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What are your favorite books in the horror (or horror-adjacent) genre?
I'm always looking recommendations for my next read. I haven't read many "pure" horror books this year, but I would like to recommend The Raw Shark Texts and The Library at Mt. Char. The former especially leads to some great discussions between readers.
I'll be the one to inevitably bring up House of Leaves. It's a real shift to read that book, but if you do it properly it's really an immersive and visceral experience. I'd love to see a film adaptation one day, but it would be so hard to get it right. Maybe David Lynch could do it...
Funny enough, I learned about this book through a youtube video about a doom map (wad) called myhouse.wad, which is heavily influced by this book
Seemed to be an interesting concept and I am a sucker for this type of mind bending space time stories so I ordered the printed book right away (instead of getting on kindle).
If you look at @mat's submissions I believe he shared that here not long ago, and there may have been discussion on it? (I opted out of the thread because this book is on my reading list).
this topic here
The wad in question doesn't really have spoilers for the book but if you are particularly spoiler averse (I am) still worth avoiding.
It's definitely the type of book you want to experience in print. Kindle would not be the same at all.
I saw the very same video and was intrigued, I did learn about it from some Grimbeard video previously but didn't look it up until I saw that myhouse.wad video.
Same. I bought the book not really knowing what to expect, but figured it seemed interesting, and I've been reading it for a few days now. I don't read a lot of books anymore, it's usually hard for me for ADHD-y reasons, but House of Leaves is certainly overcoming that.
I'm not that far into it1 but I can already say I like it a lot. The structure is actually a large part of that, because the structure itself is a satire, meaning the structure on its own has substance. It goes further than that, though; the actual physical design of the book has substance: the physical design of the cover is clearly a reference to part of the book, the title page is written "in-universe", the verso (the copyright page) follows the same trend of highlighting a certain word every time it's written (a word that's part of the publisher's name and website domain)... the book had me hooked before I even started reading the introduction.
I've also been thinking I'd love to see a film adaptation, but so much of the book2 feels like it would be impossible to work into a film. There would certainly be ways to tell the stories in the book effectively, but capturing the experience... I don't know how you could capture the experience of this book in film without making an absolutely insufferable film (or TV show). I almost feel like it would work better as a video game, though I guess that just brings us back to the start of your comment, doesn't it?
1 It's hard to really assess how far I am, given the structure; I just finished reading a particularly long appendix, which is also the first time I think the book has directed me to actually read an appendix.
2 Like the footnotes.3 If you haven't read the book yet, but you're planning on, you'll know what I mean very early into it.
3 And don't forget the editor notes!
Yeah, THAT book won't work on kindle because a LOT is going on in print.
Footnotes, etc.. are almost half the story.
I should revisit this one. I'll admit I wasn't a fan, but I attribute that to the book being so hyped up as terrifying that my expectations were set incorrectly. That was nearly 10 years ago, so maybe I'll try again this year. Thanks!
I love that book so much, one of my all-time favorites. I bought a used copy from Amazon that was likely used for a college class (it has a rental sticker on the spine), and that honestly just added to the experience because of all the highlighted and underlined text I'd stumble upon. My only disappointment is that my copy didn't have colored text, and I think some versions do?
From what I know, one of the reasons there hasn't been a film adaptation (besides the highly meta nature of the book) is because people want to adapt the Navidson Record, the film inside the story. They don't want to include the framing narrative about Johnny, so the author rejects those requests. If anyone ever adapts it, it would likely be best done as a series rather than a film though.
I agree that a series would work best. Johnny's story is integral I think, so I'd want that as well as the navidson record.
My attention span hated this book. The concept was OK, but overall I felt it was too messy. Props for trying something different though.
I read House of Leaves as part of a mini book club with a friend of mine. We tried to keep up with each other and discuss each chapter as we finished them. It made the whole thing far more interesting as we could discuss the different clues we'd found or hidden messages. I found House of Leaves was a great experience, while just an okay novel. Johnny's plotline definitely dragged on and I'm not positive I'd have finished it without the discussion and puzzle solving I was doing with my friend. Anyone who is interested in it but struggled I'd highly recommend trying to refocus on it as a puzzle or investigation to solve and if possible join a book club or form one to discuss it.
Seems to be a Marmite book. You either love it or hate it.
I didn't see what all the fuss was about. As cool as it looks, the layout makes the actual reading of it a pain sometimes.
I dig the Lovecraftian themes, but it didn't blow my mind.
Does anyone remember The Enigma of Amigara Fault, a short horror manga occasionally posted on reddit? (If you haven't read it, please do!)
