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.
- 101 A Stranger's Path Through the Ghost World 鬼途陌路 Modern setting + horror + suspense + supernatural + strong female lead Hu Ying is a funeral makeup artist who just wants to earn a little money and lie flat. Who would have thought that after an accident, she’d be forced onto a one-way road where she’d have to live among ghosts? From then on, she uncovers conspiracies and fights evil cults, and somehow ends up at the very peak of life... 82Reads—Score—14d adds
- 102 Living Human Pillar 活人桩 Bridge and road construction inevitably disrupts the local feng shui. If a malign force is encountered, an expert must be called in to counter evil with evil at the site of the incident, driving two living human stakes into the ground. 664Reads8.7Score10014d adds
- 103 The House Immortal Affairs Office 家仙办事处 Chen Ping'an, a graduate student in folklore, has never believed in ghosts or gods. That is, until he inherited his old family home and caught a fox spirit sitting on his sofa in the middle of the night, playing Honor of Kings. Then it tossed him an employment contract from the “Household Spirits Affairs Office.” From then on, his materialist worldview completely fell apart: Huang Xian works as a delivery driver, gathering intelligence. Bai Xian runs a traditional Chinese medicine clinic and sec 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 104 The Human Dog 人形犬 After my sister was assaulted, she died a horrific death in a cabin in the back hills. My parents chopped up her body and fed it to the old dog they kept at home. After that, the old dog began to look more and more like my dead sister. Late at night, it would stand outside my room and call for me in my sister’s voice. 42Reads—Score114d adds
- 105 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—14d adds
- 106 The Eerie Girlfriend 诡异女友 Can a loser really not find true love? One day, I suddenly discover that my girlfriend has disappeared. Did she dump me? But I’ve asked so many friends, and none of them have seen her. I can’t stop breaking out in a cold sweat... Was I dumped, or is there something “wrong” with her? 237Reads7.8Score—14d adds
- 107 Campus Ghost Stories 校园鬼汇 A fast-paced, feel-good story of eerie incidents on campus. Join the characters as they explore the school's chilling horrors! A cursed phone, a lifelike silicone doll, a deadly package, mysterious glasses, a terrifying elevator, revenge for bullying, an abandoned classroom building, a dance studio, a study room, sculptures... The campus is full of strange happenings. 23Reads—Score—14d adds
- 108 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." 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 109 Super Scary: Spine-Chilling Horror Stories 超级恐怖：耸人听闻的恐怖故事 [Traditional Supernatural Tales] [Chinese-Style Horror] [Reader Submissions] [Chilling on Second Thought] [Strange Stories] [Plainspoken Storytelling] [No Fancy Prose] [A New Protagonist Every Chapter to Keep You Immersed] I pieced these stories together bit by bit from old folks around the country, private messages from netizens, and country gossip. They're all little ghost stories I heard before bed. I've rewritten them in plain, easy-to-follow language without beating around the bush. I just 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 110 I Write Horror Novels on Tomato Novel 我在番茄写恐怖小说 A friendly heads-up: [This story is wildly imaginative] This novel brings together over a hundred stories, with elements of the uncanny, fantasy, and Lovecraftian horror. Unlike other novels, it has no long, tedious passages. Every story is full of eerie, fresh surprises. 99Reads—Score12714d adds
- 111 The Hanging Charm 魅巾悬 No romance + fantasy and the supernatural + mild horror + modern-day imaginative premise + episodic plot + feel-good power fantasy Liu Yixian, with a high forehead and a broad, square face, was taken in as an apprentice by Daoist Wu in the twelfth year of his life, setting him on an extraordinary path. A thousand-year-old fox or a century-old ginkgo: which one will win Yixian’s heart? A blood-red sickle stabbed the ghost seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, maybe twenty times. The ghost couldn’t take 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 112 A Collection of Ancient Folk Tales of the Supernatural 古代民间灵异故事合集听来的故事 A hugely popular