Horror fiction

I’m gonna make a new horror chart because this one sucks. I’ve already got it mostly picked out, but I’m know what y’all think is essential, especially in more recent horror.

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Bump

I'm not sure I'd classify him as horror in the typical sense, but the old /x/ sticky introduced me to Jeremy Robert Johnson and he instantly became a favorite of mine.

Edgar Allan Poe
Ambrose Bierce
Arthur Machen
Robert Aickman
Gustav Meyrink
Clark Ashton Smith
M. R. James
Robert W. Chambers
Algernon Blackwood
Ramsey Campbell
Thomas Ligotti

Careful to avoid all old and newer mediocre writers like Joe Hill and Dean Kootz and add more older writers. Just because it genre fiction does not excuse it from being low quality like a Dan Brown novel.

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Koji Suzuki is ok

post what you got made

I think the classics section is good, but I would alter the modern recommendations, from the last section I've read Barron, Ligotti and Hill and while Barron and Ligotti were great, Hill was shit. I would also consider adding E.T.A. Hoffman's the sandman.

Also seconding these guys

Please add Ann Radcliffe to early, Clark Ashton Smith to 20th, Arthur Machen to 19th/20th

I want to have it all arranged on paper first, so I don’t have to add more things in after the fact.

‘Classic horror’ would be more or less the same, but I’d add “Young Goodman Brown” by Hawthorne, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman.

I’d split ‘20th century’ into High Weird and Post-War. High Weird would have House on the Border Land, The White People by Machen, and collections by Blackwood, M.R. James, Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.

Post-War would have;
-Hill House
-I Am Legend
-Psycho by Bloch
-Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury
-The Other by Tyron
-Rosemary’s Baby by Levin
-The Exorcist by Blattly
-The Shining, Night Watch, and Pet Sematary by King
-Ghost Story by Straub
-The Bloody Chamber by Carter
-The Face that Must Die by Campbell
-Cold Hand in Mind by Robert Aickman
-Song of Kali by Simmons
-BoB by Barker
-Exquisite Corpses by Brite
-Cypher by Koja
-Alone with the Horror by Campbell
-Sotd and Grimscribe by Ligotti
-Girl Next Door by Ketchum

I don’t know the book my Mervyn Peak that’s listed and I only know him as a fantasy author, can somebody speak to that? Also while I enjoyed the Hannibal books, I’m not sure about including them.

21st century;
-House of Leaves
-The Ruins by Scott Smith
-Teatro Grottesco by Ligotti
-The Imago Sequence by Barron
-Annihilation by Vandermeer (?)
-Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
-Last Days by Brian Evenson (Maybe Altman’s Tongue)
-Headful of Ghosts by Paul Trembley
-The Fisherman by John Langan

I haven’t read Joe Hill but I see Heart Shaped Box on all sorts of ‘best of’ lists, is it really not that good?

get rid of all King's crap

Stephen King is far from the worst writer in horror

compared to what?

Here are the changes I would make to the list:

>add Sheridan Le Fanu - In a Glass Darkly
>add Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
>add Gustav Meyrink - The Golem
>add Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories
>add one of Robert Bloch's novels
>add a Ramsey Campbell collection
>add a Clark Ashton Smith collection
>add a Robert Aickman collection
>add another Thomas Ligotti collection
>swap out Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories with Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories

I would listen to critic S. T. Joshi then s-o-ys on reddit or lists from publications posting crappy mainstream horror novels as being good.

King should stick to short fiction as horror is better in the short story format.

This, Joshi is one of the best horror critics around. He can be overly harsh, but I would rather a critic be tough than a push-over.

>swap out Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories with Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories
The definitive collection of M. R. James' stories is A Pleasing Terror, so you should just use that instead that.

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I was hoping to cut a middle path here, between what is critically acclaimed and what is popular and recognizable. I personally don’t think Red Dragon is a particularly literary work, but it would be hard to deny that it’s cultural relevance when it spawned a series of movies and a TV show that is thoroughly embedded in the popular consciousness. I agree that King and Straub are Inferior writers to Ramsey Campbell and Thomas Ligotti but since King is one of the most read authors of all time a horror list without him would be missing.

But thanks for mentioning Joshi, it reminded me I meant to include The Ceremonies be TED Klein, and something by Caitlin R Kiernan

Hey, OP form the new Dark/Disturbing chart here.
I don't know if you've seen this chart, but it might help.
I have read a small number of horror novels/stories myself, and would love to help where I can.
The Yellow Wall-Paper should definitely be added, like you said yourself.
Shoudn't Castle of Ortranto be added as well?
Also, what are you going to do with Poe and Lovecraft; just go with 'Collected stories'?
Is Matheson's Hell House good for this chart? And We Have Always Lived in the Castle? I have only read Hill House, but have heard a lot of good things about Castle.
And finally, do you have rules for adding/deleting things for the new list, as well as limits per person etc.? Just curious to what your system is.

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Will I like EAP better than Lovecraft.

For me Lovecraft is a pretty bad writer from what I've read. The mystery element is there, and when there is some payoff his stories they are alright. But then a lot of them were "there is some scary shit in the background' and then the mystery goes nowhere.

