What scary book are you reading right now? What do you think of it so far?

I'm hoping that this thread can evolve into an ongoing set of book recommendations.

Post your opinions of whatever scary-themed book you're reading even if you aren't very far into it yet.

For me, I'm reading John Byrne's first novel Fear Book from 1988.

I like what I've read so far. Some mysterious and creepy goings' on in the prologue.

A nice couple then moves into a nice old house in Connecticut and is receiving a bunch of junk mail for the previous couple. In that junkmail is a mysterious, blood red catalogue. So far two characters have looked inside and freaked, but there hasn't yet been a description of what's in it.

Nicely written, I'm enjoying it so far.

I am about a quarter way through THE PACK by James A Moore. It is the second book of the Serenity Falls trilogy. I am liking it a lot more than the first entry. I think this book would hit a soft spot for readers who really enjoy King's 'SALEM'S LOT.

The first novel focus on the cursed history of Serentity Falls, along with the introduction of some main characters. Book #2 is dealing with the kids of the town and how they handle vampires, monsters, possessions and other screwy stuff.

The book reads like an epic. I find that in parts, the scenes are overwritten. I have never been a person that is good with names, and this book has a lot of characters. A whole town's worth of characters and I sometimes find it hard to remember who is who anymore, forcing to flick back to remind me.

All in all, a pretty decent read. Not scary in the least, but some some moments of carnage pay off. I think Moore's biggest asset in these books so far, is character development.

I am planning to read all three books straight through, so this one will be followed by the third instalment entitled DARK CARNIVAL.

I finally got around to Thomas Tessier's much-vaunted 1979 werewolf novel The Nightwalker, just released in PB by Leisure Books. It's a gory, sex-drenched updating of the Larry Talbot paradigm that still works quite well.

Despite our over-familiarity with werewolves in the nearly 30-year interim since publication (thanks to movies like AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, GINGER SNAPS, DOG SOLDIERS, etc., and novels like Skipp & Spector's Animals and King's Cycle of the Werewolf), Tessier's novel still holds your interest and provides the chills, keeping the lycanthrope's origin murky and even keeping open the possibility of "mere" mental illness as an explanation. Plus punk rock and mutilated joggers in Hyde Park! How can you lose?

HHF,

I went through a phase where I bought all of James Moore's books (just prior to the Serenity Falls trilogy).

So far the only one I read is Possessions. In a word, it stunk.

Would you recommend gving him a second shot, then? If so, where would you start? Have you read Blood Red?

(I remember reading somewhere that Serenity Falls was supposed to be one big book.)

Hey Ken,

The Nightwalker sounds pretty good! I loves me a good werewolf story and the fact that it's a reprint is a plus in my book.

To be honest, the only part that worries me is keeping open the possibility of "mere" mental illness as an explanation. If that isn't done right, it just gets irritating. See House of Bones for an example.

The Serenity Falls Trilogy is my first foray into James A. Moore and you are right, the story was originally released in one big book. My understanding is that the re-release of the three volumes are supposed to be better than the original volume, although I think that they are also out of print now. There were some revisions and editing that was completed to enhance the enjoyment of the novels.

Based on his first book, I would give it two big thumbs down. The second is proving to be much better, but it does have its moments where the plot is boggled down. So much so, that I find myself thinking of what I am going to read next rather than enjoying what I am reading now. Sometimes I phase out and find myself tracing back a few pages because I have no idea on what I just read. It rarely happens to me in general, but there is always that one book every couple of years that has that effect on me. Let us just say that I tend to read a lot at night, and these books have prematurely put me to sleep on more than one occasion.

I am still going to finish the trilogy just because I am one of those readers that once they begin something they have to see it all the way through. I also have BLOOD RED in my pile of books to read, so I will be reading it at some point in the future. I have heard good things about BLOOD RED from other fellow horror readers, but the disappointment in Serenity Falls might detract my interest for the next while.

I would not recommend the trilogy, but there are people out there that can relate to James Moore. I just happen not to be one of them.

That's too bad, but that was the feeling I got from my one attempt at James Moore.

js-9000: don't let a possible mental illness explanation of The Nightwalker keep you away. While the overall origin is left open to interpretation, it's still lycanthropy, and I'd say that the evidence that _some_ kind of physical transformation actually occurs is pretty strong.

Hi guys, 1st post. =)

Have to give a mention to Gary Braunbeck-Mr Hands. Just started this about 70 pages in and it is just blowing me away.

I've never read Gary Braunbeck, but I've heard good things about him. Is Mr. Hands the first book of his you have read?

Yeah wasn't too sure about him at first. Didn't like the sound of the write up's and the reviews, but I thought what the hell give it a shot. Wow is all I can say it's sucked me right in and his writing is excellent, I've put a few more books of his on my wishlist now.

I agree about Gary Braunbeck. Mr. Hands was unbelievable. I still have a chapbook of his called PRODIGAL BLUES that I heard was incredible. I will let you guys know if it was any good. If it is, hopefully it will come out in mass market soon. Not sure, as it might be too extreme from what I heard.

I've started Aliens: Steel Egg by John Shirley. I'm only three chapters in, so I can't say much about the book, but I've heard good things about John Shirley.

Yeah me too, going to recieve Wetbones soon. If that is as good as I've heard then I'm gonna get Demons and In Darkness Waiting.
HHF can't wait to hear what you thought of Prodigal Blues. It's on the wishlist =).

#14-I'm sure many will back me up that his story collection, Black Butterflies is fantastic.

I was looking into that Black Butterflies collection. And I've heard good stuff about Wetbones.

I will admit that reading cheesy Aliens: Steel Egg is proably not the best introduction to John Shirley, but hey, it was available at the book store and looked better than the Hellblazer books he's been writing.

Shirley's Black Butterflies and Wetbones are really good, but the best I've read form him so far is Crawlers, a terror tale about nanotechnology gone berserk. A very nice blend of SF and horror.

Guys, I'm not loving Aliens: Steel Egg. I'm on page 90 or so and I seem to be churning through the book just to finish it. It seems like a good concept not handled very well. John Shirley may be a good writer, but he's not demonstrating it here. And the problems don't seem tied to it being a tie-in novel. Characters are bad and the writing just seems lackluster.

Keep in mind that Aliens is a franchise series, written to spec. Usually these are just a quick buck for the writer. Not that I'm making excuses for Shirley in this case. I think one of the other titles would have made a much better introduction.

Started Wetbones last night as it happens, I'm 90 pages in and enjoying it well enough. The characters are intriguing and some of the stuff in there is pretty close to the bone. Interested to see where this goes.

Ken,

Aliens is a franchise series, written to spec - I can understand that. But the problems I'm having with the book are more due to sloppy (or lazy) writing.

The main 'bad guy' character is so paper thin he doesn't even have two dimensions. Every other line he speaks ends with an exclamation mark. He reminds me of a Snidely Whiplash-type character twisting is handlebar moustach while he ties the damsel to the railroad tracks.

I'm not expecting James Joyce when I pick up a book inspired by Aliens, but I would at least like characters that are up to the 'standards' set by an Arnold Schwarzenegger film.

Look at what Dan Abnett (or even R.A. Salvatore though I'm no fan) is able to do with franchise books.

I'm not saying I'll never read another John Shirley book, but he's failing to impress me here. I'm curious to see what RabidPete says about Wetbones.

If anyone cares, Aliens: Steel Egg has picked up a bit (mainly because that aggravating character has been 'off stage'). Anywho, now I'm enjoying it more. If you were thinking of trying this one I'd say go ahead, though you'll have to stick with it till a third of the way through before it picks up steam.

I just finished Hell house by Richard Matheson I have to say the ending was kinda cheesy. Go ahead and throw rocks at me but come on, calling the ghost names? I think it was a rip off of the the haunting of hill house and even the updated version of Stephen Kings Rose red did a better job. Gonna go read Carrion Comfort and see if that creeps me out.

I love Richard Matheson, but I wasn't nuts about Hell House myself.

Tell us what you think about Carrion Comfort. That's been on my TBR pile forever and I have been threatened for not yet reading it.

Well I finished Wetbones last night. I'de give it a cautious good rating, didn't blow me away. I'll try some more Shirley books. I'm definately gonna give Demons a try. There's more info on the book in my 50 book cahllenge thread.

I just started carrion comfort (as Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was moving too slow). Up to page 68 and I have to say Dan Simmons is kickin ass!

Wow, page 68 of 900? If he keeps that pace up I can see why the book has so many rabid fans (no pun, Rabid Pete).

sigh, yeah, I hope it's not another one like The Terror

You guys can laugh at me, but I'm rediscovering Scary Stories Treasury!

The other day I was humming "The Hearse Song," and googled it to find out where I was from. I immediately ran out and bought the book. I let out a big "EEEE!!" of pure joy at the first page and the drawing from "The Big Toe." I had COMPLETELY forgot about this book, and it was one I checked out just about every week from the library in second or third grade!! EEE!! :)

I'm in the middle of the second one now. Not as great as the first, but I still love Schwartz!

I saw the Scary Stories Treasury in the bargain section at Borders the other day. I thought about picking it up, but passed it by.

Dan Simmons is a genre-busting treasure of a writer. Carrion Comfort is a vampire classic. I LOVED The Terror, by the way. If you know anything about the historical Franklin expedition, the novel is a juicy extrapolation of events.

As far as Shirley, I won't claim he's one of the greats; just that I especially enjoyed Crawlers. Glad to hear that the Aliens book turned out ok, though.

Thomas Tryon's THE OTHER has always been one of my favorites. I FINALLY got around to Harvest Home. Not quite as good, but still a knockout! What an unnerving ending!

I also just received William H. Hallahan's The Search for Joseph Tully from Millipede Press. Wow! A very underrated 70's gem. I love the depiction of a deserted, crumbling Brooklyn. Scary stuff, with well-delineated characters.

Well i just finished three Bentley Littles back to back. The Store then The Association then The Summoning (wrong touchstone). Of all of them I found The Summoning to be most interesting, though the ending was as predictable as expected. The Association was crap. I'm finding it hard to get quality writing in this genre. Maybe i'm not such a scary story fan after all :(

I read The Vanishing and didn't love it. I was kinda hoping his other books are better. Maybe pick a different author and don't give up scary just yet.

Yeah don't give up have you tried Ketchum and Braunbeck or maybe give Clive Barkers shorts Books of Blood a try.

I'll second Clive Barker's Books of Blood.

If you are looking for a better quality of writing in your horror, I'd highly recommend Peter Straub. Especially Ghost Story, Floating Dragon, Mr. X or Koko (though Koko isn't a 'scary' story, just a terrific mystery/thriller).

I have to say, I loved The Association and The Summoning though The Store wasn't a favorite of mine.

I second Ghost story it's one of my favorites by Straub.

Beeg,

Whatcha think of Floating Dragon or Koko (since I saw you had those in your library)?

I loved Ghost Story. Has anyone read Joe Hill? His Heart-shaped Box was very weird and disturbing. I'm now reading his 20th Century Ghosts It's a collection of his short stories.

Floating Dragon was my first Straub book, totally creeped me out. KoKo was dark and a departure from horror (which annoyed me) but still a good story. Shadowland is another favorite, kind of a cross between Talisman and Something wicked this way comes.

I don't really do book reviews, I'm more of a loved it/hated it kinda girl.

I like Joe Hill, I can't imagine being Stephen King's offspring. Heart-shaped box was pretty good, 20th Century Ghosts is on my TBL
(let me know how you like it, might travel faster up the list)

I was impressed with the fact that I sent a comment to Joe Hill on his LT profile and he actually answered back. So far 20th Century Ghosts is really good. He has a story that is pure horror movie style and a story that is very sweet in an odd way.

