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Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


MockingQuantum posted:

I feel this way about Sarah Rayne too, just tons of horror books that all sound kind of the same.


Sort of tangentially related, I tend to like horror that does something unique/interesting but honestly sometimes I just want to sit down and read something fun and entertaining, even if it is kind of predictable, and I don't feel like I've found a horror author who manages that. Stephen King is probably the obvious option but he's got his own shortcomings and baggage, and I have zero interest in ever reading another Koontz book. I hope Grady Hendrix keeps writing because he kind of manages that niche pretty well. Any other suggestions? Now that I've written this post I realize I thought I was asking 'what's Discworld, but for horror' but really I'm asking 'what's Goosebumps, but for adults'

https://wxxt-gare-occult.square.site/

e. also https://pfracassi.com/commodore

Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Jan 4, 2022

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Skyscraper
Oct 1, 2004

Hurry Up, We're Dreaming



MockingQuantum posted:

but really I'm asking 'what's Goosebumps, but for adults'

I don't know if it's good, but Bentley Little?

Mr. Nemo
Feb 4, 2016

I wish I had a sister like my big strong Daddy :(
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It was extremely gripping. It had been like a decade since i last read King novel, i'll probably work my way through his catalogue.

Ragle Gumm
Jun 14, 2020

Mr. Nemo posted:

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It was extremely gripping. It had been like a decade since i last read King novel, i'll probably work my way through his catalogue.

Neat.

(Also, in case you're not aware: there's also a dedicated King thread.)

Traxis
Jul 2, 2006

MockingQuantum posted:

Sort of tangentially related, I tend to like horror that does something unique/interesting but honestly sometimes I just want to sit down and read something fun and entertaining, even if it is kind of predictable, and I don't feel like I've found a horror author who manages that. Stephen King is probably the obvious option but he's got his own shortcomings and baggage, and I have zero interest in ever reading another Koontz book. I hope Grady Hendrix keeps writing because he kind of manages that niche pretty well. Any other suggestions? Now that I've written this post I realize I thought I was asking 'what's Discworld, but for horror' but really I'm asking 'what's Goosebumps, but for adults'

Riley Sager, maybe? His books are all somewhat same-y despite fairly unique settings. Definitely leans a bit more towards 'thriller' than 'horror' in some of his work, though.

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

Journals of Horror: Found Fiction - Todd Keisling

Between the holidays and insomnia and random fireworks keeping me up, I finished it. I tried to keep it brief because man, this poo poo got long enough. I tried to add non spoiler summaries in "quotes" below the titles.

Bagged, Tagged & Buried By Terry M. West
"Imagine Fox Mulders x file division is shut down but secretly rerouted within another fbi division. But the current head of the x file division had his own agenda."

It felt pretty underdeveloped due to its length. I can appreciate getting to the point / plot twist. Not too aligned with the found footage theme. i half wish they name dropped some creepy Artifacts or whatever.

Turn Me On, Dead Man By Robin Dover
"A monologue transcribed from various objects of a dying man."

It gets a lot of points of having great descriptions, and joining it all together despite being the odd ramblings of a person obsessed with death and numerology. The imagery was interesting. I can't tell if this is psychosis or not.

Truant By D.S. Ullery
"Transcripts of a court ordered journal of a domestic abuser and the last days of his life."

This gets points for a realistic police characterization. Eh gently caress investigating stuff, just bag the evidence and log overtime for getting donuts. I felt like the domestic abuse was a bit on the nose but ok, they're going for a unredeemable rear end in a top hat character. I kind of like it in that this could be a 'bad guy' pov in a longer novel. But it was cohesive enough to work on its own.

The Book Of Flesh And Blood By Jeff O’brien
"Standard evil cursed object, in this case a book. Two cleaning workers come across a evil book."

This felt like the average rich explorer obsessed with finding a specific mystical artifact and coming to a terrible end. Except very much compressed into a handful of pages. It was neat, a little forgettable, and imo loses points for a rich person murdering poor people. gently caress the rich, etc etc.

Beyond Castle Frankenstein By Paula Cappa
"A painting hid a letter from Mary Shelley, revealing an ominous spectre of guilt and grief. "

The first of my faves in this. I love the tie in to the real life Shelley, and how it gave a bit more depth to the average ghost haunting theme. The setting was creepy and classic. The two POVs felt like this story was more fleshed out, as well.

Dying Scrawl By Dj Tyrer
"Lost Carcosa theme. The final words written on a dead man's arms."

Incredibly short at four pages. You could ponder it a bit more to figure out what is happening but I'm not.

Girl In The Woods By Evan Purcell
"Journal transcribed from official letters, advertisements, receipts, 911 transcript and phone texts, all associated with the various sources involved in the case."

Short take on the classic teen massacre horror movie a la Halloween movie series via behind the scenes tects, phone calls, and adverts. A bit shallow, and I feel like this has potential to be expanded upon elsewhere.

Going Home By Michael Mcglade
"After the death of his wife, man return to family home for the first time in decades to restore it as a way to deal with his grief. If only a decaying house was the only thing he came home to."

Typical haunted house, fantastic descriptions of supernatural gribblies and environments, decent tension and atmosphere. I loved the loving brand name item drops. Thanks McGlade for looking up what is the most expensive lip balm there is out there.

Hamburger Lady By Darryl Dawson
"A pedophile crosses paths with an vengeful woman ghost haunting a school."

A fave, if only because it's well written compared to the others. I liked the concept, I thought the characters were well fleshed out for how short is must be, and the gorey creepiness was pretty interesting. Plus, school urban legends? That's always fun. It reminds me of a few stories from Isabel Yap's 'Never Have I Ever' anthology.

Hole By Joseph Ramshaw
"A British exploration party eat a questionable quarry whom refuses digestion. "

rear end based gross out horror. Ok I could see this in a children's horror story anthology, with slight modifications to pass PG ratings. Not a fave, but it gets points for unique monsters and griminess. Also dead british men lmao.