So I guess my question rather is will I enjoy EAP more.

Yes, it is the definitive M. R. James collection. However, it has been out of print for several years, and it costs over $300 to get a used copy.

And it's $10 on Kindle. Same for some of Ligotti's stuff -- it's expensive in hardcopy but you can get the ebook for cheap. That's just the way horror books are; a lot of things get printed in limited runs by small presses and become expensive afterwards. Be glad ebooks are available.

Oh, neat. I guess A Pleasing Terror can be added to the chart. However, there should be a note that says something along the lines of, "ebook only. If you want a physical book, grab the two Penguin Classics volumes that S. T. Joshi edited."

Also regarding Poe, the best edition is the one by Library of America, so include that.

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Fuck me, I meant to reply to

Read The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher. They're short and they'll give you a taste of Poe's style.

The Joshi volumes would be my secondary recommendation as well.

Swap out the Necronomicon with The Complete Fiction. If you're going to recommend colossal books like It and all three volumes of Books of Blood then there's no good reason to leave out any of Lovecraft's work.

Forgot pic.

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I think you're misunderstanding Lovecraft and should read his books as an expression of a particular sort of worldview rather than anything else, but that's neither here nor there.

Poe's stories usually have satisfying climaxes. Anyway, you should read him. He's the most important horror writer of all time and one of the top 5 most important short story writers of all time.

The first story that comes to mind is At the mountain of madness. Basically he build up to something happening and then the payoff feels flat. All the lore and shit means nothing if it doesn't come into play. And no, him referencing it in another story doesn't count.

I'm telling you to attempt reading more deeply than the surface level, but judging from your posts I doubt you are capable of it. Here's a book that might help you, which I'll also recommend to whoever is making the new horror chart if they're interested in including nonfiction.

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I wouldn't include Annihilation. I enjoyed the book, but of the trilogy the only one I'd say is anything close to actual horror is Authority, and even then only a couple bits.
As far as Barron goes I'd recommend either Imago or Occultation as an introduction to his stuff, but The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All is by far his strongest collection.

Different user here, I think At the Mountains of Madness's ending was perfect. Lovecraft spends a massive chunk of the story building up the lore of the elders and then at the end our protagonists get to personally experience the horror that crushed the elders. What more could you ask for?

How's the list coming along, OP?

I’d use the penguin ones bc I think the annotations are pretty useful for the average reader.

Or how about the Oxford Classics edition that’s suppose to Collect all of his stories. It also has annotations.

Yeah, that's a solid choice as well. I have no idea why the creator of that chart picked Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories. It isn't a bad collection but there are so many better options.

Has Dean Koontz EVER written a good story?

Bumping for an answer to this.

>it
>in any list other than books to be burned asap

I just couldn't go on after Pennywise attacks an inmate after screaming THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN.

It doesn't help that Stephen King is such a fucking wuss.

>It doesn't help that Stephen King is such a fucking wuss.
What do you mean?

All of the stories in A Pleasing Terror are fully annotated as well, and the book also includes various scholarly articles on James. You don't know what you're talking about.

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post the fucking chart already OP I have to go to bed soon

Honestly, might be a good idea to do separate charts for short story collections and novels. I’ve seen many people who say horror is only good in the short format.

He's written good stories. None of them have been good books is the problem.

Imma finish it tomorrow,

please add this. Oliver is extremely underrated. The closest spiritual successor to MRJ without being pastiche

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Bumping to keep this thread alive.

Why do you think so?

Imagine being such a pleb that you read horror stories to get scared.

I am legend did not strike me as horror at all

ligotti has such a gay writing style. more like lifrotti.

Frotting with another dude is not gay, sorry.

Agreed. Some of Matheson's short stories are great horror, but I am Legend was more of a post apocalyptic thriller, imo

> it's another chart with tiny font
can you not tho

It's only a proper chart if it lacks the names of the books and only shows the covers, but has them downscaled very small and in jpg format so you can't read them well.

kek

For what it's worth, stay the fuck away from Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels. It has some if the worst dialogue I've ever read and everything outside of conversations is mediocre at best.

Hi

I agree, while enjoying his older works his new stuff is very boring and drawn out.

I would keep it in the chart anyway. It isn't very spooky, but there's a sort of dark edge to it that you rarely find outside of horror.

I think I'd almost argue for A Stir of Echoes over I am Legend if the argument is to include a Matheson novel.
It's one of my favorite "modern" takes on the gothic ghost story, includes Matheson's pulp-horror love of hypnotism as a catalyst for the Weird, and I found it more chilling at times than a lot of other horror I can think of off the top of my head

A Matheson novel should definitely be included; he's one of the most important post-Lovecraft horror authors. I think the best choices are: I Am Legend, Hell House, and A Stir of Echoes. At least one of those novels should be included on the chart.

it's tomorrow OP

I lied, make it yourself.

someone recomend me a modern psychological horror novel that will scare the shit out of me. Something that makes you question the sanity of the author. No gore or cheesy clown shit

You sound stupid so I decline to give you any help

Read some based Borges

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You aren't OP!

bump for interest

How about a modern horror novella that will depress the shit out of you? It comes with two unconnected short stories.

