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value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Mar 26, 2025 |
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Mar 7, 2025 17:39
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value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Mar 26, 2025 |
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Mar 7, 2025 17:43
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value-brand cereal posted:All the Prospect Around Us by C. S. Humble [white american man] I picked up All These Subtle Deceits on impulse when I bought something else from that publisher a while ago, I liked it well enough but thought the writing was a bit on the weak side. Good to hear the sequel is an improvement, I'll have to check it out. The version I had also included a short story by the same author, I forget the name offhand but it had a Between Two Fires/medieval fantasy horror vibe to it and I thought it was neat.
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Mar 7, 2025 17:47
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So one person's insomniac neurodivergent insanity, paraphrasing you, is another forum user's treasure. I love when you make these posts. I don't have time to read through them all right now but I did notice the line "it's no Fantasticland" - did you like that story? The premise sounds interesting, Lord of the Flies esque, but the reviews semeed lackluster. gey muckle mowser posted:I picked up All These Subtle Deceits on impulse when I bought something else from that publisher a while ago, I liked it well enough but thought the writing was a bit on the weak side. Good to hear the sequel is an improvement, I'll have to check it out. If it sucks, I'll take it 
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Mar 7, 2025 18:07
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value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Mar 26, 2025 |
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Mar 7, 2025 18:23
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I encourage you all to read The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. Horror-scifi-detective-thriller with the vibes of Twin Peaks.
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Mar 7, 2025 18:35
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value-brand cereal posted:Old Soul by Susan Barker [white american woman] cycle of abuse I hadn't quite caught that when I read it and found this to be insightful. The epilogue was especially very important for my understanding of the book. still kinda disappointed Jake died
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Mar 7, 2025 18:41
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caspergers posted:I encourage you all to read The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. Horror-scifi-detective-thriller with the vibes of Twin Peaks. One of the best books I read last year, great page turner, very True Detective S1 as well
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Mar 7, 2025 21:49
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I love your posts value brand cereal, please don't stop doing them!
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Mar 7, 2025 22:38
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Yeah, thanks value brand cereal! I always end up going through these to find a good spook'um (but the real scare is society???) to dive into.
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Mar 7, 2025 22:56
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value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Mar 26, 2025 |
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Mar 7, 2025 23:46
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caspergers posted:I encourage you all to read The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. Horror-scifi-detective-thriller with the vibes of Twin Peaks. Oh this is sick
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Mar 8, 2025 00:10
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Another note on Old Soul, I really wish it had been longer. And I rarely say that about books.
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Mar 8, 2025 01:26
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Also I've discovered my favorite narrative style, commercially anyway, is testimonies, interviews and investigations, aka any book where the story unfolds through several subjective accounts. I'll take any horror recommendations that fit the bill, following examples like Old Soul Night Film It (kinda) Last Days (Neville) I honestly the Fisherman to go this route when I first read it, and it might have ruined the story but I woulda dug the absolute poo poo outta that
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Mar 8, 2025 01:40
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Wachter posted:Oh this is sick I should clarify it's got the atmosphere and uncanniness of Twin Peaks the Return and not the humor or whimsy of the first run. Once I saw your reply I felt compelled because I know how serious these things can be. E: like Jeep said, True Detective is also a good comparison caspergers fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Mar 8, 2025 |
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Mar 8, 2025 01:44
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caspergers posted:Also I've discovered my favorite narrative style, commercially anyway, is testimonies, interviews and investigations, aka any book where the story unfolds through several subjective accounts. I'll take any horror recommendations that fit the bill, following examples like The obvious one is Carrie, which I maintain is King's best book
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Mar 8, 2025 01:46
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I'm trying to read more horror because it helps me deal with this poo poo world somehow. I'm a queer trans (white) guy and I want to read more by people both very similar and very different from me. More queer (m/m in particular) and less culturally monotonous (White America) From those very long posts I added Anybody Home?, Blood from the Air, Posthaste Manor, The Briars, The Once-Yellow House, The Truest Sense, and Thirteen to my loooooong collection of books I want to stuff on my Kindle. I can also link my hella embarrassing Goodreads. I don't like zombies because I find them boring. I dislike body horror because it reminds me of how I felt pre-transition. Hand and forearm injuries I am clinically phobic of and torture really isn't my thing. No torture porn please. Please recommend me books or series or authors. I can read pretty quickly and don't fear bricks if they're interesting enough.
