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High Warlord Zog
Dec 12, 2012

Oxxidation posted:

the ending was the culmination of the ecological devastation that had been happening in the background of all the personal drama going on through the last several centuries of narrative. proulx knew exactly how to end it - with the barkskins' final descendent desperately trying to assure herself that there must still be a way for them to undo the damage they've caused, as the seas quietly continue to rise

Thematically, yes, it ties up really well, but I felt like the final set of characters and the present-dayish incarnations of the settings were much less well conveyed than everything that came before

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Idle Amalgam
Mar 7, 2008

said I'm never lackin'
always pistol packin'
with them automatics
we gon' send 'em to Heaven
I appreciate the recs. I probably should check out other southern gothic classics. I love how McDowell handled the supernatural and otherworldly.

Anyone read or listen to Bellefleur by Joyce Carol Oates? I've seen it recommended in searching for stuff similar to Blackwater.

ScootsMcSkirt
Oct 29, 2013

Just finished listening to The Cipher by Koja. Goddamn that was a good book and the narrator did an excellent job. He sounded so drat tired, especially by the end, it was perfect

Book left me feeling gross and icky and depressed and I imagine thats the point. It was incredibly overbearing and rife with evocative imagery. Just fantastic and something thats gonna be stuck in my head for awhile

I'm looking for something a bit more lighthearted next so I'm going with either Skullcrack City cause that looks fun or maybe The Meg since im a child and love gruesome creature features

PsychedelicWarlord
Sep 8, 2016


Just finished Blackwater and ahhhhhhhhhhh. I think I could have read 800 more pages about the Caskeys.

Conrad_Birdie
Jul 10, 2009

PsychedelicWarlord posted:

Just finished Blackwater and ahhhhhhhhhhh. I think I could have read 800 more pages about the Caskeys.

That’s the general consensus yeah

Pistol_Pete
Sep 15, 2007

Oven Wrangler

Ornamented Death posted:

Most anything by Skipp and Spector with the caveat that their books meet your criteria but lack the humor of JDatE.

Comedy option: Have you heard of Edward Lee?

The Light at the End is a beautiful (ok, perhaps that's not the right word) evocation of grimy, dangerous 1980's New York. Quite apart from its merits as a horror novel, it's become a period piece that pictures a New York that doesn't exist any more and it's fun to read for that reason alone.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back
Also their Book of Dead release (it is a collection of other writer’s stories) might be the best zombie fiction in book form of all time.

Ariza
Feb 8, 2006
Can anyone recommend any books that deal with suicide? Thanks! :cool:

Conrad_Birdie
Jul 10, 2009
You okay?

szary
Mar 12, 2014

Ariza posted:

Can anyone recommend any books that deal with suicide? Thanks! :cool:

'The End' by Gary McMahon

Len
Jan 21, 2008

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

Bitchin'!


Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Peak Performance.

Buglord

Ariza posted:

Can anyone recommend any books that deal with suicide? Thanks! :cool:

The last story, "The Good Husband", in Nathan Balingrud's North American Lake Monsters deals with this theme and is absolutely heartbreaking but amazing.

But also


Ariza
Feb 8, 2006
Sorry, yeah I'm ok! Sunglasses emote was meant to be silly, bad taste. Just trying to deal with another friend shuffling off and I realized horror is how I best understand horrible things.

Son of a Vondruke!
Aug 3, 2012

More than Star Citizen will ever be.

No. 1 Juicy Boi posted:

The last story, "The Good Husband", in Nathan Balingrud's North American Lake Monsters deals with this theme and is absolutely heartbreaking but amazing.

This one is really good. It's the best story from an already great collection.

The Vosgian Beast
Aug 13, 2011

Business is slow

Ariza posted:

Sorry, yeah I'm ok! Sunglasses emote was meant to be silly, bad taste. Just trying to deal with another friend shuffling off and I realized horror is how I best understand horrible things.

Geez that's rough. Hope the recommendations help, in whatever way they can.

Artelier
Jan 23, 2015


No. 1 Juicy Boi posted:

The last story, "The Good Husband", in Nathan Balingrud's North American Lake Monsters deals with this theme and is absolutely heartbreaking but amazing.

