Seemingly pleasant, with unspeakable horror lurking in the periphery…

We have always lived in the castle

A House With Good Bones by T. kingfisher

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Needful Things by Stephen King

Coraline comes to mind.

The Pines by Blake Crouch

I love this artwork!

I feel like Ice cream man is on par with this it’s just that it is a graphic novel.

Ooh! I love this art. I think you’d love literary horror as a genre. Here are some suggestions:

Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth

Death Valley by Melissa Broder

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Mister Magic by Kierstan White

The September House by Carissa Orlando

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Never Let Me Go

Fabulous art! I'm a little reminded of the zany and funny and horrific John Dies at the End by David Wong, though the book is decidedly contemporary and spends more time directly with the horror than having it on the periphery, the tonal juxtaposition is still there.

Stephen King seems like an obvious route lol but I'd just say one of his short stories, Crouch End, suits this art, as well as the movie it loosely inspired called In the Mouth of Madness starring Sam Neil.

Also there's a defunct noiserock band that lived in this aesthetic, not to break any rules with too many multimedia suggestions lol but check out this song if you're curious and dm me if you want more song recs :)

white noise

Have you read The Secret History by Donna Tartt?

The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams

Short stories written by Robert Aickman, specifically the Cold Hand in Mine collection.

Stories by Charles Beaumont in the Perchance to Dream book (he wrote a lot of Twilight Zone episodes)

October Country by Ray Bradbury

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Currently reading American elsewhere and it’s about a secluded town with some weird shit

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne Valente

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/an-unsuitable-job-for-a-woman_pd-james/259780/#isbn=014012957X&idiq=6434415&edition=517727

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https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/only-ever-always_penni-russon/1961429/#edition=7171016

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https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/miracle-cure_harlan-coben/254679/#idiq=2839351&edition=6106106

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The perfect nanny by Leila Slimani

American Elsewhere

Tales from the Gas Station

Hotel magnifique

"Mrs Mohr Goes Missing" by Maryla Szymiczkowa (pseudonym of Jacek Dehnel and Piotr Tarczyński, who wrote it together and privately are a couple).

It's the first book in a Polish crime series, set in the late XIXth century Cracow. The main character is this conservative, respectable housewife, who loves to get herself involved in crime investigations.

The whole series is very well researched & gives you a great insight into how people lived back then, what they ate etc. It's also really funny but still has that 'horror lurking behind' vibe - lots of crime, greed and violence behind the mask of respectability and religiousness.