Book Recommendations

BioHazRd

Right - I see this forum is mainly focused on movies, but Im sure most of you have read some good horror books in your day. Personally, I am a huge fan of Brian Lumley, more specifically "The Necroscope" series. I have read 10 of the 12 books published. The ones I haven't read yet are the two volumes "The Lost Years I and II".
It won't take me too long to plow through those two, so basically, I am looking for your views on what I should go for next. I'm not a huge fan of Stephen King, as my personal view is that he spends the whole book developing one major plot line and maybe he will have one twist near the end ie. he's a bit formulaic for my taste. I've read Barker, Koontz and a few other classics. I like the Necroscope books as they don't portray vampires as guys in black suits with slicked back hair and pointy teeth, noooo, these guys are 8 ft tall crimson eyed beasts of men(or rather, used to be men) who gel their hair with human fat and like nothing better than a new born baby roasted on a spit. The whole story carries through very well from book to book, and the sideline stories are quite immersing. Get the picture ?

Now, what should I read next ?

Bio

ObeyGiant

I'm completely in love with Richard Matheson's "I am Legend". It's a really short book about the last man left alive when the rest of the world has been turned into vampires. The Charlton Heston film "The Omega Man" is loosely based on this book, but the book is much, much better.

Anything by HP Lovecraft, especially At the Mountains of Madness. Lovecraft is pyschological horror at its best unlike Stephen Kings, lets have a monster jump out from behind the door horror.

Karl Hungus

Definetly Lovecraft!

I'll concur with Brian Lumley's work, but I still think the first Necroscope is the best, went rather downhill after that. And indeed Stephen King is the most over-rated author of the 20th century. And Clive Barker is quite a great writer.

If you can stomach the cliché of it all, the first couple of books in Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" are great, The Vampire Lestat being my personal favorite, but it's all gone completely downhill to the point where it's now just a complete load of unintelligable junk.

What I'm going to suggest now, howerver... You might want to avoid!

So, if you think you're up for it (And I really am warning you here) then try reading something by Poppy Z. Brite. It's just utterly ****ing horrific, and sometimes even reads like gay porn! :eek: But if you consider the role of a horror book to not only scare you, but disgust you, then I really recommend you check out some of her books. I've honestly never been stirred so much to the point of nearly losing my lunch by reading a book...

I'd suggest starting off with Drawing Blood.

Or if you want a mess of short stories that are barely coherent, and sometimes just downright crap, but just completely ****ing off the wall and out there... Ass-****ing with a loaded luger, and the results thereof... trying to make homemade zombies with a drill and a syringe of bleach (I'll let your imagination fly with that one) then check out "Self Made Man."

Honestly, I just don't know how the **** that got published at all!!! :dunno:

Zaphod B

I'd have to second Darko on Lovecraft, if you're short on time or attention span however try all of Barker's Books of Blood and his other short stories.
Edit: Argh Angelwhore ya beat me to the Lovecraft-endorsement.

BioHazRd

Yeah - Ive pretty much read all of Barkers stuff - and enjoyed it immensely. Time and attention span are things I have in great measure

I agree horror (for me, anyway) should provoke certain emotions such as revulsion, so I might give some of kens books a look.

I know it wasn't originally classed as horror, but Brett Easton Ellis's "American Psycho" was pretty much a head-f**k along those lines. How Hollywood even thought they could make a movie that would come close to the book is beyond me - and yes, the movie was utter shite.

Bio

Tusky

Great thread lads , Ill defo be checking out some of these books in the near future ! keep it up.

doonothing

If you can stomach the cliché of it all, the first couple of books in Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" are great, The Vampire Lestat being my personal favorite, but it's all gone completely downhill to the point where it's now just a complete load of unintelligable junk.

ARGH!!! what the hell???
examples please!
im on merrick now, and all the others so far have been incredible!!
the vampire lestat is my favorite as well, but that doesnt matter!!
the vampire armand was so moving and touching!! tale of the body thief was really good, and memnoch was AMAZING!!!
have you even read all these????
dont knock em til you've tried em...
and dont be trying to put everyone else off some of the best books thy're likely to read just because you dont like them!!

sorry, but GAH!!...

ThenComesDudley

All good choices above, big fan of love craft meself,

But one of my favourites is the Ring novel by KOJI SUZUKI, i recomend , also ive just got a hold of the sequal called SPIRALS, lookin forward to reading it.

Fysh

Originally posted by doonothing
ARGH!!! what the hell???
examples please!
im on merrick now, and all the others so far have been incredible!!
the vampire lestat is my favorite as well, but that doesnt matter!!
the vampire armand was so moving and touching!! tale of the body thief was really good, and memnoch was AMAZING!!!
have you even read all these????
dont knock em til you've tried em...
and dont be trying to put everyone else off some of the best books thy're likely to read just because you dont like them!!

sorry, but GAH!!...

