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In on the ground floor. Most recent horror things I've read and enjoyed have been Behold the Void (short story collection) by Philip Fracassi and Ballad of Black Tom (novella) by Victor LaValle. Looking forward to Paul Tremblay's latest, The Cabin at the End of the World. Has anyone read Kill Creek by Scott Thomas? I haven't (yet) but my understanding is that it falls under the haunted house theme.
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May 12, 2018 09:51
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Franchescanado posted:edit: Anyone else like Joe R. Lansdale? I liked quite a few stories in his short story collection Writer of the Purple Rage. He's the only modern southern horror author I know. I love the guy – would have asked him to be added to the OP but it's kinda hard to file him under a heading besides "Joe R. Lansdale", because he's massively prolific and has written pretty much everything. When it comes to King, I was reading his stuff obsessively as a kid, then went through a bleh-he-sucks hipster phase, and now I can once again appreciate his better stuff, which probably still outnumbers most of the competition on a word by word basis. Salem's Lot and Different Seasons (especially The Body) immediately spring to mind as really good King books.
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May 15, 2018 19:08
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Franchescanado posted:What's another good Lansdale book or collection (preferably) to read? Hap & Leonard novels are already on my radar. He's got tons of short story collections out but it looks like Electric Gumbo covers most of his best-known stories that aren't in Writer of the Purple Rage. Hap & Leonard series is good, although for me it took a downward turn around Captains Outrageous. For standalone novels I really like The Bottoms for that southern / To Kill a Mockingbird vibe, and Nightrunners is a good example of his splatterpunk-era stuff (although I haven't read that in ages so not sure if I'd feel the same today). If you're into comics, his Jonah Hex stuff is hilarious. That should get you started!
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May 15, 2018 22:13
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A human heart posted:Pretty cool this dude wrote a book about his cock with a pic on the cover and everything Yup, sounds like David J. Schow.
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Jun 13, 2018 09:12
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MockingQuantum posted:Paul Tremblay's latest book The Cabin at the End of the World came out last Tuesday, anybody picked it up yet? I have about three books I need to finish before I get to it, but it'll be the next thing I pick up. Just started it last night, got high hopes based on his earlier stuff.
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Jul 5, 2018 17:08
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I’d give Barron’s short story collections a shot before writing him off, X’s For Eyes really isn’t a great starting point or all that great in general. My Cabin at the End of the World trip report: if you liked the previous Tremblay books, I don’t see why this would be much different. The (attn: spoiler, kind of) same element of is-it-real-or-not ambiguity is present once again. A Head Full of Ghosts remains my favorite though.
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Jul 20, 2018 18:25
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Not strictly one for this thread but if you dig Laird Barron you should check out his crime debut Blood Standard - it’s got that tough-guy feel of his early stuff and some of the cosmic horror elements as well, and writing for a bigger audience has helped cut down on those interminable descriptions of inchoate howling voids of cyclopean encyclopedias.
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Jul 26, 2018 09:29
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I can’t even remember the end of King’s original The Mist novella but I hated the Darabont film’s ending.
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Aug 2, 2018 09:08
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Keep the spicy one-line takes coming, can't get enough of them!
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Aug 13, 2018 09:16
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Hate Fibration posted:Bartlett is one of those authors that I wish I liked but always found really annoying for some reason. I tried reading Gateways to Abomination and was left overall with an impression of disjointed, slightly gruesome imagery and weak characters. Same, I've tried reading that more than once and it just doesn't grab me at all.
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Sep 17, 2018 18:37
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Ulio posted:Any horror books where the setting is just one place? Ala Haunting Of Hill House. Paul Tremblay’s recent Cabin at the End of the World. It’s been a while since I read it, but King’s Misery more or less fits the bill as well.
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Oct 5, 2018 08:57
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I don’t know if it’s just the way horror fiction has evolved over time but when I last reread MoM I found myself constantly thinking that the narrator spends a lot of time circling obvious conclusions like ”hey those ancient monsters were actually alive and were defrosted and killed everyone”. I guess it’s his rational scientific mind refusing to go there, but come on. Had the same issue with Charles Dexter Ward.
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Jan 5, 2019 21:40
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Re: Blood Standard, my comment in this very thread was "it’s got that tough-guy feel of his early stuff and some of the cosmic horror elements as well, and writing for a bigger audience has helped cut down on those interminable descriptions of inchoate howling voids of cyclopean encyclopedias." I reckon that's about right, but I haven't really thought about that book since I read it. A decent book, not amazing, but I'll probably read the next one.
