/hor/ - Horror & Spooks

[Anonymous No.19236863]

It's October, so we should talk about books with monsters and stuff.

I'll post some reviews of spooky books I've read lately, so that you can hate them too.

[Anonymous No.19236874]

I'm not wasting time on children books. I have actual literature to read.

[Anonymous No.19236881]

>>19236863
I've been looking for some good horror books but it seems a lot of the books you find when searching for them seem to be wrogly categorised.

Most of them are thrillers, fantasy, and other sub genres. But not actual horror books.

Can someone recommend actual horror books apart from the generic ones?

[Anonymous No.19236884]

>>19236874
>I have actual literature to read
Sure you do. Continue telling yourself that as you're browsing /lit/

[Anonymous No.19236887]

>>19236874
Ok Chud.

[Anonymous No.19236917]

Southern Book Clubs Guide to Killing Vampires by Grady Hendrix is pretty good.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44074800-the-southern-book-club-s-guide-to-slaying-vampires

I might start his new book The Final Girls Support Group for Halloween if I don't find anything else.

[Anonymous No.19236924]

>>19236884

Ha! Burn.

[Anonymous No.19236946]

>The Wide, Carnivorous Sky
>by John Langan

Short story horror anthology. The feature attraction is a very unusual vampire hunt undertaken by a handful of American veterans who, while strategically savvy, are dealing with something completely out of their league. All of the stories pull from different horror subgenres and offer something interesting. "City of the Dog" is excellent if you hate simps and want to see them suffer. "Mother of Stone" might be fun if you like SCP "investigate weird object" stuff and want to see how it should be done.

And if it matters to you, there is almost no modern politicking.

Very good overall. Would recommend.

[Anonymous No.19236950]

>>19236946
>excellent if you hate simps and want to see them suffer
Sold

[Anonymous No.19236966]

Has anyone read this? Local shop has it for cheap so I may make my way and go grab it

[Anonymous No.19236974]

>>19236966
I've seen some pretty mixed reviews for it. Interested in knowing as well.

[Anonymous No.19236981]

>>19236874
how to recognize a pretentious pseud in one sentence

[Anonymous No.19236987]

>>19236966
>>19236974
same. I'm definitely interested.

[Anonymous No.19236989]

>>19236946
I've been looking for any Langan for a while now, either his stuff is completely checked out at the library or I have to pay through the nose to order any of it. And with a title as such, its hard to turn it down

[Anonymous No.19237025]

>Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell
>by Nathan Ballingrud

Another short story anthology, and this is utterly good shit. The premise is this: "What if Hell was an actual place you could visit? What lives there? How can Hell's natural fauna/flora get here?" Now you get six short stories (sometimes intertwining with each other in small ways) that center around people who interact wit Hell, willingly or otherwise.

Now, I was just about to say how the short story “The Visible Filth” should be turned into a film, and I just looked it up, and it fucking already got turned into a film in 2019, but apparently it sucked, so just read this short story instead. It's good - a rare example of a sociopathic asshole protagonist being written correctly.

Read “The Butcher’s Table” if you like pirates and gentlemanly cannibal cults. “Skullpocket” is great - it's like Nightmare before Christmas but all the ghoulish violent shit is played straight. “The Atlas of Hell” is like Gabriel Knight - horror occult shit on the bayou. Read “The Maw” if you love your dog and would do anything to save him/her.

Good stuff. No politics. Lots of occult horror and body horror.

[Anonymous No.19237041]

Adore this book, fragile, lonely and violent. Beautifully atmospheric

[Anonymous No.19237052]

Any actual scary horror books about witches?

[Anonymous No.19237162]

>>19237052
Scott Snyder, Wytches. A graphic novel, but I thought it was very good. Was it "actually scary"? I don't know if it quite met that standard, but I was not remotely expecting to
be made uneasy by it when I checked it out, but to my surprise it pretty effectively creeped me out. If it was not "actually scary," it was certainly scarier than I expected it to be.

[Anonymous No.19237168]

>>19236946
>>19237025
good posts, have a chart

[Anonymous No.19237174]

>>19237052
The Dreams in the Witch House

[Anonymous No.19237180]

Dubs and I read call of the alligator

[Anonymous No.19237186]

>>19237180
Trips and you will do so now

[Anonymous No.19237203]

>>19237162
Most witch books are either generic fantasy, urban horror with college kids, or some kind of Salem type shit.

