The best horror book i have read.

[Aleksej Gontarev]

So I just finished reading The Ritual by Adam Nevill, and I just wanted to recommend it to you. I am also looking for a new book, maybe set in the forest or in nature. Thanks
I also just bought an Audible subscription and I am wondering if you have some interesting recommendations.

 

[Randy M.]

I thought The Ritual was very good, too. You could pull "The Willows" and "The Wendigo" by Algernon Blackwood off Project Gutenberg, I believe. They are not novels, but fairly lengthy short stories.

Other than those what comes to mind are,
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver -- ghost story set in the Arctic
At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft -- also set in the Arctic
Midnight Sun by Ramsey Campbell -- not Arctic, but cold all the same and not all set in the great outdoors
Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell -- much warmer and not all set in the great outdoors
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock -- in some ways closer than the others to The Ritual, but leans more to fantasy than horror

I haven't read The Terror by Dan Simmons, but it might be of interest (and, again, Arctic).

I expect there are others, but at the moment these are all that are coming to mind.

 

[Phyrebrat]

I think my top three are:

House of Leaves - Mark Danielewksi
The Elementals - Michael McDowell
The Fisherman - John Langan

The first is probably the most notorious for it's somewhat meta approach. The Elementals is my all time favourite pulp horror; a Deep Southern Gothic horror from the 80s with great story and characters. The humour at times is wonderful. The Fisherman perhaps defies definition and to do so would spoil it. It's troubling, and sublime.

pH

 

[Randy M.]

Duh! I really should have thought of The Fisherman as outdoor horror. Anyway, I second it.

 

[Vladd67]

@Phyrebrat With the house of Leaves did you just read the main story first and then the other bits second?

 

[BAYLOR]

So I just finished reading The Ritual by Adam Nevill, and I just wanted to recommend it to you. I am also looking for a new book, maybe set in the forest or in nature. Thanks
I also just bought an Audible subscription and I am wondering if you have some interesting recommendations.

The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell
The Wells of Hell by Graham Masterton
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist
Crom by Kennith Flint
Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand

 

[Phyrebrat]

@Phyrebrat With the house of Leaves did you just read the main story first and then the other bits second?

If I tell you the front and back cover of my copy are no longer attached, that should tell you I read the footnotes as I read it. What I'd love is a Kindle version because that would make it so much easier, but I think it would be a logistical nightmare to code that. I believe a special edition is being/has been released with colour plates (?) so I might pick that up depending on price.

How did you read it?

 

[Vladd67]

I'm just starting it again, after putting it down months ago but I think I tried concentrating on one thing at a time

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's some time since I read it , but The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King is worth checking out.

 

[Montero]

Charles de Lint is usually at least partially outdoor - he writes fantasy that borders into horror based on folklore including Celtic and some Native American.

 

[BigBadBob141]

My very first Stephen King "The Shining" shortly after it first came out, it kept making me look over my shoulder, but I was a hell of a lot younger then.
Also the early books of James Herbert, especially "The Survivor" and "The Spear", there is a very memorable scene in the "The Fog" involving a pair of garden shears which if your a man will bring years to your eyes (lol)!
Returning to S. King I found "Duma Key" quite creepy in places.

 

[Guttersnipe]

The Woods Are Dark by Richard Laymon (1981)
Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates (2014)
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (2015)
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (2014)
They Feed by Jason Parent (2018)
The Devil's Wood by Brian Moreland (2013)

 

[BigBadBob141]

I take it you like trees a lot (lol)!

 

[BigBadBob141]

Going to be a bit cheeky here, not books but films, three really good ones.
"In The Mouth Of Madness" think this is on You Tube.
"Cabin In The Woods" great ending, look out for Sigourney Weaver.
"The Girl With All The Gifts" great little actress playing the lead in this one.

 

[thunderbyrd]

i was really happy to see mention of "house of leaves" in this thread. i have been quite in awe of that book for years.