Not Long! edition.Old >>25517283
new Stephen Graham Jones came in at my library, sequel to The Only Good Indians
>>25589939based red man
>There's no such as literary horr-
The first time I ever read Laird Barron's "The Croning" was the only time a segment of a horror book ever "unsettled" or ever managed to actually, sincerely mildly "spook" me. I remember it because I relish the feeling. There's a part of the book where the main character and his family members swap ghost stories and I either must have been in the mood to FEEL spooked or maybe I was just cold at the time or something, I dunno. I remember it making my spine tingle with a lil' bit of realistic dread and its novel to me because it remains the only time that has ever happened, ever. The rest of the story isn't even particularly spooky, just that short segment and I was never able to elicit the same response ever again neither upon rereading the story years later, nor with any other work of horror fiction since.Dunno nigguh, it's really weird.
>>25590329Horror stories used to scare me...
Just bought the Dark Descent compilation
ÏA! ÏA! SHUB-NIGGURATH!
>>25588962I didn't expect it to have gay smut in just the third short story and now I feel conned. The second story was awful - about a quadroon native mom giving in to her white racist husband and psycho mother in law just so she can live in a gated community with a bmw and Coach bags. and now the third story is about a white dude who is seemingly a gay serial killer rapist at the beach and he collects his victims' teeth and he has a navajo tooth or something in his collection. the prose in the second and third stories feels grade school level, like i'm reading a book for 6th grade level understanding. I haven't read fiction published in the last decade but didn't know I had to drop expectations THIS low for a 2025 release. You can find Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology new in any bookstore near you.
AI recommended this piece of shit to readIt was awful, absolutely pretentious writing Of course it won awards because the author is a woman, POC, and bi-sexual, and the book features cringe lesbian bullshit
>>25591513In rape blowjobs why don't they just bite the dick off? like in the movie Fresh
>>25591174>>25590329First reading of the cask of amontillado scared the hell out of me. That guy was such a psycho. Why did he wall him up? Also the road is scary but too perverse. Almost seems like mccarthy got off on it, especially the roasted baby stuff. >>25589610Any good horror books set in autumn or on Halloween day / night? Or short stories?
>>25591536Conversations in a Dead Language by Ligotti is set on Halloween night
>>25591513It's evidently popular enough that a sequel was recently released.
Don't think I'm gonna be reading 'Salem's Lot after all. Fuck vampires, fuck vampire stories, and fuck anything where there's bleeding. Except Let the Right One In, that's cool.
Can someone who has read Butcher of Nazareth give a synopsis better than the vague abstract official synopsis of what it is about?
>>25591550>Let the Right One In
>>25591582That's a castrated boy btw
>>25591587yea what was the point of that? I remember the movie having homoerotic themes because the dad was clearly gay with his "friend" coming over all the time. not sure if the book gets into it.
>>25591588>the dadYou mean Hakan?
>>25591631nope. the main boys dad
>>25591636I vaguely remember that. I read that book literally half my life ago. I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo around the same time, which it & its sequel(s) I would defo characterize as horror-adjacent (like Silence of the Lambs for example). The second book in the trilogy was way different from the first book which is really more of a mystery while The Girl Who Played With Fire was more like espionage and a lot of fucked up shit happens. I never finished the third book for some reason.
I finished Vampire Hunter D book 5: The Stuff of Dreams. I think this is the best book yet. It continues being a unique setting that I have come to like for the series where you have a guy ride a wooden elevator down to a basement where a guy with a photon-laser rifle is waiting or dragon drawn wagons. But that aside since all books have that kind of stuff the story was my favorite. It's all about strange dreams people are sharing and a girl who bitten by a vampire has been asleep and age 17 for 30 years. Interesting premise plus the dreams add colorful scenes of people in a giant ballroom dance.
>>25589939I thought Buffalo Hunter Hunter sucked. It was going okay for most the book but the ending completely ruined it. Are the rest of his books better?
>>25589610
>>25591549That's more frightening than the stories themselves.
Done with Black River Orchard and it's +600 pages of pure dog shit from start to finish. I honestly don't understand how it got 4 stars on goodreads, it's baffling.
