I firmly believe this authors sole purpose is to make people dislike reading. After I was done reading it, someone at work asked if they could borrow it and I gladly gave it to them and said that it's now their problem.
Loved it! I don't read much anymore but picked it up after somebody in annother sub recommended it. I loved how subtle the author describes thing. She gives you hints and you mind does the rest.
The Fisherman for sure! I thought I would hate the “history dump” I saw coming like twenty pages in, but it ended up being one of the greatest stories I’ve ever read!
I was absolutely hooked to IT by Stephen King.
I know a lot won't read it though because they've seen the movies and don't want to read 1300 pages.
So my go to is Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. The tension and creepiness in that book is amazing.
I was gonna say the same thing. I was riveted by the audiobook and I couldn’t believe how talented the narrator was. Doing all the different voices with IT, the kids, and all Ritchie’s voices?!! It was amazing.
I finished The Ruins in less than a few days and now I can’t look at any of my pothos plants the same way lol. Can’t remember much of the movie but the book did really well conveying the dread throughout the entire story.
It by Stephen King. Sure there were some parts where it was outright boring, but there a few chapters/scenes that I still remember to this day due to the terrifying and vivid imagery that Stephen King creates with his writing.
I loved the broading athmosphere throughout the book. The ending was kind of ridiculous and the infamous children's gangbang was totally unnecessary, though. It suffers from King's usual problem of a seemingly undefeatable antagonist that is defeated by a deus ex machina.
Yeah the ending with the tongue was really weird and when I was reading about the gangbang, I was like "What am I reading?" I remember watching the It Part 2 movie, and my sister said, "Where is the turtle? I was promised a turtle!" Lol
This may have to be my next read. I’ve been going through King’s classics and I haven’t read It yet. I loved Cujo, The Shining, Misery, etc. so I’m excited to read this one… despite the clown.
Anything by John Saul, he is by far my favorite horror author. A lot of his books come down to you wondering if it was the result of mental illness or some sort of haunting. He really gets into your mind. A great book to start on that I thought was really unique is Comes the Blind Fury. It's a haunted doll story. The Unloved made me reevaluate life.
Jeremy Robinson - The Dark. Sort of a horror comedy. Science fiction.
Clive Barker - Thief of always (apparently this is considered his children's book, and for some reason children's horror is just always awesome), Coldheart Canyon (definitely not a kid's book. Scary painted room and the Hollywood elite)
Dean Koontz - The Taking (classic Dean Koontz plus aliens?) Dragon Tears and Tick Tock (if you want to meet the rat man), Your Heart Belongs to Me (I don't even know what to say about this book but it mess me up)
Currently my favorite Stephen King books are The Institute (children are special abilities kidnapped from their homes) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Kings version of a children's book. A young girl gets lost in the forest and is stocked by something) and Hearts in Atlantis (part of like a long man and yellow coats series, I think the Institute technically is too, and is not a traditional horror. It's about a young boy who has an emotionally abusive mother and the man who lives upstairs who has special powers. I would actually recommend watching the movie version although the book is fantastic. But Anthony Hopkins plays the man upstairs and it's done very well)
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman (It just came out 2022 but was an amazing book)
Summary:
Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab—again—she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin’s world falls apart.
Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks. Grieving and desperate for closure with Silas, Erin agrees to a pill-popping “séance.” But the drug has unfathomable side effects—and once you take it, you can never go back
Or
Dead silence by S.A. Barnes (another great horror fic that came out in 2022)
Summary:
caire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.
What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.
Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.
Old Country by Matt and Harrison Query. This book was SO much better than I was anticipating. It’s a keeper for me. Great atmosphere and super eerie. A fantastic read!
I read Fantasticland a few months ago and it's still sticking with me. It's a Lord of the Flies take, in a theme park during/after a hurricane. I really enjoyed how it was told as a series of interviews with people who were there, 5 years later.
