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March 28, 2024, 07:28:31 PM

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New horror

Started by holyzombiejesus, September 18, 2019, 02:16:57 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: dry_run on December 16, 2020, 11:38:22 AM
Just read You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann and it was amazing. It's super short but absolutely terrifying. And actually pretty funny too.

A bit of a ultra compressed House of Leaves. It's from 2016 so not exactly new-new, they also just made a film which by all accounts removes all it's weirdness and just goes for a straight haunted house.

Anyone read this one?

Worryingly I can't remember how I found out about it and also while reading it felt I'd read some of it before which definitely isn't a pleasant sensation giving that the protagonist is also having similar issues.
Yes, absolutely loved that book. I had planned to watch the film but I've recently decided not to bother my arse with adaptations if I really liked the book. Same with I'm Thinking of Ending Things.

I mentioned it on page 1 of this thread, maybe that's where you heard? I'll take the credit anyway

dry_run

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on December 16, 2020, 11:56:14 AM
I mentioned it on page 1 of this thread, maybe that's where you heard? I'll take the credit anyway

Woah. I've read the other 3 books on that post (well, I own but haven't read The Fisherman). It obviously had a huge, but subliminal, impact on me.

Never do that again.

Captain Crunch

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on November 05, 2020, 10:06:05 AMHere's some new horror from female authors I've got on my pile, haven't got round to them yet but if anyone has I'd be interested to hear about them:

  • Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I've not read that one but did read Gods of Jade and Shadow this year.  For such an exciting plot it's deathly boring, I'm not quite sure how she managed it. 

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on November 05, 2020, 08:58:39 PM
I liked Water Shall Refuse Them a lot, I'd be very pleased to read more from her

I enjoyed it.  The pace is a bit lumpy but it's a really enjoyable read.  I'd just warn people that this is not the book to read if you're trying to give up smoking! 

holyzombiejesus

Read something called Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims. Some evil billionaire businessman who has made his fortune by being an utter cunt builds executive apartments with a huge penthouse for himself with some grotty flats for poor people round the back. 13 interlinked chapters tell the stories of some of the inhabitants building, all ending up with the unlucky person being given an invite to a dinner party with the man himself. Pretty good, each chapter captures the individual character's voice well. Kind of feels like each flat number should be Number 9. Not particularly scary although I don't think I've been frightened or shaken by a book in a long time. 13 out of 20.

Jerzy Bondov

New one from Catriona Ward (Rawblood, Little Eve) is £2.69 on Kindle right now. Last House on Needless Street. Been looking forward to it for ages.

BlodwynPig

Thanks Jerzy (and Zombie)...intrigued

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 28, 2021, 06:04:01 PM
New one from Catriona Ward (Rawblood, Little Eve) is £2.69 on Kindle right now. Last House on Needless Street. Been looking forward to it for ages.
I recently bought Rawblood & Little Eve. Yet to read them. The other has been added to my wish list, ta.

Artie Fufkin

Just started reading the sequel to Bird Box; Malorie.
Apart from the very start it's set 10 years after the last book.
I enjoyed that, so looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
Someone I know read it and said it was better than the first, and one part of it made her jump.
Really?
Has anyone else had a book make them jump?
I fail to see how that's possible.
I dunno. Maybe I'm dead inside.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on April 03, 2021, 04:22:32 PM
Just started reading the sequel to Bird Box; Malorie.
Apart from the very start it's set 10 years after the last book.
I enjoyed that, so looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
Someone I know read it and said it was better than the first, and one part of it made her jump.
Really?
Has anyone else had a book make them jump?
I fail to see how that's possible.
I dunno. Maybe I'm dead inside.

Those pop-up books maybe?

Artie Fufkin


Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 28, 2021, 06:04:01 PM
New one from Catriona Ward (Rawblood, Little Eve) is £2.69 on Kindle right now. Last House on Needless Street. Been looking forward to it for ages.
Smashed through this in a couple of sittings. It's brilliant, love her. She's got another one out next year and all.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on April 03, 2021, 04:22:32 PM
Just started reading the sequel to Bird Box; Malorie.
Apart from the very start it's set 10 years after the last book.
I enjoyed that, so looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
Someone I know read it and said it was better than the first, and one part of it made her jump.
Really?
Has anyone else had a book make them jump?
I fail to see how that's possible.
I dunno. Maybe I'm dead inside.
I'm halfway into it, and enjoying it muchly.
I've still not jumped.

