|
escape artist posted:Ohhhhhh I'm so jealous you get to read The Butcher's Table for the first time... the audio version is well-acted... I would bet money the story gets adapted at some point. I've heard about that story in passing twice before you so my hype is high. Also the ebook I have has a big "soon to be a movie" on it so I guess some or all of the stories are getting adapted? I'd love to see a comeback of the multiple short form horror stuff in one theatrical release. I worked in a theater when that was big in the late '00s and early teens. Tiny Timbs posted:The werewolf one was by far my favorite. That was a really strong story in a lot of ways. The good husband was good. I've been on both sides of that situation so it didn't hit me as bad as I expected? They did adapt a few of them as a series called Monster Land on Hulu. It's actually how I found out about it. Most of the stories they adapt are tweaked.
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 03:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 06:59 |
|
|
Ravus Ursus posted:I've heard about that story in passing twice before you so my hype is high. Also the ebook I have has a big "soon to be a movie" on it so I guess some or all of the stories are getting adapted? Wounds/The Visible Filth itself got made into a movie a few years ago
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 03:29
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:Wounds/The Visible Filth itself got made into a movie a few years ago Ok neat. I've avoided looking up anything more because the Internet is a cesspool. I'll check it out after the reads. Thanks
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 03:31
|
|
|
Ravus Ursus posted:Ok thanks for validating that I'm not alone in this. I read North American Lake Monsters and got very tired how everything was a metaphor for the true horror that is man's inhumanity to man. I'm only a few stories in since I'm absorbing it as an audiobook, so it may get allegorical later on. So far though, just spooky ghosts, which is exactly what I'm in the mood for at this point in Spooky Season.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 06:12
|
|
|
Whoever recommended Red Rabbit: thanks a ton! Most certainly scratched the itch left behind by Between Two Fires!
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 12:08
|
|
|
Horrorstor suggestion was great and would love any suggestions in a similar style! Starting The Luminous Dead tonight.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 20:47
|
|
|
most Gradies Hendrix are basically like that and the earlier ones, pubbed under the purview of Quirk Books, all have fun fake posters and ads and poo poo too. and speaking of, I also think any horror novel fan should own a physical copy of Paperbacks from Hell, if only for the gorgeous full-color reproductions of cover paintings from silly paperbacks of the 60s thru 90z *~*~*~*~*~*~
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 20:49
|
|
|
Pretzel Rod Stewart posted:most Gradies Hendrix are basically like that and the earlier ones, pubbed under the purview of Quirk Books, all have fun fake posters and ads and poo poo too. Yeah all Grady Hendrix stuff is basically ‘here’s a wacky theme I think would be cool in my very specific style’. I recently read ‘How to sell a haunted house’ and liked it quite a bit. I’ve also heard good things about ‘the final girls support group’ but haven’t got around to it yet
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 20:56
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:Wounds/The Visible Filth itself got made into a movie a few years ago Pretty solid movie imo. It's basically a shot-for-shot adaptation for better or for worse.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 21:15
|
|
|
Recently finished The Fisherman and it's one of the best horror books I've read in years. It's got allegory, it's got gribbly horror for the sake of gribbly horror, and despite what the title and description make it sound like the Fisherman for which the story is named isn't, like, fishing for souls or sorrow or anything abstract at all. It absolutely rules. Now I'm about halfway through the latest McSweeney's Quarterly, which is dedicated to horror and guest edited by Brian Evenson, and I am absolutely confused. Every story so far has ranged from "pretty good" to "absolute banger" except the third in the collection, Heartwood, which reads like an edgy teenager workshopping ideas for this totally brutal, nihilistic apocalypse story that he hasn't actually gotten around to writing yet. It's just the narrator vaguely describing maybe kind of spooky things that happened to characters we never met or were given any reason to care about after [mundane everyday thing mutated worldwide and decided to murder all of humanity] and then it ends by assuring us that humanity is even more doomed than he made it sound like  . It's very short, so maybe it was going for a Gateways to Abomination style of fever-dream flash fiction and just failing utterly? I feel like I must be missing something, because the rest of the stories have been so lush and thoughtful that this absolute turd stands out more than any of them.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 21:52
|
|
|
I loved The Fisherman. My father was from New Paltz and wish he still around to share this book with.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2023 23:31
|
|
|
Happy to see so many folks enjoying the thread during spooky season! Its also interesting to me to see the different takes on various books. We all like what we like for our own reasons, its fun there is so much on offer in horror! Just a reminder that even when October rots into compost this thread will continue in TBB--horror abounds year round!
OMGVBFLOL posted:if you have the money and the patience, you can Hello Kitty anything   Thank you deep dish peat moss!