I don't actually mind the Salem type stuff as long as it isn't generic.

What I really want is something like Blair Witch mixed with The Witch. Spooky shit with witches in the woods and psychology type of horror.

[Anonymous No.19237211]

>>19237180
Sorry, anon. No such book ;(

[Anonymous No.19237214]

>>19237180
Are anons books actually good?

[Anonymous No.19237226]

>>19237052
The Croning

[Neo-Aeneas !!TCZSGz2btUH No.19237233]

>>19236863
My favorite genre :)

[Anonymous No.19237240]

>>19237226
This looks interesting

[Anonymous No.19237565]

>>19237052
The witch of Ravensworth

[Anonymous No.19237605]

CURRENTLY READING THIS BASED AND TWISTED SHIT

[Anonymous No.19237616]

>>19237041
I wouldn't read this book again teebh. And I read it over 10 years ago.

[Anonymous No.19237636]

>>19237616
its a hard book to like, totally understand why it would put some people off.

[Anonymous No.19237745]

>>19237041
Watched this movie yesterday, how does the book compare?

[Anonymous No.19237805]

>>19237745
More depth to Eli's caretaker, Oskars dad and other peripheral characters. Also a lot more violent

[Anonymous No.19237887]

>>19237805
Might give it a shot then. I wanted more about Eli and more violence from the film (still liked it a lot tho)

[Anonymous No.19237920]

>>19237887
hope you enjoy it anon!

[Anonymous No.19237966]

you should have left - kehlmann

a novella in the haunted house tradition, though it's not a standard ghost story. it has some creepy moments when the terror has completely unfolded, and it is well written.

[Anonymous No.19238715]

what are some good horror books that have to do with the ocean?

[Anonymous No.19238771]

>>19238715
The Deep by Nick Cutter

[Anonymous No.19239004]

>>19238715
William Hope Hodgson (a sailor himself) wrote some but I can't remember the exact titles
Edgar Allan Poe -"A Descent into the Maelström"

[Anonymous No.19239201]

>>19238715
The Fisherman, by John Langan
(It's only partially about the ocean, but the book is pretty good)

[Anonymous No.19239208]

What horror story has the best twist in your opinion?

[Anonymous No.19239422]

Ambrose Bierce- Short Stories

[Anonymous No.19239461]

was it kino?

[Anonymous No.19239649]

>>19239461
It was Backrooms before Backrooms.

[Anonymous No.19239982]

>>19238715
>>19239004

The Boats of the Glen Carraig
Adrift on the Haunted Seas (for short stories)
The House on the Borderlands (for general wierdness)

[Anonymous No.19240015]

>>19237605
One of the characters in this book is based on him (the other is based on Dennis Nilson). It was better than I expected it to be (even with all of the gay shit). Figures a former stripper/future FTM tranny would write degenerates well.

[Anonymous No.19240026]

Just finished this today. I liked it.

[Anonymous No.19240212]

>>19238715
Most short stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan involve the ocean and/or sea creatures in some way and she's one of my favorite horror/dark fantasy writers. Also "The Mainz Psalter" by Jean Ray is an absolutely fantastic cosmic horror short story

[Anonymous No.19240422]

>>19240212
>>19239982
>>19239201
>>19239004
>>19238771
ty anons ill check them out

[Anonymous No.19240527]

>>19237745
Which version? Both are good (and worth watching even if you've already seen the other). The tone/atmosphere in the film versions was better than in the book but it's still a solid read (especaily for Halloween).

[Anonymous No.19240894]

>Lovecraft's Monsters

Yet another anthology by a panoply of horror authors. Some of them use monsters from the Mythos, while others make up their own. Mood ranges from horror to comedy to noir to psychotronic. The following four stories are the standouts IMO:

>"Bulldozer" by Laird Barron
>(noir/western)
A Pinkerton is sent out west to hunt down a runaway circus freak with a growing taste for cannibalism. Gritty as fuck. An absolute must read.

>"The Bleeding Shadow" by Joe R. Lansdale
>(noir/blaxploitation)
A private investigator (think Shaft or Black Dynamite) is asked by a prostitute to find her missing brother, a freeloading jazz musician. Fairly gritty.

