|
mellonbread posted:You're right, there's also big dicked film noirman and big dicked bounty hunterman. Yessss strappado is my favorite too! And that's exactly what I'm talking about. Barron does love his big dick noir for sure, but his gems (in my stupid online opinion, of which there are many) are the little moments of exquisite dread, and that story tops the list. But yeah, knee-jerking aside there's a Lotta noir dickery
|
# ? Jan 31, 2023 00:38 |
|
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 06:43 |
|
mellonbread posted:You're right, there's also big dicked film noirman and big dicked bounty hunterman. I think about Strappado all the time. I think what makes it so horrifying is that it's mostly about just going with the flow and ignoring your hunches to get along... and then having a horrible fate
|
# ? Jan 31, 2023 01:05 |
|
Ornamented Death posted:Tom Monteleone is nuking his legacy over on Facebook. He's gone fully hood-off. Don't be shy. What's going on in facebook land?
|
# ? Jan 31, 2023 01:16 |
value-brand cereal posted:Don't be shy. What's going on in facebook land? He tried to nominate Stuart David Schiff for a Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award - which is fair and probably deserved. However, he did it in the most assholish way possible, berating two past LFA winners as being undeserving diversity picks (Carole Glover and Jewelle Gomez). He reposted the nomination to his personal FB page, and received a lot of flak for it but kept doubling down. Basically it was a lot of "old white man hates it that the playing field is just the tiniest bit more level now." Then some known white supremacists showed up and supported him, and he liked that so much he went on their podcast and said and/or agreed with a lot of racist, homophobic, and transphobic poo poo. The writing boot camp he founded, Borderlands Boot Camp, which became part of the Scares that Care Charity last year, has cut ties and rebranded as the Scares that Care Writers Workshop. I'd say it's very likely the HWA is going to kick him out, and may even revoke his LFA.
|
|
# ? Jan 31, 2023 01:25 |
|
Ornamented Death posted:Tom Monteleone is nuking his legacy over on Facebook. He's gone fully hood-off. Having read one of Monteleone's novels years ago, I can't imagine that there's much legacy to nuke.
|
# ? Jan 31, 2023 01:42 |
Jedit posted:Having read one of Monteleone's novels years ago, I can't imagine that there's much legacy to nuke. His legacy is more things like the boot camp, the Borderlands anthologies, and Borderlands Press rather than his writing, though even that has its fans. Of course the boot camp is out of his hands and has cut ties, the anthologies have been a joke for years, and Borderlands Press is absolute garbage. He was coasting on a lot of goodwill for his past achievements, but decided to set all of that on fire to fight "wokeness."
|
|
# ? Jan 31, 2023 01:47 |
|
Ornamented Death posted:I'd say it's very likely the HWA is going to kick him out, and may even revoke his LFA. It's done
|
# ? Feb 1, 2023 03:22 |
Yep. And for what it's worth, it appears the HWA bylaws appear to specifically forbid revoking past Stoker awards, including the lifetime achievement award*. I can't say I disagree with such a rule, because while such a move is arguably justified in this situation, not explicitly banning it leaves too much room for bad actors go after people they don't agree with. *Note the above says it revokes the benefits of award, not the award itself.
|
|
# ? Feb 1, 2023 03:44 |
|
Finished In the Valley of the Sun. It was really great, western with vampires. The vampires don't know much about being vampires, which is the funniest kind of vampire.
|
# ? Feb 1, 2023 06:13 |
|
Re-read Strappado only to remember how much I love The Broadsword.
