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So why isn't Books of Blood by Clive Barker in the OP? There are some All Ages Horror classics that I consider essential, like Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury and The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
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May 15, 2018 17:33
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A human heart posted:What's up with the horror genre producing less cool books than even like fantasy or whatever. It's kinda the bastard child of genre fiction. It also tends to be all-around better when a horror story is a short story or novella. Since there is barely a market for short stories and novellas, the genre is pretty limited. Also, for the past decade, publishers tend to only want to push out what's popular, so most of the things you'd find in a book store are still Vampires, Zombies or H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulu rip-offs. Since 2014, the horror film genre's been getting energized with good unique films and new directors, and publishers are now willing to take a few more risks. They still tend to push and market a lot of them as Thrillers, though. Horror's always been the bastard genre. Every decade there's a new cultural attack on it, like the Satanic Panic or some poo poo. Fantasy and Sci-Fi don't nearly get as much flack or backlash, and also tend to offer mind-numbing escapism, and horror (even the bad stuff) attempts to shock or scare more than distract with make-em-ups.
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May 15, 2018 17:45
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MockingQuantum posted:Because I've never read it, and the two people who reached out to me over PMs have mentioned in the other thread they think Barker is bad. I can add it though, since it's pretty much considered a classic at this point. Where would it fit best in the current recommendation categories (that I kind of hate but can't think of a better way to do them yet)? Well, you should read Books of Blood. It's good and mostly devoid of the aspects of Barker that people dislike. It's a pretty good gateway into horror because of how many aspects of fear it explores, and the variety of stories. I'd say it fits in with Weird Fiction, but I tend to keep horror short story collections as their own thing, since most authors (worth reading) bounce around the sub-genres. You could very easily make a section for Witch fiction like Hex and Possession fiction like The Exorcist and A Head Full of Ghost, since the latter is pretty popular right now. edit: I'll PM you some poo poo.
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May 15, 2018 17:52
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Joe Hill is pretty bad, but half of the stories in 20th Century Ghosts are good, and I like Locke & Key enough. It was certainly the best horror-ish comic at the time, when the only other horror comic was The Walking Dead, which has always been dumb. edit: Anyone else like Joe R. Lansdale? I liked quite a few stories in his short story collection Writer of the Purple Rage. He's the only modern southern horror author I know. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 18:12 on May 15, 2018 |
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May 15, 2018 18:10
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gey muckle mowser posted:Yeah that's fair, Horns was alright but I didn't think much of his other novels that I've read. I do think most of the stories in 20th Century Ghosts are great though. His story Best New Horror is great. I used to do short story readings for my friends and that one got a lot of visceral reactions.
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May 15, 2018 18:13
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Fire Safety Doug posted:I love the guy – would have asked him to be added to the OP but it's kinda hard to file him under a heading besides "Joe R. Lansdale", because he's massively prolific and has written pretty much everything. What's another good Lansdale book or collection (preferably) to read? Hap & Leonard novels are already on my radar.
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May 15, 2018 19:30
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I have a problem where the concepts I find most horrifying are also the concepts I most strongly oppose logically. Care to elaborate or provide some examples?
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May 15, 2018 19:37
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anilEhilated posted:I'm reading a collection of stories called The Devil and the Deep and so far it's utter poo poo. Any good water monster horror out there? Look and see if The Town That Forgot How To Breathe is what you're after.
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May 15, 2018 20:00
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quote:High-concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise. It can be contrasted with low-concept, which is more concerned with character development and other subtleties that are not as easily summarized. The origin of the term is disputed. It's a confusing term.
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May 26, 2018 02:40
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I won't say Jeff Strand is a good writer, but I will say he's one of the funniest writers in the horror genre, and his books are always fun and enjoyable. You should read Mandibles, since it's a giant monster bug book with a huge cast of characters that manages to be less predictable than the premise deserves. You may also like his book The Haunted Forest Tour, which he did with James A. Moore, but I don't recommend reading any other Moore book. afoolishpianist recommended I read Windeye by Brian Evenson, saying he's one of their favorite authors in general. I haven't read it yet, but afoolishpianist has pretty good tastes when it comes to horror. Are you looking for structurally unique books or just a premise unique to you? Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow is a werewolf story, but it's a poem. One Bloody Thing After Another by Joey Comeau should be unique enough for you The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue is a different take on ghost stories. Maybe see if any of Victor LaValle's novels interest you The problem is that many horror novels that manage to do something unique with their premise tend to just kinda be good, but never transcends to being great, usually because of the writing, or shallow characters or trying to rely on a twist ending so the reader feels like they've been "got" or something. Or you get an interesting monster like in The Troop, but it's still Kids vs. Monster. I'm Thinking of Ending Things is very nightmarish and is still the last horror story I really enjoyed. Also, I'm just really proud that no one's recommended House of Leaves for the billionth loving time in TBB
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Jun 4, 2018 21:49
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bloom posted:whatever you call the kind of text format fuckery that goes on in House of Leaves. Typographical Variations or "visual writing"
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Jun 5, 2018 18:14
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MockingQuantum posted:I think someone in the last thread recommended this to me, and I'm interested in it for the weird text format fuckery, but how horror-y is it? And does anyone know if it's remotely readable as intended on Kindle? Maybe with a Kindle Fire. Unless they did something to the formatting to keep pages intact instead of shifting with scrolling and stuff (which they do for many poetry collections), you'll probably have a mess to read. It looks to be very affordable if purchased used, and it's popular enough to be in most library systems.