>"Black is the Pit From Pole to Pole" by Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley
>(adventure/tragedy)
A psychological and cosmological journey starring Frankenstein's monster. Join him as he builds a raft and travels to the Inner Earth...and goes deeper...and deeper.

>"The Same Deep Waters as You" by Brian Hodge
>(sci-fi/horror)
An Animal Whisperer analog is hired by military intelligence to communicate with some unusual prisoners. (I'm 95% sure that Guillermo del Toro ripped off this story when he made "The Shape of Water" the fucking fat prick.)

[Anonymous No.19241084]

>>19240026
I wouldn't really classify this as horror though, it's horror but not in the traditional sense as all the other books ITT

[Anonymous No.19241488]

>>19240026
I've heard nothing but good things about this

[Anonymous No.19241544]

>>19240026
Buehlman is a good storyteller, and an above average prose stylist.

I enjoyed Between Two Fires, and also his Suicide Motor Club, and Those Across the River. The Necromancer's House was not really my cup of tea, but I liked it. I liked The Lesser Dead a bit less than his other horror books.

[Anonymous No.19241567]

>>19236863
I’m currently taking a break with Lovecraft. I’ve been reading Clark A. Smith for a while and looking into Arthur Machen. Should I read The Great God pan or something else first?

[Anonymous No.19241590]

>>19237025
>explore an interesting idea in an all too familiar and terrifying place
>no “muh politics”

Based and sold. Gonna read this now.

[Anonymous No.19241602]

>>19241567
Great God Pan is excellent

[Anonymous No.19241717]

>>19241567
Make sure you also read The White People, it's an incredible atmosphere he manages to portray, 10/10 for me

[Anonymous No.19241794]

>>19241567
>I’m currently taking a break with Lovecraft.
Here's a list of short stories HPL loved and on which he wrote essays

https://www.fantascienza.com/catalogo/volumi/NILF107359/lovecraft-i-miei-orrori-preferiti/

[Anonymous No.19242024]

>Necroscope by Brian Lumley

A series about telepathic British spies fighting Russians and vampires and Russian vampires. Loads of body horror. Everywhere.

The central character of the series, Harry Keogh, is pretty boring to read about when he gains the ability to fucking teleport wherever he wants (this happens early on, so it's not much of a spoiler). No fucking clue what Lumley was thinking here. There was no reason for it other than he didn't feel like writing chapters where Harry has to book a plane ticket.

Ironically, the books shine best when they focus on anyone BUT Harry, which is good because only around one third of the series takes place from Harry's viewpoint. The rest swings between various secondary protagonists, mooks, villains, vampires, and a fun rotating cast of freaks and myopic Slavs.

It's entertaining trash.

[Anonymous No.19242123]

>>19242024
>A series about telepathic British spies fighting Russians and vampires and Russian vampires
Think I'll give this a miss.

[Anonymous No.19242355]

>>19242123
>Russian vampires
Suck my body fluids, pozholuysto

[Anonymous No.19242393]

>>19242355
Niet

[Anonymous No.19242403]

>>19240026
This is the kind of book I'm looking for but more dark and twisted with psychology horror.

[Anonymous No.19242628]

>>19242024
I've often seen these in the 1$ bin, sounds absolutely wild

[Anonymous No.19242726]

>>19236966
I've read it and it's okay but no better. It's a creature feature movie in book form, functional but not a standout and it isn't at all scary.

[Anonymous No.19242808]

>>19237214
Ha, no.

[Anonymous No.19243449]

What's the best version of Frankenstein to get? Seen too many conflicting points about books revising the meanings and missing parts out

[Anonymous No.19243800]

>>19236863
I've been trying to find something enjoyable that's horror related.
I've been really failing at it.
Preferably I would want psychological horror.
Overall I find gross out and gore filled stuff to be boring and distasteful.
For reference, here are some horror movies, not all by any means I've liked.
TV is overall rather lacking in horror that I enjoy.
Also, yes, I know the relevant books they are based on.