|
# ? Feb 1, 2023 19:36 |
|
Felt like reading some splatter/extreme since I hadn't done it in a while and it seemed like a good way to pad out my book reading stats at the beginning of the year. Here is my few sentence reviews of these mostly disappointing books The Complex, Brian Keene: A very Brian Keene-rear end Brian Keene book. Decent thrill ride where completely unexplained naked maniacs are attacking an apartment complex and also the greater city at large, complete with unnecessary tie in character to the greater Keene-iverse. You will absolutely guess the exact way this book ends several chapters before it happens. Enjoyable, but probably wouldn't be in my top couple recs from this author The Television, Ed Lee: A relatively new Ed Lee book and its somehow not set in the hill country South. There's a TV in a trailer park home in England that shows the worst atrocities in history, and since this is an Ed Lee book, a large portion of the book is spent describing those atrocities. It feels like its building up to something and then just... doesn't, and ends. Creekers, Ed Lee: Ed Lee in his natural habitat of writing deformed inbred hillfolk terrorizing a community. It's also got some detective story stuff and a splash of cult weirdness for a bit of a mix on the formula. Also a half decent ending compared to everything else on this list They All Died Screaming, Kristopher Triana: I was actually kinda mad about this one because the premise of the virus, that it makes you start screaming until you die of insomnia or kill yourself, is terrifying in concept and its early execution. Then it just kinda stops being that halfway through the book and becomes a generic zombie/rage virus where people just start screaming when they attack? Then there's the B plot where you start off wondering how this is gonna get integrated into the main story and then halfway through you realize, oh no, this is either a flash back or maybe a flash forward isn't it, and yep, its that. Yeah I'm still mad
|
# ? Feb 2, 2023 08:13 |
|
My post from the King thread:Rolo posted:Finally decided to read Pet Sematary. It was good! Not as good as Shining or Salems Lot but I don’t think I’m gonna get that experience out of King again. Basically finished a pretty good spooky book and I’m excited to jump into another one. I’m assuming the Blackwater saga is good?
|
# ? Feb 7, 2023 05:46 |
|
Sematary definitely isn't my favorite King book, but that little 2 page bit where Louis is chasing after Gage as they head towards the road might be the best thing he's ever written
|
# ? Feb 7, 2023 05:53 |
|
Opopanax posted:Sematary definitely isn't my favorite King book, but that little 2 page bit where Louis is chasing after Gage as they head towards the road might be the best thing he's ever written Read this when my daughter was 3. Whole book wrecked me.
|
# ? Feb 7, 2023 07:12 |
|
it's been like 20+ years since I've read Pet Sematary but I remember it being scarier to me than anything else King wrote. Except maybe The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, for some reason that really got to me too.
|
# ? Feb 7, 2023 15:53 |
The Black Maybe by Attila Veres is incredible btw. one of the best horror collections ive read in a while
|
|
# ? Feb 7, 2023 16:49 |
|
I finished THE WIDE, CARNIVOROUS SKY and it was pretty good. It was maybe a little formal though. Lil' bit too self aware. Horror for horror writers if you will.
|
# ? Feb 7, 2023 17:59 |
General Battuta posted:I finished THE WIDE, CARNIVOROUS SKY and it was pretty good. It was maybe a little formal though. Lil' bit too self aware. Horror for horror writers if you will. I kinda feel that way about everything I've read from Langan. The Fisherman really felt self aware in a way that made it not very enjoyable to read imo.
|
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 07:32 |
|
Not gonna lie I thought North American Lake Monster kinda sucked except for two or three of the stories. Can anyone explain the angel story to me? Please?
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 07:38 |
|
If I had to guess, the deal with that story is that it's a metaphor for the destructive power of festering grief and resentment, the idea that the pain these people feel for the loss of their son can only be satisfied by the destruction of something pure and beautiful, but it felt like it really went into the weeds with the adultery stuff. In general, NALM had a fixation on male sexual jealousy that made a lot of it not click for me.
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 10:00 |
|
NALM was a lot less fun than Wounds. Pretty cool that he has that range though.