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Jun 5, 2018 18:22
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NPR is asking for help in compiling the 100 best horror novels. Here's where you can contribute. I've already put in my nominations.
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Jun 12, 2018 17:45
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MockingQuantum posted:I just finished I'm Thinking of Ending Things and it was very good, pretty creepy book, not at all what I expected. I don't want to say much more about it than that as it's a book that's probably best experienced blind. Thanks Franchescanado for suggesting it in whatever thread that was. It's definitely on my shortlist of good recent horror novels. Glad you enjoyed it!
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Jun 14, 2018 12:45
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chernobyl kinsman posted:It just sucks. It's stupid and it sucks. I'm angry that I wasted hours of my life and like $60 reading four volumes of it - four volumes of it - instead of doing anything else This is my problem with MZD. Past the typographical gimmicks, the stories and storytelling doesn't hold up for me. The Fifty Year Sword is a 100+ page short story that should be maybe 10 pages. It manages a creepy tone throughout, and the setting (party during a snow storm) and storytelling device (strange wanderer from outside comes to the party to tell ghost stories) is fun, but the actual gimmick--color coordinated font to denote which character is speaking--doesn't actually make sense or work. The idea is that 5 separate characters are telling the story simultaneously and we're getting snippets of each one's story...except they all have the same voice, and none of the information contradicts each other or adds different layers of perspective. It sounds like one person telling the story, but the font just keeps changing colors. The book's packaging is very pretty, but it's also expensive. No one should sell a book that can be read in 30 minutes for $30. It was originally performed live with five actors, each assigned a character's color. I will concede that that could be pretty cool, as the constant shifting voices would be aurally psychedelic, but I haven't seen it, so I may be wrong and that could be lame too. It's why I'm frustrated that House of Leaves gets recommended so often on here (and Reddit, any horror book recommendation list, Best Books of the Era lists, etc.). It's typographical gimmicks seem to be his most approachable, it's a unique haunted house story (though I don't find non-euclidean geometry that scary), but I think that the effort put forth to read this would be time well spent on a better difficult book. It's not that I'm against ergodic literature, or typographical literature, but I think MZD's recommended so often because he's the most well-known, not that he's any good. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 13:17 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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Jun 27, 2018 12:54
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I really like Paul Tremblay's detective books, The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. The main character is a detective with severe narcolepsy, complete with false memories, hallucinations, sleepwalking, falling asleep everywhere, etc. It's dark and kinda disturbing, but not really horror.
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Jul 10, 2018 16:47
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I remember being conflicted about the ending to "The Boy Who Drew Monsters" by Keith Donohue. I won't go into detail, since it spoils the bulk of the book's mystery, but I remember being frustrated despite it being the only way the book could have ended. I guess maybe because it was because it was predictable, but it really spoiled the overall experience for me. A few endings that I think stick the landing: Something Wicked This Way Comes Firestarter The Thief of Always The Troop The Haunting of Hill House Pet Sematary I'm Thinking of Ending Things Frankenstein
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Aug 1, 2018 15:59
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Pththya-lyi posted:Does anybody know any good public domain short stories with women characters? I'm working on a personal project and it's hard for me to Google up this stuff. I've already got E.F. Benson's "How Fear Departed from the Long Gallery" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" on my list, but the more stuff I can find the better. Thank you in advance! The Turn of the Screw The Great God Pan
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Aug 14, 2018 21:43
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NPR finally got off their asses and posted the results for the 100 Best Horror Stories, as voted by readers and "a panel of experts" I'm not impressed.