>>25592232The proletarian masses (the ones who are literate, anyways) just have bad taste.
>>25591513>white dude who is seemingly a gay serial killer rapistSounds like it reflects reality pretty well.
read Aickman's Meeting Mr. Millar for the first time in quite a few years and it remains as baffling as I remembered
Almost done my current book. Should be starting A Short Stay in Hell today :]
>>25594210Wouldn't really call that one horror. It can give you a sense of existential dread but it doesn't really have any concepts you haven't already thought about before if you've spent any time reading philosophy and/or metaphysics
>>25594221Shhhhhhhhh.
>>25592098If you didn't like the ending to BHH, you will hate Only Good Indians. His shorter stuff is a little better
Is the Dawn of the dead novelization any good? I didn't even know it existed until I picked up a copy at some Dutch book store with outrageous prices
>>25592950Imagine reading +600 pages of pure dog shit from start to finish.
Is The Masque of the Red Death any good? I've generally found the majority of Poe's stuff lame but the last time I was ever actually forced to read him was probably about seventeen/eighteen years ago during some dumb junior/senior literature class. Is all his stuff basically just as uninteresting as The Raven and The Telltale Heart are?
>>25594842>Thinking "The Tell-Tale Heart" is uninterestingI hate to say it anon, but you got filtered pretty hard
>>25594554never knew this existed. people online say it's good. is the copy in english? I'm seeing it go for a lot of money on ebay.
>>25594940>t.performative maleIt's not an interesting story.
>>25595043oh you're actually just retardedfind another board
>>25595436Sorry you thought the shit you were force fed in school was the end-all-be-all pinnacle of literary fiction, you dumb, cocksucking FAGGOT. Cultivate some taste, mongoloid.
>>25595511Sometimes the things school makes you read are actually good.Poe is one of those instances.
>>25596170Nah
>>25594958It's in English. Wouldn't recommend it if you have already seen the movie. It's hard to fag up Dawn of the dead, but so far the author, some bitch I've never heard of, almost manages to make it sound like shit (romanticizing war, making everyone drool over the nigger etc ) I'm not very far yet though, maybe it will get better lateron.
>>25595511Yeah no, thinking Poe is ass is an L take
>>25591520>>25596152also fuck this piece of shit captcha, it expired while I was scrolling through it, I'm not buying a pass you god damned gook
Any good cryptid horror?
read Keith Rosson!
Eric LaRocca is absolute dogshit and it pisses me off every time I see a book of theirs being peddled out.
>>25594742>maybe it will get better>only 150 pages to go might as well...
Binge-read A Short Stay in Hell last night. I went into it knowing it was moreso existential horror than actual scare-horror, but I wasn't expecting it to be so goddamned SAD.Now onto Butcher of Nazareth...
>>25595511No? To Poe? Woe!Go grow.
Started in on BUTCHER OF NAZARETH. I'm liking this. Also I didn't realize but it was published this year. This will be the first fiction book I read the same year it came out, in...many years, since the last Harry Potter book came out I reckon.
Bump in the night
>>25599570Thank you fellow based horror anon \m/
>>25589610Forgotten horror writers you love?Mine are:Herbert S Gormon Fergus HumeF. Marion Crawford
>>25600017Which works by them would you recommend? (Other than The Complete Wandering Ghosts for Crawford)
>>25597657How is it
It's October so I had to indulge in some horror>>25591257>LovecraftRecently got through Call of Cthulu. I'm not going to lie, I am probably filtered on Lovecraft. I didn't find it unnerving, it's too "clinical?" though I did kek at his racism making an appearance a few times. I wanted to get into the Cthulu Mythos but it's not hooking me. >>25594842On what has scared me would be Cask of Amontilado. That shit still unnerves the fuck out of me, I think it's Poe's best. I get a pit in my fucking stomach, like my flight reflexes get mildly triggered. Tell Tale Heart is so overrated in comparison
>>25600559I like it, but it's rather inconsistent with the horror aspect. It tries to be transgressive at times but just makes me wish I was reading The Eyes by Aldapuerta again. It's got a compelling narrative though and I'm not even halfway thru it yet, so obviously I'm not going to have my full thoughts until I'm finished.
