October - Horror Month

[D_Davis]

"The Animator's House," the first story in Worse than Myself, by Adam Golaski, is quite good. It actually managed to scare me at one point - I mean, really scare me. It's also very weird, and I'm not sure if I really understand its point, if there even is one. Golaski throws a lot of stuff at his reader in a few pages - religion, family, parent-child relationships, demons, animation, child abduction, and more...

Looking forward to seeings what's next.

 

[dask]

Finished THE MONSTER CLUB by R. Chetwynd-Hayes. Clean, straightforward storytelling, lacking the grue but not the frights. Some humor but the creeps are genuine. An author I will read more of. Tomorrow will start GHOSTS AND THINGS, an old Berkley Original "compiled" by Hal Cantor (sounds suspiciously like a pseudonym or an Edmond Hamilton character). Loaded with classic authors. The newest appears to be Shirley Jackson. I'd post the great Powers cover but the stupid printer is on strike.

 

[Fried Egg]

I've started reading "The Magicians: The Occult in Fact and Fiction" and found the first three stories to be dull indeed. Then the collection took a step up I've just finished Alastair Crowley's diabolical "An Experiment of Necromancy". The depiction of the black rite sent shivers down my spine. Really well done and apparently based on Crowley's personal experience...

 

[dlsevern]

I started early as well with Slade's Headhunter, it is proving to be every bit as entertaining as I was told. I decided to change my book selection for this month, instead of Simmons and Bloch, I will be reading Lisa W. Cantrell's The Manse and after that will be Charles L. Grant's Hour of the Oxrun Dead, The Last Call of Mourning, and The Sound of Midnight.

 

[j d worthington]

I've started reading "The Magicians: The Occult in Fact and Fiction" and found the first three stories to be dull indeed. Then the collection took a step up I've just finished Alastair Crowley's diabolical "An Experiment of Necromancy". The depiction of the black rite sent shivers down my spine. Really well done and apparently based on Crowley's personal experience...

Yes, Haining's anthologies are odd; definitely a mixed bag. Some of them are quite entertaining all the way through, while quite a few are very uneven....

 

[GOLLUM]

I have just started with Daphe Du Maurier's House On The Stand. Described as a mix of horror and time travel, this appears to be quite a well regarded novel. No-one from here appears to have read this yet?

Tonight the First Tuesday book club (ABC TV) is featuring a review of Du Maurier's Rebecca, which I'm looking forward to viewing.

At the same time as House on The Strand I'm going to begin tonight to read the NYRB collection Don't Look Now, which appears to be an excellent collection of her supernatural tales.

 

[Fried Egg]

I have just started with Daphe Du Maurier's House On The Stand. Described as a mix of horror and time travel, this appears to be quite a well regarded novel. No-one from here appears to have read this yet?

I haven't read any Du Maurier but I plan to soon. I like the look of "The Birds and Other Stories".

I just read Aickman's "The Next Glade". Classic Aickman weird, strange story which leaves one wrestling with it's meaning at the end.

 

[GOLLUM]

I haven't read any Du Maurier but I plan to soon. I like the look of "The Birds and Other Stories".

Believe it or not I actually have that collection you are referring to. It has 3 stories in common with the collection I'm planning to read now.The collection I have also features "The Birds" and more stories overall.

I haven't read many of her short stories yet and not enough to compare to her novels but the general consensus seems to be that the short form was her strongest suit. It will be interesting to see how this current collection develops and if it is able to sustain the strong start. Aside form Rebeca and House On The Strand I will probably source a copy of one of her other best known 'Gothic' novels Jamaica Inn.

 

[dask]

I haven't read any Du Maurier but I plan to soon. I like the look of "The Birds and Other Stories".

I read this a few years ago for Halloween and enjoyed it immensely.

