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Post by Stuart on Mar 10, 2010 6:50:30 GMT -5
I thought maybe we could share some author/book recommendations here.
The horror authors I am most familiar with are Stephen King (prefer his short stories to his overblown novels), HP Lovecraft (The Boss), Clive Barker (grotesque fantasy rather than horror) and James Herbert (though I bailed out after “48”). And then there’s Richard Laymon…
Not sure if Richard Laymon ever got a mention on the show. I’ve read pretty much everything he’s written and have always enjoyed his work. His straightforward pulp is a great antidote to the endless rambling, deviation and over-developed characters of Stephen King. Laymon was an out-and-out gore hound, pure and simple. His novels are relatively unsophisticated and there is very little in the way of the supernatural (stories are more likely to revolve around knife-wielding maniacs than ghosts or monsters) but he always delivers the goods.
Laymon scores high for me on another count, and that’s the fact that his horror is “small”. By that, I mean he doesn’t rely on earth-shattering, world-changing events like a nuclear apocalypse or a global zombie outbreak. For me, the intimate nature of Laymon’s style makes it that much easier to suspend disbelief and relate to the characters and buy into the bizarre events that unfold.
For example, in Endless Night we get much of the story from the perspective of a member of a gang who dress up in human skins, coat themselves in stinky gloop and bust into people’s houses for a spot of murder and mayhem. Off the top of my head, here’s the lowdown on a few other Laymon novels:
Funland – New kid in seaside town falls in with gang who get their kicks roaming the boardwalk at night lynching down-and-outs. But the hobos harbour a secret of their own.
Flesh – A slug-like creature burrows into townsfolk and turns them into murderous cannibals. That’s it.
Resurrection Dreams – A social outcast investigates ways of raising the dead. It’s not much of a spoiler to reveal that he succeeds.
There are stories about people being hunted by a crazy in the woods (probably a few of those); a magic bracelet that lets you take “rides” in other people’s bodies; an infamous haunted house (a 3-part series on that); a guy who finds a staked corpse in a ghost town; a rainstorm that turns people into psychos. You get the idea.
If you prefer your horror full of macabre atmosphere, sophisticated character development, complex plot twists or social commentary, you might want to steer clear of Laymon. But if you’re up for an easy read, with cheap and dirty thrills, he’s well worth dipping into.
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Post by bickle66 on Mar 10, 2010 15:34:39 GMT -5
Speaking of reading...
I read Shutter Island this past fall and loved it. I dig Dennis Lehane's dialogue a great bit. Just this past weekend I saw the movie. I was so angry with myself for reading the book first. I saw Teddy in a different light, and couldn't enjoy the unfolding story as much as I could have. I figured that would be the case before I went in. That being said, I still loved the movie and thought it was great adaptation.
Before that I read - The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Part one of trilogy about a vampire infestation in NYC. I highly recommend it.
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Post by brianincolorado on Mar 10, 2010 21:10:20 GMT -5
I've been reading Joe Hill's "Horns." I'm a big fan of Hill's short story collection, "20th Century Ghosts," so I had high hopes.
The first 60 pages were almost flawless. The man has a knack with character that goes beyond his famous father's "everyman." The rest of the book slows down a little, but only by comparison. I have been reading in small doses so as not to leave myself without a good book to read...
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Mar 11, 2010 0:01:13 GMT -5
I've read two Richard Laymon novels. The Traveling Vampire Show is, I think, brilliant, and one of the most honest portrayals of adolescence I've ever read. The characters are great, flawed but likable; there's a lot going on under the surface with them. Slim in particular is a great character. It fits snugly into the coming-of-age horror category.
Then there's To Wake the Dead. Nobody writes killer mummy stories anymore, and I thought it was going to be amazing. But.
Apparently this book was found among Laymon's manuscripts and published after his death, which probably should have been my first warning. It felt like a first draft. There's a subplot about people being abducted and tortured that feels like a completely different book; the two storylines (the other being "Mummy on the Loose") tie together at the end in a pretty unsatisfying way. And all the sex stuff--I think every single female character in the book is sexually abused, if not raped. I've often heard complaints about Laymon's oversexed writing style. In Traveling Vampire Show it worked because that's just where a fourteen-year-old boy's mind is going to be. But when the characters are adults, it just gets tedious. Okay, fine, she slid her moist tongue down his engorged shaft for the fifth time, can we get on with the story?
