Your Uncle Dracula posted:Did the Mother Horse Eyes reddit guy ever put out a book? I accept that some of the mystique is lost when it's removed from the format of connected, wild flash fiction couched in the comments of r/Biking, but I liked his style and the world he built. Who was that, even? I've been waiting on a Behind The Music on 9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9
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# ? Apr 25, 2023 20:29 |
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# ? Jun 6, 2024 07:07 |
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I thought this thread unequivocally worshiped Ligotti. I sent that collection to Antivehicular and a week later, this thread dumps on it, like all hell! Piling on. I feel bad. I didn't like The Frolic because it didn't feel like a Ligotti story. It almost felt like a King story with Ligotti prose, from what I recall. The kind of story that scares a young father more than anyone else. Teatro Grottesco is incredibly consistent and I loved it from start to finish. I actually never made it past The Frolic in the other one. Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale. escape artist fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Apr 26, 2023 |
# ? Apr 25, 2023 23:00 |
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I do get scared when I read scary stories. That part in The Same Dog when the kids look back and see a naked yellow man is pretty chilling. One of my favorite scary stories. Also recently that seaside town story from A Collapse of Horses got me good. Regarding the recent Ligotti talk, I really love him but I don't really find his stories all that scary. And yeah, his first two collections are kinda uneven, but that essay about writing horror using a pair of haunted pants gets absolutely crazy and it's totally worthy to get the book just for that
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# ? Apr 26, 2023 02:51 |
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elpaganoescapa posted:I do get scared when I read scary stories. That part in The Same Dog when the kids look back and see a naked yellow man is pretty chilling. One of my favorite scary stories. Also recently that seaside town story from A Collapse of Horses got me good. That's probably my favorite in that collection. Very fun.
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# ? Apr 26, 2023 04:10 |
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elpaganoescapa posted:I do get scared when I read scary stories. That part in The Same Dog when the kids look back and see a naked yellow man is pretty chilling. One of my favorite scary stories. Also recently that seaside town story from A Collapse of Horses got me good. I really enjoyed that one too
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# ? Apr 26, 2023 17:49 |
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PsychedelicWarlord posted:Teattro Grotesco has that scene with the woman dipping hot dogs into mayo which literally makes me nauseous when I think about it That scene stopped me dead when I attempted to read TG -- just visceral disgust, which sounds dumb as hell, but so it goes. I should try again and just... skim that bit. Anyway, I posted about this a bit ago, but I also read the first few stories in SoaDD and wasn't all that impressed. "Frolic," honestly, reads kind of juvenilia-ish to me? Lots of sort of half-baked ideas that don't go anywhere, a tone that's too limp to be satirical without being realistic either, and extremely predictable action for the most part. The comparison to King is apt, but King is much better at creating instantly better-rounded and sympathetic characters, so the horror actually hits. By about halfway through "Frolic" I was just waiting for the punchline.
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# ? Apr 26, 2023 22:43 |
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Can someone remind me the name of the story that's just about a guy living on a farm with his mom and wife and he snaps and just starts shooting people? There's no supernatural twist, just this rear end in a top hat going postal.
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# ? Apr 27, 2023 16:40 |
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Middle America
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# ? Apr 28, 2023 06:48 |
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Wrapped The Croning. It was okay, like Barron's shorter work but with more padding. In some cases literally so, tying his short stories into a broader mythos and metaplot. The nadir was the part where the evil villains explain their evil plan to the protagonist, and then a chapter later a different villain does the same thing. It's cheesy as gently caress and it robs the story of its mystery and power. As always, even at his worst Barron can still pump out some very evocative descriptive text. My favorite part is the spooky museum at the rich guy's mansion.
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# ? Apr 28, 2023 19:11 |
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Just finished Smear and... What exactly happened there? I've clearly missed something.
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# ? Apr 29, 2023 02:59 |
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elpaganoescapa posted:I do get scared when I read scary stories. That part in The Same Dog when the kids look back and see a naked yellow man is pretty chilling. One of my favorite scary stories. Also recently that seaside town story from A Collapse of Horses got me good. The Same Dog is so horrifying because it's so elliptical about its horror. It's chilling!