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Can anyone recommend me a book that is for horror what BotNS is for scifi/fantasy? Something that transcends the negative connotations of "genre fiction" by way of fantastic intoxicating prose, useful and unique insight, or just ingenius construction overall? Any and all recs are appreciated. Already a huge fan of Poe, Lovecraft, Matheson, and Clark Ashton Smith, already read Hill House, I Am Legend, some Laird Barron, a lot of Lovecraft, and much of King in my teen years. Nothing scratches this very particular itch of mine for literary horror. Any and all recs are much appreciated.

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Apparently Thomas Ligotti is considered literary horror, since he is one of the few living writers to get a penguin classics edition of his fiction.

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The Terror by Dan Simmons and The Fisherman by John Langan. Both books start out with epigraphs from Moby-Dick, and something about nautical literary horror really scratches an itch for me.

people like you are the reason why this board has gone to shit

If you read horror to get scared you are doing it wrong.

if you're an author who doesn't write horror to scare people then you're not a very good writer

How the fuck does an adult get scared by a fictional story? Horror is properly used to convey something beyond that. Do you think Lovecraft's stories are about him trying to spook people? Don't make me laugh.

Once you stop being a naive child, you realize that the real horror is reality. I can't think of a single horror story that's anywhere close to as horrifying as various things I've read about that actually happened. And if it existed I wouldn't want to read it.

ok "unsettle" then. I've read lots of horror stories that try to be scary but just end up being dumb.
The reason pet sematary is one of my favourite horror novels is because of how uneasy it made me feel after reading it. That's the kind of shit i look for when searching for horror lit

Fair enough. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect an effect like that.

IT's pretty great, at least until the ending. Still, you still get >1000 pages of interesting lore, plot, and characters up until then, so I say it should stay.

Thomas Ligotti is as literary as modern horror gets. He has everything you're looking for; good prose, unique insight, and ingenius construction. Start with Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe.

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Hey OP, how's that chart coming along? I'd love to help if you need it.

I've heard Robert Aickman is pretty good.

>Hey OP, how's that chart coming along?
Bumping for an answer to this. The thread should stay up until OP returns with the new chart.

kek

Hey Yea Forums, which William Hope Hodgson novels and short story collections should I check out? I already read The House on the Borderland, and I loved it.

Alright, but which works of his do you recommend?

I wouldent call it a straight horror novel, but some parts filled me with absolute dread. Thw follow up echopraxia is pretty good too but very different.

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Not who you're replying to, but Thief of always and Mister B Gone are two of my favorites. Great and secret show is pretty interesting but not great.

bump

Bump, OP can you give us an update on how it's going?

I’ve just been at work a lot this week, sorry ;-;

Castle was way better than Hill House imo.

That's okay, just let us know when you're working on it and what progress you're making. Don't rush, it's fine!

Are American Psycho and The Wasp Factory horror?

I wouldn't say they are classic horror, but they are definitely horrifying.

Even though I can see why people hate him I like lovecraft a lot

I think the biggest criticism he gets is that he uses crutches a lot but for a NEET autismo raised on incredibly specific books it makes sense

That's fine; just remember to drop by the thread every once in a while and give us an update. I'm looking forward to the chart.

I made this chart ages ago, based on Lovecraft's essay

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Very nice chart. Thanks, user.

I've saved and used this chart, it's very nice!

What's The Wasp Factory?

Bump

Bumping, and since horror is pretty close to the new Dark/Disturbing chart, I'd like to share it here

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Is The Tenant a worthy book? Polanski also made it into a movie

Thanks.

I haven't read it, but I know that Thomas Ligotti is a big fan of it.

How's it going, OP?

Bumping for an answer to this. This thread needs to stay alive until OP delivers the chart.

Bump

Bumpo

So which Robert Aickman short story collections should I check out? Are his novels any good?

I was gifted with Ligotti's Noctuary, I haven't read anything of him, which of the stories do you guys recommend to start with?

I'd suggest just reading them in order. Don't just pick a few, you'll get a more well-rounded feeling of his writing style and atmosphere if you read them all.

You lucky bastard, Noctuary has been out of print for years. Anyway, it's a fine place to start with him. Read the whole collection from the first story to the last.

Thanks a lot, will get into it as soon as I can

Opinions on The King in Yellow please?

>You lucky bastard, Noctuary has been out of print for years.
It's less than $10 on Kindle, along with several other out-of-print works of his.

They're good stories, you can really see how it influenced Lovecraft's work. Just skip the last two; they're purely romantic stories which he wrote because they were popular at the time, and are pretty boring in my opinion.

The Night Shade paperback editions are great.

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>which Robert Aickman short story collections should I check out
The Wine-Dark Sea and Cold Hand in Mine were my favorites.

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Yes, but I prefer physical books over ebooks and I would love to get my hands on a copy of Noctuary.

