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Solitair
Feb 18, 2014

TODAY'S GONNA BE A GOOD MOTHERFUCKIN' DAY!!!

gey muckle mowser posted:

what (if any) Stephen King novels from the past 10-15 years are worth reading? Last of his I read was Under the Dome.

I really liked 11/22/63, but that's not horror.

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gey muckle mowser
Aug 5, 2003

Do you know anything about...
witches?



Buglord
Thanks for the recommendations, hopefully my library will have one of those two this weekend!

Len
Jan 21, 2008

Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!


How is Salem's Lot?

Fire Safety Doug
Sep 3, 2006

99 % caffeine free is 99 % not my kinda thing

Len posted:

How is Salem's Lot?

One of King’s best IMHO. All of his positives (setting, characters, readability) without the negatives (bloated length, shaky plotting, silly premise).

Anomalous Blowout
Feb 13, 2006

rock
ice
storm
abyss



It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars.

*
I haven’t read it in a while but I have real fond memories of that one and have read it more than once, which means it’s a top tier King for me.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back

Len posted:

How is Salem's Lot?

My favorite King, but not his best. It was just one of the first books I read at a way too young of a age, and I really loved the small town has its secrets vibe of it. It is the one book I wish King would have written a true prequel to (yes I read the short stories related to Lot, but I’m talking about a Hubie’s era in the Lot).

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
Started Wounds last night. Atlas of Hell was definitely trying to do something different than in NALM, but I loved it, and I anticipate re-reading it many times. I'm gonna be so sad when I finish all of his published work.

chernobyl kinsman
Mar 18, 2007

a friend of the friendly atom

Soiled Meat
i like that a guy turned into a tree

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

i like that a guy turned into a tree

you should read the Genesys trilogy by Brian Stableford

hallelujah
Jan 26, 2020

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
dad update, he has only had the emotional energy to finish the first story of lake monsters so far, he rang me up and recited the entire story to me over the phone from memory so it obviously struck a chord :3:

ss and the good husband are going to blow his mind. he also loves vampires and child neglect stories (tragic past) so sunbleached should be right up his alley

this thread does good work

hallelujah fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 2, 2020

hallelujah
Jan 26, 2020

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
a huge part of the horror genre's benefit to society is letting traumatised people think "oh well, at least that didn't happen to me"

Black Griffon
Mar 12, 2005

Now, in the quantum moment before the closure, when all become one. One moment left. One point of space and time.

I know who you are. You are destiny.


One of my favorite quotes, by Wes Craven, is "Horror films don't create fear. They release it."

chernobyl kinsman
Mar 18, 2007

a friend of the friendly atom

Soiled Meat

hallelujah posted:

dad update, he has only had the emotional energy to finish the first story of lake monsters so far, he rang me up and recited the entire story to me over the phone from memory so it obviously struck a chord :3:

ss and the good husband are going to blow his mind. he also loves vampires and child neglect stories (tragic past) so sunbleached should be right up his alley

this thread does good work

hell yeah

Antivehicular
Dec 30, 2011


I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

hallelujah posted:

he also loves vampires and child neglect stories (tragic past) so sunbleached should be right up his alley

This is immaculate story-reader synergy and I hope it pays off

Honestly, this makes me want to recommend NALM to my dad, except his horror taste runs to the schlocky, so I think most of it wouldn't land. Maybe it just makes me wish I had a dad with better taste?

Chas McGill
Oct 29, 2010

loves Fat Philippe
Wounds should satisfy the schlock.

At least, that's why I like it better than NALM

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord
I just thought back on The Monsters Of Heaven and The Good Husband and felt a very profound sadness and despair

Haha thanks Nathan :(

Tiny Timbs
Sep 6, 2008

Antivehicular posted:

This is immaculate story-reader synergy and I hope it pays off

Honestly, this makes me want to recommend NALM to my dad, except his horror taste runs to the schlocky, so I think most of it wouldn't land. Maybe it just makes me wish I had a dad with better taste?

tell him to read that book about the drug mule who fights worms in an apartment building instead

unpacked robinhood
Feb 18, 2013

by Fluffdaddy
I'm waiting on Maledictions which is supposed to be horror set in the WH40k universe(es ?) which I'm not familiar with.
Reviews are mixed but it was cheap so vOv.

Fallom posted:

tell him to read that book about the drug mule who fights worms in an apartment building instead

I'm curious

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

unpacked robinhood posted:

I'm waiting on Maledictions which is supposed to be horror set in the WH40k universe(es ?) which I'm not familiar with.
Reviews are mixed but it was cheap so vOv.


I'm curious

The Shaft by David Schow. It's fun, and it loving loves going on and on about cocaine.

