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Some free horror online for you to read: https://litreactor.com/columns/the-20-best-horror-stories-available-online-for-free I've just started getting into horror of late. In another century I read Lovecraft but don't remember much of it so I should probably go back and reread them. Books I have recently read include The Fisherman, 20 Days of Turin, and We Will All Go Down Together. Really liked the first and last, and the middle was decent enough. None terribly scary though. More weird world building exercises.
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Oct 27, 2017 02:09
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Just started The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by the curiously named Laird Barron. Having just enjoyed Gemma Files and John Langan this seems an appropriate choice (made by a friend of mine really into horror) and two stories in I have to agree. I see Barron is controversial in the thread due to the sameness of his work, so next up will be China Mieville's Kraken. He also gave me a couple of other collections this round in our informal book club.
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Nov 20, 2017 16:09
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MockingQuantum posted:Imago Sequence is definitely the strongest of his work, some really excellent stories in there. Barron does tend to be samey, but that means if you like some of his stuff, you'll probably like most of it. Occultation is hit and miss but also has some really great stories. I can't remember what collection it's in, but The Men from Porlock is also really good. Cool thanks. Procession of the Black Sloth is next up so we shall see how I fall wrt this story.
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Nov 20, 2017 19:56
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anilEhilated posted:You realize Kraken isn't horror, right? Just checking. vOv It is in the pile of things my buddy recommends I read so haven't really given it much thought past that
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Nov 20, 2017 21:53
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The other two books I was given were by Arthur Machen and Jeff VanderMeer but I will fez_machine posted:Read Brian Evenson. soon
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Nov 21, 2017 07:07
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MockingQuantum posted:Imago Sequence is definitely the strongest of his work, some really excellent stories in there. Barron does tend to be samey, but that means if you like some of his stuff, you'll probably like most of it. Occultation is hit and miss but also has some really great stories. I can't remember what collection it's in, but The Men from Porlock is also really good. Just finished this short story. Will have to ponder upon it. I think I understand wtf just happened, and I think I liked it? But its unsettling. I'm pretty sure he was reliving this incident in which he really did turn this woman over, but am unsure why exactly he is so removed from the knowledge if it is a hell. Unless that is the torment I suppose.
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Nov 23, 2017 05:34
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Goons goin soft these days I'm sure these manly men will get tired quickly but so far this a decent enough read. Then again, I like Hemmingway, but he gives his characters some variation. We'll see.
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Nov 23, 2017 05:58
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hopterque posted:Barron's protagonists being generally the same doesn't bother me that much, honestly, but in general his work connects really well with me because I grew up in washington and spent a lot of time out in the wilderness in the olympics and etc, where he sets a lot of his stories. I can definitely understand why people don't like him, but he's consistently one of my favorite weird fiction authors. He just really, really nails the feel of that part of the country. Hrm. Well I guess its time to read Sometimes a Great Notion next then.
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Nov 23, 2017 16:08
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The Barron story Proboscis was a weird little one that a couple of days later has me dreaming of various insect-like humans living among us. edit: whoops, got the wrong name Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Dec 5, 2017 |
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Dec 5, 2017 15:40
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Paralax was another pretty good short story. As was Haluciginia. Coming down in favor of this Laird Barron guy, but wish his manly man hard drinkin to forget the death of the love of his life wasn't such a trope.
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Dec 11, 2017 19:45
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MockingQuantum posted:If it makes you feel any better, Swift to Chase has a manly woman hard drinkin to forget the time she almost died. It is a variation
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Dec 11, 2017 23:12
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The Imago Sequence was really great, loved it pretty much from beginning to end. Stories in particular I liked were Proboscis, The Imago Sequence, Hallucigenia, and Procession of the Black Sloth. Good stuff!
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Dec 23, 2017 07:02
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Hungry posted:The Fisherman did something to me I still can't quite put my finger on - something very good. Before I picked it up I read some reviews which really tore into it but afterward I couldn't figure out how they hadn't seen what I'd seen, but maybe that's it - in some ways it's not written like standard horror, it does things with storytelling method and narrative construction which are more common in 'high' literature but less so in horror as a genre. Agreed. That is a book that has stayed with me for longer than usual.
