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Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

FPyat posted:

Is there anything that particularly effectively plays off of fears of loneliness and isolation? Being lost and uncertain of one's surroundings, like in an abandoned hospital or shopping mall after hours?

Literally every Canadian horror author. Try Simon Strantzas or Richard Gavin.

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a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

FPyat posted:

Is there anything that particularly effectively plays off of fears of loneliness and isolation? Being lost and uncertain of one's surroundings, like in an abandoned hospital or shopping mall after hours?

The Luminous Dead? It's a cave, but yeah, it's all about being lost and alone.

Kestral
Nov 24, 2000

Forum Veteran

a foolish pianist posted:

The Luminous Dead? It's a cave, but yeah, it's all about being lost and alone.

It's worth noting, however, that The Luminous Dead is more a tense drama about a deeply dysfunctional relationship than a horror story.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

Kestral posted:

It's worth noting, however, that The Luminous Dead is more a tense drama about a deeply dysfunctional relationship than a horror story.
It still is scary as hell, though, especially if you've read something about cave diving before.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!




Morbid Hound

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Just putting up a reminder link for the Book Barn discord:

https://discord.gg/jgBDB25

alf_pogs
Feb 15, 2012


so maybe forum not dead and under new ownership instead?

but if it goes i will miss the horror thread most of all. so many good recommendations. so little gatekeeping. just a full-on embrace of all the gold - and trash - that spookadoodles have to offer

my mother in law watched Hereditary yesterday afternoon with my partner. when it was finished she said "I'll do that to you when I'm gone!"

pretty dark mum

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
I assume most of you all know this but just in case, Tremblay has a new book coming out on 7/7 about get this... a plague.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



escape artist posted:

I assume most of you all know this but just in case, Tremblay has a new book coming out on 7/7 about get this... a plague.

oh god it's starting

I knew we'd get a wave of plague horror after corona hit, I expect a lot of it to be tedious but who knows, maybe some will actually tap into some collective subconscious ideas about existing in a post-plague world that'll be interesting

tbf to Tremblay, he could have started the book before corona really took off. I'm uncertain I'll read the book, but more because I thought Cabin at the End of the World and Growing Things were both kind of a letdown, rather than anything to do with it being about a plague.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

MockingQuantum posted:

tbf to Tremblay, he could have started the book before corona really took off.

He finished the book before COVID-19 hit the US. ARCs were issued just before things started getting bad back in March. All of his author-friends have been making jokes about it since then.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



Ornamented Death posted:

He finished the book before COVID-19 hit the US. ARCs were issued just before things started getting bad back in March. All of his author-friends have been making jokes about it since then.

I can't tell if that's the best or the worst luck, but given how 2020 has been I'm gonna guess both.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back
Lawrence Wright beat him by almost 3 months with his book End of October. Wright is a great non-fiction writer (Going Clear and The Looming Tower are his most famous works), but a pretty average fiction writer. The best parts of End Of October are when he recounts the histories of viruses, but the fiction part of the book was a struggle for me.

What is truly amazing about End of October is how he was spot on with Trump’s (president is nameless in the book but you know) response (lack of) and stupidity since this book was finished last year.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

Matt Hayward set his career on fire, pissed on the ashes, and likely destroyed his wife's company for good measure.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Ornamented Death posted:

Matt Hayward set his career on fire, pissed on the ashes, and likely destroyed his wife's company for good measure.

Who's he? I tried googling and got pretty much nothing.

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Some horror writer that just put a book out recently. Was DMing women (reviewers, other writers) and telling them how horny he is. Then he made some fake screenshots and sent them to her friends and some publisher claiming she was the harasser, but they were laughable and everyone told him to gently caress off. Now he's nuked all his social media.

I gotta say though I'm not sure why people are pulling books from his wife's company. I guess they feel that he might be involved with the operation? Still it's not her fault her huusband's a creep.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

ravenkult posted:

I gotta say though I'm not sure why people are pulling books from his wife's company. I guess they feel that he might be involved with the operation? Still it's not her fault her huusband's a creep.

