Novels like Insomniacs' Forbidden Tales: 444 Midnight Ghost Stories
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Insomniacs' Forbidden Tales: 444 Midnight Ghost Stories, best match first.
- 51 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
- 52 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
- 53 A Ghost Lurks in My Right Eye: A Decade-Old Murder Hidden in the Old Building's Brick Wall 右眼栖鬼：老楼砖墙藏十年命案 A Ghost Dwells in Her Right Eye: A Decade-Old Murder Hidden in the Bricks of an Old Building 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 54 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 2.4kReads8.4Score36714d adds
- 55 This Ghost Story Is Pretty Interesting 这个鬼故事有点意思 The rating for this new book has just come in. It'll go up later, so don't worry and enjoy! [Standalone Stories] [Supernatural Horror] [Urban Legends] [Strange Tales from the Countryside] [Based on True Stories] [Tales of Spirits and Strange Creatures] [Love Between Humans and Ghosts] There is no overarching plot. Every chapter is a standalone story. Some stories are adapted from real cases, some are compiled from urban and rural legends, and some… some are completely made up by the author. Come 5.1kReads8.4Score41514d adds
- 56 The Ominous Coffin 凶棺 It all started with a coffin that floated up from the river... I thought it was a fortune dropped from the sky, but it turned out to be a disaster. After I pried open the coffin, I began to feel that something unclean had followed me home. My daughter grew stranger by the day. She was only three, yet she had already started developing! 125Reads—Score—14d adds
- 57 Whispers of the Ghosts 鬼魅低语 [Standalone Stories] [Eerie] [Thriller] [Strange] [Wild Imagination] Worlds full of distortion and absurdity. Whether it's seemingly ordinary snippets of everyday life or strange phenomena that gradually come to light, everything sends a chill down your spine and grows more terrifying the more you think about it. 39Reads—Score—14d adds
- 58 Ghost Stories by Night 鬼话夜谈 The story follows Chen Xingchen and Jiang Chuyan, who grew up together in a village. They hear tales of the supernatural from the village elders and experience a number of eerie events themselves. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 59 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
- 60 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 119Reads—Score—14d adds
- 61 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
- 62 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
- 63 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
- 64 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... 1.9kReads—Score10614d adds
- 65 One Horror a Day 一天一个惊悚 One terrifying tale every day, and a different world each time. Just because you haven't seen it from in front of your phone doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Enough chatter. See you in the book, everyone. 7Reads6.6Score—14d adds
- 66 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
- 67 Someone New Appeared in the Footage 录像里多出一个人 The test shoot’s discarded footage was four seconds longer. Everyone in the frame held the same poses they had at the end of filming. No one moved. I counted three times. There were six people every time. But only five people had been there that day. On the hard drive my mother left behind, there was an empty folder with a four-character name: Do Not Fast-Forward. In the recycle bin was a deleted video, four minutes and twenty-five seconds long, which couldn’t be recovered. Our production crew w 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 68 A Collection of 365 Strange Tales and Horror Stories 365个奇闻异事和恐怖故事合集 This is a series of short horror stories. The writing isn't the focus; it's all about telling the stories. [Standalone stories + horrors that grow worse the more you think about them + mystery and the supernatural + urban legends + haunted homes + folk tales + strange tales + feng shui and mysticism] Are you ready? When night falls, these terrifying stories will begin crawling into the ears of the living... 731Reads—Score—14d adds
- 69 After Losing My Memory, One Terrifying Ghostly Incident After Another 失忆后恐怖鬼事接连不断 (An alternate world. No tired tropes, no invincible protagonist, no plagiarism, entirely original. Any similarities will be changed immediately. Comedy, deadpan humor, no official pairing, a touch of horror, and characters with sound values.) Accidentally drawn into a paranormal incident: a girl whose mouth has been sealed shut, the walking dead with no eyes to see, monsters covered in tumors that crawl along the ground... Is the world turned upside down, or is this an elaborate hoax carefully s 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 70 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
- 71 One Chilling Story Every Night 每晚一个惊魂故事 [One story per chapter] [Chinese-style horror] [Folk tales] [Urban vengeful spirits] [Haunted houses] [No main plot] Collected and adapted fictional tales of terror from all over, one story per chapter, each one different. No grand lectures, just bone-chilling tales rooted in everyday life. All adapted from strange folk tales passed down for years. They sound true, and the more you think about them, the more unsettling they get. Great for unwinding, but don't try to “unwind” alone in the dead of 1.1kReads—Score10314d adds
