# library.forgemesh.io Gothic & Horror Fiction Shelf

> library.forgemesh.io Gothic & Horror Fiction Shelf is a paid API for AI agents from library.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.003/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-13).

Returns a ranked list of public-domain gothic and horror fiction books with title, author, year, book_id, and drill-down routes for full-text retrieval.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://library.forgemesh.io/gothic-horror
- Price: $0.003/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-gothic-horror-fiction-shelf-9be934fb
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_7J9L4XWyuRFGWXyPqOfCR

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability library-forgemesh-io-gothic-horror-fiction-shelf-9be934fb -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up a list of the top 30 most historically popular public-domain gothic and horror novels, with their authors and years, so I can pick one to read?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you specifically need a curated, historically-ranked list of public-domain gothic and horror fiction titles. Prefer it over full-text search endpoints when you want a broad discovery shelf rather than a specific passage or query result, and over general classic-novel shelves when the user's intent is specifically horror or gothic genre.

## Known failure modes

- limit exceeds maximum of 50 — API may return an error or cap results silently
- payment of 0.003 USDC not processed — request rejected with 402 Payment Required
- service unavailable — 5xx error with no book data returned
- empty corpus edge case — returns empty list if index is unavailable

## How this service works

Curated shelf of public-domain gothic and horror fiction, ranked by historical popularity. Returns title, author, year, book_id, and drill-down routes for full-text retrieval. No license, no API key required.

## Output

A ranked list of up to 50 public-domain gothic and horror books, each with title, author, publication year, book_id, and drill-down route references for retrieving full text.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "limit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "description": "Max books to return (default 20, max 50)"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "books": [
   {
    "year": "1995",
    "title": "Dracula",
    "author": "Stoker, Bram, 1847-1912",
    "book_id": 345,
    "subjects": [
     "Horror tales",
     "Vampires -- Fiction"
    ],
    "download_count": 20000
   }
  ],
  "count": 5,
  "shelf": "Gothic & Horror",
  "coverage": {
   "target": 1000,
   "indexed": 865
  },
  "drill_down": [
   "/book-metadata",
   "/book-chapter",
   "/book-quotes",
   "/literature-search"
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/library-forgemesh-io-gothic-horror-fiction-shelf-9be934fb/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from library.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/library.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)