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gey muckle mowser posted:Not sure if this is the best thread to ask, but what are some good spooky books for kids? My niece (about to turn 8) just started reading Goosebumps and is loving them, is there anything else along those lines out there? If you're looking to lean in and give your niece 1990s scholastic book fair PTSD, don't sleep on the animorphs. It's not horror unless you consider a 50+ book series about the horror of a secret alien war on child soldiers to be horror. GhastlyBizness posted:If you search "ST Joshi racism" you'll find a lot of stuff, much of it centred around a meltdown he had when the World Fantasy Award changed its physical trophy from a bust of Lovecraft to something more abstract. He tried to start a boycott, one of a few he's tried, but it didn't take. Good to know my initial introduction to the dude was so off putting that inactively avoided anything he's involved in because he seems like a dick bag. The entire argument is stupid, the cat is the only smoking gun you need to know.
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Nov 14, 2023 00:37
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Slyphic posted:I think mine were 9 and 10 when they read them, but they quite liked Lockwood & Co. series, starts with The Screaming Staircase, though more of a supernatural thriller than horror story. It's been 29 years since I read a goosebumps book, I can't recall how actually scary they were. My kids also really liked this series in audiobook form. And, to be fair, they were tolerable for adults to listen to as well.
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Nov 14, 2023 01:22
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kind of a funny bummer. all i knew about ST Joshi was his detailed annotations in the Lovecraft story collections i've got, just copious notes for further reading and possible influences throughout. classic Cranky Academic Pet Subject behaviour, what a churlish old man
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Nov 14, 2023 03:39
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GhastlyBizness posted:It's all a bit 'in-scene' kind of stuff among folks who see each other at cons but tbh he just seems like a nasty old rear end in a top hat. It's this, mostly. Joshi buddies up to promising young writers, but once their star starts to outshine his own, he turns on them. He's burnt so many bridges that it's almost impressive. This is also reflected in the quality of his anthologies; they used to be top-tier, but very few writers want to work with him nowadays, so the anthologies are mostly poo poo-tier stories. As a weird side note, be careful criticizing Joshi in a public place because fuckin' Ramsey Campbell might show up to scold you.
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Nov 14, 2023 12:52
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Ornamented Death posted:It's this, mostly. Joshi buddies up to promising young writers, but once their star starts to outshine his own, he turns on them. I was about to say, that above list of authors he’s feuded with is a murderers row of modern horror.
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Nov 14, 2023 15:29
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GhastlyBizness posted:If you search "ST Joshi racism" you'll find a lot of stuff, much of it centred around a meltdown he had when the World Fantasy Award changed its physical trophy from a bust of Lovecraft to something more abstract. He tried to start a boycott, one of a few he's tried, but it didn't take. Thank you. Sorry, I should have searched for it but assumed it was a one off tweet and not... phew. All that. What a loving loser. Well, I'll keep an eye out if those anthologies editted by him go down in quality. Maybe a recommendation from me? I just started it, but it seems promising. quote:The Apparition Phase by Will Maclean The author writes for childrens TV series, so I'm not sure if this is young adult audience or not. Still, the concept of creating ghosts, potentially, seems very interesting. I read a Gemma Files short story similar to this with audio, I think.
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Nov 14, 2023 19:22
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Anyone here read William Hope Hodgson’s House on the Borderland ? I’m about two thirds of the way through The Night Land and good god I can’t take much more of the drippiest, most saccharine romance ever put to paper, but I’m fascinated by the way this guy’s brain works, and some of the nightmare imagery he conjures up. Wondering if Borderland holds up after all this time, hopefully with more of the great imagery and weirdness and less awkward faux-17th century prose and excruciating romance. Edit: less foot fetishism and “baby-slave” as a term of endearment would be great too tbh Kestral fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Nov 18, 2023 |
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Nov 18, 2023 09:13
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Just finished Seeders and it was a wild ride honestly but I liked it. The plants are pretty good. It reminds me of a late night syfy movie(approvingly) so it's bad in the right way
SSJ_naruto_2003 fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Nov 18, 2023 |
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Nov 18, 2023 09:31
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Kestral posted:Anyone here read William Hope Hodgson’s House on the Borderland ? I’m about two thirds of the way through The Night Land and good god I can’t take much more of the drippiest, most saccharine romance ever put to paper, but I’m fascinated by the way this guy’s brain works, and some of the nightmare imagery he conjures up. Wondering if Borderland holds up after all this time, hopefully with more of the great imagery and weirdness and less awkward faux-17th century prose and excruciating romance. People generally regard House on the Borderland as far more accessible. I've only read a comic book adaptation but no romance as far as I can remember.
