|
Opopanax posted:I started reading one of the Splatter Westerns and I says Book 3. Am I right in thinking that they're standalone and that's just the third one the publisher put out, or am I supposed to be reading in order God I hope there’s some madhouse publisher out there just releasing a totally standalone book with Volume III in the title without ever elaborating on it or explaining.
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 07:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 11:43 |
|
|
Actually yeah that's how it works, they're all standalone novels.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 12:40
|
|
|
I just read Matt Wesolowski's Six Stories, and the first 5/6 of the book is just an exceptional slow burn horror, in that indeterminate kind of way that Paul Tremblay uses in Head Full of Ghosts or Devil's Rock, and then then final act just ruins the whole thing, even making the earlier sections retroactively worse. Spoilered complaints: The book turns from the (honestly just wonderful) slow burn horror into a lovely crime thriller, complete with a psycho-killing hallucinating antogonist who's also some kind of super criminal mastermind, and the book nearly turns into airport dadfiction. All the earlier themes (the complexities of bullying, teenage search for identity and acceptance) that are handled so intelligently just go away in service of this crazy (generically crazy, too) teenage murder genius. It's done in such a hackneyed Keyser Soze twist, too. Just argh. It's such a frustrating read, and now I'm bummed that I bought the three volume set.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 18:10
|
|
|
I started with Red Station and didn't notice anything.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 19:24
|
|
|
Yeah I dug into it more and apparently there's a reference to the last book but that's it, so just a group of writers who know each other writing in the same genre
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 23:43
|
|
|
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4005650 So I made a thread with some stuff I'm willing to sell. Honestly, not a lot of great stuff, because my Evensons, Barrons, Ligottis, Bartlett, etc. are not for sale.  There is a rare Crowley book which is apparently selling for $200 on eBay. And John Langan's Mr. Gaunt, perfect, unread condition. I do have a few decent things for sale, like thread favorites Negative Space, some SGJ, Boatman's Daughter. sephiRoth IRA posted:Can recommend Evensons The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell I loving love Evenson and read four of his books last year, including Glassy Burning Floor. I own I think 11 of his books. I just started A Collapse of Horses. He is a little more weird than horror, but it's still great.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 05:45
|
|
|
I just did not like a collapse of horses. Maybe it was because it was too out there and not "horror" enough or I didn't give it enough of a try. Glassy floor was really great, however.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 08:09
|
|
|
You can get three of Tony Burgess' books in a bundle called The Bewdley Mayhem for like 10 bucks. I urge you all to read at least Pontypool Changes Everything, which is absolutely batshit insane and so much better than the movie. I also recommend Ravenna Gets, a short fix-up novella about two towns going insane and trying to kill each other. Nobody writes like this dude and I'm saddened that his last book wasn't very good and he seems to have stopped writing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 09:31
|
|
|
sephiRoth IRA posted:I just did not like a collapse of horses. Maybe it was because it was too out there and not "horror" enough or I didn't give it enough of a try. Glassy floor was really great, however. He's got some weird sci-fi poo poo under the name B.K. Evenson and even a collaboration with Rob Zombie, but most of the stuff I have is short story collections (Fugue, Windeye, Contagion, The Wavering Knife, Altmann's Tongue) I like "weird" fiction too. Like Aickman-esque stuff. Which isn't to say Evenson is like Aickman, but it's interesting and weird and they both tickle my fancy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 19:14
|
|
|
Is there anyone out there who fits in the same niche as Aickman -- the mundane evolving into unnerving off-kilter situations and mounting dread, usually without any monsters/violence, just... deep discomfort? (I don't really know how to sum up Aickman, but you know how it goes.) I find his writing uniquely compelling and want more stuff that feels like it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 03:16
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:Is there anyone out there who fits in the same niche as Aickman -- the mundane evolving into unnerving off-kilter situations and mounting dread, usually without any monsters/violence, just... deep discomfort? (I don't really know how to sum up Aickman, but you know how it goes.) I find his writing uniquely compelling and want more stuff that feels like it. I might be a weirdo, but Aickman and Murakami both make me feel that, assuming I’m correctly picking up what you’re putting down. You probably already thought of that but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 03:21
|
|
|
So, and I am scared to put this out there, did anyone find that The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett did not quite live up to the hype?
Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale. escape artist fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Jul 3, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 06:15
|
|
|
escape artist posted:So, and I am scared to put this out there, did anyone find that The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett did not quite live up to the hype? Yep. I enjoyed it overall (one chapter in particular) but found it a little uneven.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 09:59
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:Is there anyone out there who fits in the same niche as Aickman -- the mundane evolving into unnerving off-kilter situations and mounting dread, usually without any monsters/violence, just... deep discomfort? (I don't really know how to sum up Aickman, but you know how it goes.) I find his writing uniquely compelling and want more stuff that feels like it. A lot of Simon Strantzas's stories are very Aickman-esque.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 10:52
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:Is there anyone out there who fits in the same niche as Aickman -- the mundane evolving into unnerving off-kilter situations and mounting dread, usually without any monsters/violence, just... deep discomfort? (I don't really know how to sum up Aickman, but you know how it goes.) I find his writing uniquely compelling and want more stuff that feels like it. I like Avram Davidson's horror stories a lot for this - Limekiller in particular (but be aware they're very different from Aickman). Some, not all, Ramsey Campbell is good for this as well.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 12:04
|
|
|
Are the Anno Dracula books any good or twee bullshit?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 18:48
|
|
|
I had to look that up and... Yeah that's a guy who writes about alternate history dracula conquering Freedonia. I vaguely remember reading a book preview and the tone felt obnoxiously twee and smarmy to me. You know how modern writers take Sherlock Holmes and make him into a BBC Sherlock lite character? Kind of like that. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for that, at the time.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 19:25
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:Are the Anno Dracula books any good or twee bullshit?
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 19:27
|
|
|
Kind of what I figured. There are a bunch on sale today but I couldn't really tell what tone they were going for
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 19:58
|
|
|
Finished Dust today, and I liked it a lot. It's a splatter western but with a Lovecraftian bent that worked well. It had some references to the second Splatter book but definitely felt more like Easter eggs than anything you'd need to know, although apparently the main character is from 2 of the author's other books. I'll check them out because this was fun but it sounds like he just wrote It (all that is referenced it that it's kids dealing with a lovecraft monster and then it comes back 26 years later).
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 22:58
|
|
|
Nice, Dust is on my to-read list after Reincursion.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 01:34
|
|
|
a foolish pianist posted:I just read Matt Wesolowski's Six Stories, and the first 5/6 of the book is just an exceptional slow burn horror, in that indeterminate kind of way that Paul Tremblay uses in Head Full of Ghosts or Devil's Rock, and then then final act just ruins the whole thing, even making the earlier sections retroactively worse. Spoilered complaints: Hey that was me reccing that, and I apologize for not mentioning the... plot twist? The plot turn hard left into a different concept, if you will. I wasn't sure how to explain that without spoiling the endings of the series. All of the stories in this series are like that, to be honest. They lean heavily into the supernatural or paranormal or even local folktale horror, but near the end reign back into the realistic. The evil Black Geist sighting? That was actually someone disguising themself with a black sheet in order to sneak into the semi abandoned teen hang out tower to hide evidence of their murder weapon, for a non spoiler example that does not happen in any book. I liked this because it felt like an uncommon flavor of murder mystery, with enough horror to keep it interesting and questioning. I also felt it humanized the characters fairly well, something I appreciate seeing in crime and 'true crime-esque' flavored books. I think Wesolowski's Demon, the latest of the series, did that the best. Since you did not vibe with it, I'd safely say you would not enjoy the rest of the series. I'm sorry it didn't click with you, it always sucks when that happens. Hopefully you're on to books you are enjoying! [the goofy mask Scott King wears is pretty stupid, imo.] Speaking of books... Hi do you like haunted houses, 1970s america, ambiguous ghost(s??) / hauntings, animal experiments, and epistolary story telling? You do? Great. Check out Smithy by Amanda Desiree, released in 2021. quote:In the tumultuous summer of 1974, in the shadowy rooms of a rundown mansion in Rhode Island, renowned psychologist Dr. Piers Preis-Herald brings together a group of seven collegiate researchers to study the inner lives of man’s closest relative―the primate. They set out to teach their subject, who would eventually be known to the world as Smithy, American Sign Language. But as the summer deepens and the history of the mansion manifests, the messages signed by their research subject become increasing spectral. It's definitely a slow burn, taking about a good 3 hours to read for me. The 'chapters' are deceptively short, but long. I thought the interpersonal conflicts were pretty decent and not too contrived. It felt like a genuine butting if personalities, maturity, and levels of responsibility within the project. And it did not feel like it coalesced into a dollar store version of 'scooby and the gang' when things started to ramp up. The pacing was slow but i think its worked better than to rush it. Following along with the chimps actual aging from child to juvenile adult made the tension more realistic, like being able to look back at old scrapbooks and go oh wait, there was foreshadowing and NOW everything is clicking together. I really appreciated the pacing and how it doesn't lose the point