A Quiet Place
Alien
American Psycho
Barton Fink
Black Swan
Circle
Cloverfield
Don't Breathe
Get Out
Hush
Perfect Blue
Psycho
Shaun of the Dead
Silence of the Lambs
Stonehearst Asylum
The Endless
The Guest
The Thing
The Uninvited
What We Do in the Shadows
World War Z
Zombieland

and a few that were ok:
Cabin in the Woods
Contagion
Daybreakers
Escape Room
Night of the Living Dead series, some of them anyway
Predator
The Ring
Triangle
Tucker & Dale vs Evil

[Anonymous No.19243845]

>>19243800
>Preferably I would want psychological horror.
>Overall I find gross out and gore filled stuff to be boring and distasteful.
The best shit imho is when you can combine gore with psychological horror

Check

Martyrs

Hellraiser series

Lucio Fulci/Umberto Lenzi

[Anonymous No.19243879]

>>19243845
If it wasn't clear, I meant books, not movies. They're listed for reference since I don't have much to reference in terms of books.
That doesn't seem to be what I'd be interested in either though.

[Anonymous No.19244008]

>>19243800
>Short stories
I have no mouth and i must scream
Alice’s last adventure
The frolic
Tell tale heart
The diary of a mad man
The portrait

>novels
The monk (somewhat, it’s mostly a supernatural story)

[Anonymous No.19244054]

>>19243879
You need to refine your taste, that's why I suggested some movies. If you don't want to, fine.

[Anonymous No.19244085]

>>19244054
I read that as, "You should like what I like". I won't and I'm glad that's fine.

[Anonymous No.19244142]

>>19244008
I have no mouth and i must scream - read, ok
I don't like Ligotti.
Tell tale heart - read, ok

>The diary of a mad man
https://www.online-literature.com/maupassant/4252/
Rather meh, read just now.

>The portrait
Read some of it right now, didn't care.

>The monk
I've been seeing this a bit recently on /lit/ and elsewhere and looked at it at the time. Doesn't really seem like something I want to read, but also doesn't seem like something I'd be against. So, no.

I appreciate the attempt.

[Anonymous No.19244531]

>>19243800
Have you watched the Terror? also good book

[Anonymous No.19244542]

>>19236863
Communion freaks me the fuck out ngl

[Anonymous No.19244679]

>>19244142
What are your best horror novels, then?

[Anonymous No.19244734]

>>19244531
I've thought about doing so, but I don't know. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I haven't liked what I've read from Dan Simmons, not even Hyperion.

>>19244679
Honestly almost none that I've read I've particularly liked. I increasingly think that horror overall just isn't for me. I haven't read much though of it. Another problem may be that what I do like I don't classify as horror. I've tried reading some of the books of the list movies and didn't find myself caring as much. I think maybe I prefer horror specifically as a visual medium.

The Stand? It's ok. Terrible ending though. I don't like King, his son, or really any of the most popular horror authors.

Also ok:
I am Legend
The Fisherman
Who Goes There?

I liked Ship of Fools, though not for any horror elements it had. It was silly but nice.

[Anonymous No.19244738]

>>19244734
more of a try that is. I read some of it and wasn't particularly interested

[Anonymous No.19244920]

>>19244054
This is /lit. The Hellraiser film series is terrible and Clive Barker is a shit writer.

[Anonymous No.19245015]

>>19237025
I disliked North American Lake Monsters. The one with the wolves is good but every other story is "its a metaphor the end". Not worth the read.

[Anonymous No.19245019]

Adam Neville is a pretty good author. I read his book The Reddening and enjoyed it a lot, and I watched/enjoyed The Ritual, which is based on another one of his novels. Overall he seems pretty into cult shit, based on what I've consumed of his so far.

[Anonymous No.19245106]

>>19236863
Outubro é o mês do meu niver

[Anonymous No.19245111]

>>19237203
Im reading this at the moment. Really enjoying. Starts off like a cabin in the woods ending vibe. Getting scarier as it goes on. It's about a town that has been cursed by this witch for 300 years. About the town dealing with it in modern times. Really Cool take on the witch thing. I am scared of witch shit though so maybe others won't find it scary.

[Anonymous No.19245201]

>>19244531
Haven't watched but fantastic book.

[Anonymous No.19247112]

>>19245111
This is close to what I want, I'll give it a try.

[Anonymous No.19247124]

>>19245111
Is this the book that starts off with
the witch being a known phenomenon in the town, everyone knowing about her and treating her half-mockingly, then a new couple decides to move into the town?

