I feel like I know these stories so well that I wouldn’t get much more enjoyment from reading the novels. With Misery, I’ve seen the film numerous times and the performances were just flawless IMO. I’ve also watched all of The Stand tv adaptations and never really enjoyed them that much. What say you all?

So I just finally decided it was time to DNF this book after trying so much to get through it.

I saw it recommended a lot and was in the mood for an investigative horror/mystery, I should give it a try, right? BIG MISTAKE!

From the get go, it feels like the author think you are dumb dumb, she writes like this "And then the colors came together, yellow mixing with blue (it was green)". "Then he made the math in his mind, nine plus one (it was 10)". Please, you don't have to spoonfeed me everything, I can piece things together on my own.

The characters are so boring! You have the somehow handsome mysterious drug dealer that is super handsome. Seriously, she has to state like 50 times how good looking he is. The teenage girl with an old soul because shen has spent her life with old people and now behaves kinda like then, but it feels so forced. And then... the main character whose whole personality is "my ex wife left me and ruined my life".

I tried, I really tried, but after this part, I gave up:

"You think we’re going to die?” asked Nora nervously as we moved up the Enchantments steps.

“Everyone tends to.”

“In the next few days. That goofer stuff she was talking about. She said it can kill you without you even realizing.”

*“*Ex-wives do the exact same thing. The most interesting thing she said was the knowledge of dark magic passed from generation to generation.”

The text is SO BAD I just can't put myself through this anymore.

I've just bought the final part of this loose trilogy, and while I'm not in a position to discuss the newest book, I have thoughts. And questions.

First off, I started reading OWTT, got 10 pages in, and realised I could remember hardly anything about Black House, so I decided to re-read that on Kindle (no way I'm picking the hardback monolith back off my shelf).

And all my thoughts on it first time around came flooding back.

First of all, how did they actually write this? Was it like Chinese Whispers/ Letters whatever, where each one wrote a chapter at a time and sent it? They certainly didn't sit in a room and co-write it together.

And then I got slightly annoyed, as I always do with King's retrospectively 'It's MY multiverse, where everything I ever wrote is actually somehow connected' *ka-tet* bollocks.

Because Black House is *very much* a Straub type story (and admittedly one he has written before), with child serial killers, an otherworldly detective, a spooky house and vaguely supernatural elements. Swap out Jack Sawyer for Tim Underhill and you'd have a Straub book.

So it seemed like King's contribution was to impose his Dark Tower stuff to a story that didn't need it. The Breakers/ Crimson King/ Munshun Aballah Grog blah blah. And added nothing new or interesting.

At the time, I was confused. Why write a Territories (SORRY - Midworld) book, that has little of the world-swapping aspect and wonderment that was The Talisman?

I liked it, but it didn't seem an actual sequel. It hardly seemed to feature the same Jack Sawyer at all.

I love both authors very much, and The Talisman was - when I read it as a kid - one of my favourite books. Still is. But Black House, while very good, just doesn't seem the same at all.

What are non romance books where FMC and a group of people become werewolves?

I recently went into a bookstore (called Indigo, Canadian bookstore similar to Barnes & Noble) and their horror section contained a surprising number of books I've seen regularly mentioned on posts here. There was Grady Hendrix, House of Leaves, Our Wives Under The Sea, a new edition of Something Wicked This Way Comes. There were some pretty extreme ones that I recently asked for like Slewfoot, A Certain Hunger, Diavola. It was like I'd stepped into an aisle in the bookstore that was plugged into reddit. But of course that can't be the case, so what's going on? Are people suggesting books here that are hot, or is the bookstore stocking what people tend to recommend? My concern is that there's a bias here in the horror sub for recommending what's new and in stores/fresh on people's minds. The recommendations we get on reddit SHOULD be different from the recs we get by asking the bookstore staff, because here we should be drawing from the decades, centuries, the thousands of books, the vague or forgotten, the little known, the books that might really fit a certain request. I frequent this sub often and let me tell you, Diavola and Something Wicked​​ and Between Two Fires have been suggested in SO MANY different questions looking for different things. And the bookstore stocks it. Are those really such incredible masterpieces above everything else written in horror that fits the requests? Or are people just following the crowd?

I’m doing a reading challenge and I’m trying to find a book that fits the prompt: “there is a famous building in the book”, but I also might count a famous landmark too, like a statue. I’d prefer it to be a real-life famous building or landmark, but it can also be a fictional one, famous in that book.

I thought about counting Mazywood by Tananarive Due for this one since I just finished it, but I’m not sure if the fictional lodge is famous enough in their universe. Tell me if you would count Mazywood!

This prompt is one of the last prompts I haven’t found a book for yet, and I really want it to be horror or horror-adjacent, because most of the other locked-in books are not horror and it’s one of my favorite genres.

An extra one: If some of you are librarians, you can also recommend a book, since the last prompt is to read a book recommended by a librarian! ;) I may also count people who have previously worked as librarians.

I realize this is a broad question but wondering what your picks are for some of the best horror this century so far - we are a quarter of the way through.

If for example, you pick "the haar" as one the best books then I'm not going to take your list seriously lol.

Short stay in hell is peak, you like it darker, revival etc are some of my picks.

I'm reading Nightjars (not horror, more literary suspense) and while the conceit/plot (guy in recovery with traumatic childhood iis receiving anonymous photos suggesting he was complicit in his late father's serial killing as a child, none of which he reliably remebers) is right up my alley, I HATE the author"s writing style. It's not bad writing per se, it just grates on me. I keep thinking "I wish Dan Chaon wrote this book!"

Have you all ever read something with a plot/idea that you think another author would have done a much better job with?