This post has been rated NC-17.
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Post by Stuart on Mar 11, 2010 5:42:33 GMT -5
And all the sex stuff--I think every single female character in the book is sexually abused, if not raped. I've often heard complaints about Laymon's oversexed writing style. In Traveling Vampire Show it worked because that's just where a fourteen-year-old boy's mind is going to be. But when the characters are adults, it just gets tedious. Okay, fine, she slid her moist tongue down his engorged shaft for the fifth time, can we get on with the story? Agreed, there is a strong sexual element throughout his work, often of an exploitative nature. A lot of his novels feature at least one young lady losing what minimal clothing she starts out with, or unnecessary sex scenes. He tended to push things to the limit, whether that was sexual content or violence and horror. Like I said, it’s pure pulp and he delivers “cheap and dirty thrills”.
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mizzbett
Creeping Corpse
"Allow me to retort!" - Jules Winnfield
Posts: 32
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Post by mizzbett on Mar 14, 2010 14:02:10 GMT -5
I am so glad you started this thread, Stuart, because if you didn't I was going to.
I have read 3 of Richard Laymon books and have 3 in my TBR pile, which is constantly growing. His books are like candy - yes he writes in a simple manner in a small scope and delivers the goods every time. He only wrote about a gazillion novels, so there is quite a bit to choose from.
I have read The Woods are Dark (re-released by his daughter after his death as he originally meant it to be) - cannibals and gore and sex - oh my!
Also by him One Rainy Night, about a strange rain that when it touches you turns you into a homicidal lunatic. Good stuff!
And then there is Come Out Tonight, about a deranged and murderous teen.
I have in my TBR pile The Traveling Vampire Show (which I may read sooner rather than later now thanks to maarow), Bite, and Among the Missing.
I have Horns by Joe Hill in my possession and it's all I can do not to just drop the book I'm reading now and just start that (the opening page alone hooked me - am I right Brian?)
Currently I am about 3/4 through a nasty little novel by Edward Lee called Flesh Gothic. Talk about sex and debauchery! Lee is no slouch in that department. It's good; it's about a mansion of depravity in which thirteen people are found dead, and some psychic people and a journalist who go there after the fact to find out what happened. Interesting.
I also read The Strain and thought it was fabulous; it had a slow start but once it got going I couldn't put it down.
Anyone heard of Jeff Strand? He's a writer I heard about on the Dread Media podcast and he's also very good. His book Pressure is a high recommend.
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Mar 15, 2010 18:50:49 GMT -5
If you like short stories you should definitely check out Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. It's all genre sutff--science fiction, fantasy, horror--but all of the stories eschew big "set pieces" for very intimate studies of the characters and how they're reacting to the oddness all around them. "The Wrong Grave," my favorite piece, is a tragic and funny story about a teenage boy who digs up his girlfriend's grave to recover the poems he buried with her (they were, of course, the only copies), only to discover that the girl in the coffin is decidedly not his girlfriend. Also, she's come back from the dead, won't leave him alone, and has autonomous menacing hair that may or may not want to kill him.
Other stories include haunted houses, an alien invasion, a handbag that contains an entire world within it, and a camp-terrorizing monster who does not look like Angelia Jolie.
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mizzbett
Creeping Corpse
"Allow me to retort!" - Jules Winnfield
Posts: 32
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Post by mizzbett on Mar 15, 2010 21:10:02 GMT -5
Sounds intriguing Maarow...I'll check Pretty Monsters out. Thanks
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Post by Stuart on Mar 19, 2010 8:36:00 GMT -5
I’m about midway through The Crimes of Josef Fritzl by Stefanie Marsh and Bojan Pancevski. As well as fictional horror I tend to read a fair amount of true crime. Usually serial killer stuff. At the risk of sounding like a nut myself, I confess I find the life stories of psychos to be utterly fascinating. I have a shelf of books on the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Fred & Rose West, Dennis Nilsson et al.