[Anonymous No.19247164]

>>19244531
>>19245201
The Terror was pretty good.

For a few days, I too wanted a mute eskimo waifu.

[Anonymous No.19247186]

>>19243800
Watch the film called 'Coherence'
Absolute kino and in line with most of the films you've mentioned

[Anonymous No.19247751]

>>19236946
>Mother of Stone
Tried to read it, found the second person narrative gimmick to be completely insufferable

[Anonymous No.19247874]

>>19243800
>psychological horror.
Try this.

[Anonymous No.19248147]

>>19236874
ok mr faggotpleb

[Anonymous No.19248240]

>>19236881
Do you like short stories? Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural is a really good anthology.
Also check the charts /lit/ made for horror

[Anonymous No.19248323]

>>19236874
4chins boards aren't true literature

[Anonymous No.19248433]

>>19247186
Yes, I've watched that and enjoyed it. It isn't horror, but I appreciate the suggestion, since it would've been a good one.

>>19247874
I've watched The Road and No Country For Old Men, but I can't really bear his writing style. Unpopular opinions abound from me. Thanks though, I looked at it

[Anonymous No.19248467]

>>19244920
>The Hellraiser film series is terrible
Filtered

[Anonymous No.19248519]

>>19248433
Okay. Though his writing style in Outer Dark is visibly different from the two later works.

[Anonymous No.19248640]

>>19248467
>OH! Chatterer is actually a kid! Thats so shocking! Wow, look at this religious symbolism and the fact that plain is pleasure! Sex and violence...so deep!
Fuck off, those movies are just cheesey gore porn that try too hard to be shocking (i.e. pretty much Barker's entire oeuvre as a writter). Overintellectualizing them is pure pseud...next you're going to tell me Nightbreed is actually good "wAtCH tHE cABaL cuT!" Pathetic.

[Anonymous No.19248715]

>>19238715
Frank Belknap Long, really underrated writer, his stories are the very definition of WEIRD fiction. The Sea Leech and The Man With a Thousand Legs are good sea related ones.

[Anonymous No.19249043]

>>19243800
If you want psychological horror, you can’t get better than House of Leaves. The way it is written makes you forget that it is a work of fiction.

[Anonymous No.19249155]

>>19243800
Brian Evenson's short story collections are the way to go then. Collapse of Horses, Windeye, Contagion, The Wavering Knife, choose your pick

[Anonymous No.19249351]

>>19248640
>as a writter

[Anonymous No.19249610]

Well, this has gone about as expected, which is my fault. There probably doesn't need to be any more responses.

>>19249043
I think it has an interesting gimmick, biy but much more than that.

>>19249155
Apparently I've already tried reading his short story collections.

[Anonymous No.19249615]

>>19249351
I also wrote "plain" instead of "pain." Are you saving that for your next post?

Barker is shit on pretty much every level and overintellectualizing it, instead of taking it for what it is and going off of the actual positives however shallow thay may be, makes you both a pseud and a retard..

[Anonymous No.19249623]

>>19236874
typed the chud with his pudgy fingers on his greasy keyboard, his face illuminated with a smirk full of smugness

[Anonymous No.19251363]

I was disappointed to learn that Laird Barron's eyepatch wasn't due to some brutal accident.

[Anonymous No.19252400]

>>19249043
House of Leaves is exceptionally competent as a horror novel. Danielewski has a knack for creating very, VERY unnerving concepts. Definitely read it by candlelight, in the dark, alone.

>mfw decoding the letter to Johnny

[Anonymous No.19252639]

>>19249610
The Cipher by Kathe Koja

[Anonymous No.19252663]

>>19236946
this sounds dope I'll give it a read

[Anonymous No.19252667]

horror rec for when the characters actually are pretty smart about it but are still fucked in the end

[Anonymous No.19252672]

>>19240026
I’m about halfway through this.
Enjoying it so far. He’s got a good ear for prose.
Reserving complete verdict for the end, where most horror writers screw the pooch.

[Anonymous No.19252714]

>Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell

Plot: retarded new-age Christian accidentally unleashes an ancient and incomprehensible evil that envelops a podunk English town.