The Vampire Lestat was, at best, over-rated. As was Queen Of the Damned. And I gave up after that because, well, there's only so many times I can be bored to sleep when reading a book before I give up on it as a lost cause.

Anne Rice's thing for creating "real people" vampires (oh, poor him, he didn't *choose* to be a vampire...boo f*cking hoo) would have worked once or twice, but not over that number of books. I'd much rather read about a vampire like Cassidy in Preacher.

As for horror....Lovecraft all the way. A couple of King's books are ok (personally I reckon IT is the best book he will ever write) but too formulaic and horror-by-numbers, as it were.

There are horror comics as well which you might be interested in. Hellblazer, Preacher, Hellraiser (although I don't know if these are any good), and a good few more that I can't think of right now.

Karl Hungus

Originally posted by doonothing
have you even read all these????
dont knock em til you've tried em...

No, I have never read them! Any of them. I was just making a calculated approximation based upon the way they had been stacked in the book shop and the moon's reflection on my mirror-chart. :rolleyes:

Yes I've read them, ffs!

doonothing

....sshh.....

well, i like em. i thought they've been great so far, but im young and naive...

i'll give some of those up there a shot, and i'll get back to you...

i guess it's just that the vampire chronicles were a large part of my childhood....

sigh. as long as it's not one of those "now it's popular, so i cant like it cos i wont be unique and original" situations, then lets just agree to disagree....

doonothing

a writer i LOVE is M. R. James. a lot of his stories may seem a wee bit tame compared with the ones yonder, but i thought they were splendidly chilling if you will...

Fysh

Penguin have a collected book of the ghost stories of MR James which I own. It's cheap to buy and there are some nice moments in there, not particularly visceral or gory, but on a more psychological level akin (but inferior) to Lovefcraft.

gogo

Great thread guys!

I haven't read much horror lately, but am planning to get some of the above, Richard Matheson's esp (heard of legend before will def try it now), will also try lovecraft.

I recommend some of james herbert stuff, 'the dark' is very good, but you can't trust herbert, sometimes its good and other times it's utter crap.

I unfortuantley, am a Stephen King fan, but like doonothing says above I wonder now if this is childhood thing, start reading him from a very early age, progressing from Point Horror at eight to Christopher Pike at nine and King's The Stand at eleven or so and never looked back ( I blame it on lack of choice in small town book shops).

Either way Kings 'salems Lot' scared the bejasus outta me years ago, gonna go read it again to see if it has the same effect now.

gogo

Crash

Originally posted by doonothing
a writer i LOVE is M. R. James. a lot of his stories may seem a wee bit tame compared with the ones yonder, but i thought they were splendidly chilling if you will...

problem with MR james is that he does get rather repetitive...a number of the stories are simply astounding (the mezzatint for example), whereas others such as the haunted doll house are simply rehashings of old stories.

LoLth

lovecraft: almost any of his stuff.

herbert: the rats and domain are his best. Lair isnt too bad.

doonothing

problem with MR james is that he does get rather repetitive...a number of the stories are simply astounding (the mezzatint for example), whereas others such as the haunted doll house are simply rehashings of old stories.

yeah, i agree with you, some of them give a bit of a déja vu feeling, and some arent really scary, so much as downright bizarre ("After Dark in the Playing Fields")... but some, like "the wailing well", are really REALLY good.

anyone like Poe? maybe its too much of a cliché, but i think he's one of the best. i havent really read much of lovecraft so i cant compare, but, in summary: Poe rocks.

jill_valentine

A good starting point is the game Silent Hill. If you manage to decipher a reference to a book from that game, run and get it.:D

I'm a big fan of slow burn horror, as opposed to "Blagh! I'm a Monster!", so bear that in mind with my recommendations.

The Haunting by Shirley Jackson is one of the best books I've ever read. Seriously. The language in it is art. She uses precisely the words she needs and no more. The horror in it builds up almost imperceptably...you don't notice it happening until you realise that for the first time since you were like 7, you've slept with the light on.... The story sounds familiar: Eccentric scientist invites a group of people to a supposedly haunted house for a number of months, to study both the house and its psychological effects. But the execution of it...God...And the last page blows your whole understanding of the book apart. On a second read through, its a completely different book. My favourite book actually. I think I might go and read it again...

Phantoms by Dean Koontz is a little pulpier, but great at what it does. A young woman collects her little sister, and as she drives back to her quiet little mountain town, they both gradually realise that there's something desperately wrong...no animals, no sounds, no people, no life at all. It actually reads like a really good Stephen King book, only without the ridiculous endings and sudden religious epiphanies...Even when we find out exactly whats going on in the town, the book is strong enough to compell the reader towards the end, something I find King has a serious problem with. The film, with Ben-Lo back when he was still indyish and cool, actually isn't bad either, though its not wonderful. And Rose McGowan is in it too, looking about 12...