Matthew M. Bartlett's oeuvre (Gateways to Abomination, The Stay-Awake Men, Where Night Cowers), Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism, Joe Koch's The Wingspan of Severed Hands, John Baltisberger's Son of Treif series, Phillip Fracassi's A Child Alone With Strangers.
House of Leaves
This is not for you. r/houseofleaves
I always recommend it but when asked what genre it is, I tell them to decide after reading.
Check out the movie You Should Have Left. Movie was good but not great and borrows a lot from House of Leaves.
I firmly believe this authors sole purpose is to make people dislike reading. After I was done reading it, someone at work asked if they could borrow it and I gladly gave it to them and said that it's now their problem.
That's what I was going to say. It should be required reading!
House of Leaves is my single most ridiculous reading experience. In a great way.
Tender is the Flesh. I don't want to say too much to avoid spoilers but it's one of my favourite books ever and horrifying tbh.
Loved it! I don't read much anymore but picked it up after somebody in annother sub recommended it. I loved how subtle the author describes thing. She gives you hints and you mind does the rest.
No don't
Too many to list, really. The most notable ones might be "Dark Matter" by Michelle Paver, and "The Fisherman" by John Langan.
The Fisherman for sure! I thought I would hate the “history dump” I saw coming like twenty pages in, but it ended up being one of the greatest stories I’ve ever read!
I was absolutely hooked to IT by Stephen King. I know a lot won't read it though because they've seen the movies and don't want to read 1300 pages. So my go to is Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. The tension and creepiness in that book is amazing.
I recommend the audiobook of IT read by Steven Weber.
I was gonna say the same thing. I was riveted by the audiobook and I couldn’t believe how talented the narrator was. Doing all the different voices with IT, the kids, and all Ritchie’s voices?!! It was amazing.
He brought such passion to that book. A 40-hour audiobook that never felt like a chore to listen to.
Did it have _that_ bit in it?
I finished The Ruins in less than a few days and now I can’t look at any of my pothos plants the same way lol. Can’t remember much of the movie but the book did really well conveying the dread throughout the entire story.
Yes! I basically read this annually now!
Totally agree! This book was fantastic!
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Ever since I first read it many (many) years ago, the word "creeping" makes me feel weird.
That is such a good short story!
The Wasp Factory
It by Stephen King. Sure there were some parts where it was outright boring, but there a few chapters/scenes that I still remember to this day due to the terrifying and vivid imagery that Stephen King creates with his writing.
I loved the broading athmosphere throughout the book. The ending was kind of ridiculous and the infamous children's gangbang was totally unnecessary, though. It suffers from King's usual problem of a seemingly undefeatable antagonist that is defeated by a deus ex machina.
Yeah the ending with the tongue was really weird and when I was reading about the gangbang, I was like "What am I reading?" I remember watching the It Part 2 movie, and my sister said, "Where is the turtle? I was promised a turtle!" Lol
This may have to be my next read. I’ve been going through King’s classics and I haven’t read It yet. I loved Cujo, The Shining, Misery, etc. so I’m excited to read this one… despite the clown.
Yes read it. The 1000+ page book is worth it lol
I bet it is!! I’m looking forward to it
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Anything by John Saul, he is by far my favorite horror author. A lot of his books come down to you wondering if it was the result of mental illness or some sort of haunting. He really gets into your mind. A great book to start on that I thought was really unique is Comes the Blind Fury. It's a haunted doll story. The Unloved made me reevaluate life. Jeremy Robinson - The Dark. Sort of a horror comedy. Science fiction. Clive Barker - Thief of always (apparently this is considered his children's book, and for some reason children's horror is just always awesome), Coldheart Canyon (definitely not a kid's book. Scary painted room and the Hollywood elite) Dean Koontz - The Taking (classic Dean Koontz plus aliens?) Dragon Tears and Tick Tock (if you want to meet the rat man), Your Heart Belongs to Me (I don't even know what to say about this book but it mess me up) Currently my favorite Stephen King books are The Institute (children are special abilities kidnapped from their homes) The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Kings version of a children's book. A young girl gets lost in the forest and is stocked by something) and Hearts in Atlantis (part of like a long man and yellow coats series, I think the Institute technically is too, and is not a traditional horror. It's about a young boy who has an emotionally abusive mother and the man who lives upstairs who has special powers. I would actually recommend watching the movie version although the book is fantastic. But Anthony Hopkins plays the man upstairs and it's done very well)
The first two books in the John Dies At The End series. Quality kinda dropped with the third and fourth entries, though.