Weak points: protagonist/heroine is boring but the only person in the story with more than a few brain cells. Literally everyone else is useless and stupid. Book is clearly written by a Libdem-voting British Boomer that caricatures people he doesn't like. Entire story is a buildup to a final confrontation, where the villain loses via deus ex machina in an incredibly ham-fisted way.

Strong points: villain/monster and its minions are horrifying and it's fun to watch them torment and eat the locals.

Rating: 2.5/5 sosij rolls

>The Doll Who Ate His Mother by Ramsey Campbell

Plot: remember that weird kid from school that bit a chunk out of a bully's leg? He's back. And hongry.

Weak points: felt too short almost.Some things could have been expanded upon.

Strong points: everything else. Book was written early on in Campbell's career, so I guess he went downhill over time because this was far and away his best work.

Rating: 4.5/5 sosij rolls

[Anonymous No.19253167]

>>19252667
The Last Days of Jack Sparks comes to mind. A quick read. I enjoyed it.

[Anonymous No.19253203]

>>19236863
just read this. the premise is a lot better than the execution, although that's not to shit on the book itself too much. one of the main issues is it spends a lot of time on just these unlikable characters complaining at each other, although when things do happen it can get pretty nasty in a way i didn't entirely expect. the other problem i had is not enough is done with the plant. its capabilities are shown only right in the last 60 pages and it felt like that could have been spread around the rest of the book more, and also expanded upon.
still though, pretty decent

[Anonymous No.19254329]

>>19253203
Isn't this based off of Sartre's "No Exit"or at least one of his works?

[Anonymous No.19254340]

>>19254329
anon it's a book about man eating plants

[Anonymous No.19254520]

>>19238715
the elementals is a book about three haunted houses on a desolate sandy cape

[Anonymous No.19254539]

>>19254340
i coulda sworn someone told me it was partially based off of Sartre's philosophy

[Anonymous No.19254563]

>>19254539
you were bamboozled

[Anonymous No.19255326]

>>19252639
This isn't really "horror", but it looks like something I can try reading sometime. So, thanks for that.

[Anonymous No.19256020]

>>19252714
Ty.

I read Campbell's Grin of the Dark a few months ago. I read more than half, but I don't think I finished it. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. Campbell is very good at capturing situations of social anxiety. Here, he also did a very good job of channeling the experience of being pestered by an obnoxious, relentless troll. I am a silent movie fan, and Campbell's ability to evoke the look and feel of a certain kind of very early silent film was remarkable. Too, he conjured up more than a few moments of creeping dread. In the end, the plot didn't quite hold my interest. Nonetheless, I give it a thumbs-up because I think a lot of literary horror fans would enjoy the book's many virtues.

[Anonymous No.19256054]

Any good collections of horror folktales?

[Anonymous No.19256878]

>>19252714
>>19256020
I have mostly read his short story collections and the stories range from fantastic (The Hands, The Companion, Down There, Call First etc) to completely vague and boring. As for novels I liked The Face That Must Die despite not having anything supernatural in it.

[Anonymous No.19257018]

>>19236946
Sold me

[Anonymous No.19257037]

My favorite shit is the shlocky 80s horror. Valancourt reprints a lot of good ones in their Paperbacks from Hell. Nightblood in particular rules. It's Salem's Lot-meets-Rambo

Of newer stuff, Benjamin Percy's The Dark Net is really good. I love what Grady Hendrix and Stephen Graham Jones do, which is genre horror with a literary bent. Both did slasher novels this year, The Final Girl Support Group and My Heart is a Chainsaw.

[Anonymous No.19257051]

Anybody enjoy writing horror? I've got my own little series going on. Haven't found a great place to chat with people about it.

[Anonymous No.19257063]

>>19257051
I've outlined a horror novel I'm working on. I read from an author somewhere that the best horror takes a knife to the nerve of the moment, and I read some news, looking at what seems terror-inducing, so I started working on an eco-horror novel. It's outlined, I've written five of the 24 chapters. Not expecting it to be published but going to try anyways because why not?

I'm also doing something schlocky with a haunted record store, because I spent 4 years of my life working at one. I'm using all my old coworkers as inspirations for characters

[Anonymous No.19257083]

>>19257063
Sounds like you've got good instincts.