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Mar 8, 2025 06:06
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:More queer (m/m in particular) and less culturally monotonous (White America) Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez hits both of these points. Some people find it a bit long winded and meandering but I thoroughly enjoyed it. E: I guess I should have finished reading your whole post before rushing to post myself. The book does feature quite a bit of graphic violence and body horror so it might not be something you'd enjoy Traxis fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Mar 8, 2025 |
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Mar 8, 2025 07:04
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:I'm trying to read more horror because it helps me deal with this poo poo world somehow. I'm a queer trans (white) guy and I want to read more by people both very similar and very different from me. More queer (m/m in particular) and less culturally monotonous (White America) Check out Valancourt Books, most of their publications don't involve body horror. I highly recommend Robert Westall's work. Spectral Shadows has some of his best stuff, Yaxley's Cat is especially terrifying. fez_machine fucked around with this message at 12:42 on Mar 8, 2025 |
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Mar 8, 2025 12:34
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caspergers posted:I should clarify it's got the atmosphere and uncanniness of Twin Peaks the Return and not the humor or whimsy of the first run. Once I saw your reply I felt compelled because I know how serious these things can be. Nah you're good; and you're right, it's obvious from the first two pages that the Twin Peaks influence is way closer to The Return than the original series. Besides True Detective I picked up on other influences which it seems to wear quite proudly on its sleeve: Southern Reach (secret agents vs gradually encroaching supernatural disaster), the Netflix series Dark (time-knot-fuckery), more than a little soupçon of Event Horizon (cursed spaceship with a borked time-drive, zero-g butchery), Hyperion (nightmare visions of the future; the endless crucifixion forest evokes the Shrike), Tenet, the criminally underrated horror movie Triangle, all poo poo I really really like wrapped up in an insane little package. The Libra crew spawn-camping their "echoes" and painting the ship in their blood and fingernails is an image that'll stay with me for a long time. And unless I missed something, I really liked that there was no need or attempt to explain Esperance/the Terminus/the White Hole/QTNs; they really were just Lovecraftian hell aliens that end the world, horribly, just by noticing it. Hell yeah!!!
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Mar 8, 2025 12:39
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:I'm trying to read more horror because it helps me deal with this poo poo world somehow. I'm a queer trans (white) guy and I want to read more by people both very similar and very different from me. More queer (m/m in particular) and less culturally monotonous (White America) I read a lot of trans and queer horror (I'm nonbinary myself) and I'm looking through what I've read lately, and man, trans horror authors love to use body horror. Or that might be confirmation bias because I personally find body horror really cathartic. However, I've read one novel by Lee Mandelo (he's a trans white/american guy) that would probably fit your bill! Summer Sons has some kinda messy m/m relationships in it and is sort of a ghost/evil secret society/amateur crime investigation story from what I remember. It's also got a lot of parts with fast cars. He has a new book out called The Woods All Black that I haven't ready yet, but is on my TBR. It's described as "equal parts historical horror, trans romance, and blood-soaked revenge, all set in 1920s Appalachia." All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes (queer English non-binary person) has a trans masc protagonist and m/m-relationship characters. It's a horror novel set during during the golden age of Antarctic expedition. It does have kind of a graphic leg injury/infection/surgery scene though if that might be a no-go for you. Wilkes has another Victorian-era Arctic book out too that I think is also gay, but I haven't read that one yet. For something super different, The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate (gay Mexican author) is a retelling of the voyage of the Demeter part of Dracula from the very gay and very horny ship's captain's point of view. It's really beautifully written (even in translation) and kind of trippy in a really neat way. Just a really unique book that actually does something really interesting with the source material. It's really really horny though (in case that is either a selling point or a reason to skip it for you). Also, I'd suggest maybe checking out books on The StoryGraph in part because there are community submitted content warnings you can check that are ranked by how severe the thing is (and they have a pretty exhaustive list of Things people can set warnings for). So it's easy to see if something has been tagged with Graphic or Moderate body horror. And you can import all of your goodreads stuff super easily if you're interested in using it (though you can kinda only do it once and have it work correctly from what I gather).