I've asked a few people if it's anything more than guilt by association, but haven't heard either way.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
I’m here for more horror recs :goleft:

I like King, specifically The Shining and earlier stuff, Hill House was good and I love The Elementals. I‘ve also been picking through Nathan Ballingrud short stories and finding them hit or miss, but some are good (what the hell is up with the one about angels?)

I want to read the whole Blackwater saga but I’m giving myself a short break from McDowell before tackling it.

Thinking about Let the Right One in, Ive never read it.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

The current darling of the review world is Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling. I'm about a quarter of the way through and really enjoying it.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
The Goodread reviews are up there, nice.

Am I supposed to go into it not knowing if it’s supernatural or just creepy death-culty? Trying to ask that without spoiling anything.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

I don't think the blurb gives away anything, you can read that I guess?

Edit: I'm seeing Keene confirm that Anna didn't really have anything to do with Matt's bullshit, so I guess everyone is pulling their books just to keep Matt as far away as possible. That really sucks, I liked the aesthetic Anna had for Poltergeist Press.

Ornamented Death fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jun 30, 2020

Anomalous Blowout
Feb 13, 2006

rock
ice
storm
abyss



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

*
We weren't particularly close but I used to beta read for Matt and just. This sucks. Torn between feeling weirdly guilty and glad that I apparently dodged yet another bullet. Boy it's a lot.

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

At this point I'm just kind of confused. By and large the consensus seemed to be "Yeah this was a real lovely thing you've done and you need to have a timeout to work on not being a creeper," and everyone expected Matt would do the work and be a better person. No one was really calling for him to be canceled. Then he decided to blow it all up for some stupid rear end reason or another and here we are.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

Ornamented Death posted:

I don't think the blurb gives away anything, you can read that I guess?

All of the blurbs I’ve read make it seem scary, unsettling, this and that but I’m wondering if I should expect a creepy realistic thriller or a supernatural/ghost story going into it.

I’m also trying to be careful in case answering that would be a spoiler, like if there’s a question throughout the story of “wow is this religious cult onto something” that gets answered later on.

Edit: because I may be wording myself badly, I consider supernatural horror and non-supernatural horror two very different things and I don’t like finding out halfway through, unless it’s intentionally misleading from the author, that I’m expecting the wrong thing.

Rolo fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Jun 30, 2020

remigious
May 13, 2009

Destruction comes inevitably :rip:

Hell Gem

ravenkult posted:

Some horror writer that just put a book out recently. Was DMing women (reviewers, other writers) and telling them how horny he is. Then he made some fake screenshots and sent them to her friends and some publisher claiming she was the harasser, but they were laughable and everyone told him to gently caress off. Now he's nuked all his social media.

I gotta say though I'm not sure why people are pulling books from his wife's company. I guess they feel that he might be involved with the operation? Still it's not her fault her huusband's a creep.

I heard a rumor that is was her making the doctored screenshots.

PawParole
Nov 16, 2019

PawParole posted:

just read all of bob lemans stories, and I particular loved Window and Instructions.

does anyone have a horror novel that are like those two stories?

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

Rolo posted:

All of the blurbs I’ve read make it seem scary, unsettling, this and that but I’m wondering if I should expect a creepy realistic thriller or a supernatural/ghost story going into it.

I’m also trying to be careful in case answering that would be a spoiler, like if there’s a question throughout the story of “wow is this religious cult onto something” that gets answered later on.

Edit: because I may be wording myself badly, I consider supernatural horror and non-supernatural horror two very different things and I don’t like finding out halfway through, unless it’s intentionally misleading from the author, that I’m expecting the wrong thing.

Oh I gotcha. It's explicitly supernatural from the getgo.

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

Ornamented Death posted:

Oh I gotcha. It's explicitly supernatural from the getgo.

