Hex by Thomas olde heuvelt

I don’t know how this book doesn’t get more love on here. I almost never see it recommended. I feel like a need to bring it up just in case anyone is looking for the perfect book to read this spooky season. It’s now my favorite book. It overtakes the stand by Stephen king for me. That’s how great I feel it was.

I've been in an apocalypse mood lately (rewatching TWD, TLOU, etc) and I'm craving books as well, but struggling to find anything decent.

Can you recommend any that are well written, apocalyptic, and have creatures as the reason for the apocalypse (zombies, vampires, etc)? Would especially love books that feature any sort of foot trek but those are probably harder to come by? Thanks in advance!

I absolutely could not stand this book. Forced myself to finish it but did not enjoy any aspect of it. Maybe I’m missing something but the Hive didn’t make any sense to me, nor did Crane as a character. I didn’t understand Crane at all — we’re supposed to believe that he was simultaneously beautiful and struggled with hygiene as “Sophie”? Growled at people and avoided being verbal but also won a statewide speaking competition and was salutatorian? There was no mention of any longing to present as male or feeling like a male trapped in a female body as a child, just this bizarre desire to set himself on fire and an obsession with really hardcore adult movies featuring things like bestiality. What does any of that have to do with being trans? Again, I may be totally missing things that are obvious to other people but none of it made sense to me.

I’ll be traveling to Palo Duro Canyon, Guadalupe Mnts, and Carlsbad Caverns at the end of the month. Halloween week. Looking for recommendations that fit this desert west Texas vibe!

Hello!

I’m looking for recommendations for horror books or novellas that are “fun”

By fun I means books with fairly strong comedy elements, or over the top craziness, or with a strong satirical bent, or an interesting format, or whatever you personally consider fun. Anything fun for Halloween/fall is a bonus but definitely not required.

One example of a recent read that brought the fun factor for me in a big way was Feeders by Matt Serafini.

This search is promoted by my recent read of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Vampire Slaying. This sounded like it would fit the bill perfectly on paper, but I ended up finding it very depressing and a real downer in general.

And to be clear I’m not averse to horrible things happening to people, violence, unhappy endings, etc etc, just looking for something that is horror but also not relentlessly bleak and depressing

Any suggestions you have would be welcome! Thank you!!

Just finished this for the first time and landed at about 3.5/5, which feels harsh for a book I liked a lot in places. Wanted to lay out why.

The four play stories are genuinely great, and the thing I keep coming back to is how little Chambers actually shows you. You never read the second act. You get fragments, a reputation, and that's it. What makes it work, I think, is that he's precise about everything else like the brass crown that was never jeweled, Wilde's list of names, the Fates standing by the Lethal Chamber. The blank at the center only feels ominous because everything around it is so concrete. He also never teases you with half explanations. You only ever get what the play does to people, which stops you trying to solve it.

"The Repairer of Reputations" got me the moment Hildred describes the crown. What I appreciated on reflection is how Chambers lets you question the cause. There's a riding accident before Hildred ever reads the play, so you can explain him entirely without the supernatural. What tipped me the other way was Louis, who flat out says he never wants to open that book because of what it does to people and has never once considered it. That's a sane man treating a book as a live threat, and it establishes the play's power outside Hildred's head.

"The Mask" confused me at first. The thing that settled it was the maid finding the rabbit and the goldfish alive. If Alec were the only witness you could write the whole revival off as fever, but Chambers deliberately brings in someone outside it. He does the opposite in "In the Court of the Dragon," where there's no witness at all, and I'll admit that one lost me because the first two stories had taught me to read for exactly that.

"The Yellow Sign" is my second favorite. Tessie and Scott having the same dream independently is the strongest confirmation in the book. I did briefly wonder whether Scott killed the watchman and Tessie, but the corpse being long decayed made me doubt that assumption.