Human Resources By Todd Keisling
"The last will and testament of a man whose workplace has been overtaken by a computer god and its prophet."

I guess this is cosmic horror? It was gently humorous. Like Christopher Moore. I think I would like it more if the timing was better. As it stands, I don't want to read about work during the holidays.

In The Woods, We Wait By Matt Hayward
"An elderly man's last journal entry detailing something horrible that lured his wife, among others, into the woods. Supernatural forest horror."

Ooh yeah this was great and a favorite. The ordinary-turned-creepy location, the initial set up with a character, covering bases with aural and visual horror, the relationship between an elderly couple being well done without needing an info dump of their entire dating history, the general progression of the plot without feeling too rushed? Fantastic.

“Killing Jessica” By Glenn Rolfe
"A journal detailing an incel and his troubled, fatal friendship with his room mates"

Nothing supernatural or paranormal about this. Not even a plot twist. Disappointing. Kinda boring incel poo poo. I'm confused how this counts for horror and not simply a crime thriller. Eh, genres can overlap, It's fine.

Letter To Grandma By Crystal Leflar
"A child locked in a attic pens a letter to grandmother while waiting the return if their mother. Meanwhile, the world outside goes to poo poo."

Some authors can write children well and/or believably. This is not that case. I can excuse that because it was an interestingly different POV compared to the rest of the stories. You're left with questions which is kinda nice because you're spared the info dump.

Look Up By Michael Seese
"A person literally and figuratively follows a self help actualization guide plastered on fliers throughout the city."

Imo this is some kinda pathetic religious bigotry. Imagine the SAW movie series but blatantly about christian sheeple instead of... what was it? Weeding out the weak guilty people? Whatever the original plot was. I guess it was interesting otherwise. I liked the wandering through the city, everything else was silly to me.

Lucca By John Ledger
"Edgy fourchanner pretending to be a teen girl writes a suicide note claiming she's promiscuous and into hardcore bdsm and is going to meet an online daddy dom irl. "

This was embarrassing to read. Baby's first attempt at horror? If you ever read or heard of agony in pink, this is the same genre. I guess if you like edgy grimdark stuff that's not that deep? This is for you? I don't know why I'm posing that like a question, I'm pretty sure this is some sort of genre. Maybe Frank Miller post 9/11 genre, if that's a thing. I'm pretty sure he's the crazy misogynist racist comic book guy. Anyways, it felt like a checklist of horrible things the author heard was on the internet.

Night Terrors: Journal By Michael Thomas-Knight
"The dream journal of a woman in a unhappy marriage detailing various night terrors and unholy presences in their mansion. "

I kinda like this, despite how shallow it was written. The characters do feel one dimensional, but the ending was kinda 'good for her' meets 'oh does not bode well'. I liked the build up of the monsters / haunting and I think it was going for a monster vs monster thing? Not fully sure what the deal was, and simultaneously I want to know more but I know that'd ruin the cosmic horror aspect.

Finders Keepers By Paul D. Marks
"A stoner finds a phone which contains bizarre videos from the previous owner, who claim an angel wants him to do terrible things. "

Another fave, despite the rape nonsense. Not sorry but I hate rape in horror books because it always feels cliche and cheesy and rarely done well to forward the plot. Was this the best the author could come up with? Sad. Anyways. The concept was unique and I like that it combines supernatural, religious horror(?), and haunted objects. It was decently written, compared to others in this anthology. This almost kinda reminds me of Alex Kister's 'Mandela Catalogue' series up on youtube, with divine beings making people do terrible things.

The Anniversary By Sonja Thomas
"A teen boy follows clues his stalker left him to find why the stalker hate-crime-murdered one of his gay foster fathers. "

I feel like every anthology will have at least one story which makes you wonder what the gently caress the editor was thinking including it, and what was the point of this story. So the plot twist is the stalker is the one other named character [the high school coach, not the other foster father], and he killed the gay dad because he saw, exactly one time, the first father bullying the mc foster son. Homophobia also plays a huge reason as to why the coach character wanted to 'save' the mc from his evil dad's who are, horrified gasp, gay, and gay people can't have children!!! Oh no!!

The premise is made of farts and is easily washed away like a dog pissing on your sand castle. The hate crime / homophobia part sounds like the author had already written this story, heard a editor needed another horror story, and added in the hate crime poo poo to met requirements. Without the homophobia, you get a very flimsy story of a legally required reporter, a school employee, taking matters into his own hands and randomly murdering another person because the employee has childhood trauma that comes out of no where.

Also the kid inexplicably turns purestrain evil a la the kid from the The Omen movie. Because survivors of child abuse do that. Ok sure.
I guess this is horrifying? Not sorry but I have higher standards for my horror. Like skip the attempts are hate crime themes unless you can do it with some kind of tact or skill to pull it off well.

Bizarrely the author is a childrens literature author. I don't read much grade / middle school books but dang, you'd think she could write a teen character better than this. Also hilariously this anthology is not listed on her personal website. Hm gee I wonder why.

The Breath Within The Darkness By Essel Pratt
"The last frantic scrawls of a fed agent trapped in a haunted diner."
I don't have much to say. It's a guy. He's trapped and about to die. There wasn't much worldbuilding or creepiness to the monster. In a neutral sense, this reminded me of creepypastas from reddit's various short horror story forums that are good enough to be turned into audio books by various youtubers who narrate such things. You know, like Lighthouse Horror and such.

The Devil’s Irony By Lori R. Lopez
"A young man does some urban exploring in underground tunnels where his grandfather had disappeared in. Urbex / abandoned city tunnel horror?"

