What are you reading? Any good horror you've read recently?

I'm constantly reading to complete and improve on this chart I made 1.5 years ago, and to get a better understanding of horror literature in general.

Recently finished The Case Against Satan by Ray Russell, and currently reading The Elementals by Michael McDowell.
The Case Against Satan was pretty good. It's very clear to see the massive influence it had over both Rosemary's Baby and especially The Exorcist. Russell's collection Haunted Castles is superb though, and still the book I'd recommend to someone who wants to check out his works.

There's tons of possible books that could be added to this chart (and I'm not going to list them all), but the ones I've read so far and want to add to the next iteration are:
>Horace Walpole - The Castle of Otranto
>Nikolai Gogol - "St. John's Eve", "A Terrible Vengeance", "Viy"
>Jeremias Gotthelf - The Black Spider
>Hanns Heinz Ewers - Alraune
>Edogawa Ranpo - "The Human Chair", "The Caterpillar"
>Jean Ray - Malpertuis
>Roland Topor - The Tenant
>Harlan Ellison - "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"
>Giorgio de Maria - The Twenty Days of Turin
>Karl Edward Wagner - In a Lonely Place

>>24385173 (OP)
I use this as a companion chart (I didn't make this, if I did it would've been sorted chronologically)

>>24385551
Another chart with more recent short story collections that lean towards weird fiction.

>>24385173 (OP)
>Karl Edward Wagner - In a Lonely Place
You fags told me this would be better than Ligotti, but what I got was only slightly above average conventional horror. There are really only two memorable stories, "Sticks" and "River of Night's Dreaming", and he didn't even come up with the title of the latter. People here only seem to praise this guy because he's relatively obscure and was generally respected by his contemporaries like Ramsey Campbell.

>>24385855
Have you read Algernon Blackwood? I really enjoy his prose; there's a grandeur to it. The Wendigo particularly.

I find Ligotti's prose can be very hit or miss. His ideas as well. Not without talent, but quite overblown.

>>24385924
I like Blackwood (Centipede Press actually just reissued a huge collection of his work that I'm itching to get to), but no one really comes close to Ligotti for me. I tend to prefer more surreal, atmospheric stories with dense prose and a healthy dose of nihilism, and I usually don't really care about conventional plots, which is probably why Wagner's plot-centric stuff just doesn't really agree with me.
I've recently been getting into Jean Ray's stuff, Malpertuis was fantastic and I love how it skirts the line between outright surrealism and more conventional gothic horror. Plus it has one of the few expositionary "here's what was causing the horror" endings that actually works perfectly and makes you want to immediately re-read the book. Can't wait to try his short stories.

>>24385978
Malpertuis is phenomenal, and very well executed. One of the best horror novels that I've read so far.
Have you read The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett? I haven't yet, but I've heard from a lot of people that it's very close to Ligotti's style.

>>24385792
German weird fiction:

Gustav Meyrink - Der Golem
Alfred Kubin - Die andere Seite
Arthur Schnitzler - Traumnovelle
Hanns Heinz Ewers - Alraune

Anything with atmosphere of roads, diners, gas stations (I know about Townsend's anthologies), maybe truck/logistics industry. I liked such vibes in the "Fears to fathom" games.

I cant imagine the apple, so the scenes arent scary for me
Is Horror a genre beyond the pale?

>>24386046
I've read Alraune, and I really enjoyed it (I've also included it in the list of books I want in the new chart). I still want to read more of his works, like "The Spider" and The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
I've also read The Other Side, and it is great although I wouldn't count it as horror. It's closer to weird fiction in my opinion.
I already have a copy of The Golem, it's one of the novels I'm planning to read relatively soon. It will most likely end up on the new chart as well.
I have not read or even heard of Traumnovelle/Dream Story. I'll look more into that!

>>24386124
>I have not read or even heard of Traumnovelle/Dream Story
Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut is based on it. But yeah, that's weird fiction.

My psychological horror short story:
https://open.substack.com/pub/tomasleonas/p/the-sorrows-of-young-blakeley?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=319e3w

Bump

>>24385173 (OP)
Also, in case people are interested, here's a list of books I'm still planning on reading to see if they could end up on the new chart or not:

>Ann Radcliffe - The Mysteries of Udolpho (also The Italian)
>E.T.A. Hoffmann - Best Tales of Hoffmann
>John Polidori - "The Vampyre"
>Washington Irving - "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
>James Hogg - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
>Aleksey Tolstoy - "The Family of the Vourdalak", "The Vampire"
>Nathaniel Hawthorne - The House of the Seven Gables
>Charles Dickens - "The Signal-Man"
>Guy de Maupassant - The Dark Side
>Richard Marsh - The Beetle
>Vernon Lee - The Virgin of the Seven Daggers and Other Stories
>W.W. Jacobs - "The Monkey's Paw"
>Perceval Landon - "Thurnley Abbey"
>Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera
>Oliver Onions - Widdershins
>Gustav Meyrink - The Golem
>Horacio Quiroga - The Decapitated Chicked and Other Stories
>E.F. Benson - Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson
>Robert E. Howard - The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
>Edith Wharton - The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
>Fritz Leiber - Conjure Wife (also Our Lady of Darkness and "Smoke Ghost")

>Anne Rivers Siddons - The House Next Door
>Julio Cortazar - Bestiary
>Dennis Etchison - Talking in the Dark

>Samanta Schweblin - Fever Dream
>Mariana Enriquez - Things We Lost in the Fire (also Our Share of Night)
>Michael Wehunt - Greener Pastures
>Paula D. Ashe - We Are Here to Hurt Each Other
>Luigi Musolino - A Different Darkness
>Matthew Bartlett - Gateways to Abomination
>Jon Padgett - The Secret of Ventriloquism
>Attila Veres - The Black Maybe
>Bernardo Esquinca - The Secret Life of Insects

There's also been a number of books I read to see if they would fit on the new chart and decided that they (most likely) would not:

>William Beckford - Vathek
>Charles Maturin - Melmoth the Wanderer
>Walter de la Mare - Out of the Deep

>Jeff VanderMeer - Annihilation

Going to read The Case of Charles Dexter Ward next. With that, I've read almost all of Lovecraft's works. Thinking about getting into extended mythos stuff by other authors, any recs? Been looking at Brian Lumley but I don't know yet.
That being said, I also read The King in Yellow and have heard there are extended mythos works related to that one too, and I'm honestly more interested in those than 'craft's stuff right now.

It was weird. Been on a pause of horror for a little while now, but at the start of May I had this overwhelming need to read some folk horror. Didn't even register to me it was Beltane at the time. Like some ancient hand pushing me along...

I enjoy writing horror, so for the past days I realized I should read more horror books. I’ve only read the popular ones (Poe, Lovecraft, Shelly, etc), but I enjoyed Edogawa Rampo's short stories. Is there any good horror writer that does ero guro stuff with a big focus on the characters' eccentric mentality (something like Story of the Eye or The Golden Pavilion)? Or idk some spooky ghost book in the likes of Ju-On
Also, call me a fag, but Saya no Uta is still one of the coolest horror stories I’ve ever read.