Before I give my opinions, I should specify what genres the stories are; The Repairer of Reputations, The Yellow Sign, and In the Court of the Dragon are horror. The Mask and The Demoiselle d'Ys are fantasy. The Prophets' Paradise is creepy prose poetry. The Street of the First Shell is a romantic war story. The other three stories (The Street of Four Winds, The Street of Our Lady of the Fields, Rue Barrée) are pure romance/decadence.

Now for my opinions; The Repairer of Reputations and The Yellow Sign are excellent. In the Court of the Dragon, The Mask, and The Prophets' Paradise are pretty good. The Demoiselle d'Ys is good, but it's the weakest of the weird stories. The rest of the stories are fine for what they are, but they pale in comparison to the weird stories. I got some entertainment out of the non-weird stories, but I doubt I'll ever bother rereading them. I recommend reading the entire collection, but if you do so, keep in mind that most of the stories aren't horror.

>the creepypasta collection
Is that any good?

I agree with you, but I would say that The Street of the First Shell is pretty good too. The war part is written well and I enjoyed it a lot more than the romantic stories.

Just waiting for the new chart

I honestly think there should be two separate charts for short story collections and novels.

I feel there's a lot of people who think that horror only really works with short fiction then in longer formats.

Just an idea.

>avoid all old and newer mediocre writers like Joe Hill and Dean Kootz
Koontz has written some good stuff, with the sheer amount of books he's published there are bound to be some duds but don't lump everything together and call it mediocre. As for the Joe Hill that I've read, NOS4A2 was solid and The Fireman was alright but nothing to write home about.

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Anyone got any horror novels that will make even more depressed i want some tragic fucked up shit

Interested in what you come up with OP. I used to follow a goodreads with really good shelves for horror/gothic but they disappeared.

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See:

Do you have a better quality pic? I can't read shit

Read the short story collections;
Occultation
The Imago Sequence
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
And then read the novel The Croning

The app I’ve used to make a previous chart got updated and now is too difficult to use. I can still post the entire ordered list I drew up but I don’t think I can make the chart unless I find a different program.

You can make a chart by using a grid in Word, that's how I made the Dark/Disturbing chart.
I can also help you with it if you'd like.

Oh shit, I hadn’t thought of that. Okay I’m gonna try that tonight

Good luck!

No, it's an old screenshot of one of their shelves. I'll post link if I can find it later.

Appreciate both your opinions just about to start it now glad to know it's worth the read.

Thanks, OP.

bump

Bump

bumping, also i've heard nick land's horror fiction is very good, can anyone confirm this? i've only read fanged noumena.

Let us know what you think of it!

>Cypher by Koja
So fucking awful.

Has anyone read Livia Llewellyn? I followed Laird Barron's recommendation and started reading her stuff. Very lewd, but not much horror.

Is it?

bump

Is Poppy Z. Brite worth getting into? I know she was very respected in the underground horror scene in the 1990s, and she's pals with Ligotti and Campbell.

I remember that guy, shame he stopped updating. Do you have his shelves saved?

bump

I am so glad I syopped reading all "horror" published after Lovecraft, the guy left a horrible legacy to lit as his followers took the worst of his work and made it even worser.

>something by Caitlin R Kiernan

The Very Best of short story collection that just came out or The Red Tree should be fine choices. I think The Drowned Girl is her best book, but her stories and The Red Tree are closer to traditional horror while The Drowned Girl is more of a psychological drama story with some fantasy and horror elements.

S. T. Joshi is working on a book called 21st-Century Horror: Weird Fiction at the Turn of the Millennium and these are the table of contents:

>Introduction

>I. The Elite
>Michael Aronovitz: Teller of Tales
>Gemma Files: Sex, Myth, and Film
>Adam Nevill: The Sense of Dread
>Mark Samuels: Corporate Horror and Others
>Simon Strantzas: The Cosmic and the Human
>Jonathan Thomas: A Study in Contrasts

>II. The Worthies
>Nicole Cushing: Suicide and Other Horrors
>Richard Gavin: The Nature of Horror
>Glen Hirshberg: The Sense of Place
>John Langan: Tales from the Heart
>Reggie Oliver: Ghosts and More Ghosts
>Clint Smith: Decaying Cities, Decaying Lives
>James Ulmer: Exponent of Quiet Horror

>III. The Pretenders
>Laird Barron: Decline and Fall
>Joe Hill: Like Father, Like Son
>Brian Keene: Paperback Writer
>Nick Mamatas: Failed Mimic
>Paul Tremblay: Borrowing from His Predecessors
>Jeff VanderMeer: An Aesthetic Catastrophe

>Works Cited
>Index

Could help in filling up the 21st century list, if we get confirmation that Joshi's opinions here are correct.

>even worser

There's no denying that a ton of hacks misunderstood Lovecraft's mythos and mangled it, but a bunch of great horror authors were influenced by him. Off the top of my head, there's Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell, and Robert Bloch, and I could probably come up with more great Lovecraftian horror authors if I took more time to think it over. Also, Robert Aickman, Richard Matheson, and Shirley Jackson are great, although Lovecraft didn't influence them.

I like Barron, Tremblay, and VanderMeer, so I don't know if I agree with this book.

It should be clarified that Joshi loves Barron's early work. He thinks Barron went downhill over the last few years.

