Novels like The Mystic Carpenter
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Mystic Carpenter, best match first.
- 1 The Immortality Project: I’m Frantically Gaining Extra Lives on the Other Side of the World 永生计划，我在世界对面疯狂加命 Every Easter, a massive ship docks, packed with people hoping to gain eternal life as it sails toward the far shore of the Fog Ocean. But everyone who boards disappears without a trace... Tomorrow is Easter, and Lu Xi boards the ship too, longing for eternal life. The moment he steps aboard, he notices how strangely soft the deck feels. Then he sees tray after tray of eerie sandalwood incense. Everyone who lights a stick dies... leaving no body behind! —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 2 The Soul-Calming Banquet 安魂席 Soul-Calming Banquet —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 3 Strange Tales from the South 南方灵异事 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 4 The Seven-Night Spirit Coffin Corpse 七夜灵棺尸 In my dream, I mistakenly believed that Li the Lame, seeking revenge for having his wife stolen, had made a door for my family out of the coffin wood of a girl who had been dead for seven days. Its yin energy clung to us, causing the pillars of our family to leave one after another. I couldn’t get over it. My future father-in-law, Old Yu, saw what was going on and brought over Zhang Baifa, who I would later take as my master. My master dispelled the evil yin force. Once I learned what had happen 229Reads—Score—Shelves
- 5 Do I Look Human or Like a Ghost? 你看我是人还是鬼？ After graduating from high school, I was guarding watermelons in a melon field. One night, a thief came to steal them. I rushed over and fought him, driving him off, but then I came down with a high fever that wouldn't break. The next day, my family went to check the field. All they found were my own chaotic footprints and the watermelons trampled into mush... —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 6 Tales of Strange Campus Happenings 校园诡事叙 Reader's guide: No romance. This isn't a wish-fulfillment story. It's more like a journal than a novel, with few dramatic twists. The story is told for the sake of telling it and follows the timeline. The supernatural elements are adapted from stories recounted by people the author once knew. Yuan Ruoying, a talented student in Class 16 of her second year of high school, attends a top school in the city. Her days are spent studying, following the same three-point routine. Life is busy but peacef 16Reads8.1Score—Shelves
- 7 Prisoner of the Azure Sky 天青色的囚徒 Prisoner in a Sky-Blue World —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 8 Jiangcheng Archives 江城档案 The day my grandfather disappeared, he left me a notebook. I’m Jiang Cheng, born during the yin hour, a discharged soldier. I’ve never opened my Third Eye and can’t draw talismans. My only skill is running a little faster than everyone else when ghosts come after me. 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 9 You Were Supposed to Catch Ghosts, So Why Are You Flirting with Girls Everywhere? 让你捉鬼，你却到处撩妹 “You little brat, I told you to catch ghosts, but you’re out there flirting with women. Last time, the client even complained that you kept staring at her chest and thighs.” “Hehe! She was dressed so skimpy and had such long legs. She was practically asking people to look. I’d be a fool not to!” 363Reads—Score102Shelves
- 10 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... 324Reads6.6Score—Shelves
- 11 Tales of Strange Corpses 诡尸怪谈 Do you know where the bodies used for dissection in medical schools come from? Strange things keep happening at medical schools, and people die for no apparent reason. Before long, rumors give rise to all kinds of taboos. Out of ignorance, my roommates died one after another. And I’m the only one who knows what lies at the root of it all... 159Reads—Score—Shelves
- 12 The Riddle of Fog City: The AI Ghost in the Noodles 雾都谜面：小面里的AI鬼 The Fog City Mystery: The AI Ghost in the Noodles 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 13 Old Alley Sound Repair: At Midnight Tonight, Qin Opera Calls the Souls 旧巷声修：今夜子时，秦腔引魂 [One Heroine + Sound Cultivation + Qin Opera + Livestreaming + Supernatural Mystery + Urban + Adventure] In modern society, information explodes across the world, and human negativity is amplified through social media, forming an immense “Tide of Resentment.” If no one guides and dispels it, within three years it will gather into a “Lament of Doomsday,” and the boundary between the worlds of yin and yang will collapse completely. Humanity’s power comes from “the Power of Wishes”: energy formed w —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 14 The Human-Skin Umbrella 人皮伞 A human-skin umbrella! Just as the name suggests, it’s made from human skin. Before the skin is removed, the “material” must soak in a medicinal bath for three full nights. Then the skin can be peeled off with ease. The