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Nov 18, 2023 10:22
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It’s way more accessible, I couldn’t get through The Night Land but House on the Borderland was grand. I think there was some very mild romance but it was like some astral projection stuff where the protagonist thinks of his long lost love. Don’t recall it being a significant part at all. Would strongly recommend though. It manages to combine cosmic horror with “there’s a horrible man thing looking in the window” horror.
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Nov 18, 2023 10:54
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gey muckle mowser posted:Not sure if this is the best thread to ask, but what are some good spooky books for kids? My niece (about to turn 8) just started reading Goosebumps and is loving them, is there anything else along those lines out there? I feel like Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October would work well for kids. Even if some of the references fly over their heads, Snuff (  ) and Greymalk are fun heroes to follow around.
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Nov 18, 2023 11:48
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Pistol_Pete posted:Adam Nevill is successful now but spent years living pretty grimly and that really bleeds through into his writing. It's a really common theme in his books that his protagonists get into the situations they do either because they're trapped by poverty or desperately chasing the promise of money. I remember from his first novel, where the protagonist is a depressed security guard who lives in a damp, dingy room above a dodgy pub where there's blood stains on the wall from past violence and a previous occupant molested his daughter there and I was like: "Ok Adam, I get it: this dude's life sucks, do you HAVE to lay it on so thick?" Then I read an interview with him where he said that was basically the room he actually lived in when he was doing dead-end jobs and trying to establish his writing career lol. Yes I think No One Gets Out Alive is a great example of this. Stuck in the haunted boarding house because you need to get a deposit back from your landlord, begging your Ex to take you in. The man can write the hell out of a book, but not the title.
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Nov 18, 2023 12:01
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Kestral posted:Anyone here read William Hope Hodgson’s House on the Borderland ? I’m about two thirds of the way through The Night Land and good god I can’t take much more of the drippiest, most saccharine romance ever put to paper, but I’m fascinated by the way this guy’s brain works, and some of the nightmare imagery he conjures up. Wondering if Borderland holds up after all this time, hopefully with more of the great imagery and weirdness and less awkward faux-17th century prose and excruciating romance. Yeah, you read The Night Land despite the prose, not because of it. It's a classic for a reason but boy does it have its flaws. It can be particularly difficult to read because it's presented as a far-future, incomprehensibly hi-tech and alien world as viewed through the mind of this 17th century dude who doesn't really understand anything that he's looking at.
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Nov 18, 2023 21:17
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 Picked this up yesterday. The extreme horror/splatter punk subreddits are going crazy for it right now. I will never read a good book.
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Nov 19, 2023 02:29
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Sorry for not posting here sooner, but Secret Santa is open through the rest of the week, and I'd love to see the posters here participate. We've had some really good horror exchanges, so get in!
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Nov 19, 2023 20:11
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gey muckle mowser posted:Not sure if this is the best thread to ask, but what are some good spooky books for kids? My niece (about to turn 8) just started reading Goosebumps and is loving them, is there anything else along those lines out there? Third or fourthing Bellairs. Three in particular that are spooky are the Doom of the Haunted Opera, that’s from the House with a Clock in its Walls, living with your wizard uncle, series, and The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie, and The Eyes of the Killer Robot, which are from the hanging out with the cranky yet kindly professor across the street from your grandparents who you live with because your father is fighting in the Korean War, series. They’re both pretty standalone series, you can read them in any order iirc, and the editions I read as a kid have nice creepy Gorey illustrations. Sorry, I’m gushing, but they were some of my favorites as a kid, and a great introduction to a lot of horror tropes and ideas.
