Looking for really good horror.

Anyone have a suggestion?

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.

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.

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

Thanks for the recomendations.

Geo wrote:

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.

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.

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.

Suzanne wrote:Thanks for the recomendations.

Geo wrote:

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.

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.

Geo wrote:

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.