>>24389385
Maybe something like Exquisite Corpse, by Poppy Z. Brite?

Should I read The Beetle by Richard Marsh?

>>24389955
I'm also interested, it's not talked about much compared to other big gothic novels.

>>24389385
Have you checked out Algernon Blackwood?

Do you guys know any books that share similar atmosphere With Fear of Hunger, the game

>>24390655
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

The Second Apocalypse Series by R. Scott Bakker

>>24390655
Also "Iconoclasts Series" by Mike Shel. But it's more like a D&D novel with horror elements.

What are some recommendations you might have for novels/stories that are really quite frightening ?

Im reading an ARC of Michael Wehunt's first novel, the October Film Haunt. A horror writer with good prose. 4chan mentioned multiple times in the book

>>24391052
I keep meaning to check out his short stories. "Greener Pastures" in the Weird chart. Just don't want to give Bezos any money and I can't find it in any shops or libraries

>>24385173 (OP)
The bibliophile's horror

>The slop chart

>>24391560
Any constructive criticism anon, or do you just need to vent?

>>24391126
Greener Pastures is worth the Bezosness imo. But you should also get it and his second collection because they also have stories connecting to the novel

Bump

>Cadáver exquisito by Agustina Bazterrica, English translation is titled Tender Is the Flesh. Dystopian world where a virus has made animal meat toxic, leading to the legalization of human cannibalism, with humans being bred and treated as cattle for consumption.

has anyone read this yet? my friend recommended it. sounds interesting

Bump

>>24389421
It looks like exactly what I was searching for. I will definitely read it as soon as I finish the ones I'm reading now.
>>24390620
Hmm, his work looks cool. Will definitely check it out.
thanks lads.

>>24392822
sounds interesting, i saw it on popular reads on StoryGraph

>>24392822
I’ve read it. I think because it’s a translation, the prose is very simple and stunted. I think it was the right length, and the ending was memorable. It does feel like a bit of wasted potential, however

>>24393722
>It does feel like a bit of wasted potential, however
how so?

>>24385173 (OP)
Words won't ever be eloquent enough for my love of horror and raw, primal fear, of the naked emotion it evokes and sometimes even the hope that can either compliment the terror or give new meaning.

>>24385855
I was one of the anons who recommended this to you. Sorry you didn't enjoy it, but seriously "More Sinned Against" did nothing for you?

>>24385173 (OP)
I'm currently reading pet semetary. Halfway there but the horror hasn't struck yet as it did with the shining

>>24394188
It's a slow burn but it's worth it.

>>24394188
That book was emotionally manipulative but had little philosophical weight imo. Didn’t like it.

I read through Laird Barron's first three story collections.

They're fucking great, holy shit. One of the best Lovecraftian authors alive.

Also, lol to his story More Dark in The Beautiful Thing that Awaits us All. He makes fun of Thomas Ligotti and and Mark Samuels.

>>24385978
have you read anything from here?

by the way, i've read noctuary early this year, rather good collection of stories but 'conversations in a dead language' intrigued and disappointed me. it's title conjured up an image of occult work but instead gave me a deluxe EC horror comic in written form. still a good story but I like what I imagined what the title was for

>>24394444
I've read the first two of his so far, and I found Occultation to be a lot better than Imago Sequence (although Imago had three absolute bangers: "Procession of the Black Sloth", "Hallucigenia", and "The Imago Sequence"). I liked that the protagonists in Occultation were a lot more varied and had more depth to them. Also "Strappado" went hard as hell.
Still need to read Beautiful Thing at some point. Only downside to Barron's stories is that the prose can be very dense, and it always takes me a while to get through his stories.

>>24394572
Not who you’re responding to, but I just started that Brian Evenson collection. It’s pretty good, seems the stories get more and more unhinged as you go deeper

>>24385173 (OP)
Just finished Between Two Fires. I'm looking for something in a similar vein, where hell (or something) has come to earth, but it's not a full scale invasion to start. I like that buildup. BtF was fun, the rest of the author's works looks a bit too reddit for me.

Alternatively, a books about things/forces corrupting the land/people.

>>24394587
Yeah those stories from The Imago Sequence are definitely the best of that collection.

I think my favorite story in Occultation is The Broadsword, it’s a good introduction to his whole Old Leech Mythos. But Strappdo is also good, such a good twist ending. There should be more horror stories about experimental artists.

I feel his stories can be pretty easy for me to read, he writes in a hardboiled style that’s usually easy for me. The thing is for me I would have to take a break because his stories can get pretty intense for me.

Got Dan Simmon's Song of Kali as my next full novel to read this month. As for short stories, I got that Oxford Omnibus to dip into. I think it's "From Hoffman to Hodgson" and is edited by Darryl Price. Seems to have a solid compilation. I really liked Richard Matheson and with his collected works were ebooks.

>>24394857
For things corrupting the land/people, The Colour Out of Space by Lovecraft is a great story.

Buuuuu
Mp

>>24394857
Ligotti has some stories like this (The Shadow at the Bottom of the World)
The monk by Mathew Lewis

>>24396745
The monk is incredible

>>24385173 (OP)
Does Weird horror count? The Other Side by Alfred Kubin was suitably trippy.

>>24392822
yes i also recommend it

>>24392822
I've read it. It's alright. As the other anon said it might be due to translation but the prose is very stunted and simple. the novel doesn't say anything that hasn't been said before and it doesn't pose a new argument of any kind that resonated with me, but the story is enjoyable enough albeit a predictive conclusion.

>>24392822
I agree in that it's fine. I thought the writing was rather simple, and it was fairly predictable, but I enjoyed seeing everything play out before me. It was a nice book to use to get out of a reading slump. I'd more recommend it than not.

>>24394572
I've only read Evenson and Samuels from there, but yeah everything on that chart sounds awesome - DP Watt in particular.
I've read a bunch of Evenson's short story collections (A Collapse of Horses, Unravelling, Windeye, Glassy Burning Floor of Hell), and while I wouldn't really call it Ligottian (maybe "philosophical horror" is more apt; Evenson doesn't have the same suicidal pessimism and apocalyptic malevolence), and some of it is quite hit-or-miss, he does have a unique and sometimes very effective style. At his worst he seems to write conventional horror thrillers in totally bland and lifeless prose, but at his best he can be totally disorienting and bizarre, making you feel as if you've sustained some sort of traumatic brain injury that makes everything happening to you feel vague and uncertain. His prose can kind of chafe with me since minimalism is usually the opposite of everything I like in fiction, but the advantage is that the mediocre stories just fly past you, no need to trudge through tediously florid prose.
Mark Samuels is very good, shame that he died recently. He's a bit like a more "tasteful" Ligotti with more pared down (but still elegant) prose, although he has some Robert Chambers influence and his stories feel closer to classic weird fiction in the English tradition. "The Black Mold" straight up feels like a Ligotti story although perhaps it's slightly more sci-fi than something Ligotti would ever do. I particularly like the story about the weird cursed apartment that drives the protag to suicide. Would love to get my hands on his small press books, but obviously they're quite expensive.
I would also put Torpor's the Tenant on this list, as well as Stefan Grabinski, since Ligotti has written blurbs or introductions for their books. Michael Cisco too.
>i've read noctuary early this year
I think it's probably his weakest collection, they mostly feel like B-sides but there's still some cool stuff there. (I like the one about the insane(?) scientist who turns everyone into puppets.) I feel the same way about "Conversations". Have you read the Spectral Link along with it? It's interesting to read after all his other work, I feel like it gives further insight to him personally and maybe hints at how he's managed to live so long without killing himself.

