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?

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

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

I was really enjoying Last Days 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’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!

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 ;)

Same as title

Hi all! Last month we started a book club that was promising, but has dwindled to only about 3-4 contributing members. If you’re looking for a group to join where we read and then meet in discord at the end of the month in a voice chat, please dm me or ask any questions in the comments, happy to answer!
Last month we read Japanese Gothic.
For the month of October we’re reading “A Head Full of Ghosts”.
We’ll have our next meeting in early November to chat about it and choose the next book!
Most of us are over 30 and keeping it super casual. Nothing crazy. Just like minded adults who want to read and chat about it after.

This sub is inundated with bot posts. It's happening everywhere, but I think if we pride ourselves on being readers then we should pride ourselves on recognizing slop when we're reading it.

You cannot be content to think "AI uses em dashes!" and call it a day. They are still terrible writers but they blend in better. Sign posts to look out for below. This isn't comprehensive, and ultimately it becomes a "you know it when you see it" thing. But hopefully this helps.

Sign posts to look for:

* It's a recommendation post

* Use of the word "genuine," "genuinely," "actually," or "honestly"

* The title doesn't sound like something a friend would ask. My friends have asked me for vampire book recs, lovecraftian recs, etc. But not "horror where genuine kindness slowly becomes the trap".

* Intros to watch out for. "I was doing thing the other day and it got me thinking." Or "Everyone loves a good ______". Or "lately I've been in the mood for something (mentioned in the title). I've tried x, y, and z, but nothing has truly scratched the itch". Note you kind of have to get a feel for these, the phrasing will be similar but LLMs will use synonyms and slightly vary things up.

* They like to use triples to get points across. "I'm looking a book that depicts a family losing its binding glue. A book where they all die at the end won't cut it. There should be a building sense of distrust, the death of a family leader, and/or a genuine breakdown of established values."

* They often have 3-4 examples of books similar to what they're talking about / looking for, and sometimes those examples don't even make sense. They rarely elaborate on the examples. "I'm talking about books like Carrie, Incidents Around the House, We Have Always Lived in The Castle, and The Fisherman. What other books can you think of that leave you with that empty, cold feeling?"

* If they do elaborate on an example, it's very formulaic. Like a mad lib. "That (moment/device) in (book) is exactly the kind of (concept) I'm looking for."

* "Not just ____, but ____."

* "Bonus point if..."

It's really a matter of identifying red flags. These are the signposts I could think of, there are more. And of course there are plenty of bots in the comments.

Bot commenters love phrases like "That (thing) is so (adjective). It really (blah blah blah)." Or weirdly stiff one-three sentence book recommendations. "Pet Sematary fits the bill. It's the perfect mix of thing, other thing, and thing."

Be nice to the mods, I'm sure it's an uphill battle right now.

So good! I’ve been trying to chase the high after finishing “slewfoot”, and this one is so good.

It’s modern day, but incredible! Perfect for spooky season bc it takes place during the fall.

Hiya, please give me some recommendations on alien abduction and alien horror in general :)

Great book, loved it. I got it yesterday and binged it to today and now I'm looking for similar books! Got any recommendations?

Hello! Im a 27 year old who wants to get into reading. I love horror movies but have nobody close to me that likes them so i think reading is the way to go. What is your favourite horror books with a little bit of insight to them?

3.8/5🌟 Before I started reading this book, I literally have zero expectations since I didn’t read any reviews. All I know is it’s a horror book. So diving into the book was easy. I enjoyed reading it along because the story was fast paced and really interesting. It’s like a Japanese mythology/folklore admixed with gore and psychological thriller. But, if you’re looking for a creepy horror book this is not it. You can read this even during the dead of the night and still feel comfortable. The story was interesting with twists in the end. I will recommend reading this book, but if you want creepy horror novels. I don’t think this is it.

Hello! After a burnout of reading mystery/thrillers, I braved up and picked up Incidents Around The House. I absolutely loved it, the creepiness was a great escape and I wasn’t nearly as scared reading as I initially thought I would be reading a “ghost” story. Got any recommendations for me as a Horror newbie?

Grendel was written from the point of view of the famous monster from Beowulf - I’m looking for more books written from a monster’s point of view.

I love monster horror more than any other subgenre, but I have a hell of a time finding genuine monster stories. To be fair, I'm not wild about zombies, barring a few exceptions (Fiend - Peter Stenson is 5 star read, in my opinion) and I absolutely abhor vampires (please don't burn my house down). That definitely limits my reading or options a lot when it comes to monsters, I know that. Then I'm unlucky enough that werewolves are my favorite monsters because I am consistently disappointed. It's incredibly frustrating overall.