"I'm more of a loved it/hated it kinda girl"

Beeg , geez I thought you were a guy. Sorry! It's rare to find a lady with a love for horror film/fiction (in my experience anywho) darn I gotta find me a girl who's a horror junkie =).

I've been considering Heart Shaped Box, but was worried it was gonna be in a Stephen King style. I think I may give it a go now.

Awful I know, but I'm waiting for the Heart-Shaped Box paperback. It doesn't sound like it would be my kinda thing because in the past music and horror haven't mixed well. (Admitedly, this is based mainly on so many of those cheese-o straight to video '80's flicks.)

Phlox,

In reading the above comments I hope we can convince you to try Peter Straub before you abandon scary stories.

In terms of quality of writing, I think Peter Straub is the best out there.

That's weird. I posted a message about 5 minutes ago and it's not here.
What I said was Heart Shaped Box is Stephen King ish but I liked it. Joe has a way of telling a story. And to RabidPete. Sorry I'm a girl too. My horrorness is wasted on my husband who HATES anything' weird' His term, not mine.

No need to be sorry, it's a wonderful thing!

Horror and Music can mix, in this regard I definitely recommend Phil Rickman's December.

The music in Heart shaped box is background kind of thing. It's not overdone. Actually it adds to some of the subtle, dark humor of the story.

Great recommendation quartzite. I second December. It is an excellent mix of horror with music. Rickman does that quite a lot.

I just finished The Keep, which I really liked. I started out expecting it to be a little silly...but I ended up getting totally caught up in it. Has anyone read the other books in the series (sorry..."Cycle")?

>43 RabidPete: It's rare to find a lady with a love for horror film/fiction

Another horror-lovin' girl here!

I have the whole set and it keeps you entertained. The books evolve rather than repeat the same theme like Brian Lumley's Necroscope series

#51 - Has anyone read the other books in the series (sorry..."Cycle")?

Yup. I'm a big fan of the Repairman Jack series. He first shows up in The Tomb, but Legacies is the first of the books about Jack. Highly recommended!

I'm not an F. Paul Wilson expert, but isn't The Tomb the only Repairman Jack book that is part of the Adversary Cycle?

I wasn't too nuts about The Keep myself. I grooved on the Nazi's hiding in the creepy old pseudo-castle, but the whole fantasy angle kind of put me off.

BTW: Has anyone read Midnight Mass? That one sounded promising.

I can only pray (to Cthulu?) that Midnight Mass the book is better than the movie. It wouldn't take much.

#46 cal8769 my husband too lacks my entheusiasm for horror. It's a shame. At any rate, my to be read stack grows each time I look at this thread. I agree with the Straub fans out there. He has some very diabolical stories if you find the right ones. Shadowland is at the top of my list and of coarse Black House and The Talisman with Stephen King.

I am currently delving into the works of Jack Ketchum and can't believe I didn't read this stuff sooner. What the hell was I thinking?

I am big Repairman Jack fan, too. jseger, you are right that The Tomb is the only Rj book that is part of the Adversary Cycle, but the whole Repairman Jack series is continues to refer to the adversary and some of the events in the Cycle.

I need to put Jack Ketchum on my TBR list. I have never heard of him.

Never heard of Ketchum? Then I think your in for a treat. I would recommend starting with Off Season, Ladies Night and then The Girl Next Door. That's the start I made and now I'm Ketchum lovin' son of a gun!

oy, so many books, need more time

Oh thanks a lot. I added those to my TBR list.

Beeg, just avoid sleep! Easy.

Loved 20th Century Ghosts, and I'm typically not a short story reader!

After scanning this thread again (and adding more books TBR) I was amused by how many of us don't have a SO that enjoys our predilection for horror. Doesn't matter which sex we are only that we're single in this area. I have to say that I'm thrilled to find people to discuss this genre and looking forward to more replies.

Ooh, ooh so excited just managed to get the most wanted book on my wishlist for £3.11. The Haunted Forest Tour is coming. YES!

LOL Pete! I can't sleep after reading horror, I have to shut the book at *least* a couple of hours before heading to bed or I'll have nightmares.

btw carrion comfort is still kickin

Go to Jeremycshipp 's profile page. he has some links to stories he has wrote. They are creepy.

I've just started The House of Lost Souls by F.G. Cottam and so far, so creepy. I'm really enjoying it but it is giving me the creeps. A group of friends visit a spooky old house and within weeks one of them has committed suicide and the others are goind insane. One girls brother finds a previous survivor of the house and together they have to confront what is going on.

After this book I've got Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which is about a young boy befriended by a 200 year old vampire trapped in time as a young girl. It sounds quite creepy too so I'm really looking forward to it.

#66 - I'm all alone in the house for a few weeks and get very creeped out but I will still be reading this book before I turn out the light. I suffer very bad nightmares when I get stressed, my doctor says its a mild form of night terrors, so if I'm going to have them anyway I might as well read my book and give myself a reason for a bad dream.

Jody, I'm in the same situation. My husband is away during the week for training that lasts for 9 weeks. I definitely have only been reading scary books during the daylight hours.

Cal, mine's not very brave about spooky things when he is here though, so I can't rely on him to save me from anything supernatural. I have a lot of fun reading out the scary bits of my books just to freak him out before he goes to sleep ;-)

cal, thanks for the heads up. Just went to JeremyCShipp's page and read The Camp, it was great.

Jody, I just get an eye roll and a 'I don't believe you read that crap' if I try to talk about what I'm reading.

Man oh man, the thread's jumpin'! Go out to dinner and I miss a lot.

#55 - I had no clue there was a Midnight Mass movie! Too bad it sounds so terrible!

Jack Ketchum is an author I know I need to try, but his greatest work (The Girl Next Door) just sounds a little too brutal for me. I have picked up Off Season and Offspring, but they're still in the TBR pile.

Has anyone read Ramsey Campbell? I read The Face That Must Die and a short story called The Pattern. Wow, he is disturbing.

That will teach you to eat, jseger.

I read Ramsey Campbell's Midnight Sun and liked the idea. It just moved soooooooooo sloooooooooowly. That being said, he is an excellent writer. These years later I can still recall the terrific opening at the graveyard and weird symmetrical clearing in the forest.

I have the doll who ate his mother and don't remember being to wild for it. I do however think about the story when ever I see someone driving with their arm hanging out the car door.

I wanted to try The Doll Who Ate His Mother after reading about it in Danse Macabre.

Now there's just too many new authors to try and since I wasn't too impressed with Midnight Sun his books are on my back burner. I guess I'm just not too in to 'quiet horror'.

What I like about Ramsey Campbell is the surreality of his writing. The ominous, worm-like thing in the gutter that turns out to be a mere plastic bag or the deformed head that becomes a purse sitting on top of a department store dress rack. That sort of thing. All very unique to Campbell's style.

I've often thought of R. Campbell as one of the true successors to Lovecraft, tone and idea-wise. And of course, his early novel The Face That Must Die is one of the great psycho-killer tales, and books like The One Safe Place are nail-biters.

Thank you cal8769 for telling me about this group! I am a big horror fan, but not the bloody,gorey stuff, more the ghost and bump-in-the-night kind. I love "Ghosts" by Noel Hynd! For awhile it was out of print but someone told me it re-released. His "Cemetary of Angels" is also gives a pretty good shudder at times.
Sounds like Braunbeck may be a good one to try. I think Richard Matheson is a very good writer, but Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" was SO good that Matheson's "Hell House" is a pale copy I'm afraid. Bentley Little's "The Walking" made the hairs on my neck stand up a couple times, especially when I was at the lake cabin alone, and near the cemetary. (My Great Dane nearly gave me a heart-attack when she softly nudged my shoulder.)
My husband is not a horror fan and, in fact, is not even a reader, but puts up with my library of 534 books and counting...
Yup, RabidPete, another female here.

Well I'm trying Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon right now. It started off promising but is dragging a bit at the middle. Someone please tell me it picks up because I may give up on this one.

still reading carrion comfort I'm up to page 559 it's still good, but geeze the filler. I wonder what makes an author say I want to write over 800+ pages. One thing about a smaller book it's easy to justify finishing it off, like the last piece of cake or the rest of the box of candy. Not this honker, nope, gotta pace myself.

Nothing like a good spine tingling book (or man's best friend) to get the blood punping. Glad to see you SunnieB.

>80 Phlox72: Someone please tell me it picks up because I may give up on this one.

It picks up. I almost gave up somewhere in the middle, too..."dragging" is an understatement! *trying to suppress the urge to give spoilers*

Now that sounds intriging and is making me want to read it.

**Well I'm trying Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon right now. It started off promising but is dragging a bit at because I may give up on this one.**

See Message # 32

I read Harvest Home a long, looooong time ago, but gave up in the middle. I guess I really need to try it again.

beeg,
Glad to hear Carrion Comfort is so good. When you talk about filler, would you say that The Stand is filler? Because I don't mind that. Characterization doesn't bother me even if it takes ten or twenty pages. It's when the story is totally derailed by stuff unrelated to the plot that I start thinking 'filler'.

yeah..filler, a page about crawling though a drainage ditch that smelled of feces and urine out of Mexico -?!. I'm not sure what constitutes an epic and what I call just plain too much. Don't get me wrong, I love a huge book, but sometimes I have to wonder if the author just likes to see himself write.

I love a huge book, but sometimes I have to wonder if the author just likes to see himself write. - That's a good question. I love Stephen King. He's accused of liking to see himself write all the time. I dunno. There may be some truth there, but I like seeing him write as well. I guess it's all just subjective.

I love seeing Mr King write as well, like I said - I love huge books. What gets to me is unsurmountable obstacles over and over again I'm like enough already when do they get to sleep? ;) Suspend my belief all ya want but lets get to the meat of the story. I found the same thing in The Terror maybe it's just my impatience to find out what happens. I'm anxious for you to read this book and see your thoughts.

Thanks #83 and #85 but I can take no more. I've given up on Harvest Home. I don't like Tryon's style. Time to see what's next.

Make Peter Straub next, I say! Try Ghost Story or maybe Floating Dragon or Koko. (I'm going to feel like such a maroon if you absoultely HATE Peter Straub.

I love Peter Straub and what is a maroon?

A tree?

Better review your basic Looney Tunes. A "maroon" is a descriptive term coined by one Bugs Bunny.

Well, okay.... I have never watched the Looney Tunes in English. So my very basic knowledge about them is in German ;-)
And I found out that it is not a tree, I misread the entry in the dictionary. It's a color. I feel stupid now...

I just started Created By, written by Richard Christian Matheson (son of the legendary Richard Matheson). RCM wrote this supernatural thriller set in the TV industry after having successfully worked there since he was 18 or so. It was written in the early 1990's, so it's a little dated pop-culture wise, but it remains a scathing, insider's portrayal of soulless TV execs and their minions. Just look at it as a historical novel. It's riveting as hell.

Better review your basic Looney Tunes. A "maroon" is a descriptive term coined by one Bugs Bunny.

Thank you Ken. I sometimes forget about the international clientele of LT. (Typical American, I assume everyone lives in the U.S. and knows my cultural touchstones.)

Maroon is a color. But it also sounds like 'moron'. So when Bugs Bunny was laughing at a stupid bad guy, he would say 'What a maroon!'

Now I remember that. I love Bugs Bunny. He just isn't very nice, is he?

It was written in the early 1990's, so it's a little dated pop-culture wise, but it remains a scathing, insider's portrayal of soulless TV execs and their minions

Reminds me of another book I've always meant to read: Sellevision

I was wondering how Richard Jr. was as a writer. I think I'll pick up Created By.

