Horror Books!

Something by H.P. Lovecraft is fun and easy for anyone not familliar with literature. Other than that the King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers comes to mind.

blindsight by peter watts

horror is the dumb, creepy younger brother of scifi and fantasy. where scifi, fantasy, and crime literature are gaining recognition, horror remains at the bottom of the barrel.

there haven't been any major horror writers since lovecraft and romero.

so fuck off and keep it in /x/.

>>9658313
There were some good literary horror works in the early 20th century, like Howard, Lovecraft, MR James,Blackwood, and of course earlier works by Poe and Polidori and James Hogg.

But modern horror has been absolutely dominated by Stephen King, which is unfortunate, as drug addled king, while a master of concept, demolishes the writers craft in absolute baseline prose.

Clive Barker's first Book of Blood/Hellbound Heart and Dan Simmon's Song of Kali definitely have some literary aspects, and Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is very good imo, but all in all >>9658360 is generally correct, mostly because publishers are not discriminating when it comes to horror, or respectful of their reading public. As you said, you come from /x/, possibly THE most pleb board that requires in fact it demands a lack of critical thought and analysis, and is interesting only to someone who has an academic interest in the progression of folklore.

I liked I Am Legend a lot. Other than that I'm not really familiar with the genre.

>>9658360
>>9658570
But there a lots of good horror writers at the moment like Peter watts, Thomas Ligotti and many of those posted on this is horror.

A genre which focuses on a naturally dark emotions like horror or tragedy is always going to be more niche then more variable genres such as sci-fi and fantasy or fiction in general.

>>9658352
>>9658352
>>9658352
THIS.

I'm a big fan of Laird Barron, so all his stuff is gold to me, but that part of The Croning where they're sitting around telling ghost stories actual kinda creeped me out.

I loved it.

Nothing scary about words on a page.

>>9658313
nothing is scarier than the redpill

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51KB, 642x219px

Nobody's mentioned Brian Evenson :-(

>>9658313

I honestly wish Poe was viewed higher around here. I loved Cask of Amontillado. Still one of my favorite stories of his.

>>9658352
At the very least read The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All before you start The Croning.
It's the strongest of his collections, and it has the most direct ties into The Croning.

Fair warning, I'm a Barron fanboy and will recommend his writing to anyone at all interested in horror, short stories, or weird fiction.

>>9659994
My mothafuckin' niggah!

Occultation was pretty great tho.

>>9658360
Most horror is complete trash, true, and popular horror like King in particular is just pulp trash, but you're a fool if you think there's no merits in the old classic writers like Poe

>there haven't been any major horror writers since lovecraft and romero
>who is Ligotti
Ok kid.

I read tons of horror and the best horror novels in terms of all around quality were The Exorcist and Legion by William Peter Blatty, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

>>9660016
>>there haven't been any major horror writers since lovecraft and romero
>>who is Ligotti
>Ok kid.

I enjoy him but he's literally only 7/10ths as good as Lovecraft (and twice Lovecraft's most productive age). Good stories and impressive diction, but he's not profound enough to be a new trendsetter, even within his circle. He's a disciple, but not a new leader.

>>9660010
Definitely. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of his collections, but for the purpose of reading The Croning, I just think that Beautiful Thing should be required beforehand.

>tfw one of your most prized possessions is a signed copy of the Little Brown Book of Burials

>>9660096
>but he's not profound enough to be a new trendsetter

He is though, Nick Land, per example, has been clearly influenced by Ligotti, and there's an entire book of short stories by tons of authors paying tribute to him (it's breddy great, it's definitely the closest thing to the man himself). If there is such a thing as a "new leader" in horror right now, it's him.

>>9660104
>>tfw one of your most prized possessions is a signed copy of the Little Brown Book of Burials

You bastard, I wanted one of those, but they were all long gone by the time I learned of their existence.

Almost bought one on Ebay for 75 bucks but I stopped myself.

>>9660131
Not really, it'd probably be Campbell. Ligotti is the Quincey to horror's Borges. Ligotti's good, but like Barron, he's someone who will slip between the cracks.

>>9658360

I feel like horror should not exist as its own genre, but should rather be incorporated as an important element across all genres. What happens to horror when it becomes a genre is the same thing that happens to romance when it becomes a genre. Horror becomes just creepy in isolation. Love becomes just cheap in abundance. These things need to be shown against a backdrop to be appreciated.

>>9660154
but there are books where horror is the whole thing, anon.

Going back to Ligotti, you can add some other genres to some of his stories, Les Fleurs is both horror and romance, per example, but the large majority of is output is horror.

Do you think we should call Lovecraft "fantasy" then?

>>9660134
30 bucks for it was a steal desu.
One of the stories is missing the last couple pages, but I don't mind at all.

>>9660154
>>9660176
Back to the old horror vs thriller, and what is the difference, if any? Debate, eh?

>>9658360
>what is Gothic fiction
>who is Edgar Allan Poe
>what are sensation novels
Horror has been recognized as a serious artform for centuries. Maintaining and fulfilling a mood of supernatural dread is one of the most impressive achievements in literature

>>9660180
What'd you think of "Swift To Chase"?

I thought it was probably his weakest collection.

>>9658313
Dracula is probably the greatest horror novel to be desu.

>>9660335
do thrillers actually have any literally merit? I believe movie thrillers do have important cinematic value, but everytime i think of the word "thriller" in relation to books i think of supermarket paperbacks.

The Communist Manifesto is a pretty good horror book

>>9660481
What I mean is if you really get into it's hard to draw the line between horror as a genre, and thriller as genre. They bleed over a lot.
Then once that's started it's hard to identify horror as it's own genre. If it's horror with action elements it might as well be called a thriller, or even just an adventure story.
If it's horror with fantasy elements it will be called dark fantasy and not horror.

There are many excellent novels that could be called horror, but because they are not solely horror they are not called by that name, but in reality there are very few horror novels that are just that one thing.
I guess I'm saying horror seems like an anemic genre because it gets sucked into other things.

>>9660481
Why do you think thrillers have cinematic value but not literary value? I've never seen a Patricia Highsmith adaption that could compare to the book or short story

>no mention of Aickman

what the hell
Go read Cold Hand in Mine you plebs

>>9658360

And scifi and fantasy are the spergy half-retarded cousins of literary fiction, what's your point?

>>9660422
I wish there had been more of the "Old Leech Mythos" but honestly, I really enjoy the focus on wilderness in Barron's stories, so a collection that focused on that aspect was really appealing personally.
It's my second favorite anthology of his, and after reading it, Frontier Death Song is my favorite story that he's written.