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Aug 20, 2018 21:05
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MockingQuantum posted:Yeah seems like they took a pretty broad view of horror. It's more of a horror/dark fantasy/gothic/vampire/thriller/halloween list. Even with that in mind there's some pretty bland choices in there. It was a reader write-in, so people could put any answer they wanted.
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Aug 20, 2018 21:24
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I'm familiar with Grady Hendrix. Ruthanna Emrys is currently reading through all of Lovecraft's stories to examine the racism and writing about it on tor.com. It would be a neat idea if she weren't Caucasian, in my opinion.* Her stance, from what I've read is, "Yeah, Lovecraft is super racist, but we should still read his racist writings because maybe someday someone will be able to make it not-racist**", and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But I've started the argument that Lovecraft is a waste of time because he's racist and a bad writer, so just read someone good instead, so I really don't feel like pursuing that in here. *I'd rather it be done by a PoC and not a Caucasian person who is clearly a big fan of the racist **she does cite books like Lovecraft Country and authors like Victor LaValle
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Aug 21, 2018 15:51
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Are there any good horror books/stories with about people forced into a survival-of-the-fittest/kill-or-be-killed anarchy game? Obvious choices are Battle Royale, Lord of the Flies, and films like The Belko Experiment. MockingQuantum posted:What's the thread opinion on Rosemary's Baby? I just finished it a few days ago and I was pretty unimpressed. I haven't seen the movie I've only seen the film, but I consider it essential watching for horror fans, despite Polanski being a rapist.
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Aug 29, 2018 18:13
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I've read The Troop, and that has some of what I'm looking for, but only with like one character.
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Aug 29, 2018 22:43
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Conrad_Birdie posted:I think it was someone in this thread that recommended I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Couldn't put it down, finished it in a couple hours, it was a wave of relief after being supremely disappointed over a book I had been looking forward to reading turned out to be a pretentious slog. But I had no expectations going in, and it knocked me off my feet. One of the best novels I've read this year. That was probably me. Still one of my favorite books I've read this year.
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Aug 30, 2018 18:38
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chernobyl kinsman posted:does i'm thinking of ending things have any supernatural elements or is it all psychological I don't want to answer this, because it's part of the "mystery" Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Aug 30, 2018 |
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Aug 30, 2018 20:12
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To clarify, it is kept vague throughout the book whether it's supernatural or psychological, so to reveal it kinda spoils an aspect I really enjoyed.
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Aug 30, 2018 21:26
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I started reading Dracula. I've never read it before. I've been putting it off for about a decade now. S'okay so far.
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Oct 9, 2018 15:58
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Ya'll should start using AbeBooks. You aren't going to get it in 2 days, but it's almost always cheaper than Amazon.
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Oct 15, 2018 13:12
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GrandpaPants posted:I'm reading North American Lake Monsters, and drat it does a good job of setting up these haunted people with their haunted lives, even if the stories themselves aren't necessarily horror in the traditional sense. The fact that most/all the stories tend to end on a hanging thread just sorta makes it a bit more real, since, well, these lives aren't gonna be wrapped up all nice like. Yeah, that's what drew me to it as well. Have you ever read any Flannery O'Connor? Most of her stories are Southern Gothic instead of outright horror, but a lot of them have a spooky vibe, and she is more skilled in these areas than Ballingrud.
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Oct 26, 2018 22:48
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Loutre posted:The best I can describe it is a mystery that gets less and less reasonably-explained as time goes on. My horror experience is limited to Stephen King so that may be a hugely broad area of books though. I haven't read 14, so keep that in mind with these recommendations: Not explicitly horror, but V. by Thomas Pynchon has quite a few horror moments. The central mystery is "Who or what is 'V.'?", the name of a person(?)--possibly a woman--who appears in the diary of a character's deceased father, and that mystery grows larger as the plot continues. If you haven't read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, the central mystery is whether anything supernatural is occurring. A few other books that come to mind that loosely fit this theme: I'm Thinking of Ending Things The Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Exorcist
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Dec 5, 2018 20:04
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I’ve been reading I Am Legend for the first time and I kinda think it sucks. There’s some neat ideas in the concept, but it’s just bland writing about a desperate horny guy. Edit: are any of the other stories in the standard I Am Legend collection any good? Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Oct 24, 2019 |
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Oct 24, 2019 01:43
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What are some literary sources that inspired or relate to The Lighthouse? It was hyped up with comparisons to Lovecraft, which is mostly a misguided comparison. I can see more inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson and some Algernon Blackwood, and it's hard not to think about Moby-Dick at points. Anyone else see any parallels to stories or authors? Eggers directly mentioned having studied the works of Sarah Orne Jewett, a Maine-based poet and novelist, and mentioned 'Tales of New England' and 'Strangers and Wayfarers', but those are mostly inspired by interviews and people she met. Not really horror or suspense. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Nov 6, 2019 |
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Nov 6, 2019 14:47
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chernobyl kinsman posted:no dude its because of the tentacles And the whole person guarding an entry point for mind-breaking knowledge / looking into the light for "true ecstasy". That aspect is similar to Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann and Pickman's Model, although The Lighthouse is much more ambiguous.