Artie Fufkin

#102
Almost finished Malorie
Spoiler alert
Fucking hell, Gary. Not again, you dick.
[close]

garbed_attic

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on January 22, 2021, 11:12:53 PM
Read something called Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims. Some evil billionaire businessman who has made his fortune by being an utter cunt builds executive apartments with a huge penthouse for himself with some grotty flats for poor people round the back. 13 interlinked chapters tell the stories of some of the inhabitants building, all ending up with the unlucky person being given an invite to a dinner party with the man himself. Pretty good, each chapter captures the individual character's voice well. Kind of feels like each flat number should be Number 9. Not particularly scary although I don't think I've been frightened or shaken by a book in a long time. 13 out of 20.

The first two seasons of his podcast The Magnus Archives are great, but it gets a little bit fan-pleasing after that and not nearly as consistently creepy. Decent though. I can imagine them illustrated by Junji Ito (who I think is admittedly an influence). I've also met him after watching his old band The Mechanisms and he seemed like a stand-up sort of chap.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on April 07, 2021, 11:14:24 PM
Almost finished Malorie
Spoiler alert
Fucking hell, Gary. Not again, you dick.
[close]
Finished. Not bad a bad yarn, as it goes. Would read more by him.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on March 28, 2021, 06:04:01 PM
New one from Catriona Ward (Rawblood, Little Eve) is £2.69 on Kindle right now. Last House on Needless Street. Been looking forward to it for ages.

Reading this at the moment and it's getting on my nerves a bit. I'm only 100 pages in but I'm guessing that t
Spoiler alert
he cat and the daughter are products of dissociative identity disorder
[close]
? Is that the case?

Jerzy Bondov

Yeah you got it. You're smarter than me! It does turn out more sympathetic to
Spoiler alert
the condition
[close]
than you might expect

holyzombiejesus

The bug man mentions
Spoiler alert
his book on dissociation on the first visit and then there's a mention of human hair on the cat's pillow in the freezer
[close]
. Is it worth carrying on with the book if I've guessed the big reveal?

Jerzy Bondov

Yes I'd say so. I'd like to read it again with the reveal in mind.

holyzombiejesus


phosphoresce

Not particularly new, but horror and fiction, so 2 out of 3 - I've been reading Ligotti recently. Grimscribe and Songs of a Dead Dreamer are a bit too much like (very accomplished) Lovecraft fan fiction.

Teatro Grottesco is hit and miss, and not as consistently frightening. But it's such a singular, original collection. It's great how the short story collections have this cumulative effect of conveying Ligotti's very unnerving world view.

holyzombiejesus

Just read that one of the best horror novels I've ever read is getting reprinted. Really recommend this...



QuoteA recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.

The new voice in Amanda's head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. Is she possessed by a demon, or is she simply insane? Described as "a new kind of psychological thriller" by George Pelecanos and "this year's scariest novel" by Time Out New York, Come Closer has become a modern classic "with a kick that will stay with the reader for days afterward" (The Dallas Morning News).

First few pages here...

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Come_Closer/m5JiDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT7&printsec=frontcover

MoreauVasz

Sara Gran is fab. She had a series of detective novels based around the idea of detection being this mystical calling that you tumble into almost by accident. Very cool.

dry_run

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on November 28, 2020, 10:56:09 PM
I just finished Brother by Ania Ahlborn and it was absolutely fucking horrible. What a nasty book. Recommended

Fucking hell. This had the expert pace of a thriller and the glee of a Sky Crime documentary celebrating the world's nastiest killers. They should lock up the author but let her write more books.

I read another a bit like this called Hunted but don't recommend it because it was pretty bland.

This on the other hand... was amazing.

Moribunderast

#114
This thread has been a delightful find for me. Since discovering it a few months ago I've purchased and read You Should Have Left, Water Shall Refuse Them, Come Closer, The House On Needless Street and, most recently, Brother.

