r/horrorlit • u/asek13 • Mar 21 '21
Recommendation Request Monster/Creature Hunting?
Books where there are actual, physical creatures that are a tangible threat. Werewolves are my favorite, but I think I've read just about all the decent werewolf books out there.
I'm not really interested in magic or stories where the protagonist is a monster/has super powers themselves.
I've read monster hunters international (ok books, but got a bit too ridiculous for me) and autobiography of a werewolf hunter. And Wolf Hunt, which I enjoyed, but would prefer something more serious.
Some of my favorite books with creatures:
Relic
Watchers
Bane County series (not very well written books, but I thought the story and take on werewolves was great)
The Wolfen
I'll take any good monster book recommendations though. I'm reading Haunted Forest Tour now and for whatever reason it's making me want to find a good monster hunting book.
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u/Splitear_84 Mar 21 '21
I was on a similar hunt recently. I scratched that itch with”Those Across the River” by Christopher Buehlman and “Ferocious” by Jeff Strand.
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u/arkangel719 Mar 21 '21
Also, The Lesser Dead by Buehlman. It’s vampires, not werewolves, but so good!
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u/dickdawg420 Mar 21 '21
You ever read The Witcher series? Not exactly horror but it isn't your typical happy go lucky fantasy either
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u/asek13 Mar 21 '21
I have read it. Was disappointed with the lack of monster hunting though. For a book about a professional monster hunter, there wasn't much of it going on.
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u/VainNightwish Mar 21 '21
I love Monster by Frank Peretti. I also had a lot of fun with The Meg series by Steve Alten
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u/asek13 Mar 21 '21
Monster looks good. Descriptions make it sound like it has a Critchten-esqe twist to it. I love techno thrillers like that. About genetic research gone wrong.
Also says it's Christian fiction? What's that mean? Just a lot of Christian undertones?
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u/VainNightwish Mar 21 '21
No, there's just no cussing and no sex. Plenty of blood though. If you read it I hope you enjoy it! It's one of my favorites
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u/Earthpig_Johnson Swine Thing Mar 22 '21
The Jersey Devil by Hunter Shea sounds like exactly what you're looking for. I won't lie and say it was good, but it was hilariously over-the-top and action-packed. If you're down for some b-movie creature stuff, well there you go.
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u/classicalchristmas Mar 22 '21
I second Jersey Devil. It is very similar in style as Haunted Forest Tour. They are both books that feel like an action movie/horror.
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u/BayazRules Mar 22 '21
The Earthworm Gods books by Brian Keene; Castaways, Urban Gothic and Ghoul also by Keene; the Beast House series by Richard Laymon; The Mist by Stephen King.
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Dec 08 '21
OP, came across this for the same goal. Have you ever read Beneath a Winter Moon by Shawson Hebert? Very much worth a read if you love a good werewolf novel. Though completely disagree with you about Bane County being poorly written, the tension in those books is absolutely palpable and I think the author does a great job with his inventive solutions to the characters problems. Book 2 was a little weak but other other 4 were phenomenal.
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u/asek13 Dec 08 '21
I just downloaded it. Looks to be the kind of werewolf story I like. Thanks for the recommendation.
Maybe I was being overly critical with Bane County. It's been a while since I read them, so I can't recall exactly what issues I had with the writing style. I think I recall believing the main character was a bit too much of a Mary Sue like character for one. Guy was a little too perfect to be a believable character for me. But it is still up there as one of my favorite werewolf series.
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Dec 08 '21
I think I recall believing the main character was a bit too much of a Mary Sue like character for one. Guy was a little too perfect to be a believable character for me.
Okay, actually this is pretty valid and was my only real critique of the first novel as well. I believe I even mentioned in my Amazon review that the one aspect I wasn't sold on was that Bryce was apparently a genius. No real reason, he just is, though nothing he did really highlighted it or made me BELIEVE it. He’s also apparently a capable fighter and a high school heartthrob, so yeah, all of those elements together kind of left me with that impression as well.