Haven't read that book but is "pretender" nececarily negative?
Like "pretender to the throne" for in exile living monarch with a claim, next in line sort of deal?
Sort of second row instead of bottom of the barrel

I read some of those essays (which are already on his website). Yes, "pretender" is negative and these are mostly negative reviews.

I’ve read The Red Tree and then a couple short stories. I thought The Red Tree was a good but basically unexceptional horror story, but I’ve been way more impressed by her short stories. If The Very Best collection is a good and representative collection then I’d definitely include that.


Is that a forth coming book from Joshi? I think he’s great from excerpts I’ve read but I can’t find online versions of his books. I’ve only seen the chapter Barron and it’s fair enough.

Oh yeah I guess if I look closer those aren't book titles he's just aethering these lads

>Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell, and Robert Bloch
Hm, could you rec a very good story written by thse guys? I read one written by Ligotti and it was so silly I didn't even finish, but I am willing to try again.

>Robert Aickman, Richard Matheson, and Shirley Jackson
Never heard of matheson and shirley, what are his best stories?

>Ligotti
Which story of his did you try reading? I would like to find out before I give you any recommendations of his work.
>Campbell
Alone With the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961–1991
>Robert Bloch
Psycho
>Robert Aickman
Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories
>Richard Matheson
I Am Legend
>Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House

>Which story of his did you try reading? I would like to find out before I give you any recommendations of his work
I have no idea, it was two years ago, the only thing I remeber is that the protagonist was a librarian or some of that sort.

>Richard Matheson
I Am Legend
Did it receive a movie adaptation? I remember a movie with that title


Thanks for the recs, I will definitely give it a try. Generally I find "horror" stories written by non-horror writes better, there was a very good one in Las Armas Secretas by Cortazar, Kafka and Borges have some nice stories too.

>I have no idea, it was two years ago, the only thing I remeber is that the protagonist was a librarian or some of that sort.
Hmm, I'm not sure which story you read. Anyway, if you want to see Ligotti play around with Lovecraftian horror and horror tropes, start off with Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe. If you want something that's more Kafkaesque and has more of a sense of humor, start off with Teatro Grottesco.
>Did it receive a movie adaptation? I remember a movie with that title
Yeah, I Am Legend has been adapted to film many times. It isn't very spooky but it has vampires. It's a short novel about about isolation and survival.

I am ledgend was adapted into a movie 3 times but none are that close to the book

Of the 3 adaptations, The Last Man on Earth is the one that's the most faithful to the source material, although it has its flaws and isn't 100% faithful.

Not OP but are there instructions anywhere on how to do this?

No, I just fucked around with Word until I figured out what to do and how. I can help though:
>Save pictures
>Make a grid in Word
>Make the page size maximum (I think it is 51 cm by 51 cm) so your grid can be bigger
>You can change the paper colour if you want
>Center the text in the grid
>Paste the pictures, set the length size to a specific number for every picture (I used 8 cm) while keeping the ratio
>Choose a font, add text etc
>When you're finished, screenshot the parts of the chart and put them together in Paint (you have to be really precise if you want to keep everything exactly in the right spot)

I hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

If I’m on Mac what should I use for Paint?

It is till around the end of the film then it kinda just turns into a cliche horror flick. I do hope one day there is a fully faithful adaptation.

Different user here, I use paint.net. It's a free program that's similar to photoshop. It has a lot more features than paint, although you'll have to learn them. Anyway, here you go: www.getpaint.net

paintbrush.sourceforge.io/downloads/

I just Googled it, this should roughly be for Apple what MSPaint is for Windows.

Yeah, every adaptation has botched the ending. I too hope that we one day get an adaptation that stays really faithful to the source material.

Yeah it’s sad the books is so underrated it pretty much inspired all zombie/ last man works of the 20th and 21rst century

bump

I just started Exquisite Corpses and so far I'm really into it.

NOS4A2 is absolute garbage, one of the worst books i've ever read

How Important is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? It's famous enough to come down to us but in terms of influence?

Ran into another problem.

My Word doesn't seem to let me increase the page size. Only lets me use preset sizes.

Okay scratch that. I'm doing this in Google Docs now.

Will take me a couple of days. My chart will only be focused on short story collections.

if you do it do it properly. pirate photoshop

If Google Docs fails, try www.getpaint.net

I guess I could see how someone who loved Barron's early work might not be as big a fan of his more recent stuff, but I would disagree that he's gone downhill; just in a different direction. I'm still reading and enjoying pretty much everything he puts out.

bump

bump

another bump

Can you give us an update, OP?

Clark Ashton Smith had sex. He's not for the likes of/lit/

Anyone know how scary Dracula really is?

Okay it’s actually coming along now folks, I’ll post my progress in a little bit

Hell yeah!

It holds up surprisingly well; it has some very creepy scenes.

ty!

You're welcome. However, don't go into it expecting nonstop horror; there are stretches of it that focus on romance and drama instead of horror.

bump

>Ligotti
The Glamour is a good first story, or Les Fleur maybe. Very different but each representing a side of his work. It took me a few stories before I really started to click with his aesthetic and really got into it.