>97 jseger9000:: Thanks! When I read the entry where you used the word I just assumed it was a typo. I like the things I learn here on LT.

Not a typo. Just too much time spent in front of the irradiating influence of the T.V. as a kid.

Ken, speaking of T.V. I notice Created By is showing up under Richard Matheson instead of Richard Christian Matheson. When I get home (instead of slogging off at work like I am now) I'll have to look into it.

well I just finished Carrion Comfort and I think everyone should drop what they're reading and start on this.

just a suggestion.

Uh oh. Another Carrion Comfort convert. Hey, a book that possesses the reader... that could be a good story. Never mind. That was In the Mouth of Madness.

I'm starting Reflections in a Golden Eye and that's only a little over a hundred pages. Maybe I oughta line up Carrion Comfort next?

if you loved The Stand you'll like this. Sometimes the endings let me down after all that investment of time? LOL not this time, loved the ending..loved it.

Well, considering The Stand is in my top 5 all time favorites, I guess carion comfort will need to be pushed to the top of my TBR list.

Just finished The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum and frankly, I'm not sure I can recommend it to anyone. It is so completely realistically gruesome, it took me a while to come to terms with what I was reading.

I loved The Stand I got bogged down in the middle but I'm glad I stuck with it.

I don't know if the rest of the board will stone me for this.... but I didn't love The Stand. I liked it well enough, but there are a lot of Stephen King books I like better. (I read the 'abridged' version because at the time that's all there was. Some time I'll read the expanded version.)

Jseger, most of the time when I read something you post I think "those are my thoughts exactly" (only in a higher voice) The Stand is not my favorite King book either, but I stuck with it because it's Mr King. Carrion comfort is that same type of epic story only with less traveling and that Oz kinda feel. I'm really keen for you to read it and voice my thoughts again.

The Stand is one my favorites, but I much prefer the originally published, shorter version. I was excited when the expanded version came out, but I thought that it did not add a lot except for more paranoia about the government, which I thought was one of the weaker elements of the story anyway. Anybody that actually works for the government knows that idea that it can act as a monolith with but a single purpose is dreaming.

I just found cold print out in my studio. Has anyone read it? I can't remember if I read it (reason it's out in the studio) and if not is it something I can put off until this glass project is finished.

I am reading the most recent Repairman Jack Harbingers by F. Paul Wilson. It starts off with Jack doing something atypically foolish and thus out-of-character, but it still sucking me right in nonetheless.

Um, actually, Bloodline just came out not too long ago, so you have another one right after Harbingers!

Duh!.Actually it is Bloodline that I am reading..... Thanks for reality check!

Hi from a newbie in the UK :o)

This looks like a great group, full of people with good taste lol.

At the moment I'm reading The Nightmare Chronicles by Douglas Clegg. Just about half way through and I'm impressed. The book is a collection of short stories held together with one 'framing' story. Some of them are pretty nasty and I'm reminded of Clive Barker a little.

Clive Barker wrote the best short horror stories I've yet read, so that's high praise. I have a few Douglas Clegg novels. I'll have to check 'em out.

I am currently reading two (I do that a lot-like changing channels) one is The Manor by Scott Nicholson, which was reccomended by a Bump-in-the-night msgr and the other is The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories, which has a collection of stories by authors such as Stephen King, James Herbert,Wm Hope Hodgson...all great in this genre AND favorite stories of horror film stars such as Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff and Peter Cushing. Very good selection to give you the heebee-jeebees.

Sunnie,

Tell me what you think of The Manor. I like Scott Nicholson, but that book didn't work for me.

I'm reading Mr Hands right now. The author reminds me of Dean Koontz - and not in a good way. Maybe after I get past the sentimental sad stuff??

Ooh... saying an author reminds you of Dean Koontz is the same as telling me 'Don't bother reading this one.'

you are *so* in my mind.

didn't
like
it
at
all.

#119 - couldn't agree more. There is no good way for an author to be like Koontz imho.

The good news is that I just finished The Other by Thomas Tryon and loved it! Ah my faith in scary books has been restored.

Phlox,

Glad you liked The Other. (Promises self to read that one some time soon!) Not all horror is craptastic.

If you ever try Peter Straub, lemmee know what you think. He is a very intelligent man that happens to enjoy writing scary stories. I don't want to oversell him though.

beeg,

Did you finish Mr. Hands or give up? (I'll never read it, but I have to say the cover is pretty neat for that one.)

yeah I finished it. LOL I posted in 50 book challenge I thought the cover rocked and it was down hill after that.

Oh Beeg, i'm disappointed =(. Mr. Hands was fantastic. It was the emotional stuff that really worked for me.
Koontz ain't got nuthin' on Braunbeck =). Ah well d'frent strokes d'frent folks hey.

Mr Rabid,

I love horror, but not books about child or animal hurts. I thought the story was weak and the ending? c'mon they all lived happily ever after? Did he get all that from one day in the life of Lucy? *shrug* didn't buy into it, I wanted to but it didn't happen.

#68
Just did a quick search to see if anyone else was reading House of Lost Souls by FG Cottam and I see you are Jodyreadseverything (well you would - you read everything!). Just started this which was among a pile of wish list items from Amazon that my sister bought me for my birthday - she knows what I like!

I am about 100 pages in and feeling quite creeped out. I love it! Just my sort of book so far, no blood 'n' gore, just a creepy crawly shiver that makes me look under the bed before turning the light off. Hope it stays this good throughout, oh and I won't be listening to Tam Lin while I read!

TOWER HILL by Sarah Pinborough. It's off to a good start.

I like Sarah Pinborough. I didn't know Tower Hill was out already.

I thought I'd go back to my roots and reread Selected Short Works of Edgar Allen Poe. There's nothing like a little classic literature to make you feel good.

#127 - I'm glad you are enjoying and being creeped out by The House of Lost Souls, it worked out very differently to the way I expected it to be told but was still nicely creepy all the way through.

I am reading Gil's All Fright Diner and so far I am enjoying it, though it more strictly humor than horror--kind of Christopher Moore-esque

I've got that book waiting for me. Just waiting for a sunny day. =) Let me know what you think quartzite.

So, I've just started The Hellfire Club by Peter Straub, and I'm finding it a very slow start. Does it ever pick up, or is it just not one of his better offerings? I'm not the type to stop reading once I've started, but this one is tempting me.

The Hellfire Club isn't one of his best. I thought it was interesting and did finish it, but it's no Ghost Story or Koko.

Thanks #135. I plan to stick it out awhile longer. I hope it's worth it in the end.

I did finish The Hellfire Club, but it wasn't one of his more memorable. Like most of Straub, it does pick up after a slow start, but not like his really good work does.

Things are well in my world now. Despite the dissappointing start to my latest read, I'm very excited! I was passing a used book store at lunch today and happened upon a copy of Carrion Comfort. Thanks to beeg, in a previous post, I couldn't help myself, and now have something new to sink my teeth into!

Ah, Carrion Comfort. That seems to be a book that possesses its readers. I've had that little skeleton puppet staring at me for the longest. It's the books resemblance to a brick plus the fact that I haven't read any of the five Dan Simmons books I own that has made me hesitate to read it.

Yeah, Carrion Comfort's been sitting in my TBR pile for months too. I think I'm afraid of discovering I hate it half way through....

Heh....forgot was I was going to post: I'm just about finished The Sound of His Horn which is...odd, and I've finally started The October Country.

Glad to see I'm not the only one whose Carrion Comfort is in the TBR pile. :) It just looks so long . . . .

Anyway, horror-wise, I'm reading one of the Hot Blood horror/erotic anthologies: Kiss and Tell edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett. Pretty good so far. I love this anthology series anyway, so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. Anyone else read any of these books? Any recommendations in the horror/erotica genre?

The Keeper Sarah Langan on page 51 and things just got interesting....

The Keeper definitely got creepy, and for me, kept getting creepier as I went. Pretty decent scary story!

The Keeper is one of those books on my ever-growing TBR pile. Maybe I'll pick it up after I finish the sci-fi brick I'm working on now.

Nice to see a new post here. The group's been pretty... dead... lately.

I know...buncha zombies

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Renfield. It tells the Dracula story through the eyes of Renfield and Dr. Seward. So far it's gothic and creepy, and I love the way Hambly gets into the head of this insane guy being controlled by Dracula. The only major flaw I see so far is that you probably want to be familiar with Stoker's Dracula instead of relying on movie versions to be able to get the full effect.

Dr. Neutron,

I saw Renfield and it looked interesting. Thing is due to the non-stop slew of crap vampire books I was afraid to try a new spin on Dracula. Now that I've seen an endorsement from someone trustworthy, I'll look into it.

Have you read Lord of the Dead? That's another gothic vampire tale that looked interesting, but... see above.

I have indeed seen Lord of the Dead. It seemed interesting, but I haven't added it to the TBR list for the same reason you were unsure about Renfield. I'm not a fan of the new urban fantasy trend - is Lord of the Dead any good?

Dr. Neutron,

I haven't read Lord of the Dead myself. I was hoping to mooch some book knowledge off of you!

And amen to not being a fan of the urban fantasy stuff. I read Something From the Nightside and that was enough of that, thanks.

I'm reading Nightwatch by Sergei Luyanenko and so far it's an easy read, but I have to see where it goes.

Quartzite,

How's the translation? Does it read well in English? Quirky translation is why I gave up (for now) on Battle Royale.

No problems with the translation; as I noted it is a very easy read. Big print, too, in my edition.

Js get the manga there is 15 volumes and it is the definitive way to get the story. It's fantastic.

#153, Pete - Blah! 15 volumes of right-to-left manga for a book I already own? Besides, how can a comic adaption of a book be definitive? (I sound cranky, don't I? Don't mean to though!) I'll try the book again some time down the road. If I give up a second time, then I'll look into the manga.

I used to read a lot of manga years back when I was still collecting comics (and when they were still flipping the pages so they could be read left-to-right...). Lots of it was crap, but there was some very good stuff in there too. I still fondly remember Area 88, Appleseed, The Two Faces of Tomorrow and probably my favorite 2001 Nights.

I just started Remains of an Altar, and after spending over a month on Tree of Smoke, it's like a long conversation with your best friend. I don't often say this of a character, but I sincerely wish Merrily Watkins were a real person that I could have lunch with.

I just finished The keeper

A nice horror story that just creeped along. Sad and disturbing, none of that kill the monster save the day at the end of the book kinda story.

#150 - I loved The Night Watch and Day Watch. They're not scary in the least, but I really liked the paranormal/spy/thriller vibe they had going. The translation was easily readable, very well done.

I have gone ahead and ordered Day Watch and Twilight Watch as I enjoyed Night Watch. I would put them more in the "supernatural law enforcement" category (a mental sub-genre of mine) rather than straight horror.

The Missing Sarah Langan

I have a new favorite author, second part to The Keeper just as creepy, just as good.

Holy crap! I had no idea there was a continuation to The Keeper. *runs off to the library*

I'm reading The Witch of Sixkill by R. Karl Largent, which I picked from a random search for horror in the library catalogue. It was published in the early '90s. I'm only about 1/3 through it. Horribly edited, badly written, and all the characters are either despicable misogynists or stereotypes of women. It's bloody awful, but I can't stop reading it.... It's got some gruesome scary bits. It actually reminds of the Christopher Pike books I used to read as a kid, but with adults instead of highschoolers.

Has anyone read anything else by this author? I'd never even heard of him.

d2vge,

Can I just say I love that title? What's Sixkill? I'm imagining a dusty western town in the deserts of west Texas.