intact skin is cut into several pieces and soaked in a specially prepared solution for two days. Only after it has been dried in the sun can the crafting begin. A human-skin umbrella is impervious to sunlight. The better the “material’s” skin, the better the user’s skin will be i —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 15 I Rented a Haunted House, and My Roommate Is So Strange 租房租到凶宅，我的室友太奇怪 I Rented a Haunted House, and My Roommate Is So Strange While scrolling through short videos, I discovered that the place I’d been renting for six months was a haunted house where someone had died. Even the pillow used to smother someone to death was lying quietly on my computer chair. I was going to ask my roommate to come with me to get out of the lease. But the landlord said he’d only rented the place to me. What roommate? 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 16 Terror on the Meat Delivery Run 运肉惊魂 On the eve of Spring Festival last year, I quit my job in a fit of anger and went back to my hometown to work at a buddy’s butcher shop. One night, while we were driving back with a load of meat, a stunningly beautiful woman stopped us. I kindly offered her the front passenger seat, but she opened the door and climbed into the rear compartment, which reeked of blood. On the way, I could faintly hear tearing and chewing sounds coming from behind me. But the only things back there were that beauti —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 17 My Neighbor Isn't Normal 我的邻居不正常 My Neighbor Doesn’t Seem Quite Right I secretly recorded all the evidence and called the police, but watched with my own eyes as he hanged himself in a room full of “trophies.” —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 18 There's a Ghost in the Dorm 宿舍有诡 My roommate gave me a handmade paper-cut window decoration: the magpies had no eyes, and the paired fish had their tails cut off. Someone commented on my social media post: “That’s a broken talisman. It’s meant to lure a lonely ghost into your home.” I didn’t believe in such things. That night, there was knocking at our dorm room door. In the darkness, I heard a plastic bag rustling under the bed. A cold hand slowly crawled up my leg. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 19 The Haunted House 诡异之家 Three of us went up the mountain to pick mushrooms, but there were four of us when we came back. I desperately told my parents there was an extra person, but they laughed and said I was imagining things. Until, in the middle of the night, I heard them whisper, “She seems to have noticed.” Mom gripped the meat cleaver and sneered. “Just kill her like we did the last one. Then everything will be fine.” —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 20 The Intern Who Died at His Desk 死在工位上的实习生 On my first day at my new company, the boss said, “Remember, you must leave before seven.” I thought it was a perk, until my coworker Xiaojuan saw a woman with “limbs like bamboo poles” in the empty office next door. The next day, she jumped to her death. That night, I worked overtime until 7:01. Suddenly, someone cut the power, and a freezing hand slipped inside my collar. The cleaning lady appeared in the darkness. “Run! Everyone on this floor has been dead for ages, except you!” —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 21 Please Do Not Use the Voice Button 请不要使用发声按钮 At midnight, my dog pressed the talking buttons in the living room: [Mom] [Bad thing] [Went out]. I was too sleepy to pay attention, until it pressed them again: [Mom] [Hungry] [Want food]. But my dog was fast asleep at my feet. The living room was empty, except for the overturned dog bowl and the soaked buttons. My best friend said, “Cats and dogs can see things people can’t.” I tried to stay calm, but then I felt a dog leash tucked between the sofa cushions. It wasn’t mine... Just then, the be —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 22 Manor of Strange Tales 庄园怪谈 I came to Cloudtop Manor to look for clues about my younger sister’s disappearance. When the gates closed, the manor’s steward told us: “You can only leave once you find the key.” Each of us was given a list of rules about the manor: “Do not set foot in the red house to the east. It will bring misfortune!!!” “Do not wander around the manor after eleven o’clock!!!” “Do not pick a single rose in the manor, or you may bring a deadly disaster upon yourself!!!” The remaining rules are still “unlockin —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 23 The Door Guardian Statue 门神像 The company is built on a mass grave, and every night, “something” follows me into the bathroom. My boyfriend told me to put up a Door God poster, but I accidentally put up a “Yin-Gathering Formation” instead. Ever since, the ghostly knocks at my door haven’t stopped. He said that repeating “I do” three times would drive away the evil spirits. But after I actually said it for the third time... I realized