If you enjoyed that, and it was your only experience with Junji Ito, I can't recommend Uzumaki enough. While Ito has some great short story collections (and some may chime in with their favorites here), the stories in Uzumaki are more serialized, following the same characters in a loose narrative, with each chapter giving an inventive new twist to the same horrific theme: uzumaki means "spiral".
I recommend you avoid an image search if you don't want anything spoiled. I just love the way the whole thing escalates towards its insane conclusion, and it's definitely my fav of his many books.
As a major Junji Ito fan, I fully endorse this recommendation. I've been reading his works for years when you could only find fan translations for a majority of his works. The Wikipedia article on his "Flesh-colored Horror" volume is what spurred my love of horror manga.
Uzumaki is likely his best work, and it really sticks with you after finishing it. It's one of the few manga I've reread multiple times. And since then he's refined his craft even further and mastered creating chilling atmospheres. Even something as simple as a full-page of a grimacing man sent chills down my spine, that drawing honestly oozes a visceral hatred.
The one warning I have for people who want to read his works: beware the story Grease/Glyceride. That one is just gross and will likely kill your appetite. The page in question also tends to come up in searches for his name. It's included in the "Shiver" collection, and is the primary reason I don't want to buy that volume. Just don't want to risk opening to that page.
I have to agree - it has the most repulsive, imaginative uses of acne you'll never want to see again. Which is why you should check the story out here! :D (NSFW)
Warning: They're right, you won't be able to unsee one of the pages. And I'm sorry u/CannibalisticApple for putting you within a click of it! But you did bring it up :)
While Junji Ito's focus is usually inventive body horror, I agree that it's usually not this squicky.
Seconded.
Junji Ito has a very vast imagination and pushes the boundaries of what you think horror might encompass. Even if you'd prefer a more standard "novel" approach to written horror I would recommend giving him a try. He has some longer serialized works like Uzumaki and Gyo but plenty of anthology style pieces as well. And also, tangentially related, a slice of life about his cats.
Oh wow, that is intriguing. Thank you for the rec!
The Fisherman by John Langan
https://www.goodreads.com/bg/book/show/29901930-the-fisherman
It's a horror story that explores the themes of grief, loss, and redemption in the midst of terror. I don't know how to explain the weird way it made me feel, but it is a top 10 book for me.
What a great read, honestly. Beyond the themes you mention (which really are what make the book as great as it is), the connections to real-world lore and folktales are a major draw for me. And using the desperation of loss as leverage into those old cultural stories is very powerful.
Yes! Those stories told while doing some mundane outdoor activity really make an impression. Regional folklore scares me so much! I know it was a bear or a sick man but I once drove past a hulking and furry animal(?) that was walking down the side of the road in the middle of the night. Matched up with local tales. I'll never forget it! It really looked like a small bigfootesque creature. This story is just like that night for me.
I came here to recommend this! An extremely haunting novel.
"Haunting" is a perfect word to describe it. I love hiking, and sometimes I find myself at the bank of a creek or body of water in the forest. The story comes back to me in flashes and half-memories that are not my own.
Welp I saw some kind of weird nautical theme and the tag “lovecraftian” and I was sold. Just downloaded. Thanks for the rec!
It's so good. I'm going to read it again right now!
Sounds interesting. Any particular reason the comments on goodreads are all in Russian?
Not a clue. I just put them back in English.
Okay gotcha. I was just wondering if it had a following in Russia, haha.
It might. I looked him up, and he is American.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Langan
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. Very similar to IT, at least with the premise of a group of children being the main characters encountering very old horrors.
If you like more slow, creeping, Lovecraft inspired horror, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is also great.
Lots of Dan Simmons is good horror. Drood (historical fiction about the final days of Charles Dickens), The Terror (historical fiction about the final destination of the HMS Terror and HMS Erebus), Carrion Comfort (psychic vampires), Children of the Night (scientifically-explained regular vampires).
Even his science fiction (the Hyperion cantos and Ilium & Olympos) carries shades of horror.
Thanks for the recommends! Summer of Night is for sure up my alley. Very excited to give it a go.
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is a classic.
Fond of a lot of unsettling Borges works like Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius or Funes the Memorius.
My all-time favorites are Rosemary's Baby, Let the Right One In, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, although I think you could argue they're all more about love & human connection than horror.
If you're into weird stuff and don't mind a good deal of ambiguity, I also really adore Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami and John Ajvide Lindqvist's Places trilogy, starting with I Am Behind You.
I do like Stephen King/Richard Bachman and would recommend Duma Key, The Regulators, Desperation, and The Long Walk as underrated/overlooked gems.