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 15:56
|
|
|
The true horror is the people we met along the way.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 17:37
|
|
|
I finally got around to reading Between Two Fires a couple days ago and it was very, very good. All the comte and seigneurie talk was funny to see, I had just come off the back of a lot of French genealogy work. I immediately went into Red Rabbit and I'm gonna be real sad when I'm finished that too. Any more period pieces along the same lines? ----------------
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 20:51
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:I finally got around to reading Between Two Fires a couple days ago and it was very, very good. All the comte and seigneurie talk was funny to see, I had just come off the back of a lot of French genealogy work. I recently read Howls From the Dark Ages and enjoyed it. It's an anthology collection and not a novel, but it was a fun read.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 21:52
|
|
|
I'm absolutely loving Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. re: Hendrix chat: From what I've read of him, Grady Hendrix is R.L. Stine with more swear words and blood.
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 22:08
|
|
|
Franchescanado posted:I'm absolutely loving Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. That's pretty accurate
|
|
#
?
Oct 11, 2023 23:04
|
|
|
Yeah Grady Hendrix is good at hitting the sweet spot of "Goosebumps for adults" in the sense that he's very good at playing with all kinds of horror tropes in a way that both delivers exactly what you probably want from a haunting/possession/killer/vampire book while also doing some clever or novel things with the ideas. His books aren't always all that tense or scary imo, but he has a definite personality to his writing, sort of like King, in that he knows who he's writing for and mostly seems to set out to entertain first and foremost. It's really good popcorn horror, generally speaking. I think my favorite of his is We Sold Our Souls, in part because it's quite a bit different from the rest, but they're all pretty solid. Final Girl Support Group was really good imo, I think he's steadily gotten better and better over the years, so while Horrorstor is pretty good, I think it's also his shallowest book in some ways.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2023 05:54
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:I finally got around to reading Between Two Fires a couple days ago and it was very, very good. All the comte and seigneurie talk was funny to see, I had just come off the back of a lot of French genealogy work. Hollow by Bryan Catling is the closest I found to Between Two Fires.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2023 09:50
|
|
|
BioTech posted:Hollow by Bryan Catling Good Citizen posted:Howls From the Dark Ages Great now I gotta pick which one comes first  I found copies of Rod Serling's Night Gallery books recently too and I'm extremely excited - Serling has been a hero of mine since I was a kid. I still fall asleep with The Twilight Zone on in the background. ----------------
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2023 15:28
|
|
|
Listening to the audiobook version of What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher and I’m enjoying it a lot. I think I know what’s going on, but the hares are suitably creepy set up.
|
|
#
?
Oct 12, 2023 22:46
|
|
|
R.L. Stine posted:Great now I gotta pick which one comes first Is Howls From the Dark Ages the one that has the demon as a wraparound device for the stories? The audio narration on that was so awful that I had to DNF it. Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 00:32
|
|
|
It's more of a crypt keeper guy in a museum of eccentricities, but yeah it's the worst part
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 01:15
|
|
|
Opopanax posted:It's more of a crypt keeper guy in a museum of eccentricities, but yeah it's the worst part Yeah. There’s like a short paragraph before each story where a spooooky guy shows you an object and gives you a less fun/goofy crypt keeper intro. The book itself also has a little sketch of whatever haunted relic he’s talking about. You can totally skip those intros and miss nothing
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 01:25
|
|
|
Good Citizen posted:Yeah. There’s like a short paragraph before each story where a spooooky guy shows you an object and gives you a less fun/goofy crypt keeper intro. The book itself also has a little sketch of whatever haunted relic he’s talking about. I might give it another chance then. I was just annoyed by the gimmicky nature of it. However, Between Two Fires was among my favorite reads of the year, and it was probably my favorite horror read of this year. Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 01:34
|
|
|
Chiming in to say thank you for whoever recommended Red Rabbit as well, it definitely scratched the Between Two Fires itch. I'm listening to Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant but I don't know if it's the narrator or the story itself or what but I am not digging it. I'll let it play out since I've been driving a lot this week and it's free on audible and I think I have 20 minutes left. For physical books I read It Looks Like Dad which was published by a small indie press and horror bookstore in Toronto called Little Ghosts, it was a pretty good Lovecraftian story and I love Rudy. I am going to pick up their other published works when I go there next to support them, they just celebrated their first year in business. Now I have The Girl in Red which is supposedly a apocalyptic horror story. I think I got it from @mother.horrors recommendations, or @Barkerreads
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 02:05
|
|
|
Just listened to the audiobook of A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. It's the first book about Hill House given the blessing of Shirley Jackson's estate. It wasn't very scary in my opinion, BUT the amount of amazing sound effects used made the audiobook so loving fun. They definitely got my heart rate up and I highly recommend it!