he didn’t want me. He wanted my body. The male ghost who’d been chasing me kept whispering i —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 24 Beware of Yourself 小心你自己 Every Wednesday, a note warning me would appear in the company suggestion box. I thought it was a prank. I thought my colleague Lin Hao was getting revenge, until the police shot him dead in my living room. The last note said: “Watch out for yourself.” I turned around and saw my wife raise a knife —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 25 The Vengeful Ghost 怨鬼 My roommate sobbed as if her heart were breaking every night. I posted online to complain, and a female Taoist priest messaged me: “She’s not human. She’s a vengeful ghost. The more often she cries, the sooner you’ll die.” I didn’t believe it, until one night she bit into my wrist and smiled. “Have a taste.” I ran, she chased me, and the Taoist priest Jiang Yu handed me a string of bodhi beads. “Put them on. They’ll protect you.” I put them on, and she smiled. It turned out this wasn’t a protect 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 26 Knock on the Door and Die 敲门会送死 An delivery driver chasing online views deliberately targeted orders marked “Don’t knock.” This time, he’d picked the wrong person. He pounded on the door, picked the lock, and stormed into my home with a group of people, shouting to the millions watching his livestream, “Come out and apologize, beautiful!” Cradling the ghost baby, I said softly, “Go eat, sweetheart.” The next second, a tiny blue-gray figure pounced That night, every viewer in the livestream remembered: Some doors, once knocked —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 27 Please Find My Body 请寻找我的尸体 I’m Hell Butterfly, a mystery writer who never shows her face. One day, I launched a puzzle game called “Find My Body,” and the whole internet thought I was just drumming up publicity. Until someone really found the body of a woman in white beside an abandoned building. Posing as a reporter, I called the police and pointed out “my own” corpse to them. Everyone thought the dead woman was me, not knowing she was my younger sister, who had been missing for half a year. The real killer lived in the —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 28 The Night Shift Guard 夜班保安 On my first day as a night-shift security guard, I found my predecessor’s patrol notes in a locker The last page was scrawled with the words, “Don’t trust Captain Wang. He’s been dead for seven years.” At that very moment, in the monitoring room, Wang Shouquan was staring at a screen full of static and smiling, his corpse-spotted hand clutching an employee badge from twenty years ago. And I’d just seen another uniformed version of him patrolling the fourth floor. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 29 Last Train: No Living Passengers Allowed! 末班车，活人勿进！ The card reader let out a series of warning beeps, and the driver handed me a note: Don’t speak to anyone on the bus, or you’ll die. I turned around and saw Lin Shen, the senior I’d had a crush on for five years, sitting in the back. He was dressed in a suit, but his head was slick with cold sweat. “Everyone on this bus except us is a ghost,” he whispered. The next second, the wound on my wrist suddenly split open, and a drop of blood fell. Every passenger turned to stare at once. I recognized t —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 30 A Thousand-Year-Old Zombie Awakens! And Becomes a Celebrity Ghost Hunter 千年僵尸苏醒！竟成网红捉鬼师 My name is Jiang Shi, and I’m a thousand-year-old jiangshi. But after waking from a long slumber, I took on a new identity. I’m going to become an internet-famous ghost hunter. 43Reads—Score—Shelves
- 31 The Ghost Whisperer 鬼语者 I’m a nurse, and I can talk to ghosts. After working night shifts for so long, I’ve seen my share of strange things. The nurses were chatting about the weird things that had been happening lately. Every night at midnight, we could hear the sound of a woman’s high heels. Click... click... click... “It’s so creepy. It’s our turn on the night shift tonight. What are we going to do?” Xiao Zhang asked nervously, clutching my sleeve. “What’s there to panic about? It’s normal for ghosts to show up in a —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 32 The Woman Eaten by a Cat 被猫吃掉的女人 Ten years ago, I handled a child abduction case. The child was never found, and the mother drank herself into a stupor every day. One day, she got drunk and passed out in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town. Dozens of rabid feral cats devoured her, leaving behind only a pile of bones. Many years later, I ran into the woman who’d been eaten by cats in a small town. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 33 The Forbidden Zone of the Living 活人禁地 My dad forced me to eat something I shouldn’t have. On the seventh day after he died, I saw him outside, playing a suona… 63Reads6.6Score—Shelves