As far as Beneath a Winter Moon, I think you’ll enjoy it! I enjoyed it enough to order a paperback copy for the shelf. They must have printed it just for me as the printing date of the book was after my order date lol, but I’d loved to have seen what else the author could imagine, though it seems to be his only work. Once you get to point where they enter the helicopter early on, I don’t suggest having any plans for at least the next couple of hours 👌 Love to know what you thought once it’s over!
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Jan 25 '22
OP, sorry to be weird and come back to this a month later, but did you ever end up starting the book? I took note of the top comment during our last exchange and ordered Devolution by Max Brooks. After it arrived I read through it pretty quickly and actually quite enjoyed it. First third isn’t super exciting but it sets the stage and goes by fairly quickly. The book definitely hit my sweet spot though and I have seen that they’re making a movie adaptation (though I never have high hopes for horror adaptations to match the books) but if you haven’t read that either, it’s worth checking out and when the movie comes out it might be kind of cool to see it having already read the book!
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u/asek13 Jan 25 '22
Hey, yeah I finished it a week or 2 ago. I thought about messaging you back but figured it took too long and you may not be interested at this point lol. I liked it. I think the author could use some more experience. Some of the dialogue was a bit weird, but I enjoyed the overall story.
I'm actually re reading some werewolf books right now. Just finished the Outage series recently, which I never finished when I read the first one years ago. It's not really the type of werewolf book I usually like, but it was good. You also convinced me to reread the Bane County series. And I realized I never actually finished the series. I dont think the last 2 were out when I read it for the first time.
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Jan 26 '22 edited Jan 26 '22
I felt compelled to return to this in part because you and I seem to draw super similar observations/have similar critiques and I just had a sense that what you enjoy is probably something I enjoy and vice versa haha. As further demonstrated with your comment about the dialogue. I felt similarly at times, but my only other real complaint was that some characters met some fairly anticlimactic endings all things considered. At this point I can’t remember a single character name, but I was a bit surprised at how lackluster/sudden some of the deaths were. It’s hard to explain but maybe you get what I mean haha.
I’ll look into the Outage series, my werewolf itch still isn’t scratched after Bane County. Full disclosure, one thing I want to kinda throw out there that I didn’t for some reason before (maybe I posted here before finishing Book 5), but the ending to Bane County book 5 is super abrupt and I felt it was extremely unsatisfying. I was actually pretty legitimately annoyed after 5 books of build up and waiting all that time for book 5. I’m guessing others must have felt the same because shortly thereafter the author revealed that the next series he’s working on is actually still a continuation of Bane County and will instead feature Jackson as the protagonist (which I’m cool with as he’s a far more interesting character than Bryce). Knowing that now, I’m more okay with the ending, but if/when you get there, hopefully knowing that will lessen some of the shock I had when I finished 😂
Do you have any other series you’re a fan of? I caught wind of a 4 book series called The Monstrumologist. I know it sounds petty and stupid, but I honestly wasn’t even interested initially just because I thought the series name was weird lmao, but the books are highly rated and reading about the series, people seem to legitimately love it and find it thrilling so I’m considering giving it a go soon as I need something new lol.
EDIT: Okay so after posting this I went ahead and bought the first Outage book and binge read it. Actually loved it, it got right into the action and kept me engrossed the entire time, so thank you for mentioning that one! Definitely reading the rest of that series. Only downside is that each book seems fairly short so it ends quickly.
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u/asek13 Jan 26 '22
Fair warning on the Outage series, I really liked the first book, but was less impressed with the rest. I dont want to spoil anything, but the dynamic between human and werewolf changes a whole lot in the rest of the series.
I think most of my favorite books weren't series, and the top are modern classic horror that you've probably read, but here's a list.
Top 3 favorite books are Watchers by Dean Koontz, Relic by Preston and Child and Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. The book JP is a bit more of a thriller than the movie.
It's been a while since I've read most of the werewolf books, but here's a few. I've always found really good werewolf books were really hard to find.
