Horror - As the days get shorter

[RedEyedGhost]

Wow, October sure snuck up on me this year.  Any fresh recommendations?  Inspection by Josh Malerman looks interesting, Coyote Rage by Owl Goingback looks different, The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling could be a good sci-fi horror combo, and there's still a few Adam Nevill books that I could get read (House of Small Shadows, Under a Watchful Eye, and Last Days).

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman was my favorite read last October, so maybe I should go for his The Necromancer's House?

[Inkdaub]

4 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman was my favorite read last October, so maybe I should go for his The Necromancer's House?

You totally should.

James P Blaylock has Night Relics, Winter Tides and The Rainy Season.  All are good but they are set in California so the Fall vibe might not be that strong. 

[RedEyedGhost]

Anybody read Bone White by Ronald Malfi?  It sounds pretty good.

 

16 hours ago, Inkdaub said:

You totally should.

Sounds like a plan then.

 

16 hours ago, Inkdaub said:

James P Blaylock has Night Relics, Winter Tides and The Rainy Season.  All are good but they are set in California so the Fall vibe might not be that strong. 

I will check them out.

[lady narcissa]

I don't read horror, it's just too much for me.  So I have no recommendations.  But seeing this thread every year always makes me happy because I so enjoy the idea of October seasonal reading.

One book I keep seeing referred to as "horror" and seems to be quite a publishing hit this year is Mexican Gothic.  I'm somewhat interested because of the Gothic aspects (I can handle traditional Gothic) but the horror label puts me on pause.  If anyone who reads this thread has read the book and sees this comment - can you let me know how "horror" it is?  If its anywhere towards the Shirley Jackson or Stephen King - no.  But if its more towards the Turn of the Screw and Northanger Abbey - yes.

[Inkdaub]

6 hours ago, lady narcissa said:

Mexican Gothic

This looks like a book I would like.  I have one more book to go in my West re-read and then I will read this one.  Maybe. 

[unJon]

I don’t read much horror. I enjoyed Joe Hill’s Nos4a2 quite a bit. Haven’t read over this thread to see if it’s already been recommended. 

[RedEyedGhost]

Wow, it's already that time of year again.  Never really updated last year with what I actually read:

1. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff -  1950s America that's as much racial horror as it Lovecraftian horror.  Some haunted house stuff, some ghost, and some beasties.  For the most part it's much better than the show.
2. The Necromancer's House by Christopher Buehlman - very enjoyable haunted house story in the modern era with some interesting ways in which people can practice magic. 
3. Survivor's Song by Paul Tremblay - mutant rabies that turns into a global pandemic, wonder how he felt about that one getting released last year.  Even though it felt very much in the moment I really liked it, especially Natalie's recordings.
4. Night Relics by James P. Blaylock - very cool ghost story, the writing didn't flow quite as well as I would have liked 

 

On 10/2/2020 at 11:22 PM, lady narcissa said:

One book I keep seeing referred to as "horror" and seems to be quite a publishing hit this year is Mexican Gothic.  I'm somewhat interested because of the Gothic aspects (I can handle traditional Gothic) but the horror label puts me on pause.  If anyone who reads this thread has read the book and sees this comment - can you let me know how "horror" it is?  If its anywhere towards the Shirley Jackson or Stephen King - no.  But if its more towards the Turn of the Screw and Northanger Abbey - yes.

I just started this one, will let you know how it goes.

For the rest of my reading this season I'm planning on:

1. Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett
2. Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling
3. Bone White by Ronald Malfi
4. and if I have time The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Anybody else planning on some horror reading right now?  Should I kick any of those off my list and replace it with something better?

[lady narcissa]

4 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I just started this one, will let you know how it goes.

I actually ended up reading it recently. I got it on Kindle for cheap and just decided to give it a try.  I'm curious to hear if you think it is 'horror' at all because my impression was it was pretty horror-light.  Actually for a book billed as Gothic horror, I found it pretty wishy washy on both...as if the people billing it as such, had never read much of either.  Window dressings of both maybe.  I ended up skimming it and was baffled by the attention and hype it got.