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Nov 20, 2023 02:29
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Nov 20, 2023 02:36
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UwUnabomber posted:
Started reading this expecting it to be a trashy ~150pg revenge fantasy book but it's actually a ~400pg book about Dracula? Like literal Dracula and Van Helsing fighting. Only a little over half way through but it's less gross and more actual Dracula novel than I was expecting from the cover art and writer.
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Nov 20, 2023 03:09
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I haven't gotten very far in it yet because work but lmao amazing.
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Nov 20, 2023 03:15
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I honestly don't know if I'd even classify it as extreme/splatter currently, with the caveat that I'm still only 58% of the way through it. Been a while since I've seen such a disconnect from the writer/cover expectations and what I actually got. What an odd book.
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Nov 20, 2023 03:28
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GhastlyBizness posted:It’s way more accessible, I couldn’t get through The Night Land but House on the Borderland was grand. yeah basically also iirc it's not ten hundred thousand pages long either
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Nov 20, 2023 13:40
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I finished a book. Woo. The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess by Andy Marino quote:Possession is an addiction. He's the one who wrote It Rides a Pale Horse (2022), which I read prior to this one, and thought it was pretty great. Rather grim and about weird art apocalypse death. If you like possession but not the usual catholic church type demons, and [major plot spoiler] cluster / trypophobia horror and parasite / cosmic horror I think you might like this one. Think biological horror, I suppose. [side note, anyone here watch Incantation (2022)? That also has cluster / trypophobia horror to a degree and man, that was great. I don't usually come across it so it's a real treat to see it in both literature and film. The book gave me SOMA decaying vibes, at least in the appearance and feeling. Fair warning, there is [content warning and major spoilers] domestic abuse / gaslighting and some medical abuse in this one. It's sort of explicit but not outright at first glance which is why they're spoilers. I also read his fantasy genre short story, The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter (2013). Pretty decent, thankfully avoids anti indigenous racism aside from explicitly mentioning why said characters are trying to settle on indigenous Nation lands. The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter quote:The Oregon Trail Diary of Willa Porter" is a collection of diary entries from Willa Porter's journey west with her family, into territory which gets stranger and stranger. It's brief and thankfully to the point. The author is not half bad at body horror, imo. Disclaimer. He writes hitler murder fanfic type poo poo? If you take issue with poo poo like 'the boy in the striped pajamas' and other [potential] traumaporn about fictional Jews, maybe skip this dude's work. I have not read this series as it's for children and frankly feel good stories of fictional trauma about non existent Jewish people isn't my thing. His bibliography and bio here. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/andy-marino/ Anyways, new books that seem kinda interesting. On my tbr, for when I get the cash for them, at least. Gollitok by Andrew Najberg [white american man] quote:In a post-nuclear Eastern Europe, Hammel E Varka departs for a remote island to join a survey team cataloguing the abandoned Gollitok prison in the hopes that he will redeem his family’s tarnished reputation. Post apocalyptic location horror? Sure, why not. After watching The Superdeep, I'm still in the mood for some eastern european horror. Fingers crossed it's something interesting and not 'Resident Evil with the serial numbers filed off'.
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Nov 24, 2023 19:00
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value-brand cereal posted:
Just got hold of this: it's very good so far.
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Nov 25, 2023 17:04
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Pistol_Pete posted:Just got hold of this: it's very good so far. OH EAH IT IS. Five minutes after posting that I went ahead and bought it and woops, kinda stayed up til the AM finishing it. Well. I can honestly say to others that it's kind of in the same vein as Leech by Hiron Ennes and The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey. And perhaps the video games 'Papers, Please' and 'Disco Elysium' though I have not played either very much. Just in tone, locale, and some themes, not as perfect copies or unauthorized sequels. Think Venn diagram. It's definitely not Resident Evil, I retract that. [Some major but contextless spoilers] Themes include: body horror, location horror, post nuclear apocalypse, dystopias and the abuse of power bureaucracies that come with it, alternate devolved historical futures, fungi / mineral / parasite horror? What the gently caress do I call that crystal poo poo, well meaning cogs in the machine, genocide. MAJOR SPOILERS. I do love the bit with the 'Living Fresnel Lens' thing. It reminded me a little of Lady Midday from Files' 'Experimental Film'. What the gently caress was that? Ok so the Warden became a literal beacon. Because she felt regret about the rampant torture done in her torture prison? Though that lighthouse is not meant to be a lighthouse, unless that's the new truth the current government created and not the previous truth. Oh no wait the mutated birds dislike sunny days because they hunt in the fog, so perhaps the Living Lens is an 'enemy of my enemy'? It's not like sh attacked Yost and the MC. I think I need to reread it because I definitely missed something there. Maybe reading until 3 am was a bad idea... I did love how much was just off screen or unexplained. That's very in vein with dystopia bureaucracies. Everyone has their own agendas, from office drones to the top of the organization, and information does not overlap. In any case, I'm keeping an eye on this author. I would be interested in a eastern european viewpoint on this novel, and how accurate it is.