I've read a piece of crap book like that where I just couldn't stop reading. An old book my wife had in a box somewhere called The Headsman.

Awful and unbelievable, yes. But it was the literary equivilent of one of those Dario Argento giallo movies.

>jseger,

I know! The title was pretty much the only reason I picked it. You're way off, though--Sixkill is a town in Newfoundland. Fictional, I'm pretty sure.... :) The Headsman looks hilarious! I love that cover.
I totally agree with you on the Dario Argento comparison, although I actually *hate* his movies, so I have no idea why I'm carrying on reading this book.

#161: Yes, I've heard of R. Karl Largent (I own one of his books, Black Death, though I haven't read it yet). Is he like Christopher Pike as you said? That actually caught my attention. I loved (still love) Pike's books.

#164:
Well, it's been a long time since I've read C.P., but I'd say they are pretty similar. Same stock characters (the slut, the evil female, the oblivious ugly person, the angry-scary-violent guy, etc.) and the same sort of formulaic non-plot plot. And I'm getting the same sort of "Ew...gross!" reactions. But The Witch of Sixkill is much gorier and more...obscene than any Christopher Pikes I read. Then again, this is the only one of his books I've read, so the others could be completely different.

Now I want to dig out my old Christopher Pike books. It'd be interesting to read them from an adult's perspective...maybe. :)

I just finished Desperation by Stephen King. I'd rate it a 4/5 but why do his books have to be soooo long? This one was the size of my Oxford Dictionary and took the better part of two weeks to finish.

And the story, while good, made my mind whisper LOTR, over and over. A group of people, pulled from different lifestyles and groups, thrown together in a quest to kill something evil.

How many times has King followed that formula?

I've got Bag of Bones in my queue for a re-read but have The Castle of Otranto up next. I think I need a King break . . .

Maybe that's why Harper Lee wrote only one book?

I'm with you on the LOOOOONg book thing. started Carrion Comfort TEN DAYS AGO! It never takes me more that a couple of days to finish a good book, and I don't quite know what to do with myself about this.

hang in there, I did post it had a lot of filler, but it's worth it.

Scaryguy,

Desperation is one of my favorite of Stephen King's books. I would highly recommend that while Desperation is still fresh in your head you read The Regulators. They make for such a neat one, two combo.

I'm reading Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. I'm not too far yet - maybe page 60 or so, but that feeling of creeping dread is settling in nicely.

Hi Nancy,

I loved SUMMER OF NIGHT. You are in for a few nasty surprises, some good story-telling and a heart-breaking experience.

Let us know what you think when you are done.

Has anyone read Tabitha King? I am reading Small World and it's a good book. Started out slow but it is picking up.

I read that years ago..prolly when it first came out. not bad for the wife of Mr King.

I read Survivor a year or so ago and was disappointed. The plot line didn't jive at the end and the protag was too annoying for me to but in to.

Since that one I haven't attempted any more of her books.

I will have to think about whether or not I'll read another. I didn't mind Small World but the end was anti-climactic and come think about it, so was the beginning. I think I just talked myself out of trying another!

I finished The Witch of Sixkill (which turned out to be better than I expected, although still very pulp-y....) and--thanks to all the good stuff people said about it here--started The Keeper this weekend. I like it so far....

d2,

go ahead and track down The Missing while you're at it - it's better than The keeper.

Who is the author, beeg? I think that the touchstone is wrong.

Same person. The Missing is a follow-on to The Keeper.

Thanks

I bought The Keeper at a local used book store and couldn't finish it. (Geez, seems like I haven't got too many good reviews in this thread!) It was a laborious read for me and once I put it down I couldn't pick it back up. I traded it in a week later.

I'm reading The Nature of Balance right now. It's good but I should have finished it over the weekend -- I'm slowing down. Is it me or is the horror genre losing its 'oomph?' Seems like there is a lot more chaff than gems.

I've got a **edit** Bentley Little ** end edit** book lined up after this one -- maybe it will be a breeze.

I've got a **edit** Bentley Little ** end edit** book lined up after this one -- maybe it will be a breeze.

Oh! Which one? He can be hit or miss, but when he hits... man!

Is it me or is the horror genre losing its 'oomph?'

Maybe you need a short break from horror?

The Burning

I've been giving myself breaks but I think it may be due to the downslide too. Horror is going through one of those times when publishers are pulling back from it.

Book after book that I read the blurbs on seemed to be the same premise. 'Group of people get it together to fight evil' or 'A haunting causes a woman to be find her perfect man.' A lot of others that I picked up to try were just badly written.

Maybe it's time to read Barbara Cartland . . . LOL

"Book after book that I read the blurbs on seemed to be the same premise. " I wonder if this is because so many people have preconceived notions about what "horror" means. There are only so many takes on boogeymen and vampires. It makes for a lot of repetition when authors can't get creative with their plot lines. You can only read so many hack jobs before things, even scary things, start to lack any luster. Even though I'm a vampire fan at heart, I am always looking for something completely different and yet still well written. This thread has helped with that.

By the way, I've FINALLY finished Carrion Comfort. Not bad at all. Up next is a Early Reviewer book I got from LT last week called Firefly Rain. I'll let you all know what I think as soon as I'm done.

I've been reading Waking Nightmares which is a collection of Ramsey Campbell short stories. They're pretty well written and there have been some that were genuinely creepy, but I think perhaps this is a bit too much on the quiet end of quiet horror.

I just finished Homeplace by Beth Massie, who I'd never read before. I thought the ending was pretty silly, but otherwise liked it a lot. Lots of creepy bits and suspense. It wasn't super-original, I guess, but I'm a sucker for a haunted house....

I finished The Keeper earlier in the week, and was really disappointed with it. It started out well, but I felt like the writing was really...messy..., and I didn't find it scary at all. All the characters just seemed really flat to me. *shrug*

I am just finishing Firefly Rain, a fairly decent ghost story by fellow LTer Richard Dansky. I got this as an early reviewer book from Library Thing, and it's not bad. Lots of spooky happenings that go along with a haunted house. Once I finally review the thing properly, I can post a little better discription.

I'm not sure any of you are the short story type, but I like to keep one or two volumes of short stories with me at work to read between patients, and currently I going through Dark Delicacies edited by Del Howison and Jeff Gelb. This has some great quick stories by Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, Richard Laymon and Ramsey Campbell to name a few. It's better than some of the other collections I've read recently.

Reading Song of Kali by Dan Simmons now. Properly spooked by it so far, but I'm only 1/4 way through so I'll reserve final judgement.

Sorry jseger. Been a bit out of commission lately.
I was in the mood for a creepy little ghost story and this fit the bill. No Shirley Jackson's HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and a bit predictable but I enjoyed it.
What other Nicholson books can you recommend?

#189 - Sunnie,

I'm a little behind on my Scott Nicholson books, but I would recommend The Red Church and The Harvest.

One I haven't read yet but have heard plenty of good stuff about is his latest They Hunger.

#187 - klarsenmd,

I'm curious to see your review of Firefly Rain. I checked it out and (shallow as it is) the cover looks great!

But from the reviews so far I'm not sure if it's really my kind of book.

As for short story collections, I keep a couple of Weird Tales short story collections by my bedside.

I've noticed that book publishers (here in the U.S. anyway) seem not to publish short story collections much any more.

I'm thinking of the sci-fi writer Stephen Baxter here who is a very popular writer, but has two or three short story collections in the U.K. that have never been printed in the U.S.

I've also been waiting for Leisure to publish a collection of Richard Laymon short stories. Even though (as far as I know) he is their most popular author, they've held off on publishing his short story collections.

Well jseger, judging by the books in your library, this one may not be the book for you. I completely agree that the cover was wicked cool, and even the title, Firefly Rain has a great ring to it, but the book itself fell just short of the mark.

Granted this is Mr. Dansky's first full length novel, and it was worth spending the time on to check out something new, but it just seemed to lack the real spook factor I think he was going for.

The basic premis is a guy going back to his hometown after his folks have been dead several years. There is clearly some king of haunting going on, but not of the truly scary variety. Unfortunatley, after a slow start, I felt like the ending was a bit rushed and he tried too hard to get the resolution the reader would want. If you're looking for the creepy haunted house stuff, I'd opt for a different one than this. If you're ok with a fair mystery with ghosts involved this may be the one for you.

I'm reading another collection of short stories, Prime Evil, which I'm guessing serves as a good sampler from the tail end of the horror boom. (Though more on that below...) It has selections from such authors as King, Barker, Straub, Streiber, Tessier, Ligotti, Campbell and others.

So far, I've read Kings "The Night Flier," which was pretty good, though I still feel a little ambivalent about King. Part of it may be the expectations that arise from reading him after so many years as the modern master of horror. When the action gets going, it makes for a pretty good story, but the early part engaged in one of my pet peeves: pointless expository character development. Maybe I just have a hard time connecting to fictional characters, but when a writer spends too long telling me what a character is like, I get really bored. I realize it's not literature, I shouldn't be expecting the talent to boil down a character to a few choice metaphors or images, but somehow it always takes me out of the story.

On the plus side, once the action gets going, the build-up of suspense is good. And that image of the blood striking the porcelain was brilliant! I think King definitely has a talent for suspense. Hopefully, he gets better at the character development as he matures as a writer, as I hope to read more of his stuff in the future.

Incidentally, is anyone else familiar with the '80s horror boom? I've heard it during some interviews with horror writers, but a google search didn't turn up a lot of good information. It doesn't help that there appear to have been two booms, one in publishing, the other in movies, and it's unclear how they were connected. Anyone have any insights, good websites to look up, that kind of thing?

#193: I own Prime Evil, too, though I haven't started it yet. I agree--Stephen King can be longwinded, but somehow I love him for that. His short story collections are usually my favorites, like Nightmares and Dreamscapes (which "The Night Flier" is also in), etc.

I've heard the same thing about the 80's--horror was at its peak then. But I wouldn't necessarily say it was at its best. I can think of just as many duds as there were gems. I don't know of any good websites on the topic, but I would love to hear of any! Thanks for bringing the topic up, Carlos.

And while I'm at it, I'm currently reading Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton. I loooove vampires, though I don't really consider the Anita Blake series hardcore horror. Still, it's a nice read. But why do the new covers make these books look so erotic? I don't find her books erotic/romantic in the least. Maybe to hook readers? I don't know.

I read one of Laurell K. Hamilton books and it was pretty much soft porn with a vampire thrown in. I just assumed they were the new bodice rippers of old.

#193 - Carlos,

Incidentally, is anyone else familiar with the '80s horror boom?

I'm at work, so I can't search out websites, articles, etc. But I do know that there is a theory that horror goes through a boom when there is a conservative president in office and tends to die down when he leaves. (No, I'm not trying to stir the political pot here, I'm serious.)

The last big horror boom was during the Ronald Reagan years. Both books and movies found lots of support. Many writers came out around this time (Peter Straub, Clive Barker, Dan Simmons Richard Laymon and Robert McCammon) as well as all those '80's horror flicks.

The market cooled in the '90's and then boomed for the last eight years and is now dying down again.

#195: Good description, beeg. That's what the covers make me think of--sex first, vampires as an afterthought. Still, I'm trying to rethink the last sex scene I read in one of her books, and I'm stumped. But then, I've only read Guilty Pleasures and The Laughing Corpse. Maybe it warms up from there?

#196: Interesting insight, jseger. Makes me a little depressed for horror, though, seeing as we probably won't have another conservative president for awhile (not that that's a bad thing ;).

197 - Sara,

Still, I'm trying to rethink the last sex scene I read in one of her books, and I'm stumped. But then, I've only read Guilty Pleasures and The Laughing Corpse.

