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let us know what you think!
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Oct 15, 2023 01:16
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Franchescanado posted:Haven't read them all, but Horrorstor is the weakest of these. This is great to hear, I enjoyed Horrorstor despite its flaws and will pick up some of his other titles now. It's campy fun and exactly what I want in a horror book, spooky but not keeping me up at night. Just finished The Luminous Dead and great recommendation from a few pages back. Just the right pacing to keep the tension going from almost start to finish.
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Oct 15, 2023 02:49
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Kerro posted:I haven't read the ones you named, so not sure if these quite meet the request but these are all great and all have local kids who end up intertwined in stuff happening involving possible serial killings: thanks! I really enjoyed Robert Mccammon's Boy's Life, just finished it thanks everyone else for the suggestions too
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Oct 15, 2023 03:26
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Oh poo poo, there’s a new Hendrix out? I love Final Girl’s Support Group, but Exorcism and We Sold Souls have chokeholds in my brain. They’re all pretty good!
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Oct 15, 2023 17:59
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Kestral posted:Picked up Datlow's Best Horror of the Year Vol. 1, which covers 2008ish, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it begins with a 40ish page overview of the horror genre from the previous year by a person who seems to read (maybe literally?) every horror novel and short story on the market. I wasn't keeping track of horror for several years on either side of 2008, so there was a lot there for me to add to my terrifyingly deep backlog. Looking forward to getting into the actual stories, but this was a good start. M. R. James was a brilliant academic who eventually became Chancellor of the university of Cambridge. When that became too much for him, he semi-retired to become the Headmaster of Eton College, England's poshest and most prestigious private school. He was a very busy man who wrote his stories as a hobby. He took a year (!) over every one, meticulously revising and revising them in his free time until he was completely happy with the output. They're probably the most carefully polished short stories in the English language and his annual unveiling of the new one became a much-anticipated event. So yeah, there's a reason they're such a strikingly unsettling read.
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Oct 15, 2023 19:15
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He'd first read his new story out loud to a select group of friends and colleagues. When you read an M.R. James story, think of it being narrated in front of a blazing fire, in an ancient university common room, by a chatty and dryly humorous academic, detailing unspeakable horrors in between draws on his tobacco pipe and sips of his sherry.
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Oct 15, 2023 19:20
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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. i like hendrix a lot. and yes, the southern book club guide is a traditional vampire story, more akin to salem's lot than twilight.
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Oct 15, 2023 19:49
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Finished Wounds. All the stories were pretty good and the opposite of what I got from NALM. The world building was great, I can see why visible filth was picked up for a movie, it's the only story with enough character development plus an arc to actually work. The butchers table felt like pirates of the Caribbean but with hell cults. 4/5, I'll check his other stuff out too. There's been so much talk about Grady Hendrix I picked up Satan Loves You, just to see the begging. Its incredibly casual tone makes it a total breeze to fly through and it's a fun romp that I needed as a brain cleanser before reading more horror.
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Oct 17, 2023 03:24
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Butcher's Table would make an amazing movie if someone were willing to put the time and money into it, which isn't going to happen
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Oct 17, 2023 04:01
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Opopanax posted:Butcher's Table would make an amazing movie if someone were willing to put the time and money into it, which isn't going to happen It seems like the kind of thing that Panos Cosmatos would read and obsess about until he forced a movie into existence, which would be either amazing or terrible depending on your tolerance for his, uh, unique style
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Oct 17, 2023 16:45
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Opopanax posted:Butcher's Table would make an amazing movie if someone were willing to put the time and money into it, which isn't going to happen Now, if it does get adapted, will they do it justice? I doubt that anyone can do it justice. However, I could also imagine it as an animated series - the voice actor they had on the audio version is incredible. Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:35
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Any other recs in the genre of nautical adventures that turn dark and insane? The Butcher's Table and The Other Side of the Mountain are the two high points that I'm always chasing.
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Oct 18, 2023 15:58
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Ror posted:Any other recs in the genre of nautical adventures that turn dark and insane? The Butcher's Table and The Other Side of the Mountain are the two high points that I'm always chasing. The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson is more weird than dark, but a fun read. War...
