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I just finished Burnt Offerings and other than the lack of cellphones and the idea of people leaving Queens to move to Nassau or Suffolk counties it holds up really well, lol. I was expecting way more 70sisms!
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Jun 26, 2023 22:03
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not gonna lie I fell out of reading for about 10 years up until now, but it's so loving awesome to be able to look up a weird word or reference on my phone in an instant.
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Jun 27, 2023 01:49
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Top 3 sites gotta be sa, wiktionary, & Wikipedia. The ws get you pretty much all the basics you might need even if they aren't flawless
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Jun 27, 2023 08:18
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Vargatron posted:My favorite part about reading old horror books in an urban setting is people getting upset that gas went up to $.55 and that Vietnam is still actively referenced. Yeah, it's one of the pleasures of reading King's older books, like Christine, or Salem's Lot: they're essentially period pieces, with all the little details that King likes to include being interesting due to how they recreate the feel of the 1970's.
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Jun 27, 2023 12:15
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Lil Mama Im Sorry posted:I really loved We Are Here to Hurt Each Other but its also the only book ive read on that list Loved it too; read it a few months back on someone's recco here in the thread. Something about female horror authors (Brite & Koje come to mind) that Ashe has on display as well is a very particular delivery & syntax. I can't quite put a finger to it, but parts of WAHtHEO gave me weird vibes, almost like Ligotti. It's a good book. I can't remember where I got this recco from, but A Lush & Seething Hell is a really good weird horror collection from John Horner Jacobs. It reads like a more refined & cosmopolitan Laird Barron.
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Jun 27, 2023 12:55
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wehunt’s latest collection was mediocre. felt like he kept trying to do NALM’s thing where the real monster is modern alienation etc but his prose is often too florid and his characters too ill-defined so everything is just floating in a dreary haze. standouts were Pine Arch Collection and maybe The Teeth of America even if the underlying concept was sort of embarrassing
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Jun 27, 2023 16:06
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I am on book 5 of thr Laundey Files and I have to know. How much of the injected social commentary or politics is satire or the author just being an idiot? It is also some of the most British bullshit I've ever read.
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Jun 27, 2023 21:17
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After it failed to grab me initially a few years back, I have given Between Two Fires another go and it was great. Any recommendations for more Medieval cosmic horror? Are Christopher Buehlman's other books pretty decent?
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Jun 29, 2023 18:29
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Idle Amalgam posted:After it failed to grab me initially a few years back, I have given Between Two Fires another go and it was great. Any recommendations for more Medieval cosmic horror? Are Christopher Buehlman's other books pretty decent? Hollow by Brian Catling is the closest thing I've read to BTF. There's also The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington, which some people enjoy (I thought it meandered a little too much, but it's also a stylistic choice that I get for what it's going for).
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Jun 29, 2023 21:41
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DurianGray posted:Hollow by Brian Catling is the closest thing I've read to BTF. As for the other Buehlman, nothing is quite on BTF's level but some of it is fun. I enjoyed The Lesser Dead and Those Across the River, bounced off The Necromancer's House hard.
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Jun 29, 2023 21:46
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anilEhilated posted:It's really good but not exactly horror. I guess it depends on the definition of horror being used, but it has more than enough gross creatures, deaths, and creepy setpieces that I'd call it horror at least.
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Jun 29, 2023 22:21
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Fair point, I think I got that a bit spoiled with the whole Bosch painting story thread. Definitely nothing that creeped me out like the haunted castle party scene in BTF. Still, heavily recommended, and it definitely is the closest thing to BTF I read.
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Jun 29, 2023 23:06
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Mr Hootington posted:I am on book 5 of thr Laundey Files and I have to know. How much of the injected social commentary or politics is satire or the author just being an idiot? The Urban Fantasy Thread might be a good place to discuss the topic.
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Jun 30, 2023 01:30
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I just got Scribd and am looking for audio recommendations available on there.... Howls from the Dark Ages : Medieval Horror, with Christopher Buehlman, is what I am looking at now...
Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
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Jun 30, 2023 01:58
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Vargatron posted:My favorite part about reading old horror books in an urban setting is people getting upset that gas went up to $.55 and that Vietnam is still actively referenced. I literally put Pet Semetary down after the first few pages when it started talking about like a $750 mortgage or something.