You know the movie 'As Above, So Below [2014]'? This, but a single character, minus the movie's plot twist and things related to that. It's a transcript of a video recording the young man character does. I can tell the author is trying to make us care about him, the dog, the grandpa character. I appreciate the effort even if it didn't click with me. I do hate word for word transcripts, but I think this could've done with third person additions to flesh out the environment. It felt just a lil like a youtuber doing a directors commentary for their own work. A lil bland, but the setting and characters were interesting, and it made me want to like this.

The Note By P. D. Cacek
"A poem about a strange note found in a second hand bureau."

No comment, I'm not one for poems. Short but sweet, and the setting was alright.

The Seahorse Speaks By Erik Gustafson
"A man gets caught up in the creation of a macabre carousel."

If I try not to think too hard on this, I really love it. Ok no woops I'm thinking too hard now. How did anyone find the 'notes' left behind by the MC? Was the carousel just sitting around afterwards? What was the point of all that effort? Is it an evil wizard? I left the summary vague but I swear this is really cool and neat and I liked the idea, and think it executed the body horror very well. Yup I still love it.

Vermilion A Traveler’s Account By Stuart Keane
"An edgy misogynist serial killer gets caught at the start of a zombie disease outbreak at a pub. "

Try hard edgy grimdark misogyny flavored stories just don't work for me. Y'all remember those GBS stories about the army man who was a bad rear end and made his foster son(?) wake up at 3am to jog on the beach, and I think it was written by 50 foot ant? That's this story, but with heavy flavours of axemaniac misogyny. No this comparison doesn't make sense, Yes I know I have heavy brain damage from being on the internet.

Whispers On The Wind By Robert Mcgough
"A writer's newly purchased home in the distant woods proves inspiring with deathly, horrifying results. Cosmic eldritch horror."

You know that Cordova character from Marisha Pessl's 'Night Film'? Not entirely the same, but in a similar sense to me. That a author plagued by otherworldly inspiration becoming the unwitting 'prophet' for cosmic, eldritch horrors is pretty cool. I thought the world building was decent, the characterization and setting was interesting, and the tension was consistent. Plus the paranoia! How do you explain you're haunted when, for all outside appearances, you're a random hermit living in the backwater woods? How do you escape? Do you attempt to get help, only to drag others into fatal circumstances? I kinda wish this was a novella, let the plot breathe a little. This is also the first story that made me look up the author for other works.

There's Something In My House By Wesley Thomas
"A man moves into a house haunted by the ghost of a murderous clown. Very tell don't show."

It was... ok. Clown Horror doesn't work for me. Maybe someone else would like this. It felt a lil disjointed in an accidental way. Kinda weird, definitely creepy.

Tweets Of Terror By Robert Holt
"A series of tweets between a stalker and their victim. "

Yes it's as bad as you'd think. Worse than skype chat logs. It's saving grace is the brevity.

Self-Consumed By Terry M. West & Regina West
"A doctor seeks revenge for his daughter's death, a meal best served over the course of several painful weeks. Real creepy, nice to see race in the US justice system acknowledged, I guess. The POV is the victim."

I know it's racist and tactless to say 'the PoC / Black version of [white character/person] but I kinda want more of this. It's like a Hannibal Lecter, but Black. Frankly is it inappropriate to want a Hannibal Lecter revamp, but make him Black and give him additional reasons of racial justice next to 'this person was rude. time for dinner'? Maybe. Lecter did have a great origin story of eating nazis. I'm conflicted. Let me eat some meat and get back to this later.

Note-To-Self By Christopher Alan Broadstone
"A man struggling with familial trauma and mental illness stumbles across an astrolabe which leads to off screen serial killing until we meet the final victim."

I can't tell if I like this because it's different than the rest of the stories, or because itns one of the few scifi flavored horror stories. It feels like we're dropped into the final chapters of a book, not a bad thing per se, but it left me wanting more. This was way better written than many of the others. The use of ethnic cultures [Indian / Hindu religion?] was kinda weird and I'm not sure how accurate or exploitative it is. The author sure is a white dude lol But the parasite horror was subtle and fantastic. I liked the concept of alien parasites, even if the plot petered out at the end. I wish there was a more solid reason for the parasite to do all this poo poo on earth. Were they sacrifices for a purpose, or just something this alien wanted to do while on vacation? But I also wish it leaned more into the cosmic horror aspect in that we humans simply don't understand this cosmic horror thing happening because it's so different from us.

All in all, it took 2.87 hours to read, a bit longer than the average novel for me. I feel like this anthology had harder peaks and valleys in terms of quality. Some were pretty interesting and a lot were very standard, rehashed tales. At times it did feel pretty repetitive in being endless amounts of transcribed journal diary etc found at crime scene. It had decent variety in themes and settings. I do wish some stories were cut. I think it would've made for a stronger anthology.

Imo best story is In The Woods, We Wait By Matt Hayward and Whispers On The Wind By Robert Mcgough. Worst story is Tweets Of Terror By Robert Holt.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



Traxis posted:

Riley Sager, maybe? His books are all somewhat same-y despite fairly unique settings. Definitely leans a bit more towards 'thriller' than 'horror' in some of his work, though.

So I've read a few Riley Sager books, three I think, and he kind of amazes me. IMO he writes almost the exact same main characters, in a pretty similar voice, in very similar plots, and didn't really manage to land any of the three in a satisfying way. I could see him being the kind of thriller writer where if one of his books does it for you, all of them will, but they were each a miss. He's interesting to compare to Grady Hendrix because they're doing very similar things, slight twists on common horror settings and tropes, ie. they both have their "survived the slasher" book and their "big haunted building" book, but Hendrix's stuff is 10x as charming and entertaining IMO. Sager's books aren't bad, really, but for my taste they were pretty bland and tiresome after a while.

Mr. Nemo
Feb 4, 2016

I wish I had a sister like my big strong Daddy :(

Ragle Gumm posted:

Neat.

(Also, in case you're not aware: there's also a dedicated King thread.)

Woah! and an adaptation of the prequel short story came out last year? Good timing. Thanks!