Thanks friend! I’m sold, I’ll get started on it today.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


Ornamented Death posted:

At this point I'm just kind of confused. By and large the consensus seemed to be "Yeah this was a real lovely thing you've done and you need to have a timeout to work on not being a creeper," and everyone expected Matt would do the work and be a better person. No one was really calling for him to be canceled. Then he decided to blow it all up for some stupid rear end reason or another and here we are.

there is a lot of psychological pressure due to *waves generally everywhere*

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
new Datlow anthology dropped, Final Cuts, and is supposed to have new shorts from Barron, Ballingrud, and Langan among others

Fitzy Fitz
May 14, 2005




Can y'all help me with a recommendation?

I would like to find another occult (or similar) book like Adam Nevill's Last Days. I enjoyed it but wanted more of a payoff, I guess. Lots of beating around the bush. I was thinking of reading The Hellbound Heart but idk. Has Stephen King written anything like a full-length Gramma?

E: ah poo poo if I'd just read the last few posts I'd have seen Devil's Creek. That looks good

Fitzy Fitz fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jul 7, 2020

N-N-N-NINE BREAKER
Jul 12, 2014

Fitzy Fitz posted:

Can y'all help me with a recommendation?

I would like to find another occult (or similar) book like Adam Nevill's Last Days. I enjoyed it but wanted more of a payoff, I guess. Lots of beating around the bush. I was thinking of reading The Hellbound Heart but idk. Has Stephen King written anything like a full-length Gramma?

E: ah poo poo if I'd just read the last few posts I'd have seen Devil's Creek. That looks good

joke recommendation: brian evenson's last days. it has TWO cults

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
I’m a third into Devil’s Creek and I’m definitely liking it.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming

N-N-N-NINE BREAKER posted:

joke recommendation: brian evenson's last days. it has TWO cults

I just finished this one and it was incredible.

escape artist
Sep 24, 2005

Slow train coming
New Ballingrud story, Scream Queens, is a loveletter to 70s horror cinema while being a harrowing story on its own. When I finished it, I went back and read it a second time.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord

escape artist posted:

New Ballingrud story, Scream Queens, is a loveletter to 70s horror cinema while being a harrowing story on its own. When I finished it, I went back and read it a second time.

Final Cuts is on my short list to buy soon. I'm currently working through Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, but I'll probably buy it after.

unpacked robinhood
Feb 18, 2013

by Fluffdaddy
I'm halfway into Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. So far it's an entertaining ride by someone who probably time traveled to 2020 and came back to release it during the summer of 2019.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Ornamented Death posted:

The current darling of the review world is Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling. I'm about a quarter of the way through and really enjoying it.

I'm a few pages from the end of this, and I don't get why it's a critical darling. It's a decent Dean-Koontz-circa-1988 pastiche to start, and then it just turns straight exploitation. There are some okay supernatural horror elements, but then it mostly trades on child rape and molestation. Only read this book if you want to hear a supernatural evil villain taunt one of his former child rape victims about how much the raping must have hurt.

Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge
May 8, 2006

"My brain is amazing! It's full of wrinkles, and... Uh... Wait... What am I trying to say?"
just started reading The Elementals and it's much funnier than I expected it to be

Thom and the Heads
Oct 27, 2010

Farscape is actually pretty cool.

Ornamented Death posted:

The current darling of the review world is Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling. I'm about a quarter of the way through and really enjoying it.

Just started this this morning. Very early on but I'm digging it!

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

Relax Or DIE posted:

just started reading The Elementals and it's much funnier than I expected it to be

Such a good book though. I really enjoyed it.

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nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back
This has to be one of the most ridiculous lines I have read in awhile, “Danzig filled the car, setting his mind at ease, the aural equivalent of a warm security blanket”.

Oh that line is from Devil’s Creek. It is a fun read, but it’s not that good. 300+ pages into it and the writer has made no effort to make you care about a single character (zero development). Also he wasted an opportunity with making town and its residents into interesting characters. At times I thought he was trying for a Salem’s Lot vibe but he missed the mark. The book just pushes the plot forward at its own peril.

nate fisher fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Jul 25, 2020

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