>Ramsey Campbell
The Companion or The Brood are both good stories. The Face that Must Die is probably his best novel, but it's in his stories that he really shines.

>Robert Aickman
The Hospice is his best story. It's in the collection mentioned by the other (you)

>Shirley Jackson
She's probably most famous for writing the story The Lottery but The Summer People is another great classic weird tale. Her novel Haunting of Hill House is another classic.

OK, here are some rough grids, still a work in progress though

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section 2

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I'm also gonna add the titles in text beneath each one and make sure they are lined up nicely. Also make sure they are totally in chronological order, rather than the rough order they are in now.

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That's going well!

>she

Nigger you best add pulp horror / the "paperbacks from hell" subgenre in there. Even if it isn't 'high literature', the sheer quantity and influence has maintained the horror genre for a long long time
>t. collects horror paperbacks

Edgy
Also that doesn't sound like a good idea. Even though they had a big influence, if the quality is shit then it has no business being on a chart like this.

>quality
>he says adding King and his son to the chart
Dubious.

Also the fact not one of you has mentioned Basil Copper is horrific. The Great White Space and his shorts were great, a spiritual successor to Blackwood IMO. Check him out.

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You're doing good. However, I would swap out the Subterranean Press press edition of Grimscribe with the Penguin Classics edition.

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Books of Blood should absolutely be there. It has some really good stories, definitely better than anything King ever wrote.

For Lovecraft, you should either put in The Complete Fiction (there's the Barnes and Noble edition, the Knickerbocker Classics, and the Chartwell Classics edition) or all three Penguin Classics books.

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I just realized I left two blanks at the end of that section so I think I’ll just include all three of the penguin editions.

Based. Here are the covers:

ccnlibraryblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/penguin-5.jpg

joannalesher.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/strandedinsalem-thethingonthedoorstep2.jpg

dynamic.indigoimages.ca/books/0141182342.jpg?altimages=true&scaleup=true&maxheight=515&width=380&quality=85&sale=14&lang=en (you'll have to crop this one)

Great work user!

Do not make the chart background white.

Yeah, if you could make the chart background black, that would be great.

bump

Someone horrorpill me on Laird Barron: I've read two stories of his and enjoyed them, but apparently he's become really awful lately. What's the cut off point for this guy?

>Ligotti
absolutely based, maybe the finest horror writer alive today

>The King In Yellow
the first five stories are the best horror literature I think I have ever read. The way he made me feel violated by just describing a creepy guy in a dream or the church organist is superb. Absolute kino. Don't start there though, it will spoil you for the other good stuff.

Phyl-Undhu is pretty disturbing, yeah.

I haven't read Barron, but I've read S. T. Joshi's review of him. Here's what Joshi would tell you:

Barron's best works:
>Occultation and Other Stories
>The Imago Sequence and Other Stories

Flawed but worthwhile:
>The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
>The Croning

Where Barron jumped the shark:
>Swift to the Chase

Swift to the Chase came out in 2016, so I guess 2016 is the cut off point for him.

>>Swift to the Chase
Typo; it's Swift to Chase, not Swift to THE Chase.

bump

bump

Bump! Keep it up OP

another bump

Bump!

bump

What do you guys think of Nick Cutter?
I'm pretty ADD so I don't read novels much, but this book was really gripping to me. Really good visual descriptions. Kinda pulpy but I enjoyed it a lot.
Anyone here read The Abyss?

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Duly noted, next version will be black background and white text.

I was debating that. The combo version came out only in 2015 but I think I’ll still locate it in the early 90s.


Any other adjustments folks? I’m about to get back at in. Any glaring omissions?

I’ve just started this and so far it’s good!

It didn't come out until recently, but all of the stories in it were published in the 1980s and 1990s, so it fits into the 1990s section.

bump

Is house on the Borderlands good? It sounds good. I never got around to reading it.

Is extreme gore tryhard?

Closer to gore than horror, so a lot like Joyce Carol Oates and Margret Atwood.
I wouldn't consider either or them horror writers but they're great at making you feel very unsettled.

If it isn't accompanied by a good plot and quality writing.

Been forever since I've read it but I wasn't really a fan.
Hodgson isn't a very compelling writer and where the night lands had at least had a setting and plot which tried to carry the whole thing borderland's just falls completely flat.

Its basically if Catcher in the Rye had the POV of a sociopath. Good book. Check it out.

Any love for The Ritual? First part wasn't bad and written fairly well.

Carter? Really?

Dammit dude you're still missing Books of Blood.
Also if you don't mind going a bit off, there's a series of music albums by Current 93 that are Ligottis stories set to ambience. They're pretty good. I have a special plan for this world is fantastic (nothing to do with the actual short story he wrote BTW)

Could you please give me a suggestion? Respectfully, I feel like trying to shock people is a crutch. I could stand killing, as long as the negative weight of it is acknowledged, but I would draw the line at any graphic depiction of rape. I simply reject the artistic merit of what would seem to most as sociopathic writings, since I view it as poison for the mind. I don’t agree that it is an ‘outlet’ for aggression, for example this was the reasoning for the music of Cannibal Corpse.