>>25600663What's the actual plot synopsis? Everything online gives marketing pitches that are vague and mysterious without any substance to what the book is actually about.
>>25600663Oh hey Aldapuerta anon, good to see you again
>>25591520Dumbshit AI cultist, got what you deserved.
>>25591520
>>25591520AI (except paid grok with specific prompts) will always recommend the most popular recent thing with a bias towards browns, foids, and fags. You should know better.
Robert E. Howard is really good. I like his style more than Lovecraft's. He's definitely so much more than Conan
>>25600027Start with "The Place Called Dagon" It was good enough that I read it in a day
>>25601131Kek, why is diaspora literature by asian authors all the same Maxine Hong Kingston is the only one I enjoyed
>>25600017>F. Marion CrawfordIndeed. This writer used to sell like hotcakes in his day and after he died he was totally forgotten except for some short stories. I won't be surprised if the same happens to Stephen King.
>>25600896I've been here all along, m8 :]
just finished pic relatedthe protagonist fucks a fish monster...
>>25602035Yes, yes... We all know John Langan sucks shit.
>>25592151Pretty great list except>no Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons>no The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klein>no It by Stephen King>no Red Dragon by Thomas Harris>no Legion by William Peter Blatty>no Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell
>>25602035learn how to censor spoilers, idiot
>>25601314AgreedHorror from the Mound, The Black Stone, Black Canaan, Pigeons from Hell, the Noseless Horror, great stories
>>25602618I didn't want to have too many double entries for authors (and I probably shouldn't have any to begin with, unless it's critical for readers to read both).Also Stephen King's It really isn't one of his best works.
>>25602783Disagree on that I think it's better than The Shining desu
gonna get the hellbound heart and there's 2 versions available which of the covers should I get?
>>25602955That's just up to personal taste, whichever you think looks nicest.
>>25594842"The Black Cat" fucked me up
I read half of this books because they said it had a good ending, but it's reddit cringe so I had to stop. I just want an horror with a good ending, no matter how many bad things happen the good guys have to win.
>Why yes, I deliberately wrote my 500+ pages horror fantasy epic in the most archaic prose imaginable, how could you tell?
>>25604241Shit forgot pic
>>25604241Which writer did this?
Just ordered myself a copy of Communion. I read 90% of it years ago (the last ~50 pages you really do not need to read) but I don't have a physical copy and I'm considering reading it again so I thought I'd buy myself a copy :] I also bought pink bunny slippers as a Christmas gift for my mum along with it so I could get the free shipping over $35.
>>25604276The one with the title I always confuse with House on the Border Lands
Been reading pic related. Stunned at how Mcammon collected so many tropes of 80s media in a single story and still failed to get a movie deal for this one. Actually baffled it never got a movie. Decent mass media paperback schlock.
>>25604552Eh.
I'm reading Butcher of Nazareth and I'm seriously starting to suspect it was written w/ AI.Not that it's bad, it's quite good actually. However, the constant ChatGPT spacing is suspect. I think the press that released it is really small tho so maybe the editors are just zoomers subconsciously aping the constant paragraph breaks that LLMs do. I wouldn't put it past them. I had a convo a few months ago w/ a young colleague who was giving me tips on promoting our business on social media and he we had a discussion over paragraph breaks (as in, in relation to social media posts). I told him that's just not how I learned to write in school; he didn't know what a paragraph indent was by the way.Anyways, I think everyone has caught on to this anyways, and everyone hates AI, so it's not a good look to ape the formats LLMs use regardless.
>>25604698How is the book? What's it about? A serial killer in Biblical times?
>>25590329yeah same, the Croning is really good with the spooky bits. funny thing is that the ghost story in the segment you're referring to doesn't really go anywhere, because it's just a funny tale (until it isnt) without much connection to the really spooky world of the book.about the same time in the book or a few pages before, there's a part where the protagonist and his son clear out an old attic. if you've read other laird barron books before, the part where they sort through the old photos gives you really uneasy vibes.the Croning is a really good book and Barorn is one of the few authors that I'll be genuinely upset when they pass. every time I open one of his books, I hope the fucking american healthcare systems doesn't let him die from his lung infection or whatever he managed to catch last year.if you're new to his work, you'll definitely want to read his short stories Tiptoe and Proboscis (you can find most of them in his anthologies). this is the perfect weather for some really spooky lit, just to it.
