- ScreenDoorThrillr
- Jun 23, 2023
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I like it when authors with odd phobias are able to convey their fear in their writing. Interesting to see something innocuous described in monstrous terms. Any good examples I could look at?
Adam Nevill and stick-thin arms
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Nov 10, 2023 00:57
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May 9, 2024 05:38
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- ScreenDoorThrillr
- Jun 23, 2023
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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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- ScreenDoorThrillr
- Jun 23, 2023
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fSo I've been reading stuff. Hey speaking of euro dystopia fuckery!
The Bone Mother by David Demchuk [white gay american man. Maybe some european ancestry? idk I'm not scouring the internet for #validness or whatever]
This wasn't so much a anthology of short stories, as it is a rotating one off cast of characters sharing a single experience of their lives. I thought it was an interesting set up and I liked the variety. Most of it was about historical occurrence, but there's some modern day setting. I suppose it falls under European Dystopia / Disco Elysium levels of apathetic misery.
Major content warning for explicit incest, child sexual abuse, war crimes including rape, genocide, antisemitism, anti Romani sentiment, xenophobia, and so forth], sexual abuse, rape, child abuse, domestic abuse. This is an incomplete list but that's most of the explicit ones. I mean, it's a novel about secret police and war crimes. You can guess what that involves. It's not terrble explicit or romanticized but it leaves no question what happens.
Note for trans women reading this. Skip the story about 'Green Girls'. It's basically the transmisogynistic trope of amab cis(?) boys being forced to dress / grow up as girls because childbirth rates are low and there are few female children or something.
The Dreamer's Canvas by Caleb R. Marsh [white american man]
This is a debut novel from someone with, for once, an interesting bio. Check it out.
Kinda goofy kinda silly but I enjoy it. It's certainly different than the usual bland 'I'm person with a college qualification / hobby / etc and live with my X/Y/Z. Author is represented by Publisher.
Anyways, about the book. This is Cosmic Horror and not borrowed Lovecraft maybe with the serial numbers filed off. Not that there's anything bad about that, but I can appreciate a author trying to create an original myth. See also Hailey Piper, John Langan. It wasn't as original as Piper's lore from 'No Gods For Drowning'. Honestly it felt slightly stale? Like ok, you got the Unborn Mother that's oddly gendered even though it's a big ol mind melting blob? It felt a bit standard and I wouldnt be surprised if there was a male equivalent. Not to be all trans about it, but man, the whole gendering the genderless cosmic horror eldritch blobs feels ridiculous at this point. But I'll digress here. The action was decent and I liked the plot twist of the cult's involvement. It was pretty heartfelt. I also appreciated the attempt to include some female characters so it wasn't a total frat party.
By the way, if you want Art Horror with Eldritch Horror, check out this one. I've mentioned it before ITT but it's worth repeating.
It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino
We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson
Ok I ain't doing the stupid thing of 'the female version of male author' but I feel this is very up there and equatable to John Langan's 'The Fisherman'. Weird house, big on family ties, cosmic edritch fuckery, bad deals that gently caress over everyone, excellent prose. I'm not saying they're exact or similar copies of each other, please don't go in expecting that. But man, the creepy monster, the cast of characters being mainly women, the creepy 'is it haunted or?' house, the small town locale. I'm putting this on my forever rec list.
Also I have a little bone to pick re lgbt content, specifically lesbian and trans. Major spoilers.
Yes it's about lesbian and maybe bisexual relationships, but it's never quite fulfilled, always bashful, teenaged, in the background, past wishes and occurences. The closest we get to actual present lesbian relationship is at the very end.
I say 'maybe bisexual' because apparently bisexual is a filthy word and authors rarely if ever say it. [or maybe I read the wrong books. Sure.] Yes one teenage girl tries to have a relationship with a boy her age. Apparently she's either trying to make herself be heterosexual or bisexual but only dating men because it's safer in a small town like hers. Who knows the reason, if there is one at all. I don't think it's q slur baiting but it does feel like blueballing. Personally I was expecting some declarations of lesbianism to others but that didn't really happen. Which I understand, there's a whole lot of hosed up poo poo happening in the middle of multi-year mourning for a dead sister / friend.
Anyways.
Eye of a Little God by A. J. Steiger [white american woman]
Oh I know a lot of people wax poetic about grief as horror and I won't do that here. But man, this was great. Weird mystery, strange journal, magic, some body horror, the MC isn't a resident evil esque buff tuff guy who knows combat despite being in the Vietnam war, there's multiple women characters that are not incompetent or dress setting.
Also this isn't the usual 'sad man looking for missing woman'. I mean yes it is but I think the twist is uncommon enough for a person to go 'ah, that was kinda nice and not a stale sexist trope about resuing damsels who automatically fall in love with the hero for no drat reason beyond pussy is reward for hero man'.
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer [white american woman]
This is some great forest horror / location horror. I don't want to spoil too much not mentioned in the summary, but if you liked Briardark by S A Harian and some gruesome horror, you'd probably like this one. [Unfortunately, imo, this doesn't rank as high as, nor is too similar to Briardark. Please don't expect too much similarities.]
If you seen this elsewhere, you might've noticed the comparison to the infamous creepypasta type, true crime before there was a big true crime boom. The dyatlov pass incident . Uhhh not really. I'd say that's more of a hook rather than anything accurate to the story. The most similarities I see is yes people died in mysterious circumstances in a isolated location. That's all.
Also a one off rec. Horror Hill podcast, Season 2 Episode 7. It's All the Same Road in the End By Brian Hodge. First published in The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu [not sure which edition, sorry. Apparently 2016 version?]
It's reminiscent of White Tears in that the missing grandfather was looking to record obscure folk songs, and went missing trying to find one bizarre Swedish(?) cattle call song which, OMG!, may not have been a call to cattle but, perhaps, something darker.... However it's about white people, not Black people, or the appropriation thereof. The podcast does a decent job of narration but if you prefer the written word, it's in the Mammoth Book compilation.
Well that's all.
lmao
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Jan 20, 2024 23:47
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- ScreenDoorThrillr
- Jun 23, 2023
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Did you guys know that lovecraft was racist?
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Feb 9, 2024 22:49
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- ScreenDoorThrillr
- Jun 23, 2023
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I’m reading Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe and I’m about 150 pages in and Ligotti really kind of has a thing about sex workers in a lot of these stories, eh?
I don’t know if they’re just a sympathetic and easily victimized class of people or if it’s something else but it’s definitely there.
That goth story was weird as all hell
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Mar 9, 2024 01:21
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May 9, 2024 05:38
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- ScreenDoorThrillr
- Jun 23, 2023
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Just finished The Reddening by Adam Nevill. Felt like it was approximately 200 pages too long and while it's not the worst the way he writes women is just... Not it. I really enjoyed the scenery and his nature descriptions though. Might give some of his other books a go just for that. Put Between Two Fires on my want to read list, gonna get some sci-fi in first though.
try No One Gets Out Alive (god he can't write a title huh)
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Apr 1, 2024 04:48
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Nov 10, 2023 00:57