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Oct 19, 2023 00:54
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If you consider deep undersea science facility to be nautical there’s always The Deep by Nick Cutter
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Oct 19, 2023 02:11
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I feel like I'm striking out this season. Best I've managed was a slightly spooky fantasy novel, Nettle and Bone by Kingfisher. As well written and engaging as all her stuff is, but not unsettling enough, not like Hollow Places. Sort of the same for How to Sell a Haunted House by Hendrix, fine but didn't leave me unnerved. Ditto The Anomoly and The Possession by Michael Rutger, cool books but not the bone deep disquiet I was hoping for. Then I DNF'd at about 90% Sunshine by Robin McKinley which I was kind of digging at first, cool world building, proper creepy vampires, but the main character is written taking these constant mid sentence digressions that last for paragraphs about nothing pertinent and it kept getting worse and I just couldn't be arsed anymore. Also pulled These Lifeless Things by Premee Mohamed off the second chance pile but only made it another 10% or so before I decided it's no me or my mood, I just really hate the protagonist. All I've got left in horror pile is Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry. Anyone hit upon some recentish novel length cosmic or monster horror that left you needing to be around people you trust?
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Oct 19, 2023 21:01
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I'm about halfway through HEX, which was recommended in the OP, and it's great. Such a unique concept and really tense when the tense parts hit. The basic premise is that it's about a town under a witch's curse, except they've been under the curse for 300 years so its almost mundane for them, and they have all kinds of policies and procedures for it, even an app to deal with her. Things of course change and go wrong and that's where the meat of the story, but it's definitely not like anything I've read before
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Oct 19, 2023 21:11
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Opopanax posted:I'm about halfway through HEX, which was recommended in the OP, and it's great. Such a unique concept and really tense when the tense parts hit. Slyphic fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Oct 19, 2023 |
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Oct 19, 2023 21:24
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Good Citizen posted:If you consider deep undersea science facility to be nautical there’s always The Deep by Nick Cutter I don't think The Deep is a particularly good book, but even if you're into what it's serving up the plot is nothing like The Butcher's Table or The Other Side of the Mountain. It's cramped and claustrophobic throughout as opposed to being about (horrific) seafaring adventures.
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Oct 19, 2023 21:27
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Cutter's The Deep was super disappointing after The Troop. That was really good isolation/survival body horror, so to follow up with a book where it's mostly 'am I hallucinating or not' non-committal horror put me off reading anything more by him. I don't really want to recommend it, but a good portion of That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley was proper nautical, if a little Cthulhu Mythos played completely straight. I found that book through the Stoker award noms, and then after I finished it I got as far as checking the author's wikipedia page to see what else he'd written and then spent like half an hour going what the gently caress, this is the same person?
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Oct 19, 2023 21:37
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Slyphic posted:I don't really want to recommend it, but a good portion of That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley was proper nautical, if a little Cthulhu Mythos played completely straight. I found that book through the Stoker award noms, and then after I finished it I got as far as checking the author's wikipedia page to see what else he'd written and then spent like half an hour going what the gently caress, this is the same person? Yeah I had one of this guy's books on my backlog and just deleted it when I found out who he was.
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Oct 19, 2023 22:05
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In college, he was ranked #72 in GQ’s list of 100 Hottest White Men in Alabama, but the magazine retracted that award because of voter fraud.[citation needed]
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Oct 19, 2023 22:28
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 He's back, baby!
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Oct 20, 2023 00:57
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Interested in reading something else from him. Camp Damascus had some beautiful prose in it but I found the resolution of the story (mostly the second half of the book) a letdown.