>>24393936
Weird you mention that story as I thought it was one of the weakest in the collection, and also not really representative of his style. I don't really like that kind of journalistic style and the revenge horror ending was just sort of rote and uninteresting to me. I would consider stories with excessive drugsplotation, survival prostitution and desperate poverty to be more along the lines of "mundane horror" which is not really what I'm interested in. (I get quite enough of that from reading the news.)
"River of Night's Dreaming" I think best sums up how I feel about Wagner. The beginning is utterly gripping and mysterious, with the nameless protag struggling in the flood and being chased by an animated statue, but it slowly loses steam by giving too much backstory to the sadomasochistic lesbians, and the ending once again shows Wagner's nasty habit of over-explaining things. I did not need to know that she (or "he", as Wagner says in the afterword) was actually criminally insane and had this particular relationship with the doctor and that electroshock therapy might've influenced the events of the story, even if he is able to slip a Yellow King reference in there. I would've much preferred if he left it in a sort of metaphysical limbo in the way that someone like Ligotti would do, and prioritize the foreboding atmosphere and weird psycho-sexual hallucinations.
"Sticks" has a similar problem, although it's more Lovecraftian pastiche which makes it less egregious in my eyes. It has some really memorable imagery (the stick lattices and ruined farmhouse remind me of the all weird, random refuse I've found wandering around the woods near my hometown). but man, does Wagner like a good conspiracy.
All that said, I might still give his Kane stories a try, since I'm curious to get into sword and sorcery after falling in love with Clark Ashton Smith and Dunsany.

Does anyone have any deep sea/nautical horror recommendations? I just finished playing Still Wakes the Deep and am looking for books in a similar vein. (Lovecraftian horror, isolated setting, cast gets picked off one by one, etc.) Oceanic stories involving body horror are also a plus.

>>24397964
Dead Sea by Tim Curran

I went on a tear last halloween trying to find scary stuff and nothing really got me. I think my favorite was Hell House by Richard Matheson. Spooky old house, weird mysterious rich guy, seances. It was a fun one

>>24397964
The Fisherman by John Langan was a fun one. Cosmic horror and kind of weird, with a bit of body horror added in. Mostly just two characters, but it was a fun read.

I almost didn't read this because the font on the cover is terrible, but it was great. Super gnarly body horror, dead kids, you can't go wrong

>>24398009
Just looked this up and added it to my list. Thanks anon!

>>24398213
Also added. Thanks fren!

>>24398234
has a good audiobook version too, he does different voices for everyone

>>24398234
Fucking killer book, it has its haters but fuck em they're wrong.

>>24397306
Yea it’s a solid book. Won’t go down as a classic but it’s worth a quick read

Time for crab

>>24399711
Based crab poster

>>24397011
The Other Side was pretty great, also cool to see how it influenced Kafka's work. The ending was completely insane

Harlan Ellison has to be one of the most overrated authors out there and fuck you OP for implying he is not. His own life was much more engaging than the stories he came up with and he was just a dick in general

Is Richard Matheson worth a read? Which (preferably short) collection?

>>24401250
This one is great.

>>24401262
Cheers yo

>>24401267
Nta, but if you can't find that one you could go for the Penguin collection ("The Best of Richard Matheson").

>>24401246
Dude, I just mentioned a single short story, one that is very famous, acclaimed, and influential. I agree that he was a dick, but that doesn't mean it's not worth it to read a single short story that's 11 pages long. I'm not advocating for a massive collection of his works or anything even close to that.

>>24398234
the turtle scene :(

>>24398234
Started off fun but was horrendously stupid in uninteresting ways

Bump

Bump

Give me your favorite literary horror. I want to be scared by beautiful prose.

>>24404413
I would recommend:
Algernon Blackwood's stories
Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber
Poppy Z Brite - Exquisite Corpse
Kathe Koja - The Cipher
Jean Ray - Malpertuis
Cormac McCarthy - Child of God // Outer Dark
And while not having prose as beautiful as the other ones mentioned, Nathan Ballingrud's North American Lake Monsters is some of the best contemporary horror I've read so far, and I highly recommend it.

>>24404464
Ok, I will definitely try male authors (I have read North American Lake Monsters and Blood Meridian) but I always thought that those female authors are some sort of silly crime/thriller writers (like Tana French, the same sort of names).

>>24404512
I will say that Koja and Carter are both fantastic authors, and you'd be missing out if you skipped them.

>>24404512
Yea fuck women am I right?

>>24404512
Carter is quite good. you can read one of her short stories here.
https://ieas-szeged.hu/downtherabbithole/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Angela-Carters-The-Company-of-Wolves-Story.pdf

>>24404464
>>24404639
>>24404512
Not strictly horror, but I highly recommend the Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, it's an incredibly surreal hallucination of a book, quite disturbing with some philosophically rich themes and dense prose. It's a picaresque novel about a war of illusions, centering on the duality of desire and contentment, or rationality and imagination. I find it's not as often talked about as Bloody Chamber, but imo it's a much more distinctive and fascinating book.

>>24404746
Ah, I saw that one in the surreal thread. I will keep that one in mind, since The Bloody Chamber was fantastic and I haven't read anything else by her yet.

>>24404413
Robert Aickman

>>24394857
Lesser Dead is actually good but I cannot even hint as to why. Well, I can at least say the hook of the vamps being a bunch of hobos living in abandoned subway tunnels and sleeping in overturned refrigerators is more interesting than average to start.

>>24404620
The request was about best prose writers in horror genre. I would understand such names as Mary Shelley or Shirley Jackson, but I'm suspicious about those modern female authors (concerning their prose).

Anyway, thanks to 'thanks to everyone who responded.

>>24405757
Incel

>>24397775
I have not read the spectral link yet. i actually read Noctuary as a PDF before finding out they recently republished it with The Spectral Link included. which I bought and will probably check out sooner or later this year

I really want to check out mark samuels sometime. read some of the reviews on goodreads and your paragraph and he sounds like he's right up my alley

>>24385173 (OP)
if you're adding Gogol, you should also add 'The Portrait' along with the other mentioned stories. I don't know if his stories caused it or not, but every night after reading his collection of short stories for the first time gave me these awful nightmares. evening waking me up terrfifed

'The Manuscript Found in Saragossa' is also really good, like a gothic 1001 nights

>>24404519
Seconding Kathe Koja, she's absolutely fantastic.