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Mar 8, 2025 14:04
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:Please recommend me books or series or authors. I can read pretty quickly and don't fear bricks if they're interesting enough. I've mentioned Old Soul a lot already, but it features many queer and bi characters, and another recent one I didn't get a chance to finish called All the Hearts You Can Eat whose main character is trans (from what I could tell, this one is definitely more queer centric/centered on the queer experience). Black River Orchard features some enby characters but the book itself isn't essentially queer. But yeah All the Hearts You Can Eat is freshest example in my mind. Only reason I didn't finish is because it's more literary when I was in the mood for something dumb and commercial at the time.
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Mar 8, 2025 14:47
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caspergers posted:Also I've discovered my favorite narrative style, commercially anyway, is testimonies, interviews and investigations, aka any book where the story unfolds through several subjective accounts. I'll take any horror recommendations that fit the bill, following examples like Fantasticland
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Mar 8, 2025 16:02
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DurianGray posted:I read a lot of trans and queer horror (I'm nonbinary myself) and I'm looking through what I've read lately, and man, trans horror authors love to use body horror. Or that might be confirmation bias because I personally find body horror really cathartic. I cannot speak for trans and queer authors/readers, but I really gravitate towards horror that challenges me and makes me uncomfortable or deal with feelings and situations in my past. For me, that is stories that emphasize addiction, mental health, family dynamics, etc. If I were to write a horror story it would almost certainly be about those topics. So on the one hand, I can sort of get why trans authors would write about body horror. I also can totally see why someone who lived an experience wouldn't want to read it for fun. I actually have to be in the right mindset for my own brand of horror and sometimes just want something lighter (but still horror haha). It does make me curious how many authors are writing "things they know", such as Stephen King and his many stories that are either directly or allegorically about addiction. I don't actually know much about any of the other authors I read.
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Mar 8, 2025 16:19
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Chas McGill posted:The obvious one is Carrie, which I maintain is King's best book It isn’t It
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Mar 8, 2025 16:32
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Opopanax posted:Fantasticland This is a good choice for that style Also I feel like with a request like that we’re obligated to bring up Max Brooks since that’s basically his thing. Devolution is ok but not great
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Mar 8, 2025 18:59
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Thanks for all of those suggestions y'all.
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Mar 8, 2025 23:27
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Ror posted:I love when people do reviews so thank you for the post, but also lmao No that's absolutely the right reaction, I was a weird loving kid, man. Anyway, thanks to this thread I looked into Mike Carey's Felix Castor books. Picked up "The Devil You Know" and liked it so much I bought the rest of the books around the 20% mark. The last time an urban fantasy with horror vibes series hit this hard was the Rivers of London series. Teach posted:I read If This Book Exists You're In The Wrong Universe, and while I finished it, I didn't enjoy all of it. I picked it up on a whim as I liked the cover designed, and blurb, and I loved some of the thoughts on life in the US at the bottom of the social scale - some of his ideas really struck me. I preferred those bits to the supernatural story. Yeah, even with John Dies at the End there were good ideas in the book, and in I'm Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom those ideas were coupled with good writing and a lack of cringey edgelord poo poo. So even though it's not horror as such, I definitely recommend Black Box.
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Mar 9, 2025 11:26
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value-brand cereal posted:I'm not nice about this book. LOL. Increasingly tired of allegedly Sapphic stories
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Mar 10, 2025 07:48
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:No that's absolutely the right reaction, I was a weird loving kid, man. The Felix Castor novels are great, even if Felix does feel a bit like John Constantine turned face (Scouse relocated to London, dealing with the trauma of his own fuckup that made him lose a friend to a demon). Did you read just the five novels, or were you able to trace a copy of The Ghost in Bone?