I'm doing a horror reading challenge this year, and more recent favorites include:
I just finished the audiobook of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and it was fantastic. The narrator did the perfect voice for Merricat, all the characters really, and it made it brilliantly immersive. I usually prefer to read horror over listening, but this one really grabbed me
Good to know, thank you! I'm picky about my audiobooks but will definitely give this one a go next time I want to revisit it.
We Always Lived in the Castle is fantastic. It stayed with me for quite some time.
It reads like a ghost story, but it is not one.
Anything by Shirley Jackson. I listened to the audiobook of Haunting of Hill House last summer - it was fantastic. It was everything I wanted in a chilling summer book. It was narrated by David Warner, who passed away just a short time after I listened to the book; he added so much to the text through his performance. 100/10, absolutely recommend.
I'll go ahead and be the first to mention Stephen King's The Stand. An absolutely fantastic read from start to finish - but I made the mistake of starting it about a month before Covid started.
I can't speak to the original abridged version (the book apparently needed to be shortened to fit in in one volume on its original release because of the physical limitations of the printer's hardware), but I can say the unabridged version that I read was amazing.
The Stand is my favorite book of all time. I was enthralled. Another one of King that I read in one sitting because I couldn't put it down was The Long Walk. Something about it has stuck with me.
I'd love to see an adaption, but the right director needs to be attached to tell this story.
My boyfriend recommended this one to me when Covid first hit, just for that reason. So in addition to loving the book, it was a nice parallel.
COVID put a very abrupt end to the year-long post-apocalyptic obsession I had. I has basically found every "read these books if you like Fallout" blog post out there and started reading everything. Then it just got waaaay too real. One of these days I'll get around to reading The Stand though.
I read the unabridged version on my kindle, and I was shocked to see how big a book it actually is. I flew right through it and would have enjoyed more of the story after it ended. Great book.
Stephen King wrote an additional bit of ending for
character name hidden
Frannie
in the Paramount+ series that came out last year that adds a bit to their character and helps wrap up that story.
Oh awesome, I didn't know that. How did you like the show, by the way?
Generally reviews were mixed, and it has a couple problematic actors in it that people might take issue with, but all-in-all I really enjoyed it. Also, it was nice getting to share the story with my wife, who'd never sit down to a thousand-page book.
My only gripe was that they kind of glossed over the first half of the book in order to speed straight into the second half. I understand why they did it - the show was actually delayed due to the pandemic - but the first half of the book was my favorite part, especially getting to read all the "road trips."
This was one of the first Stephen King books I read and is by far one of my favorites. The book is pretty long, but it is worth it since King builds up the characters so well. It's a perfect mix between horror, action, and drama. There's also some eerie similarities between the pandemic in the book and the COVID pandemic.
My favorite is Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. I read it every October. It may not be the “scariest”, but it is definitely the most “Halloween” moody book I have read in a long time. Always gets me in the spooky spirit!
this is my favorite also. I read almost exclusively Stephen King growing up, and absolutely loved Salems lot and pet sematary. last year i got back into reading and picked up salems lot again and absolutely loved it
I usually have a hard time being genuinely scared by horror stories. However, Stephen King's Misery managed to make me feel physically uncomfortable. The intense sense of dread for the protagonist is a constant presence throughout the entire book, turning it into a real page-turner. In my opinion, the psychological horror presented in the story is second to none. Which is kinda funny, when you consider it is a pretty mundante premise (psycopathic nurse lol).
I feel the exact same way. It's difficult to get engrossed in any horror novel and really feel it because somewhere in my mind I know there is no real danger. Misery has been sitting on my shelf for a while, maybe its time to pick it up. Thanks!
Adding a class, Koji Suzuki's 1991-1998 original Ringu trilogy.
It changes pace a few times, especially in the third book which is more a SciFi Thriller than a horror book (and I'll admit I've not read the newer books like S). But in particular the first two are wonderful horror novels. Can recommend!
I should add that not knowing Japanese, I read the German translation. I can't guarantee English translations are good, tbh. 🤔
I am a huge King fan, and I already see Salem's Lot and The Stand being recommended so I'll go for something a little different. This is more horror comedy, but the John Dies at the End series is great. It's very Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy mixed with H.P. Lovecraft. If you like horror and either like, or at least not turned off by, some crude humor I would recommend them.
I didn't know that was a book. How embarrassing. Thank you for the rec!
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy mixed with H.P. Lovecraft. That is absolutely going on my to read list.