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 16:06 |
I'd say I found NALM a lot more memorable and Wounds a lot more enjoyable, lol. They're both really good IMO but I wouldn't begrudge anybody putting NALM down after a story or two, some of them are genuinely kind of tough to read if you're not in the right mindset I think. Also I've said it a billion times but I want more stuff like The Butcher's Table, that was so extremely my poo poo and I haven't come across much like it.
|
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 23:15 |
|
I'm just finishing Wounds up and it's definitely broaded that NALM, but I loved both. He's got a new, full length book coming out soon that sounds like it'll really play to his strengths, I'm very much looking forward to that
|
# ? Feb 8, 2023 23:32 |
|
Hi. It's me. I read things. Maybe things I read you like too? Maybe. Here. A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino [anthology, single author short stories] quote:The highly original and truly terrifying folk horror of Italy’s Luigi Musolino was introduced to an international audience in the acclaimed The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, and now at last an entire volume of the author’s best work – eight stories and three novellas – is available in English for the first time. It's been a while since I read an anthology I really really enjoyed. I didn't even realize this was folk horror. I figured italians were just like this, regarding their horror lol Kind of reminds me of more classic horror writing. The descriptions in the story 'Black Hills of Torment' were really amazing to me. It's hard to describe eldritch things and otherworlds, and I think the author did well here. I didn't like the story 'Like Dogs', and not just because the rampant child abuse. It was pretty depressing as a whole, which I understand was the point. It just wasn't a pleasant read. Favorite stories The Carnival of the Stag Man Les Abominations des Altitudes The Puller by Michael Hodges quote:A tale of man versus the elements and monsters, The Puller begins with Matt Kearns heading up to “the shack,” his father’s cabin in the Upper Peninsula, so he can process his father’s death. In the area, there’ve been reports of local wildlife being pulled into the air and hung in the trees by a mysterious force. The surrounding wilderness makes for an eerie location already, with its eccentric locals and isolated locale, but once the creature yanking animals around (dubbed “The Puller” by Matt’s inner voice) takes an interest in Matt, the fact that he keeps getting brutally yanked back to the family cabin makes the place more of a prison. Interesting plot and well written. Not really my thing as it's a bit masculine bravado and all the women characters were either sex objects or children. I can appreciate the random unknown monstrous thing. The pacing was OK. I mainly read it for the descriptions of the landscape. Had an attempt at 'Our ancestors have spoiled / conquered the land and now what is our place in it?' which I rolled eyes at but it was alright. But it wasn't as irritating as Winterset was about this. Sign Here by Claudia Lux quote:A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul. It's funny, touching, has a decent mystery, and a very good conclusion. I can appreciate hell being so beruao beurou beauroucratic like an office setting and lovely apartment world. The carefully metered twists were great, I liked the main character being jerked around. Fair warning this does involve some child abuse [nothing sexual] that is explicit. It's integral to the plot but the paragraphs can probably be skipped if need be. Seeders by A. J. Colucci quote:George Brookes is a brilliant but reclusive plant biologist living on a remote Canadian island. After his mysterious death, the heirs to his estate arrive on the island, including his daughter Isabelle, her teenage children, and Jules Beecher, a friend and pioneer in plant neurobiology. They will be isolated on the frigid island for two weeks, until the next supply boat arrives. Who likes parasite horror? This was a neat one. Some of the characters [cough rich old british fart] were really stale and one note. But I read it more for the slowly unfolding mystery of the strange fungus. Bad Cree by Jessica Johns [an indigenous author, by the way!] quote:In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home. I deeply love this book, and am kinda sad and mad that this author hasn't written more. I loved the family ties and sisterhood shared in this family. I thought it was very touching and an interesting look at horror as both grief and healing, as a MAJOR SPOILER metaphor and an actual supernatural creature. The Three by Sarah Lotz quote:Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he's