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chernobyl kinsman posted:mcdowell's the elementals Googled, bought, loaded. I’ll start it tonight 
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Feb 15, 2020 22:42
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Rolo posted:Finally got around to finishing Hill House. I liked it! Thanks for the recommendations, thread. Also I would recommend Salem’s Lot. Not for the vampires, but for the influence of Hill House on the stories about the Marsten House. That said I consider Hill House the peak of haunted house literature, so its all downhill from here.
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Feb 16, 2020 00:17
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The books channel of a discord I'm in also has someone discover Ligotti once a week so I guess that's just how it is. I haven't read any yet because I'm trying to keep my reading/to read under ten books but I'm very much gonna get there soon.
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Feb 16, 2020 06:43
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What is Blackwater? Also, does Ballingrud have any other (horror) books besides NALM and Wounds?
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Feb 16, 2020 07:11
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escape artist posted:What is Blackwater? a novel by malcolm mcdowell no
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Feb 16, 2020 07:32
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chernobyl kinsman posted:a novel by malcolm mcdowell viddy well is it horror?
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Feb 16, 2020 07:52
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escape artist posted:viddy well Yes and no. It's southern gothic as a deep south community has a river monster join in after a bad flood.
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Feb 16, 2020 12:41
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escape artist posted:viddy well There's some good and effective horror moments in it, but most of it is (well written) family feuding and social machinations
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Feb 16, 2020 18:15
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chernobyl kinsman posted:mcdowell's the elementals I just bought this version of it. Be still my wallet.
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Feb 16, 2020 18:42
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I ordered my Ligotti book with Prime. It still took a week to get here. I don't know why but I feel this is appropriate and how Ligotti would have wanted it.
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Feb 17, 2020 20:41
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Gary the Llama posted:I just bought this version of it. Be still my wallet. I'm gonna be honest, I kinda hate the cover, I feel like it doesn't fit the book at all
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Feb 17, 2020 20:51
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wrap the cover in a paper bag, the more crinkled the better, and write the title on the cover with crayon
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Feb 17, 2020 21:25
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Oh cool there's a second wave of Paperback From Hell reissues coming out, including Let's Go Play At The Adams! Now I don't need to drop $60+ on a second hand copy
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Feb 17, 2020 21:26
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NALM was just as good as you folks said.
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Feb 18, 2020 06:41
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PsychedelicWarlord posted:NALM was just as good as you folks said.  there's a cute thing that happens with goons where we're all so critical that when something genuinely good comes along, we're left stunned and in shock
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Feb 18, 2020 08:46
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hallelujah posted:
Goons are so particular that I have gotten some amazing recommendations from the forums.
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Feb 19, 2020 05:02
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I'm into the second "book" of the Blackwater series, and it's pretty great. Now that I know how highly Steven King praised Michael McDowell, I can see a lot of influence on King's work. It's all interpersonal drama with supernatural/horrific elements lurking just under the surface, with enough moments of terror peppered throughout to keep you feeling worried the whole time. And that's what I also like about Stephen King, he does the same thing. I have a long way to go (5 more novellas, I'm a good part of the way through the second one) but so far it's a great experience.
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Feb 19, 2020 14:57
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That’s really cool because I hadn’t heard of him previously but I’m about 20% into Elementals and I’m really liking it. Easy to read and unsettling. Hope it keeps up.
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Feb 19, 2020 15:50
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hey guys I have been on a horror kick recently fostered by reading like three McDowell novels in a row and I want some more good literary horror I read Robert Aickman and liked it. I read Paul Trembalay and didn't like it. Any diamonds in the rough are a big plus. Like yeah I know Shirley Jackson yadda yadda. Give me some poo poo I wouldn't hear about doing a google search.
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Feb 19, 2020 19:27
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Thomas Ligotti? We're basically Ligotti salesmen here. The other standard recommendation is North American Lake Monsters.
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Feb 19, 2020 19:58
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I am a huge fan of Caitlin R Kiernan's work and highly recommend her Drowning Girl. Give her a shot!
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Feb 19, 2020 20:01
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Mel Mudkiper posted:hey guys I have been on a horror kick recently fostered by reading like three McDowell novels in a row and I want some more good literary horror What didn’t you like about Trembalay? I didn’t like Ghosts at all, but I can’t really put my finger on why. I really didn’t like the ending at all, but I guess the writing was okay? I dunno.
