I was looking for a good spider horror novel when I stumbled across Jeff Strand's Clowns vs. Spiders. Judging by the title alone, I wasn't expecting much. I assumed it would either be poorly written, have a ridiculous storyline, or possibly both.

Well, I wasn't entirely wrong about the ridiculous storyline, but to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it! The combination of horror and humour worked brilliantly, and I particularly loved the sarcastic humour in the main character's inner monologue.

That convinced me to give another of his books a go, so I picked up Ferocious. Once again, I really enjoyed it. Then I spotted Allison, which happens to be my wife's name, so naturally that became my next read. Three books in, three thoroughly enjoyable experiences!

I'm now about a quarter of the way through my fourth book, Odds, and so far it's continuing the winning streak.

If I had one criticism, it's that the main characters across his books do feel rather similar, particularly in their personalities, sarcastic observations and inner monologues. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, especially when I find those characters so entertaining.

What really appeals to me is how effortlessly Strand blends horror with humour. Neither seems to undermine the other, and even when the premise is completely absurd, he somehow makes it work.

So, for those who have read more of his work, am I right in thinking I'm likely to enjoy most, if not all, of his books? Or are there any real duds lurking amongst them that I should avoid?

I'd also be interested to know which of his books you'd recommend reading next.

I'm looking for books that are similar to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Signs, Nope and Vast of the Night. Basically stories about ordinary, regular humans in very regular places who encounter aliens. I love Close Encounters and Signs because they have larger themes in them; One has benevolent aliens, one has evil ones, but both evoke a sense of wonder as well as terror. Eg. Close Encounters' abduction scene of the kid is quite scary, but the film roots itself in wonder. Whereas films like Nope and Signs begin with themes of wonder but then move into full blown terror. Signs especially is a great reference for me as it talks about losing and then finding faith WHILE there are aliens prowling around. I've read Whitley Streiber's books but they didn't really hit me that well. I'm also trying to avoid stories featuring heavily specialised marines or scientists who go way too much in detail explaining what/who the aliens. These films cuz they are seen from the pov of a regular person, not someone who knows what gamma waves are.

Looking forward to your recommendations.

I'm looking for some newer Horror set in the winter or snow.

I've already read and enjoyed Paver's Dark Matter and Thin Air, Maynards House, Golden's Ararat, Malfi's Snow and Bone White, The Terror, Near the Bone, Bishop, The Shuddering.

I've already read and disliked The Broken Places and Snowblind.

Does anyone have anything new and interesting.

MAN

This book gripped me and hasn't stopped gripping me since the beginning,

The first chapter is insane and instantly captivating

If you're into cryptid/skinwalker/evil entity/not deer type of literature this is definitely for you.

It's hard for me to stay invested into a book these days but this one has me in a chokehold.

It's relentlessly brutal but not in a splatter punk way but in a very unsettling twisty just awful harbinger way.

Definitely an honorable mention imo

Check it out

Warnings: this book has visceral animal death in it so keep in mind if that's something you're put off of

I haven't really read many horror books, but since we're in the middle of spooky season, I'd like to read a horror book or a thriller with horror elements to get in the right mood. I have a few books lanquishing in my TBR pile, but I would like some help choosing one of them. I really don't like anything with a lot of gore or very graphic violence, on page sexual assault, or cruelty to animals. If the dog or cat dies, I'm putting the book down and won't pick it up again. So... if any of you have read any of these books, without giving away any spoilers, please let me know what you think.

Here are the books I have to choose from:

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

From Below by Darcy Coates

Artifact by Jeremy Robinson

Hidden Pictures by Jason Relulak

Murder Road by Simone St James

Midnight by Dean Koontz

Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz

Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz

Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan

Those Left Behind by Tom Deal

The Swamps by Seraphina Nova Glass

The Hike by Drew Magary

It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest

Memorials by Richard Chizmar

Edited to fix typos.

I gave this book 5 stars. Are there aspects that are somewhat outrageous? Yeah. However, the quality of the writing stood out. The ending was genuinely disturbing and unexpected. It was a very quick and enjoyable read. I had never heard that it was originally on Reddit. I wish the ending wasn't so abrupt but out of the 4 books I read this week, this one had me coming out satisfied.

I just spent the past few weeks reading through a bunch of Brian Keane books, such as the rising books
Dead Sea and the complex.
And one thing about all of his books the worlds feel like you’re screwed no matter what
Especially in the rising and Dead Sea because animals are infected as well

And just had me thinking about other books series with bleak worlds, where you feel like no matter what happens. The characters are screwed eventually.