right? The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. quote:The chilling follow-up to THE THREE, Sarah Lotz's "hard to put down and vastly entertaining" debut (Stephen King). A long time ago I read 'The White Road' by this author and the ending stuck in my head to this day. Praying it wasn't a one off, I finally picked up 'The Three' and hell yeah this was just as interesting. There's also the side-quel / sequel 'Day Four' which is set in the same 'universe' but has a different plot that involves a similar premise. I think you can read either and in whatever sequence you want. I liked The Three a lot better though. The 'The Three' ending was a bit ambiguous, but Day Four has a more solid conclusion if you prefer that. I liked the rotating pov in both books as it helped with the tension. A lot of times such a technique feels like being rushed through the plot, or the author failing to make the plot appealing so they resort to sudden scene cuts. Honorable mentions. The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey Technically dark science fiction? Historical cyberpunk? I don't know. Not horror, certainly. But I enjoyed it enough to add a mention. I liked the semi historical, dystopian setting, it's almost Disco Elysium esque, if you need a frame of reference. I also appreciated theunderdog character. He's a stool pigeon who's smart enough to understand the danger he gets into, and isn't smart enough to get himself out. I also appreciate that MAJOR SPOILERS it isn't a hunger games esque scenario. He's not a special boy who saves everyone and gets the girl. There's an actual revolutionary group that has been making an effort to change the world. He's just a random guy who happens to be useful to them. Again, a lucky stool pigeon. Dishonorable mentions. Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm Oh boy. White fragile coquette #girlgirl gothic except not really or maybe? I'm sorry I can't stand fake deep poo poo. I also can't stand incredibly tedious recitations of what a random white girl has done on her summer vacation job. Does this get scary or gothic? Maybe. I didn't read far enough to see that. This got mentioned on a few different new horror of 20XX lists, and I just don't understand why. Maybe I just don't get gothic. It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames Ok. Ok it's young adult, I shouldnt expect much. But my word. Ok imagine John Carpenter's The Thing and Campbell Jr.'s Frozen Hell. Now make it for teens, but fudge the details enough so you don't get sued for plagiarism. Is it different enough to be interesting? Sure, if you're a teen and simply want more X/Y/Z of The Thing. Is it good? Ahh.... no. The villain is a capitalist stereotype, to appeal to the kids in a defanged 'eat the rich' theme. It stands on its own but hm, meh. It's forgettable. Also yes, this does feature the spider monster creature from The Thing, complete with chest bursting. Well. If it's not broken, don't change the formula, strained grin. Anyways, current reading list. Maybe these will stike someone's fancy too! I have no idea if they're decent or not. Cross your fingers! Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie quote:This heart-pounding novel of horror and psychological suspense takes a ghost hunting reality TV crew into a world they could never have imagined. Slightly more than halfway through this at the moment. A little slow but fairly interesting. It's sort of epistolary in that it's all transcripts and video descriptions. I wish they mixed it up more with sections not sourced from the main characters. Like articles on the locations backstory, random blog posts about the hauntings, interviews with the previous owners, and such. I do like that it isn't a copy paste of the Scooby Doo gang. I'd tentatively rank this lower than Smithy by Amanda Desiree and Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall. It does have a decent haunted house and the paranormal scenes are well done. Above Wylding Hall, certainly. Also yes this takes place on a plantation mansion / mansion near a plantation. But so far that has almost no baring on the story past some mentions of it. Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones [sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw] quote:December 12th, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author, Stephen Graham Jones. I confess I haven't read the first one. BUT I'm glad I didn't because I hate duologies [cough 90% cash grabs and poo poo editing] and unmentioned sequels. So I'll be glad to read them both in one go. Vampire Weekend by Mike Chen quote:Being a vampire is far from glamorous… but it can be pretty punk rock. I loved Chen's 'We Could Be Heroes' and want something hopefully more chill than hardcore paranormal or gorey monsters. This seems very cute. Well peace out til next time.
