In need of a fright

Suzanne · Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:29 pm

Looking for really good horror.

Anyone have a suggestion?

Thomas Hood · Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:40 am


	Suzanne wrote: Looking for really good horror. Anyone have a suggestion?

I like Poe. I really like Poe. I know he's hackneyed and sometimes childish, but Poe doesn't just startle with gruesome endings, he has ideas: The Man Who Was All Used Up: prosthetics; Valdemar: harmful prolongation of life; Imp of the Perverse: human irrationality; Tale of Scheherazade: science versus fiction; . . . . Poe forever! And now rare Poe items are on the Internet.

geo · Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:29 am


	Thomas Hood wrote: I like Poe. I really like Poe. I know he's hackneyed and sometimes childish, but Poe doesn't just startle with gruesome endings, he has ideas . . .

In a book I'm reading, How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, I was surprised to see a couple of references to Poe that were less than flattering.

Yet Maupassant is the best of the really "popular" story-writers, vastly superior to O.Henry (who could be quite good) and greatly preferable to the abominable Poe . . .

or

How does one read a short story? Edgar Allan Poe would have said: at one sitting. Poe's stories, despite their permanent world-wide popularity, are atrociously written (as are his poems) and benefit by translation, even into English.

So, Poe is "abominable" and "atrocious," but we all know what a curmudgeon Bloom is. I would agree with Thomas that Poe's stories are well worth reading for the ideas. They're genuinely creepy.

Back to the topic, I'm assuming you would like to read a genuinely creepy book, not your typical (usually dreadful) horror novel.

Shirley Jackson's The haunting of Hill House is of course always recommended.

Drood by Dan Simmons is quite good and very scary, but it's too long for it's own good.

I would also recommend Australian writer, John Harwood's The Ghost Writer which has a bit of a jumbled ending, but is one of the better ghost novels I've read lately. There are four short ghost stories embedded in the larger story that are worth the price of admission alone. Harwood has a new book just out, called The Seance which I just bought but haven't read yet.

Jennifer Egan's The Keep is sort of a modern gothic story interspersed with a prison tale and a love story all mixed together, but somehow it works. I really liked this one.

Scottish writer Jonathan Aycliffe's books are very good, if not usually out of print. I especially liked The Matrix and A Garden Lost in Time. But stay away from Naomi's Room.

I'll probably think of a few more later.

Patrick Kilgallon · Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:12 am

Let the Right One In is a brillant vampire novel. I feel I can not exhort it enough for a horrorbook reader.

Suzanne · Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:31 am

Thanks for the recomendations.

Geo wrote:


	Quote: Back to the topic, I'm assuming you would like to read a genuinely creepy book, not your typical (usually dreadful) horror novel.

Yes, you are correct. I have heard about "Ghost Writer", and "Drood" and "The Keep" appeal to me too.

Tom:

I have read most of Poe, I agree, he can be creepy and morbid at times. I just read a collection of stories, Joyce Carol Oates, can't remember the title. She writes about the final days of famous writers, Poe is one of them. Very eewish! She did a good job on Mark Twain too.

geo · Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:06 am

A proper ghost story is necessarily a short story and here a couple of collections come to mind. Edith Wharton, wrote many great short ghost tales during her lifetime which were gathered into a single book. Also, Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories is an excellent collection.

Good luck.

Krysondra · Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:45 am

It may seem a bit out of place, but I would recommend House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski just for overall creepiness. It's very literary, but at the same time... Let's just say my feet barely touched the floor in the darkness for weeks afterwards.

Patrick Kilgallon · Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:04 am

Suzanne wrote:

Thanks for the recomendations.

Geo wrote:


	Quote: Back to the topic, I'm assuming you would like to read a genuinely creepy book, not your typical (usually dreadful) horror novel.

Yes, you are correct. I have heard about "Ghost Writer", and "Drood" and "The Keep" appeal to me too.

Tom:

I have read most of Poe, I agree, he can be creepy and morbid at times. I just read a collection of stories, Joyce Carol Oates, can't remember the title. She writes about the final days of famous writers, Poe is one of them. Very eewish! She did a good job on Mark Twain too.

Wild Nights! by Joyce Carol Oates is a good suggestion for general creepiness. Who ever knew Pedo-emo could be darn creepy? House of Leaves, great fright suggestion, and that's only the physic of an area quarter inch bigger than the perimeter. Cormac, the Road, is harrowing also. Also Williams Golding's Lord of the Flies does well with giving a good scare about the darkness in one's heart.

geo · Fri Jun 26, 2009 1:32 pm


	Patrick Kilgallon wrote: Wild Nights! by Joyce Carol Oates is a good suggestion for general creepiness. Who ever knew Pedo-emo could be darn creepy? House of Leaves, great fright suggestion, and that's only the physic of an area quarter inch bigger than the perimeter. Cormac, the Road, is harrowing also. Also Williams Golding's Lord of the Flies does well with giving a good scare about the darkness in one's heart.

