Horror novels , anybody ?

madison 1

I love to read horror novels, aswell as watching the filims and anything to do with ghosts and the paranormal.
I think i have read Stephen Kings books back and front, my favourite has to be the filim ' IT ' , can any body even remember the filim ?
When i was a kid i loved the filim Beetlejuice, i watched it so much the tape broke. I was hearth broken.
If you have the same passion for horror, tell me what else i can read, cos im plum out of ideas and book to.
Tell me your toughts !

Etain

I love Horror novels and movies!
IMO some good writers are; Clive Barker, F. Paul Wilson(especially"The Keep" which was also made into a movie),and Dean Koontz( just read "Odd Thomas" it was very good and a quick read). I just recently found a book by Rodman Philbrick "Coffins". It was good. I will certainly look for his other work. Anne Rice's Taltos (or Mayfair) series was pretty good too. I'm sure there are many others, these were the names that just came to me at the moment.

spooky donkey

James Herbert, or was it frank herbert. I alyways get rats and Dune mixed up anyway. But I like all the herbert sick horror boocks. the way he describes death. Though i mostly read sifi these days. I perfer horror in films anyway, but then thats just me!

pauldeehan

Richard Laymont is peverse and morbid.
I was a huge Stephen King fan for a while but it's been maybe 2 years since I read one of his books.
Dean Koontz's collection of short stories (Can't remember the name) had some real great tales.

I do enjoy short stories a bit more, they usually have a sting or a good idea.

Kernel

Nobody has mentioned one of my favourites... HP Lovecraft. Get a collection of his short stories (*NOT* the dream quest of unknown Kadath) and you should enjoy the athmosphere he creates. His style of prose can seem a little archaic and stifled, but he's great once you get used to it.

Fysh

Kernel wrote:

Nobody has mentioned one of my favourites... HP Lovecraft. Get a collection of his short stories (*NOT* the dream quest of unknown Kadath) and you should enjoy the athmosphere he creates. His style of prose can seem a little archaic and stifled, but he's great once you get used to it.

Lovecraft is great, but what didn't you like about Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath? I liked it quite a lot because it was a bit more fantastic than his other material and somewhat different. Mind you, I could never pick a favourite Lovecraft story, they're all so damn good...

For those of a more sci-fi orientation, Frank Belknap Long was a contemporary of Lovecraft's who apparently wrote material in a similar vein, but with a more sci-fi orientation. I've only read "The Hounds Of Tindalos" though - it was quite good in terms of Lovecraftiness, down to and including the extremely vague description of the monstruous horror the story revolves around .

Tusky

Clive Barker is good if you have the stomach for it.

Crash

Clive Barkers great, however there were a few shorts of his in the books of blood that were actually almost too twisted for me - and thats saying something

Tusky

crash_000 wrote:

Clive Barkers great, however there were a few shorts of his in the books of blood that were actually almost too twisted for me - and thats saying something

I know what you mean....it truely is as twisted and dark as it gets.

kenmc

King and Laymon are my favourite horror writers. Snap up all that I can get of them. Read koontz also, as well as whatever else I stumble across. If you've never read any Laymon, i recommend "flesh" as the first one - scared the crap out of me way back when...

Kernel

Fysh wrote:

Lovecraft is great, but what didn't you like about Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath? I liked it quite a lot because it was a bit more fantastic than his other material and somewhat different. Mind you, I could never pick a favourite Lovecraft story, they're all so damn good...

Oh, don't get me wrong Fysh, I also enjoyed the dream quest, but wouldn't recommend it to Madison if he hasn't read Lovecraft before, as I remember trying to read that book before reading other Cthulhu mythos stories, and it was hard to follow and to understand.

When I went back to the book, I did enjoy it, as a fantasy/surreal experience. For a Stephen King fan, whose style of writing is so easy to read and follow, Lovecraft may not be as accessible, so better for him start on the Mountains of Madness and Charles Dexter Ward stories first!

Xcom2

Stephen King:scared the **** out of me for year's but I think he has gone off the boil lately.