>>24406726
I should reread "The Prortrait". I've read it a few years before all the other ones mentioned, so it's less clear in my mind.

Bump

Not exactly great literature but I loved this collection as a kid.

Reading this right now. Boring as shit. Nothing ever happens and when it does it's conveyed so unintuitively that all potential excitement just fizzles out like a fart.

>>24385173 (OP)
OP I always found your chart fascinating and also started reading some of them. Which ones would you say are essential, or very good at least to you ?

>>24408385
Hey, that's cool to hear!
"Essential" is a bit of a vague term, because it really depends on what it is essential to, if that makes sense. There are works that are very important to the history and evolution of the horror genre, but aren't necessarily as good as some other works. The Castle of Otranto is the most important work because it is the very first gothic horror novel, but it's also definitely not as strong as some others that improved on it.
Either way, some that I can definitely recommend:
>Jeremias Gotthelf - The Black Spider
>Robert Louis Stevenson - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
>Algernon Blackwood - Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood (or The Wendigo and Other Stories, that one came out recently but I haven't read it yet. It's very cheap and from Oxford World's Classics so that's always a big plus)
>Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories
>M.R. James - Collected Ghost Stories
>Hanns Heinz Ewers - Alraune
>Stefan Grabinksi - The Dark Domain
>Jean Ray - Malpertuis
>Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
>Ray Rusell - Haunted Castles
The three novels that created the horror boom of the 70's are all fantastic:
>Ira Levin - Rosemary's Baby
>Thomas Tryon - The Other
>William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist

>Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber
>Stephen King - The Shining (for more king, check out Misery and 'Salem's Lot)
>Clive Barker - Books of Blood
>Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs (if you want more, start with Red Dragon)
>Kathe Koja - The Cipher
>Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse
>Nathan Ballingrud - North American Lake Monsters

I know that's still a lot and I didn't narrow it down that much, but I hope it helps.
Which ones have you read so far, and what did you think of them?

>>24408385
>>24408437
If you want me to narrow it down more, to my personal top reads:

>Stefan Grabinski - The Dark Domain
>Arthur Machen - "The White People"
>Jean Ray - Malpertuis
>Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
>Ray Russell - Haunted Castles
>Stephen King - The Shining
>Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs
>Kathe Koja - The Cipher
>Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse
>Nathan Ballingrud - North American Lake Monsters

Bump

Can anyone recommend a horror book that actually scared them/spooked them out? Hell House by Richard Matheson had some moments that were a bit spooky but nothing that really stuck with me. Do actually scary books exist?

>>24409205
Books do not outright scare the reader like films tend to do. Horror books aim more to disturb and unsettle the reader, and it's important to note that your imagination is a key factor when reading horror books.
Also, what scares a person differs greatly per person. Is there something specific that scares you? Then you can search for books that include that kind of topic.

>>24409205
Some episodes in Nevill's Last Days were pretty good.

>>24391236
Recommend me some .ro used book sellers.
t. looking for some difficult books from a certain bibliography

POST HORROR BOOKS ABOUT MUMMIES PLEASE

>>24408437
Well I started off with the classics like you mentioned and the famous oxford gothic anthology, the Ontarios etc. The Monk being a favorite of mine of how medieval satanic it is just like the devils elixir, I remember being intriguing . At the moment I’m going through this 800 page eta hoffmann tale collection on its original german and its quite fascinating how sometimes his imagery can get displayed so clear in my head like certain artifacts he mentions. Though sometimes can be a bit of a slog due to its archaic overly formal writing. Though worth reading for his originality and influence.

I’ve also tried to work my way through Southern Gothic which I feel I can more essily identify with, started with the faulkner triology which sparked my interest, I’ve bought the Oconnor collection , bur decided rather to wait a bit a read other modernist authors to get the vibe before i jump 50 years ahead in literature.

Poe, Hawthorne and the Gothic Americans thought brought in a fresh twist to the genre, being Poe one of the most influential eye opening writers to me.

Saying that I still feel a bit overwhelmed with the genre prior 1920. Is there any worthwhile fresh new horror that you might recommend, I’m not really looking for your typical English novel of madames in castles anymore, looking for something more modern, is lovecraft good to read his entire stories, or even stephen king? Please recommend top 5 20th century gothic or horror lit.

And also the most influential you think that are not worth skipping.

>>24410562
Ah nice! I still have to read E.T.A. Hoffmann's tales and The Devil's Elixir.

As for your request: there are a number of works pre-1920 that aren't your stereotypical ladies in crumbling castles type of gothic. Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and Dracula are all obvious picks that were all very influential.

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson is a great early work of cosmic horror. The last third can be pretty slow, but that's by design and it's also only like 120 pages long anyway. This work was a huge influence on Lovecraft.

Stefan Grabinski's stories (especially The Dark Domain) are great, unique stories that are a bit like Poe's, but definitely have their own voice and style. They have themes like psychology, technology (mostly trains), and sexuality - the latter being very unique compared to the other horror authors at the time that tend to ignore or avoid overly sexual themes in their stories.

Then there are 4 authors whose collections span from before 1920 to after, and all 4 are worth reading: M.R. James, who has brought the classic ghost stories to his modern time instead of the stereotypical gothic way of setting it hundreds of years ago; Arthur Machen, who has got an incredible array of folk horror; Algernon Blackwood, whose prose is utterly magnificent and who focuses more on nature horror; and H.P. Lovecraft, who doesn't need an introduction.
For Lovecraft, I myself have read the three Penguin collections; they're very well edited and annotated by S.T. Joshi. Start with The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, if you want more go for The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, and if you want to complete his works even if they're not that great, finish with The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Stories.
For the other three authors, I've already mentioned the collections I recommend in my previous comments.

Those 4 are key authors that I think were massively influential on the horror genre and really shaped the post-war playing field.
That's already 6 authors, and we're not even halfway through the 20th century. I can continue like this with recommending works, but I don't think I can narrow the entire 20th century down to just 5 works.

If you want to start with post-war works, start with I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Those were two early works that really show the change in both style and prose, making both a lot more modern.
After those two, read the three books responsible for the horror boom of the 70's: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, The Other by Thomas Tryon, and The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.
If you want a little bonus: Ray Russell's collection Haunted Castles is the best modern gothic work I have read so far. The stories are absolutely great, he really manages to capture the classic gothic style and prose, and the collection is consistently strong.

>>24410562
>>24411045
(If you want something more modern and easy to read, but still very good: definitely read The Shining by Stephen King. Absolutely incredible novel, great psychological themes, well rounded characters, and very creative, tense scenes.)