collection on Tomato Listen, featuring rule-based horror, infinite-loop survival, folk customs and taboos, deranged killers, deadly survival instances, feng shui, livestreaming, modern technology, and many other kinds of horror. Volume One: Classical ghost stories. A blend of modern and classical taboos: never look in the mirror at midnight, someone is under the bed... A wedding sedan, an old well, an ancestral shrine, a nighttime opera... Any ordinary thing can become a spirit; 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 113 Tales of the Unextinguished Lights 不熄灯异闻录 More chilling than ghost stories, these tales recount the uncanny happenings secretly passed down by our elders! Children will be too scared to walk alone at night after hearing them, and adults will want to pay their respects to their ancestors. This is a book of taboos that the village elders tried to keep from being written! This collection of short stories features folk horror, supernatural mysteries, thrillers, legends, strange tales, and fantasy from across China and around the world. 17Reads—Score214d adds
- 114 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
- 115 A Strange Tale Every Night 夜夜都有诡故事 [Extreme Supernatural Horror] [Ghosts, Fox Spirits, and Other Strange Creatures] [Not for Women] [Not for the Fainthearted] Based on personal experience and real events. The occult is science we have yet to touch; science is the occult we have already mastered. 22Reads—Score—14d adds
- 116 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
- 117 Horrifying Hauntings: Ghost Stories 恐怖灵异诡：鬼故事 Do you really think stories are just stories? In fact, behind every story lies a real event! In this book, I wrote a story about the last bus on Route 24. To experience what it would really feel like, I set myself a goal: for seven days straight, I'd ride the last Route 24 bus from its starting point to its final stop, then ride it all the way back. And that's where the story begins...! 361Reads—Score—14d adds
- 118 Frightening Folk Tales of Ghosts and Monsters 民间吓人的鬼怪故事 This book collects folk tales about ghosts and monsters from China and around the world, both ancient and modern. They include deeply moving love stories, myths where good and evil are repaid in kind, and eerie tales that will leave you trembling with fear. We hope you enjoy them. This story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual events or people is purely coincidental. 24Reads—Score—14d adds
- 119 Zhang Laosan Tells Stories 张老三讲故事 Long, long ago, a strange calamity struck Kaoshan Village, deep in the old forests of Northeast China. Hunter Li Dashan kept watch over a coffin on a snowy night and encountered a weasel spirit that spoke like a human, asking him to give it a title. One careless remark from him exposed a bloody secret from twenty years earlier. When the statue of the Yellow Immortal on the ancestral hall’s altar split with bloody cracks on the night of a lunar eclipse, when a golden-haired weasel burst from a pe 8Reads—Score—14d adds
- 120 The Eerie Realm: It Starts with an Elevator 诡界：从电梯开始 [No System]+ [No Heroine]+ [Dungeon Progression]+ [No Saintly Protagonist]+ [Eerie]+ [Original Dungeons] Have you ever wondered? Beneath the neon lights and atmosphere of this city, things lurk that defy all reason. They were chosen by the Eerie [Elevator] and marked by a terrifying curse. Again and again, they must take part in death games, until death claims them. 54Reads—Score—14d adds
- 121 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
- 122 The Soul Collection Record 集魂录 Yao Yinsheng had never seen her grandfather, not even once. But she had been able to see spirits since childhood, and after witnessing the Black and White Impermanence spirits seize a soul when she was eight, she began having strange dreams. In them, an old man would often say to her kindly, “I’m your grandfather!” Regardless of whether Yao Yinsheng wanted him to, the old man taught her all sorts of things in her dreams. Then, when she turned eighteen, he suddenly produced a booklet and asked wi 221Reads—Score—14d adds