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

I think this was the thread that mentioned Frozen Hell by John W. Campbell Jr and yeahh!!!! That was some fun horror. It was different enough from the book that it didn't feel like a bullet point by point version of the movie. Go read it now, you won't regrat it!

Also, another book perhaps? I haven't finished it so I'm not sure if I totally enjoyed it. Vanilla by Mona Kabbani, a Lebanese horror author.

quote:

Who knew innocence could cause so much death?
The cure for the sick is in the Devil’s blood. He invests this magic in the children. One child’s life saved in exchange for a sacrifice. And parents are eager to sacrifice. But what happens when the Devil comes across a child he cannot find the will to return? A child he wishes to keep.
Vanilla sits in the concrete room—the one she has lived in since she can remember—and smiles when the Devil enters. She reaches her arms out, lets him cradle her against his chest, and calls him Daddy. Daddy fills her mind with nightmares of the Outside. With all its creatures, lurking, waiting to steal her from him. And she dreams of staying with him forever.
But forever is infeasible.
That is, until the Devil makes his own sacrifice.

Despite the summary, not about pedophilia. Wow. Definitely has some harry potter esque child abuse but not in a funny haha way, and a lot of gore. Like, a lot a LOT. It's an interesting twist on the supernatural vampire creating other vampires story. It's a tad straight forward and not that deep. I do appreciate the gore though, that's always fun. Edit I finished it and ehhh. I don't wholly recommend it. The characters are rather one dimensional, as is the world setting, and you get fed a lot of the backstory instead of it revealing on its own. It was interesting unique, and decently written. I'd probably read other things form this author, eventually.

I brought up the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski earlier, and wanted to mention that there's another novellas in the series out now. It's called Demon.

quote:

Scott King's podcast investigates the 1995 cold case of a demon possession in a rural Yorkshire village, where a 12-year-old boy was murdered in cold blood by two children. Book six in the chilling, award-winning Six Stories series.
In 1995, the picture-perfect village of Ussalthwaite was the site of one of the most heinous crimes imaginable, in a case that shocked the world.
Twelve-year-old Sidney Parsons was savagely murdered by two boys his own age. No reason was ever given for this terrible crime, and the 'Demonic Duo' who killed him were imprisoned until their release in 2002, when they were given new identities and lifetime anonymity.
Elusive online journalist Scott King investigates the lead-up and aftermath of the killing, uncovering dark stories of demonic possession, and encountering a village torn apart by this unspeakable act.
And, as episodes of his Six Stories podcast begin to air, and King himself becomes a target of media scrutiny and the public's ire, it becomes clear that whatever drove those two boys to kill is still there, lurking, and the campaign of horror has just begun...


I read it and I appreciate the modernization of the... context? The container of the universe, so to speak, in that it acknowledges what the True Crime fandom has become these days and whether it's that compassionate to the victims for such a concept to exist. This ending was a little more vague than the others in its series, and for once I like that. It has dog death in it, fair warning to the dog enjoyers of the world.

value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jan 7, 2022

Relevant Tangent
Nov 18, 2016

Tangentially Relevant

Mr. Nemo posted:

'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It was extremely gripping. It had been like a decade since i last read King novel, i'll probably work my way through his catalogue.

make sure to read his short story collections, a lot of them are imo better than his novels

Opopanax
Aug 8, 2007

I HEX YE!!!


Just finished Lovecraft Country and it was really good. Different enough from the show to not be a retread, which I always like. It's a really neat layout, with the same of disconnect the show had; kind of like an anthology but with recurring characters and a meta plot. It was a little weird to find out the author is white, because as with the show this is very much about the black experience in 50s America, but it doesn't feel exploitive or anything like that.

Shaman Tank Spec
Dec 26, 2003

*blep*



Franchescanado posted:

I'm curious to read a follow-up about another book of hers. I saw Ashburn House at a book store and thought it sounded good. I looked her up, and she has almost a dozen books that are "The Haunting of (house/person name)", and I couldn't imagine someone writing so many haunted house books without being redundant. I'm interested in figuring out her deal without spending the time reading them all.

Well here you go because I just finished The Haunting of Blackwood House last night and Ghost Camera earlier. They were both really good! Ghost Camera is a ~100 page novella about a young woman who finds a camera that can take pictures of ghosts, but with unintended and dangerous consequences.

Blackwood House is an old school haunted house book that was precisely what I want from the genre: spooky goings on, things ramping up nicely towards the climax and good writing.

It seems like a lot of her books are shorter novellas she wrote for collections / e-publishing. I've got a ton of them on my Kindle and I'll keep going through them because they're precisely the type of old school classic haunted house stuff I love and occasionally still get nightmares from. They don't really play with genre conventions or do the meta things that get books nominations these days, but they're good solid horror stories.

Blastedhellscape
Jan 1, 2008

Relevant Tangent posted:

make sure to read his short story collections, a lot of them are imo better than his novels

Agreed. Apart from Salem's Lot the only other King novel I've read that I'd unabashedly call a horror masterpiece is the Shining. IT is a novel that's near and dear to my heart too, but it's got some inconsistencies. The rest of his novels that I've read were things I'd characterize as having lots of peaks and valleys. You want to recommend this or that, then you remember the terrible hundred-page stretches in between the really good poo poo.

I think it's just a consequence of King being a guy who writes constantly (as one of the hosts of the You're Wrong About podcast put it: "he got to live out his dream of working in the book factory") and has people who have, over many decades, published almost everything he's written. Dude has written some really iconic and culturally defining things, and you notice that the most in his short stories, but he's also published a lot of garbage.

The Jaunt. Graveyard Shift. Suffer the Little Children. N. The Night Flier. Nona. Children of the Corn. Fair Extension. The Boogieman. He's written a lot of pretty amazing stuff.