Perhaps not quite as horror as some of the others mentioned here, but I feel it deserves a mention: The Changeling by Victor LaValle. I would, perhaps, classify it more as a mystery or thriller, but it certainly has some horrific sequences (if you know, you know). LaValle's writing style in this is great, I feel and the main character really feels alive. I identified with a lot of his ambitions while I was reading and felt his pain throughout the story. If you're an audiobook fan, this is one of very few "read by the author" books I would recommend. LaValle has a nice reading voice and expressed his characters very well. Being the author, he also had a gauge for which story beats needed some extra flair, which made the experience all the more immersive.
Thanks, I'm definitely going to give this one a go! I listen to audiobooks at work, so I'm in constant need of new ones.
Exactly what I was looking for, just got it on audible. Thank you.
I'm not sure what my favorite of all time would be, but favorite this year would be Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims.
It's a reimagining of a classic haunted house story, taking place in a modern apartment complex divided by wealth. I'm a sucker for short stories with a surrounding story connection and this was a great take on that. Each chapter is a different person on a different floor of the apartment. It's very much a modern story, taking on the concepts of current life such as AI assistants and single parents while also having elements of current societal issues like poverty and conspicuous consumption / mass wealth. I have to admit it didn't perfectly stick the landing on the ending, but I found each mini-narrative good enough on their own to still give it a thorough recommend.
Also, for those who may know, this author is that Jonathan Sims of The Magnus Archive fame.
I wondered if that was the same Jonathan Sims! Excellent, will definitely check this out, thank you.
You have no idea how timely this thread is for me. I just started getting into the horror genre with my (future) brother in-law, so i only have 1 book that I've read at this point: Between Two Fires. It's a medieval "horror" book (quotes because its really not too scary, reads a little more as fantasy to me than horror but still very good!) It has themes of redemption, comeuppance, and innocence in a world of violence.
I'll be grabbing a slew of books from this thread within the next month to check out. House of Leaves intrigues me the most at this point!
Glad this thread is helpful to you! I visited r/horrorlit a lot for recommendations, and I am going to miss it. Was hoping to get something started in the same vein around here.
Also, Pet Sematary is a good read. I didn't find it particularly scary, but it does make you think and feel a lot of things. Salem's Lot as well. Basically, King has a lot of great reads to start off with.
I don’t know if I would call it “favourite” because it was so devastating, and I hesitate to recommend it, but if we’re talking the horror which stayed with me and affected me the most, I have to say Pet Semetary by Stephen King. I think it’s his best written work - it’s visceral and achingly sad and an incredible insight into the human condition.
I don’t want to give spoilers, but I will advise not to read it if you currently have preschool aged children.
I have a pretty vivid imagination, and sometimes scenes from books will flash across my mind. The one from this I get frequently, which I think anyone who has read it will remember, is the seemingly innocuous: “Louis rocked his son”
Have you read The Road? That book stuck with me more than any other. I felt devastated for like a week after finishing it.
I haven’t! I think it’ll be a while before I want to be that devastated again, but I’ll remember The Road if and when I’m ever ready
Yeah, I can't reread Pet Sematary until my kids are grown, if ever.
I think it’s a never again for me! I first read it in my mid-teens. Reading it this year with a 5 and 3 year old was a very different experience. I can’t say I would have done anything differently to Louis, and that’s really what’s most terrifying about the book
Exactly. Read it in my teens, re read in my twenties and early thirties. Now I have a 9 and a 5 year old.
Many great recommendations here, thank you. I'll add two more, best known for their multiple movie adaptations, but excellent in their own right: Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and Koji Suzuki's Ring, which develops in quite a surprising way in the sequel Spiral. Even if you've seen the movies, the books are deeper and engaging.
Slade House by David Mitchell. It's short but sweet and even more enjoyable if you're into the overarching story of Mitchell's universe (which you don't have to be, it's a perfectly fine stand-alone story).
I love Steven King’s short story collections and read through them around Halloween.
“Skeleton Crew” was the first I read and remains a favorite. They’re a great option for anyone who doesn’t want to commit to a long read but enjoys King’s style of writing. Of the stories in that collection, “The Raft” still sticks with me years later, as well as an edited version of “The Mist” that it leads off with.
Just read his newer collection “If It Bleeds” last October, less gruesome but some great creepy stories!
I will always recommend Blindsight by Peter Watts with requests like this.
Not strictly horror, but makes up for it with space Vampires and existential crises.
I'm a big fan of HP Lovecraft, and my two favourite stories are The Temple, and The Rats in the Walls. They're short, and can be read in under an hour each. Every time I read about the protagonists' descents, in sends a chill down my spine.
As a brief content warning, The Rats in the Walls contains racist slurs.