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Feb 19, 2020 20:04
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Ghosts had three big issues for me. 1.) The prose was terrible. His attempt to mimic the cadence and style of a sardonic millennial girl was legitimately painful to read 2.) There is almost nothing worse than a stupid character the book keeps trying to convince you is smart. The only thing worse than that is a writer having a writer character in a book who has other characters complement them on their writing. Its oppressively masturbatory. 3.) He seems to think themes are "things I show happen" instead of "ideas that saturate the text." Like, the idea of a person surreptitiously working through their emotional baggage by anonymously doing a critical analysis of their own experience for a publication is a cool idea. But, they never do anything with it other than have it happen and go "WOW HOW META"
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Feb 19, 2020 20:16
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Also since you guys have been discovering McDowell, which is great, has anyone else read Cold Moon Over Babylon? I want to discuss it but I don't know anyone who has read it.
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Feb 19, 2020 20:29
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Also since you guys have been discovering McDowell, which is great, has anyone else read Cold Moon Over Babylon? I want to discuss it but I don't know anyone who has read it. I loved Blackwater and Elementals so I've contemplated buying it, maybe I'll read that next. As to your literary horror question, I haven't read it myself but have heard a lot of good things about Helen Oyeyemi's White is for Witching and she's definitely got some literary credibility. Her Body and Other Parties would probably qualify as well. Other than that I can't think of any diamond-in-the-rough kind of literary horror, and I imagine even those two probably come up with some light googling.
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Feb 19, 2020 21:11
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blake butler's still one of my go-to recs but i don't think he's considered "literary," just one of the few standout examples of the otherwise fetid "bizarro" movement still, scorch atlas and the first half of three hundred million are some of the more impactful horror i've read in the last decade
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Feb 19, 2020 21:19
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I enjoyed A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson. I'm too stupid to say whether it's properly literary and/or easily Googleable, but if nothing else it's a cut above most horror schlock.
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Feb 19, 2020 21:19
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Big Mad Drongo posted:I enjoyed A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson. I'm too stupid to say whether it's properly literary and/or easily Googleable, but if nothing else it's a cut above most horror schlock. I really enjoyed it, and I have been tempted to try one of his novels like Last Days.
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Feb 19, 2020 21:59
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nate fisher posted:I really enjoyed it, and I have been tempted to try one of his novels like Last Days. Last Days is a pair of novellas, the first of which is very good, and the second of which is good for a horror novella.
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Feb 20, 2020 16:00
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I enjoyed a lush and seething hell by John Horner Jacobs. The first novella was extremely effective. The second wasn’t great, too cliched with the writing too stilted, but it’s worth it for the first one.
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Feb 20, 2020 18:51
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Ok, putting together a list Night Film by Marisha Pessl The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi The Fisherman by John Langan Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson The Toll by Cherie Priest A Lush and Seething Hell by John Hornor Jacobs Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud
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Feb 20, 2020 19:29
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I think Teatro Grottesco is the better Ligotti book but yeah that's a solid list
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Feb 20, 2020 20:09
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Ok, putting together a list Didn't the italics in Night Film drive you nuts though? I couldn't focus on the story
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Feb 20, 2020 20:30
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I read The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher recently and enjoyed it.
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Feb 20, 2020 20:47
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Ok, putting together a list What's the list for? And no Laird Barron collections?
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Feb 20, 2020 21:59
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PsychedelicWarlord posted:Didn't the italics in Night Film drive you nuts though? I couldn't focus on the story Havent read it yet
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Feb 20, 2020 22:47
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Mel Mudkiper posted:hey guys I have been on a horror kick recently fostered by reading like three McDowell novels in a row and I want some more good literary horror read more aickman StrixNebulosa posted:I am a huge fan of Caitlin R Kiernan's work and highly recommend her Drowning Girl. Give her a shot! kiernan sucks bad im sorry. just bog standard lovecraft fanfic with some truly repellant prose Big Mad Drongo posted:I enjoyed A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson. I'm too stupid to say whether it's properly literary and/or easily Googleable, but if nothing else it's a cut above most horror schlock. yeah evenson is really good Mel Mudkiper posted:Ok, putting together a list langan also sucks sorry. balingrud rules tho ligotti is of course prince of this thread e: actually read kiernan and langan because i think theyll make you mad and ill enjoy reading your posts about them
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Feb 20, 2020 23:47
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chernobyl kinsman posted:kiernan sucks bad im sorry. just bog standard lovecraft fanfic with some truly repellant prose I obviously disagree re: kiernan's quality, but agreed: I wanna see Mel comment on (imho) her best work, Drowning Girl. Even if Mel winds up hating it I wanna know why.
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Feb 20, 2020 23:51
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Chernobyl were you the one who rec'd Twenty Days of Turin way back? Because that was good poo poo
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Feb 20, 2020 23:51
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I just started on 3 out of 4 of the Peter Clines' Threshold series. It really reminds me of shorter Stephen King. Overall spoilers, not really story related: Very long and interesting characterizations before poo poo goes bananas and people you feel like you know are destroyed. I know it's not the same as what I usually see suggested here, but it's what works for my brain.
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Feb 21, 2020 00:29
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