Relevant Tangent
Nov 18, 2016

Tangentially Relevant

Trucks is the rare King short story so excellent it got turned into a movie twice.

bagrada
Aug 4, 2007

The Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering!

Any standout audiobook recommendations in this genre? My biggest interest is probably in cosmic horror, or mashups like in the game Secret World. I listened to a few podcasts I really liked years ago - a year's worth of Nightvale, and the audio dramas Alice isn't Dead with Jasika Nicole from Fringe, and Mask of Inanna. In paper and ebook I've read a few Caitlin Kiernan, Brian Hodge, Ballingrud and Laird Barron works but I'm not sure how they'd go in audiobook. They might require a bit more focus than I have available while driving. Ages ago I mowed through all of Steven King up to the early 00s and read a Ligotti my local library actually had. I need to see if they still have that for a re-read. I'm one book/section into Blackwater. I liked the first Atrocity Archives by Stross and need to get to the rest of those sometime as well.

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



bagrada posted:

Any standout audiobook recommendations in this genre? My biggest interest is probably in cosmic horror, or mashups like in the game Secret World. I listened to a few podcasts I really liked years ago - a year's worth of Nightvale, and the audio dramas Alice isn't Dead with Jasika Nicole from Fringe, and Mask of Inanna. In paper and ebook I've read a few Caitlin Kiernan, Brian Hodge, Ballingrud and Laird Barron works but I'm not sure how they'd go in audiobook. They might require a bit more focus than I have available while driving. Ages ago I mowed through all of Steven King up to the early 00s and read a Ligotti my local library actually had. I need to see if they still have that for a re-read. I'm one book/section into Blackwater. I liked the first Atrocity Archives by Stross and need to get to the rest of those sometime as well.

If you liked Atrocity Archives, you'll like the rest of the Laundry Books. He scales down the nerd humor and spends more time actually investigating the premise as things go on. He ends up with some really cute ideas too. Generally I absolutely loathe books that come out in series cause it makes me feel like I'm in some kind of deal with the mafia for my reading fix, but Stross is good enough that I keep sighing and pre-ordering the next book in the first printing, even if that means getting it shipped from the UK if that's fastest.

Technically a spoiler but just saying something exists in like book 5 or something [spoilers]I really like his take on vampires.[/spoiler]

PS if you like cosmic horror, shameless plug for my boy John Langan.

Lil Mama Im Sorry
Oct 14, 2012

I'M BACK AND I'M SCARIN' WHITE FOLKS

Ham Cheeks posted:

I recently finished Negative Space and loved it. Lots to chew on and think about.

Question for folks who've read it: why do you think Yeager titled the book Negative Space?

i kinda see it as a sort of negation of negation, an emptiness that consumes and leaves behind only more emptiness, a double negative etc

Lil Mama Im Sorry fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Jan 10, 2022

Blastedhellscape
Jan 1, 2008

bagrada posted:

Any standout audiobook recommendations in this genre? My biggest interest is probably in cosmic horror, or mashups like in the game Secret World. I listened to a few podcasts I really liked years ago - a year's worth of Nightvale, and the audio dramas Alice isn't Dead with Jasika Nicole from Fringe, and Mask of Inanna. In paper and ebook I've read a few Caitlin Kiernan, Brian Hodge, Ballingrud and Laird Barron works but I'm not sure how they'd go in audiobook. They might require a bit more focus than I have available while driving. Ages ago I mowed through all of Steven King up to the early 00s and read a Ligotti my local library actually had. I need to see if they still have that for a re-read. I'm one book/section into Blackwater. I liked the first Atrocity Archives by Stross and need to get to the rest of those sometime as well.

I thought the dude who narrated North American Lake Monsters did an amazing job. He had this very gravelly, unapoligetically redneck voice that fit with a majority of the stories.

Um. This may be a weird and controversial suggestion but I actually think that the Nosleep podcast has some pretty good combinations of voice actor plus story, but you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff because it's a long-running anthology series. The best narrators are Peter Lewis, Jessica Mcevoy and Nikkole Doolin, and they tend to get assigned the better stories.

Stories on nosleep that I'd recommend searching for to hear some great horror with good voice acting: The Mummer Man, Black on Black, The Things We See in the Woods, Smidge, The Whistlers, and Somewhere Someone is Lonelier Than You.

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



bagrada posted:

Any standout audiobook recommendations in this genre? My biggest interest is probably in cosmic horror, or mashups like in the game Secret World. I listened to a few podcasts I really liked years ago - a year's worth of Nightvale, and the audio dramas Alice isn't Dead with Jasika Nicole from Fringe, and Mask of Inanna. In paper and ebook I've read a few Caitlin Kiernan, Brian Hodge, Ballingrud and Laird Barron works but I'm not sure how they'd go in audiobook. They might require a bit more focus than I have available while driving. Ages ago I mowed through all of Steven King up to the early 00s and read a Ligotti my local library actually had. I need to see if they still have that for a re-read. I'm one book/section into Blackwater. I liked the first Atrocity Archives by Stross and need to get to the rest of those sometime as well.

On thinking about this more, you might want to check out Knifepoint Horror if you like scary stories via audio. I forgot about it cause its update schedule is "when the dude writes and records an entire horror short story", i.e. not very frequent.

Some of it's really, really effective horror. Like, one story legit freaked me the hell out it was that good. "No I don't want to go outside for a cigarette it's dark out there I'll just quit smoking it's okay"- levels.

Magnus Archives was okay for the first bit, it had some cool ideas. But eventually it started having this whole meta-narrative thing that just turned me right off, plus they started adding some absolutely garbage stock sound effects like 90 episodes in for no reason.

ravenkult
Feb 3, 2011


Blastedhellscape posted:


Um. This may be a weird and controversial suggestion but I actually think that the Nosleep podcast has some pretty good combinations of voice actor plus story, but you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff because it's a long-running anthology series. The best narrators are Peter Lewis, Jessica Mcevoy and Nikkole Doolin, and they tend to get assigned the better stories.

