Horror books

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone read horror? I like Clive barker, haven't really read much else. Anyone got any favorite books/authors/suggestions?

I liked Stephen King's The Shining and The Stand, Koji Suzuki's Ring and Spiral, and Mark W Danielwski's House of Leaves.

i once read a clive barker and wasnt too fond of it. it just seemed... cliche, without a great plot, characters or anything that made me keep much of it in memory.

i am very partial to horror classics, the good old gothic novels. dracula, i think, was absolutely fantastic.

A good horror author in my opinion is H.P. Lovecraft. All of his stories where short though. My favorite H.P story I've read so far is "The Lurking Fear". That story scared me.

I to love to read horror, the only one's of Clive Barkers i've read are the 'books of blood'. If you are looking for other horror to read....


Try stephen king....

The shining
Cujo
The stand
Salem's lot

Or James Herbert

The fog
Creed
The spear
Moon


Or Dean Koontz

The funhouse
Bite/Fiends
The husband


Or Thomas Harris

The hannibal lecter trilogy
Hannibal rising


Or Richard Laymon

The beast house collection
After midnight
Funland
The stake


Ok, i think that will keep you going for a while....Happy reading

HP Lovecraft, totally. His horror works because it's so slow-paced and wordy--may not SOUND scary, but when the s**t goes down, you start wondering what's going to happen, and you want to race to the last page, which can't be done because it's so wordy--you HAVE to read it slowly. Somehow, this creates a freakish suspense. Lovecraft works especially well if you have a vivid, nightmarish imagination, or always feel on the verge of madness, because a lot of his stuff deals with characters who see something that's too horrible to describe and go insane from it.

Neil Gaiman isn't horror, but some of his stuff--such as some things found in his "Sandman" graphic novel series--can be quite horrific. In "The Sandman: Volume One - Preludes and Nocturnes," for example, there's a moment where everybody goes completely bonkers and start doing things like hammering nails into their own hands.

[quote="rosered"][I keep hearing about HP Lovecraft but have yet to read any of his books, what do you recommend as a first read?quote]

Although I didn't read all his books I will dare to say you can read anyone because are all great!

I have to join in the H.P. Lovecraft chorus - he really is the best horror writer I know of.

rosered wrote:

[I keep hearing about HP Lovecraft but have yet to read any of his books, what do you recommend as a first read?

Although I didn't read all his books I will dare to say you can read anyone because are all great!

You've all got it wrong, Whitley Streibler and Edgar Allan Poe are the undenieable Lords of Horror.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro would be the Queen.

Actually just go to Wikipedia and type up "Gothic Horror" and "Southern Gothic" and you'll get soo many good authors you'll never look up from a book again.

H.P. Lovecraft was great too, sad that he was a bigot, I'm not kidding either.

I got into Clive Barker a while ago through both Undying and the Hellraiser movies. In fact Coldheart Canyon was the last book I ever read in entirety, and I think he works better as a fantasy writer than of horror (I started reading Everville in college but have been unable to pick up a copy since then). Stephen King is certainly the modern day horror Guru, not only because of his fascinating concepts, but also his ability to manipulate the reader (I think Cuju was quite a good example of this).

Horror is a very strange genre to me. it has a deeply psychological gravitas which I don't completely understand myself. I'm not sure it's voyourism, morbid curiosity or just a safe, secure outlet for out own anxieties and negativity. I'm afraid I havnt' read many Horror books, though I imagine they would be superior to movies (sometimes your imagination is worse than anything you can see on screen). I must say that I do like a bit of Lovecraft, and prefer him over Poe. This is becuase I view them as very different writers and storytellers. From the few Poe stories I've read, I gather that he was aiming for a far more human horror, dwelling on man's capacity for evil and madness (c.f. the tell-tale heart) but then I haven't read much, so correct me if I'm wrong. Lovecraft, in comparison, draws on man's insignificance in the world, that there are big, evil forces that are hiding just below the surface, waiting to enter our world and crush the human race out of existence. Much of his skill comes from his disturbingly easy ability to make the incomparable uncomfortably comparable, and the level of "this-is-far-to-hideous-and-evil-to-be-comprehended-by-the-rationality-of-a-sane-mind-ness" he gives his writing. the two are at completely different ends of the spectrum. In a funny way, I think Lovecraft and Poe are like theism and atheism. Lovecraft implies that human affairs are insignificant in the full scope of the universe, and that we should live in fear of the great unknown. Poe, on the other hand, implies that evil is internal, a part of the human condition, a part that many fear in themselves ( again, I could be completely wrong, I'm just clutching at straws here).
Personally, I consider Poe's ideas to be the closest to the truth, however, when it comes to fiction I much prefer to have my imagination put to the test trying to grasp the idea of a supernatural source of evil and darkness, so I suppose I have the best of both worlds.

i like Clive Barkers early novels. Imajica was my favourite, but i think he has gone downhill since then.
I read The Abarat, and there was some good pictures in it, but i gave up on his second Abarat book.

If you like Imajica, you might like Neil Gaiman American Gods.
Also China Mieville, Perdido St. Station and The Scar.
Kind of like fantasy for adults.

edit: I just rememberd Galilee, i enjoyed that so maybe there is still some life in Mr Barker.

what aobut Neverwhere? I've heard some good things about it.

Sorry, I was digressing. Anyway, anyone here read necroscope? I've heard good things about it (plenty of splatter, (or so I've head)) I'm currently on a self imposed ban on books, as I don't want them to have too strong an influence on my own work.