From what I've read about Laurell K. Hamilton's books (I haven't read any myself. They aren't my thing at all), they become more and more sexually centered as the series progresses. Small wonder that her books became more and more popular, huh?

Makes me a little depressed for horror, though, seeing as we probably won't have another conservative president for awhile (not that that's a bad thing ;).

It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it?

I found this article relating to my earlier topic there is a theory that horror goes through a boom when there is a conservative president in office and tends to die down when he leaves. This is more about movies than books (specifically he's looking at why Hostel 2 and 28 Weeks Later failed at the box office. (Look for the post dated 21June2007.)

Here's a sample: Under Eisenhower, we saw the release of the most seminal horror film of the past 50 years: "Psycho." Then under Kennedy and Johnson, not quite so much in the way of edgy horror to speak of. Then, when Nixon took over, "Night of the Living Dead" began playing on screens across the country, another one of the greatest fear films ever made.

I loved the first couple of Laurell K Hamilton books in the Anita series. They were pretty intense with action and different types of paranormal baddies, but right around book 7 they became pretty smutty. The last 2 in the series were downright crap - Anita (the main character) is having sex with nearly everything that moves - she must be sharing her bed (literally) with 4-5 men at a time.
I keep reading the series though, in the hopes it will go back to the way it was.

Anyways back to the topic ... I just started an older horror anthology called Gallery Of Horror I've only read 2 stories so far and they were not bad, but I love anthologies because you can always find at least 1 great story in them.

she must be sharing her bed (literally) with 4-5 men at a time

Maybe I should check those books out after all ;)

#198/9: Thanks for the link, jseger. I loved those movies (though I still like "28 Days Later" better than its sequel), so I'll have to read that article. And you're right there--definitely a double-edged sword between having either a conservative president or more horror entertainment.

#200: That makes sense why the covers have changed since then (more sex=less violence/action). Thanks, xombie! And 4-5 guys, I'm not surprised since most of the characters are men. I keep getting them all confused (or maybe it's just me).

I'm the same about anthologies--love 'em! It took me awhile to get into them at first, but it's the best way to find new authors. Good luck with "Gallery of Horror."

#201: Ha! Now you can see why they're so popular? :D

#194 - Sara, I don't have anything against longwinded authors. I just found the early part where the character is described a little pointless. I think it's just that show, don't tell dictum. Watching a tabloid reporter behave ruthlessly to get a story that's going to sell newspapers: interesting. Having an author describe a tabloid reporter's ruthless personality: not so much. (Perhaps it's just my misanthropy. I can get into an author's long winded description of a place much more so than of a person.)

#199 - I have to admit it's a fun thesis, but I'm not convinced. For one thing, he chalks Psycho up to Eisenhower but puts Night of the Living Dead in the Nixon column. Psycho came out in 1960, when Ike was giving way to JFK; but Night of the Living Dead (and Rosemary's Baby) came out in 1968, when LBJ's Great Society was about to become Nixon's Law and Order. So, it seems to be a bit of a cheat to count the outgoing administration in the first example but the incoming one in the second example.

Ok, I realize I'm probably taking this a little more seriously than I need to. And I do believe that there is going to be some degree of connection between what a country is going through and the amount (and kind of horror) their pop culture seems to prefer. There's a reason that the first big horror boom in movies took place in a post-WWI Germany.

Speaking of which, Prime Evil story #2: Paul Hazel's "Having a Woman at Lunch. I've never heard of Hazel, and the short bio makes him sound like more of a fantasy author. The story's pretty short and effective. No real shock to the ending, but built up nicely. The subtext is layed on a little thick, which I'm a little ambivalent about.

#203: Oddly enough, I have that book (Prime Evil) handy, so I flipped through Stephen King's "The Night Flier" to see what you meant. And I agree with you--showing is generally better than telling (though short stories aren't always the easiest place to do that in). For me, the whole flying/airplane scenes were the worst spots. Still, it had a fairly decent ending. And it's probably me, but I thought the invisible urinal scene was kind of funny.

I didn't really like the original short story of 'The Night Flier' myself (and in general I love SK), but it was made in to a surprisingly good movie. I'd recommend giving it a rent. It has everything that the original story had (urinal scene and all), but is expanded in ways that made the story more effective (to me). And who wouldn't love Miguel Ferrera as the soul-less reporter?

Carlos,

Yeah, I agree he may have streched his premise a bit thin. But that was the first article a lazy Google search pulled up.

Still, that's not the first I've heard of the link between the country's political mood and the popularity of horror.

#205: I know most of King's stuff gets made into movies, but "The Night Flier"? I didn't think there was enough of a story to do that. I'll definitely have to give that one a go. Thanks, jseger! :)

Be warned, the cover for 'The Night Flier' is cheesy, but it really is worth a look.

jseger, I'm sorry if I came off as a bit dismissive. I do agree that there could be a link between the political mood and the popularity of horror. But I also think there are other interesting elements that are worth looking at, such as the nature of the horror business. (Which I suspect has its own boom/bust cycles.)

One aspect of the political question that kind of interested me was that the political leanings of the creator seem irrelevant. So, for example, 1968 saw the success of Rosemary's Baby, while the Exorcist was the landmark horror film of 1973. Both films have quite a bit in common, but I think Ira Levin's politics were completely on the other end of William Peter Blaty's.

#208: Yeah, I've seen the cover before (I work in a library and have come across it a few times). But I guess the same goes for movies--you can't judge a book (movie, in this case) by its cover. (fingers crossed)

#209 - Carlos,

But I also think there are other interesting elements that are worth looking at, such as the nature of the horror business. (Which I suspect has its own boom/bust cycles.)

I did notice that the booms seem to happen roughly every twenty years or so.

I'm thinking of Richard Matheson, The Twilight Zone and the horror movies of the late fifties/early sixties, the rise of Stephen King and the horror boom of the late seventies/eighties and the boom that started in the late nineties and is now winding its way down.

The problem is my twenty year cycle doesn't fit the pattern as well as the political mood does.

Remember there was Godzilla, Them and all those giant insect movies in the fifties cashing in on fear of the A-bomb. Of course a little later there was The Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Puppet Masters for communism. Those don't fit my twenty year pattern but are obviously political.

If I was feeling really snarky I might try to suggest that a more conservative government seems to make the country more fearful.

Seeger--

If I can jump in...

The usual argument is not so much that a conservative government makes people more fearful as that horror is, as Stephen King puts it, usually inherently conservative. A fearful populace usually votes conservatively (and I take that to mean conservative in the most general sense of the word--adhering to the status quo, opposed to dramatic change). Horror skyrockets in popularity when people like the status quo and feel that it's being threatened because, strangely, genre horror is psychologically comforting. (I'm basically just quoting here--this is a popular theory in film studies.)

The biggest problem with looking at "great" horror in that context is that there's a difference between the production of a great work, like Psycho or The Exorcist or Night of the Living Dead, and a horror boom. The only real horror "booms" in recent memory I would think would be the fifties--with the rise of the monster movie--and the eighties--with the rise of the slasher movie.

Not to in any way undermine your snark--joke and point taken and appreciated. ;-)

212 - Bentley,

You wouldn't say we are on the tail end of a horror boom right now?

Not really. I suppose you could make an argument that the flurry of Japanese influenced horror films in the last decade or so might constitute a boom, but I don't think they collectively amount to the popular success of, for instance, the slasher films in the 80's.

But that's a casual answer. I could be convinced. Why do you think we are?

I'm halfway through Dark Hollow Brian Keene someone posted it was good. I should keep better track of where I pick recommendations. The dialog is humorous, some sex, and a man pack.

# 215 - beeg,

A man pack?

You know, I started the highly praised The Rising and HATED it. Terrible. Yet I've continued to pick up Brian Keene's Leisure mass-market paperbacks in case I was wrong. I'll have to see what you think when you're finished.

#214 - Bentley,

I think we are at the tail end of what has been a horror boom. Let's not forget, those slasher movies from the '80's weren't exactly popular successes themselves (except for Halloween and the first Friday the 13th). It just seems that way now because there were so many of them.

The boom that is wrapping up now started maybe with Scream around '96. Movie studios have started subsidiaries just for horror. Dimension films, Dark Castle, Platinum Dunes and Ghost House. There's been the success of remakes of J-horror and remakes of classics, the Saw series (which has been just as popular as any '80's slasher series I think), the Final Destination series (I didn't say it was all good), the popularity of directors like M. Night Shyamalan, Eli Roth, Neil Marshall, Alexandre Aja and even Rob Zombie, lots of straight to video horror and on and on...

The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost have been some of the most popular shows on TV. For a while there, Stephen King had a mini-series a season on ABC. Showtime has their Masters of Horror series and even NBC has a new anthology horror series.

Also, the mass market paperbacks of Leisure Horror (what a terrible name for a publisher) and the out of nowhere success of guys like David Wellington, Brian Keene, Michael Laimo and the 'rediscovery' of Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum and so on.

I don't follow comics much anymore, but I know that the success of 30 Days of Night has started at least a mini-boom there. I have seen things as crazy as Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness. (Who knew that there was a Marvel Zombies universe?)

Horror has been booming all around you my friend. But I think it's hitting a down turn right now. I know Leisure (the most successful of the horror publishers I believe) isn't moving the same amount of books they used to. Hostel 2 and 28 Weeks Later didn't do the business they were hoping for.

#215/216: Man pack? The same question went through my mind too. Do tell, beeg, because you don't want to know what I'm thinking. ;)

LOL man pack, group of guys. lets get em! you know...man pack.

#219: You mean like in Dreamcatcher, for instance, or Deliverance? :-)

jseger9000 et al.: I've been following this politics/horror discussion ... it's really interesting! I'd never even heard about this theory before. Do you know if anyone's tried to show the same thing for anywhere other than North America? And how far back have they gone with it? Like what about Poe? I don't know enough about American history to know who was in office when he was writing....

#220: ok more Dreamcatcher

Okay, Seeger. I see your point. I think booms are harder to see today because you have to look for them more. Mass media has fragmented to the point where one need only watch or read specifically what one wants.

It's easy to see a boom when 50% of the films being shown at theatres were horror films because if you went to the movies then, you saw what was playing, period. Today, I have to ask if its a boom when there are two horror films playing at the same time, but there are also four action movies. I don't know. It would almost call for a different kind of scholarship. And publishing is even worse. With the exception of Harry Potter, it's hard to find books everybody's familiar with today.

That said, I will definitely agree that there was a pop culture horror boom in the late 90's--the Scream/Final Destination/I Know What You Did Last Summer cycle. And I think you could maybe make something of the flurry of "torture horror"--Saw/Hostel/etc. What that means, however, would take a lot of further thought.

#221: d2vge: This specific "pop culture" argument is harder to have about works that predate mass media. But there has surely been plenty of historical scholarship on Poe that would discuss the political climate that would have influenced his work. He was writing between the War of 1812 and the War Between the States, which I think would have been Jackson and Tyler, maybe? (Or I could be showing my ignorance and making a fool of myself.) As to what that means, one would have to have a better grasp on American History than I do...

Somebody needs to go into one of the literary groups and bring us back a lit-crit type. LOL

By the way, d2vge, if you're really interested, I ran an Amazon search for you. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture looks pretty good, but there are a bunch of options.

LOL! Yeah, that's where my mind was starting to wander, Bentley. And thanks for clearing that up, beeg. Makes total sense now that I've gotten my head out of the gutter. :)

Okay, I found a link to Eli Roth talking about horror/politics with that moron Neil Cavuto on Fox News

(BTW: Cavuto is wrong. Psycho came out when Eisenhower, a Republican was in office. But what do you expect from Fox news?)