- 123 The Delusion of the Final Sequence 终序之妄 [Dual heroines + mental illness + supernatural] Mo Shanshan has a pair of unusual crimson eyes. She can see ghosts, yet she’s been sent to a psychiatric hospital and diagnosed with delusional disorder. Ringing in your ears? That’s because people can’t understand what ghosts are saying! The Heavenly God Path, the Water Corpse Curse, corpse infants, a haunted lake, the collapse of the Six Paths of Reincarnation: is it all the plot of the Entropy God? No. This time, Luo Shisan absolutely will not d 21Reads—Score314d adds
- 124 Ghost Hunting: My Baton Is Made of Thunderstruck Wood! 捉鬼：我的警棍可是雷击木做的！ The protagonist, Chen Mo, starts out as an ordinary criminal police officer. After stumbling upon a supernatural incident, he is recruited by the Special Security Department to join its Seventh Squad, which specializes in handling paranormal cases. The Seventh Squad is a unit stationed in the field that deals with supernatural criminal cases. Hidden within the police station, its members work with beings the public knows nothing about. 226Reads—Score—14d adds
- 125 The School of Terror 恐怖艺校 Also known as "The Horror Art School: I Fell in Love with a Taoist Priest" [Supernatural + Romance + Transmigration + Wild Imagination] During those three years at school, many strange and terrifying things happened. At midnight, a sinister atmosphere would descend over the school... The year Ye Xue'er attended art school, she fell in love with him at first sight and decided to follow him, staying by his side as they worked together to spread the art of Taoism far and wide... 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 126 Old Tales of Strange Happenings 民间旧诡事 The woman in red who knocks on doors late at night, the soul-binding bones beneath the locust tree, the copper-bell curse in an old house in an abandoned village... These old tales of the uncanny, scattered across the countryside, are the idle chatter of old folks and stories sealed away by time... 42Reads—Score—14d adds
- 127 Come Listen to a Ghost Story! 来听诡故事！ The chime of midnight is the switch that starts each story. Hidden here are 365 eerie legends from every corner of the world. Maybe it's the strange sobbing in the night-shift office during overtime, a stranger's long hair beside your pillow in an old residential complex, or a passenger in a white dress who vanishes in front of a cemetery. One short ghost story every night, tearing through the everyday facade to reveal the chilling truth beneath. Do you dare open this collection of midnight tale 42Reads—Score514d adds
- 128 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. 1.7kReads8.4Score25114d adds
- 129 On the Night of the Hungry Ghost Festival, a Yin-Born Child 七月半，阴生胎 The day I was born, a monster that came running down from the mountain stole a baby. Strange things kept happening in the village. The villagers listened all night to my mother’s wretched cries and cursed me as an ill-omened child. They blocked the entrance to our home, saying they would burn me alive. My grandfather simply sat by the gate, and not one of them dared come closer. A baby’s piercing wail rang out, and I came into this world. You need some skills to make your way in life. My name is 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 130 Strange Tales of a Mountain Village: The Baby’s Eye and Hand 山村诡事之婴眼手 The Strange Events of a Mountain Village: Baby-Eyed Hand —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 131 What Came Back from the Mountains When the Fog Rolled In 浓雾起时，从山里跟回来的东西 The Thing That Followed Me Back from the Mountains When the Fog Rose 1Reads—Score114d adds
- 132 There Are No Evil Dogs on Evil Dog Ridge 恶狗岭没有恶狗 There Are No Vicious Dogs on Evil Dog Ridge 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 133 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—14d adds
- 134 Night Tales from the Haunted House: 1,000 Folk Ghost Stories 诡舍夜话：1000个民间鬼故事 [Changting 9.0 Rating] [A Must-Read for Women Late at Night] [Urban Horror] Don't read this late at night! A thousand standalone tales of the eerie, guaranteed to make you afraid to walk alone after dark! This collection features sinister events passed down through generations in rural lanes and villages, as well as bizarre tales widely shared online. Each chapter is a story of its own, so there's no need to wait for updates. Just open it and start reading! The faint sobbing from a corner of an 4.6kReads—Score16314d adds