|
# ? Feb 9, 2023 06:46 |
|
Antivehicular posted:In general, NALM had a fixation on male sexual jealousy that made a lot of it not click for me. Thanks, that makes a little more sense. And the portion I quoted is one of the things I found frustrating about it for sure. I finished it, didn't really hate it but meh. I liked it better than Wounds, for sure. Started Clickers by J F Gonzalez. Wasn't really expecting to see Stormtroopers of Death name-dropped.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2023 00:34 |
UwUnabomber posted:Started Clickers by J F Gonzalez. Wasn't really expecting to see Stormtroopers of Death name-dropped. Jesus was part of Brian Keene's clique, they do nothing but namedrop in pretty much all of their books. It gets pretty distracting once you know all the authors and bands and whatnot because it's basically a giant neon sign of a winking face, over and over again, in every book.
|
|
# ? Feb 10, 2023 04:07 |
UwUnabomber posted:Thanks, that makes a little more sense. And the portion I quoted is one of the things I found frustrating about it for sure. I finished it, didn't really hate it but meh. I liked it better than Wounds, for sure. “…you’re dead.”
|
|
# ? Feb 10, 2023 04:48 |
|
Ornamented Death posted:Jesus was part of Brian Keene's clique, they do nothing but namedrop in pretty much all of their books. It gets pretty distracting once you know all the authors and bands and whatnot because it's basically a giant neon sign of a winking face, over and over again, in every book. It got me a little deeper in, though. I know how I'd feel hearing Speak English or Die playing from a comic book store. Double if I went in and dude at the register was wearing a Dead Kennedys shirt. I'm not old enough to know what that was like when Live at Budokan came out like in the book but I know the vibe we're shooting for there. Which is more than I can say for when Stephen King references that kinda thing.
|
# ? Feb 10, 2023 08:41 |
|
I'm halfway through The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson, who wrote The Boatman's Daughter... It's good, just feels like the story could be told in so many less pages, maybe even a novella. I will reserve the rest of my criticism until I finish.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 00:31 |
|
I'm a quarter of the way through Clickers 2 and lmao Prince Alhazred.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 06:50 |
|
UwUnabomber posted:I'm a quarter of the way through Clickers 2 and lmao Prince Alhazred. The Clickers series is such great B-movie as a book nonsense. Three mainline entries, a crossover vs Brian Keene's zombies, and an endorsed sequel from other horror authors that just liked the concept. It's all just the right amount of stupid, which is surprisingly hard to calibrate to for some reason. For my money my absolute favorite dumb B-movie book is still The Haunted Forest Tour by Jeff Strand and James A Moore, though. It's Jurassic Park but in a weird haunted forest that suddenly popped up outta nowhere! It's way way more ridiculous than even that premise sounds, which probably goes without saying since Jeff Strand is involved. Strong recommend
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 07:52 |
|
Good Citizen posted:
I am having to push myself through the final 20% of this Andy Davidson book. There are some great pieces of prose but the story itself isn't interesting enough to justify an attempt at a multi-generational epic. Some of these characters feel less like characters and more like props for story beats.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 20:09 |
|
That's reminding me of a short story I read recently but can't remember now, it was basically just an insurance form drawn up for a tour through a real haunted house, but I can't find it in any of the books I read last year, anyone know what I'm talking about?
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 20:58 |
|
escape artist posted:They always say don't judge a book by its cover but... I bought Haunted Forest Tour based on its cover and was not disappointed. It's good schlocky fun I've bought a copy as I like "good schlocky fun". I loved 'Clickers' so sounds right up my street.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 22:50 |
|
Clickers has been on the list for a minute and I liked it a lot more than I was expecting. Now I need to track down a copy of Clickers vs. Zombies. Whats the endorsed sequel by other authors called? Clickers, The Next Wave, Dagon Rising, and Clickers vs Zombies are the only ones on the goodreads page for the series. Haunted Forest Tour sounds sick too. Love me some stories that just start with an insane event everyone goes "Yeah... okay." in response to.