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Oct 20, 2023 01:41
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Hi. I read books. Mostly horror. Maybe y'all heard of some of them? If not, give them a try. House of Cotton by Monica Brashears [Black american woman] genres and themes gothic, horror, paranormal? quote:Magnolia Brown is nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, her predatory landlord, and the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown. I don't understand gothic books. But this was creepy and weird and I liked it. What the hell. Have I posted about this before? Well whatever. Cassilda's Song: Tales Inspired by Robert W. Chambers King in Yellow Mythos anthology edited by Joseph S. Pulver Sr. genres and themes YELLOW. quote:Cassilda’s Song is a collection of weird fiction and horror stories based on the King in Yellow Mythos created by Robert W. Chambers—entirely authored by women. There are no pretenders here. The Daughters of the Yellow Sign, each a titan of unmasked fire in their own right, have parted the curtains. From Hali’s deeps and Carcosa’s gloomy balconies and Styx-black towers, come their lamentations and rage and the consequences of intrigues and follies born in Oblivion. Run into their embrace. Their carriages wait to take you from shadowed rooms and cobblestones to The Place Where the Black Stars Hang. I don't remember any specific faves, but I considered it a decent assortment to rec to other people. Let's Play White short story anthology by Chesya Burke [Black american woman] genres and themes horror, Blackness in america quote:White brings with it dreams of respect, of wealth, of simply being treated as a human being. It's the one thing Walter will never be. But what if he could play white, the way so many others seem to do? Would it bring him privilege or simply deny the pain? The title story in this collection asks those questions, and then moves on to challenge notions of race, privilege, personal choice, and even life and death with equal vigor. From the spectrum spanning despair and hope in "What She Saw When They Flew Away" to the stark weave of personal struggles in "Chocolate Park," Let's Play White speaks with the voices of the overlooked and unheard. "I Make People Do Bad Things" shines a metaphysical light on Harlem's most notorious historical madame, and then, with a deft twist into melancholic humor, "Cue: Change" brings a zombie-esque apocalypse, possibly for the betterment of all mankind. Everyone needs more Black horror in their lives. Get some flavor for yourself. I loved 'The Room Where Ben Disappeared' that was loving creepy. Wild Spaces by S. L. Coney [white american] genres and themes eldritch horror, coming of age, quote:Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life meets Lovecraftian horror in this foreboding, sensual coming-of-age debut in which the corrosive nature of family secrets and toxic relatives assume eldritch proportions. This makes me want a Boxcar Children series except aimed for adults and it's all about edlritch horror children growing up in the world. Make sense? Yeah. This was cute, I liked it. The Bonus Room by Ben H. Winters [white american man] genres and themes horror, location horror, insect horror, paranormal. quote:From New York Times best-selling and Edgar Award-winning author Ben H. Winters, this supernatural page-turner about a real-estate nightmare will make you think twice about your dream home Finally, some decent insect horror. Where I End by Sophie White [white irish woman] genres and themes generational horror, caregiver burn out, scapegoats, child abuse, generational abuse, quote:My mother. A book that reminds me genres doesn't real. This is more gothic than horror but it's still loving weird. If you like weird isolated locales with hosed up inhabitants doing terrible things to each other for no loving reason, here you go. It's no gore porn though. 13 Doors by G J Phelps [white british man] genre and theme, horror, generational trauma, paranormal. quote:Thirteen doors, thirteen hauntings. News reporter Joe Baxter has a plan. His idea is simple – to use his newsroom contacts across England to find thirteen haunted places to stay, and then record his experiences in a book. Kinda sort of like Thirteen Doors by Craig DiLouie. I appreciated the variety of locations and the ghosts involved. Dead Lake by Darcy Coates genres and themes forest horror, supernatural, isolation horror. quote:From bestselling horror author Darcy Coates comes Dead Lake, a cabin in the woods thriller that will make you double-check your locks at night. Because no one is ever truly alone...Dead Lake is a chilling, fast-paced read: Perfect for fans of Paul Tremblay and Amy CrossFor lovers of horror and ghost storiesIncludes 4 bonus storiesA week's visit to the remote Harob Lake cabin couldn't have come at a better time for Sam. A rather short book. Novella, I suppose? Oh Coates. You aren't the best ever, but you are consistent and skilled and I respect that in an author. Burn the Negative by Josh Winning [white british man] genres and themes horror, haunted film, hollywood, childhood trauma, curses. quote:In this incendiary mash-up of horror and suspense, a notorious slasher film is remade…and the curse that haunted it is reawakened. Don't expect Night Film or Experimental Film, per se. It's definitely a great mystery about a cursed film. I appreciated the lack of CSA. It could have been very easy to go ah, trauma from sexual abuse therefore murder time! Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano [white american man] genres and themes horror, location horror, grief, quote:On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son’s death—but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules… This is the first nosleep author I've read on purpose that isn't garbage. The plot honestly wasn't bad. I was expecting something cheesy, a la 'Horrorstor'. I thought the monsters, shapeshifting tricksters, was pretty interesting. The threat and logic the 'bad guys' used was pretty reasonable, even. The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell [white british retired police officer] genres and themes crime, historical, horror, cursed films, old school hollywood, cults. quote:A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist, from the internationally acclaimed author of The Devil Aspect. I really need to start a list or calibre tag for cursed films. Film horror? How would I describe this.... Anyways, it's a crime and mystery genre, flavored with cults, old boy's club abuse, copaganda, and some mild folk horror. Fair warning. If you read his other book, The Devil Aspect, and hated the ending, this may disappoint you. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest [white american woman] genres and themes horror, haunted houses, mysteries, location horror. quote:Music City Salvage is owned and operated by Chuck Dutton: master stripper of doomed historic properties and expert seller of all things old and crusty. Business is lean and times are tight, so he’s thrilled when the aged and esteemed Augusta Withrow appears in his office. She has a massive family estate to unload―lock, stock, and barrel. For a check and a handshake, it’s all his. The plot of destroying haunted houses, and the house fighting back is suprisingly rare, isn't it? No One Will Come Back for Us short story anthology by Premee Mohamed [canadian hindu woman of color] genres and themes a lot. It's an anthology. quote:Here there be gods and monsters – forged from flesh and stone and vengeance – emerging from the icy abyss of deep space, ascending from dark oceans, and prowling strange cities to enter worlds of chaos and wonder, where scientific rigor and human endeavour is tested to the limits. These are cosmic realms and watery domains where old offerings no longer appease the ancient Gods or the new and hungry idols. Deities and beasts. Life and death. Love and hate. Science and magic. And smiling monsters in human skin. I also read Mohamed's 'Beneath the Rising' trilogy and kinda hated it. I was expecting something different based on this anthology above. That said, she is a fantastic author and I'm adding it here. I feel like the MC from the trilogy was incredibly irritating and something not found in the above anothology. If you disliked the trilogy, maybe give this a shot? Mohamed can write, but three books worth of 'tony stark mcu' and rationally irritating MC can be grating. Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe [white lesbian american woman] genres and themes horror, pregnancy / child rearing horror???, generational trauma?, misogyny, psychiatric horror, lesbian characters. quote:ONCE SHE HAS HER GRIP ON YOU, SHE’LL NEVER LET YOU GO. Is pregnancy / child rearing horror becoming a thing? I like it. I love the metaphors and allegories and whatnots involved. Not just changelings but oh yeah post partum psychosis except no except maybe except yes? Children of Chicago by Cynthia Pelayo [latina american woman] genres and themes crime, suspense, copaganda, otherworlds?, supernatural, pied piper fairy tale, serial killers, quote:The novel centers upon Lauren, a detective living in the city of Chicago. She's called in to investigate a murder in Humboldt Park, only to discover that the murder bears striking similarities to one committed decades before: Lauren's own sister. This, along with several other signs, convinces Lauren that the serial killer responsible for the deaths has returned to Chicago. Known only as the Pied Piper, Lauren must confront the past - including a promise she made to the killer themself - in order to stop them from killing again. Honorary mention, I guess. It was too much Crime and not enough horror for me. Also the horror was a bit dry. Maybe if someone likes crime with a pied piper horror flavor, you'd like this book? Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi [white american man] genres and themes horror, catholicism, orphanages, demonic possession, coming of age. quote:St. Vincent's Orphanage for Boys. I don't like vampires. Them and werewolves are boring. This was decent, I had fun with it. I liked the gorey murders, it was very Village of the Damned [1960]. How many children can you take in a fight? Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie [white american man] genres and themes horror, apocalypses, vampires, disease horror quote:Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as readers are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave…and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were...but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds ten pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back? This book was better than his other book, Episode Thirteen. Again, I dislike vampires but this was an interesting scientific take on vampirism. Also I loved that there's a vampire fetus. Finally, more child / fetus horror! Liquid Snakes by Stephen Kearse [Black american man] genres science fictio-- uh I mean science horror, apocalypses, climate change, afrofuturism, dystopias, quote:What if toxic pollutants traveled up the socioeconomic ladder rather than down it? A Black biochemist provides an answer in this wildly original novel of pollution, poison, and dark pleasure It's actually science fiction but it's horrific and my post so I'm adding it here. The September House by Carissa Orlando [white american woman] genres and themes haunted houses, generational trauma, family abuse, alcoholism, domestic abuse, paranormal, quote:A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel. This is such a good depiction of abuse and the mark it leaves of families. The author is a psychologist, so it's no surprise. I really love the plot twist, and how being a survivor of domestic abuse allows the main character to survive in this haunted house. Rouge by Mona Awad [canadian woman of color] Genre and themes horror, internalized racism / colorism, cults, memory loss, medical abuse, supernatural, gothic, vaguely fairy tale esque? quote:From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep? This is one of my favorites of the year. What a loving weird creepy fantastic book. If you liked Ling Ling Huang’s book, Natural Beauty, you’ll love this. Absolutely unique books but has that amazing body image flavored horror. Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang [Chinese american woman] genre and themes body horror, cults, racial horror, medical abuse, fertility abuse. quote:Sly, surprising, and razor-sharp, Natural Beauty follows a young musician into an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost. Holy hell this book. I had no idea how well plastic surgery could be made into body horror. The commentary on race in america was fantastic. If the summary appeals to you, go read this book right now. Check out this quote. Maybe CW for body horror? Definitely for some medical content. quote:Weekly vernix facial wraps, a treatment that, besides looking and smelling awful, costs thousands of dollars per session. Monthly stoma vacuum sealing, which closes her pores. The ones that remain, she enlarges and embeds with diamonds so that, upon first glance, she looks to be freckled with the cosmos. She gets the same orthodontic procedure that Saje gets to maintain her Madonna tooth gap. She even gets a pubic hair transplant every few weeks, one of our most painful procedures, exchanging her natural coarse hairs for mink implants. Fair warning. There is major sexual abuse / fertility abuse. It’s explicit, so check reviews or for content warnings if you need that. In Bloom (Creature Feature collection) by Paul Tremblay [white american man] Genres and themes father son relationships, monsters, supernatural, location horror, climate change horror [is that a thing], quote:There’s something in the water in this hallucinatory short story by Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World and The Beast You Are. It's a short story, but I really liked the ambiguous story being told. The ending kinda... meh. It Waits in the Woods by Josh Malerman (Creature Feature collection) [white american man] genres and themes fairy tales, monsters, forest horror, grief. quote:Some chilling campfire tales ring too true to ignore. For one young woman, an urban legend calls her into the woods in a spine-tingling short story by the bestselling author of Bird Box. As far as forest horror goes, not bad. I half wish it was a full length book, but I appreciate that it says enough as a short story. The Invisible World by Nora Fussner [white american woman] genres and themes horror, paranormal, poltergheists, telekinesis, mild unreality, strained marriages. quote:Eve is a frustrated young artist and the owner of what she believes is a haunted house. Sandra is an overworked producer at Searching for . . . the Invisible World, a paranormal investigations show perpetually on the brink of cancelation. If you read Trembley's A Head Full of Ghosts and hated it you might not like this. This is not as ambiguous, but it feels in the same vein. It's more rooted in reality than DiLouie's Episode Thirteen. Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson [white irish man] Genre and themes is horror, changelings, generational trauma, human sacrifices, irish folk tales, supernatural, eldritch gods, cults. quote:Knock Knock, Open Wide weaves horror and Celtic myth into a terrifying, heartbreaking supernatural tale of fractured family bonds, the secrets we carry, and the veiled forces that guide Irish life. Hey did you read that book, Mister Magic by Kiersten White? Were you also disappointed it felt like a crummy, racist Candle Cove rip off? Well this is not at all like that. It does deal with a creepy supernatural childrens television show, but it has so much more depth and creepiness to it. I loved the creepy priest and modernization of ancient agricultural(?) cults. Mister Magic by Kiersten White [white american woman] quote:Who is Mister Magic? Former child stars reunite to uncover the tragedy that ended their show – and discover the secret of its enigmatic host – in this dark supernatural thriller from the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide. I hated this. I wanted to like it. Maybe someone else will like it. Fair warning, it’s Young Adult genre. I disliked it because it turned out it was a way for the author to work through their experiences with the Mormon cult and leaving it. Which ok, great for them. But as a book it did not thrill me. Major plot spoilers Ok listen I do not want the sole Black character to all victim to the evil 'not mormon' racism cult. But if the evil racism cult is using a white person with racist white values to perpetuate whiteness, it makes no drat sense to have the white woman be new eldritch god of the television cult. Like she's white, she's been socially isolated, she has no loving clue what racism is. So how is she going to reprogram via the haunted child's tv show if she doesn't know the first thing about reversing or fighting against the decades long white supremist brainwashing? It feels very white feminist to me, and completely pointless. But anyways, as far as Candle Cove but with the serial numbers filed off, it's not bad. Not the best. I wish it had done more with that concept besides 'drat this isolated house is kinda empty like a film set oh well whatever.' Midnight Showing by Megan Shepherd, Book 2 of the Malice Compendium and sequel to Malice House Genre and things are horror, supernatural, fiction becomes reality, old school hollywood films quote:Discovering her father’s strange final manuscript has brought only mayhem and darkness to Haven Marbury’s life. In Book Two of the Malice Compendium, what has leapt of the page threatens everybody. As far as sequels go, not bad. I liked the mystery of tracing the curse and trying to hide from mind controling sadist, Uncle Arnold. If you liked the previous book, I think you’ll like this one. Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling [white american woman. She wrote Yellow Jessmine, The Death of Jane Lawrence, and The Luminous Dead. Genres and themes are speculative horror, doppelgangers, architecture horror, mild apocalypses. quote:Last to Leave the Room is a new novel of genre-busting speculative horror from Caitlin Starling, the acclaimed author of The Death of Jane Lawrence. Technically science fiction in my opinion, but it's supposed to be speculative horror. Which ok, sure, genres aren't real sometimes. The insubstantial science irritated me. A lot of the 'science' was just her going to meetings, checking emails, generic repetitive measurement taking, and that's about it. If you want something more such as concrete discussions of technical language and name drops of science fields, look elsewhere. It was ok. The lesbian relationship was a bit disappointed. One I wanted more and Two dipping your vulva into the company ink is some questionable choices. But not enough, frankly, they should've had a full blown affair with manipulative string pulling to get more funding or whatever. Make it REALLY toxic. Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong [white american woman] genres and themes horror, location horror, eldritch horror, body horror / zombies?, BISEXUAL MAIN CHARACTER!!, Lesbian character!, [quotes]A standalone horror novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong. Laney Kilpatrick has been renting her vacation home to strangers. The invasion of privacy gives her panic attacks, but it’s the only way she can keep her beloved Hemlock Island, the only thing she owns after a pandemic-fueled divorce. But broken belongings and campfires that nearly burn down the house have escalated to bloody bones, hex circles, and now, terrified renters who've fled after finding blood and nail marks all over the guest room closet, as though someone tried to claw their way out...and failed. When Laney shows up to investigate with her teenaged niece in tow, she discovers that her ex, Kit, has also been informed and is there with Jayla, his sister and her former best friend. Then Sadie, another old high school friend, charters over with her brother, who’s now a cop. There are tensions and secrets, whispers in the woods, and before long, the discovery of a hand poking up from the earth. Then the body that goes with it... But by that time, someone has taken off with their one and only means off the island, and they’re trapped with someone—or something—that doesn’t want them leaving the island alive.