained story per chapter. Every tale strikes at the heart of Chinese-style horror. Welcome to Midnight Tales. A word of warning: if you read late at night, be sure to lock your doors. Each chapter is a new story, told entirely in the first person. 97Reads—Score—14d adds
- 38 A Collection of Bizarre Horror Stories 怪诞恐怖故事集 My stories have magic, blood and tears, the evil side of human nature, and the horror you’re looking for. 1. Mother’s Bottles and Jars: A single drop of blood can turn one grain of rice into a whole pot of rice. A hundred drops can conjure a bicycle... What kind of magic is hidden in the bottles and jars Mother prepared for him? 2. The Toilets in Dreams: If you fall asleep while desperate to pee, you’ve surely dreamed of all kinds of toilets. If you write down the toilets you see in your dreams, 13Reads—Score—14d adds
- 39 Strike It Rich by Opening the Coffin 开棺发财 [Handcrafted from scratch + Traditional supernatural horror + No System + No cultivation + Extremely scary + Based on true experiences] Paper figures carry the coffin, a black dog tosses the grave, and an old man falls in love with a ghost. An opened coffin is carried home, and a beautiful fairy follows through the door. My name is Qin Yang. I was down on my luck and only hoped to make money by opening coffins. I never expected that it would turn out to be such a high-risk profession. (Friends i 1.7kReads—Score13114d adds
- 40 Strange Tales of Southeast Asia 东南亚诡事 (The author has opened a coffee shop in the ancient city of Dali and is busy with renovations. Please wait a little while for updates.) My name is Ning. During college, I went alone to Thailand to intern at a hotel, where a series of bizarre and inexplicable things happened. Why was there a temple built inside the hotel? What secrets did this temple hide? 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 41 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 5Reads—Score214d adds
- 42 I Heard of Strange Things That Year: Never Read This Late at Night 那年听闻怪事，千万别深夜翻看 These stories are adapted and fictionalized from various experiences shared by friends. They are written in an accessible style and make for a good way to unwind. A reminder: reject superstition. This is all imaginative fiction. Any similarities to real events are purely coincidental, so don't take it seriously! 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 43 Bureau 749: A Yin Messenger on the Road to the Underworld 749局：黄泉走阴人 There is an organization that exists only in the darkness: Bureau 749. Founded in 1974, with no records and no official status, it is made up of scientists and people with supernatural abilities. It handles the dirtiest, most sinister, most forbidden affairs in the human world. Ghost soldiers march through the night, leaving nothing but empty skins in an entire village. The White God of Wealth kills anyone who worships him, taking their souls to feed evil. An ancient Buddha opens its mouth to de 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 44 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...! 55Reads6.9Score—14d adds
- 45 My Years as a Yin-Yang Master 我当阴阳先生那些年 In my line of work, I’ve run into all kinds of things: the underworld and its officials, sinister spirits on campus, Taoist priests from Laoshan, bloodsucking vampires... You name it. I’ve also crossed paths with plenty of beautiful fox spirits, seductive female ghosts, and wicked temptresses from demonic cults. A friend once asked me, “You know how to hunt demons, so why not marry one?” One word: broke. Do you really think dating a monster is free? 240Reads6.3Score—14d adds
- 46 I Have a Ghostly Wife 我有鬼娇妻 [Mystery] [Comedy] Have you ever experienced something like this? I mean, asking for a wife at the bottom of a dry well! I live in a small village in the mountains, cut off from the outside world. No outsiders have visited in hundreds of years. Maybe it's because of a curse, but no baby girls have ever been born in our village. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 47 Dead City 死城 In this book, I’ll take you in search of the eerie things hidden in the city, and the terrifying taboos lurking in everyday life. 1.7kReads8.4Score24714d adds
- 48 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 111Reads—Score—14d adds
- 49 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 70Reads—Score—14d adds
- 50 A Collection of Folk Tales 民间故事会合集 Open this book, and you’ll find that its folk legends and tales are unlike any you’ve read before. These stories are full of fantasy: some are terrifying, some suspenseful, some explore the ugliness of human nature, and others deal with karmic retribution. In this vast world, what hidden folk tales and legends do you know? Step into an ancient, mysterious world and join the author in discovering and experiencing these extraordinary folk stories! 22Reads—Score—14d adds