of the book, trying to tackle too many plots all at once. Like, it gives enough info and hints on the hauntings without going fully switching plots and abandoning the first one. There is a Jewish woman, but outside of a single blurb about going home for the winter holidays aka Hanukkah it doesnt play into the plot very much. I think it would've been cool to have a Jewish perspective on the haunting and not just a catholic one. And its not really catholic either, its generic white american secular upbringing. It's very much attempted non religious, logic based social norms as far as the micro society within the house goes. But they still recite the nicene creed and lords prayer at some point. There's also a canon lesbian. But outside of using her sexuality to fend off the mild sexual abuser of a womanizing professor, Piers, it does not play into the story either. It honestly felt bad to read because using lesbianism as a get out of harassment card just... does not work in real life, especially with sexual abusers. One scene I remember from another book, kill club by wendy heard, does use that in a decent, realistic way but ultimately the lesbian still gets harassed and fetishized to her face. I half wish that they went more into the haunting and its history. It was definitely more focused on the modern setting and how the ghost(s?) was affecting the current residents. It's not Wylding Hall levels of undeveloped potential, I'd say. I think it did shy away from engaging with too much paranormal plot, perhaps to its own detriment. It's solid but I, personally, wanted more paranormal. I also felt the same while reading Head Full of Ghosts so that might be a special Me issue. At times I was wondering if they'd follow through with the poltergeist foreshadowing and it would further ramp up in terms of tension and paranormal occurrences. I would say it's a mark of a good book that I'm left wanting more and wondering just what happened in that house. Outside of maybe two or three major scenes about the house's history, it's not brought up too much. I wouldn't know how to 'improve' the book further, so I'd say I'm happy with how it turned out. The ending? I think I should mention this. If you read and enjoyed the ending to Paul Trembley's Head Full of Ghosts, you'd like this book. If you didn't, then enjoy the ride but expect a similar reaction to this book's ending. If this is too spoilery I can remove this. Some disclaimers. Animal abuse. No there is no gorey medical abuse or torture of any animals. Yes there is animal abuse in that 1) raising a undomesticated animal like a chimpanzee is unethical and harms them as an adult, assuming they ever 'return' to the wild. This is not touched upon and doesn't come to be in the story. 2) there is animal on animal abuse , consisting of the chimpanzee attacking the cat on screen to the point of broken bones. It's not overly gorey but it is explicit whats happening. I think you can skip those scenes, it's only a few paragraphs, if you really don't want to see that. Do the animals live at the end? Yes, all of them survive. Do the animals attack the humans? Yes. There are a few instances of the chimp attacking humans, and the worst of which was pretty graphic and gorey. ALSO. There's no thrillers / mystery thread as far as I can see and it involves enough... softcore horror? that I'm slipping this in here. Devil House by John Darnielle. Ok yeah so this is not really horror per se, more like Suspense / Crime Mystery / soft core true crime, I guess? Ok, so it is true crime propaganda in that it doesn't mention the harm it has done on society at large in a realistic manner. Not beyond lip service, in my opinion. I think it does touch upon how the people directly linked to the victim / murderer are treated. I think that was the best part of the book, in the last third where the fictional author is reading the letter from the murder victim's mother and what she went through and how she'll never 'escape' the grief. Holy gently caress the scream? The cave? It's not in the text but it reminds me of Orpheus and Eurydice, the imagery of the mother always in that pivotal moment of looking back with love, with grief. I don't cry much at books but that did make me tear up. Anyways. I can appreciate that it attempts to give a voice to people who aren't the 'omg evil scary spoopy murderer!'. Also the ending was absolutely not what I was expecting. I think it really went for the gut and the throat.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 05:50
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:Are the Anno Dracula books any good or twee bullshit? Edit: Wow the novel is from 1992. It reads like twee bullshit from the early 00's.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 07:56
|
|
|
Siivola posted:Twee bullshit. The first Anno Dracula is a book about a sad middle-aged widower who bumbles around meeting public domain characters and falls in love with Newman's 900-year-old vampire OC from his Warhammer novels. Ahead of his time, then? Despite looking like he was a hipster before it was cool and is hiding his steampunk fetish gear just out of frame, Kim Newman is actually a legitimate authority on horror and SF and his opinions are highly regarded. (His fiction less so, but then he's writing what he loves and what he loves is trash.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 10:48
|
|
|
Yeah no devil house sucked poo poo. I have never read a more indulgent, meandering book where the payoff is a loving "well actually, none of the dumb poo poo you've spent an entire book reading is real, I made it all up, *gasp* maybe we shouldn't be obsessed with true crime!" I loved his other books but devil house was an attempt at something different and I think it flopped. The most interesting sections are the ones that do meditate on those true crime aspects with the schoolteacher murderer, but they are mired in the other 80% of the book, which was boring and sucked. This is absolutely not a horror book btw. I think it would be hard to call any of his books horror, honestly. There are certainly moments of dread, but it's definitely something else. sephiRoth IRA fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jul 3, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 14:18
|
|
|
You make some good points and I understand being disappointed in a book. But can you please spoiler the first paragraph because that does ruin the entire book for everyone who hasn't read it?
