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value-brand cereal posted:This person sound cool and smart. Thread, you should listen to them. This was a very satisfying read, thanks for the recc. I love a good haunted house story
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Mar 22, 2023 10:58
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Hi, I was hoping for some recommendations in the haunted house vein? I really enjoyed The Spite House mentioned above. I also liked The Family Plot by Cherie Priest and The Broken Girls by Simone St John. Both are "yep, haunted, ghosts are real" and have pretty strong female characters.
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Mar 22, 2023 23:44
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You've read The Haunting of the Hill House, right?
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Mar 22, 2023 23:46
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I really liked Hell House and Kill Creek as well.
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Mar 23, 2023 02:35
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Franchescanado posted:I finished reading Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce recently. I read this a year or two back and really enjoyed it too. There is a BotM thread on it a page or two back
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Mar 23, 2023 03:01
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Sloth Life posted:Hi, I was hoping for some recommendations in the haunted house vein? The Elementals by Michael McDowell
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Mar 23, 2023 03:34
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Thank you all! That's given me lots of options
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Mar 23, 2023 09:30
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escape artist posted:NATHAN BALLINGRUD'S DEBUT NOVEL drops today! Anyone reading this? The book is The Strange by the way. I’m sure it’s good based on Nathan’s writing alone but everything I’ve seen paints it as decidedly not horror (more western in space/alt history) and a departure from his short story collections. I’d pick it up based on the writer alone but I’m already pretty stacked on my queue
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Mar 23, 2023 17:13
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I bought it to read later but I was definitely wary reading the description lol
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Mar 23, 2023 17:26
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I still haven't got my hard copy yet (long story short, I ordered a signed copy from that bookstore before I knew about signing, that is why I got Wounds signed instead), but from the reading he makes it sound like it is a cross of Bradbury' The Martian Chronicles and Portis' True Grit (both I do consider great works of art). He claims it is influenced somewhat by his love of pulp fiction, but he wouldn't call it sci-fi. He said it is more of dark fantasy with some horror elements. One thing he does do, is he uses the Mars he read about in pulpy books as a kid instead of the science version of Mars. Example his Mars' has breathable air just because that is how he imagined it when he was young. No hard sci-fi here. If you think about Wounds, it was a departure from NALM, and with those 2 collections he has earned more than enough trust from me to make a blind purchase. Plus his future publishing will depend on well this book does since his first novel. He did get a shoutout from Paul Tremblay on Twitter (he called it weird, disturbing, and soulful), which I hope helps him sell more books. nate fisher fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Mar 23, 2023 |
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Mar 23, 2023 17:56
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His strength is in his world building so I'm open to something less horror of his, but it's $18 for the ebook and I have just shy of 300 books on my reader as is so I'm going to wait for a sale
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Mar 23, 2023 18:34
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gently caress, I made a post reviewing The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson and The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig, and submitted it and lost it. will post again later tonight
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Mar 23, 2023 19:48
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I just started reading Between Two Fires late last night after seeing the glowing praise here (and having never heard of it previously). I’m halfway thru and goddamn this is a great novel so far. If it weren’t for the fact that I’m feverish and feeling lovely, I probably otherwise would’ve finished it in a single sitting.
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Mar 24, 2023 22:41
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C2C - 2.0 posted:I just started reading Between Two Fires late last night after seeing the glowing praise here (and having never heard of it previously). I recommend sitting between two fires.
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Mar 24, 2023 23:17
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zoux posted:I recommend sitting between two fires. I’m not the pope! 
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Mar 24, 2023 23:49
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Being feverish is an ideal way to read it
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Mar 25, 2023 00:02
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Maybe it’s the lingering delirium from my illness, but that ended up being one of the best novels I’ve read in years.
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Mar 25, 2023 16:32
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It was great, but I will say I wasn't really a fan of Those Across the River. Can't really recommend, kinda clunky and weird.
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Mar 28, 2023 17:49
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Punkin Spunkin posted:It was great, but I will say I wasn't really a fan of Those Across the River. Can't really recommend, kinda clunky and weird.