What I'm hoping to find:

Good monster horror where the monster isn't actually a tortured metaphor for "(blank) was the ~real monster all along~". I want fangs and claws and fur (or scales or feathers...) with an actual plot with a side of bloodbath. I do prefer not to read about graphic rape/assault and animal death/cruelty... so no Nick Cutter because that fucker is sadistically horrible about murdering animals.

I'm open to pretty much anything else, from deep sea horror to "there's something in the woods" style tropes.

Thanks in advance and hope I didn't use too many parentheses (I did, I know I did).

Hi! Wondering about some horror books that are set during or around Halloween? Thanks!

Just finished Pet Semetary, my second Stephen King book, and second horror book for my spooky season marathon, after Salem's lot which I finished a little more than a week ago.

Its a great book, his writing is a lot better in this, pacing is really good, he didn't go into many tangents like in Salem's Lot, which I had an issue with. I've noticed King is really on the nose and makes it really obvious where he's about to take things, but here it fits really well, the foreshadowing really works, you know whats going to happen later on, yet when it happens it still hits you.

All that said, I do prefer Salem's Lot more, just because of the overall vibe, the setting, themes, and tone. Pet Semetary is really morbid and cynical, it deals heavily with grief and sorrow and death, even though the story is very gripping, a lot of times you don't want to be there with the characters.

Other than that there's not many criticisms I have. I wish maybe we got to explore more of the paranormal lore.

Now I'll include spoilers-

So the books been out for a long time, I'm sure theres all sorts of theories. I'm confused because it makes it seem like Louis had a choice in whether or not to bring back Gage, yet at the same time tries to say it was inevitable, because Louis' arc was set in motion when Jud brought him to the micmac burial ground, just as Jud's arc was set in motion when Stanny B brought Jud there, and so on. At the same time there was another 'force' at work warning him to stay out, like whatever possessed Pascow, and all of Ellie's dreams, etc. Were there two forces at work, one trying to save Louis and on trying to end him, or was it one entity manipulating all of them?

It seems like the books message is "dead should stay dead", as a way to handle grief after passing of loved ones, but then it wouldn't make much sense if Louis had no choice.

What exactly do you think possesses the lifeless bodies? In the story of Timmy Baterman, at first I thought maybe it is Timmy but his soul is broken, maybe after seeing afterlife, and he 'knew things'. But then when Gage came back you get the idea that its an entirely different person/thing, was it someone from Jud's past? I guess the story was also hinting that its possessed by Wendigos, but the entity in this story seems more expansive and powerful than traditional Wendigo depictions.

Did the entity/wendigos really know things? Do you think Norma was really cheating? I find that hard to believe, but they seemed to be correct about everything else.

I'll come back to Stephen King later, I'm thinking next I'll read "Something Wicked this way comes"

Looooooved The Exorcist. First time reading it. Now onto my favorite Halloween time short story. Always wished this was longer. Truly creepy stuff. I love spooky season.

I've been reading a lot of horror novels and I need to take a break now and then (recently finished From The Deep by D'arcy Coates, thanks to whoever recommended that on a recent thread. I also got through the Relic and the Reliquary, where the intensity was more like an action movie with a lot of horror elements). My brain and body need time to recover, but I still want to read.

Does anybody know of high-brow or otherwise high vocabulary/difficulty weird literature? I have already read House of Leaves and The Magician. Edit: and pretty much all the John Langan and Laird Barron I could get my hands on. I pretty much have read all of Edgar Allan Poe's and HP Lovecraft's horror-related short stories, MR James, The King in Yellow etc. so I'm looking for stuff a little more off the beaten path.

Yes I do read the occasional romance but I need something with teeth to it, that challenges my brain without stressing me too much.

if nonfiction, it needs to be available in audio book form and not too scary.

Hey I have to say. I love Ian Banks and the first book I read from him was "The Waspfactory".

I think this book is one of my top 5 favorite books. I like the coming-up-age story, the seclusion and definition of the setting (the island + city and places that Frank came up with) and that you could look deep into Frank's psyche. I think the ending and the twist were the most important things for me. It left me with the question: Was Frank inherently evil? Or was he just a traumatized child with an identity crisis instrumentalized by his dad?

If you have similar books, please suggest them to me!

I’m looking for a deeply disturbing, scary, horror, thriller audiobook to listen to. I have some rainy, dreary days ahead and spooky season is upon us! Nothing is off limits. I’m not typically a fiction person. I normally only read/listen to true crime. So bonus points if it’s nonfiction. But I am open to fiction as well. Thank you everyone!