- 135 One Stick of Incense to Worship the Gods, an Outlaw Exorcist: Zhang Wulang! 一香祀神法外狂徒，端公张五郎！ This book is a work of fiction. The rituals, incantations, and water-based magic performed by Duangongs are invented for the story. Do not imitate them. What you read here is a story, not a craft. Cherish life and trust in science. Read the final chapter, and you will see with your own eyes what lies at the end of tearing down altars and temples. I transmigrated to the late Qing dynasty and became an outlaw. In other words, a man beyond the reach of the law. My skills came from ancient times, b —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 136 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
- 137 The Man Buried Upside Down 倒着埋的人 The Man Buried Upside Down 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 138 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
- 139 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—14d adds
- 140 The Ultimate Ghost-Raising Master 极品养鬼师 [Adult] + [Adorable Pets] + [Sharp Tongue] + [Making Money] + [Secret Arts] Do you know how to raise ghosts? No worries, I do! Do you know how to catch ghosts? No worries, I do that too! Do you know where to find ghosts? No worries, I’ll take you there! Watch your step. Get in! —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 141 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
- 142 The Sealed Cave Behind the Mountain: I Became the Village's Soul Guardian 后山囚洞：我成了全村守魂人 After accidentally entering a century-old forbidden site in the back mountains, Jiang Ningyue unexpectedly inherits a fated duty and becomes the village’s only soul guardian. A deep, secluded prison cave suppresses countless wrongfully dead spirits. Ancient village rules conceal secrets unknown to outsiders, while turmoil erupts along the boundary between Yin and Yang, and one eerie calamity follows another. Generations of cave guardians have borne endless suffering, and a century of tangled gru 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 143 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... 194Reads6.9Score13714d adds
- 144 Netherworld Emperor: It All Begins with a Blood Coffin! 幽冥大帝：从血棺开始！ Mystery and the supernatural + horror + mind-bending deduction + wild imagination + Sichuan-Chongqing flavor After a flood, a blood-red coffin drifts down the river into our village... A strange song, eerie bloody handprints, a headless corpse, and somehow, I become the Great Emperor of the Netherworld... An accident reveals the secret of the Nine Fiends Blood Coffin and a grand scheme laid by the Great Emperor of the Netherworld. It all begins with the blood coffin, and everything will ultimate 728Reads—Score—14d adds
- 145 Death Trip 死亡旅行 Before graduation, everyone wanted to take a graduation trip that was a little different, so one of my rich classmates rented an old, rundown cruise ship. On the first night aboard, the rich kid posted a raffle in the group chat: “I’ve prepared a grand prize for everyone. Entries close at midnight. We’ll reveal the luckiest winner tomorrow morning!” I was just about to open the link when an anonymous text came in. “Open it and you die.” 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 146 Paralyzed by Terror: The Shadow That Smelled of Tobacco 鬼压床惊魂-那具带着烟草味的黑影 Terrifying Sleep Paralysis: The Shadow That Smelled of Tobacco 17Reads—Score—14d adds
- 147 The Vengeful Ghost Great-Grandma Wants to Kill My Daughter, but My Pure Yang Infant Shatters a Century-Old Blood Pact 厉鬼太奶想杀我女，我纯阳婴镇碎百年血契 A Vengeful Ghost of a Great-Grandmother Wants to Kill My Daughter, but My Pure-Yang Baby Shatters a Century-Old Blood Pact 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 148 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
- 149 The Killer Killed the Killer 凶手杀了凶手 Police tape cordoned off the underground parking garage. At four in the morning, someone found a body there. As I passed the cordon, a police officer asked me to register my details. I nodded without hesitation. “No problem. I hope you catch the person who killed that woman soon.” The officer looked up sharply. “Miss, I never said the victim was a woman.” 115Reads—Score314d adds
- 150 A Fading Lamp Shines on the Lonely Dead 残灯照孤冥 (Mystery + supernatural + no female lead) (Ghost case files + Taoist arts) (Tomato Original) The male lead is born under the fate of a lone star of calamity, destined to walk alone. A dying lamp lights the lonely darkness, and that darkness lights me in turn. 331Reads—Score—14d adds