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Mar 28, 2023 18:05
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okay, I re read Between Two Fires and now I'm wondering if there is anything that is in the same vein. I know it's pretty specific, it doesn't have to be some kind of black death themed horror. what I'm looking for is more stuff that's mysterious but dark. idk if you liked this book just recommend me your faves Also I have gotten the local horror book club to read this as book of the month in June. SSJ_naruto_2003 fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Mar 30, 2023 |
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Mar 30, 2023 10:14
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:okay, I re read Between Two Fires and now I'm wondering if there is anything that is in the same vein. I know it's pretty specific, it doesn't have to be some kind of black death themed horror.
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Mar 30, 2023 10:44
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:okay, I re read Between Two Fires and now I'm wondering if there is anything that is in the same vein. I know it's pretty specific, it doesn't have to be some kind of black death themed horror. Seconding the Tyll recommendation - Nobber by Oisin Fagan is also good if weird, hallucinatory historical fiction is up your street
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Mar 30, 2023 22:17
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For more medieval road-trip/dark fantasy/horror, I'd suggest The Sad Tale of Brothers Grossbart. The caveat is that the protagonists are real assholes.
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Mar 30, 2023 23:22
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I don’t know how people itt feel about comics, but I’m finally getting around to Lake of Fire and it’s really good. A ship full of basically Xenomorphs crash lands in France during a crusade and a handful of knights have to deal with it. Good little story to scratch that Between Two Fires itch
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Apr 1, 2023 17:22
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Opopanax posted:I don’t know how people itt feel about comics, but I’m finally getting around to Lake of Fire and it’s really good. A ship full of basically Xenomorphs crash lands in France during a crusade and a handful of knights have to deal with it. Good little story to scratch that Between Two Fires itch YOOOO this sounds like my poo poo! e: oh god drat it it's a comic. Well maybe it's still my poo poo
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Apr 1, 2023 18:04
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That was literally my first sentence  it's its own thing and only 5 issues, at least, so it's not like you need to read a bunch of tie ins or anything
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Apr 1, 2023 19:49
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collected its like 15bux on amazon. might have a go.anilEhilated posted:For more medieval road-trip/dark fantasy/horror, I'd suggest The Sad Tale of Brothers Grossbart. The caveat is that the protagonists are real assholes. that's soft selling it lmao.
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Apr 1, 2023 19:54
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Opopanax posted:I don’t know how people itt feel about comics, but I’m finally getting around to Lake of Fire and it’s really good. A ship full of basically Xenomorphs crash lands in France during a crusade and a handful of knights have to deal with it. Good little story to scratch that Between Two Fires itch You should read The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. An alien scout ship lands in England during the Hundred Years War, next to an army mustering to cross the Channel. The aliens try to intimidate the locals by frying a few randoms with rayguns; the English army immediately storms the ship, takes it over and blasts off into space. Hilarity ensues! 
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Apr 2, 2023 14:42
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Has anyone read Nathan Ballingrud's new book The Strange? Sounds like it's a dark sci-fi kinda deal? I just finished North American Lake Monsters for the second time and I'm debating reading Wounds again, but something new might be worth a try.
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Apr 3, 2023 01:57
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WHY BONER NOW posted:Has anyone read Nathan Ballingrud's new book The Strange? Sounds like it's a dark sci-fi kinda deal? I just finished North American Lake Monsters for the second time and I'm debating reading Wounds again, but something new might be worth a try. I finished it last week. It's a lot different from his other work - it's more like a sort of weird space western with some light horror elements, but the emphasis is definitely on weird, rather than horrific. I enjoyed it, though, and it's worth reading.
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Apr 3, 2023 14:41
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Thanks, I'll put it on the to do list. Reading NALM takes me a long time because after each story I need to take a break and digest it...it will be interesting to read a full blown novel from him
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Apr 3, 2023 18:27
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It's good, and while not horror, it's not NOT horror either. The mix of very authentic and emotional characters with the pastiche of 'wild west but on mars' sometimes clashed tonally for me though. It's hard to go from a very real feeling sense of a child's disillusionment with authority to 'jefferson davis' space program' in like two sentences.