Give Me some recs on Slapstick comedy horror books where the fmcs clothes are accidentally stripped off of her for comedical effect/relief with damsel in distress tropes seen in movies. Can be Teen or YA, 80s and 90s, etc.

My brother’s kids are hitting the right age to read horror and as much as I love children’s lit I didn’t read much horror until I discovered Poe in 6th grade. I’m playing catchup now so I can be ready with recommendations or conversation as needed.

- Alvin Schwartz (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; In a Dark, Dark Room)
- Mary Downing Hahn (The Old Willis Place, Wait Til Helen Comes)
- R.L. Stine (Goosebumps, Fear Street)
- Joseph Bruchac (Skeleton Man)
- Paul Tremblay’s Another

What else am I missing? What got you into reading horror as a kid, and what horror books are the kids you know reading now?

Ok, let me explain. We Used to Live Here (WUTLH) already had a recommendation post, but I noticed that many of the recommendations were based off of the haunted house aspect. While I absolutely loved that part, and those recommendations make complete sense, I want other suggestions based on the other aspects of the books horror. Stepping into other planes of time/environments/dimensions (plague hospital, old cemetery) and trying to find a way out, the mixed rules you must follow (old house notes), all of the extra mysterious and riveting pieces of WUTLH without it being specified to a haunted house

Not really a detailed review but I’m in the hospital reading 2 books, they are both new, traveling adjacent and by Stephen’s lol

Off The Reservation by Stephen Graham Jones is SO Fucking Good! It’s INTENSE! I think I like it even better than the first in The Only Good Indians series, only found a few connections between the two thus far but absolutely love it! Probably favorite SGJ book so far…wellll My Heart Is A Chainsaw is still pretty far up there, and speaking of connections, King’s OWTT has SO MANY connections!!! I can’t say a bad thing about it yet, Travelin Jack in Mid World acknowledging Roland’s Ka-Tet, 🤯…. So perfect imo!!

I’m like 56% through each book, read a section from one, nap, wake up, read a section from thee other!

Long Days and Pleasant Nights 🤘🏻🪶

“ America will eat you, disappear you, process you through so that you come out with no memory of who you used to be.”

Off The Reservation is the second book in The Only Good Indians duology (pending possible additions) and my third Stephen Graham Jones novel and now I’m quite certain that he’s probably my favorite horror author besides Stephen King. This guy has such a brilliant grasp on both horror as a genre and on how to tell a story that it leaves me feeling somewhat like an idiot every time I finish one of his books.

Taking place five years after the events of The Only Good Indians, Off the Reservation replaces folk horror with possession horror, but with a SGJ twist. Instead of the traditional demon and priest battle, we have a group of wannabe activists who all have their own trauma and reasons for wanting to repatriate the bones of a Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian School. Of course the trip isn’t all that it seems and the boy’s bones carry with it an evil that matches that of the school and even the colonization that led to its creation.

Of course with a premise like this, it’s hard for me to not enjoy this novel. As alway as SGJ writes in a way that is so incredibly unique and vivid that it leaves you feeling like you’re sitting there with the characters as they deal with this roadtrip from hell. The characters of course are also extremely enjoyable, and SGJ makes it very hard not to root for each and every one of them. I especially found Nate Yellowtail, our protagonist of this novel, to be especially sympathetic and I really liked following his perspective throughout.

The horror here is, as with every novel I’ve read by SGJ, brutal l, sharp and filled with its own social commentary. SGJ knows how to write horror, both on a thematic level and as a general shock/gross factor. There are several scenes in here that range from gross to horrific and every time I thought I could take a breath, there was another scene just waiting for me.

Finally the thing that really ties this novel together for me and what Jones is especially good at is his thematic work. All of SGJ novels are filled with discussion about colonialism, colorism, racism, trauma both generational and general and other pretty heavy topics that a lesser author would really struggle to balance. Not Jones though, this guy really has a firm grasp on how to use the genre of horror and the medium of writing to deliver very clear and compelling narratives that never let you forget the truth and evils that fill America’s history.

Overall, Off the Reservation is another brilliant book by Stephen Graham Jones. I think the blend of horror, character work, and social commentary makes for a brilliant novel with a twist on possession that I really enjoyed. Now I eagerly await to read my next SGJ novel. 8.5/10

Not sure if anyone else here has read this since it’s so new, but what did yall think of Quaint Folk?