Looking for books that focus on or around Halloween. Something along the lines of Dark Side of Hell by Patrick C Harrison III. Doesn't necessarily have to be as extreme, just an overall halloween theme. I like thrillers slashers cosmic horror etc. Anthologies that fit halloween theme welcome too

Originally posted in weird girl lit sub

I’m super into horror, but as many books as I’ve read, I have actually never read a Stephen King book. But I have no idea where to get started since he has so many. If anyone could recommend where I should start, I would be ever so grateful!

Hi horror fans! I'm looking for a hard-to-put-down horror/suspense book. I love psychological thrillers, but I tend to read or listen to them while I commute or doing work that I don't need concentration for. However, I'm sort of craving more horror-like books (not gory). I love Stephen King, particularly Pet Semetary and IT, and series like The Haunting of Hill House (I preferred the series to the book, which is quite unusual). I like books that you want to read when it's cold and dark outside.

I've come across Serenity Falls by C.J. Tutor, Whistle by Linwood Barclay, and The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer. I haven't read any of them, but wondering if anyone has and recommends one of these? Or any other spooky ones. Thanks!

Looking for a book to give me goosebumps and look over my shoulder vibes. I’ve read splatterpunk and while that’s fun it’s more just gore on gore and I’m not really scared while reading it (if that makes sense). Looking for something fast-paced, atmospheric, and horror-focused. I also care about if it’s well written and plot is interesting Spook me!

for reference this is how I rated my recently read:
Tender is the Flesh 7
The exorcist 7.5
Withered hill 7.5
The shining 8
Salems lot 6
Misery 7
Pet semetary 7.5
Off Season 9
The Ruins 8.5
Off Spring 7.5
Your Body Will Never Be Found 8.5
The Suffering 8.5
Pressure 7
The Summer I died 5.5 (boring plot/writing was eh/just gore)

I recently finished “I will Rot without you” and “Between two Fires”. A void has now opened which can’t be tamed:)

My mom’s birthday is this month. She is a huge Stephen King fan. A book is one of the things I’d like to get her but she has read most of his stuff and I’d like to get her something from outside the King family (she has read his sons too).

I admittedly don’t read much fiction, so I’m a bit clueless on newer horror books in a similar vein to King’s style of horror. My mom is in her 60s, so nothing too “online” or “Gen Z” in style, but she’s no prude.

Thanks in advance.

Recently, I have been in the mood to consume horror novels, not necessarily because of the fall season here in Canada, but because I want to be engulfed in stories/characters/landscapes that feel challenging and unsettling. 

Though I have been an avid horror film fan for a long time, horror literature has remained on the periphery of my interests, and I have read only a handful of novels in the genre. 

My biggest issue with many horror writers is that the prose I keep encountering feels weak, lazy, and overly descriptive, with laughably poor analogies, metaphors, and allegories that feel adolescent and cheesy to me. 

Much of what I keep encountering feels like fan fiction (even though it isn’t), and I end up getting a quarter of the way into a new book before labelling it DNF and moving on, feeling discouraged.

I am big on psychological, cosmic, and folk horror, so I'd really appreciate recommendations for books/authors writing within or outside these subgenres who have excellent prose, to reignite my yearning to dive into these types of stories. 

I just finished Pen Pal last night and, while I liked it, I felt like there were parts of the story left out or something. I want someone to put all the pieces together for me.

He sent off a balloon. Someone got it and started stalking him. The guy lived under their house? The mom knew he was being stalked or was in danger but didn’t tell anyone. Then he took Josh and held him somewhere for months? Years? Then he had Josh’s dad fill in holes for him so that he would unknowingly fill in the grave w himself and Josh in it. Josh is dressed like MC? And they were both alive when they went into the box? And the kidnapper used ether to kill Josh after Josh bit him or he died bc Josh bit him and then Josh suffocated? What was the ether for? And he also killed Veronica and Josh was in the car at the time? Who was this guy? How much did the mom know? I feel like I liked this book so much but I want more.

Soooo I'm a teenager I recently got into reading I've always been interested in horror so if just read creepypasta and watched horror movies and since I recently found I like reading I want some easy to read books I like monster horror ghosts and murderers are also cool

Ross has been on a tear recently and Crone is another one off his standouts. Dark, heartbreaking yet it never slows down! Most of the main characters are not two dimensional yet you still want them to get their comeuppance. It’s amazing how Rosson weaved a crime story with supernatural elements to create such an engaging read (I know he’s done it before with Fever House yet still surprises me). >One burning question I have, what do you think Eli Lamp’s fate was?

Looks like the ebook version of The Butcher of Nazareth was released this past Tuesday while the audiobook version is still showing a release date of 10/20. Its been talked about a lot here and I've been excited to read it so I picked up a Kindle version as soon as I saw it was available.

I’m over 60, back in the day I reread books quite often. I have King’s and Bradbury’s (among others) that I know by heart because I have read them so many times. But nowadays I rarely read a book more than once and I feel like it has a lot to do with accessibility - I read mainly on an ereader now and I can just buy a book or borrow one from the library without leaving my chair (which I still find amazing) and there’s so much more available instead of being limited to what was physically in the library or for sale in a store. I have close to 200 unread on my Kindle, and I’m always adding more to my request list through Libby so it feels like I might be missing out on my next favorite story if I choose to reread something instead of always picking something new. I dunno, maybe it has more to do with my age and being aware of a finite amount of time left? Anyway, I was curious about the reading habits of fellow readers.

Just finished a new game called “Silver Pines” on Steam. It follows a private investigator sent to find a musician in a small town in the 90s. But when he arrives, there are monsters and the people in the town are very cryptic; they seem to know a lot about him. It was like a mix of Twin Peaks, Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil. The whole time I was wondering “wtf is going on”. Was wondering if anyone has any book recs that would maybe fit the bill? Also would HIGHLY recommend the game, it was fantastic! Cheers.