|
# ? Feb 11, 2023 23:59 |
|
UwUnabomber posted:Clickers has been on the list for a minute and I liked it a lot more than I was expecting. Now I need to track down a copy of Clickers vs. Zombies. Whats the endorsed sequel by other authors called? Clickers, The Next Wave, Dagon Rising, and Clickers vs Zombies are the only ones on the goodreads page for the series. Clickers Never Die. There’s also Clickers Forever but I think thats a short story collection that strays into Gonzales’ other books too. Haven’t read it yet
|
# ? Feb 12, 2023 00:05 |
|
Stumbles into thread hello I read something really interesting and good and it involves. Let's see. Other worlds, location horror, supernatural, time travel, rotating POV, thrillers, forest horror, 'Not Twitch dot Com' Lady Gamer Streamers, a indie video game that can be played only once?!, epistolary in that there's tasteful occasional outside viewpoints such as book excerpts blog posts a fake reddit site and such, and more. It even includes some sort of supplementary fiction on the authors site that you need a password for. Not quite arg, I suppose, but the book was interesting enough that yeah, I looked into it. You can find the pass word at the end of the novel. Don't know if that's a spoiler since it's in the TOC. You can find it, currently, on the front page of the author's website. https://briardark.com/ [You could also buy the website here, she has a list of locations selling them] Anyways, the summary. Briardark - S. A. Harian Briardark #1 of #??? quote:For Dr. Siena Dupont and her ambitious team, the Alpenglow glacier expedition is a career-defining opportunity. But thirty miles into the desolate Deadswitch Wilderness, they discover a missing hiker dangling from a tree, and their satellite phone fails to call out. I liked the rotating pov and how the 'hero protagonist' not involved on the hike is a bit subverted. He isn't a random shmuck that suddenly has the hacker private investigator skills to do a entire investigation. Hell, he even gives up at some point for very logical, realistic reasons and only gets pulled back in because of a coworker needing a distraction from her personal life. I thought the forest horror was very well played out, the build up to it subtle but not tedious, and when poo poo goes down hill it's straight off a cliff. The author does juggle little details well, it doesn't feel like mentioned Checkhovs gun in one chapter, and firing it in the very next. There's subtly, which I appreciate. The part about the monster [so to speak] being a mysterious cult woman with, yawn, spooky deer horns does feel played out at this point. But I haven't seen too much of that in the book, so maybe I should hold off judgement. It does give me slightly Silent Hill 1 vibes in that it's maybe a small town cult thing going on? Not entirely sure. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is the first book in a series. I don't know if it's a duology, or trilogy. Bonus hey there's some sapphic characters though it's not at the forefront, per se. Some medium spoilers? One woman character had romantic tension with another woman character. However it wasn't able to go anywhere as one woman vanished in the same mysterious location as the current hike. Whether she is truly dead or not remains [ha!] to be seen. I'm going to trust the author to give us decent bisexual/lesbian characters as she does thank her life partner of 15 years for support in the acknowledgements 👩❤️💋👩 Honestly I can't wait for the sequel.
|
# ? Feb 12, 2023 20:56 |
|
About a quarter of the way through Clickers 3 now and there's been quite a few instances of atheists praying to God in confrontations with the Clickers. The narration even talks about it in a couple of them. Combined with the anti-religious themes in 2 with the president I dunno what to make of it. Loving the constant escalation. Clicker siege weapons. The Men in Black style agents hunting down survivors of Clicker incidents.
|
# ? Feb 13, 2023 22:37 |
|
Double posting because I might've hit my Clickers limit. Clickers vs Zombies feels like it's lost in itself. The POV and location of the story jump around too much for you to get enough of a feel for any of the narrators or settings. And Clickers Forever is crazy expensive.
|
# ? Feb 16, 2023 00:22 |
|
|
# ? Jun 13, 2024 06:43 |
Bad Hand Books has a new Laird Barron novella up for preorder, The Wind Began to Howl. It's the next Coleridge story. Also, for all preorders through 3/15, 100% of the proceeds go to help Laird.
|
|
# ? Feb 18, 2023 21:33 |