I have finished book 6 of Vampire Hunter D Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane. This one like 5 was also better than the first several. I think the writer has the swing of things now and has found his groove. The characters while still cheap cliche characters are more fleshed and have more personality and the story carries it better. While the first few were carried by the original setting and some unique out there ideas the last two (vol 5 and 6) work with their plots and characters. Book 6 is D is tasked to travel through a desert and several people travel along with him for their own reasons ranging from following a strong person to be there with them in case of trouble or more antagonist ones. They encounter trouble and end up in a living desert out to capture and keep them there. Pretty interesting and of course it continues with fun creative fantasy sci fi like a warrior who uses a harp to attack with the music and a guy who fights while asleep.
I recently finished Dracula and I feel like it gets really weak around the half-way mark, the sense of danger is greatly diminished. There’s no consequences for bad or risky decision making. The vampire hunters decide to try and exterminate Dracula in Carfax. They go in the middle of the night and the most danger they face is a swarm of rats which are quickly routed by dogs bought off-screen. Mina starts getting attacked by Dracula, and everyone ignores it despite the fact Lucy died in the exact same way, and they catch the vampire in the act at the last second. Mina gets a psychic link to Dracula which allows her to act as a spy both ways. She’s allowed on the trip to continental Europe to pursue Dracula and it turns out her psychic link is only a good thing now because Dracula has a “child-mind” which prevents him from thinking of using his powers that way. In the beginning of the novel Dracula killed an entire ship of people and got around Lucy’s garlic and crucifixes but he barely kills anyone after Lucy’s death. He kills Renfield who had betrayed him at the last second and some random guy in continental Europe to cover his tracks. The characters are kinda disappointing as well. Half of them could all be swapped with each other and it would have no effect on the plot and Renfield who had been teased as Dracula’s servant for half the book and constantly trying to escape turned out to accomplish absolutely nothing. It’s no wonder he betrayed Dracula considering Mr Count of Darkness and student of Satan with 20 magic powers couldn’t free a single prisoner from an asylum who did half the job himself.
In the second half of the book Dracula’s a jobber
>>25604276William Hope Hodgson, in his novel The Night Land.
>>25605145Yep. That was my assessment too. The whole third act felt sloppy.
>>25604562Great discussion, thanks for your input
Recommend me some of Barker's books. I heard from someone that Weaveworld is good.
>>25606638Books of Blood and Cabal are great starting points.
>>25591550You're not missing much, it's pretty boring
>>25604771S̶a̶t̶a̶n̶ YWHW commands an old man who had participated in King Herod's slaughter of the innocents to avenge himself by hunting down & killing the only one to have escaped (Jesus Christ) in order to stave off YHWH's deluge of fiery judgement.
>>25606638i've read the first three books of blood, weaveworld, great and secret show. Loved all of them, he is famous for the horror stuff but i think that the fantasy is where he truly shines
Has anyone ever made a chart for trashy or so-bad-its-good horror books? The types written by the likes of Richard Laymon, Guy N. Smith, Shaun Hutson, etc.
This one is creepy and original.With a Voice that is Often Still Confused But is Becoming Ever Louder and ClearerJ.R. Hamantaschen
Same. He has modern themes but with a very twisted creepiness in normal contexts.You Shall Never Know SecurityJ.R. Hamantaschen
Watched Obsession last night and immediately I had to go and listen to Don't Fear the Reaper. It just fits, I dunno how else to explain it.
Only 8 days until Hallowe'en!
Going on a hiking trip next week, what should I bring to read?
>>25610544Some early Ramsey Campbell. I recommend "The Inhabitant of the Lake."
>>25610544Algernon Blackwood, whatever has The Willows and The Wendigo
>>25605126Of the first 6 books, Pilgrimage was easily the best, followed by Tale of the Dead Town. Next volume is the first of the multi-parter installments (and where the numbering gets fucked up between Japan and English releases).
>>25607870>>25607876nice try Hamantaschen
Hallowe'en is this week bros!