My current read is House of Leaves, by Mark Z Daniel...owski...asowski...assaki? Something like that. Anyway, its a book about a book about a documentary, and its a monster in itself. Presented as fact, (but how much?) it tells the story of a film. The film, a documentary called the Navidson Record, was about a family moving in to a new house, and again, its a very strange house. The documentary tracks how they gradually discover more and more things wrong with it. The size of the rooms change imperceptibly. The floor space on the inside is just a little bit bigger than the size of the house from outside.

The documentary was written about in depth by an old man who died before he completed his work, the old mans notes were found by a young man, the young man had the book published. House of Leaves is the book, complete with both the old guys footnotes, the young guys footnotes, and the editors footnotes. It demands patience, because its really not like any other book I've ever seen. Glance through its format and you'll see what I mean. The old mans abrupt end means there's blank spaces and even pages. Apparently nonsensical asides. Entire passages that have been croseed through, but left in. Ominous, but unexplained changes in typeface. The editor frequently points out glaring contradictions, or quotes that have been denied by the people credited with them. (Both Anne Rice and Stephen King make cameos...:D Deliciously, its King that spots what other miss about the film.)Its not a novel, its a hobby. Doesn't scare much as you read it, but afterwards. I swear my room looks a little bigger.

Mr. Fancypants

Just started House of Leaves myself at the moment and really enjoying it. Finished I Am Legend on the strength of a recommendation earlier and thought it was fantastic.

Scariest book i ever remember reading was The Amityville Horror By Jay Anson. Its written as a true story and as far as i know the subjects of the book still insist it all happened. It was quite a few years ago when i read it but it was the only book that had me scared to turn of the lights.

Tusky

Clive Barker - Just read "Coldheart Canyon" Apperantly he has written much beter but I really enjoyed it, Very 'cant put it down' book. Some of his monsters are really disgusting... One for the strong of stomache anyway but I would reccomend it to any fan of horror !

Kalikat

Great thread!

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is just a fabulous work of art. Probably one of my favourite books of all time. Don't be put off by the abysmal movie made of the book (The Haunting), - the Jackson book really is a horror classic, and beautifully written.

Anything by Lovecraft - enough said!

I'd second the Poppy Z. Brite rec. I've loved her work since I was a teenager, and her short stories are fantastic. The best collection, IMO, is the first one, Swamp Foetus (which you might find as the renamed Wormword - apparently some people took offence to the 'Foetus' part of the title). Out of all the novels I've read so far, I'd say Drawing Blood was my favourite, although I have a weird old soft spot for the utterly gruseome Exquisite Corpse. She's since moved away from horror writing, but I have her most recent book on order, as I adore her writing style - she seems to have matured beyond the overly lush prose.

I'd agree with the Rice opinions: the first few books of the Vampire Chronicles were good fun, but she's spiraled into a pit of un-edited cheesy doom, and I just can't read her work anymore: it reads like a complete parody to me. (OT: did y'all read her outburst on Amazon? Heh.)

I'll pick up House of Leaves this weekend, as everyone has been telling me to read it.

humanji

I agree with most of you who have already said about anything by HP Lovecraft. And I'd also have to recommend "Fear Nothing" by Dean Koontz. It really scared the s@#* out of me. It's about a guy who suffers from XP (that's an allergy to sunlight, not the operating system!) trying to uncover a bizarre conspiracy in his home town. REALLY freaky at times.
And although most people here seem to have a dislike for Stephen King, he did do some good stuff. Granted he has a problem that most of his books start of brilliantly and draw you in only to peeter out towards the end. But his early work is pretty good and have some moments that still give me nightmares.

gogo

gogo wrote:

I unfortuantley, am a Stephen King fan, but like doonothing says above I wonder now if this is childhood thing,
gogo

Jeez, I hate to quote myself but, I'm in the middle of the Dark Tower at the moment, and I'm loving it. So maybe stephen king isn't a childhood thing after all, while its not really that scary, it is damn good. Juat had to retract that previous statment.

doonothing

argh.
i really want to get my hands on haunting of hill house and house of leaves but i cant find them anywhere...
any suggestions of a good bookshop that would have them?
thanks a million...

jill_valentine

I've only ever seen HoL in... argh, what's the bookshop opposite Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street? And The Haunting.... I had to order. If you're a regular at a bookshop, they'll be happy to order it in for you.

Mr. Fancypants

House of Leaves is in Waterstones on Dawson St.

I picked up Haunting of Hill House in a Oxfam Books store in Rathmines for €3

Vamp IRL

Great thread I use to read a lot of horror King ,Laymon,Herbert ect. but got side tracked by Vampire books Rice and Hamilton some good tips on this thread I'm going to check out thanks for reviving my horror bug