Horror Recommendations for the Unenlightened

Don't know if anyone's mentioned him yet, but I'm a big fan of pulp style horror and UK author Simon Clark writes some great stuff.
I just finished Blood Crazy and am now reading his Nailed by the Heart.
Some genuine thrills and chills.

I ordered my copies from the bookdepository . co .uk
They don't charge for postage for international orders, how cool is that?
Beats the heck out of the ridiculous prices Amazon charge for international orders.
 
I haven't read The Tower yet, I gather that a few people were disappointed by the ending.
I've also read that Leisure Books the publisher, let a ton of typos through with some copies of this book.
But it won't stop me reading the book. Simon's not trying to write the greatest horror stories ever written, he's just doing an entertaining yarn.

I really enjoyed Blood Crazy, although I wasn't overly impressed with the reason for why the world adult population went insane.
But apart from that Blood Crazy was a damned good read.
 
I didn't want to open a thread just for this, so I wonder if someone around has read the collection of short stories : Dark Delicacies, by various authors; edited by Del Howison. Is it worth getting?
 
Very surprised not to see Clive Barker mentioned here. Some of his novels are amazing, my favourite is probably Cabal which was made into the film Nightbreed. The Damnation Game was an excellent read and if you know the film Hellraiser then this film was based on the novella The Hellbound Heart.
If you like horror short stories then his Books of Blood are well recommended.

James Herbert is another of my favourites. The Rats trilogy is worth picking up, his latest novels have been a bit off the boil but 48 was thrilling. Sepulchre remains one of my favourite all times reads, with Creed and Once being well up there too.
 
How horrific

There is some great stuff listed here at the top of the thread, go read this old stuff !
Remember... Horror fiction was not popular ..it was not /big'...ever..until King and Barker and other hacks hit the mainstream.

Lovecraft was not popular. He was still underground in the sixties. Nobody knew who Hodgson or Smith or any of them were, unless one made a real effort. It was hard to find the scary lit, and very rewarding when you did...

Now ? It's a big mainstream category. Horror for housewives. Largely boring and unbelievable. Still love it, but for gosh sakes ! Enough with the Vampire schtick ! Zombies are done to death. )
 
I want zombies...and werewolves. Zombies with werewolves...not so much.

Yeah, I came into the thread to ask for some zombie or werewolf recommendation. I rarely read horror books (that is, if Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' even counts), so I got interested in this today. As I've mentioned somewhere else, had a trip to the library, and was eyeing some books, one of which a Zombie anthology. I like zombie films (in the vein of 'Dawn of the dead', 'Zombieland' or 'Land of the dead'), and werewolf films like 'Ginger Snaps'.
Does anyone know any books that would fall down my alley?
 
Re: How horrific

J Riff said:
There is some great stuff listed here at the top of the thread, go read this old stuff !
Remember... Horror fiction was not popular ..it was not /big'...ever..until King and Barker and other hacks hit the mainstream.

Lovecraft was not popular. He was still underground in the sixties. Nobody knew who Hodgson or Smith or any of them were, unless one made a real effort. It was hard to find the scary lit, and very rewarding when you did...

Now ? It's a big mainstream category. Horror for housewives. Largely boring and unbelievable. Still love it, but for gosh sakes ! Enough with the Vampire schtick ! Zombies are done to death. )
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you on King , definitely not a hack for I've read many of these classic writers that have been mentioned now, and excluding Lovecraft and Poe, none of them have given quite the amount of chills that King has.:cool:
 
You're right, King is not a hack. I just had a bad experience with him is all. I grabbed Salem's Lot or Carrie? anyway the first few, when they appeared, before the hoopla, and they were OK, but then- the next few... halfway through the book the ending hit me, and I mean exactly- I knew he was going to go to Rolling Stone mag..or whatever the specific ending was, and it spooked me. Plus, paperbacks got fat around that time, and some didn't appreciate the extra hundred plus pages to tell the same old story- which is what SK did, how could he not?
The timing of King's launch, the horror genre expanding as it was - he was put in the position of actually having to write through all the standard horror plots, which he did well. However, to someone already ... obsessed with this sort of literature, it added precious little, while being obviously somewhat, slightly admit it- dumbed down or at least altered for the larger demographic. King writes good short stories, yet I find the novels overly descriptive and a bit heavy on the violence when it happens.
S'a shame when one author, or musician, or anyone like King, Clancy is another- is turned into an self-perpetuating industry that rolls on forever because it's easier and more profitable than promoting new talent. This says nothing about SK or his writing, just the industry.
 
I wouldn't call Stardust horror. Or Pern, although I've not read that. (You do know you can edit your posts, right? To avoid triple posting?)

And ooh, um... so I'm not off topic I'll say A.E. Moorat. Sort of comedy horror.
 
crooksy73 said:
Very surprised not to see Clive Barker mentioned here. Some of his novels are amazing, my favourite is probably Cabal which was made into the film Nightbreed. The Damnation Game was an excellent read and if you know the film Hellraiser then this film was based on the novella The Hellbound Heart.
If you like horror short stories then his Books of Blood are well recommended.

James Herbert is another of my favourites. The Rats trilogy is worth picking up, his latest novels have been a bit off the boil but 48 was thrilling. Sepulchre remains one of my favourite all times reads, with Creed and Once being well up there too.
Click to expand...

I'll recommend Clive Barker every day of the week.

Tanith Lee also wrote a few quality horror novels: "Dark Dance", "Personal Darkness" and "Heart-Beast" were all well done.

If you like more grotesque, in your face style horror, Brian Keene is a nice choice. "The Rising" and its sequel, "City of the Dead" are both entertaining, classic zombie stories.

Finally, you can't get more pulpy than "Death Troopers", a zombie story in the Star Wars universe. It's silly, predictable, and incredibly gory...and I loved every page of it. =)
 
Very helpful thread. Managed to get my paws on Kobo Abe's "Womand in the Dunes".
:)
a
 
I am reading Hell House now (hard to get the 73 movie out of my head for the characters though).

I Am Legend is a must read.

I'd recommend two stories by Ambrose Bierce
The Damned Thing
and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge


There's a 1980s non fiction book
the Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural which I think is a pretty good primer for the subject.
 
Alan Dean Foster's Alien novelization is quite overlooked.
 
I've recently completed Alan Wake as a game and, since the story is based heavily on the works of Stephen King, I'd like to get to read something from said author. I've only ever read before Cycle of the werewolf so I really have no idea where to start from with him.
Would anyone care to offer a suggestion on something to read from Stephen King?
Just not The Shining. I hated the film and would really not much care for the story of the book unless it were wildly different.
 
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