The Fritzl book is strangely unsatisfying, despite its attempt to get under the skin of the man. Or perhaps because of that. The authors’ theories about why he came to imprison his daughter and the children he made with her down there are wafer thin and just don’t ring true to me; plus, there is a great deal of repetition about the kind of man he seemed to be, as though saying the same thing several times might make it appear more insightful or plausible. So far, the authors only seems to be scratching the surface, particularly when compared to some other true crime books. Still, I’m not done yet.
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Post by bishop746 on Mar 22, 2010 17:49:38 GMT -5
I recommend any of the John Connely books starting with Every Dead Thing. Very violent and oppressively dark.
He has a collection of short stories called Nocturnes that you may try out to see if you like his writing style. My favorite story features a young woman trying to get home by train before her monthly curse begins. Wont say anything else but it was everything that makes horror short stories so great.
Interestingly, John Connely was born and lives currently in Ireland but all of his novels are exclusively set in the United States. I didn't know that until after I had finished his second novel and would have never known.
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mizzbett
Creeping Corpse
"Allow me to retort!" - Jules Winnfield
Posts: 32
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Post by mizzbett on Mar 28, 2010 14:08:50 GMT -5
I recommend any of the John Connely books starting with Every Dead Thing. Very violent and oppressively dark. He has a collection of short stories called Nocturnes that you may try out to see if you like his writing style. My favorite story features a young woman trying to get home by train before her monthly curse begins. Wont say anything else but it was everything that makes horror short stories so great. Sounds intriguing. I have ordered Every Dead Thing and put Nocturnes on my wish list in a site I go to called Paperback Swap. If anyone's interested, you should look at that web site. It's a great way to get rid of books you've already read and/or don't necessarily want to keep, and a cheap way to get new stuff to read. Check it out. No I don't work for them but I do love the program. And it's all above-board. I finished Flesh Gothic by Edward Lee and it was very sick and twisted - I give it an 8 out of 10 ;D I'm 144 pages into Joe Hill's "Horns" and I cannot put it down. It's fantastic. In fact, I have to go now. It's calling me.
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Post by saltychuck on Mar 29, 2010 18:09:54 GMT -5
After checking out the Japanese film Battle Royale, I sat down and went through the whole 15 book manga. I'm not typically one for japanese art style, but Battle Royale has intrigued me for quite some time. All told, it was 120 chapters. I read it in two days, which just goes to show that I have a lot going on in my life! Battle Royale is the story of 42 9th-Grade students who must compete in a TV show set on a deserted island where they fight to the death. The show was created to quell youth rebellion in the socialist Eastern Asian Collective. The main Horror aspect is, simply put, the duhumanization of these teenagers. A slasher villain of sorts is also present in Kiriyama, a wunderkind stripped of the ability to feel emotion by a car accident The characterization in the manga is much more detailed than in the film version, but, due to Film's medium, it is impossible to flesh out that many characters in a 2 hour timespan. I really feel as if this would work in a Television format, and have high hopes for the (supposed) American remake. I also would like to check out the novel.
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Post by bishop746 on Mar 31, 2010 17:19:21 GMT -5
A question for those of you who read Stephen King's IT.
I thought of this the other day when Tony and Ted were discussing Stephen King novels.
Was there a part of the book when the 5 teenagers were lost in sewers after their first encounter with Pennywise and the girl had sex with them all so they could find their way out?
There's no way I'm remembering that correctly because it makes no sense.
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maarow
Ghost in the Graveyard
Posts: 509
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Post by maarow on Mar 31, 2010 22:00:37 GMT -5
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Post by Stuart on Apr 20, 2010 4:10:01 GMT -5
Pompeii by Richard Harris. Completely OT I suppose but man cannot live by horror alone. Having enjoyed previous Robert Harris efforts like Fatherland and Archangel I was keen to see what he made of this event. However, although he highlighted some fascinating minutiae of Roman life and evoked a real period atmosphere (his description of the pre-eruption Pompeii was marvellous), the plot was incredibly contrived and predictable. That’s not such a big deal. Worse, in my opinion, was the fact that by the time he got to the eruption - crucial to the novel one would think - he seemed to run out of steam. He failed to deliver any real drama or to depict an adequate sense of how it felt to be caught up in a volcanic eruption and at the end I was left thinking “is that it?”.
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