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Jan 16, 2019 19:11
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Anybody read Cody Goodfellow? I liked a short story of his I recently read in Black Static and then noticed that I had Radiant Dawn and Ravenous Dusk on my Kindle, probably from some Humble Bundle I’d forgotten about. Radiant Dawn I found a nice, quick conspiracy theories + black ops + horror mishmash and Ravenous Dusk (the sequel) seems promising as well.
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Feb 9, 2019 00:22
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Read both Lake Monsters and Wounds in the past couple of weeks. Some real gut-punch moments in the former, while I really enjoyed the latter's original visions of hell. The Black Iron Monks and the demons in The Maw made me wish I was a better artist, because those would be really cool to draw...
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May 20, 2019 18:19
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Started the new John Langan collection, Sefira and Other Betrayals. The titular story (which is a decent novella length) was otherwise enjoyable, but in parts he was doing the same thing that annoyed me about The Fisherman, namely trying to pass narration off as a character monologue. It simply doesn't sound like anything a human being would say. Langan can do decent dialogue as well, which just makes it more grating.
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Jun 9, 2019 18:35
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Bilirubin posted:Got my hands on a copy of Wounds, wish me luck, heading in Wear an iron box over your head and you’ll be okay.
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Aug 7, 2019 09:27
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Bilirubin posted:Finally was able to get to it and after the first story I understand this now It really is.
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Aug 19, 2019 09:26
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Traxis posted:I just watched the Wounds movie, it was really bad Can you expand on that take? I thought it wasn't perfect, but overall a really solid adaptation.
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Oct 22, 2019 18:19
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Kindles don’t wrinkle when reading in a hot bath. I only really buy physical books now if they’re particularly awesome editions or include some gimmick that works better on paper. Books are great, but they take up a lot of space and I just love having tons of stuff to read without taking up half of my luggage when going somewhere. It’s the same as iPod vs carting around a pile of CDs back in the day.
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Jan 9, 2020 17:18
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Len posted:How is Salem's Lot? One of King’s best IMHO. All of his positives (setting, characters, readability) without the negatives (bloated length, shaky plotting, silly premise).
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Feb 1, 2020 10:17
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the_enduser posted:Finally got around to Laird Barron's Blood Standard but was really hoping for more horror. It was decent for straight up crime novel but is there any thing with more horror vibes? Have you read his short story collections? The Coleridge novels have some horror elements but like you say, they are crime fiction. The short stories are where Barron made his name and where he still shines imho.
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Jun 11, 2020 09:14
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Lester Shy posted:Speaking of Ballingrud, I finally finished Wounds today. Overall, it was pretty disappointing as a followup to NALM. Aside from "The Maw," none of the stories really grabbed me. Didn't help that I was listening to the audiobook, and the narrator for Skullpocket was complete dogshit. Personally I prefer Wounds, I just love Ballingrud’s whole Hell mythos. The Butcher’s Table didn’t do it for you at all?
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Aug 9, 2020 08:47
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Untrustable posted:I looked at The Only Good Indians on Amazon so many times that Amazon sent me a half off credit. I hear good things though. NALM is a short story collection by Nathan Ballingrud rather than an anthology. It’s good tho.
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Oct 3, 2020 10:02
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To me the worst thing about The Fisherman was the narrator decision, which seems tacked on and simply doesn’t work in places. I finished There Is No Antimemetics Division and while it wasn’t quite mindblowing, it had some very cool and original ideas I liked a lot.
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Feb 21, 2021 11:12
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Everyone praises "Skullpocket" and "The Visible Filth," but "The Butcher's Table" was so loving cool. I want more stories like that. I feel like The Butcher’s Table definitely gets a lot of praise, it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award (and is my personal favourite). The Visible Filth of course got adapted into a movie but not sure Skullpocket has stood out that much hype-wise.
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Mar 3, 2021 19:56
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Finished Blackwater, it’s an impressive work but not one I fully loved. Could have perhaps done with a few more horror moments, although they are quite effective when they do come along.
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Jun 10, 2021 18:47
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Retro Futurist posted:I’m in the mood for some western horror. Preferably more overtly supernatural than like a Cormac McCarthy, any good ones out there? Joe R. Lansdale has written a few (Dead in the West is probably the best known). Outside the book realm, his Jonah Hex comics miniseries with Timothy Truman is great and horror-adjacent.
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Sep 6, 2021 08:22
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Ragle Gumm posted:Thoughts on the best Laird Barron collection to begin with? Should I just read The Imago Sequence first? I’d say so. The protagonists are almost exclusively violent macho men finding out that cosmic horrors are even tougher than they are, while later collections have broadened the spectrum in that sense, but it has some really good stories and is a good way to gauge whether he is your thing.
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Mar 1, 2022 13:10
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Dick beads??
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Apr 5, 2022 09:35
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