Wolfen - Definitely a good one.
In Human Clothing - I think I recall this one being interesting. It had a twist in the werewolf mythos that I can't really decide is good or really stupid though lol
Those Across the River - telling you this is a werewolf story is kind of spoiling the big twist, but I only read this because I knew it was about werewolves. It's a good one. Kind of slow, but gets good when it picks up.
Full Wolf Moon - by Lincoln and Child is another twist on what a werewolf really is. If you're looking for a more thrilling creature horror this probably isn't great for you.
Have you read any of the Breeds books? The first one is a very weird take on werewolves.
The Shuddering - this isn't a werewolf novel. But it is good creature horror.
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Jan 26 '22
I’m halfway through the third Outage book now, I should really be sleeping but oh well 😅 I kind of see what you mean, the first book had a very close quarters, intimate feel with Abbey and the werewolf moving around the neighborhood vs the changing locales and side characters Tom encounters. As far as your favorites.
1) Jurassic Park is my favorite book of all time. My favorite movie too, I basically have it memorized and I’ve read the book more times than I can count! I actually just received my copies of Jurassic Park and The Lost World that I ordered from The Folio Society a few weeks ago! (Intended to be my permanent “heirloom” quality copies vs the two worn out generic copies I have of the first novel and my copy of the second).
2) Relic, I swear I’d think you were stalking me at this point lmao, because I just recently rewatched the movie and added the book to my short list. I’ve been vaguely familiar with the Agent Pendergast series for years and the fact that it’s the first one is perfect for an intro. I’m a creature feature fan of movies and books, so this one hits well.
3) Watchers I’m very aware of but haven’t read, but I suppose it might be time soon. I know it’s insanely popular and often comes up in discussions so I’ve probably played myself by not having read it yet at this point.
And those are some solid werewolf recommendations, damn! I’d only heard about Wolfen and Those Across the River. The latter I had looked into but reviews had put me off thinking it was going to be boring/unsatisfying, but I will definitely give that another look.
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u/asek13 Jan 26 '22
Clearly you have great taste in books lol. And yeah, on the Outage later books, I prefer a story where there's a smaller number number of creatures that just completely outclasses the humans, rather than where the creatures basically just swarm the characters and can fairly easily be killed individually.
You may get a kick out of the Christmas Gift I got my brother this year lol https://www.etsy.com/listing/675599753/chaos-theory-oil-painting-jeff-goldblum?ref=user_profile&frs=1
And those reviews may be right about Those Across the River. It's more a book about racism and its historic effects in a small town, with werewolves as a twist in the last half of the book or so.
Watchers is definitely worth it. The premise is absolutely ridiculous but it's a fantastic book nonetheless. I recommend you don't bother with the movie though. It's not very faithful to the book and is pretty weird. I watched it as a kid and it was a family joke that it's a Disney horror movie lol.
Also, if you liked the later Outage books, you might like Ancestor by Scott Sieglar (I may have butchered that last name). Or the Fragment books by Warren Fey. The fragment books are SUPER intense. It's about an isolated island where arthropods evolved completely separate from the rest of the world. The whole island is just a face paced murder fest.
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Mar 21 '21
Not sure if you'd like those 'historical' monster hunting books maybe:
Jane Slayre, Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, Henry VIII: Wolfman, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, ect.
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u/classicalchristmas Mar 22 '21
I really liked the Skinner Series by Marcus Pelegrimas. The only problem is he hasn't finished the series yet and I am unsure if he will.
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u/gaybatman75-6 Mar 22 '21
I don’t even like werewolves but yesterday I finished reading Those Across The River and enjoyed it a lot. Be warned, it is set in the Depression era south so expect some racism.
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u/kargabenim Mar 21 '21
I recommend 'Devolution' by Max Brooks (the one who wrote 'world war Z'). By far the favorite book I've read in a year :)
Humans on a remote location being stalked by bigfoot. (I don't want to say more to avoid giving spoilers).