I really like Joyce Carol Oates' short stories in general. I'll have to give Wild Nights a try. Like Lord of the Flies, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, is not a ghost story, no supernatural element at all, but damned near qualifies as a horror story, I'd say.

The Road is on my short list. I want to read it before the movie comes out.

Don't get me started on post-apocalyptic or dystopian books. I could compile quite a list. But let's start with I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, which was recently made into a so-so movie starring Will Smith. The book is much better and very creepy. Hell House, also by Matheson, is a great haunted house book and quite a good read.

So many books, so little time.

Suzanne · Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:16 pm

Geo wrote:


	Quote: Don't get me started on post-apocalyptic or dystopian books.

Along these lines, I think you may like "Oryx and Crake", Margaret Atwood. I have read most of Atwood's works, and this one is a stand out, she really lets loose. It's different from many of her others.

uod_sa_libro · Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:45 pm


	Suzanne wrote: I have read most of Poe, I agree, he can be creepy and morbid at times. I just read a collection of stories, Joyce Carol Oates, can't remember the title. She writes about the final days of famous writers, Poe is one of them. Very eewish! She did a good job on Mark Twain too.

That's so intersting. I like Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain. I wonder who else was written about. what was it again? Wild Nights, right?

I'll see if I can find a copy :clap:

Hmmm...When I read "horror stories" I don't usually get scared by them. Stuff like non-fiction books Journey into Darkness (or something along that line), a compliation of cases that the Behavioral Analysis Science something in Quantico had worked on. Now those - the real, horrifying reality of people's cruelty is very friggin' scary... :no:

Suzanne · Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:30 pm

Where've you been uod_sa_libro? I've missed you.

She also had stories on a Bronte sister, and Ernest Hemmingway. Hemmingway was interesting, Oates tried to get into his head during his last days.

She tried to write the stories in the writing style of the authors. Like I said, the story on Poe was great!

uod_sa_libro · Fri Jul 10, 2009 11:19 pm


	Suzanne wrote: Where've you been uod_sa_libro? I've missed you.

I missed you, too!:oops: I missed BOOKTALK :ninjajig:

and this ninjajig. :smile:

It's a new school year here in our country so I've been busy passing requirements :bananadance:

I wanna read that book... :bounce:

I'm gonna look for it...hehehe :twisted:

allanazouz · Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:06 pm

May I recommend Shadows of Souls by Allan W. Azouz? :crazy:

[hr]

Product Description
A mother and daughter's mutual hatred draws an evil force into their home - disembodied, troubled souls waging a battle that unleashes an unstoppable power, hell bent on destroying everyone who gets in its way... Misery haunted Victoria Kayen, trapped in a dark, depressing world with her wheelchair-bound mother, Edith. She dutifully delivered medications, served meals, and cleaned up after the weekly visits from her mother's crony friends. Victoria's only escape was found in the pages of cheap romance novels. The confining house that stifled her life evolved and took on a life of its own with strange creaks and crying noises. Then the shadowy figure of a man appeared, watching from every dark corner. As if that wasn't bad enough, the rat population in the area exploded and they constantly scratched at the walls, trying to get in. Victoria made a bold decision one evening - to venture out to a bar and experience life as a normal woman. That's where she came face to face with her destiny, the shadowy figure that had stalked her, this time appearing in the form of a corporeal man possessed by two souls. One, a pious Reverend preaching hellfire and damnation on the street corner by day, the other, a passionate individual named Clay who enjoyed the pleasures of the earth by night. Her clandestine relationship with Clay fueled the dueling souls' war, and also spawned the Reverend's worst nightmare - an unspeakable evil - a thing both determined to destroy and impossible to fight...

gjswriter · Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:29 pm

Ok, I will give this a try. My novella, ZAHIR. Find it at www.gregoryjsaunders.com or lulu.com, or Amazon. When contmplating a horror novel, I looked for a theme that was little done. I ran across a news story from Central America about a creature he called, "Zahir", the one with the evil eye. Welcome to Zahir, where oil speculation meets the true protector of the Amazon. The 'Mother's' defenders. Deep in the jungle no one gets out alive.

p.s. please visit the website, gregoryjsaunders.com. I have short ficton of many flavors all free to read.

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