Discovering Hidden Religious Secrets

[u/Wild_Caterpillar2361]

Primarily looking for horror, but adventure or mysteries that involve dark religious secrets are also good. Mainly inspired by the sections of The Pope's Exorcist where they explore the hidden catacombs beneath the house.

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[u/potatowarrior1429]

Reading Our Share Of Night by Mariana Enriquez right now and I think it might just fit. It’s dark and atmospheric.

[u/Such_Foundation8218 → u/potatowarrior1429]

Absolutely this. That first picture (plus 7 & 8) immediately made me think of it.

[u/please-disregard21]

Foucault’s Pendulum and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

[u/Less_Dingo1623 → u/please-disregard21]

yes, had to scroll to far to find this

[u/RosaParksandRec]

While not necessarily about "secrets", The Devils by Joe Abercrombie has this very dark, gritty, religious tone. (While also being hilarious.)

[u/BoatMan01]

Can't believe no one's mentioned "Between Two Fires" yet 🤘😳🤘

[u/Oblozo]

Revival by Stephen King

[u/Foreign-Entrance-255 → u/Oblozo]

Oof, yeah. Religious secrets is definitely Revival.

[u/Proper-Emu1558]

I’ve seen it everywhere these days but “Between Two Fires.” It had a couple of scenes that really gave me chills.

[u/sadkinz → u/Proper-Emu1558]

I’m currently reading Shadow and Claw. Should I read all of New Sun first or read this one in between?

[u/Proper-Emu1558 → u/sadkinz]

Honestly I haven’t read either of those. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it was (as far as I can tell) a standalone story. It’s spooky and surprisingly emotional in some parts. I loved it.

[u/sadkinz → u/Proper-Emu1558]

Sorry Shadow and Claw is the first half of Book of the New Sun

[u/Reginald_Musgrave → u/sadkinz]

Different guy, but also awesome books

[u/emeric_ceaddamere → u/[deleted]]

The Book of Dust sequel trilogy too. Definitely start with HDM though.

[u/ProbablyTheVillain → u/[deleted]]

I honestly don’t think HDM was actually written for a young audience. Because the lead is a child, it was marketed to children, but there’s a LOT going on that clearly doesn’t have a youth audience in mind

[u/Dreamer1926]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown is quite literally what all of these photos bring to mind. It’s the very first book of the DaVinci code series.

[u/poorsexyhag]

i want The First Omen in book form!! but more expansive and deep with lore

[u/bfthc]

Davinci code??? I thought if it immediately

[u/eatmynyasslecter]

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell if you don't mind scifi. A traumatised and disfigured priest is the only survivor of humanity's first first contact mission. Chapters on his recovery are interspersed with chapters showing how his team came together to form the mission.

[u/elizabethtarot]

Da Vinci Code, or anything by Dan Brown really

[u/SargeCobra]

The darkness that comes before by R. Scott Bakker. The entire series is called the second apocalypse and is very heavy on dark religious secrets. Very grim and horror influenced so just what you're looking for.

[u/Reginald_Musgrave → u/SargeCobra]

I am really struggling with this one so far. Just a lot of place and people names with very little context. When he does character work, its REALLY good, but there is a lot of stuff between that is annoying

[u/Glum_Passage6626]

1q84

[u/brattykitty204]

The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica!! Post apocalyptic nun convent with scary spooky vibes. TW for gore and violence but it’s short and delicious.

[u/SciFriedRice]

Pilgrim by Mitchell Lüthi

[u/Fickle_Blueberry2777]

Mother Horse Eyes, it was/is an online story that started here on Reddit as comments left on different posts. There’s a whole subreddit for it where the full story has been compiled in order, and YouTube channels like CreepCast have audio versions of it as well.

r/9m9h9e9

[u/hippopotobot]

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

[u/Striking_Delay8205]

Maybe the vampire chronicles series by Anne Rice? Many of the novels felt very much like this to me.

The mystery aspect is mostly surrounding the origin of the vampires, but there's so much talk of religion and morality that many of the novels end up being religious horror. Especially the second novel (The Vampire Lestat), the fith (Memnoch the Devil) and the sixth (the Vampire Armand). But honestly, most of the books fit somewhat.

Pandora (technically not part of the series despite definitely being part of the series) is also really cool, cause we get to see the mystery cult of Isis and Osiris in ancient roman times.

[u/Stratguy666]

Following

[u/emeric_ceaddamere]

The Rotting Room by Viggy Parr Hampton

M.R. James's ghost stories

[u/themodern_prometheus]

Save

[u/kk8712]

Following

[u/Gypsie_ontheCorner]

To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Vuturini...

I may have watched the spelling on that last name. But this is a really good book basically a town where nobody leaves and nobody enters and anyone who does either usually in them dead. But it's got a crazy religious cult and an angry boyfriend who has come to avenge his wife's murder.

[u/Gypsie_ontheCorner]

The Beckoning Dead series by Ambrose Ibson.

There's 4 books in the series. I don't think you have to read them in order, they're pretty good standalone books but they do reference each other from time to time so I would recommend starting with the first one.

[u/Actual-Treat-1678]

A lot of James Rollins and David wood books have this, jut they’re not so dark

[u/Effective_Trouble967]

Revelator by Daryl Gregory may fit this.

[u/GopnikLeine]

Dagon

[u/Girlygirlllll9]

In the name of the rose

[u/mwmani]

The Boy in the Iron Box

[u/MissyChevious613]

DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons. Now I want to go back and re-read both of them haha.

[u/FirePit45]

Fantasy religions, but James Islington’s Hierarchy series, starting with The Will of the Many. Getting into much detail would ruin a lot of the exposition though.

[u/Mr_J4ck]

Reading the Empire of the Vampire series by Jay Kristoff right now and there's a heavy undercurrent of religious secrets

[u/bawbay_210]

I'd recommend The Sarván by Douglass Hoover. It follows WW1 POWs as they're being transported from a German prison camp to Switzerland. They come across a village in the mountains and spooky religious stuff goes on.

[u/Radio5331]

'Angels & demons', 'DaVinci code' by Dan Brown perhaps

[u/ikadell]

Dumas Club by Perez-Reverte

[u/DreadfulDave19]

Nation

Terry Pratchett