Putting in another vote for this. I still think about it more than half a year later, absolutely stellar and haunting.

Conrad_Birdie
Jul 10, 2009

Ariza posted:

Sorry, yeah I'm ok! Sunglasses emote was meant to be silly, bad taste. Just trying to deal with another friend shuffling off and I realized horror is how I best understand horrible things.

I’m really sorry at the loss of your friend. My sympathies are with you, and I also understand relating to bad things happening through horror. You’re not alone. We’re a bunch of weirdos here with ya.
For actual recommendations I would suggest a collection of Thomas Ligotti’s short stories. A lot aren’t explicitly about self-harm but there’s a sad, existential dread to many of them.

High Warlord Zog
Dec 12, 2012

Ariza posted:

Sorry, yeah I'm ok! Sunglasses emote was meant to be silly, bad taste. Just trying to deal with another friend shuffling off and I realized horror is how I best understand horrible things.

Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. Not strictly speaking horror, but the centerpiece novella of this short story collection is exceptionally visceral and nightmarish.

Fitzy Fitz
May 14, 2005




House of Leaves dealt with loss in a way that meant a lot to me

Shaman Tank Spec
Dec 26, 2003

*blep*



I'm reading The House Next Door and the book is fine, but somehow the author's writing style just ... bugs me, in some way that's hard to put to words.

Maybe it's that there's this weird almost pseudo smug undercurrent of late 70s middle upperclass white lifestyle bullshit everywhere, including dropping brand names, talking about dressing casually in slacks, talking about "having money", name-dropping job titles and roles etc.

I'm interested in seeing where it goes, though. The second couple just moved into the titular House Next Door and things are about to go from bad to worse, probably.

nate fisher
Mar 3, 2004

We've Got To Go Back
Is that the Siddons’ book (the title has been used a lot)?

Shaman Tank Spec
Dec 26, 2003

*blep*



nate fisher posted:

Is that the Siddons’ book (the title has been used a lot)?

Yeah sorry, should have clarified. The Siddons one yes.

Jeremiah Flintwick
Jan 14, 2010

King of Kings Ozysandwich am I. If any want to know how great I am and where I lie, let him outdo me in my work.



Fitzy Fitz posted:

House of Leaves dealt with loss in a way that meant a lot to me

All I remember about that book is "I won't let you gently caress me, but you can cum on my tits"

GrandpaPants
Feb 13, 2006


Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

I finished reading The Cipher. I liked the first parts of it where they were investigating the Funhole and something resembling a mystery and horror stuff was happening. But then the next two thirds of the book was about a tedious toxic relationship and the Funhole seemed secondary to it. The main character seemed adamantly opposed to doing anything, which kills a lot of motivation for me, the reader, to care about the story. The book eventually felt like I was reading the same plot beat over and over again and then the book ends.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


Three stories into Gemma Files' new short story collection In That Endlessness, Our End, and this is some good poo poo. The Puppet Motel is just a great haunting story for our modern times. Best collection I have read so far since NALM

The Polish Pirate
Apr 4, 2005

How many Polacks does it take to captain a pirate ship? One.

GrandpaPants posted:

I finished reading The Cipher. I liked the first parts of it where they were investigating the Funhole and something resembling a mystery and horror stuff was happening. But then the next two thirds of the book was about a tedious toxic relationship and the Funhole seemed secondary to it. The main character seemed adamantly opposed to doing anything, which kills a lot of motivation for me, the reader, to care about the story. The book eventually felt like I was reading the same plot beat over and over again and then the book ends.

I felt the exact same way. I much prefered The Visible Filth even though I know it's not one of the favorites in Wounds.

Halfway through Carrier Wave right now, and I'm absolutely loving it. Every story is so instantly engaging and so intense. Hope this keeps up as this is my favorite horror reading experience since Wounds.

ClydeFrog
Apr 13, 2007
Empathize with stupidity and you’re halfway to thinking like an idiot
I'm about two thirds of the way through There Is No Antimemetics Division and it is both captivating and unnerving. Your brain fills in the blanks with the most ghastly stuff you can summon.