I wanted to write a series supernatural horror, and of all my ideas I noticed a lot of them involved haunted houses.

So I made a framing device of a former real estate agent hired by a paranormal investigation agency to catalog their haunted properties.

[Anonymous No.19257098]

>>19257083
nice, I like that idea. Whenever I write this kind of thing, I always tend to get very analytical about the tropes and stuff and see how I can put my own twist on the metaphor. Like how vampires have been used to represent anything from disease to sex to misogyny and more, I always ask, how can I put my own spin on that.

So with that in mind my question becomes, why a former real estate agent? How does that job contribute to the forward momentum of the narrative beyond the premise? How are they using those skills to deal with the situations at hand? A great piece of writing advice I got was get a job, and find a way to work that job into the narrative beyond just initial characterization.

[Anonymous No.19257330]

>>19257098
There's a few reasons.

1. the organization has a lot of lore and world building behind it, a little more gets exposed with each story and I have plans on it taking on a life of its own. Everybody in the group has psychic powers. They're a kind of cabal that secretly controls society. They also do everything they can to keep from getting exposed to the public. It's a little bit like SCP in that regard. Hauntings are caused by the deaths of people with psychic powers, so they happen to want to cover it up whenever it happens. The narrator real estate agent happens to have psychic powers, and he's found a job in the cabal once it's noticed he has powers. All of this isn't revealed for some time.

2. Since they want to cover up paranormal phenomenon instead of exposing it, they have to "exorcise" the "ghosts" from the house, and put it back on the market. His job is to discern the nature of the haunting, deal with it, and then restage and sell it back into the public sans hauting.

3. Another way they find haunted houses in the first place is to keep an eye on the real estate market. A house that keeps selling quickly over and over again might be haunted. Since he knows the industry, he's good at finding them.

Since his actual in-story job is pretty much fantasy, I don't have to know much about how his former profession works beyond the concepts. I try not to talk shop more than I have to. The bulk of the stories are the houses and ghosts themselves, and his comments on the real estate business are just a little flavor in intros and outros.

[Anonymous No.19257513]

[Anonymous No.19257515]

>>19257513

[Anonymous No.19257517]

>>19257515

[Anonymous No.19257524]

>>19257517

[Anonymous No.19257528]

>>19257524
>Brian Evenson

[Anonymous No.19257535]

>>19257528

[Anonymous No.19257580]

Any recs for modern horror fiction writers who are respected by serious lit critics?

Trying to avoid the shlock like Stephen King books. I know horror fiction critic S T Joshi dislikes the fiction of Joe Hill(King's son), Jeff VanderMeer and Laird Barron.

[Anonymous No.19257682]

>>19257580
>Laird Barron
He liked his early collections. Read Langan, Mark Samuels, Richard Gavin.

[Anonymous No.19258092]

Any recommendations like House of Leaves or that unproduced x-files episode ligotti wrote? Kind of surreal horror without any ghouls, ghosts, witches, vampires, gore or gremlins.

[Anonymous No.19258657]

>>19236863
I just read "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker in the Books of Blood anthology (volume 3 I think, not sure). I'd already seen the film so I knew what to expect, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. I liked the slow build-up and then the shit hitting the fan rapidly towards the end, it's just a short story so you can easily read the whole thing in one evening.

[Anonymous No.19258750]

>>19257063
Nice anon. Im working on an eco-horror screenplay and a techno-horror novel

[Anonymous No.19259593]

>>19258092
The Cipher by Kathe Koja
Toplin by Michael McDowell
Dark Gods and Events at Poroth Farm by T.E.D. Klein
Dark Entries and Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman
Windeye by Brian Evenson

All atmospheric weird horror without traditional monsters and especially without the Stephen King/Peter Straub small town middle class bullshit
>>19258657
>I'd already seen the film so I knew what to expect
You mean Candyman? The short story is quite different, set in England instead of Chicago for example.

[Anonymous No.19260347]

>>19257580
He really likes Caitlin R. Kiernan and he's completely right about >her

[Anonymous No.19260713]

>>19257580
nah, laird barron is kino

[Anonymous No.19260806]

>>19260713
You have convinced me. I will go buy everyone of his books off amazon right.