#219 - Beeg,

I dunno if I'm relieved or disappointed. Once I got my mind out of the gutter, I thought maybe you were talking about those abominations known as fanny packs. Then I thought 'why would he mention that?'

Then my mind slid right back into the gutter. Especially since I know that Brian Keene's previous book Dead Sea featured a gay main character. (That's something I'd like to see more of. As mentioned earlier, horror really is a conservative genre and could really use some stretching of the boundaries.)

#224 - If we were trying to track it all the way back to the beginning, I'd suggest going all the way back to the Gothic novel, especially since that's what Poe would have been considered at the time he was publishing.

So, the first "Gothic boom" lasted roughly 1790-1820, which may suggest some kind of reaction to the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars. This actually sounds rather plausible seeing as how one of the features of the Gothic was its fascination with a somewhat fantastic version of the past.

I have, however, read an argument (in The Thrill of Fear) which suggests the reason the novels petered out after 1820 is that the success of Ann Radcliffe's novels (such as The Mysteries of Udolpho) resulted in a profusion of imitators flooding the marketplace with copycat works, which tended to recycle many of the same elements in similar ways. (Which could probably be said about the slasher flics of the '80s, as well.)

#211 - To play Cthulhu's advocate here, I'd say it's just as likely that people are more willing to vote Republican when they're feeling anxious. (See the 2002 Congressional elections, for example) That same anxiety probably also drives the horror market.

It might seem like I'm contradicting myself. Just to make it clear, I'm not trying to claim the political climate won't have an effect on the amount of horror film/published. I just think there are other factors in play as well.

#226 - I watched that video. Cavuto is quite the piece of work isn't he?

I think Roth actually made some good points on Psycho, at least it made me stop to think about the ways in which Psycho might have represented a breakdown of the Us vs. Them scheme of '50s horror movies.

#228 - Carlos,

You have a good point. I don't mean to imply that the political climate is all that drives horror. Just that it is interesting to follow the trends.

I do think that we are more likely to vote Republican since they have (rightly or wrongly) set themselves up as the party that will keep us safe from 'the others'. The Democrats should probably try harder to fight that image, but whatever.

#230 - Well, I think for the moment, the Republicans are not going to get much traction on that front. I think the unpopularity of the Iraq War has made their kind of foreign policy less palatable to the voting public. I think part of the problem that the Democrats run into is that with news outlets like Fox News, it's easier to sell a message of "I'll stomp on the bad guys" than one of "I'm going to enhance our power in the world through smartly negotiated treaty arrangements." It'd be nice to think that the Iraq War will cause a long-term distrust for the simplistic strength argument, but it remains to be seen.

And to get back on topic a bit, I thought I'd mention that I'm reading The Unabridged Edgar Allen Poe. I'm only a fraction of the way through, but I've come to realize that Poe was a much more complex author than I had thought. Some of his stuff can be downright funny in a strange sort of way.

For example, there was one story "Loss of Breath" where the protagonist finds himself unable to breathe in the middle of an argument. But he doesn't suffocate, he just is unable to speak or produce breath. He ends up making plans to flee the house before his wife gets suspicious about his condition. And through one misadventure or another, he gets mistaken for a corpse several times. Anyway, the story is pretty gruesome but really funny. And somehow the premise of a man mistaken for a corpse was almost Kafkaesque.

#227: Ha ha! Just the word "fanny pack" conjures up worse images than "man pack". Thanks a bunch for that mental eye candy. XD

Anyway, I totally agree with you on the not-enough-gay-protagonists thing. I tried to think of any gay-themed horror I'd read in the past few years and couldn't think of any (but then, I'm not a lesbian, so maybe that has something to do with it? ha!). Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice maybe, but I'm kind of stretching there. Most of the stuff I've read has been in erotic horror anthologies (like the Hot Blood series), or the gay characters were just sidekicks and pretty forgetable.

Btw, there's a really good site @ http://www.queerhorror.com . Talks about movies/TV as well books.

The main character in David Wellington's 13 Bullets and 99 Coffins is a lesbian Pennsylvania State Trooper battling some really evil vampires. The books are good, but the sexual orientation was a bit clumsily handled in spots. It didn't seem terribly relevant to the story, but he brought it up several times in the first book. By the second book, his characterizations of all the people in the story felt more real. Nonetheless, I liked 'em both, if nothing else, then for the picture of vampires are truly other than human.

#233 - Dr. Neutron,

I really need to crack open my David Wellington books. I have all five that have been published, but haven't read any of them yet. (One of the good/bad side effects of working part time at B&N was the great discount they give employees.)

Vampires that are non-human are about the only kind I can stand. The Anne Rice-ian weepy, erotic vampires in black lace drive me bonkers!

To be fair I think Anne Rice's rabid fans and imitators that have turned her style into a cottage industry are what spoil her for me. Well, that and that everything she writes is a series.

#230 - Carlos,

Man, I need to read Poe again. I remember loving what I'd read of his in junior high, then sort of moving on.

"Loss of Breath" sounds very good.

#233: Thanks for the recommendation, drneutron! I love vamps, so I'll have to giveDavid Wellington a go.

#234: One of the good/bad side effects of working part time at B&N was the great discount they give employees. Oh, lucky! But I see what you mean about the bad part. I'd probably end up passing my paycheck right back.

Anywho, I'm kind of on an Anita Blake kick, so I'm now reading The Lunatic Cafe.

giving Bentley Little another go with The Ignored 37 pages into it and it's boring.

#237 - Beeg,

I hope you wind up liking The Ignored. I remember being blown away by it, but it's been a long time since I've read it. I encourage you to stick with it though.

I've started Richard Laymon's Island. I've only read the first chapter so far (I'm at work), but I'm already knee deep in eye-rolling dialogue, inappropriate behavior and a teenager's obsession with women's bodies. I considered starting a 'rump' count, but won't.

He's so cheesy, but his books are so compulsively readable!

I was going to read Robert McCammon's Stinger, but since I just fiinished James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, a perverse part of me decided to stick with the same setting.

jseger,

I finished The ignored and I'm glad I stuck it out. It's original for sure - but it did have a Twilight zone flavor to it

beeg,

Glad you liked it. That one hooked me on Bentley Little because I'd just never read a horror story like that before. He took that topic and explored it to the fullest I think.

I remember all sorts of weird details. Going to work in the Frankenstien mask (I wanted to tell to to at least read that far and see what you think), living in model homes, hteir plans for Disneyland, that village in New Mexico(?) and yet he managed to make it all so creepy and other worldly.

It's too bad Bentley Little doesn't always fire on all cylinders like that.

Other suggestions would be The Association, The Revelation and The Summoning (I think that one is out of print though).

I have to be honest, I bought half a dozen or so Bentley Little books awhile back because they were on sale, but after hearing some negative reviews of his books, I'm kind of hesitant to start them. Which ones are his best, just to give me an idea of where to start? I own The Walking, The Town, The Summoning, The Revelation, The Resort, Dispatch, and The Association.

Sara,

Different people have different tastes of course. I haven't yet read The Resort or Dispatch.

I wasn't crazy about The Walking or The Town. These were not among his best.

Revelation and The Summoning are both very good straight up shockers. I liked The Summoning better (and that's something since it was a vampire book), but some people found it slow to start.

The Association is also terrific and shows one of Bentley Little's strengths as a writer. He can take an every day thing like a home owners association or a mailman or Wal*Mart or an insurance policy and create some really unique horror that will make you think.

I'm surprised how many posters on this board don't groove on Bentley Little. He along with Stephen King and Peter Straub is one of my favorite horror writers. It's just too bad he can be uneven.

Hope something in there was a help.

seeger, have you ever read Death Instinct? I guess Little originally wrote it under the name Phillip Emmons. I picked it up at the $1 table at the library, mostly since Little's name seems to keep coming up on this board. Would you have any idea if I'm in for a good time or just something really painful?

Carlos,

I have Death Instinct but haven't read it yet. It's supposed to be different from his other stuff (one of the reasons he published it under a pseudonym).

His work usually deals with the supernatural and the unexplained. Death Instinct is more 'the evil that men do', so supernatural angle that I'm aware of.

If you read it before me, let me know what you think of it.

Since Ive been working non-stop on an thesis essay defending Ophelia (from Shakespeare's Hamlet) as a classic example of the literary tragic hero (blah) I decided to read something easy and fun.

So I chose Quake by Richard Laymon. Only a few pages in so far, but not bad. Pretty much sticks to the basic Laymon style.

#242: I read The Resort, and I thought it was kind of mediocre--which is probably why I never tried any of his other books. From jseger's description, The Association sounds great, though.

I'm reading Now You're One of Us right now. Has anyone else read it? It has only one review on Amazon: one star, and the reviewer says "The ending is revolting, shocking, but, not in a good way." So, of course, I needed to find out what that ending actually is. I'm really liking it so far.... Really gross cover, though.

I have heard that Bentley Little does a nice job with "paranoia" horror (in the vein of Harvest Home, for instance). That may be my favorite theme in horror novels, but I'm getting the feeling you're apt to hate him if you just dive into his work without any direction. A little help? Does he indeed have books in that vein, and if so, where to start?

Bentley,

I have heard that Bentley Little does a nice job with "paranoia" horror

Try The Ignored. I don't know if I would compare it with Harvest Home as they are very different.

The Ignored takes the idea of a guy so middle of the road (his favorite music is whatever is most popular, his favorite TV shows are whatever is most popular), so average that he literally becomes... not invisible, but unseeable to others. He becomes ignored.

He has other good ones in that vein. One is The Association (Bentley Little worked out his own very real problems with a home owners association by telescoping things to absurdity).

Another good one to me (though not as good as the other two) is The Store which examines the problems (and benefits) of Wal*Mart moving into a small town in the middle of nowhere. One thing he did very well here was balancing the comedy inherent in setting a scary story in a store with very real shock and horror.

All this flogging I've done for Bentley Little, yet I know that there are a good many readers on this board who don't like his stuff. I think though that like Richard Matheson and Stephen King before him he excels at setting horror stories in very real and unexpected places. Unlike any other current horror writer I’m aware of he is pointing out the absurdity of things we often just take for granted.

Xombie,

So there are two of us churning through a Richard Laymon book right now, huh?

My psychic prediction is that we will both have finished our novels within a week. Island is five hundred pages, but five hundred pages of Laymon are nothing.

Quake hasn't yet been reprinted here in the States (our next releases are The Woods Are Dark and Beware!). You'll have to tell me how Quake is.

jseger9000 - Island was the first Laymons I read and one of my favorites ... Quake is a huge one too (580 pages) but the pages have such wide margins that its probably closer to 250/300 pages regularly.

I actually got my copy of Quake from Australia through www.bookmooch.com which is how I think I'll try to find some of the others that werent released in Canada/USA.

#243: Thanks, jseger, that helps a bunch! :) I was kind of putting The Town on the bottom of my Bentley Little pile anyway. Now it's just a toss-up between The Summoning (+: vampires) and The Association (+: reviews). Must consult my Magic 8 ball to see which one I start first.

#247: You mean you haven't already flipped to the end? ;) That's what I would've done. I love reviews like that. They remind me of those parental warning stickers on CDs.

#252: I love reviews like that, too! I can never resist them, even when it's against my better judgement. :) I only ever flip to the end of a book if it really, really stinks, though. I can't stand reading a book if I already know the surprise ending...so if the ending's really good and I can't go back and enjoy the book I get mad at myself for peeking.

So, still working on Prime Evil, and yesterday I read the Peter Straub story "The Juniper Tree." So, to Straub fans, is all of his stuff like that? Because I found it a little disappointing. It certainly was well written and had a literary quality, but I kind of felt like, OK, but where's the scary?