 

[j d worthington]

While I have read a collection or two of her short fiction, it was so long ago that I'm no sure I'd trust my memory at this point (it was back in my teens); but if that is accurate, I would say that, yes, her short stories are even more to be recommended than her best novels....

And, as I mentioned in the monthly reading thread, I am about halfway through Ouroboros, a novel by Michael Kelly and Carol Weekes, two writers I have not heard of before I was sent this as a gift... and a fine novel of terror (and horror) it is, too. Not overly graphic, but quite modern in most ways, it also has the best elements of the classics of the field in its ability to create an atmosphere of the unworldly, the dark side of the numinous, and suspense with a few deft touches. There is also a very fine eye for genuine human emotion (especially the grieving process) and darned little of the "contrived" feeling so much modern horror fiction has. (Not to mention a lack of bloating; this is a very tight novel, all of 243 pages in length, with plenty of mysteries and eeriness packed in without seeming at all forced.)

 

[P.G.Bell]

I picked up a couple of titles at last weekend's FantasyCon: 'Anno Dracula' by Kim Newman (not sure if this one technically counts, but it certainly borrows heavily from the horror genre) and 'Harbour' by John A. Lindqvist, which I'm really looking forward to. I know nothing about it, other than the blurb on the back cover, but I absolutely loved 'Let The Right One In'.

 

[Fried Egg]

I just finished the "Magicians" anthology which was mixed overall but one little gem was an Algernon Blackwood story I haven't read before: "With an Intent to Steal". It was an incredibly effective horror story that makesd the hairs on the back of your neck stand erect. Definitely best read in a darkened room with a torch...

 

[Fried Egg]

I seem to be flying through the books I had lined up this month as I've now finished "The Hungry Moon" (which I thought would take me longer) and now about to start "The Nightmare Reader" anthology. I think I can squeeze another book in this month:

 

[Spade]

I found a copy of The House on the Strand after seeing the synopsis the other day. I'm hoping to read it soon.

Right now I'm reading The Ruins by Scott Smith. I enjoyed the movie and never realized there was a book until I stumbled across it.

 

[dlsevern]

So far, I've finished Michael Slade's Headhunter, a great murder mystery that kept me guessing who the killer was and surprised me when I found out. After that, I read Lisa W. Cantrell's The Manse, it was okay but I really don't understand why it was a Bram Stoker award winner. I just finished Charles L. Grant's The Hour of the Oxrun Dead, a fantastic tale somewhat reminiscent of Lovecraft. Now I'm reading Grant's The Last Call of Mourning, another Oxrun Station novel, so far so good.

 

[Fried Egg]

Well, I've come to an end on my October "horror" month's reading (albeit slightly earlier than anticipated) and it was a mixed bag.

My favourite by far was Robert Aickman's "The Unsettled Dust" but I knew I was going to love that. Middling were the two anthologies by Peter Haining "Magicians" and "Nightmare Reader" as well as Ramsey Campbell's "The Hungry Moon". Most disappointing was William Hope Hodgson's "The Ghost Pirates" which I had high hopes for. It was better than the last thing I read by him "The Night Land" but that's not saying much.

So, now I'm going to take a well earned break from horror. I look forward to next October though for another batch of chillers...

 

[dask]

Finished this today. This could never be a best of the year anthology; every story was a winner, and each succeeding story was better and creepier than the one before. The last, and creepiest of all, was Shirley Jackson's "The Lovely House, loaded with dream like eccentricity and not unlike that line from "Hotel California": You can check out anytime you want but you can never leave. Highly recommended.

 

[Spade]

My copy of House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski just came in. It's a beast of a novel and probably the first actual printed book I've read in two years. I'm excited about diving into it.

 

[Diggler]

I've just been reading Clive Barker's Books of Blood. So far 50% or so through the 3rd book. Seeing that the Halloween has finally passed (well here it has), doesn't mean I'll be stopping! I still have 3 more Books of Blood to devour before I'm finished.

 

[thatollie]

I was so bad at this.