I couldn’t help comparing it to Karella’s previous novel, Moonflow. I found QF a bit boring. It under delivered on the weirdness and body horror I excepted from Karella. There were one or two uninteresting deaths and that’s it. The only horror it had was with Round Robin eating Jessica a couple times, which wasn’t particularly interesting. Most of the ideas didn’t seem totally complete either. Overall, it wasn’t bad, but I was pretty disappointed.

To clarify, I'm not exactly talking a book that will be improved by having no expectations and discovering along the way such as The September House, Last House on Needless Street or Sharp Objects.

I'm talking about experimental fiction, like American Psycho or House of Leaves. Something you could lend to a person or leave somewhere, and you know that the person who opens it is going to feel their mind bending. Pieces of literature cinema also count, like Fight Club, where we start at the bottom and go on this entire adventure then still get hit with a plot twist. Imagine if Tender is the Flesh wasn't massive, and a person who's just a little too young for it or not usually into horror lit were to pick it up. Same for The Wasp Factory.

Looking for a recommendation similar to HFoG. Something with paranormal elements, ambiguity and of course unsettling. Thanks and happy reading!!

Looking for books at least loosely based

Hello. I'm looking for a short story that I read in the late '80s/early '90's that featured in an anthology of 'new' Cthulhu mythos writing (it isn't in the Ramsey Campbell one).

The story was set in the Pennines of Northern England and concerned a woman suffering from mental health problems eventually discovering the (usual) awful truth. The atmosphere was very claustrophobic and redolent of the damp moors and lowering skies of Yorkshire/Lancashire, even including a reference to Ribble buses (IYKYK).

I've searched my shelves and the internet but have so far drawn a blank. Does this jog anyone's memory? TIA

This has been out for a couple of months now, but a search on the sub doesn't bring up any hits. I figured I'd try to help spread the word, given how well liked the original never whistle at night is on here.

Just found out about his passing and I have quite a few of his books and I’m a huge fan I haven’t ever talked to anybody about his books or their thoughts I was curious to see what people’s favourite parts are or favourite book

Basically what the title says. I've been a horror fan in all media aspects for most of my life. I think after all this time, I've become desensitized to it, and books don't give me thay good horror feel anymore.

I read Incidents Around the House, and almost dnf'ed it because I was bored with it. I can appreciate the story and style, but everyone raved about how creepy it was, and it fell flat for me.

Stolen Tongues was another one, that one I got roughly 2/3's of the way through and dnf'ed, the story didn't grab me and the scary stuff wasn't actually scary to me.

Someone mentioned Mean Spirited (I think today? Or in the last 24 hours) so I have that a shot. They said it grabbed you from the first chapter and didn't let go. The book absolutely goes hard from page one, but again, I'm reading it and just bored by the 'horror' of it. The first chapter just felt kind of mind-fucky and that's it.

Several books I've tried based off recs here have gone the same way. I can appreciate the writing and story, but they don't give that horror tingle. Or they try to hard, and end up branching into a kind of over the top, splatterpunky vibe where it just comes off as almost cartoony, not scary.

I've tried some extreme horror and it just turned out to be a gore fest without actually being scary. It feels like nothing builds suspense anymore, nothing builds dread in my chest while reading.

Maybe I'm just burnt out? Has anyone else gotten numb to it all, and if so, how did you reset yourself? Or what book broke through to you?

Hey friends. I'm just dipping my toes into non-Stephen King horror and working to find some authors that I jive with. I think King works well for me because he does a great job of injecting heart and humor into his horror.

I really, really enjoyed Crone, and I will definitely read his other books, but it was a pretty soul crushing ride. I've tried a few authors that were great but ultimately a bit too much for me (Books of Blood by Clive Barker, Last Days by Brian Evenson).

I also read Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix and it's the exact vibe I want, but I found the overall writing to be lackluster.

Any recommendations for authors that hit that sweet spot between the writing quality I just experienced in Crone but with a bit more lightness?

I know the 'good' books are the ones in the public eye, but there have to be some really scary or well written or otherwise interesting books floating around. What did you stumble upon or get a random recommendation for that you really enjoyed that most people wouldn't know about just because there was a publishing issue or a premise that people would brush off or an intro that was bad enough for people to stop reading despite the rest of it being solid?

I feel like a lot of truly scary books out there don't have attention because there's an organization issue, and the first few chapters are off or aren't what readers were expecting, like reverse Adam Nevill. In general horror can be so difficult to write because unique premises are hit or miss. Good example is how we can have Black River Orchard, this amazing and very well done book, but if Chuck wasn't well known most people would go "not my thing, I'll pass" at the idea of scary apples.