This might sound extremly stupid, but do you guys have recommendations for horror novels that dont try to be scary?
>>25614031Novella, but Short Stay in Hell doesn't try to be scary. I Who Have Never Known Men, too.
>>25614031What do you mean? Authors who write horror do so consciously, so unless I misunderstood I don't think there are such books.
>>256089725 days i'd say, halloween spirit has been low on /lit/ this year
>>25614031That don't try to be scary but are in fact scary, you mean? A lot of true crime fits that bill I'd say. Try The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer, or Programmed to Kill. >>25614296:'[
Reading Ramsey Campbell's Alone with the Horrors, and there's a story about a little girl sacrificing mice so she could get fucked by an Aztec god, and she succeds.
>>25615352Yeah, "The Man in the Underpass" is a great, unsettling horror story.
>>25614459>>25614288thanks for the suggestions, I will check them out>>25614294I did warn its a bit of a stupid request.
>>25591536>First reading of the cask of amontillado scared the hell out of meImagine reading that as a teenager.
>>25589610I have read maybe 2-3 books in my life, but I just ordered a small book called 'The Willows'. What am I in for?
>>25616236Some great atmospheric horror. I don't want to spoil anything, but Blackwood has got fantastic prose.
>>25615352That doesn’t scare me, I sacrifice my blood to Aztec gods in real life. Two weeks ago it made the neighborhood dogs and coyotes start howling, that was pretty cool.
>>25616265
>>25615352I read that in the spring, really good.
>>25591536>Any good horror books set in autumn or on Halloween day / night? Or short stories?The Last Feast of Harlequin by Thomas Ligotti?
4 days!
Any books like IT that isn't IT?I just cannot read a book with that many pages
any rec's out of Robert E. Howard's horror tales?
>>25618380>I just cannot read a book with that many pagesMe neither.
Has anyone read any of these medieval horror novels? Would you recommend any?
>>25589939>The Only Good IndiansI just finished that last week.
Just started The Great and Secret Show, will it be worth the 1400+ pages?
>>25619128>1400+ pagesdamn what edition did you buy? it should be at most half that
>>25602035Based
>>25619166>buyYeah, about that...
If you haven't read Perfume, READ IT NOW!
>>25619088Between Two Fires is very popular for a reason, it's good fun.Howls from the Dark Ages has some really cool stories.
>>25618393Pigeons from Hell, Black Canaan, Worms of the Earth, The Black Stone
>>25618380Floating Dragon by Peter Straub
Two days!
>>25619088Michael Crichton is reliably good.Don't read anything written by a woman, the odds are against you.
>>25619088I've read The Castle of Otranto, which is a good read, and Between Two Fires, which I thought was pretty poorly written.>>25619352Perfume is a phenomenal novel, definitely recommend it,
I started Between Two Fires at one point, and while I liked it, I didn't get very far. I do want to read it someday soon tho.
>>25619088Between Two Fires should be the first thing you read on that list.
>>25622930I'm gonna get it for Christmas
The Willows arrived. can I read it in one day?
>>25623559>He bought a singular book copy of a single short storyYou could have just gotten an Algernon Blackwood short story COLLECTION for the same price you fuckin' DUMMY! There better be MORE than just The Willows in inside that fucking thing or so help me GOD...
Willows deez nuts lmfao
>>25624132He could have just borrowed it from the library or downloaded it if he wanted time and cost efficiency.
>>25624132>collectionsoulless
>>25623559sure, imo it's too long though
>>25624778>shitting on collectionsAre you going to read every single short story individually then or something?(Also Oxford collections are the best)
I liked it. It wasn’t difficult to read for an illiterate like me. And I’m going to order the Wendigo next, as a single, tiny book and there’s nothing you can do about it.
>>25589610Just finished Between Two Fires. Real page turner. I'm going to make meat braised in wine and herbs.
>>25624953hell yeah
HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!!
>look for a good quality books of blood collection to include all 6 volumes >only thing I can find are really shit quality scans of physical books or fan-made stuff full of typos and grammar errors>finally find a good quality one, good bookmarks and lettering>it's in fucking italianHow is this possible?