EDIT: this is the cover

a foolish pianist fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Feb 3, 2020

Pistol_Pete
Sep 15, 2007

Oven Wrangler

a foolish pianist posted:

The Shaft by David Schow. It's fun, and it loving loves going on and on about cocaine.

EDIT: this is the cover


The Shaft is great: the characters all think that they're in a gripping, sleazy crime thriller and don't realise that it's actually a horror story until far too late. Beautifully written, too.

Speaking of beautifully written, I'm on T.E.D. Klein's The Ceremonies at the moment. You can tell the dude spent years writing this because it's so perfectly polished. Trouble is, I've come to really like the four main characters in the book (Ok, not the college-lecturer protagonist so much, 'cos he's a bit of an rear end in a top hat tbh) and I'm getting to the point of the book where bad stuff is going to start happening to them, rather than the walk-on characters. I kind of want to sneak a look at the end, to see who gets to survive but then that would spoil the book.

unpacked robinhood
Feb 18, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

a foolish pianist posted:

The Shaft by David Schow. It's fun, and it loving loves going on and on about cocaine.

Thanks, I love it.

Here's a paragraph:

book posted:

Splash! Jonathan had sunk back into fugue and was jolted to reality by the truck's obliteration of a genuinely awesome puddle of ice.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back

Pistol_Pete posted:

Speaking of beautifully written, I'm on T.E.D. Klein's The Ceremonies at the moment. You can tell the dude spent years writing this because it's so perfectly polished. Trouble is, I've come to really like the four main characters in the book (Ok, not the college-lecturer protagonist so much, 'cos he's a bit of an rear end in a top hat tbh) and I'm getting to the point of the book where bad stuff is going to start happening to them, rather than the walk-on characters. I kind of want to sneak a look at the end, to see who gets to survive but then that would spoil the book.

I read this book back in the late 80's, and recently as last year. I agree about the four main characters. Each are extremely likable in their own way, and you hope for the best for all of them. Unfortunately I felt the ending was really rushed and sort of anti-climactic (that said I will never forget the last line of the book). I remember hearing that Klein suffered from extreme writer's block, and it took him a long time to write The Ceremonies. While this really benefited most of the book, I always felt he got fed up with it taking so long and forced the last 3rd of the book. Still a really good book, and shame we didn't get more from Klein.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Tangentially related to the Klein talk - where would you folks recommend starting with Ramsey Campbell?

Pistol_Pete
Sep 15, 2007

Oven Wrangler

anilEhilated posted:

Tangentially related to the Klein talk - where would you folks recommend starting with Ramsey Campbell?

He's written a lot and his short stories are generally better than his novels. A collection like Cold Print or Alone With the Horrors is a good place to start. Ramsey's short stories are often about unspeakable things slithering around in the shadows of English post-industrial urban landscapes, so if you like that sort of thing, either of those collections should be good. Alone With the Horrors also comes illustrated with some, ahem, terrifying... proto-photoshopped images based on the stories.






The unspeakable horror!

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Now I know I need to read that story.

Antivehicular
Dec 30, 2011


I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give


Big Goosebumps energy

hallelujah
Jan 26, 2020

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
horror doesn't create fear... it releases it

alf_pogs
Feb 15, 2012


anilEhilated posted:

Tangentially related to the Klein talk - where would you folks recommend starting with Ramsey Campbell?

the first novel of his I read was Ancient Images and it hooked in, completely. gets a bit repetitive but I loved it. Midnight Sun is regarded as one of his best, and i like it a lot but dont actually find it that scary. i also really liked The Nameless

also I've got a collection of his SEXY horror stories and there are some all time great photoshop images in it. I will post some when i get access to the comp

fez_machine
Nov 27, 2004

anilEhilated posted:

Tangentially related to the Klein talk - where would you folks recommend starting with Ramsey Campbell?

I love Midnight Sun but it's more a mood piece than anything else.

At the very least read his autobiographical introduction to The Face that Must Die, because it's one of the best pieces of autobiographical horror that exits. Basically, it recounts his very messed up family life and upbringing and his struggles to care for his schizophrenic mother.

Ariza
Feb 8, 2006
What other books or authors would y'all recommend that are similar to Adam Cesare? I think I've finished off his ouevre now and I like the shorter, simpler 80s horror movie aesthetic for listening to/reading at night time when I don't really want dense prose or trying to find layers to a story.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

Ariza posted:

What other books or authors would y'all recommend that are similar to Adam Cesare? I think I've finished off his ouevre now and I like the shorter, simpler 80s horror movie aesthetic for listening to/reading at night time when I don't really want dense prose or trying to find layers to a story.

Matt Serafini, Aaron Dries, and Patrick Lacey all tendcto write in that sort of style.

Pistol_Pete
Sep 15, 2007

Oven Wrangler

fez_machine posted:

I love Midnight Sun but it's more a mood piece than anything else.