Anyone have thought on the Shadows Over Innsmouth anthology?

It's got some good writers that I recognize:
"Introduction: Spawn of the Deep Ones" by Stephen Jones
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft
"Beyond the Reef" by Basil Copper
"The Big Fish" by Jack Yeovil
"Return to Innsmouth" by Guy N. Smith
"The Crossing" by Adrian Cole
"Down to the Boots" by D. F. Lewis
"The Church in High Street" by Ramsey Campbell
"Innsmouth Gold" by David Sutton
"Daoine Domhain" by Peter Tremayne
"A Quarter to Three" by Kim Newman
"The Tomb of Priscus" by Brian Mooney
"The Innsmouth Heritage" by Brian Stableford
"The Homecoming" by Nicholas Royle
"Deepnet" by David Langford
"To See the Sea" by Michael Marshall Smith
"Dagon's Bell" by Brian Lumley
"Only the End of the World Again" by Neil Gaiman

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I'm the one who made the new Dark/Disturbing chart While I have not read most of the books on the chart, I've gotten a lot of suggestions and discussion about what should be on here and what not; I therefore have read a lot of opinions and information about these works. To give an example, Ass-Goblins of Auschwitz did not make the cut because even though it's over the top, it doesn't have the literary merit that would make it literature/good enough to be on the chart. Also because it was too bizarre to be truly dark/disturbing, but that's a bit beside the point.
While I haven't read them myself, I think books like American Psycho, 120 Days of Sodom, and The Eyes might be examples you're looking for. I don't know what you mean exactly by extreme gore, but I agree with you that 90% of the time it's a cheap tactic that's mostly paired with bad writing, because the target audience is only looking for cheap thrills. When the extreme gore comes to mean something, when it's a theme in a novel that's more than just shock tactic, then I would say that it has merit.
the most extreme works I myself have read are Maldoror (there are only two extreme passages in it, but they suddenly go all out and it catches you by surprise) and The Wasp Factory. While that is also not really extreme gore, it does go really dark really quick, and the violence has a meaning within the story.
I also read Wiesel's Night, but that's a bit different since it's non-fiction.
I hope this helps a little bit.

Thank you, friend. Night was assigned reading for my high school class, so I find it hard to believe it is in the same league as the likes of 120 Days of Sodom, which if I recall correctly the movie adaption has people eating shit. However, I very much enjoyed the Naked Lunch movie and I have read Interzone, so that is the choice that jumps out at me from this list.

Night is definitely not as extreme as the other works, but it is still a very dark novel, and the fact that it is nonfiction really added another layer of horror for me.
Have you read any of the works on the chart, by the way? I would love to hear what you think of them.

Artists like to be edgy in order to capture the "new" that they crave. There is nothing I would draw the line at however, including graphic depictions of rape, because to limit ideas is restrictive. Cannibal corpse is entry level death metal by the way, and when it comes to edginess, goregrind and brutal death are much worse than Tomb of the mutilated

It's excellent.

bump

>this was the reasoning for the music of Cannibal Corpse.
It's just for the laughs. To troll people. Same way how several members of Slayer are Christian.

>I'm the one who made the new Dark/Disturbing chart
I just finished Haunted an hour ago cause it was on the chart. Goddamit man, fuck you for wasting 11 hours of my life, that book is such fucking trash.

Neither Salo nor Naked Lunch have anything to do with the books beyond the name and the idea. I guess Salo could be kind of seen as a modern remake, but still. Naled Lunch is just completely different with nothing in common with the book.

The introductory essays in the Penguin editions are great but Joshi's notes are mostly useless unless you're an antiquarian or a James scholar.

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Is Books of Blood the best place to start with Clive Barker?

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>Wasted 11 hours of my life
I'm really sorry about that, user. I did not want to make version 2.9, but so many people complained about Haunted that I had to get rid of it, and sadly you now know why. If you want something a lot better, I can recommend The Wasp Factory. Either way, I hope you'll find a book you like.

Has anyone here read that William Sloane book?

I would say yes;

Finishing up pig island today. That wife is such an insufferable cunt and a horrible person. I dont know how it worked out this way, but she was the most disturbing part of the book.

bump

Sadly my eyes are completely fucked right now, so the only ones I can read Ade the ones with audiobooks, which is about 5-6 out of the whole list.

Yeah, in general its his first 3 collections and his first novel that are considered his best.

It's so weird that he went from cosmic horror to pulpy crime fiction.

That's a shame. I hope your eyes are okay soon, and let me know which one you're going to listen to next!

The Damnation Game? I thought The Great and Secret Show was considered his best novel.

Thanks, user. The only ones I could find were The Girl Next Door, Geek Love, The Drift, Justine/120 Days, Pig Island, and McCarthy's stuff. I think audible also has The End of Alice, Crash and I would assume Naked Lunch and Maldoror is somewhere around as well. Assuming American Psycho has an audio version too. Not really sure what I'm gonna do next, I'm probably gonna read something more upbeat next.

Is there a version of the Necronomicon that isn't thin flimsy material, or is generally higher quality? Been looking to get it but a fair handful of reviews say and shown that it doesn't seem up to snuff.

