The Library of Kris
Stories that haunt. Myths that remain.
Kris Buckel writes horror and speculative fiction about ordinary people shoved into extraordinary, usually unsurvivable, circumstances. She also trains dogs, which is the one shelf where everybody makes it out alive. Wander carefully — and if a book starts whispering, it's best not to answer.
Every library needs someone quietly keeping the shelves in order, rescuing the stories nobody else could bear to finish. Around here, that's Kris. She's spent a lifetime fascinated by monsters, impossible worlds, and the strange, stubborn ways people keep surviving them — through a zombie apocalypse, a forgotten creature at the edge of civilization, a world where the impossible quietly became ordinary.
When she isn't writing, she's reading, building new corners of this library, or outnumbered by a household of animals that would make a decent fantasy bestiary on their own.
The Shelf
4 Titles In Print
HORROR — NOVEL — BUCKEL, K.
The Silence
book oneA national alert, a city gone quiet, and corpses that don't stay down. “A bar-setter in modern zombie horror.” — Stephen Paul Sayers
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HORROR — NOVEL — BUCKEL, K.
The Silence II
next evolutionSean and Kiera survived one apocalypse. With Grace the zombie-killing dog at their side, the undead come back stronger, faster, and worse.
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HORROR — NOVEL — BUCKEL, K.
After Dark
standaloneWhen the zoo falls, it doesn't fall quietly. Eleanor Rigby and a handful of survivors measure each day by who didn't make it through the night.
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NONFICTION — DOG TRAINING — BUCKEL, K.
I Asked
conversations, not commandsYour dog is not giving you a hard time. Your dog is having a hard time understanding you. A positive-reinforcement guide that trades obedience for conversation.
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5 Collections
GOTHIC DARK FANTASY
Darkness
Fae, traitors, and a slow unraveling — five entries and counting.
Browse the Index →
THE SILENCE, COMPANION PIECES
The Silence
Grace the zombie-killing dog, and the moments the novel didn't have room for.
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AFTER DARK, RESTRICTED FILES
After Dark
Case files and excerpts from the novel's darkest corners — zoo animals included.
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SUPERNATURAL COUNSELING
Cryptid Counseling
Session intakes for the Mothman, a Djinn, a Wendigo, and worse. Penny takes notes.
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STRANGE CREATURES & LORE
Field Notes from a Stranger Earth
The Glass Stag, the Moss Shepherd, and other things that shouldn't exist.
Browse the Index →Dispatches
From the SubstackMolotov Zombies
An excerpt from The Silence, a published zombie horror novel by Kristi Buckel. Found wherever you can buy books online.
Read → SEP 10 — CRYPTID COUNSELINGSession 4: The Banshee
What happens when monsters need therapy? Follow Kit, a counselor for cryptids, as she helps supernatural clients navigate anxiety, grief, identity, burnout,…
Read → SEP 8 — DARKNESSChapter Ten: Maybe One Day
Darkness is a serialized dark fantasy novel following two sisters separated by the Fae after one is kidnapped into a dying magical kingdom in New York City.…
Read →Straight from her Substack, refreshed server-side — so no visitor data ever leaves this site.
New tales, delivered from the ghost of the library.
Once a week, whatever's been pulled off the shelf lands in your inbox — new chapters, finished stories, the occasional cryptid office hour. No spam. No fine print. Cancel any time you decide you'd rather not know what happens next.