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Nov 7, 2019 13:33
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I've only read Dean Koontz's book Velocity. The premise and first few chapters that follow it are actually decent.quote:Bill Wiles is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. It's one of the few books I've read where every chapter gets progressively worse and the story gets dumber. The bad guy is an artist who does gimmicky poo poo, like tying a bunch of balloons to a bridge to make it seem like it's floating, poo poo like that. The most notable thing I can remember is that in almost every chapter, the main character buys a "Peanut Bar" (like a Pay Day) and a Hershey's chocolate bar, and eats them one at a time, or sometimes stacks them to eat them. I kept wondering why he wouldn't just buy a Mr. Goodbar. Anyway, it sucked. I've been told his book Hideaway is the only good thing he wrote, but I haven't been curious enough to find a copy.
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Nov 14, 2019 20:25
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Skyscraper posted:OK, I've got to read this now. I knew at least one person would be enticed, so I give you fair warning: You will regret that decision.
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Nov 14, 2019 20:49
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I need to re-read North American Lake Monsters; it's been enough time. Wild Acre, Sunbleached and The Monsters of Heaven have stayed with me the most. Especially The Monsters of Heaven. Some of the imagery is seared into my memory.
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Dec 27, 2019 14:44
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Black Griffon posted:I don't have a paperwhite, but I have a 10gen kindle bought this Christmas so I assume it's still modern. Still, I'd like to make sure before I take the chance on digital instead of print, so if anyone else knows, shout out. Do you live near a library? If so, just put a hold on their website and go pick it up for free sometime. COOL CORN posted:Wow. I can't remember reading something during the daylight hours that made me shiver with discomfort before, but that was expertly written. The way Ballingrud tangles together social status, sexuality, loss, grief, and animal-like violence is just... wow. Yeah, it rules. The desperation is palpable. I need to pick up Ballingrud's new collection sometime. Still haven't read it.
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Dec 27, 2019 15:33
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SniperWoreConverse posted:Any good vampire stuff I can get for free? Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu predates Dracula by 75 years, and is also better. The Vampyre by John William Polidori is a short story that predates Dracula by 78 years. Both are readily available for free. Carmilla has quite a few free audiobooks across all the big platforms.
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Sep 2, 2021 14:12
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Xiahou Dun posted:Huh. Care to give your reasoning? I've never heard that preference before. I just don't enjoy reading Dracula. I appreciate it's place in Victorian literature, and it's lasting effect on pop culture, and it's exploration of sexuality and fears of the Victorian era, and how well it balances the voices of the different characters through the prose, but I find it dull to actually read. For an epistolary Gothic novel, I much prefer Frankenstein, which I love. Carmilla is much more straight-forward, in that it's not epistolary, and the narrative voice is more personable to read. It also deals with similar themes of sexuality, especially lesbianism, that is inherent to the vampire story. And it's like 100 pages, depending on the edition, compared to Dracula's length (my copy is like 450 pages, I think?). It's a fun book! Bram Stoker certainly thought so, since it directly inspired Dracula. edit: To clarify, I like Victorian literature in general, but I'm far from an expert Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Sep 2, 2021 |
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Sep 2, 2021 15:02
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I'm currently reading HoL after years raging against it as vapid fiction that leans heavily on a gimmick to seem literary. My friends have been doing group reads all throughout the pandemic, and we chose it cuz everyone thought it would be a fun change of pace. I'm 200ish pages into it (kind of hard to know exactly, since I've read through appendices and stuff) and I really like it. The Navidson Report is the better part, but I like the Johnny Truant sections, and got pretty emotionally bummed out reading through the letters from his mom. Anyway it's good and I'm having fun reading it. I haven't read any of Danielewski's other novels, but I did read The Fifty Year Sword, which is just a short story that looks novel length because of all the illustrations. It can be read in about an hour. It's a decent little "ghost" story, in that it's tonally like a spooky story told around a campfire. I recommend grabbing a copy from the library if you'd like to see the art with it, but it was originally intended to be performed live.
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Sep 7, 2021 14:49
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