[/quote] Ok gently caress, finally a bisexual main character that feels like an actual bisexual person. And it's in a horror story, wow! Honestly a thrill to see. Fair warning, there's a plot line of date rape CSA with some victim blaming. Honorary mention A Haunting in the Arctic by C. J. Cooke [white british woman] Genres and themes are historical / contemporary flashbacks, paranormal or supernatural monster [selkie / mermaid?] quote:A deserted shipwreck off the coast of Iceland holds terrors and dark secrets in this chilling horror novel from the author of The Lighthouse Witches. I DNF'd because I don't care for rape in stories. I just can't take it seriously, it's often unrealistic and goofy. But if anyone likes a gang rape trauma as a paranormal haunting that might involve hosed up selkies, maybe this is for you? I have no idea what the plot is really like as I stopped at the first rape scene. Someone else read this and report back, thank you. Oh, and I also read Cutter's 'The Deep'. I thought it was kinda goofy. Not quite a SOMA rip off, but it felt like some inspiration was taken from that. Also it felt like the author didn't know when to stop with the grimdark horror. Ah yes, the is a child abuser but wait! There's more! She's an incestuous child rapist! Also she is fat, because fat is evil!
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Oct 20, 2023 03:20
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semi-relevant Thomas Olde Heuvelt announced on Twitter today that Catriona Ward is officiating he and his partner's wedding next year. The Deep started off really fun and just kept going and going and I lost interest in the concept and the characters halfway through and DNFed it. Reading about all the rapey parts makes me relieved I quit when I did. Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
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Oct 21, 2023 01:23
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Dark Matter was really good I finished it in a single sitting and called out of work the next day to sleep in. I'd love a fantasy horror recommendation if anyone has any. The Aching God trilogy was a lot of fun and left me wanting more.
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Oct 21, 2023 04:40
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faantastic posted:Dark Matter was really good I finished it in a single sitting and called out of work the next day to sleep in. Since I'm also looking for more recs in this line I'll suggest Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (assuming you haven't already read it) and the C.L. Moore Jirel of Joiry stories "Black God's Kiss" and "Hellsgarde." I read the first book in the Aching God trilogy last month and need to pick up the next one. It had a very overt tabletop vibe which I appreciated.
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Oct 21, 2023 21:59
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MeatwadIsGod posted:I read the first book in the Aching God trilogy last month and need to pick up the next one. It had a very overt tabletop vibe which I appreciated. The author writes Pathfinder adventures, so that’s probably where that vibe comes from.
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Oct 21, 2023 23:40
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I read My Best Friend's Exorcism yesterday. Do you guys remember the 80s?? Remember Phil Collins???? It was entertaining but not very scary and had a terrible ending.
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Oct 22, 2023 00:51
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^^ I've heard Grady Hendrix described as RL Stine for adults. I've never been able to get into any of his fiction. So I just choked down as much of Whitley Strieber's Communion as I could, to fulfill a toxx clause, and to apologize for casting the tie-breaking vote to choose a lovely TBB book. It's in the book of the month thread, in the TBB proper forum. But with that in mind, what is Whitey Strieber's best work of fiction? He's mentioned in Paperbacks from Hell (Hendrix's nonfiction). Is any of his stuff worth reading? Help a goon out! Lots of books - horror, nonfiction, classics and more for sale.
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Oct 22, 2023 02:08
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I’ve only read Grady Hendrix’s The Final Girl Support Group, and it was less of a horror story and more of a thrilling adventure story that took place in a world of horror tropes. (Actually I just learned he cowrote Dirty Candy, which is a cookbook/memoir in comic book form. Not horror, but it is really good.) Speaking of horror-adjacent, if anyone wants an existentialist horror novella, “A Short Stay In Hell” is amazing. On one hand it’s practically just a fanfic of Borges’ “Library of Babel.” On the other hand, it’s one of the few stories I’ve read that really tries to grapple with eternity. And that’s horrifying. It has stayed with me.