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# ? Apr 29, 2023 04:26 |
Punkin Spunkin posted:Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann Owlkill posted:Seconding the Tyll recommendation - Nobber by Oisin Fagan is also good if weird, hallucinatory historical fiction is up your street
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# ? Apr 29, 2023 23:09 |
Oxxidation posted:hate it when i hear harsh laughter, the laughter of the devil
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# ? Apr 30, 2023 09:47 |
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Oxxidation posted:hate it when i hear harsh laughter, the laughter of the devil “Lol, lmao”
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# ? Apr 30, 2023 13:24 |
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New BR Yeager collection just dropped — Burn You the gently caress Alive
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# ? May 1, 2023 14:56 |
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Finished The Spite House on thread recommendation, enjoyed it quite a bit, and it’s definitely one of the better endings to a haunted house story I’ve read. I’ll have to check out some of his other work
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# ? May 2, 2023 00:13 |
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on getting scared reading horror, not really, but it took me a hell of a long time to finish Tell Me I'm Worthless between deciding to take a break after a few pages and deciding that now's not the time to reopen my books app. stress, not fear. this was before they went back, though. once they did I finished it off over lunch. great book, preordered her next.
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# ? May 2, 2023 18:06 |
Tor just announced a new Nathan Ballingrud novella: https://www.tor.com/2023/04/06/book-announcement-crypt-of-the-moon-spider-by-nathan-ballingrud/ quote:Years ago, in a cave beneath the dense forests and streams on the surface of the moon, a gargantuan spider once lived. Its silk granted its first worshippers immense faculties of power and awe. Looks like he's all in on early 20th century space travel alt-history weird fiction now.
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# ? May 3, 2023 16:00 |
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Lil Mama Im Sorry posted:New BR Yeager collection just dropped — Burn You the gently caress Alive Sweet, excited to check this out. Negative Space was so loving good.
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# ? May 3, 2023 16:12 |
a foolish pianist posted:Tor just announced a new Nathan Ballingrud novella: I'm kind of disappointed to hear that honestly, I haven't read The Strange but the marketing synopsis didn't make me all that excited to read it. This one sounds a little more interesting but still not really what I'd hope for from him in particular.
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# ? May 3, 2023 16:14 |
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I read some books! Between two fires - I hadn't read this book yet. Why hadn't I read this book yet? It is good for all the reasons that have been said already and you should read it if you were like me and hadn't yet. John Dies at the end - I also hadn't read this book for some reason. Probably because I thought it would grate on me and it did exactly that after a while. DNF but got about 70% through before deciding I got the point and had my fun with it. How to sell a haunted house - It's a haunted house book by the haunted Ikea book guy. Overall just a pretty decent book that really beat on its themes of explaining death to children and lies within the family. If you like/hate creepy puppets then this book is probably for you. I thought the flashback to the brother at college was especially good. V-Wars - Vampire virus super-long book series that I got through one book of and bailed on. Premise and some sections were good, but drat they spend way too much time jumping to other perspectives instead of advancing the overall plot. I guess it got adapted to a comic book if you want it summarized. 2389 - It's a zombie virus in (not)Disneyland on the moon! Also it sucks. Also it is NOT the year 2389 in the book so I don't know what the gently caress the title is on about. It explicitly references the century the book takes place in several times throughout the book and, spoiler alert, that century does not include the year 2389. I read it because I thought I remembered liking a book by this author but that was Wrath James White and NOT Iain Rob Wright. Oh well,. you win some you lose some. At least it was short.
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# ? May 4, 2023 04:13 |
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MockingQuantum posted:I'm kind of disappointed to hear that honestly, I haven't read The Strange but the marketing synopsis didn't make me all that excited to read it. This one sounds a little more interesting but still not really what I'd hope for from him in particular. This is extremely disappointing but I guess he has to move on from the crazy high expectations set by NALM and Butcher's Table. He got enough name recognition with those so that he could experiment a bit more with his next releases, so I am happy for him in that regard. I DNF'ed the Strange and felt bad about it, but now I feel like maybe I made the right decision.
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# ? May 4, 2023 18:37 |
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Good Citizen posted:I read some books! The best stuff in this book is towards the end. You might want to try again later.
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# ? May 5, 2023 00:22 |
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Stopping by to say Bonding by Maggie Siebert was a blast Currently reading Monarch by Candice Wuehle (also excellent halfway through) Lil Mama Im Sorry fucked around with this message at 22:37 on May 9, 2023 |
# ? May 9, 2023 22:31 |
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Read Tell Me I’m Worthless based on the recs in this thread. Wow, that was a rough read. But I liked it. Not sure I understood everything that happened in it. But I liked it.
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# ? May 10, 2023 03:49 |
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I really enjoyed The Strange, but it's definitely not a horror story, and it's extremely different from Ballingrud's other work.
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# ? May 11, 2023 04:17 |
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Blastedhellscape posted:I really enjoyed The Strange, but it's definitely not a horror story, and it's extremely different from Ballingrud's other work. I enjoyed it for the most part, but the ending felt rushed to me. The leap in time for the summary conclusion just rubbed me the wrong way, but I'd give more of the alt history space adventure stuff another go.