>>24385173 (OP)
Does anybody have a list of books that are about archeologists finding an ancient horror? I have a couple, but nothing scratches my itch.
Dead Space: Martyr was really good.

>>24411299
Tim Curran has a couple of such books. Hive, The Sunken City, The Underdwelling, etc.

The Pan book of horror is a series of short stories/collections- an anthology so the stories varies from good to bad

>>24386090
Bump. Road-tripish/night highways horrors/thrillers?

>>24411045
>the three Penguin collections
>edited and annotated by S.T. Joshi
Why, how nice. Time to beat my poor wallet a bit more.

>>24411045
What are your thoughts on Stephen King, do you think he deserves the praise, what makes him different or what did he bring to the horror canon that brought him merit.

Thanks for your response already added Machen to my cart. If you got any additional horror in german lmk.

>>24392822
Can’t believe this is getting good reviews on a fucking horror general. The only horror here is being lectured by a vegan with the worst allegorical take on cannibalism.

If you’re looking for a weird horror/comedy this one was good. A grandma and her blob fight developers.

>>24413070
Stephen King definitely deserves praise; maybe not as much as he gets (as is the case with most authors who are super popular), but he almost single-handedly pushed horror literature into the mainstream. His horror books are actually well written (I'm talking mainly about his early works, 1974 until the early 90's), with realistic characters and great world-building, and prose that's easy to read but not simplistic, if that makes sense. The quality of his (early) work and his massive influence on horror literature are both nothing to sneeze at.

Some people tend to shit on him for either his newer works or for the fact that he's so massively popular, but his early works are 100% worth reading if you're even a little bit interested in horror literature. It's also a great entry point for people new to the genre, since his works are so easy to read but still have a good structure, tension, characters, and depth.

I'm not an expert on King (I've *only* read 7 of his books so far), but there's already a number of works of his that I can recommend. Like I mentioned before, The Shining is a phenomenal novel and one of the best horror novels in general that I've read. Misery and 'Salem's Lot are both also great, as are his early short story collections Night Shift and Skeleton Crew.

When you say "horror in German", do you mean horror that's translated to German, or horror that's originally German?

>>24413197
Reddit really like this one

Bought these recently, what am I in for?

>>24414586
A lot of sloppa with some standouts

>>24414628
I don't mind trudging through some slop so long as there are actual standouts to be found.

This is worth a read imo. Really enjoyed it.

“You can’t say chink, that’s not appropriate. We call them chinamen” lol

>>24414745
I also liked it a lot, great writing style.

this summer I'm finally going to read The Stand

Any horror books set in the PNW? i asked chatgpt but nothing looked good.

I only read to write my own stories, but I'm too dumb for that, so I stopped reading.

>>24415796
Devolution by Max Brooks.
Laird Barron's works.

>>24394572
John Padgett can't write for shit. Trying to connect every story like le hecking steeeven kang was so embarassing and tacked on.
>EMPTY PAGE IS SCARY

Bump

Brief me about Preston/Child's Pendergast series. I want to try a couple of their books, maybe Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities (can I omit the second book?). What else? Where should I stop?

Bump

Just started reading Laird Barron's The Croning.

I like the idea of making Rumpelstiltskin some weird demon thing.

I recently finished House of Leaves.

I had bounced off of it in the past, but I found this read very enjoyable.

Go ahed, bully me

Horror as written by men:
>What if people were hunted for sport?
>What if human sacrifice was institutionalized?
>What if a sadistic godlike being ruled over Earth?
Horror as written by women:
>What if I was raped by a man?
>What if I was raped AND killed by a man?
>What if I met a nice guy who would actually turn out to be an evil rapist serial killer?

>>24418800
One of my favourite books, though I'm not even sure I would categorize it as horror

>>24419145
Wow, that's so cool! Anyway, tell us when you actually start reading horror books.

>>24418769
Have you read his collections before starting The Croning? I've heard that his Old Leech mythos is already explored a bit in Occultation and The Beautiful Thing.

>>24418800
I also like House of Leaves a lot. I get that the format isn't for everyone, but it worked for me.

>>24419687
I feel like people get filtered by the format or dismiss it as a gimmick when it's more of a device to immerse the reader, which may not always work
the real filter is Johnny and his sexual ramblings

>>24419779
Yeah, that's true; I've seen a lot of people complain about the Johnny sections, saying that it's very uninteresting and takes them out of the main story.

>>24420028
Personally I don't mind Johnny and I feel like his sections are necessary to portray his mental decay, but I can see how someone might be turned off by them

>>24420040
I also don't mind it, it feels very on point for some random loser to have picked up the book.

Ligotti's mature prose is almost a 1:1 copy of Thomas Bernhard. Why do people keep bringing up Lovecraft?

>>24420456
Didn't Bernhard write in German?

Where to start with Machen?

>>24420489
The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories, if you want a collection.

>>24420474
He was translated

>>24420496
I'm probably going to get all three volumes of his complete works anyway, but I was thinking about a first story of his to read.

>>24420550
"The Great God Pan", or "The White People"

>>24420531
So it's more like the translated prose is close to Ligotti's, which I don't feel is really the same.

>>24420587
I'll get right on that when my current drinking binge ends, which is hopefully tomorrow.

>>24420456
Ligotti is nothing like lovecraft and it's astounding people keep comparing them to each other when they come from two different literary traditions

>Try to read Aickman again to finally see the payoff
>It's so boring AGAIN I close it after 20 pages

Every time

>>24392822
jesus christ are sudamericanos able to write anything that is not a hamfisted magical realism metaphor? i hate them so much

>>24416096
thanks

>>24409205
Stephen King's It
Stephen King's N. (story)
Some of the stuff in Laird Barron's Occultation, forgot the names
Night School by Ligotti
Haunting of the Hill House

>>24420456
Ligotti is clearly aping Kafka, Bergman is much more straightforward writer. Gargoyles would be a great fit for this thread, supremely disturbing novel and one of the best depictions of madness in fiction.

>>24409205
I found misery to be the scariest book I’ve read so far desu

Can someone rec me splatterpunk/extreme horror that's more creative than just:
>dude child/animal abuse
>dude eating poop
>dude rape/castration

>>24421666
Hogg by Samuel Delany. I cant think of another book that ticks all the boxes you mentioned.

>>24385173 (OP)
>Shining

TV adaptation by him's more humorous in light of it.

>>24419145
>what if human sacrifice was institutionalized
>written by men

Clearly you are ignoring Tender is the Flesh, which is written by a woman.

>>24421666
It's not extreme horror, but The Cipher by Kathe Koja is a fantastic splatterpunk novel.
For splatterpunk that is a bit more extreme, check out Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite.