At the very least read his autobiographical introduction to The Face that Must Die, because it's one of the best pieces of autobiographical horror that exits. Basically, it recounts his very messed up family life and upbringing and his struggles to care for his schizophrenic mother.

Given the terrible sense of loneliness and isolation that permeate so much of his work, it's kinda nice to learn that Campbell himself has children and a long, happy marriage :3:

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
Spoiler-free thoughts on Nick Cutter?

Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

I liked The Troop, but didn't care much for The Deep, haven't read anything else. A lot of body horror in both of those, not sure if that's the same across everything he's written.

On a balance I would say he's firmly "okay" but not a heavy hitter.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back
I read The Troop by Cutter. I thought it had a strong start, but i didn’t like it once if I finished. Not bad, just pretty average. I remember finding the whole thing just ridiculous. So I still haven’t read anything else from him after that disappointment (Little Heaven does interest me some).

That said I might be in the minority (I also find Paul Tremblay overrated). I would say go read The Ruins by Scott Smith instead.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

nate fisher posted:

I would say go read The Ruins by Scott Smith instead.
That's an amazing book in a sense, I distinctly remember cheering whenever a character died.
Not sure if that makes for good horror, though.

e: You could say I was, er, rooting for the plants.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:07 on Feb 8, 2020

remigious
May 13, 2009

Destruction comes inevitably :rip:

Hell Gem

nate fisher posted:

I read The Troop by Cutter. I thought it had a strong start, but i didn’t like it once if I finished. Not bad, just pretty average. I remember finding the whole thing just ridiculous. So I still haven’t read anything else from him after that disappointment (Little Heaven does interest me some).

That said I might be in the minority (I also find Paul Tremblay overrated). I would say go read The Ruins by Scott Smith instead.

The Ruins is really loving good and grody. In other news, I just finished North American Lake Monsters. It was very masculine, but also beautiful without the language being overbearing or pretentious. And I loved that the stories leave so much to your imagination. I’m a little bit wary of how the tv adaptation is going to turn out, considering how much of what makes the stories such a gut punch takes place inside the characters heads, but we shall see.

the_enduser
May 1, 2006

They say the user lives outside the net.



Just finished The Deep last week and I'd have to agree with most of the opinions. It's OK, but I'm more of a Sci-fi Horror fan than body horror. Not a huge fan of domestic horror either. The setting was neat but I felt it was under utilized and focused a bit too much on psychological unreliability.

I wanted more Abyss/Leviathan/DeepstarSix vibes.

I did try The Troop audiobook as well awhile back but returned it about halfway through, it felt gross just to gross you out which I guess worked lmao idk.


I am looking for some good mystery horror now. I did Agents of Dreamland and it was ok, I have Black Helicopters as well but kinda looking for something else. I'm caught up with NALM and Wounds etc.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



I thought The Troop was bland as hell. If you don't like gross-out horror (or just don't really get affected by it, as was the case for me), there's no book there. It's a bland, tired story conceit that isn't delivered with any great degree of skill. Even by gross-out horror I suspect it was mediocre at best but I don't read a lot of it.

I liked The Deep better but I'd agree wit a lot of what's already been said--it kind of squanders a cool setting and some good atmosphere building with kind of boring body horror and rote "scientists going crazy, who knows what's true" tropes.

I haven't read Little Heaven so maybe it's better, but at least my experience with Nick Cutter is that he's kind of stuck in a mode that either works for you or it doesn't. I like a little more story and a little less overt attempts at scaring the reader, but if it's your cup of tea I could see The Deep working pretty well. I know of people who really loved The Troop but I just don't get the appeal. I feel like there's much better body horror kind of stuff out there, if that's your jam (and if it is, dear god go read The Cipher, it's not what I'd call "body horror" in the traditional sense but I think it accomplishes what a lot of body horror tries to do much more effectively).

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Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

I feel like The Troop worked, insofar as it worked at all, because the actual effects of the body horror were relatively subdued. You're you're agonizingly hungry at all times to the point where you'll eat anything as opposed to having your body actually melt or become an alien or whatever.

While I'll stand by it overall, I agree it kind of fell apart when the worms started speaking to (and maybe mind controlling? it's been a few years) the infected characters. "This horribly virulent disease makes you starve to death because you literally can't eat fast enough to live, and you're going to infect other people as you desperately search for more food" is way creepier than "lol psychic worms want to torment you and make you infect other people."

I actually disliked The Ruins and The Deep for the same reason: they both seemed like excuses to torture unpleasant people to death. I don't mind books full of unlikeable characters, but those two seemed to be full of cardboard cutouts designed to die for your reading pleasure.

Also seconding The Cipher, that book felt even more gritty and dirty and full of awful characters, but in an earned way, for lack of a better description.

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