[Anonymous No.19261123]

>>19238715
lovecraft

[Anonymous No.19261145]

>>19243449
1818, as it is the canonical version, that gets translated to other languages.

[Anonymous No.19261149]

>>19244679
Not him but, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

[Anonymous No.19261244]

>>19236881
Anything by Tim Lebbon

[Anonymous No.19261425]

Spoonfeed me a good horror book with things in the woods etc. "hidden" but there.

[Anonymous No.19261461]

>>19257051
Books of Horror group on Facebook is fucking amazing for indie horror.

[Anonymous No.19261719]

>>19261425
That's like half of Laird Barron's work.

[Anonymous No.19261781]

>>19261425
If you want a taste of Laird Barron, a few of his best stories are posted for free (i.e., with the author's approval) here: https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/Laird_Barron.html

Of these, I like Old Virginia, The Forest and Blackwood's Baby best.

[Anonymous No.19261857]

>>19236917
Final Girls Support Group was a letdown for me. It got bogged down under the weight of the vague meta universe he created.

[Anonymous No.19261865]

>>19236966
It's probably his best work with one major, major flaw the fucking basketball game. I know, I know, it's apparently there because basketball is culturally significant to modern Native American culture or something but fuck as a scene it drags way, way too long.

[Anonymous No.19262137]

>>19261865
This is how I feel about his new book, My Heart is a Chainsaw. It is really glacially paced for a slasher

[Anonymous No.19262242]

>>19261461
>facebook

hard pass

[Anonymous No.19262359]

>>19262137
I'm not liking it either. The main character is insufferable so that's not helping.

[Anonymous No.19262775]

Hell House bored me

[Anonymous No.19262864]

>>19236946
The one where he riffs on Red Death was dope, can’t remember any of the others unfortunately.

[Anonymous No.19262882]

Is pic rel any good

[Anonymous No.19262888]

>>19262882
it confirmed fake so no.

[Anonymous No.19262901]

>>19262888
I dont care if its fake. is it entertaining?

[Anonymous No.19262921]

I don't remember Ray Bradbury having so many run-on sentences, but I keep running into them in Something Wicked This Way Comes. But I'm enjoying the atmosphere so far.

[Anonymous No.19262952]

>>19262888
>ghost stories aren't real

Holy shit, no kidding?!

>>19262921
I love the way he does nostalgia. Have you read Dandelion Wine?

[Anonymous No.19263056]

>>19262952
>Dandelion Wine
Not yet. I've got quite a few of his works to flip through. I definitely get the nostalgia bits so far, especially with Charles Halloway

Was surprised the term Illustrated Man popped up in Something Wicked, even if it's something I should have completely expected with the setting.

[Anonymous No.19263241]

>>19240894
I mean it sounds like Mike Mignola ripped off the Black Pit one for his “Frankenstein Underground,” comic so that’s not too out of the question.

[Anonymous No.19263751]

>>19262882
I found it silly
The ghost steals money at one point
(More likely George just bought too much house for his meager income)

[Anonymous No.19265409]

>>19263751
The ghost needed some money to fuel his drinking habit

[Anonymous No.19265433]

>>19265409
in need for spirits huh?

[Anonymous No.19265458]

>>19236874
Back to your containment board, tranny.

[Anonymous No.19266156]

>>19244734
I'd still recommend reading the Terror. Even without the monster it tells the very grim tale of a crew slowly succumbing to malnutrition, fatigue and the elements while frozen in on the north pole. Show is absolute kino too, one of the recent TV shows I'd heartily recommend to anyone.

[Anonymous No.19266504]

>>19266156
Oh, ok, I may as well then sometime.

[Anonymous No.19267146]

Reading Harvest Home

[Anonymous No.19268004]

>>19261865
I'm an injun, and I thought that part would fit better in a shounen anime than any injun story. It played out like Space Jam, but once Michael Jordan scored the winning point the Monstars decided to kill him anyway and led to a grueling chase scene.
There's two parts to the injuns reverence to basketball. The first part is that youth would be spending their time killing their neighboring tribes instead of needing sports as an outlet for that energy. The second is that injuns height mogged yuropean settlers who were on a grain based diet until well into the mid 20th century, so it was one of the small wins that they treasured.

[Anonymous No.19268015]

>>19257580
Ligotti is good in my opinion and well liked by critics.