Clive Barker:scared the **** out of me for year's and still does.The book's of blood were brilliant and who can complain about the man who brought us Hellraiser even if the sequel's suck.Cabal and The great and secret show are great book's.

Richard Laymon:Savage,Endless night and Quake are great book's but I must admit I have read Island 5 time's.Pity he died!

James Herbert:is one twisted man! He has the ability to arouse you and repusle you on the same page.The Fog is brilliant and Rat's,Lair and Domain is probably the best trilogy ever!

I could go on writing this for hour's but if you want to read horror fiction read any of the above or these,

Guy N Smith
Dennis Wheatley
Edgar Allan Poe
Dean Koontz
H P Lovecraft
Brian Lumley

X

garred

Yeah SK is the man. Also like Laymon and StrauB. Did good version of IT for screen.... watched the other night actually and Pennywise the clown, eventhough its dated now still gives me the shivers. They all float down here. :eek:

boobookitty

Is anyone selling Richard Laymon books? I really want to buy some.

Otis Driftwood

Pretty sure I have a few I would be willing to part with.Just PM me.

Ann22

Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot' is the scariest book i've ever read. I was too petrified to go down the stairs at night for a drink of water weeks after i read it and me a grown woman! I enjoyed 'Gerald's Game', 'Misery' and 'insomnia. I love the way he links up his stories like in 'Insomnia' the main character Ralph Roberts hears about a little boy Gage Creed who is killed in an accident nearby(the little fella from 'Pet Cemetary'. In 'Bag of Bones' the main character meets an old man in a cafe Ralph Roberts who is having trouble sleeping-cool!
'The Exorcist' was a very disturbing read for me. I was very jumpy for ages after reading that one!
James Herbert is good too. 'The Rats' trilogy were the first horror books I ever read. 'Shrine' was deadly too. His recent one 'The Secret of Crickley Hall' was a really good ghost story.
Thomas Harris' 'Silence of the Lambs' series is also well worth a read.

boobookitty

nedtheshed wrote: »

Pretty sure I have a few I would be willing to part with.Just PM me.

I PMed you. :O

spooky donkey

I just finished a Clive barker caled the damnatoin game. I think it was his first horror novel and it was very good. One of the lesser known ones me thinks.

Ann22

I read some of the Clive Barker Books of Blood. Boy is he disturbed:eek:!All stories about guts all over the place. This man's hands became possessed and kept trying to strangle him.:D There was this freaky one about a finger poking out of a plughole in this fella's sink. No one saw it except him. It kept popping out and tapping away. It grew longer and longer and he ended up sawing it up with a chainsaw.At least I think that one was Clive Barker-I could be mixing it up with one of Stephen King's short stories.

niallon

Ann22 wrote: »

I read some of the Clive Barker Books of Blood. Boy is he disturbed:eek:!All stories about guts all over the place. This man's hands became possessed and kept trying to strangle him.:D There was this freaky one about a finger poking out of a plughole in this fella's sink. No one saw it except him. It kept popping out and tapping away. It grew longer and longer and he ended up sawing it up with a chainsaw.At least I think that one was Clive Barker-I could be mixing it up with one of Stephen King's short stories.

That's King alright, from Nightmares and Dreamscapes I think. Love that story!

oponodon

"I am legend" by richard matheson. Its way different to the movie, though both are good.

I actually bought two volumes of stories by H.P. lovecraft in waterstones in the jervis centre lat week, only four euro each. If your passing, its a great bargain. Ive read "Dagon" and am almost finished "at the mountains of madness." I like his style, although I find his descriptions a bit long.

keefg

Shaun Hutson is also worth a look. His back catalogue is a mix of horror & gritty ganster novels (some, with a twist)

ilkhanid

Clive Barkers "Weaveworld" is a fantastic read,and beautifully written.
But for my money one of the the finest horror novels ever written is Peter Straub's "Ghost Story". His "Julia","If you could see me now", and "Shadowland" are excellent books too.