New horror

[holyzombiejesus]

I kept Banquet til last as I thought it would be like you described. In the end I enjoyed it tremendously - I don't think there is a book I haven't enjoyed of his yet.

Ah, I'll stick with it then. Also got House of Small Shadows on the To Read pile but the description - a house filled with creepy old dolls heads - made it sound a bit hacky.

[BlodwynPig]

Ah, I'll stick with it then. Also got House of Small Shadows on the To Read pile but the description - a house filled with creepy old dolls heads - made it sound a bit hacky.

Ranks lower on my Nevill tier list but has some pretty creepy stuff in it

[Famous Mortimer]

Because I don't read horror all that much, I joined my friend's horror book club, gives me a reason to start again. This month's is "This Thing Between Us" by Gus Moreno, which is pretty chuffing good so far. The back cover blurb mentions a cursed version of Alexa, but it's also got a lot of interesting stuff in it...I don't know, I'm only on the first 30 pages so far, but I really like the author's style.

[iamcoop]

Not fiction but just absolutely tore through Malcolm Gaskill's The Ruin Of All Witches which was perfect fodder for dark October evenings.

You can practically feel the cold New England wind and rain on your skin as everything turns to shit and people start losing their minds.

Methodically researched and about real events but reads like a thriller.

Huge recommend (Obvious thing to say but if you like The VVitch you'll definitely enjoy this).

[Famous Mortimer]

Gus Moreno - "This Thing Between Us"

I feel kind of stupid, but I don't think I got this. It's a story about grief, as a bloke mourns the death of his wife, but then something which first manifests as a haunted "Itza" box (think Alexa, one of those smart speaker things) becomes very keen on him. I'm just not sure why?

I enjoyed the framing device and the writing style, and I liked a lot of it up to the last quarter or so, but either he didn't stick the landing or (more possible) I just didn't understand some of his references.

[holyzombiejesus]

Ranks lower on my Nevill tier list but has some pretty creepy stuff in it

Read Apartment 16 last week. Thought it was pretty bad. I'cve noticed in his earlier books, there's alot of male gaze nonsense. Stuff like describing the female lead as having "an athletic bust" which somehow grows to something more buxom in a later chapter. Going to read ...Small Shadows next week then, apart from his short stories, only got The Ritual left. Saw the film of this - is it still worth reding the book?

[holyzombiejesus]

I read Jason Arnopp's Ghoster over the weekend. His first novel, The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, was great. This, his second novel, is not as good, but still pretty cool.

Spoiler alert

Woman moves from Leeds down to Brighton to move in with her boyfriend in his flat, to find him not there and also nothing else. Apart from his phone.....
She's a self-confessed phone addict and had recently done away with her smart phone.

[close]

It's a page turner, kept me guessing til the end. Good stuff. Creepy in places.

This is on my bedside table as I type. Going to start it in the next hour.

[Artie Fufkin]

This is on my bedside table as I type. Going to start it in the next hour.

*gulp* Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

[Artie Fufkin]

Read Apartment 16 last week. Thought it was pretty bad. I'cve noticed in his earlier books, there's alot of male gaze nonsense. Stuff like describing the female lead as having "an athletic bust" which somehow grows to something more buxom in a later chapter. Going to read ...Small Shadows next week then, apart from his short stories, only got The Ritual left. Saw the film of this - is it still worth reding the book?

I loved The Ritual. Great stuff. Old school.

[holyzombiejesus]

*gulp* Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I was really enjoying it, so much so that I was late to start work this morning so I could cram a few more chapters in. However, feel a bit pessimistic about it now seeing as the last bit I read was

Spoiler alert

a blue ghost woman walking through the toilet door.

[close]

Got something called Lamb by Matt Hill lined up next -

When lorry driver Dougie Alport carries out a deadly attack on his employer's head office, the reverberations of his actions unleash a grief in his wife Maureen that threatens to reveal the secret she has spent years hiding from their son, Boyd. Moving north to start again is Maureen's best response. But as the walls begin to throb with mould and his mother slips from his grasp, Boyd decides to flee, finding solace with a new friend at the landfill site on the edge of town. Here, a startling discovery upends Boyd's new life and forces him into a reckoning with his mother, her past, and his future.

or Richard Matheson's Hell House, which looks like it could be a more generic haunted house story.

[BlodwynPig]

Ghoster was surprisingly good.

[Noodle Lizard]

or Richard Matheson's Hell House, which looks like it could be a more generic haunted house story.

Hell House is a fair bit darker than you might expect, actually. I remember it being quite good, if superficially derivative of similar "bunch of people get together in a wrong house" stories.

[dry_run]

Merry Christmas New Horror - I'm excited for the new ANevs coming in the Spring. It's about a post alien invasion apocalypse apparently. I'm down with that.

His imagining of a climate change ruined future in Lost Girl was way too believable. Completely depressing in fact. More up for an alien ending than that, thanks.

[BlodwynPig]

Interesting that he's also planning a sequel to one of his previous books. Likely one of the folk horror ones.

[Artie Fufkin]

This isn't really 'new', but I didn't know where else to put it.

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt - 2013

Translated from Dutch in 2016.
I'm about halfway through now, and enjoying this piece of escapism lots.
It was definitely 'what the fuck is going on' at the start, which was really cool, tbf.
A small town in America has it's own witch.
I won't spoil it; although I will say

Spoiler alert

It's quite Stephen King, I guess?
And very Cabin In The Woods-y.

[close]

Good stuff so far.

[lauraxsynthesis]

Just finished the audiobook of High John the Conqueror: A Novel by Tariq Goddard, who is also the founder of Zero Books and publisher of Repeater Books. It's folk horror set in Wiltshire and I particularly recommend the audiobook because Goddard narrates it and has an awesome gravelly voice.

Not sure what I can say that isn't too spoilery. The central character is a Communist cop trying to find out why kids from the local estate are going missing. There's goings on at the local manor house, a mysterious drug, corrupt cops and the Queen is coming for a visit. A bit League of Gentlemen without the comedy.

[Pink Gregory]

Just finished the audiobook of High John the Conqueror: A Novel by Tariq Goddard, who is also the founder of Zero Books and publisher of Repeater Books. It's folk horror set in Wiltshire and I particularly recommend the audiobook because Goddard narrates it and has an awesome gravelly voice.

Hope I get around to this eventually, last Repeater fiction title I read took me more than a year, maybe more to do with me.

[iamcoop]

Just finished the audiobook of High John the Conqueror: A Novel by Tariq Goddard, who is also the founder of Zero Books and publisher of Repeater Books. It's folk horror set in Wiltshire and I particularly recommend the audiobook because Goddard narrates it and has an awesome gravelly voice.

Not sure what I can say that isn't too spoilery. The central character is a Communist cop trying to find out why kids from the local estate are going missing. There's goings on at the local manor house, a mysterious drug, corrupt cops and the Queen is coming for a visit. A bit League of Gentlemen without the comedy.

This sounds fucking great, just ordered and looking forward to reading it.Thanks for the heads up.

[BlodwynPig]

Merry Christmas New Horror - I'm excited for the new ANevs coming in the Spring. It's about a post alien invasion apocalypse apparently. I'm down with that.

His imagining of a climate change ruined future in Lost Girl was way too believable. Completely depressing in fact. More up for an alien ending than that, thanks.

Just finished it and it's awe inspiring. Top 3 material with some brutal imagery. A real mix of horror too.