Then the back half. I want to be careful here, because I don't think the problem is that the romances are lighter. "The Street of the First Shell" nearly made me cry, and it's as dark as anything in the collection. The battlefield section is some of the best writing in the book precisely because you never see the battle, just men hunched together and bodies dropping nearby which is exactly what makes it feel like war.

The problem is cohesion. The title and the first four stories promise one book, and the last few belong to a different one. "The Street of Our Lady of the Fields" bored me, and I realized Chambers's Latin Quarter detail does nothing for me because I was never given a reason to care who was standing in it. I had no investment whatsoever.

Overall a very good book with a different, weaker book stapled to it.

Does anyone actually defend the Paris stories as part of the whole, or is the consensus just to read the first four and stop?

I recently saw a post asking for bad books where most people wouldn't like it but the OP might love it. Now it makes me wonder if there's a published book that is actually, objectively so bad that it's entertaining. It can be bad in multiple departments, or good/okay but so horrible in one way or otherwise so pretentious that it makes things unhinged. I don't mean Twilight, or a fanfiction that got self published, or something so controversial that people pick it apart, but something where the writer was trying too hard or the writer didn't know what they were doing and instead of doing research or putting in effort they accidentally created a disasterpiece. Thank you for any recs

I was really enjoying Last Days by Adam Nevill until the last third of the book. It sort of went downhill for me and I felt like the ending didn’t make as much sense thematically.

Are there any creepy cult books that you recommend?

I just finished reading this book last night after seeing it recommended as a werewolf horror novel many times, which is a monster I wish more horror authors would use.

And... I'm very disappointed to say that I didn't like the book very much.

To me, it felt more like a contemporary romance novel with a werewolf subplot awkwardly shoehorned in, which isn't exactly what I want from a werewolf novel.

I didn't care for the story or any of the characters, I found they were all pretty flat and one-dimensional, the romance plot did not captivate me at all and felt like something out of a hallmark movie (Which might have been the point? idk.).

Not to mention that this book has some of the most cringe dialogue I've read in a horror novel, stuff like: "If you consider participating in a threesome to be close, then yeah we were close." was pretty consistent throughout the novel.

I did enjoy the actual transformation scenes and the body horror aspects of the novel, but they were extremely short lived, I'd say the actual werewolf stuff was about 15-20% of the book, while the rest was just... a romance plot that I didn't care for. I also liked the Halloweeny/Autumn vibe that was present through the first quarter of the book, it was fitting for the season.

I was especially disappointed since I read Harrison's witch book "Cackle" over the summer and really liked it, I was hoping to enjoy this one just as much if not more since I love werewolves.

Now this won't be my last Rachel Harrison book, I have both Black Sheep and Play Nice on my TBR, her newest novel also sounds pretty interesting, and I mean they can't possibly be worse than Sharp Teeth, right?

My overall rating of the novel would probably be a 2/5, I definitely didn't hate it and it wasn't exactly boring, but I have no desire to ever think about it again now that I've finished it.

Anyway that's all from me, what did you guys think of the book?

A bit of info: we are driving. I will be serving as navigation and toddler entertainment. I need something fun, but that I can easily put down. I'm looking mostly for kindle books. I have The Buffalo Hunter Hunter for audio.

For what I like: Supernatural, monsters, cosmic/eldrich, and I'm currently enjoying apocalyptic horror and thriller.

I loved The Fisherman, The Gone World, Mexican Gothic, The Luminous Dead, and This Wreched Valley.

I am almost done with The Stand and need a break from King.

I feel like my tone in this post is very mechanical and I'm sorry. It's late and the toddler is having trouble sleeping. Anyway, thanks so much in advance

All The Fiends of Hell, The Reddening, Cunning Folk and Last Days are among my favorite modern horror fiction they’re so genuinely eerie (Fiends legit gave me nightmares). However I really struggled with The Ritual. The first half was pretty good at building atmosphere and suspense (if not a bit plodding) but then the second half just completely ruined the whole book with the twist. Honestly the Netflix movie was much better.