>>24420456
Ligotti has a bunch of influences depending on what story you're talking about, I think most people bring up Lovecraft because they usually only read Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe where the Lovecraft influence is more pronounced. But stuff like The Nightmare Network is very clearly Burroughs, My Work Is Not Yet Done is very clearly Bernhard, This Degenerate Little Town and other Teatro stories is a mixture of Bruno Schulz and Kafka. To me that's what makes Ligotti so unique, most horror writers settle for cannibalizing other writers in the horror genre rather than pulling in other influences.

>>24422516
unfuckable autistic women don't count

Thanks y'all for psyoping me into reading Ligotti. Two stories in and his obtuse (read shit) prose makes me feel like I just bore witness to an elder god and a losing my mind.

>>24422516
You most likely havent read the book, a man raping a woman is part of the plot and the whole point of the book is to push the vegan agenda.

>>24423681
It's part of the plot not the WHOLE plot ad the original poster wanted to purport that women only write horror about sexual assault.

>>24424197
anon, the whole story was about a man raping a woman.

>>24424320
No it wasn't. If that's what you read, that's a very surface level reading of it

Bump

Corpsemouth by Langan was unbelievably shitty - only slightly more bearable than the majority of Barron's trite. The last time I was truly scared reading a horror short story was Purity by Ligotti.

>>24425661
Have you read any other works by Langan?

>>24425683
Nope. I hear The Fisherman is good, though.

>>24425689
I've read The Fisherman, and I thought it was pretty solid. The ending wasn't as strong as I'd hoped, but the frame stories were a lot of fun. I also read The Wide, Carnivorous Sky, and that was a bit hit or miss. "Technicolor" is absolutely sick though.

I finished The Croning by Laird Barron.

Holy shit that ending.

Bump

>>24385173 (OP)
Anyone know of good action / adventure horror books with strange unique monsters? Something like Little Heaven by Nick Cutter. Or books with really surreal esoteric occult horror like Silent hill?

>>24385173 (OP)
how is negative space?

>>24411045
for lovecraft should i get the penguin collections or should i get chartwell classic the complete fiction? which edition do you recommend. Is reading it all worth it? What are some pre reqs for lovecraft and also some after reqs thanks

I just got so intrigued by this concept of cosmic horror that just sparkled my imagination and started to question/ see the world on a different light, though im not sure if the concept of mine aligns with what the author intended.

Im a huge kafka fan and have been on the lookout for a successor that might catch my attention, but havent found anyone as of yet.

>>24421666
How "extreme" horror writers feel publishing another misery porn book about children castrating each other with solidified animal feces or something

>>24428038
or just get oxfords hp lovecraft the classic horror stories

What's horror general's favorite algernon blackwood story?
For me its the trod

>>24428038
I personally like the Penguin collections because of Joshi's notes, but honestly any complete fiction books will do. Don't worry too much about which version, they'll mostly be the exact same and all the important stories are included in all of them.
If you do decide to go for the Penguin editions, you can just start with The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. If you want more after that, go for The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories. The third collection, The Dreams in the Witch House, mostly has his fantasy and dream cycle stories, which I personally found less strong and interesting than his other work. It's completely up to you if you want to read those or not.

For cosmic horror that influenced Lovecraft:
>Guy de Maupassant - "The Horla"
>William Hope Hodgson - The House on the Borderland
>Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow (the first 4 stories, the rest isn't horror)
>Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan, "The White People", The Three Impostors
>Algernon Blackwood - "The Willows", "The Wendigo"

If you're a big fan of Kafka, it might be worth it to read his favourite novel, The Other Side, by Alfred Kubin. Kubin mostly made (great) visual art, but he also wrote that one novel, and you can really see certain aspects of it greatly influenced Kafka's work. It's a bit slow at the start, but the batshit ending is more than worth it.

>>24428205
It's a bit stereotypical to say "The Wendigo", but "Ancient Lights" was a lot of fun and it rarely gets mentioned.

About to start reading The Doloriad. What am I in for?

Mom gave me her childhood copy of picrel when I was 11 and I'm revisiting it now, Whessoe by Nugent Barker is my favorite so far.

>>24428375
Really top-shelf list of authors there, anon. What is the Wagner story in the collection?

>>24427124
Check out a lot of Adam Neville stuff, particularly The Reddening and All the Fiends of Hell

Bump

I'm certain a lot of people here won't read this because >tranny shit etc. but it's genuinely unnerving and truly fucked up. Guarantee anyone who grew up and was moulded by the internet its going to resonate with you

>>24429784
Sounds pretty good, I'll look more into it!

I've been reading a lot of Jim Thompson lately. I knew it isn't explicitly horror-lit, but I am wondering if there is any good modern hard-boiled stuff with more overt horrific atmosphere and themes - think Ligotti meets pulp detective stories.

>>24429849
Maybe Last Days by Brian Evenson is a good match for you.

>>24429853
Thanks, esl-kun. I have been meaning to get around to his stuff.

>>24429880
No problem, I'm glad I can help! A Collapse of Horses, and Song for the Unraveling of the World are both pretty good collections if you like his style.

>>24388565
Could I put in some recommendations?

>>24429849
Laird Barron has plenty of hardboiled horror stories in his first three collections.

Also the novel Falling Angel that became the movie Angel Heart with Mickey Rourke.

>>24430308
Yes please, let me know what you think is missing!

Bump

Weirdly, The Doloriad reminded me a lot of Peake's Gormenghast books, although more overtly violent but somehow less sinister. I thought it was good - assuming all the hate it has received here is because the author is a woman.

>>24428205
The Willows was the first one I read and stuck with me the most. The guy leaving the tent and feeling tbe sinister presence of an ancient natural force reminded me of an experience I had while camping as a boy that I still think about from time to time.

What did I Thingk?

Has any horror book made you poop yourself? Like straight up crapped in your undies?
Salem’s Lot made me squirt hot diarrhea into my pants.

>>24432098
I didn't get scared by almost any of the horror books I read, but I did have dreams about the ending of The Shining after finishing the book because it was so goddamn tense.

Bump

>>24432098
H-hot...

>>24430692
Might I recommend:
>The Little Blue Flames and Other Uncanny Tales
>Never Whistle At Night

>shidded in panst:DDDDDDD
What has this general been reduced to.

>>24432994
The Little Blue Flames and Other Uncanny Tales is an interesting collection, especially since I've never heard of A.M. Burrage before. I will look more into it!
Never Whistle At Night is an anthology, and I personally don't really read or use anthologies in my charts, since it is better and more clear to showcase individual authors (and also I don't really know much about anthologies in general).
Either way, thanks! Can you tell me more about Burrage('s work)?

Bump

Reading Experimental Film rn. Bretty good so far

More of a mystery than horror, though

More like Dr. Honk and Mr. Shew, cause that shit put me to sleep!

>>24432098
No.

>>24434883
I had the same problem when reading Ring by Koji Suzuki (it's more a supernatural mystery thriller), although Ring also had the problem of just not being that great as well.
That's also why I'm going to remove it on the second iteration of the chart in the OP.
I haven't read Experimental Film yet, great to know it's good!