Stories on nosleep that I'd recommend searching for to hear some great horror with good voice acting: The Mummer Man, Black on Black, The Things We See in the Woods, Smidge, The Whistlers, and Somewhere Someone is Lonelier Than You.

NoSleep, like most horror fiction podcasts is pretty good when you start listening and gets progressively worse the more you listen as you get overexposed to reddit style creepypasta nonsense. It's good while it lasts though (it might just be me being cranky).

Along the same lines I enjoyed Small Town Horror, which is a single narrative told over episodes. Didn't go past season 1 as I thought it jumped the shark.

Then you have something like Pseudopod which attracts more professional authors and has more conventional horror stories.

And another vote for Knifepoint Horror. In written form it's utter nonsense that goes on for far too long, but as audio it's fantastic.

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

Nothing ever good comes from reddit unless it travels though at least five different people's recommendations. Honest to god, we need some sort of ban on publishing fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, and lovely reddit posts from nosleep or whatever horror forums there are on that place. I love indie and self publishing but there is some poo poo that simply shouldn't see the light of day outside of online spaces.

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



value-brand cereal posted:

Nothing ever good comes from reddit unless it travels though at least five different people's recommendations. Honest to god, we need some sort of ban on publishing fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, and lovely reddit posts from nosleep or whatever horror forums there are on that place. I love indie and self publishing but there is some poo poo that simply shouldn't see the light of day outside of online spaces.

And yet There is No Antimemetics Division is some of the best horror I've read in years, and it's basically the product of online-only fiction.

TBF it's unusual in that it is very high quality, probably actually saw some editing, and the SCP community at least nominally had some expectation of quality and somewhere along the line, somebody or a group of somebodys were determining what submissions actually made whatever arbitrary quality bar they had set. I guess in that sense Antimemetics is probably the exception that proves the rule, but there's definitely some good horror fiction in online spaces that can make the jump to publishing, it just takes some digging to find.

I'd through Magnus Archives on the audio horror list, it also has the caveat that listening to too many in a row can make it feel very repetitive or cheesy, but one every once in a while can be pretty effective. The podcast narrator also went on to write a horror novel called Thirteen Storeys which I thought was a bit hit-or-miss in terms of the quality of the stories, but the performances were generally very good.

Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

The best audio horror I've listened to by a long shot were I Am in Eskew and The Silt Verses, both done by the same people.

I Am in Eskew is about a man trapped in a bizarre city (quite literally; he's technically free to leave, but all that's outside is an endlessly repeating suburb) full of bizarre happenings. Starts off slow, gets more intense as it goes and ends up with an overarching plot by the end, but imo the more weird than scary slice-of-life-in-an-impossible-city stuff (akin to a short story audiobook) in the beginning is better. It's entirely voiced by the two people who created it.

The Silt Verses is about a world where gods are real, and the two illegal murder cultist main characters might actually worship one of the nicer ones, all things said. This one is plot-heavy from the word go and full of super intense body horror. A second season is coming. This one brings in real voice actors, which is good because it actually has a cast. Not as audiobookish as early Eskew, but still worth noting.

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

MockingQuantum posted:

And yet There is No Antimemetics Division is some of the best horror I've read in years, and it's basically the product of online-only fiction.

TBF it's unusual in that it is very high quality, probably actually saw some editing, and the SCP community at least nominally had some expectation of quality and somewhere along the line, somebody or a group of somebodys were determining what submissions actually made whatever arbitrary quality bar they had set. I guess in that sense Antimemetics is probably the exception that proves the rule, but there's definitely some good horror fiction in online spaces that can make the jump to publishing, it just takes some digging to find.

Oh, There is No Antimemetics Division is a multi-author anthology? I should give it another shot. I didn't like the first two stories so I moved on

Analog
Feb 2, 2001

I've recently finished reading The Stand and Carrier Wave and although I enjoyed both of them overall, I really liked the earlier parts of both where things are just transitioning between "normal day" and "holy poo poo this is crazy". Any other book recommendations that have lengthy parts containing that sort of thing?

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

MockingQuantum posted:

And yet There is No Antimemetics Division is some of the best horror I've read in years, and it's basically the product of online-only fiction.

TBF it's unusual in that it is very high quality, probably actually saw some editing, and the SCP community at least nominally had some expectation of quality and somewhere along the line, somebody or a group of somebodys were determining what submissions actually made whatever arbitrary quality bar they had set. I guess in that sense Antimemetics is probably the exception that proves the rule, but there's definitely some good horror fiction in online spaces that can make the jump to publishing, it just takes some digging to find.

I'd through Magnus Archives on the audio horror list, it also has the caveat that listening to too many in a row can make it feel very repetitive or cheesy, but one every once in a while can be pretty effective. The podcast narrator also went on to write a horror novel called Thirteen Storeys which I thought was a bit hit-or-miss in terms of the quality of the stories, but the performances were generally very good.

If we miss out on outlier gems like 'TINAD' then I'm ok with that. I've been burned too many times. I read Stolen Tongues by felix blackwell and please tell me that's worth anything at all. Imo it's not. Four loving hours of reading a meandering, repetitive shitfest wherein all the indigenous characters who live 'on the reservation, no we're not naming which one or what Nation' dies gruesomely while the white moron characters flop around into a happy ending. Also the evil is defeat by the indigenous magic shaman saying some words off screen and the possessed victim spewing out black clouds a la Supernatural. Also the one woman character is a one dimensional cartoon character not unlike those rage comics 4chan used to put out. gently caress repackaging reddit posts as novels.