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Jun 30, 2023 03:43
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escape artist posted:I just got Scribd and am looking for audio recommendations available on there.... Howls from the Dark Ages : Medieval Horror, with Christopher Buehlman, is what I am looking at now... Just FYI, Buehlman just did the introduction to that collection, he doesn't have a story in it. It's a solid enough anthology, but it doesn't really touch Between Two Fires if that's what you're hoping for.
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Jun 30, 2023 04:33
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DurianGray posted:Just FYI, Buehlman just did the introduction to that collection, he doesn't have a story in it. It's a solid enough anthology, but it doesn't really touch Between Two Fires if that's what you're hoping for. Ah, dammit.
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Jun 30, 2023 04:57
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Howls is a decent collection but honestly I'd recommend skipping the weird interstitial blurbs, they don't really contribute anything and the execution is pretty clunky, to the point that I think they lightly detract from the stories they're intended to set up
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Jun 30, 2023 06:34
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How! posted:I literally put Pet Semetary down after the first few pages when it started talking about like a $750 mortgage or something. And that was probably for a palatial estate or something. I was born in 89 so I'm right at the tail end of being able to make sense of some of these references. But I'm sure somebody born in 2000 would have to look up a bunch of things about 80s politics or whatever.
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Jun 30, 2023 12:47
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Yeah, that framing thing with the spooky museum curator(?) introducing each story is a bit cheesy. I didn't hate it, but I didn't feel like it needed to be there either.
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Jun 30, 2023 12:49
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DurianGray posted:Yeah, that framing thing with the spooky museum curator(?) introducing each story is a bit cheesy. I didn't hate it, but I didn't feel like it needed to be there either. The Cryptkeeper?
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Jun 30, 2023 15:37
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zoux posted:The Cryptkeeper?
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Jun 30, 2023 17:10
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Jun 30, 2023 17:39
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It's definitely modeled on the Crypt keeper, but not funny or interesting. It feels super tacked on last minute
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Jun 30, 2023 17:44
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I hope the thread won't begrudge me for doing a bit of play by play and analysis as I read through the Tommyknockers again. I realized that this was the very first Stephen King book I read and I was maybe 14 or 15 when I did it. Anyways I'm about 3 or 4 chapters in and here are a few thoughts: I had remembered that there were a lot of metaphors and subtext for addiction in this book, but they're just right there, naked on the page. As soon as Bobbi finds the metal sticking out of the ground, she starts having these invasive thoughts and and a nagging desire to keep going back and unearthing the alien space ship. This is essentially reflecting King's drug cravings and withdrawals. There's even the palpable sense of anxiety as Bobbi is just trying to find things to do in the house, only to go back and continue digging. The way Bobbi just loses track of time mirrors blackouts. Waking up hours later just to discover you've been doing something and are sweaty and dirty (or having your menses bleed through your pants). Throughout all of this, Bobbi's conscience is trying to break through in the voice of her dead grandfather. She knows that she shouldn't go back to the spaceship, but she just can't resists. It's nagging and all consuming. Just slowly whittling away at her eroding self control. I know the themes of the book aren't exactly deep, but I find myself kind of horrified at how I too have felt these sorts of compulsions back in my 20s. I developed a painkiller habit dealing with some sports related injuries, so I definitely feel the anxiety of "oh god, what am I gonna do when I run out of these??". I can only imagine how King was feeling as he was writing this novel. I have to wonder how much of the content was him just unknowingly writing about himself.
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Jul 1, 2023 21:08
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I love the Tommyknockers - it's just so much, every one of Kings excesses the whole way through. you want meandering poetry? song lyrics? deep town history and a cast of characters for the meat grinder? sure. you also want some insane animated coke machine annihilating a redshirt reporter and his corresponding plotline? you got it
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Jul 2, 2023 02:20
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mellonbread posted:I think Apocalypse Codex (book 4) is the last one before the series starts to decline in quality. From 5 onward it all feels a little formulaic and the "bureaucracy horror" element which served as comic relief or background noise in the earlier novels grows to consume more of the narrative. The shifts in POV characters are a valiant attempt to keep things fresh, but it doesn't help that all the other characters' internal monologues are basically identical to Bob Howard's. Ok. I'll finish up book 5 and then see what book 6 is like. That sucks the author decides to make the books less secret agent.