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Jan 21, 2018 19:35
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I will be ignoring the thread until I finish this now--just about 50 pages into Annihilation and love love LOVE it so far
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Jan 25, 2018 19:28
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Done with Annihilation and LOVED IT. As a working biologist (of a sort) I also understood the protagonist and that side of the narrative; it wasn't technical but biologically plausible for sure. Fantastic book! Into Authority now
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Jan 29, 2018 05:23
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Just finished Authority, was more really good stuff. Seems that Acceptance is a bit of a litmus test ITT, not sure for what but soon I'll know what side I'm on at least.
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Feb 6, 2018 16:22
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Ornamented Death posted:There are fans of both Brian Evenson and Paul Tremblay here, so I figured I'd pass this on. drat, only ships to the US 
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Feb 7, 2018 21:49
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Speaking of movies, Annihilation is out today right?
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Feb 15, 2018 16:03
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Ornamented Death posted:I'll toss out a recommendation for Matthew M. Bartlett. His Leeds, MA, stories are all very weird in interesting ways.
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Feb 18, 2019 05:33
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wrong how so?
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Feb 18, 2019 06:06
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Interesting. I heard from folks within the occult community in the UK decades ago that there were some English villages--deeply secretive of course--that had preserved "the old ways". Whether or not true it's fun to speculate. Will check her book out.
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Feb 18, 2019 06:11
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chernobyl kinsman posted:please do not start believing that margaret murray was right about anything because if you do then it's on my conscience for alerting you to to the existence of the book I will refuse to believe she is right in the same way I will refuse to learn to read elvish deal?
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Feb 18, 2019 07:02
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Neurosis posted:Seconded. Gateways to Abomination had this strange style with connected segments ranging between those which were fairly complete horror stories and tiny mood fiblets of a couple of pages in length and which were not connected in a linear and direct fashion with the rest of the book but which couldn't stand on their own; together, the different parts created a pleasantly discordant mood. It also had this bit in the first story which made me laugh: Just finished it. Really very well executed, a super fun read
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Feb 19, 2019 05:25
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Sweet my buddy just lent me his copy of the new WXXY/Leeds slim volume If It Bleeds by Matthew Bartlett. He got it from a publisher's fundraising program, and its a signed limited edition copy. Should take a couple of hours to inhale this.
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Apr 20, 2019 17:34
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Nice, might need a copy for myself e. just finished it, very much in the vein of Gateways to Abomination, so if you liked that you'll like this. ee. also WXXT not WXXY fat fingered that a post or two ago Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Apr 21, 2019 |
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Apr 21, 2019 02:31
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TheNamedSavior posted:Ooops, I didn't mean to hit post, please ignore. Too late, what were you posting about gentle goon>
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May 19, 2019 06:45
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chernobyl kinsman posted:horp. blorp. huoorggh well he's not wrong Hieronymus
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Oct 31, 2019 03:07
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julietthecat posted:Jon Padgett's collection The Secret of Ventriloquism. It's predictably derivative of Ligotti (Padgett runs Thomas Ligotti Online), and the last story, "Escape to Thin Mountain" is obviously a reference to Ligotti's "Ten Steps to Thin Mountain." But I thought it was really excellent. This is heresy, but I've always preferred Ligotti's philosophy and universe to the experience of reading the stories themselves, and they've sometimes felt like a slog to get through. Padgett operates in the same universe, and fleshes out the same ideas without adding anything really original, but I found his stories more enjoyable. Padgett is a former ventriloquist himself, incidentally, and the stories are loosely connected. Standouts: "Murmurs of a Voice Foreknown" and "20 Simple Steps to Ventriloquism." Just read his chapbook The Infusorium (also has a ventriloquism angle). It was alright. Not great.
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Apr 4, 2020 22:57
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Shiloh by Philip Fracassi on the other hand, I recommend. The second story, the Soda Fountain, in particular, I really enjoyed.
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Apr 5, 2020 23:02
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Secret Machine posted:Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin Kiernan is a multi book series. I only read the first book which is short but if left me wanting to read the others. They are three novelettes (Agents of Dreamland, Black Helicopters, and The Tindalos Asset), of which the first two are best IMO. The third gets that cosmic flair but seems to be somewhat incomplete to me. They aren't really connected story wise.
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Nov 17, 2020 19:19
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 08:55 |
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Secret Machine posted:Thanks! I’ve been looking to add them to the queue so that helps. It took me a while to warm to the overly vernacular voice Langan starts with but once we got to the story within the story I was pretty hooked. Er, pardon the pun. The end was satisfying too. OP this is also a cosmic horror novel you should consider IMO
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Nov 18, 2020 05:23
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