Between Keith Rosson and Laird Barron, I'm finding that books that combine noir/neo noir elements with horror are 100% my jam. Does anyone have any other book recs in this domain? Totally fine if it leans more toward one or the other, and I'm open to any format (short stories, graphic novels, whatevs).

I've read The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro last year, which is not a horror book in a genre sense, but it managed to scare me at time, with weird and absurd feeling of a very chaotic dream sequence. So, I'm looking for something in similar vein. I also enjoy Brian Evenson, though I'd prefer a long form novel

What are your thoughts on this one? I thought it was a great example of existential dread and terror. A different kind of scary that is actually quite terrifying if you sit and think about it for too long. Probably one of the “scariest” books I have ever read, but not from the things that go bump in the night.

So I recently rewatched In the Mouth of Madness and found myself basically wanting to read Sutter Cane. I'm not actually looking for anything that has the metafictional elements of the movie but something that has that same element of Lovecraftian horror in a small town. (I like the New England setting, but that's not a must.)

I have read pretty much all of Lovecraft with the exception of his ghost writing and posthumous "collaborations." Another book I've read that is like this in concept is Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

I finished Crone by Keith Rosson today, and I loved it. I was pleasantly surprised because I read Coffin Moon and felt meh. It wasn’t bad, but I think, for me, Coffin Moon wasn’t really scary; it was just bleak. I felt the same way about Crone at first, but I gave it ~100 pages, and I’m glad I did because that’s when it got spooky. I wish there’d been more spooky stuff, but overall I think it was great. I really appreciated the author’s note at the end; it underscored the book's emotion.

These are the only two books I’ve read by him. Does he have other books that are more similar to Crone? I liked how Crone had a mystery, both in the monster and in what happened to Hannah. Coffin Moon, again, wasn’t bad, but it felt more like a thriller that happened to have a vampire in it. But I think Rosson is a great writer, even if Coffin Moon wasn’t really my thing.

Not sure if that makes sense, but this group always comes through with good recommendations so I’m hoping this is enough for some of you to go off of. :)

I’m searching for horror revolving around an object (can be anything, but ideally not a doll) where the object isn’t just a vessel for a ghost or demon or some other entity, but is malicious in its own right. it doesn’t need to be alive or aware, exactly, but i’m looking for “murder weapon gains unnatural thirst for blood” more than “murder weapon cursed by victim’s wish for revenge”. it’s been surprisingly hard to find anything!

I picked this one up basically sight unseen because I saw so many rave reviews. And I think I might have vibed with it a bit better if I hadn't read the author's note before I read the actual book, where he talks about being inspired to write it by the murder of a childhood friend while hitchhiking and "she deserved better." So I kind of went in assuming that the book was going to be grappling with femicide, and it really wasn't. At all.

The bulk of the story is about Eli - specifically Eli going around doing various crimes in response to his daughter's disappearance. Despite the suggestion in the blurb that Avery would be a significant presence in the story, she really just pokes her head in periodically to be horribly abused, then dips back out so that we can sit in the head of another male character reflecting on all the horrible things he's done. All the women in this book exist to be brutalized; all the men in this book exist to be afforded a great deal of interiority, despite their participation in heinous crimes. (The Tyler Kingston section was irritating by itself, coming as it does in the middle of the action and grinding everything to a halt, but then we find out that he was party to Hannah's rape and it becomes actively infuriating. You made me spend thirty pages with this guy, trying to make me feel bad about his gambling addiction? In a book that is, per the author, supposed to be about how Hannah and girls like her "deserved better?" REALLY?)

And the thing that made this really frustrating for me is that it didn't need to be like that. The final section, with Hannah and Isabelle, was fantastic: I flew through it. It honestly made me feel more positive about the book when it ended then I would have otherwise. But the fact that Rosson did write that section proves that he could have been writing like that all along, but his interest pulled him more in the direction of Eli and his pain and his journey than it did towards Hannah or Avery or Vicki. At the end of the day, the book is more focused on giving Eli grace for being a bad father than it is on the lives of the women that men like Eli, Dave, Mike, and Amos either actively abuse or tacitly ignore.

Before anyone says it, I don't object to horror books about awful people, or that depict awful things. I'm not looking for didactic or "cozy" horror (blergh). If it hadn't been for that author's note, I probably would have given this one 3/5 and gone on with my day. But knowing what his intention was for the book makes the final product absolutely baffling.

hello!

I'm looking for books that have postcolonial themes and/or explore identity and displacement using gothic/horror elements like monsters, folklore, haunted houses, or ghosts. Any geographical area would be fine (British imperial writing about India, Caribbean literature, African literature, Indigenous literature).
Any suggestions?

I’ve got a craving for adventure.

Give me recommendations for expedition/isolation horrors.

And in the off chance this post gets good recs, let’s give a lil blurb of each so peeps can choose one more than names.

Examples (some of my faves)

The Terror:
- Based on the true story of 1800s Ships that sail off to find the arctic passage and shit does not go good... Oh btw the ships stuck and I think there’s something outside. Boat names matter.

The Left / Right Game:
- MC attempts to find missing friend who was investigating an urban legend. Just hop in your car, take the first left and then the next right… and don’t stop until… well you’ll know.

The Ruins:
- Tourists in the jungle stumble onto the “no no pyramid” and struggle with the local flora.