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 18:28
|
|
|
value-brand cereal posted:You make some good points and I understand being disappointed in a book. But can you please spoiler the first paragraph because that does ruin the entire book for everyone who hasn't read it? Absolutely, that's 100% my bad I was going to put them in at the end and then got so enraged at the very thought of a book I didn't like I palm-smashed my oversize "POST" button
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 19:48
|
|
|
Not me screaming at a book because Agent Orange is gonna escape the Kill Zone. MR DUNBAR TEAR DOWN THIS WALL UwUnabomber fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Jul 4, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2022 05:40
|
|
|
I want to cancel my Audible+ thing but have a bunch of credits I'll lose if I don't use them. Anyone have any recs for good horror audiobooks? I haven't read too much horror aside from all of Stephen King's stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:21
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:I want to cancel my Audible+ thing but have a bunch of credits I'll lose if I don't use them. Anyone have any recs for good horror audiobooks? I haven't read too much horror aside from all of Stephen King's stuff. I haven't listened to it but I know Nick Cutter has an audible exclusive that came out fairly recently and I've loved all his other stuff
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:32
|
|
|
Header 2
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:35
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:I want to cancel my Audible+ thing but have a bunch of credits I'll lose if I don't use them. Anyone have any recs for good horror audiobooks? I haven't read too much horror aside from all of Stephen King's stuff. Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:42
|
|
|
nate fisher posted:Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud. I just listened to North American Lake Monsters. Well written but I really felt like poo poo after. Is this similar?
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:51
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:I just listened to North American Lake Monsters. Well written but I really felt like poo poo after. Is this similar? I preferred Wounds, and I think it's mainly because the last story is really interesting and fun so I didn't end the book feeling like poo poo. In general Wounds didn't make me feel like poo poo
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:53
|
|
|
The Polish Pirate posted:I preferred Wounds, and I think it's mainly because the last story is really interesting and fun so I didn't end the book feeling like poo poo. Thanks, I'm not sure if that's a common reaction to NALM. I think I'll give Wounds a shot, as it was definitely well written.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:55
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:I want to cancel my Audible+ thing but have a bunch of credits I'll lose if I don't use them. Anyone have any recs for good horror audiobooks? I haven't read too much horror aside from all of Stephen King's stuff. After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies by John Langan The Fisherman by John Langan Growing Things by Paul Tremblay A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay Dark Matter by Michelle Paver The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud The Last Stair Into Darkness by Cliff Barlow (started out as a No Sleep Podcast writer? Some of the stuff is memorable though.) A bit Genre skewed but with considerable horror elements: Lost Gods by Brom Dawn by Octavia Butler (Invasion story but it's unnerving in it's own way)
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:57
|
|
|
Idle Amalgam posted:After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones Solid suggestions all 
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 21:59
|
|
|
Well I don't have that many credits but I'm taking notes here, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 22:04
|
|
|
A Proper Uppercut posted:Thanks, I'm not sure if that's a common reaction to NALM. I think I'll give Wounds a shot, as it was definitely well written. Wounds has more a Clive Barker vibe. The Butcher’s Table (the last story) is one of the biggest things I have read in years.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 22:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 29, 2024 11:43 |
|
|
The answer is always John Langan. Come join me in creepy upstate New York. A Proper Uppercut posted:I just listened to North American Lake Monsters. Well written but I really felt like poo poo after. Is this similar? I would argue that that's working as intended. Very much the point of the stories and why I love them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2022 22:23
|
|