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Jul 2, 2023 04:03
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I bailed on the Laundry Files books when the superheroes showed up.
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Jul 2, 2023 17:52
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I finally managed to drop by this lovely little shop in Toronto that just turned a year old. Only horror books and somehow still going strong. https://www.littleghostsbooks.com/ It's pretty small but has a great selection, a bunch of new releases and classics, they have a little coffee/pastry stand and a covered patio out back. There's a used books and old Goosebumps section for $6 and they have a monthly book club, subscription service too. Chatted to the owner about Geek Love and picked up Between Two Fires since it's backordered at the library. Anyway, everyone should support them. They're carrying a title called Antifa Splatterpunk I mean come on.
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Jul 3, 2023 17:00
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Antifa Splatterpunk is the opposite of Reincursion. Dunbar is a Vietnam veteran.
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Jul 3, 2023 17:16
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My good friend Gard has a headache that won't be fixed by water, or Percodans, or 'ludes. Only alchohol. Stephen King loved qualudes.
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Jul 3, 2023 18:25
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going to read the novelette Everything is Blackened Teeth before jumping into this month's BotM, I think some of you have read this before?
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Jul 3, 2023 20:23
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Bilirubin posted:going to read the novelette Everything is Blackened Teeth before jumping into this month's BotM, I think some of you have read this before? I have! I thought it was a fine novella (might have been better if it was either a little shorter or a little longer), but I do like what I've read of Khaw's other work better. e: I assume you mean Nothing But Blackened Teeth
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Jul 3, 2023 20:43
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Quote is not edit oops
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Jul 3, 2023 20:44
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DurianGray posted:e: I assume you mean Nothing But Blackened Teeth whoops, I did indeed!
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Jul 3, 2023 20:52
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About halfway through the Tommyknockers now. The abrupt shift to the people of Haven is kind of where the book starts to meander badly for me. I think the Hilly subplot could have been cut, but the Ruth subplot is pretty crucial to the book I think. I felt SO BAD for her as she was trying to resist the psychic domination but ultimately succumbed. Everybody's teeth are falling out and the hivemind is in full effect. Bobbi was close to killing Gard but instead decided to get him on a drinking bender to keep him pliable. A loving brickhouse rocket just shot off in town and killed Ruth. poo poo is getting wild and the lurid fever dream-nightmare quality is out in full force. The addiction metaphors are mournful now. My heart got pounding when Ruth ran up against the invisible barrier at the edge of town and got forced back. That and the conflicting voices that Ruth fought against in her head. Just couldn't resist the pull and succumbed to it.
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Jul 4, 2023 18:54
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the last line of ruth's chapter is "voices or not, the lady died sane." she didn't "succumb" to anything, she took the ship-induced psychosis and used it to spur on her resistance instead of falling in line
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Jul 4, 2023 20:35
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That and the broken ribs had me like 
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Jul 4, 2023 20:46
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Finished The Gone World and wow, that was great. I’d held off on it for years and years because the Amazon description of it made it sound like it would be a police procedural with some light sci-fi going on, but even in the part of the book that is a police procedural, the sci-fi and the horror are constant presences. It’s smart, well written, the people in it feel like human beings with motivations and flawed but reasonable psychology, and if you go for the audiobook version you get an excellent narrator. A+, great recommendation!
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Jul 4, 2023 21:02
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DurianGray posted:I have! I thought it was a fine novella (might have been better if it was either a little shorter or a little longer), but I do like what I've read of Khaw's other work better. so I'm about a third the way through it, and its still doing set up, which has to move fast given the page length and so its coming as a bit of a blur. Could also be me I guess (its been a brain foggy day) but I can definitely see your point about either letting the book breathe more by lengthening it or just cutting a lot of the interpersonal backstories that are interweaving already. I also need to know more about Japanese folklore characters and demonology. The author assumes you should just know--and perhaps I should! At least I know what nekomata are!
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Jul 5, 2023 03:38
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