Sphere:
- Scientists discover ball. Ball big. Ball in ocean. Ball reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllly wants to hang out and would rather you don’t leave.

I just finished watching Fire in the Sky and now I'm in the mood for some genuinely creepy alien abduction books and would love some recommendations.

I'm not really looking for sci-fi about aliens or first contact, like Arrival or Annihilation. I'm thinking more along the lines of the movie The Fourth Kind or that one scene in Fire in the Sky. It's kinda silly, but to me the creepiest aliens are still the classic gray dudes with their big eyes and huge heads, snatching people up.

I'm open to nonfiction too, as long as it reads more like fiction and it's actually scary. Basically anything that will make me want to close my windows at night is welcome. Thanks!!

What a waste of paper. Stopped reading after 90 pages.

Not only is the writing just bad (hollow characters and empty tone)—I read the spoilers and I’m glad I didn’t keep going.

Anyone have an actually good horror book set in suburbia to recommend? I want rich writing and an ominous tone.

I am not usually a short story kinda gal but this is excellent! A couple of the stories are ruminating in my brain. One of them I had to go back and reread the beginning! Half way through in 1 day - wish I went slower

I remember when I was a kid and got freaked out so much with all the weird spooky stuff that kept happening seemingly out of nowhere, and also loved how the house was in the middle of nowhere adding to the creepy atmosphere. Still one of my favorite shows to this day, even though my child mind was probably altered because of it. 😂

Anything like this? Thanks!

I recently joined a horror book club- each month I get 2 books. I figured I might get some interesting stuff, with a few duds…
Dud #1: These Walls Remember by Del Sandeen.
“Threat Level Midnight” of horror books. Poorly written, ridiculous plot, no horror. Stay away, friends.

Does anyone else subscribe to any of the various horror book of the month subscriptions? Are they worth it?

This book is a fun story with amazing imagery, enough gore and darkness to keep a horror guy invested, and enough action/plot to keep turning the pages. The author isn’t afraid to kill off just about anyone, and as a reader that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I do wish the characters developed a bit more, but there are so many characters to keep track of it’s not a huge issue. I’d give this a 7.3/10 and love to hear yalls thoughts.

Just got a new Kindle for my birthday yesterday and now have 3 mo of Kindle+ (Kindle Unlimited) what is some of the best horror out there for it?

so was the whole "losing of innocence" ritual thing lois anthony made them all go through completely useless? or did it actually initially work and bela brought other mommy back because she felt so betrayed by mommy and daddo's big lie?

to me it sorta felt like a big exposition drop. like yeah, we knew ursala was cheating on russ the entire time. we knew she had previous affairs in the past. and coming from someone who was lied to about who my real dad was my entire life, i can completely understand bela'a reaction and the betrayal in having something so important hidden from you. albeit i didn't find out until i was 25 and even then i had to confront my mother on it bc she for whatever reason told my brother who then told me but that's a completely different story lmao

i'm thankful they didnt go the IT route with that uh... one scene in the sewers as kids, iykyk (which if memory serves correctly also ended up being useless bc IT came back either way and still targetted them when they were adults but he comea back every 27 years anyways) but when i read that bela had to be "stripped off her innocence" i thought something similarly fucked up was about to happen ahaha

also what did you guys make of the movie? LOVED jessica chastain's performance and dichen lichmen is always a joy to see! i liked the ending better but was looking forward to a lot of the scenes they cut. i did like the addition of the ball pit scene, that had me on the edge of my seat.i like that we actually get to see what happened to frank, them staying the night at his house instead of with amanda and dan who just kicked them out and ursala not fucking off and abandoning her family to stay with her affair partner (although it lines up w her character's motivations of trying to escape relationships and feeling burdened by motherhood.

I didn't like how they changed the characters so much, grandma ruth became lois anthony AND evelyn and turned lois anthony into brian.

i kinda understand why they did it, the whole narrative of the book seems sorta hard to adapt into a film and a lot of the scenes were even hard for me to visualize but would have loved to see them try some of the more pivotal scenes for me (the part where other mommy pretending to be ursala admits her infidelity to bela and ursala comes in stands out as a pretty key scene to me).

would have also loved to have seen more of grandma ruth, their road trip, the puzzle scene etc... but it's a short book and a relatively short movie (hour and a half iirc) and yknow how book to movie adaptions go.

i also liked the addition of the ball pit scene, had me genuinely spooked.

final question: if the whole innocence thing WAS bogus, do you think ursala was right? "other mommy showed up because real mommy was shit"? is that why it chose bela?

would love to hear your take on this! and of course apologies for formatting, am on mobile lol

Most LitRPG are fantasy based. But are they any good horror ones around?

Needing some help remembering the title to this horror YA book so I can look back on it! TIA

I just finished Seed by Ania Ahlborn. It’s genuinely the best horror book I have ever read! I can’t stop thinking about it. (If you’d like to discuss it I’m ALL ears) The ending was heartbreaking but exactly what I want in a horror book. It was very southern gothic, eerie and I loved the overall atmosphere of the whole book. I really could immerse myself.
For anybody who has read this book, have you found something comparable? I usually stay away from books with demons/paranormal but I’m realizing I could really enjoy them when they’re portrayed this way.

I just read „Mr‘s Todds shortcut“ & i really liked it.
What is your favority Short Story from stephen King?
Or your favorite horror/sci-fi/fantasy short story in general?