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Oct 22, 2023 03:26
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lifg posted:(Actually I just learned he cowrote Dirty Candy, which is a cookbook/memoir in comic book form. Not horror, but it is really good.) Hahah, yeah, he’s married to Amanda Cohen. You can see her mentioned in the diegetic acknowledgments at the back of all the books (like he does fake funeral programs or newsletter excerpts instead of writing trad acknowledgments). (For the uninitiated, Dirt Candy is a Michelin star vegetarian restaurant in New York City owned by Grady Hendrix’s wife, who is also the head chef and concocts the creative menus.) *~*~*~*~*~*~
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Oct 22, 2023 04:51
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Started on A Haunting on the Hill, and so far it's good, but it's really driving home the degree to which the original is a timeless masterpiece. The prose in Hill House is incredible, and even all these years later it doesn't really feel dated. ... on the Hill pins itself very specifically to a certain time - 2023 - and the concerns and aesthetics of that time: lots of vaping, lots of pandemic references, lots people getting priced out of real estate, etc. It's had some genuinely creepy moments already though, and I do love me a ghost story, so I'm strapped in for the ride.
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Oct 22, 2023 08:22
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escape artist posted:^^ I've heard Grady Hendrix described as RL Stine for adults. I've never been able to get into any of his fiction. I think I read The Hunger and Wolfen during adolescence and it was titilating enough for that age. I don't recall anything about them per se, except I had a poster of Bowie playing the cello from the movie adaptation of The Hunger shot in B&W on my wall in the dorms
OMGVBFLOL posted:if you have the money and the patience, you can Hello Kitty anything   Thank you deep dish peat moss!
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Oct 23, 2023 01:23
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Slyphic posted:I don't really want to recommend it, but a good portion of That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley was proper nautical, if a little Cthulhu Mythos played completely straight. I found that book through the Stoker award noms, and then after I finished it I got as far as checking the author's wikipedia page to see what else he'd written and then spent like half an hour going what the gently caress, this is the same person?
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Oct 23, 2023 19:44
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Tried out Brainwyrms by Allison Rumfitt but had to unfortunately dip even before the aforementioned Brain Worms entered the game. I love the theme she explores of just like hurt, broken people finding each other and ripping each other to shreds as they misconstrue what recovery would mean and what sneaks into those gaps, but in Brainwyrms the focus on how that's expressed in abusive sex & abusive relationships was more than I could read in this moment
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Oct 23, 2023 20:47
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RoboCicero posted:Tried out Brainwyrms by Allison Rumfitt but had to unfortunately dip even before the aforementioned Brain Worms entered the game. I love the theme she explores of just like hurt, broken people finding each other and ripping each other to shreds as they misconstrue what recovery would mean and what sneaks into those gaps, but in Brainwyrms the focus on how that's expressed in abusive sex & abusive relationships was more than I could read in this moment Yeah, I'm about 1/3rd in and it's fantastically written but it is absolutely a ton of rough subject matters all piled on top of each other.
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Oct 23, 2023 20:54
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anilEhilated posted:loving hell. I would also like to point out that That Which Should Not Be completely fails to be a horror of any kind because IIRC there's a God and He doesn't like Cthulhu...?
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Oct 23, 2023 21:22
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escape artist posted:So I just choked down as much of Whitley Strieber's Communion as I could, to fulfill a toxx clause, and to apologize for casting the tie-breaking vote to choose a lovely TBB book. It's in the book of the month thread, in the TBB proper forum. I actually just yesterday finished The Wolfen which was pretty drat stupid but very fun. Think I'm gonna do The Hunger next.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:12
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Finished the novel part of King's ’Salem's Lot. (I have the illustrated edition with short stories and stuff.) It was good! It's kind of hard for vampires to be actually scary these days, I think, but it's a tense book nonetheless.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:22
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