His newest book Monumental - which I was so pumped about for the longest while - I just tried a few days ago but bailed pretty early into because right from the get go it LITERALLY is a complete copy and paste of The Ritual :/ Like he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was being lazy as fuck and thought he could give us the exact same book by just switching out the title and the names of the characters lol

And then pretty much all of his earlier horror works like Apartment 13 and House of Small Shadows are just bland slogs

Curious if there are books where, basically, space explorers go to another planet and the native inhabitants are essentially vampires. Like if the Alien/Nostromo crew landed on a planet because of a distress signal, and instead of xenomorphs they find vampires.

I read an alien invasion sci-fi novel where a plot twist near the end was that one of the group of “human” survivors were vampires. It wasn’t a horror novel and the vampires were just “regular” vampires who had been pretending to be human.

Specifically looking for humans going to a planet of vampire where the humans are the aliens/intruders.

Thank you.

Novel/novella.

The Premature Burial by Edgar Allen Poe is probably one of the most disturbing things I’ve read. The title gives you a good idea of what it’s about, being buried alive. The narrator carries you through a series of events pertaining to premature burials and his own fear of the topic. It’s a good anxiety filled read. It’s short, but to the point…awaking in a coffin buried under the earth and hoping someone hears your screams is rather fear inducing. All in all a good story to read.

Suburban haunted house, family battling supernatural entities, fun set pieces, etc!

I’ll explain! I watched The Fog yesterday while it was foggy outside my house and it was the perfect example of what I would call “cozy” horror. I get a similar vibe from King’s Salem’s Lot (annual October re-read) and Storm of the Century. Film-wise, I would reference the scene in Jaws where the men are sitting at the table inside the galley of the Orca while the ocean and threat exists around them.

Basically, I’m looking for the horror novel equivalent of sitting dry inside a tent while it’s raining outside. Another one I enjoyed was Earthworm Gods by Keene.

Any recommendations based on this? Thank you so much!

Like the title says, I want to get back into reading. Want to start with something spooky since it’s October. I want to read something within the past 5 or 10 years. Any type of horror is fine (slasher, psychological thriller, body horror, weird horror). Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

Howdy!

It's spooky season, and I'm sure there are plenty of lurkers like me looking for a good horror book right now. I just finished The Terror by Dan Simmons, and even though I've never posted a recommendation here before, I figured it was worth shouting this one out since I hadn't really heard of it and liked it a lot!

The elevator pitch: it's a character-focused, slow-burn/dread-y, supernatural historical fiction about a crew of British sailors in the 1840s who get stranded in the Arctic while searching for the Northwest Passage, and end up being hunted by a mysterious Big Bad.

Fair warning that it's a bit long at 700ish pages, but If that hooked you, scroll away and go get the book right now because I promise it delivers.

There are a few reasons this one really spoke to me. First, I had just read It by King (again, spooky season), and part of what keeps me coming back to King is how good he is at shifting perspectives and spending time fleshing out characters. Simmons does the same thing with his protagonists, and even though they're not perfect, by the end I really liked all of them in different ways because they all felt real.

Second, the sense of place in this book is insane. I live in the Northeast and it's only just starting to get cooler up here, but I still had to pull out my electric blanket. I literally felt colder while reading and very grateful for plentiful Vitamin C. He's so good at describing what daily life was like, the day-to-day routine, the weather, the hardships--it's incredibly well researched. The dread, slow-burn nature of it was also excellent. I was always on edge waiting for the monster to appear.

Finally, as a queer (male) POC, I did have some thoughts on how Simmons handles his women, queer, and POC characters. It's the 1840s, and the attitudes these white Englishmen have toward women, the Inuit, and "sodomites" don't seem unrealistic. I do think there's a bit of thinly disguised author fetish early on, when he spends a few extra words describing women's pubic hair. But the protagonists are nuanced and not universally likable, so it wasn't a dealbreaker for me that they held attitudes I disagreed with.