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# ? May 11, 2023 16:18 |
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New Michael Wehunt collection out in like three weeks, I'm really looking forward to it
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# ? May 13, 2023 21:02 |
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Good Citizen posted:Between two fires - I hadn't read this book yet. Why hadn't I read this book yet? It is good for all the reasons that have been said already and you should read it if you were like me and hadn't yet.
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# ? May 15, 2023 12:46 |
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Burn You the gently caress Alive is loving amazing. I'd been getting pretty dissatisfied reading some recent avant-garde horror collections, but this one really scratches the itch.
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# ? May 18, 2023 03:23 |
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Are there's any vampire books out there that still have the regal aloof distinguished feeling of Dracula but with more blood and guts and zombies and stuff like that? For a very specific reference I'm looking for something like the vampires from the Warhammer Fantasy universe and nothing really scratches that same itch.
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# ? May 18, 2023 03:25 |
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Count Thrashula posted:Are there's any vampire books out there that still have the regal aloof distinguished feeling of Dracula but with more blood and guts and zombies and stuff like that? I don't think it's at all what you're looking for but Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (he of the writhing post 9/11 brain worms) is SOME kinda fuckin vampire story. It's gross in many dimensions and probably racist but it's certainly a hell of a take on 20th Century Vampires. They're running the government and Hollywood, or they're preachers or ex-Nazis, and they're all competing to be invited to an annual rich people get together on what's basically Epstein's Island, except it's about mind controlling human puppets to hunt down hapless victims, or playing chess games with living people where you eat the pieces that get taken. And a Holocaust survivor and a victim's daughter have to fight them. So, bad rec for what you're looking for, but maybe a rec for "unusual vampire books"??
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# ? May 18, 2023 03:42 |
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Count Thrashula posted:Are there's any vampire books out there that still have the regal aloof distinguished feeling of Dracula but with more blood and guts and zombies and stuff like that? The President’s Vampire series E; to be clear, it’s ridiculous, but the titular character is regal and aloof af and he fights zombies in book 1. In book 2… It isn’t tongue in cheek at all and its competently written airport-tier fiction. I wouldn’t represent it as literary but neither would I WH There’s also the Empire of the Vampire series which takes place in like an alt history ancien regime steampunk France in which vampires are a oligarchy of nobles over humanity. It’s allegedly a nyt best seller but I didn’t get very far into it because of his tortured pseudogothic prose and too cute worldbuilding. I mean it’s titled Empire of the Vampire, it’s that kind of book. But if you like Carsteins, well they got em zoux fucked around with this message at 06:03 on May 18, 2023 |
# ? May 18, 2023 05:49 |
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The Strain?
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# ? May 18, 2023 12:25 |
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Count Thrashula posted:Are there's any vampire books out there that still have the regal aloof distinguished feeling of Dracula but with more blood and guts and zombies and stuff like that? On the one hand, Necroscope. On the other, Fevre Dream by GRRM. If you alternate chapters you should get exactly what you want!
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# ? May 18, 2023 12:57 |
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ravenkult posted:The Strain? good answer, The Master is so hilariously arch
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# ? May 18, 2023 12:58 |
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Got some good stuff here folks, thank you.
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# ? May 18, 2023 13:04 |
Blastedhellscape posted:Burn You the gently caress Alive is loving amazing. I'd been getting pretty dissatisfied reading some recent avant-garde horror collections, but this one really scratches the itch. Yeah I'm halfway through it now and really enjoying it
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# ? May 19, 2023 00:53 |
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General Battuta posted:I don't think it's at all what you're looking for but Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (he of the writhing post 9/11 brain worms) is SOME kinda fuckin vampire story. It's gross in many dimensions and probably racist but it's certainly a hell of a take on 20th Century Vampires. They're running the government and Hollywood, or they're preachers or ex-Nazis, and they're all competing to be invited to an annual rich people get together on what's basically Epstein's Island, except it's about mind controlling human puppets to hunt down hapless victims, or playing chess games with living people where you eat the pieces that get taken. And a Holocaust survivor and a victim's daughter have to fight them. It's also about twice as long as it needs to be: his editor wanted to massively slash it down but he successfully fought her off, which was unfortunate. I tried reading it recently but gave up after ploughing through hundreds of faintly repetitive pages only to realise that I was still only 40% through the book. Get on with it, Simmons!
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# ? May 21, 2023 20:52 |
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# ? Jun 6, 2024 07:07 |
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General Battuta posted:Dan Simmons (he of the writhing post 9/11 brain worms) I wondered about this remark and googled Dan Simmons jerk and got exactly the context I needed from Jeff VanderMeer: https://twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/1176950521468506113?t=KUPJ_QMFhC8TgTxivIQ7iA&s=19
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# ? May 22, 2023 08:17 |