Holy hell, Brother. I was concerned it might be too nasty for me going off the comments here and while it certainly is very fucking nasty, it's so good. I'm a slow reader and don't often put in long sessions with books but I did that one in a couple of days. It's so grim but remains compelling the whole way, even
Spoiler alert
if I figured out the Scott Tenorman angle pretty early. That ending, though... I don't know why I was hoping for some kind of salvation, it was always going to be bleak and if it had to be that way, that was perfect.
[close]

Definitely going to check out some more Ania Ahlborn stuff. I have a few others mentioned on this thread ready to go - No One Gets Out Alive will probably be next as people in this thread seem to be quite keen on Nevill's writing and I enjoyed the film version of his novel, The Ritual.

I'd love to be able to throw my own recommendations into the mix to pay back some of the good reads I've gained from this thread. The only thing that springs to mind are the books of Bob Franklin, an Australian comedian turned horror writer who I really enjoy. His novel Moving Tigers is a pretty good "trapped in a foreign land on holiday-gone-completely-wrong" style novel but his two short story collections, Under Stones and Lengthening Shadows are what I'd recommend first. Some very unnerving stories in there.

Jerzy Bondov

No One Gets Out Alive is really, really good. It'll be interesting to see the film; they've moved it to the US so it'll be a different beast I think. On Netflix soon I believe.

Come Closer was great. I love that it spells out where it's going and you know it can't end well but you still allow yourself to hope. Hard to balance but she does it so well.

If you're up for short stories I highly recommend Thin Places by Kay Chronister. On the weirder edge of things, very atmospheric and ambiguous.

I've read one other Ania Ahlborn, The Devil Crept In, again very nasty. Stranger than Brother but very good.

Moribunderast

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on September 18, 2021, 11:58:16 AM
No One Gets Out Alive is really, really good. It'll be interesting to see the film; they've moved it to the US so it'll be a different beast I think. On Netflix soon I believe.

Come Closer was great. I love that it spells out where it's going and you know it can't end well but you still allow yourself to hope. Hard to balance but she does it so well.

If you're up for short stories I highly recommend Thin Places by Kay Chronister. On the weirder edge of things, very atmospheric and ambiguous.

I've read one other Ania Ahlborn, The Devil Crept In, again very nasty. Stranger than Brother but very good.

Yeah, I loved Come Closer too. It was darkly funny at times while remaining disturbing throughout. The
Spoiler alert
increasing loss of time through blackouts
[close]
really got to me.

Devil Crept In is on my list as another Ahlborn I want to read. Think I'm going to go with The Neighbors or Within These Walls next from her.

On the bolded, if you enjoy short stories in that mould then I think those Bob Franklin collections I mentioned may be worth a look for you.

holyzombiejesus

Finished House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton last night. How silly! A man is killed in a spooky house (called 'All Hallows Hall' lol) so his adult children (and one of their children) go down to visit for the reading of the will and whilst they're there, the little boy vanishes. The book ends with a very
Spoiler alert
powerful demon chasing the protagonist who tries to make his escape by car, but the demon holds on to the roof, so the man drives up to the river and brakes and the demon falls off and dissolves in the water.
[close]

Intrigued by the praise for Ania Ahlborn so have Seed ready to start in a while.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on September 18, 2021, 11:58:16 AM
No One Gets Out Alive is really, really good. It'll be interesting to see the film; they've moved it to the US so it'll be a different beast I think. On Netflix soon I believe.
Just started reading this last night. I loved The Ritual, so am hoping for more good things from him.

Hank_Kingsley

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on October 07, 2021, 10:54:51 AM
Just started reading this last night. I loved The Ritual, so am hoping for more good things from him.

Having read The Ritual first I was very annoyed that they
Spoiler alert
cut out the whole black metal band bit.
[close]
I mean, I get that
Spoiler alert
black metal bands
[close]
aren't everyone's cup of tea but it would have looked sick and fit in with that whole
Spoiler alert
metal music aesthetic
[close]
in horror that we saw in The Devil's Candy, Mandy, Lords of Chaos etc.