I have. They are a bit pulpy but pretty memorable. The second story is better than the first if I recall.

bump, how is it going OP?

Talking about Laird Barron.

It isn't that jarring when you realize the originally way he was considered innovative is he took the prose style of hardboiled crime (and Cormac McCarthy) and put it on Lovecraftian plots. It has been attempted before but he was the first one to do it well.

I think he just got tired of doing cosmic horror and wants to do something else.

update

On for some reason I thought you were replying to the Clive Barker post

Somewhat off-topic but I felt like it should be noted.

Horror author Dennis Etchison died a few days ago.

toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/2019/05/rip-dennis-etchison-1943-2019.html

Was most popular in the 70's and 80's, and while not super successful commercially was critically acclaimed by many in the genre like Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. Dude's stories were really good. I'd recommend his first collection The Dark Country.

I find it kind of odd that classic writers J. G. Ballard and William Burroughs both really like Barker (source: the blurbs on his books). Is he that great?

I made my horror story collections chart

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These are in no real order btw. I kind of just picked as I went along.

Seconding pretty much all of this post, except for Annihilation. That was mostly weird sci-fi. It was creepy but never outright horror.
House of Leaves, The Fisherman and Teatro Grottesco definitely need to be in the chart.

>Song of Kali
I honestly thought that was going to be a great book. I didn't expect it to be about a fucking left leaning asshole getting culturally enriched and that's the horror for the most part.

Bump

Spelling error: You wrote "collections might be hard to fine"

nice to see more anthologies
horror gets worse with length
in a real bookshelf though i would expect to see way more mixed-authorship anthologies like pic related or The Dark Descent

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forgot this guy too

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Ray Russel is so cheesy but fun

Can’t forget the big boy with the bad cover

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Remember that this thread will stop bumping once it has hit 300 posts. Use your bumps wisely. If OP hasn't finished his chart by the time this thread hits 300 posts, then a new thread will need to be made.

Need to get a used hardcover of this shipped

Put it in order you f*cking lazy assh*le. Either alphabetical or by time period, but not f*cking random.

>Is he that great?
Vols. 1-3 of the Books of Blood seem to be very well respected with horror buffs and IMO deservedly so. I've heard some people say his novels are more hit and miss, but the only novel of his I've read (and enjoyed) is The Thief of Always which is more of a twisted fable written for children/young adults.

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BUMP

OP again, here's an update

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Why is there an empty spot next to The Monkey's Paw? That section does not end until Smoke Ghost, right? Also, why does it say High Weird in the top left? Early Horror is the name of that section, and I just don't understand. Other than that, the chart looks great! Nice job putting in the 3 Penguin Lovecraft collections, they're really good.

I couldn’t think of another ‘classic’ to go in that section but I think I’m gonna fit in either The Golem by Mayrick, Vathek by Beckford or a collection by Guy de Maupassant. I’m looking at the chart based on Lovecraft’s essay and all those are on it.

For some reason the title of the second section got displaced, so that’s on the list of fixes. I just realized I also forgot to change the Ligotti cover so I’m also gonna do that.

I think I’ll also add another line on the 21st century section so I can include Edward Lee, Joe Lansdale, and hopefully some others if I can think of them.

Taking Edgar Poe's Fall of the House of Usher and adapting it into a full novel worked out surprisingly well in this. Are Robert McCammon's other books good?

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great work user!

Any thoughts on Gerald Kersh's Nightshade and Damnations? Apparently Harlan Ellison was a big fan of his work.

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I think this is the finished thing. Unless there is any glaring problems with this one I'm calling it finished.

Obviously it gets more subjective as it gets closer to the present but I think this does a good job balancing what is high quality with what is popular and influential. There is a lot more I wish I could have included but any more and it would have started to drop the quality too much.

Share it around if you think it's better than the original one!

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The Hellbound Heart is also decent, but very pulpy, kinda reads like a typical slasher movie (which is probably why Hellraiser ended up being good).
Books of Blood is really good. "In the Hills, the Cities" is an amazing mindfuck, read it for that if nothing else.

The only thing I would change is maybe specify Books of Blood 1-3, the other 3 aren't as good. But great job, I appreciate it a lot.

Great job OP!

You could use this Penguin edition that contains The Willows by Blackwood instead of just the short story.

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So as someone who grew up, then grew out of Stephen King, here’s what I have to say:

1.). His short stories are great, the very nature of the format means he can’t able for ~too~ long, I think he knows this as well

2.) king did his best work when co-author cocaine was helping him.

Some book titles have quotes on them, but most of them don't. Is there a reason for that?
Good fucking chart though, great job!

It’s because those ones are the title of a specific short story rather than the title of a novel or story collection.

Oh like that, that makes sense. I saved it, and will share it in future chart threads!

Worse writers like Koontz, this is not "my personal taste chart" but generally acknowledged books. If you don't like King, too bad, but IT was a big influence and his multiverse is interesting too.

That King has leftist views (nowadays) does not change the quality (or lack of it) of his books.
But IT and the Night Flier were good.

This.