Clive Barker's shit is awful. You dodged a bullet.
>>25626505I like Mister B. Gone but I don't remember a damn thing about The Hellbound Heart except for the fact that the engineer (Pinhead in the movies) is never seen until the very end where he's barely described. Oh and a centobite sprawls herself across a pile of human tongues at some point.
>>25626530Didn't ask.
>>25626530Books of Blood is honestly great. It sucks that there is not a good single volume edition available in English though
>>25626532Mister B. Gone follows a demon living in "Damnation" with a toxic demon family who literally gets fished out of it and escapes to wreak havoc on Earth. He ends up being part of a major historical event. It's also slightly meta. Once you open it you'll find it's one of the few that asks you not to read it.
>>25626544That sounds incredibly, horrendously fucking gay and lame.
>>25626544>drumpf won because literal demons REEEEEEEEEE
>>25626547We're talking about a book here. No reason to start talking about yourself.
>>25626548If it took place in modern times (it's actually a period piece) current republican president would probably himself be a demon in a human skin suit
>>25626548Obsessed
>>25626660
>>25623430Why wait?
>>25592151>>25602618are the William Peter Blatty books (Exorcist, Legion, Ninth Configuration) good? I've seen the movies (Exorcist 1+3, 9th Config) and enjoyed them thoroughly.
>>25627719Anon is dirt poor.
>>25627916>Exorcist 1+3I never bothered watching Exorcist 2 either lmao. I heard it's a prequel to The Exorcist, that it's apparently renowned for being one of the worst horror films ever made, and that there's no need to watch it; while, meanwhile, Exorcist 3 is really good (it is really good, but different from the first).
do you guys like Knifepoint Horror?
>>25627916>>25628513The Exorcist (book) is really good, one of the big classics for a reason. The Exorcist 3 is actually based on Legion.
>>25628512Skill issue
Halloween is OVER. Time to go home.
>>25629045I'm in my home right now.
>>25629080same
>>25629045I'm in >>25629080's home right now.
>>25629098
>>25629217Lol
>read the king in yellow>60% of the book is made out of francophile romance stories
>>25631397>he didn't know
>>25631397Yeah, it's shite
>>25589939We don't read DEI redditard slop here
>>25632413Horror is nothing but DEI and autistic schizos
>>25591573FUCK YEAH! THIS BOOK IS METAL AS FUCK, MOTHERFUCKER! YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT READING IS, BITCH? THINK AGAIN, CHUCKLEFUCK. THIS FUCKED-UP MASTERPIECE WILL RIP YOUR COCK OFF AND MAKE YOU SWALLOW IT, LIKE THE GOOD LITTLE PIGGY SLUT YOU ARE. FUCK YOU! WANNA KNOW WHAT REAL METAL TASTES LIKE? CHECK IT OUT, IN THE BUTCHER OF NAZARETH. AVAILABLE WHILE SUPPLIES LAST
Have you read 2026's horror BOTY as ranked by Goodreads users?
Clark Ashton Smith mogs Lovecraft so thoroughly in every conceivable manner that I genuinely cannot believe that Lovecraft is the more well-known and well-regarded of the two.
>>25632778Lovecraft is king.
>>25632783Yeah, King of Dinksville maybe
Test
>362 days until Hallowe'en
>>25632484All modern, trad-published genre fiction is DEI. Self published is a little better but has an ever increasing proportion of slop (of one sort or another).Good thing the genre is 130+ years old.
>>25632772Sold
>>25628513>>25627916>>25628738Why would a demon possess a child in the first place? Why not, say, the PotUS?
>>25633692Already taken.or because a child has a weak will or is trusting
>>25633692Politicians aren't innocent children.
>>25632868Grim
>>>Scene: The catacombs of the ancient city of Toomal. A new corpse has been deposited along-side a skeleton, which, from its mouldiness and worm-picked appearance, seems of considerable antiquity. THE CORPSE How now, old barebones! What word of the worm? Methinks you have known him well, in your time. THE SKELETON Aye, aye, and so will you: ‘Tis a world of creditors, of which the tomb and the worm are the last; there is little left for the devil, when these have taken their due account. The vermin is a very Jew, and will have his last ounce of brain and marrow. He has spared me never a scrap of flesh, nor tatter of skin, against the mouldy breath of the cavern-wind, nor aught save the jaw-bone to stop the continual diddering of my teeth.This guy was based as fuck.