It felt like there were a lot of neat threads, but they were just sort of camouflage for a pretty straightforward story of a kid playing hooky who has a kind of creepy but banal experience. I never got the feeling that there was anything going on beyond that. Maybe I'll have to reread it, since quiet horror is often better on the second go-around.

Carlos,

Haven't read 'The Juniper Tree' (I have it in his Houses Without Doors collection) so I can't say how it compares to the rest of his work. But I wouldn't describe Peter Straub's stuff as quiet horror, so that story may have been an experiment for him.

I do think he's the most literary of the current horror writers and the best. He has a tendency (which I like but throws some people off) to chuck a lot of characters at you right off the bat and trust that you will catch up. His stuff is usually pretty dense with lots of major and secondary characters. He really admired 'Salem's Lot and has written several novels in a similar vein.

If you want to try some of his novels I would suggest Ghost Story, Koko or Mr. X.

#247

Thanks for the post about Now You're One of Us. After looking at that cover and seeing the tags "magic mushrooms" and "big surprise at the end" how could I resist adding it to my wishlist??

I'm tackling some serial killer novels right now. I'm finishing up The Wasp Factory today and then will start on Cruddy and The Collector after that. These type of books disturb me more than supernatural stories because they are often so plausible. Take for instance Zombie, which I recently read, based on Jeffrey Dahmer. But, really, I prefer ghost stories.

#256: I agree with you about real horror vs. the supernatural stuff. Imo, people are much more frightening than any monster I could imagine.

#255 - How about Shadowland? I'm planning to read that one sometime this year. It seemed like an intriguing premise, and it was on the $1 cart at my library.

The Juinper Tree struck me as more nostalgic or coming-of-age, so yeah he may have been going for something rather different.

#256: Post when you read it--I'd like to hear your opinion. I thought it was worth reading if you like psychological horror. Very weird.

What did you think of the Wasp Factory? (Thanks for posting your review of Zombie, btw. I love Joyce Carol Oates, but I haven't read it yet.)

And I agree with both of you (#256, #257) about monsters vs. humans! I like monster stories and movies, but I almost always find them kind of comical. And I love ghost stories, but the don't really horrify me in the literal sense.

Carlos,

I haven't read Shadowland yet myself, but it seems to be a favorite. I don't recall seeing a negative review of it.

jseger,

Okay, I'm intrigued enough, I think I'll move Shadowland to the top of the list.

And I'm still working on Prime Evil. Read a pretty good story by David Morrell, "Orange is for Anguish, Blue is for Insanity." The story is about a graduate student researching a fictional artist who is like a more demented version of Van Gogh.

Anyone read much of his work? Is it worth seeking out?

Carlos,

Jeeze, I feel so not helpful here. David Morrell; I picked up Creepers when I heard it won the Stoker award, but... I haven't read it yet. Have I mentioned my TBR pile is something like 2/3 of my library?

I'll read Creepers once I finish up the cheesy (and embarrassingly good) Richard Laymon book I'm plowing through.

Well, judging from his LT bibliography, it seems Morrell is more of a thriller writer than a straight horror writer. Even Creepers appears to be more of a "homicidal maniac"-type of story. Somehow those have never appealed to me that much. Perhaps I watched too many serial killer movies as a teenager and became jaded.

I didn't love Creepers in fact I didn't like it at all. Loved Shadowland

I loved Shadowland as well. Like many of his other works, it takes a few pages to get going, but it's definetly worth sticking with. It's one of those subtly creepy reads that sticks with you for awhile.

I just finished Sarah Langan's The Missing over lunch. Wow. What an incredible ride. She starts with an apocalyptic infection and takes it much further. I don't want to give away too much, so just wow.

I am reading Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin and so far it seem to be pretty good, sort of like Mark Twain crossed with Interview with the Vampire in a good way.

I've got about a hundred pages of Island left. I dunno. I like it. In fact it's one of the best Richard Laymon books I've yet read (In the Dark is better though).

At the same time I have to say it's too long. Like it's overstayed its welcome. Is it just my imagination or do most Richard Laymon books feel like he's writing them by the seat of his pants? Sometimes it works because it's near impossible to guess where anything is going. But at the same time it sometimes feels like story elements just pop up out of nowhere.

I'll probably finish it tomorrow (unless I decide to stay up tonight to finish it) and overall I have a favorable impression, but it feels a hundred pages too long.

beeg,

You need to knock out a review for all these books you've read. As a book crops up in conversation you often have an opinion of it.

I value your opinion and it would be great to to to a work and see if you've reviewed it (thinking of Creepers for instance).

(I've made it my personal goal to write a review for every book I read whether it be a classic like Tales of the South Pacific or a piece of crap like Hellgate: London: Exodus)

I suck balls at reviews. Like I said, I'm a love it/hate it kinda girl. I read other reviews and think "yes! that's it exactly" but I can't write reviews to save my life. I try making little notes to myself after I read something in 75 book challenge - mostly so I can remember if I've read it or not, and that's the best I can do.

sorry.

Just started Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest. The cover is fantastically creepy and intriguing. I am only on the 2nd chapter, but so far a little girl sees 3 female ghosts who protect her. How the ghosts died and what happened to the girl's mother is part of the horror. Promising so far.

So, a few final thoughts on Prime Evil, which I finished today. M. John Harrison had a good contribution "The Great God Pan" though it was definitely on the somewhat obtuse end of quiet horror. I know him mainly from Viriconium, so I've always thought of him as more sci-fi. Jack Cady's "By Reason of Darkness" was also pretty good, a sort of Apocalypse Now in the Pacific Northwest with Buddhism. (OK, that description probably doesn't do it justice.)

The Whitley Strieber story "The Pool" was intriguing, but really more melancholy than scary. Dennis Etchison's "Blood Kiss" also well written, but more an interesting story with horror elements than a real horror story.

Also, this is probably nobody's idea of horror fiction, but I also just finished The House of the Seven Gables. (Though I'm sure the idea of reading a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel may strike some people as its own kind of horror. I have to admit I would have counted myself among them, and only was willing to give this a shot because of HPL's praise for him.) Though the 19th Century style can be a bit on the dry and tedious side, I actually rather enjoyed the story. There were some moments of actual suspense and/or atmosphere, though the ending was perhaps a bit too cheery.

Carlos,

Nathaniel Hawthorne is on my 'I've got to try that guy some day' list, so it's nice to hear good things about The House of the Seven Gables.

As for Whitley Strieber, I remember reading Majestic and found it tolerable (I think because I find the whole Roswell fiasco fascinating) and I tried The Grays which was so bad I stopped reading it.

Anybody else here make it through The Grays? Is it worth a second chance?

#269 I completely agree! beeg should write reviews. I write one each time I finish a book, and let me tell ya, they pretty much fall into the love it or hate it category. But for me, that's what I want to know before I pick it up. I've gone on beeg's recommendation more than once now, and haven't been disappointed yet.

By the way, is it time yet to start a part II of this thread? Do they ever get too long?

Beeg,

I liked your review of The Codex myself. I tend to ramble on endlessly in my reviews.

Anywho, so I'm expecting to wrap up Island some time today and decided (against beeg's advice) to start Creepers. I can't find that darn book anywhere! I sorted through all my bookcases until midnight last night. No luck. So now instead of taking beeg's advice and reading one of the several hundred other fine unread books I have, I'm going to go out and plunk down another eight bones for a book I already have and have heard off-putting stuff about. Logic, who needs it?

#274 - k,

About starting a second thread, if you start it, we will post. (So long as you don't start going on about that Sherrilyn Kenyon contest that is!)

Ok the good stuff I remember about Creepers, it was a super fast read, it moves well and hard to put down. The premise was a good one, but it shot off in different directions to keep you guessing - not a bad thing, but not really a good thing with this book. I remember thinking the ending was annoying, so I'll be interested in what you think about it.

I read a lot of library books, so I post a bit about them in the 75 book challenge.

jseger,

Don't worry. I made the mistake of trying to read a Sherrilyn Kenyon book once. It won't happen again.
Despite my occasional drift into the romanitc vampire novels, even I won't make that mistake twice.

jseger, I think the way to enjoy 19th Century writing is to relax and accept it on its own terms. I was noticing that of the five works of older stuff I've read in the past year or so, the only ones I found really disappointing were Dracula and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Not that they were bad, but I couldn't stop comparing them to their much more suspenseful, dramatic 20th Century counterparts.

On the other hand, with something like House of the Seven Gables, I didn't really have preconcieved notions about where the story was going, so when it took a chapter to describe, say, daily life at the house I found it easier to just sort of accept it and enjoy Hawthorne's charming prose.

Carlos,

Sorry to hear Dracula was disappointing. That was another of those 'some day' books. I'll still try it though.

Not that it compares to Nathaniel Hawthorne, but I really enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes stories and what I've read by Edgar Allen Poe.

I know what you mean about enjoying an author's prose. I don't read too many mysteries, but I'll read anything by Raymond Chandler because his writing is just so wonderful to read.

Okay, finished (and reviewed!) Island.

Either tonight or tomorrow I will start Creepers. (I'd lost my copy and was about to start Sarah Langan's much lauded The Keeper instead, but I just couldn't let it go and found my missing book.)

jseger, well, YMMV with Dracula. As I said, it wasn't bad. I just had a hard time sitting stills for the characters ramblings about Victorian morality when there was a vampire running about. Count Dracula is still pretty cool. I just had less patience with the non-vampiric characters.

Guys,

I'm really liking Creepers so far. Having just read a bit last night and through my lunch here at work, I've already hit page 79.

The characters are a bit flat, but I've just finished a Richard Laymon book. At least these guys don't act like the characters from a porn movie.

Where the book really excels is the atmosphere. The opening scenes in run down and abandoned Asbury Park (which seems to have undergone a lot of renovation since the book was published three years ago) to the descriptions of the Paragon Hotel, this book just oozes creepiness. Nothing outright bad has happened yet, but the checkered history of the Paragon and its agoraphobic owner make for a great haunted house setting.

The story could all fall apart I guess, but for now I'm thinking 'Different strokes for different folks.'

#283--Your post inspired me to (finally) pick up my own copy of Creepers yesterday. It's a really fast read! I really like it, too. (I got about 3/4 of it read yesterday.)

How far into it are you now? Did you get to the part with the suitcase yet?!

#284 - d2vge,

If you've read three quarters of Creepers you have rocketed past me. I did hit the part about the suitcase though.

Last night I stayed up late and read up to the 1 a.m. section. I like how the book is broken up into hours like that.

I started the book intending to have something fun and fast-paced to read on a flight I'm taking on Monday. At this rate I'll probably have it finished this weekend!

I picked up Creepers at a discount sale without knowing anything about it, but I ended up enjoying it tremedously.
If you like this one you should give Scavenger a read also. Its a sequel of sorts (I wont say more because I dont want to give any spoilers)

#286: Intriguing! Thanks for the recommendation.

So, I'm over halfway through Shadowland and I'm really digging it. I have to admit it's not really all that scary, but I expect Straub is either a) saving all the suspense for the end or b) going to deliver an ending that puts everything that happened before in a much more disturbing light. Well, there's also the possibility of c) writing a solid work of dark fantasy. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Anyway, I think I'm a sucker for stories about magicians. (I also really liked Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.) Far more than monsters, there's something I find sort of enchanting about the whole concept of secret traditions or hidden realities that lie outside of humanity's ability to comprehend them. And I think magician figures are kind of cool and unpredictable in a way other stock types aren't.

d2vge,

Sorry it's taken me so long to post, books at work have been getting in the way of books for fun. I work at an academic library and we're right in the middle of remodeling hell.

