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Hey folks, never posted in this thread before but I want to talk about some stuff I've been reading lately. Just started House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson--a gothic, campy, horror/fantasy novel about young women employed as "bloodmaids" to rich noblemen (and noblewomen). I plowed through a third of the book in one sitting. Really well written and immersive. Currently re-reading You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian. Not really "horror" per se, but really psychologically disturbing short stories. Some of them, such as "Sardines" are actually body horror, whereas others are just unsettling. I think this collection got panned when it was released, but I loved it and I'm happy to be re-reading it now that enough time has passed that the stories feel fresh again. Just finished Poking Holes by Juan Valencia. This is a collection of short stories by a YouTuber I really love (his channel is Plagued by Visions) who covers disturbing, transgressive literature in a really intellectual and thoughtful way. His collection of stories is very disturbing but also very good. The theme of "poking holes" is expressed quite literally in the title story, which is about a man who has a fetish for poking holes in the skin of young men he hires. But it's also expressed metaphorically in many of the stories by poking holes in our expectations and assumptions. Theme of power, racism, abuse, and sexuality are prominent in the stories. Recently read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca. I found the title story/novella to be disappointing because I wanted *more*. It goes by so quickly and the stakes go from 0 to 60 in the span of a few pages, which seemed unrealistic to me. I would love to see this story turned into a full length novel so that we could get some more character development. Also, the first part of the book is overwritten in a way that was super annoying. The other two stories in this collection--"Enchantment" and "You'll Find It's Like That All Over" are really good. Recently read When Darkness Loves Us by Elizabeth Engstrom. This was one of the books from Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell and sounded really cool. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. It's actually two novellas packaged as one, and though I read it for the title novella, I actually liked the second story--"Beauty Is..." more, even though it was a bummer.
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Oct 22, 2022 13:43
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Currently reading Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes and, ugh, it's not good. The premise is really intriguing: in 2149 AD, a repair crew in space stumble upon a luxury space vessel (basically a cruise ship, but in space) that disappeared two decades prior. They decide to investigate and things go south real quick. I'm halfway through and I'm dragging. The dialogue is annoying and poorly written, the descriptions of the science-y stuff is confusing, and there's not enough spooky stuff. Wondering if I should quit or press on. Next up in my reading queue is Mexican Gothic, which I've heard good things about.
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Nov 18, 2022 19:58
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DurianGray posted:I read the whole thing around when it came out and wish I hadn't. If you're not liking it so far, it honestly only gets worse. The reveals to the mysteries are all pretty cheesy or just deflate what interesting parts did exist, imo. I had really wanted it to be good (maybe my expectations were too high), but was left really disappointed. Thanks for your thoughts! Sounds like Dead Silence will be a DNF for me.
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Nov 21, 2022 01:29
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Antivehicular posted:Just read Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke last night, and I'm echoing a lot of the same disappointment as other people in this thread. The pacing is janky -- I get that the idea is that the main characters are lonely people moving way too fast, but it still feels like this should all take more time, with maybe some elided time to imply a "normal" borderline-abusive power-exchange relationship happening before things start getting gory -- and the character voices read much too much alike and much too "writerly" for this setup, IMHO. I think there are good bones here (Agnes's history of generational family violence creating warped expectations of intimacy, and Zoe constantly testing Agnes's boundaries and being simultaneously horrified and fascinated that those boundaries don't really exist), but it all needed more time and space and more distinct voices. The overly written first part of Things Have Gotten Worse drove me insane, and it was so unnecessary! He doesn't write like that in the two other stories in the collection. I agree that the pacing was way off. The idea behind the story is excellent, but the execution is disappointing. What did you think of the final story in the collection? I liked it a lot!
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Dec 17, 2022 20:39
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