People who are smug because they're contrarians and choose to pitch CAS vs Lovecraft really aren't in the genre for the right reasons.
Lovetroon melty
What’s the key to writing horror? Grounding the story? What’s the secret sauce
>>25634628Atmosphere, tension & imagery. Stephen King for example can turn the most mundane things scary.
>>25634629Bait
>>25634629I think i can pull it off
>>25634628You have the right instinct to "ground the story", it's important to have a baseline of normalcy and for anything supernatural to be emphasized as such in contrast, otherwise it has no effect. A good example of this is to read The Haunting of Hill House and then compare it with Hell House by Matheson. In Hill House, the littlest things are scary, because Shirley Jackson does a good job of grounding the story in reality. By contrast, the very first supernatural scare in Hell House is an aggressive apparition of a ghost who rips a bed's comforter off, wears it to confirm its presence, is scolded for being bratty, grabs an ass cheek, and then is ordered out of the room. It's not a comedy btw. If the baseline of the story is, yes ghosts are definitely real and are just hanging around like people, nothing you do for the rest of the story is going to be scary. How can anything supernatural be scary in a supernatural world? Nothing is surprising or unexpected. Matheson tries to cope with this by constantly piling on the AMOUNT of scares and supernatural scenes, which dwarfs the amount in Hill House as well as making it seem like child's play in comparison. But in most cases, actually, less is more.Beyond that, a good pro-tip is that what really makes horror tick is something where it doesn't belong. That's the scariest kind of horror. So think of a clown in a sewer. This image is scary even without any further elaboration, because wtf is a clown doing in a sewer? It doesn't belong there. The hair on your neck automatically raises. By contrast, and what the recent movies get wrong, a MONSTROUS clown in a sewer is a lot less scary. Because a monster is already breaking the rules, they don't exist. So a monster can theoretically come from anywhere. The only "horror" it poses is the same horror as meeting a bear in the woods. It might kill the character, but it's not spooking anybody who reads it.Another great example is in Amityville Horror, specifically the book. In the book there's a scene where somebody is outside, turns back to look at his house, and sees a humanoid with a pig head standing in his daughter's window. This is a tremendously scary scene. Humanoids with pig heads don't belong in our houses, let alone in our daughter's bedrooms. With nothing more than that one image, the horror has been achieved. We don't even need any further elaboration or to escalate by making the pig demon kill the daughter or anything like that. Just something where it doesn't belong is enough.The third thing to keep in mind is pacing. If you have too many scares stepping on each other's toes, they lose their effect. You should have a few good scares in mind, build the story around them and space them apart to give each its own time to shine.
Not reading all that. Also boomp.
>>25634799what?
>>25634799wow so you're unsuccessful? or do you just armchair like this
Did any good horror books come out this year?
>>25636401Butcher of Nazareth. That's all I'm aware of, or that I've read, rather.
>>25636373>>25636390>>25636392"Don't cast peals before swine" is easily the greatest wisdom ever given to the worldOink oink piggies
>>25636392what is this ESL even trying to say
>>25636444Checked. Without fail any time somebody randomly aggros me on here because I made a post that made them feel insecure it's exactly like that, literally gibberish brown seethe
>>25636438That may be the wisest, but "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth," & "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" are the foundation of Christian civilization. That's a conversation for another thread, though. I'm just gonna shill Butcher of Nazareth again because it's Biblical, and is somewhat relevant to our discussion.
>>25636457Did you actually like it quite a bit? I've heard bad things about it. One of my friends told me it's a blatant moneygrab that pads out the pages with formatting
>>25636461>pads out the pages with formattingIt actually does but it's really good regardless. It's really more about trauma & grief than anything else. One anon asked me if it's like a serial killer in biblical times, and the answer is no. There's plenty of violence, though. Also, I'm not the first anon to have mentioned it, because I first heard of it in one of these threads.
>>25636462Interesting, I'll definitely have to check it out just because it has so much buzz