I am torn over my thoughts of The Wasp Factory, hence no review yet. It was certainly an interesting read. It is scary to read how this young killer turns to cold logic when it comes to his kills. All along, you read his thoughts on his insane brother while he intelligently explains that he, himself is sane. But, his actions say otherwise. I did enjoy the surprise ending and the description of what happened to his brother (very disturbing and gross!) Also, there are some funny moments. Especially the description of his night out, getting drunk with his midget friend.

I'm in the middle of Duma Key right now and love it! Not scary, but it really makes me want to visit the Florida Keys, and I want to try sketching and painting as well.

Stefferjo, I was torn over The Wasp Factory as well. Personally, I think it's overrated, but the narration was well done. It just doesn't all hang together. It's like one of those movies where each scene seems like it belongs in a different movie.

Anyway...I'm just starting Dead Voices by Rick Hautala. The first couple of chapters are promising. I doubt it will turn out to be earth-shattering, but it might surprise me.

I have given myself a chore to finish up some paperbacks Ive started reading but set aside before finishing. So the first few Im tackling are Queen Of Blood by Bryan Smith (sequel to House Of Blood), Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene (man-eating earthworms) and Slither by Edward Lee (more worm horror)

just finished Day Watch and the series continues to be enjoyable.

Carlos,

I'm glad you're liking Shadowland. I love Peter Straub, but for some reason I haven't read that one yet. I guess I'll have to read it soon though. It's so highly praised.

If you are in the mood for more Peter Straub when you are done, I'm curious to see what you think of Mr. X.

Xombie,

Good luck with Queen of Blood. Curious to know what you think of it.

I tried House of Blood, inspired by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre lookin' house on the cover, but the writing just wasn't my thing. I'll try it again some time I suppose.

I have bought the rest of his books because I've heard good things about them and I want to support a new author.

but wait, Jseger, how did you like Creepers?

Beeg,

I liked Creepers overall. Enough that I'm curious to try more David Morrell. (I'm going to a used bookstore today. I think I'll see if they have First Blood or The Brotherhood of the Rose.

I did have some issues with it. I don't want to spoil it for those that haven't read it, but I realized that the second group of characters really didn't wind up doing anything and probably could have been cut.

I've just posted my review. Tell me what you think.

I've just started Meg, a book that was so badly written I'd already quit reading it once. But I heard interviews with Steve Alten and he seemed like such a nice guy. I also saw he issued a revised and expanded edition of Meg, so I thought I'd give him a second chance.

Ok, I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about, which is why over all I decided I didn't love the book.

I'm reading University by Bentley Little, only on page 34 and have a whole cast of players to keep track of.

jseger, you must be one of the most altruistic readers I've ever ...met?...conversed with? (not sure how to state that) Anyway, reading books that you don't like because the guy seems nice on an interview. I gotta give you some credit. Remind me to let you know if I ever publish anything. (Ha Ha)

#298 - klarsen,

jseger, you must be one of the most altruistic readers I've ever ...met?...

I've also continued to buy books by Brian Keene and Bryan Smith though I didn't like what I've read of theirs (The Rising and House of Blood respectively). I guess I just want to support new horror writers and really, $6.99 isn't much.

As for Meg, it really isn't any better written than I remember, but the idea is such a killer. Imagine Jaws, but the shark is a 70 foot long Megalodon.

They keep threatening to turn this one into a movie with Jon DeBont (Speed and Twister) directing. This book is the perfect fodder for a crap summer movie. Too bad the studios keep fearing the prohibitive costs of filming at sea.

It's like I want to like this book in spite of itself. I kinda forced myself to start it by bringing it and the first Vampire Hunter D book (another thing that seems so my thing but hasn't flipped my skirt yet) along on a plane.

page 83 of University oh yeah, things just got interesting.

As for Meg, it really isn't any better written than I remember, but the idea is such a killer. Imagine Jaws, but the shark is a 70 foot long Megalodon.

Does it have any characters saying, "We're going to need a bigger ocean liner."?

It does sound like an intriguingly over-the-top sort of concept. And it makes me curious if that's about as big as sea animals get. Is there a manuscript of genetically-modified blue whales with really bad attitudes floating around in someone's word processor?

Anyway, I finished Shadowland and wrote a review of it. I enjoyed it, though like I said in the review it seemed closer to dark fantasy than horror. I'll have to be on the lookout for Mr. X or Ghost Story.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the Edgar Allen Poe collection and just started Lewis' The Monk. I never knew that Poe had written a play, probably because it was really dull. Though seeing as how the guy was a brilliant poet and short story writer, I can forgive him not being the second coming of Shakespeare.

The Monk is still just introducing the characters, but it looks like its going to be fun.

Edited to add: OK, per Wikipedia blue whales get up to 110 feet in size.

#301: Is there a manuscript of genetically-modified blue whales with really bad attitudes floating around in someone's word processor?

Ha! Yeah, probably. I mean, if they can make a movie about cute, harmless sheep attacking people ("Black Sheep") then they'll probably do the same with whales. :)

#301 - Carlos,

Does it have any characters saying, "We're going to need a bigger ocean liner."?

No, but I always loved this bit from the Entertainment Weekly review of MEG: Wistfully, one recalls the licentious preppies... duly punished in Jaws. Their '90s counterparts: grim, Crichton-esque lab coats, whom one is not really sorry to see gobbled by the great white shark's fearsome ancestor, Carcharodon megalodon.

Finished MEG on the plane home today. Crap, yes. I had to grind through it really. But a giant shark is enough to sustain almost anything. I've ordered the similarly themed Extinct by Charles Wilson. That one sounds like it is much better written.

I think I'm still in a scary book mood and am wobbling between Stinger, The Search for Joseph Tully, Dead Sea, The Freakshow, Family Inheritance or The Keeper.

#303 - Are the lab coats at least punished in a cautionary "not mucking about in God's domain" sort of way?

#305 - Carlos,

Are the lab coats at least punished in a cautionary "not mucking about in God's domain" sort of way?

No, because that would give this novel deeper meaning. With MEG, what you see is exactly what you get. Surface, surface, surface. This is one book that would not suffer in the least by being transformed into a big, stupid summer popcorn movie.

jseger, That actually sounds like the kind of book that might actually benefit from becoming an action flick. (If a stuido throws enough money at it, they might let some fall on the script or actors. Stranger things have happened.) I'm surprised it hasn't surfaced as a DTV release with really bad CGI shark/ocean effects.

Incidentally, The Monk is a lot of fun! It actually starts off a little slow, with a bunch of characters in Madrid and their romantic entanglements and ranks/inheritances and that Austen-type stuff. But then you find out a woman has infiltrated a monastery to seduce the head monk, and that the head nun of the convent next door is seriously evil, and well it just gets better.

I particularly liked this line, which is about seducing a virgin: "You shall riot unrestrained in the charms of your mistress." Who thought a sentence could be simultaneously poetic and sleazy?

#304 I really want to read The Freakshow. You'll have to let me know how it is if you pick that one.

Kami

#308 - k,

Well, I couldn't find The Search For Joseph Tully, so I started The Freakshow.

I'd tried Bryan Smith's first book House of Blood twice but quit because I didn't like the writing much. Hopefully he's gotten better. Coming off MEG, any writing style will be an improvement, but The Freakshow doesn't seem likely to have a giant killer shark, so that's a mark against it.

I've read the first fifteen pages or so. I like some of his narration (I don't have the book handy to give you an example), but I hope the author gets more descriptive with the setting and characters. I've read the prologue and first chapter which are sort of like the Drew Barrymore cameo in Scream. You know, start with a scary setup before introducing the main characters.

I don't like the casual voice he uses in some of his narration. I've already read He freaked and His eyes bugged out. Maybe I'm just old, but slangy stuff like that should be reserved for characters. It makes the author seem like a teenager himself when it shows up as narration.

Anyhow, I'll stick with it and report on my progress.

Eeww. It does sound like the narration could use a bit of refinement. And no, that doesn't make you sound old. If it does, I guess I'm old too, and I refuse to believe that.

It does however make me think of one of those really bad horror movies like, "Killer Clowns from Outer Space" that I just love!

It does however make me think of one of those really bad horror movies like, "Killer Clowns from Outer Space" that I just love!

Exactly! It does have that Killer Klowns from Outer Space vibe. It also reminds me of a cheesy video game that I loved: KISS: Psycho Circus.

I read up to page 42 last night and will finish the book. Bryan Smith will never be Stephen King, Peter Straub or Bentley Little (who I think of as good writers who happen to write horror stories); but I'm liking the book anyway.

So I finally started Heart Shaped Box last night, and it's really good so far. I'll let you all know if I'm still a fan by the time I'm done.

Just digging into Other Gods (tried to make a touchstone but it leads to a very different book) by Stephen Mark Rainey. A bit early to comment but (imho) Rainey is always a pleasure.

I read a good chunk of Song of Kali yesterday, which has been on my TBR list for ages. I was expecting it to be a little hokey, but it's actually pretty good.

I just finished Ring, which I thought was very good. Not a lot of surprises, since I've seen the movie (both Japanese and the remake) but still spooky and well-written.

#315 - Carlos,

I'm so glad you posted about Ring! I've wanted to try Koji Suzuki's novels, but haven't had much luck with the translation of Japanese horror novels. I'm thinking of Vampire Hunter D (which probably just isn't that good in any language) and the highly praised Battle Royale (touchstone is wrong. I meant the novel, not the manga).

I'll have to check out Koji Suzuki. After reading Ring would you seek out any of his other novels?

well I just ordered all three of them, as I enjoyed the movies and always felt there were a lot of things left out.

beeg,

All three of what? The Ring books?

LOL yeah, The Ring trilogy

jseger,

Suzuki wrote two sequels, Spiral and Loop.

The translation was good, but not 100%. There's an opening passage builds atmosphere with a description of the scene using some surreal language. It's good, but it does have that feel of something that was probably a little bit more powerful in the original language. Well, I'll let you judge for yourself:

"Off to the south the oily surface of the ocean reflected the glittering lights of a factory. A maze of pipes and conduits crawled along the factory walls like blood vessels on muscle tissue. Countless lights played over the front wall of the factory like insects that glow in the dark; even this grotesque scene had a certain type of beauty. The factory cast a wordless shadow on the black sea beyond."

(Admittedly, I think this is the hardest kind of prose to translate well.)

It does get into details a lot more than the movies about the nature of the curse, with an interesting combination of pseduo-science and occult speculation. It does keep it vague enough to prevent it becoming ridiculous.

I think the book did a pretty good job of tying the horror to the idea of a contagion. So I would definitely be interested in seeing where Suzuki takes the story.

319, 320

Aren't there four Ring books? The original, Spiral, Loop and Birthday? I'm at work, so I can't check myself.

jseger,

Oh, I hadn't heard of Birthday before. It looks like it's a collection of short stories set in the same continuity as Ring.

So, does work allow you to LT but not to get to Amazon?

Carlos,

Work allows me to go anywhere, but I try and limit my fooling around to one thing at a time.

Birthday is short stories about the Virus, one of which is sort of a prequel to the other 3 books...But I don't think it would make much sense without reading the other books first.

Like Phil Rickman with his Marco books, F. Paul Wilson has started a YA prequel series of Repairman Jack's adventures as a teen. I just read the first one Jack: Secret Histories and thought it was good fun, with one pretty creepy moment near the end.

Guys, I'm going to propose we stop posting to this thread and I will start a new one.

I just saw some complaints in long threads in another group about how long these monsters take to load on a dila-up connection.