The sense of hopelessness currently engendered is quite something.

Charlz Guybon
Nov 16, 2010
Steinbeck wrote a lurid werewolf murder mystery.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/22/john-steinbecks-estate-urged-to-let-the-world-read-his-shunned-werewolf-novel

Conrad_Birdie
Jul 10, 2009
Gilded Needles is definitely a bit of a slow burn - McDowell’s writing is characteristically wonderful so it’s still a delight to read - but about 2/3 of the way through the book there is a moment of explosive violence that comes out of no where. I had to read the passage a couple times because it’s just totally unexpected and vile and mean and darkly funny, just like some of those moments of violence in Blackwater. And now I’m all revved up for the final section of this book.

Son of a Vondruke!
Aug 3, 2012

More than Star Citizen will ever be.


Hopefully we'll get to read it some day. I can't imagine there's too many other werewolf novels written by Nobel Prize winning authors.

Dr. Jerrold Coe
Feb 6, 2021

Is it me?

ScootsMcSkirt posted:

I'm looking for something a bit more lighthearted next so I'm going with either Skullcrack City cause that looks fun or maybe The Meg since im a child and love gruesome creature features

The Meg is fun trash, totally artless, but if you want a slightly higher class of creature feature I've been enjoying the Shark series by Chris Jameson. There's three so far, each one is a standalone story of people getting attacked by sharks: Shark Island, Shark Beach, and Devil Sharks. The sharks are regular size so the terror's more immediate than a scifi Megalodon that can swallow submarines.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


Bilirubin posted:

Three stories into Gemma Files' new short story collection In That Endlessness, Our End, and this is some good poo poo. The Puppet Motel is just a great haunting story for our modern times. Best collection I have read so far since NALM

Finished this the other day, its very solid from start to finish.

Untrustable
Mar 17, 2009





I am currently reading the Five Nights at Freddy's trilogy for work. These books fuckin suck.

Fire Safety Doug
Sep 3, 2006

99 % caffeine free is 99 % not my kinda thing
Finished Blackwater, it’s an impressive work but not one I fully loved. Could have perhaps done with a few more horror moments, although they are quite effective when they do come along.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

Bilirubin posted:

Three stories into Gemma Files' new short story collection In That Endlessness, Our End, and this is some good poo poo. The Puppet Motel is just a great haunting story for our modern times. Best collection I have read so far since NALM

The Kindle edition of this is up on the grimscribe site for pay-what-you-want. I just bought a copy for 5 bucks, and I feel kinda like I should have paid a bit more.

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

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

I saw the word Ligotti in this itch.io indie horror game description and ran to this thread: Acephalic

quote:

This interactive experience is a companion piece to the album "Conspiration" (Conspiracy) by Un Regard Froid. The music and lyrics were inspired by the literary work of Thomas Ligotti. Acephalic further explores the themes of nihilism, cosmic indifference and social construct of productivity through the prism of the anti-Vitruvian man, the acephalic man.

Relevant Tangent
Nov 18, 2016

Tangentially Relevant

Read The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack and really enjoyed it. It's sort of a high fantasy/horror mashup. An industrial labor zombie wakes up and things only get better/worse from there. Highly recommended.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



a foolish pianist posted:

The Kindle edition of this is up on the grimscribe site for pay-what-you-want. I just bought a copy for 5 bucks, and I feel kinda like I should have paid a bit more.

Thanks for the heads up! I just bought it myself, though uh I haven't gotten the book or any indication of how to get it. I'm excited to read it whenever it arrives though.

a foolish pianist
May 6, 2007

(bi)cyclic mutation

MockingQuantum posted:

Thanks for the heads up! I just bought it myself, though uh I haven't gotten the book or any indication of how to get it. I'm excited to read it whenever it arrives though.

I got mine via email about twenty minutes after I paid. I hope you’ve gotten yours by now!

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MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



a foolish pianist posted:

I got mine via email about twenty minutes after I paid. I hope you’ve gotten yours by now!

I did! It took a couple of hours but given the PayPal payment went straight to Padgett, and the download was just a Dropbox link, I'm guessing he may just fulfill them mostly manually in batches or something.

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