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Apr 7, 2023 19:32
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Struggling with Winterset Hollow at the moment. I quite like the premise, but the prose is... Odd. I want to say overwrought, but maybe it's trying to do something that I'm just not here for. Some individually great sentences surrounded by paragraphs that feel like English as a second language, and deeply strange adjective choices. Now I wonder: aside from Ligotti, who's writing horror with masterful prose these days, who isn't also trying to do allegory? Like, North American Lake Monsters is beautiful, but I can only read so many stories about how people / grief / toxic masculinity are the real monsters. Sometimes you just want a monster surrounded by great prose, you know? Or, in Ligotti's case, a monster in the form of brief glimpses into a relentlessly nightmarish universe behind the thin veil of our illusions. On a separate note, how are John Langan's collections since Sefira? I haven't really heard anything about Children of the Fang or Corpsemouth, didn't even realize they'd come out until I went looking to see if he'd done anything lately.
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Apr 9, 2023 20:58
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Kestral posted:Struggling with Winterset Hollow at the moment. I quite like the premise, but the prose is... Odd. I want to say overwrought, but maybe it's trying to do something that I'm just not here for. Some individually great sentences surrounded by paragraphs that feel like English as a second language, and deeply strange adjective choices. I liked more stories in Children of the Fang, than I did Corpsemouth or Sefira, but there's a certain consistency to his writing that I enjoy now that I've worked through all of his stuff. And I still generally liked all the stories, there are just some that clearly stand out. But for me, Children of the Fang had more "okay, this is cool" moments.
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Apr 9, 2023 22:29
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DurianGray posted:Last night I finished reading Leech by Hiron Ennes. It's a sort of gothic horror, fantasy, sci-fi, post-post-apocalypse. The point of view character is a sort of parasite hivemind that lives in human hosts, and the world itself is an interesting far-future climate-wrecked France (there's occasional use of weird speculative future French that I thought was a neat touch). The main character is a doctor who is sent to take care of an ailing baron who rules over a far-north mountain mining town as well as find out what/who killed its previous host body that was stationed there. Crossposting from the scifi thread because I ended up reading and quite enjoying this, excellent prose and dialog, strange setting and characters, and very interesting perspective. This book is written in first person from a body-snatching hivemind, and it got me thinking, what are some other good books from the perspective from the monster? Grendel, though that's not really horror, Interview with the Vampire and others in that series, Lesser Dead is vampire POV, what else?
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Apr 11, 2023 15:37
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Idle Amalgam posted:I liked more stories in Children of the Fang, than I did Corpsemouth or Sefira, but there's a certain consistency to his writing that I enjoy now that I've worked through all of his stuff. And I still generally liked all the stories, there are just some that clearly stand out. Excellent, I'll put Children of the Fang into the queue and come back for Corpsemouth later - thanks! zoux posted:Crossposting from the scifi thread because I ended up reading and quite enjoying this, excellent prose and dialog, strange setting and characters, and very interesting perspective. If short fiction is okay, The Things by Peter Watts is exactly this and quiet good, nominated for a Hugo among several others, and winner of the 2010 Shirley Jackson award. Watts is a master of the alien POV, also featured in (and arguably central to) his full-length SF horror novel Blindsight, highly recommended.
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Apr 12, 2023 03:00
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Kestral posted:Now I wonder: aside from Ligotti, who's writing horror with masterful prose these days, who isn't also trying to do allegory? Like, North American Lake Monsters is beautiful, but I can only read so many stories about how people / grief / toxic masculinity are the real monsters. Sometimes you just want a monster surrounded by great prose, you know? Or, in Ligotti's case, a monster in the form of brief glimpses into a relentlessly nightmarish universe behind the thin veil of our illusions. I would put Gemma Files in this category. A lot of her monsters are just hosed up monsters for monstersake.
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Apr 12, 2023 05:08
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Same for Christopher Slatsky and Philip Fracassi. The former writes along the Ligotti lines and the latter similar to what you get in Wounds, but with a good hit of Americana in some stories (The Soda Jerk being one short story). Also you need to read the WXXT books by Mathew Bartlett
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Apr 12, 2023 05:23
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hell, your post reminded me that I need to read Beneath a Pale Sky by Fracassi myself, thanks OP
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Apr 13, 2023 03:16
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I made it about five pages into one of Fracassi’s collections before moving on. atrocious prose and worse dialogue
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Apr 13, 2023 21:08
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