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 02:22
|
|
|
Metaline posted:Just listened to the audiobook of A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. It's the first book about Hill House given the blessing of Shirley Jackson's estate. Amazing, I was just coming in here to ask about that very book. Welp, looks like I know what's on the menu next!
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 10:14
|
|
|
Kubricize posted:Chiming in to say thank you for whoever recommended Red Rabbit as well, it definitely scratched the Between Two Fires itch. And the audiobook is free on Scribd... gonna try to work through that one this weekend. I haven't been able to finish a book in almost a month and a half due to awful depression. Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2023 23:20
|
|
|
Hello thread! Sometimes I read scary books! Ever since I watched The Shining and Doctor Sleep for the first time in 2020, I've been trying to find a secondhand copy of The Shining in any place that has used books I've been to, but it's seemingly impossible? Does everybody keep this book for themselves? Sure I *could* get it online.. but I don't wanna. I thought it would be easy, it seemed like there were tons of King books any time I wasn't looking for a specific one!
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 19:48
|
|
|
Ayin posted:Hello thread! Sometimes I read scary books! I think some horror novels are just rare despite being popular. I've been looking for copies of the Haunting of Hill House and the Omen for a while and coming up empty.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 19:52
|
|
|
I will recommend (for the thousandth time) my favorite spooky thriller series: The Charlie Parker Series by John Connolly Follows the eponymous private detective as he investigates the worst of the worst crimes. And as he stumbles onto some creepy supernatural goings-on, which I wouldn’t want to spoil. Okay, I’ll admit that the first book (Every Dead Thing) is a bit rough, but after that the series takes off. Especially recommend for fans of Stephen King’s brand of creepy small town shenanigans or if you’re into the nastier aspects of religious lore.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 20:08
|
|
|
I had not heard of Grady Hendrix. Thanks to this thread I looked him up, and immediately found a few titles that sounded really interesting to me. The Final Girl Support Group How to Sell a Haunted House We Sold Our Souls Horrorstör The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires I kind of want to read all of these, but can probably only get one right now. I’m really intrigued by The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. Has anyone read this? Is the titular vampire a “conventional” one? What I mean by that is, it’s not a Twilight style “sparkly” kind of one, is it?
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 21:16
|
|
|
MrMojok posted:I had not heard of Grady Hendrix. Thanks to this thread I looked him up, and immediately found a few titles that sounded really interesting to me. Haven't read them all, but Horrorstor is the weakest of these.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 21:25
|
|
|
I always, admittedly, confuse Tremblay and Hendrix. I haven't read any Hendrix yet, but I am currently making my way through his nonfiction book Paperbacks From Hell. It's demonstrating to me that he has an amazing knowledge of contemporary horror, and I will surely check out one of his titles when time permits. Listened to a super short by Joe Lansdale yesterday, It Washed Up. And I'll just say, wow. It was succinct and effective - in a way I don't expect flash fiction to be. A lot of things washed up, but Joe Lansdale, as a writer, is definitely not washed up! Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 22:25
|
|
|
I’d recommend How to sell a haunted house. It has some pretty solid themes of lies families tell each other and the college flashback was actually kinda disturbing
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2023 22:27
|
|
|
MrMojok posted:I’m really intrigued by The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. Has anyone read this? yes I’ve read it, he’s sort of conventional and sort of not, but no he’s definitely not sparkly. if you’re hoping to see a malevolent vampire hunted that is what you will get. the leads of Hendrix novels are almost always women, so SBCG treads some of the thematic ground you’d expect from a book about mid-90s Southern housewives. it’s not literary, like it’s still fun pulp, but I do think there’s some consideration put into how a vampire could persist for so long—how it chooses victims, etc.—in a way that feels realistic and thoughtful I liked it! *~*~*~*~*~*~
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2023 00:54
|
|
|
Hendrix gets better as he goes so I usually recommend reading his stuff in release order
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2023 00:56
|
|
|
I think you’re right. it might be recency bias but I think How to Sell a Haunted House is my favorite, though Best Friend’s Exorcism is up thereFranchescanado posted:Haven't read them all, but Horrorstor is the weakest of these. I have read them all and yeah, it is. it’s dumb fun and the fake IKEA ads descending into madness are really cool but it’s very slight *~*~*~*~*~*~
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2023 01:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 06:59 |
|
|
Pretzel Rod Serling posted:yes I’ve read it, he’s sort of conventional and sort of not, but no he’s definitely not sparkly. if you’re hoping to see a malevolent vampire hunted that is what you will get. Thanks for this! I think I’m gonna get it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2023 01:06
|
|