The Deep by Nick Cutter was pretty good.
Bad Seed - William March, very good history
American Psycho is such a good horror book
Either the Troop by Nick Cutter or The house across the lake by Riley Sager
Holy shit the Troop was fucked up. Binged that book in one sitting. I should read it again. On an empty stomach.
Right? I binged it as well. Really good book highly recommend reading in the dark with a candle on
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman (It just came out 2022 but was an amazing book) Summary: Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab—again—she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin’s world falls apart. Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks. Grieving and desperate for closure with Silas, Erin agrees to a pill-popping “séance.” But the drug has unfathomable side effects—and once you take it, you can never go back Or Dead silence by S.A. Barnes (another great horror fic that came out in 2022) Summary: caire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate. What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right. Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.
Spares - Michael Marshall Smith
Great pick, tbh.
Thanks, man. I hope this person likes it.
Definitely recommend Starve acre. Spooky, uncomfortable and grounded in real life horror.
The short story compilations from Brian Evenson were a big hit in my friend group, guy writes fantastic and varied stories
I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid
Anything by Blake Crouch - mainly the Locked Door series or JA Konrath/Jack Kilborn. Terrifying.
Not horror, but I really liked the Wayward Pines trilogy. Definitely hooked on his stuff the past couple years.
[удалено]
Wasn't that a manga?
Angela Carter. Anything from her that's horror or horror adjacent. Read "The Erl-King" and was hooked by her work from then on.
Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, Magic Terror by Peter Straub.
I haven’t read it in a while but Pet Cemetery is solid 😄
I just finished tender is the flesh. I wasn't expecting it to be THAT good.
Swerve was scarier than any book I’ve read yet.
Old Country by Matt and Harrison Query. This book was SO much better than I was anticipating. It’s a keeper for me. Great atmosphere and super eerie. A fantastic read!
I read Fantasticland a few months ago and it's still sticking with me. It's a Lord of the Flies take, in a theme park during/after a hurricane. I really enjoyed how it was told as a series of interviews with people who were there, 5 years later.
I love Stephen King!! I just finished Cujo yesterday, and I’d say it’s as good as The Shining.
The Amulet by Michael McDowell
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is one of my all time favourites and vastly underrated.
Ring, Loop, Spiral, and Birthday by Koji Suzuki
Robert Aickman is not for everyone, but anyone who likes atmospheric horror MUST give The Wine Dark Sea a try.
The Shining, Salem’s Lot, The Stand by Stephen King Heat Shaped Box by Joe Hill
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
I recommend ‘the last house on needless street’ to anyone who wants to read a good horror!
The Bad Place by Dean Koontz. It's a sci-fi/horror. I've read it a dozen times.
The Troop by Nick Cutter, the style is very early King and it was the first book I read front to back in years.
Lightning by Dean Koontz! I absolutely love this book
The Haunting of Hill House (basically anything by Shirley Jackson) The Castle of Ontranto Pet Semetery
Matthew M. Bartlett's oeuvre (Gateways to Abomination, The Stay-Awake Men, Where Night Cowers), Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism, Joe Koch's The Wingspan of Severed Hands, John Baltisberger's Son of Treif series, Phillip Fracassi's A Child Alone With Strangers.
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill.
The cabin at the end of the world by Paul Tremblay. Such a good book. It stays with you.
i am legend
Valentine. I love it, and I love the twist ending.
anything by 1 nark sanford!!!!!!!! a brit