Bump

Moar surreal horror-fantasy like Boy in Darkness? I've already read Between Two Fires.

>>24435852
For something a bit light on the fantasy: Malpertuis by Jean Ray.
For something a bit light on the horror: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

>>24435852
>>24435863
Also, have you read Gormenghast, or did you read Boy in Darkness as a standalone?

>>24435870
Yep - I've read the whole trilogy and adored it. I even quite liked his wife's book as well. In terms of prose, Peake was untouchable within the fantasy (and probably horror) genre.
>>24435863
Haven't heard of the first one, thanks. I read Piranesi and didn't really like it despite loving the authors other stuff. I was expecting something much more eerie - think a cross between the above mentioned Gormenghast (gothic, British) and House of Leaves (scary, abstract and wistful).

>>24435882
Would you say that reading Gormenghast is a prerequisite for reading Boy in Darkness? Asking since I am interested in reading the latter moreso than the former

>>24435899
No - the basic premise is that the protag of the trilogy attempts to escape the castle-town. You get a broader context of the world and the main character, but I don't think its required. Having said that, the first two Gormenghast books are some of the greatest fantasy novels of all time and have a crossover appeal (akin to BotNS) with non-genre readers. I'd highly recommend you read them, even if it is after you read Boy in Darkness.

>>24435941
Thank you. I will definitely read Gormenghast at some point, it is just a bit daunting because of the length. I'll also think about if I want to read Boy in Darkness before Gormenghast or not.

>>24435010
Yea it’s got some of the best dialogue that I’ve encountered so far. The characters all have believable and compelling dynamics.

I am sure that this question gets asked frequent in this general, however: what were your favourite Goosebumps books as a kid? I like Camp Jellyjam, and Carnival of Horrors. Any other kids horror books (preferably illustrated) that you'd recommend? My nephew is at the age now where he can read short novels, and it would be cool to get him a few of the better Goosebumps books to read at night before bed, as many of us ITT probably did.

bump

Bump

threads that go bump in the night

Op here, I finished The Elementals by Michael McDowell, and it's a very good read. The quality of the writing is great, the characters feel real, and the atmosphere is great.
Now starting Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin!

Finished Experimental Film - yeah I can recommend it. Wild ride

I just finished reading Ring. Got myself massive erection in the scene where the doctor rape yamamura in the well and saw her scrotum under pubic hair for some reason.
This novel presented itself to (You) as a rational novel, but this rationality exist within the boundaries that the author made throughout the story in order to find a common ground with the 'irrational' plot of the book.

Bump

>this spine-chilling psychological horror novel deals with the themes of isolation, depression and suici-
can we stop with this shit? being a crybaby sack of shit isn't scary

>>24439491
Which horror books have you seen/read that have this?

Bump

>>24439491
Name 2 horror novel that did this though

Anyone read this?

>>24413197
>>24413754
this was easily one of the worst books I've ever read. absolutely horrible and not at all scary or a hint of good horror. reddit book indeed

>>24441792
Yea, Reddit shill that one so I avoided it (though not all of their suggestions are bad, but when a book is only shilled on Reddit, there’s like a 90% chance its garbage)

the furry visual novel arches

I finished Between two fires a while back. Found the last bit of the novel a bit off but overall very enjoyable. Some anon recommended Brian Catling's Hollow as a similar read. Does anyone else have similar books?

>>24441774
OP here, and I have. It's great psychological horror that gets pretty surreal at times. Definitely worth reading.

>>24441774
i tried reading this, but it made me feel so uncomfy and anxious i had to stop

Bump

>>24438452
The scene of the guy pulling the film out of the dead tree lives in my head rent free

>Reading a book that's supposedly horror
>After an hour, one fella falls down a hole looking for a phone.
>He ends up breaking his back.
>4 hours of reading later, nothing is happening.
>Suddenly, one of the characters gets a handjob.
>And then another.
WTF is going o--
>AAAAnd now there's vines entering the guys wounds and eating him from the inside out. Another woman is flaying herself to get rid of the vines.

>>24443550
I gave up on the latest Stephen King book. I thought it was a bit shit. A bit redundant.

>>24443550
I thought The Ruins was a terribly written novel. I hope you're getting more out of it than I am.

>>24443561
It's different to what I expected. I was expecting them running around an unexplored temple, being chased by some sort of Mayan dinosaur monster or something.

I should start a new novel.

>>24443565
I personally thought the characters were flat and obnoxious, the flashbacks were clunky, the pacing was absolutely glacial, and the 'villain' gets more and more ridiculous as the book goes on. I also agree on the title being somewhat misleading and the setting being a lot less cool than expected.

>>24443573
Yeah, the pacing feels especially fucked, and I've just finished reading the glacially slow Terror.

>>24443578
Gonna try this one next, maybe.

>>24443579
Oh, interesting. I haven't read anything by SGJ yet, let me know how it is when you do.

>>24443594
I read a few short stories. They're alright. This seems to be very popular.

>>24441774
wtf was up with the tooth in the wall

>>24443726
Keys have teeth. Door to enter house. Surrounded by walls. It's simple.

>>24443729
Do keys have teeth in French as well though?

King

Bump

Bump

Pet Sematary is one of the most overrated books I’ve ever read

>>24446138
I thought it definitely wasn't as strong as some of King's other books. The pacing was very slow, and I personally hated how some really cool things are foreshadowed (like some guy's son who came back all fucked up and knew everyone's darkest secrets), but the actual ending of the novel is what feels like a rushed slasher. The Shining, Misery, and 'Salem's Lot are all better in my opinion.

Bump in the night

>>24446151
The shining and misery are fantastic, but yea I agree with you on pet sematary. I also felt the characters were juvenile and hard to care about for the most part.

>>24443579
It's very well written but it's really slow. The way SGJ writes is as if he's telling you the story in a native oral tradition, takes a bit to get used to the pacing

>>24397831
>or "he", as Wagner says in the afterword
Yeah, still not sure what clues he out in there to suggest that. It feels like he was fucking with us.

>>24443579
>>24443594
He needs a better editor. He covers the same ground over and over and over, very repetitive, and then has a rush to the finish.

give me your favorite 5 horror novels please. i'm wondering if i'm lost interest in the genre of whether i just need new books / authors to read.

>>24447817

>Stephen King - The Shining
>Thomas Harris - The Silence of the Lambs
>Jean Ray - Malpertuis
>Stefan Grabinski - The Dark Domain (short story collection)
>Nathan Ballingrud - North American Lake Monsters (short story collection)

If you only want novels, here's a few more:
>Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
>Kathe Koja - The Cipher
>Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse
A horror adjacent 10/10 for me is Perfume by Patrick Süskind.

Bump

>>24419145
People write about their most instinctual fears. For a woman the fear is violent men because thugs roam the streets raping and killing them. For men the government is what will likely kill them, through conscripting them to die in a meat grinder; hence all male horror is just a metaphor for that. Deep inside human beings know who their predators are.