Then again I'll happily eat my words if and when I read 'TINAD' and it turns out not hot poo poo. I mean, I did enjoy Langan's The Fisherman and Ligotti. This thread does have some good taste :shobon: Also, so I'm not just complaining, I'd like to mention Nightlight. It's Black horror written by Black authors, and narrated by Black people. Some episodes do have sound effects which may irritate those with misophonia, or low tolerance for such sound effects in general.

https://nightlightpod.com/

Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

I didn't care for Antimemetics, mainly because it carried on way too long. The same author just released a new story that's much shorter, subtler and imo more horrifying.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


Yo read The Only Good Indians, is a gooder

DreamingofRoses
Jun 27, 2013
Nap Ghost

Blastedhellscape posted:

I thought the dude who narrated North American Lake Monsters did an amazing job. He had this very gravelly, unapoligetically redneck voice that fit with a majority of the stories.

Um. This may be a weird and controversial suggestion but I actually think that the Nosleep podcast has some pretty good combinations of voice actor plus story, but you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff because it's a long-running anthology series. The best narrators are Peter Lewis, Jessica Mcevoy and Nikkole Doolin, and they tend to get assigned the better stories.

Stories on nosleep that I'd recommend searching for to hear some great horror with good voice acting: The Mummer Man, Black on Black, The Things We See in the Woods, Smidge, The Whistlers, and Somewhere Someone is Lonelier Than You.

I like the no sleep podcast too.

Y’all might enjoy the Old Gods of Appalachia podcast, and Unwell podcasts if you’re looking for horror. I also like The White Vault. I liked the Black Tapes Podcast and Tanis but I feel they lost the thread after a certain point.

Opopanax
Aug 8, 2007

I HEX YE!!!


Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is on sale today, is that any good? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it recommended in here but I feel like I might be mixing it up with Negative Space

MockingQuantum
Jan 20, 2012



N-N-N-NINE BREAKER posted:

Oh, There is No Antimemetics Division is a multi-author anthology? I should give it another shot. I didn't like the first two stories so I moved on

It isn't, I was talking about SCP in general in regards to multiple authors. Antimemetics is all one author (as far as I know) but it was originally posted on the SCP wiki, that's why I brought it up. FWIW the story gets increasingly more involved and goes some places that recontexualize earlier stories, and I think it wasn't until the third or fourth story that I really got hooked. The style and tone stay pretty consistent throughout though, so if that's what was turning you off, you may not care for the rest.

Opopanax posted:

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is on sale today, is that any good? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it recommended in here but I feel like I might be mixing it up with Negative Space

It's more of a straight-up thriller, though I guess you could argue some bits of it are more horror-flavored. I remember very little about it other than the broad story, which probably tells you most of what you need to know. It's fine and an easy, entertaining read, but airport-fiction level quality than anything to rave about.

Blastedhellscape
Jan 1, 2008
To further (half-heartedly) defend creepypasta-style stuff, I’ve got to say that The Visible Filth was the story on Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud that struck me the hardest and keeps haunting me after I finished the anthology. The story did a perfect job making use of the horrors of the digital age. Finding a smart phone from some random person you might never be able to find or meet again with weird and horrifying stuff stored on it. The dread of text message notifications. Noticing that your partner might have just gone down a weird internet rabbit hole and been forever changed by it…or maybe they were always messed up and you never realized?

It was also the story in Wounds that hewn closest to North American Lake Monsters, since it was a character portrait of someone at a strange and pivotal point in their life, just nudged a little by some supernatural poo poo happening to them.

I really enjoyed all the stories in Wounds, though. The Butcher’s Table was an amazing merger of epic fantasy and horror. Plus I automatically love anything that takes place during the golden age of piracy.

On a different: I was trying to find a new audiobook to listen to with my January credit, stumbled onto some booktuber’s video recommending horror novels written by women, and thought I’d pick out one of the books that seemed interesting from that video. Books that jumped out at me were Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (sea horror and killer mermaids), White Pines by Gemma Amor (seems like a supernatural epic horror story with some mystery box elements), High Lonesome Sound by Jaye Wells (sounds like a gothic hosed-up-small-town mystery). Also The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling, which is a favorite in the science fiction thread here, and seems to be all about the horrors of isolation, spelunking, and toxic relationships.

I’m curious if anyone here has read any of these books and has any thumbs-up or thumbs-down thoughts any of these books.

value-brand cereal
May 2, 2008

Lonesome Sound by Jaye Wells I started and then put aside after 11 chapters / 13 percent. There was a lot of child abuse / domestic abuse / violence and it was just not my thing. It was a lil tiring to read small town folk being inbred child/wife beating drunkards. Maybe once the horror kicks in, it will become tolerable? Loud question mark? It doesn't help that I was reading
Revelator by Daryl Gregory alongside it and it was doing the backwoods cosmic folk horror a lot better. I haven't finished it yet but yeah I like it a lot so far.

quote:

In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. These remote hills of the Smoky Mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family’s personal god, an entity known as Ghostdaddy.
Fifteen years later, after a tragic incident had caused her to flee, Stella–now a professional moonshiner and bootleger–returns for Motty’s funeral, only to discover a mysterious ten-year-old girl named Sunny living on the property. Sunny appears innocent enough, but she is more powerful than Stella could ever imagine–and a direct link to Stella’s buried past and her family’s destructive faith.
Haunting and wholly engrossing, summoning mesmerizing voices and giving shape to the dark, Revelator is a southern gothic tale for the ages.
note it's got some period / location typical antiblackness. Like a fair amount.

I read The Luminous Dead and it's definitely more scifi than horror. I really enjoyed it and thought the toxic relationship and the setting was pretty tense. But if you want horror a la paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise, it may disappoint. Just go in with tempered expectations, imo.

If you or anyone wants more cave based horror, The Maw by Taylor Zajonc was pretty interesting. Granted I read it a long time ago, but it stuck in my head to this day as creepy and cool. I do recall it going a lil batshit at the end.

quote:

For fans of Clive Cussler and Michael Crichton, a thrilling tale of an underground expedition to the deep . . . and the ultimate struggle for survival.