- 34 Death WeChat 死亡微信 One death after another closes in around the protagonist. Will they find a way to survive these hardships, or fall into hell… 149Reads5.2Score—Shelves
- 35 Abyss of Horror and the Supernatural 恐怖灵异深渊 My name is Chen Geng. Yes, Geng as in the night watchman. I also have an older brother who is half a year younger than me. You read that right: my biological older brother is half a year younger than I am. I was born unlucky, so I often find myself caught up in things most people will never experience in their entire lives. Now, allow me to tell you about it, bit by bit. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 36 Mint Blossoms at the Tip of a Shoe 鞋尖开出的薄荷花 Mint Blossoms at the Tip of a Shoe —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 37 Riding an Electric Scooter Through the Yin and Yang, I Am the World's Last Heavenly Master 脚踏电驴巡阴阳，我世间最后天师 “Beautiful lady? Why is your address a mass grave?” Probably just a rookie mistake. Make a few more deliveries and you'll get the hang of it. Zhang Daozhi was stunned. The last Celestial Master of the dynasty had accepted the most powerful inheritance, the Celestial Master's Passing, just a moment ago. The next moment, he was reborn as a food delivery rider. But this life was one of peace and prosperity, with ghosts and monsters existing only in legend. Even the Celestial Master's spells had bee 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 38 Shh! Don't Open the Door! 嘘！别开门！ Shh! Don't open the door! 10.9kReads—Score266Shelves
- 39 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—Shelves
- 40 Specimens from a Dark Alley 暗巷标本集 A collection of mysterious, bizarre tales where dreams and reality intertwine. What lies hidden behind each story? Each chapter in this book is a story of its own, drawing us into boundless imagination. 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 41 The Super Spooky Classroom 超级惊悚教室 At a certain high school, an ordinary afternoon was supposed to mean nothing more than a routine chemistry lesson. No one could have imagined that a terrifying disaster would begin there, and that our lives would never be peaceful again. 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 42 Building 704: The Haunted Tower 七零四凶楼 Protagonist: Chen Mo, 28, a restorer of antiques and old objects. Quiet and reserved, with exceptional powers of observation, he is forced into a series of supernatural incidents while handling his ancestors’ belongings. Main setting: Building 704, a tenement in the old district of Jiangcheng. Abandoned for thirty years, the building is said to be filled with countless dead and overflowing with sinister energy. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 43 Messenger of the Underworld 冥界使者 After graduating from college, I hoped to find a good job, but ended up delivering packages. Then one day, I received a mysterious delivery slip, and my life changed completely. 35Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 44 The Hundred Venerables Record: Tales of Another Day 百崇录：异日谈 A sealed ancient scroll has come to light once more: "The Hundred Abominations: Tales of Strange Days". Its faded, uncanny writing: written in blood? Annotated in tears? No one can say. All that remains are over a hundred strange accounts, each word sinking into the bone, all told by the “ill omens” lurking among humankind. Some nest in the dark corners of people's hearts, watching for greed; some lie in the shadows of the streets, drinking in sobs; others haunt desolate wilderness and ancient h —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 45 Tomb of Terror: My Haunted Forest Expedition 古墓惊魂，我的恐怖森林探险之旅 Terror in the Ancient Tomb: My Adventure Through a Haunted Forest 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 46 The Eerie Immortal’s Box 诡仙魔盒 [Mystery] + [Eerie] + [Xuanhuan] + [Thriller] + [Mind-Bending] + [One Female Lead] Chen Tong, a young man struggling to make a living in the city, returns to his hometown to attend his grandfather's funeral... But he unexpectedly discovers that his grandfather's death was shrouded in mystery. He comes into possession of a mysterious golden-thread nanmu box, and everything begins to turn Eerie... The grandfather of a female classmate from his village also dies. The monks and Taoist priests hired —Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 47 The Conspiracy Behind the Terrifying Calls 恐怖电话背后的阴谋 The conspiracy behind the horror phone 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 48 Redemption and Rebirth in the Darkness 黑暗中的救赎与新生 Salvation and New Life in the Darkness 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 49 Terror Underground: My Journey of Adventure and Growth 地道惊魂，我的探险与成长 Terror Underground: My Adventure and Growth —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 50 The Abandoned Wife's Desert Island Adventure 弃妇的荒岛冒险之旅 An Abandoned Wife's Adventure on a Deserted Island 1Reads—Score—Shelves