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Mar 10, 2025 12:11
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I've only read about 90% of the first one. I've got the Kindle versions of the rest ready to go. I have also never read any Constantine books (or comics?) so luckily I didn't even know!
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Mar 10, 2025 18:33
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I read Windows Into Hell, and it probably isn't a recommend from me, but I sure feel like posting about it. The book is an anthology horror collection with the theme that Zoroastrianism is the correct religion and if you aren't Zoroastrian then sucks to be you, welcome to hell. Good news, though, hell is temporary. You just need to complete some absurd task or learn some very specific lesson, and there appears to be a near infinite number of customized bespoke hells for different kinds of people. This is the point where I should mention that this set up only has the most passing resemblance to Zoroastrianism, in that in some of the religious traditions there's a purgatory between heaven and hell that's temporary and focused on learning. Mostly Zoroastrianism just seems to be a stand in for 'religion most people don't know much about'. The book is odd as a horror book in that there's almost nothing in here that fits with the modern conception. All of the horror comes from futility, boredom, and human minds dealing with what are basically geological time scales. You WILL get out of hell, even if no one in your specific version of hell has gotten out in thousands of years. You will eventually complete your task and leave by the sheer fact that your existence in that reality is infinite until you do. Almost all of the endings are unsatisfying which actually kind of adds to the feeling. Some of the stories just straight up don't work and should have been dropped. But yeah, I finished it, and then I felt compelled to write all these words about it. That's gotta mean something I guess.
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Mar 11, 2025 04:26
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:I've only read about 90% of the first one. I've got the Kindle versions of the rest ready to go. Ah, then I'm very glad I didn’t mention X, Y or Z that I nearly did mention. Enjoy them.
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Mar 11, 2025 10:46
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Jedit posted:Ah, then I'm very glad I didn’t mention X, Y or Z that I nearly did mention. Enjoy them. Cheers  Also I was not aware of another thing: Mike Carey wrote the Hellblazer comics, so now the Constantine thing makes a lot more sense. And if they're anything like Felix Castor, I think it's high time I fix that. Finished the first Castor book yesterday, really liked it. The Castorverse's version of the supernatural is really neat, and the book did a good job of making Castor feel capable without going overboard and making him into the world's strongest guy. Definite vibes of the early Harry Dresden books, and I hope these books steer away from turning the originally down on his luck everyman protagonist into a essentially a walking god by book 5. Anyway, starting "Vicious Circle" tonight, can't wait until it's reading time.
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Mar 11, 2025 14:47
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:Cheers Do, but Carey didn't create Constantine - he just did a long stint on the book that was very good as like both John and Felix, he's also a scouse transplanted to London.
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Mar 11, 2025 15:07
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Good Citizen posted:I read Windows Into Hell, and it probably isn't a recommend from me, but I sure feel like posting about it. Hey that sounds familiar, is that... yeah, okay, not only does it include A Short Stay in Hell, the other stories are inspired by it. A Short Stay in Hell is top tier, so I'm going to need to read this book eventually.
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Mar 11, 2025 16:00
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I'm here to complain about an Eric LaRocca novella I read, called The Skin Was Once Mind Again, the same problem I had with his first work, which is that the characters are created solely for the purpose of the twist. The twist is indistinguishable from the story. The characters serve the twist more than the twist serves the characters. The characters all feel hollow as gently caress
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Mar 12, 2025 21:35
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I tried reading Everything the Darkness Eats by that author and it was just weird. Thank you for giving me a reason not to return to it. Also, does anyone here get easily turned off by the blurb/descriptions of books?  This immediately exhausted me, it seems cheesy and masturbatory. I especially hate when it says something like "CARRIE meets HUNGER GAMES in this trilling tale..." BUT I'm constantly reminding myself that that's the publisher or whoever that decides whatever goes on the back cover, not the author. Nevertheless.
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Mar 13, 2025 23:42
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value-brand cereal fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Mar 26, 2025 |
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Mar 14, 2025 00:32
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value-brand cereal posted:False Bodies by J. R. McConvey [white canadian man]
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Mar 14, 2025 01:23
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