[Xray the Enforcer]

On 9/27/2021 at 10:19 PM, lady narcissa said:

I actually ended up reading it recently. I got it on Kindle for cheap and just decided to give it a try.  I'm curious to hear if you think it is 'horror' at all because my impression was it was pretty horror-light.  Actually for a book billed as Gothic horror, I found it pretty wishy washy on both...as if the people billing it as such, had never read much of either.  Window dressings of both maybe.  I ended up skimming it and was baffled by the attention and hype it got.

I actually really enjoyed Mexican Gothic, but I think that a lot of the framing of the book in the media was by people who don't understand genre fiction that well and underestimated the set of expectations that comes with flinging genre terms around willy-nilly. So yeah, if you went into it with some of those expectations (or trepidation!) then you were definitely going to be non-plussed by that aspect alone! And then there's always the wild card if something will also work with your personal taste or not, so I don't blame folks for not being wild about the book for whatever reason.  

[Xray the Enforcer]

I kicked off October (well, end of September, really) with a tour through Fearful Symmetries, edited by Ellen Datlow. As it turns out, I definitely prefer horror in the shorter formats (short story thru novella) than novels, probably because that's what I grew up reading.

Also giving Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October a whirl. I've never read it before, and now that more of Zelazny's work is finally emerging from "out of print" purgatory I am digging into his back catalogue. 

Back to Datlow: She has a couple new anthologies out. One is body-horror themed (Body Shocks), which is very much not my preferred subgenre, so I'm still on the fence there. The other is organized around stories inspired by Shirley Jackson (When Things Get Dark). Both anthologies feature authors whose work I really enjoy, including Carmen Maria Machado, Cassandra Khaw, Tananarive Due, Joyce Carol Oates, John Langan, Kelly Link, Jeffrey Ford, and others. 

And, finally, I'm waiting for the new Cassandra Khaw book, Nothing But Blackened Teeth. 

[kairparavel]

On 9/27/2021 at 5:22 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

 

For the rest of my reading this season I'm planning on:

1. Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett
2. Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling
3. Bone White by Ronald Malfi
4. and if I have time The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Anybody else planning on some horror reading right now?  Should I kick any of those off my list and replace it with something better?

I read The Only Good Indians last year and it's very good. This was my not very good at reviewing books review: 

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Intense creepy horror mixed with a thought provoking commentary on hunting, among other things. 

[Astromech]

5 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

 

Also giving Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October a whirl. I've never read it before, and now that more of Zelazny's work is finally emerging from "out of print" purgatory I am digging into his back catalogue. 

 

I failed to get a copy of this for an October read. That and Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree have been on an October TBR list for a few years now.

[sologdin]

maybe classics this year after house of leaves last year:  rosemary's baby, the exorcist, the haunting of hill house, and something wicked this way comes.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Snagged Mexican Gothic today. 

[Xray the Enforcer]

I really tried to stick to the one-chapter, one-day plan for A Night in the Lonesome October (each chapter covers an October day), but I got caught up in the story and I finished it last night. What a delightful read that was! 

[TrackerNeil]

October is long over--coming late to this thread--but one of the very best horror novels I have ever read is Devolution, by Max Brooks. I enjoyed World War Z, sure, but I tore through Devolution in two days and then immediately read it again. (Admittedly, this is during the pre-vaxx pandemic, so I didn't have a lot to do, but, still.)

It's told in the we-found-this-diary style, but that never gets in the way of storytelling. I am really hard to scare--as a kid I watched "The Exorcist" without blinking and then slept peacefully after--but Devolution creeped me out. Highly recommend.

[john]

The Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski are great examples of crime horror. Based around a true crime podcast that’s trying to uncover the truth about various events from the past, told from different perspectives so you have to piece the truth together, always involving creepy happenings at creepy locations. Covers are nicely creepy too.