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Nov 25, 2023 18:32
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value-brand cereal posted:[Some major but contextless spoilers] It’d be cool if you didn’t do this. When you post these lists of tags, you tend to give away significant plot points by inference and implication. You’ve posted a number of books that looked interesting, and I’ll be reading along in your post and suddenly my eyes fall on a block of spoiler-filled tags and suddenly I know half the book, and no longer have any interest in reading it.
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Nov 25, 2023 19:07
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Kestral posted:It’d be cool if you didn’t do this. When you post these lists of tags, you tend to give away significant plot points by inference and implication. You’ve posted a number of books that looked interesting, and I’ll be reading along in your post and suddenly my eyes fall on a block of spoiler-filled tags and suddenly I know half the book, and no longer have any interest in reading it. Then don't hover over the spoilers? Or read the summaries, for that matter. I do not control your cursor or eyes. I'm not sure what you're expecting here.
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Nov 25, 2023 19:19
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value-brand cereal posted:Then don't hover over the spoilers? Or read the summaries, for that matter. I do not control your cursor or eyes. I'm not sure what you're expecting here. The spoilers I’m referring to aren’t spoiler tagged in the way that makes them blacked out. Writing the word “Spoilers” immediately adjacent to a bunch of spoilers doesn’t protect anyone who reads sufficiently quickly or takes in blocks of text at once. One flick on the phone screen or scroll of the mouse wheel can take the whole block of tags and put it squarely in your field of vision. By the time I’m aware of the word “spoiler” I’m also aware of the words that follow it. If you want to post those blocks of descriptors, just enclose them in actual spoiler tags and it’s all good - that’s the purpose of the tag, after all.
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Nov 25, 2023 19:28
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Kestral posted:The spoilers I’m referring to aren’t spoiler tagged in the way that makes them blacked out. Writing the word “Spoilers” immediately adjacent to a bunch of spoilers doesn’t protect anyone who reads sufficiently quickly or takes in blocks of text at once. One flick on the phone screen or scroll of the mouse wheel can take the whole block of tags and put it squarely in your field of vision. By the time I’m aware of the word “spoiler” I’m also aware of the words that follow it. Those aren't spoilers. That's what the summary describes what the book is. The spoilered text refer to event(s) that happen in the book which are unmentioned in the summary. quote:"In a post-nuclear Eastern Europe, Hammel E Varka departs for a remote island to join a survey team cataloguing the abandoned Gollitok prison in the hopes that he will redeem his family’s tarnished reputation." location horror <-remote island, abandoned Gollitok prison post nuclear apocalypse, dystopias and the abuse of power bureaucracies that come with it, alternate devolved historical futures <-nuclear Eastern Europe, a survey team, this survey is far from routine, hidden agendas splinter the team well meaning cogs in the machine <- the main character, 'he will redeem his family’s tarnished reputation' quote:"After the passage across the strait leaves a team member injured, Varka quickly realizes that this survey is far from routine and that what he thought he knew about the island was a cover for more horrifying truths. As his team presses deeper into the decaying facility, hidden agendas splinter the team, and they find themselves beset with dangers beyond their worst nightmares." body horror <- dangers beyond their worst nightmares fungi / mineral / parasite horror? What the gently caress do I call that crystal poo poo <- the unmentioned part in the summary which is a major spoiler genocide <- cover for more horrifying truths I don't know what to tell you. Summaries aren't spoilers, tbh imo bbq etc. Let's agree to disagree I guess.