- 72 I Came from the Underworld to Deal with Those Who Defy the Rules 我从地府来，专治规则不服 I Came from the Underworld to Make the Rules Behave 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 73 Midnight Terror: Tales of the Supernatural 午夜惊魂：民间鬼事录 [Folk Taboos + Rural Ghost Stories + Episodic Tales + Chilling on Second Thought] The village elders say that some things are better believed than dismissed. Liu Er, a bachelor, picked up a red wedding dress. That very night, he heard the sound of a suona, and a faceless bride knocked on his door and said, “Liu Er, I’ve come to marry you.” Before a dead person is buried, the guiding candle at the head of the coffin must never go out. Old Liu Guang died, the candle went out, and a crack appeared 4kReads—Score16814d adds
- 74 Coming for My Life on the Seventh Night? I Can Command the Most Ominous Creatures 头七索命？我能御大凶之物 Anyone who makes money from the dead knows there are three kinds of corpses you must never handle. First, don’t take the bodies of people who died violently or are missing limbs. Such corpses carry baleful energy, damage your fortune, and bind you to karmic debts. Second, don’t take a corpse that has been left unattended for seven days after death. After seven days, the flesh has begun to decay and the soul has nowhere to settle. Disturb it, and you may find yourself haunted by evil things. Thir 243Reads—Score—14d adds
- 75 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
- 76 The Ghost Banquet 鬼禁食 A glutton's feast: can it really eat anything at all? Open wide, and nothing is off-limits? When you're indulging in wild game, have you ever felt a hint of murderous intent behind you... 29Reads—Score—14d adds
- 77 The Eighteenth Floor Underground 地下十八楼 [Urban Mystery / Thriller / Puzzle-Solving / Supernatural / No System] Beneath an upscale residential complex lies a mysterious space known as “Underground Level Eighteen.” They say that anyone who goes in either dies or goes mad… Su Chi, a new resident, accidentally gets caught up in it. There are ancient coffin mazes, a blue underground river, savage subterranean creatures, and even mysterious wild men… Danger lurks at every turn, and the mysteries are hair-raising. It feels as if a pair of ey 34Reads—Score—14d adds
- 78 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—14d adds
- 79 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—14d adds
- 80 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—14d adds
- 81 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—14d adds
- 82 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. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 83 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—14d adds
- 84 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—14d adds
- 85 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—14d adds
- 86 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—14d adds
- 87 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—14d adds
- 88 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—14d adds
- 89 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—14d adds
- 90 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—14d adds
- 91 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—14d adds
- 92 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—14d adds
- 93 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—14d adds
- 94 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—Score114d adds
- 95 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—14d adds
- 96 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—14d adds
- 97 Route 14 Night Bus 14路夜班公交车 My name is Li Long. For triple pay, I took the night shift on Bus Route 14, the one everyone else avoids. It starts at the old depot in the west of the city and ends at the back gate of the crematorium. Departure time: exactly eleven at night. The passengers have no body heat, no breath, and no faces. They are the souls of those who drowned in the river three years ago. A chilling aura hangs over the route, ghosts follow in its wake, and every stop hides a curse that claims lives. Three rules ar 1Reads—Score114d adds
- 98 The Haunted House at No. 13 13号凶宅 Number 13 Qianliang Hutong in Beijing has long been a haunted house. During the Cultural Revolution, several people died mysteriously one after another inside the residence. Long Fei, an investigator with the Public Security Bureau, assumed the alias Li Qiang and moved into the compound as a housing office inspector. After a series of thrilling struggles, Li Qiang finally discovered that Number 13 was an operational base for an enemy spy organization... 959Reads9.4Score—14d adds
- 99 Tales of Folk Monsters: Ghosts and the Supernatural! 民间怪谈录，灵异鬼怪！ A forbidden book recording eerie tales and strange rumors from Chinese folk tradition · Wet footprints in an old house late at night · A stranger in an ancestral mirror · Footprints walking backward on the seventh night after a death · A packed audience in an abandoned theater What makes this book special: · Each story stands on its own · Based on real folk legends · Authentic Chinese horror atmosphere · Short and gripping, perfect for reading on the go Reading warnings: · Best read during the d 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 100 Don't Talk to the Comments 不要和弹幕说话 [Horror + Supernatural + Mystery + Mind-Bending + Anthology (first four volumes complete) + Dread That Gets Under Your Skin + Not for the Fainthearted + The Villain Is the Smartest Character in the Book + Growing Female Lead + No System, No Cheats, Plot-Driven] Have you ever replied to a historical comment on a video, even just for fun? Hu Jia accidentally comes across a web series from ten years ago. It depicts a real case from that same year, but its ending is completely different from what 19Reads8.1Score—14d adds