Milo Luttrell never expected to step inside the mouth of an ancient cave in rural Tanzania. After all, he's a historian--not an archaeologist. Summoned under the guise of a mysterious life-changing opportunity, Milo suddenly finds himself in the midst of an expedition into the largest underground system in Africa, helmed by a brash billionaire-turned-exploration guru and his elite team of cavers. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to finally solve a century-old disappearance of the famed explorer Lord Riley DeWar, an enigmatic figure who both made--and nearly ruined--Milo's fledgling career.

Determined to make the most of his second chance, Milo joins the team and begins a harrowing descent into one of Earth's last secrets: a dangerous, pitch-black realm of twisting passages and ancient fossils nearly two thousand feet underground. But when a storm hits the surface base camp, stranding the cavers and washing away supplies, all communication to the outside world is lost. As the remaining resources dwindle and members of the team begin to exhibit strange and terrifying abilities, Milo must brave the encroaching darkness to unearth the truth behind DeWar's fascination with the deep--and why he never left.

By the way, was this the thread that suggested Biogenesis by Tatsuaki Ishiguro? I really liked Snow Maiden, even if it was potentially racist about Ainu people. Also the second to last story was pretty creepy, albeit about ghost flowers than anything traditionally horror. I'm not sure I understand the weeping winged mouse story, though.

Opopanax
Aug 8, 2007

I HEX YE!!!


Blastedhellscape posted:

To further (half-heartedly) defend creepypasta-style stuff, I’ve got to say that The Visible Filth was the story on Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud that struck me the hardest and keeps haunting me after I finished the anthology. The story did a perfect job making use of the horrors of the digital age. Finding a smart phone from some random person you might never be able to find or meet again with weird and horrifying stuff stored on it. The dread of text message notifications. Noticing that your partner might have just gone down a weird internet rabbit hole and been forever changed by it…or maybe they were always messed up and you never realized?

It was also the story in Wounds that hewn closest to North American Lake Monsters, since it was a character portrait of someone at a strange and pivotal point in their life, just nudged a little by some supernatural poo poo happening to them.

I really enjoyed all the stories in Wounds, though. The Butcher’s Table was an amazing merger of epic fantasy and horror. Plus I automatically love anything that takes place during the golden age of piracy.

On a different: I was trying to find a new audiobook to listen to with my January credit, stumbled onto some booktuber’s video recommending horror novels written by women, and thought I’d pick out one of the books that seemed interesting from that video. Books that jumped out at me were Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (sea horror and killer mermaids), White Pines by Gemma Amor (seems like a supernatural epic horror story with some mystery box elements), High Lonesome Sound by Jaye Wells (sounds like a gothic hosed-up-small-town mystery). Also The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling, which is a favorite in the science fiction thread here, and seems to be all about the horrors of isolation, spelunking, and toxic relationships.

I’m curious if anyone here has read any of these books and has any thumbs-up or thumbs-down thoughts any of these books.

I read Luminous Dead last year and it was quite good. It's not quite amazing or groundbreaking but it was well written and consistently entertaining

grobbo
May 29, 2014
The Visible Filth is great but I wanted Ballingrud to ratchet things up more apocalyptically at the end. An epidemic of terrifying angelic figures looking / climbing out of open wounds is awesome, and it deserved to go all the way (all the weirder that the adaptation was more interested in the bugs).

Lil Mama Im Sorry
Oct 14, 2012

I'M BACK AND I'M SCARIN' WHITE FOLKS
anyone know which Ray Bradbury story from The Illustrated Man Deleuze and Guatarri are referencing here?

quote:

Strictly speaking, it is not true that a baby experiences his mother's breast as a separate part of her body. It exists, rather, as a part of a desiring-machine connected to the baby's mouth, and is experienced as an object providing a nonpersonal flow of milk, be it copious or scanty. A desiring-machine and a partial object do not represent anything, A partial object is not representative, even though it admittedly serves as a basis of relations and as a means of assigning agents a place and a function; but these agents are not persons, any more than these relations are intersubjective. They are relations of production as such, and agents of production and antiproduction. Ray Bradbury demonstrates this very well when he describes the nursery as a place where desiring-production and group fantasy occur, as a place where the only connection is that between partial objects and agents.

Opopanax
Aug 8, 2007

I HEX YE!!!


Lil Mama Im Sorry posted:

anyone know which Ray Bradbury story from The Illustrated Man Deleuze and Guatarri are referencing here?

Almost certainly The Veldt

Lil Mama Im Sorry
Oct 14, 2012

I'M BACK AND I'M SCARIN' WHITE FOLKS

Opopanax posted:

Almost certainly The Veldt

excellent, this is definitely it. thank you.

Opopanax
Aug 8, 2007

I HEX YE!!!


Answering my own questions again and read Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first Dexter book. It was good, but plays out quite differently from the show. It's also kind of oddly paced, the Ice Truck Killer doesn't actually show up until about 20 pages to the end and the ending itself is pretty abrupt, but I'm interested to move to the next one and see this new status quo.
The one real issue is in the story telling itself; its all first person narration from Dexter and he talks like Hannibal Lecter crossed with a 14 year old posting on LiveJournal, and he's way too on the whole time. It's good despite that and it does calm down a bit as the book goes on, but it was a little grating.

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Opopanax
Aug 8, 2007

I HEX YE!!!


I know Max Brooks isn't the most popular around here but Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre had an interesting enough concept I wanted to check it out. It's about a small tech commune in Northern Washington that gets cut off when Rainier erupts, and winds up getting a herd of Bigfoot driven right into them. It's set up as a sort of investigative documentary like World War Z, with the brunt of it being the recovered diary of one resident, then some other bits inserted for context and background. I was a bit worried since the introduction doesn't leave a lot of room for imagination, but even knowing what it's all the about the "how it happened" was really well written. Definitely recommend it, and if you're into audiobooks it honestly seems more like it was written to be one of those.

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