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Nov 25, 2023 19:58
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value-brand cereal posted:Those aren't spoilers. You yourself called them "major but contextless spoilers". It seems like common courtesy to put everything that you'd consider a spoiler into spoiler tags. Nobody can make you do anything, of course, so I suppose this is what the ignore function is for. *** Finished The Night-Land, and boy was that a weird ride. Could definitely have done without, uh, most of the latter half of the book to be honest, but it's undoubtedly a foundational work in cosmic horror and sci-fi, so I don't regret the read. Sounds like there's consensus around House on the Borderland, so that's going in the queue for sure. Anyone here have thoughts on The Pale House Devil? It bills itself as B-movie horror-noir, which sounds fun, and William Gibson keeps pitching it which always makes me sit up and pay attention, but I've seen surprisingly little discussion of it.
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Nov 26, 2023 04:32
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Kestral posted:You yourself called them "major but contextless spoilers". It seems like common courtesy to put everything that you'd consider a spoiler into spoiler tags. Nobody can make you do anything, of course, so I suppose this is what the ignore function is for. value-brand cereal posted:
That was in reference to the spoiler tagged portions included in the paragraph. I was warning people what the spoilers included in the 'themes included' meant. If you misunderstood that, sorry for your loss dot jpg. If a mod chimes in that summaries and summary keywords are spoilers fine sure I'll tag them. But please reconsider your interpretation of my post. This is some bizarre book tiktok poo poo. value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Nov 26, 2023 |
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Nov 26, 2023 06:00
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value-brand cereal posted:That was in reference to the spoiler tagged portions included in the paragraph. I was warning people what the spoilers included in the 'themes included' meant. If you misunderstood that, sorry for your loss dot jpg. I mean, I see nothing in there that would give anything away for the story itself and plenty offered that would help me decide if the book was to my general liking, but in general I don't care about spoilers in books since how the specific points get raised in text often differ from discussions on dead comedy forums so I'm probably not a good person to ask!
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Nov 26, 2023 07:35
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Thank you for your input. I appreciate a third point of view. I'm kinda the same with spoilers but I don't want to ruin The Experience TM for others so yeah I know to tag spoilers. I just don't think any of that was spoiler worthy. Like it's one thing to say Stephen King's 'It' involves supernatural elements, and another to explain everything involved with the supernatural monster.
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Nov 27, 2023 05:46
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value-brand cereal posted:Thank you for your input. I appreciate a third point of view. I'm kinda the same with spoilers but I don't want to ruin The Experience TM for others so yeah I know to tag spoilers. I just don't think any of that was spoiler worthy. Like it's one thing to say Stephen King's 'It' involves supernatural elements, and another to explain everything involved with the supernatural monster. I can see that if by mentioning there is a supernatural element to it it would remove things like whatever in the story being caused by a person with some physiological drive or just hosed up brains to do whatever happens in IT so just maybe be super circumspect about posting anything not on the back cover knowing how some folks ITT feel about it?
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Nov 27, 2023 06:16
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I finished Gollitok and while it did turn out to be a bit: Annihilation: Eastern Europe edition (it even has a spooky lighthouse!), it was original enough to hold its own. Based on a real life prison island too, which was a bit grim to discover.
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Nov 27, 2023 10:37
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Okay, if you read Camp Damascus and enjoyed it, I suggest, highly, that you look at his other titles. He has erotic Kindle singles with the best titles and names... I don't even want to spoil any in this thread. Go to Amazon, search Chuck Tingle. Holy poo poo.
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Nov 29, 2023 20:15
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Hang on, your introduction to Chuck Tingle was Camp Damascus? You didn't know who he was before?
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Nov 29, 2023 20:45
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zoux posted:Hang on, your introduction to Chuck Tingle was Camp Damascus? You didn't know who he was before? Lmao
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Nov 29, 2023 20:47
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zoux posted:Hang on, your introduction to Chuck Tingle was Camp Damascus? You didn't know who he was before? God I hope so.
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Nov 29, 2023 23:17
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zoux posted:Hang on, your introduction to Chuck Tingle was Camp Damascus? You didn't know who he was before? Correct.
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Nov 29, 2023 23:39
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Rammed in the butt by revelations of Chuck Tingle’s origins
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Nov 30, 2023 00:10
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