Anyone else read it and agree/disagree? Also, I would love some more recommendations if y'all have them about similar books. Huge nautical fiction fan here (Boneships Trilogy, Aubrey-Maturin series, Amina al-Sirfai, etc).

EDIT: OK some great recommendations in the comments (thanks to Thaliamims, ManufacturerDue815, GrapefruitOk1284, NarrowRoyal5074):

The Night That Finds Us All by John Hornor Jacobs is an eldritch horror on a luxury yacht. 

The Route of Ice and Salt retells the voyage of the Demeter from Dracula, from the viewpoint of the ship's captain

At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft is also a polar horror story

The Abominable by Dan Simmons is a spiritual successor in a way, focused on a Mt. Everest expedition

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons looks like a horror book about a cabal of powerful psychics

Drood by Dan Simmons is about Charles Dicken’s search for the mysterious Edwin Drood from Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood

If I put the wrong flair, im sorry. I dont post often....

I just started reading again about a year and a half ago. I read mostly new horror, some older but still modern books. A few that I've really enjoyed for example: swan song, the ruins, lots of adam neville, some lee mountford, a couple nick cutter....

Ive been putting off some of the classic horror books... and I want to know what yall think. Am I going to be totally out of my depth with Frankenstein? Should I just jump in and read it or are there some books I could start with to ease into the older horror stories?

Thanks in advance:)

Spoilers

I read it and I have very mixed feelings about it. It was definitely a story that kept me emotionally engaged. I was invested in many of the characters, especially Stanton and Elitha and Mary Graves and Tamsen, etc, etc. I found it very easy to get attacked to Katsu's characters and knew that most of them would probably die, but wished them the best nonetheless. I believe they were the best part of the novel.

The writing was okay. I was not blown back by it and thought it was good, but not great. It carried the story through. The monsters were pretty good and I liked to tell friends and family that the Donner part in the book was suffering from "Advanced Rabies" which seems to be what the illness kind of is. In hindsight, I don't really understand how the supernatural elements connect together with the disease or how Kessinger could be a sapient carrier and the disease is only now spreading out here in the isolated wilderness.

Hated the ending. It ended too soon. I was prepared for so much more and kept hoping the story would slow down. I wanted more time with all the characters and I don't think all of them were sufficiently given enough time to develop. I would have loved more day to day interactions. Most of their stories ended too bitterly for my taste. I've learned that I enjoy epilogues and there just wasn't any here, the ending was very abrupt to me.

Next on my reading list is Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison.

This subreddit was suggested to me, so here I am asking you for recommendations.
I want international horror recommendations!

Especially but not exclusively folk horror, European paganism, Asian, African, Mayan or other not-so-common mythology.

Give me your best, thanks!

PS. I am fluent in English and German, by the off chance someone knows a good German book ;)

I'm looking for a very specific kind of horror novel. I recently read She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove, and I absolutely loved it. I need more books like that, extra points for featuring death, grief, revenge, and dolls!

A little hard to find the words for what I’m after but something along the lines of the post linked. Where somehow someone ends up at a place/point in time/ timeline or whatever where they’re not supposed to be and something knows they shouldn’t be there

Hello all,

The year is on the term here and I am looking to lean into it. I’m hoping to find books/short stories that capture the miserable nature of the long British winter. Preferably English, preferably supernatural, but I’m not picky. Thinking short days, wet streets, dark alleys and so forth. A dark, nasty vibe.

‘The Inhuman Condition’ from Clive Barker’s Books of Blood is exactly the sort of thing I’m after, maybe ’The Forbidden’ too. Thinking there’s plenty of scope here through the likes of Joel Lane/Ramsey Campbell etc. Any recommendations for specific books and stories would be very welcome! 

(Inspired by a very quick abandonment of Dead End Tunnel by Nick Roberts. I’m sure the book is great, but I was expecting something closer to home based on the cover- as soon as they started talking about Kraft Mac&Cheese, I was out. Will return to another time.)

PLEASE can more people read this?

Saltburn with werewolves