>>24449733
>hence all male horror is just a metaphor for that
Please read more than two horror books.

Purity by Ligotti is the only horror fiction i have read that truly feels like reading a nightmare.

>>24385173 (OP)
anyone else read negative space? read it in january and its still in my mind every day since; prob my fav book ever
>>24398234
read this earlier this year. feels like its for a YA audience (or im just getting old) but it was nice.

>>24449733
That’s probably why I’m always writing about someone screwing my wife then.

Put the bump in the coke u nut

>40% discussion
>60% bumps
Grim....

>>24452973
Thank you for contributing to the discussion

Thomas Ligotti

is

fun

For me, its folk horror

How do we feel about the Southern Reach series? Personally, I liked the first one and felt that it had built a really interesting series of ideas and questions up that I was really hoping to have answered. Then I was disappointed at how the second two books played out. There were interesting moments but, if I'm being honest, I've forgotten almost everything about the second two books and can't differentiate them in my memory

>>24443579
I read this a few weeks ago. Like another said, it can be really slow at times. I enjoyed it primarily because I thought the Native American folk stuff was super interesting and something I'd never really read about, and he did a great job at combining that with horror

>>24454893
I've only read Annihilation, and I thought it was just okay. I tried to read it as a standalone novel, but god damn not a single thing is explained at the end. I also thought it was a shame that the characters were not really fleshed out; I get that it was more about the environment, but still. Also felt more like sci-fi than horror to me, if that makes sense. Could also just be me, though.

>>24419145
Did I mention how I dislike that Handmaiden author?

She is tainted the word "Handmaiden" btw through her HBOified fictional world; Imagine that, and people were complaining about HBO 'becoming' TLOU2.

Shirley Jackson Awards nominations were announced:

NOVEL
>Curdle Creek: A Novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton (Henry Holt & Co)
>The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim (Erewhon Books)
>Eynhallow by Tim McGregor (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
>The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste (Saga Press)
>The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s Press-US/Titan Books-UK)
>Smothermoss by Alisa Alering (Tin House)

NOVELLA
>Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram (Titan Books)
>Hollow Tongue by Eden Royce (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
>Red Skies in the Morning by Nadia Bulkin (Dim Shores)
>A Scout is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (Lethe Press)
>A Voice Calling by Christopher Barzak (Psychopomp)

NOVELETTE
>“All the Parts of You That Won’t Easily Burn” by Eric LaRocca (This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances)
>“The Girl with Barnacles for Eyes” by Lyndsey Croal (Split Scream Volume Five)
>His Unburned Heart by David Sandner (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
>“Ready Player (n+1)” by M. Shaw (All Your Friends Are Here)
>Stay on the Line by Clay McLeod Chapman (Shortwave Publishing)
>The Thirteen Ways We Turned Darryl Datson Into A Monster by Kurt Fawver (Dim Shores)

SHORT FICTION
>“Kamchatka” by Kristina Ten (Washington Square Review, Issue 51, Spring 2024)
>“Strike” by Jessica P. Wick (Monsters in the Mills)
>“MAMMOTH” by Manish Melwani (Nightmare Magazine, June 2024)
>“Moon Rabbit Song” by Caroline Hung (Nightmare Magazine, November 2024)
>“Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine #58)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
>The Bone Picker: Native Stories, Alternate Histories by Devon A. Mihesuah (University of Oklahoma Press)
>Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations by Carina Bissett (Trepidatio Publishing)
>Midwestern Gothic by Scott Thomas (Inkshares)
>A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
>These Things That Walk Behind Me by David Surface (Lethe Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY
>Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, edited by Sofia Ajram (Ghoulish Books)
>The Crawling Moon, edited by dave ring (Neon Hemlock)
>Monsters in the Mills, edited by Christa Carmen and L.E. Daniels (IP [Interactive Publications Pty Ltd])
>The White Guy Dies First, edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker (Tor Publishing Group)
>Why Didn’t You Just Leave, edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin (Cursed Morsels Press)

>>24454883
>folk horror
Meme genre that didn't exist as a term before the 2010s

>>24456414
Nta but the term has been around since the 70's, and early folk horror includes stories by Machen and M.R. James, so I don't know what you're talking about.

>>24456449
>Nta but the term has been around since the 70's,
it was virtually unknown before the 2010s before becoming popularised and becoming heavily overused by hacks
>and early folk horror includes stories by Machen and M.R. James
There's nothing "folk horror" abut machen or james. They were long dead before the term was ever coined. Jame's stories are classic edwardian ghost tales, machen's are decadent horror tales.
If the idea that any horror story that contains element of folklore is folk horror then virtually all horror is folk horror. Dracula is "folk horror" because stoker based dracula on eastern european vampire folklore, the gothic stories are folk horror because they based the ghosts and spectres therein on british ghost folklore, etc. Is lovecraft folk horror because he was inspired by new england witch-lore?
Folk horror is an applicable tern for the movies that were released in the 60's and 70's that came about in the wake of the hippy movement that were set in and used the british countryside as their backdrop but it's been bastardised and become a meme term wherein any hack can write a shitty horror story, add some faux pagan worship or creepy villagers and label it a folk horror story

>>24456972
Ok

>>24455557
More like Shirley faggot awards

What are some horror books about the internet and/or social media? Surely there must be a few good ones by now.

>>24458149
Negative Space

>>24458149
Not purely horror, but The Sluts by Dennis Cooper might be of interest.

>>24459148
>hey anon, what book are you reading
>oh just The Sluts by Dennis Cooper

What should I read next? I love horror movies and I'm trying to get more into horror novels. I really enjoyed I Am Legend and Hell House by Matheson, I'm currently reading a book called The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling. I have the whole Silence of the Lambs series so I was thinking about starting those, or maybe Exquisite Corpse by Brite since it's short and looks interesting.

>>24459611
I can say that Exquisite Corpse is an amazing novel, as are Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs. I haven't read more than those two though, since I've heard that the quality drops significantly after Silence.

>>24385173 (OP)
What is the difference between American horror and European horror?

>>24459619
Exquisite Corpse it is, thanks!

>>24459611
>The Luminous Dead
Let me know what you think of it, anon. I thought it started decently but fell off hard halfway through, and by the end just became nonsensical.

>>24459729
Just finished it. I liked it a lot, I thought it had some really tense moments throughout, especially towards the middle/second half once things started getting squirrely. I think I tend to be more forgiving towards books than a lot of folks here but I will agree that the last 30ish pages weren't my favorite, but also weren't terrible enough to ruin it and weren't so drawn out that it ruined the whole book. Ultimately, I thought the use of claustrophobia was very well done throughout and I'd recommend it. I didn't love the ending but thought the ride was worth it.

>>24460466
I’m glad you liked it, anon! Reading your mini review makes me want to try it again, it’s been years since I did. Starling also has a new book coming out soon if you’re interested. IIRC it’s called The Starving Saints.