The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
I've actually found a lot of the generic ghost stories compiled in children's books to have had the most lasting effect on me. There was one that was a collection of Christmas ghost stories to which a number of renowned authors contributed; the short story format had great impact - left more to the imagination, perhaps.
Some of GK Chesterton's Father Brown stories are very haunting.
Janson on
0
LibrarianThe face of liberal fascismRegistered Userregular
Lord of the Flies. Frightening. Especially if you are a fat kid with glasses.
Mwahaha, brilliant, gotta sig that!
And yeah, the end of the book when Piggie is smashed by the Rock is really disturbing.
But then it's got the biggest copout ending ever. I'm still mad about that, and it's been like 10 years since I read it.
The ending was perfect.
It was the whole point of the book. These kids descend into violence, and you sort of forget these are ten year old kids. And then the grown-ups show up, and suddenly you're reminded of this fact. These aren't warrior-people, they're skinny little British kids holding sticks.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
To contribute, I find from the ones I have read that King's short stories need to be even shorter, cause damn they fall apart. I was reading Library Policeman, and about halfway through I was freaked OUT.
Then
"I AM A BIG BUG WHO EATS YOUR FEAR! LET ME DRINK YOUR TEARS! HA HA HA HA HA!" Fuck a Lortz
Also, Secret Window was going SO WELL, then he tacked on the epilogue and killed it.
"His writing was so strong, it created a character...FOR REAL!"
Part of The Stand freaked me out, not only because of the whole world ending plague thing, but there was a mention of a faceless cloaked figure at one point. That hit home with me just because I had had a dream like that, so it was creepy to me where another it might not be. I will be checking out this House of Leaves.
Those are novellas. They're basically almost-novels, but a little too short. King's actual short stories are usually a lot tighter.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
I enjoyed Faery Tale, by Raymond E. Feist. It's a sort of melding between horror and fantasy- not all of it is scary, but parts are downright terrifying. Especially good if you into old Irish mythology, I'd wager.
Did anyone here read his sequel to House of Leaves? If its as good as people are saying the first one is I'd like to pick it up at the same time.
Or is it one of those things we don't talk about like the hitchhiker movie.
Wait, what? Sequel? I haven't heard anything about this.
Unless you're talking about Only Revolutions, in which case it:
Isn't a sequel to House of Leaves, and has nothing to do with it
Is an amazing book from a technical point of view
Is a really crappy book from a literary point of view
Aahhh
thanks for clearing that up. I kept reading that it was a follow up to House but I was never sure what that meant. So...not worth it?
I guess it depends on your definition of "worth it". It's definitely nothing like House of Leaves - it isn't scary or creepy at all. I would probably classify it (if that's even possible for this book) as a really twisted love story. So if you're looking for something in the vein of House, you'll be disappointed. And like I said before, it's really just not that great of a book. The story basically consists of two teenagers traveling across America (and apparently through time or something as well) having a whole lot of sex, and that's really about it. The whole thing is written as a poem, but not a very good one. It's just not a very good read.
That said, technically, it's pretty incredible. The entire book was designed around the concept of revolutions and cycles. The book is 360 pages long, and it tells the same story from each teen's point of view - 180 pages for the guy, 180 pages for the girl. Each story starts from opposite ends of the novel, and you read it by flipping back and forth between the two stories, working your way toward the center of the novel until the stories meet up (both literally and narratively), and then again spiral away from each other as you continue back to the other side of the book. On top of this, each page contains 360 words, and the novel supposedly contains exactly 129,600 words in total, or 360 squared. There are a lot of other neat little technical things like this that are worked into the novel, but it'd take me forever to list them all.
Unfortunately, in this case, the desire for such a specific format did more harm than good to the story. Hopefully in his next book he'll focus more on telling a good story than making a technically perfect novel.
At the recommendation of someone in this thread, I'm reading "John Dies at the End." It's not really scary, more "what the fuck"-y. Still bizarre as hell, though. When I'm done with it later tonight, I'm going to start on the sequel.
At the recommendation of someone in this thread, I'm reading "John Dies at the End." It's not really scary, more "what the fuck"-y. Still bizarre as hell, though. When I'm done with it later tonight, I'm going to start on the sequel.
Well, it really is more of a comedy than a horror novel. It's like the horror equivalent of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" basically. And just like Hitchhiker's Guide had some pretty interesting Sci Fi concepts in it, JDatE also has some terrifically scary sections as well. The stuff about the
Shadow People
Is really frightening and well done, and is thankfully the main focus of the sequel as well. Which is, in my opinion, better than the first book, but that's just me. The main problem with the first book is that he didn't originally intend to write it as a complete novel, but instead a collection of short stories about Dave and John's adventures. But as he did more and more he began melding them together and creating one cohesive novel out of all of them. While he does an admiral job, it's still pretty apparent while reading through it that it was written in sections instead of all at once. The sequel on the other hand, WAS written pretty much all at once, and the way he plans it out is really well done. There's a big payoff at the end of the sequel that is really just an amazing moment once you figure out what's going on, and it's overall just a great read.
John Cheese is one of the greatest figures in literary history. Everything he says or does is comedy gold.
At the recommendation of someone in this thread, I'm reading "John Dies at the End." It's not really scary, more "what the fuck"-y. Still bizarre as hell, though. When I'm done with it later tonight, I'm going to start on the sequel.
Well, it really is more of a comedy than a horror novel. It's like the horror equivalent of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" basically. And just like Hitchhiker's Guide had some pretty interesting Sci Fi concepts in it, JDatE also has some terrifically scary sections as well. The stuff about the
Shadow People
Is really frightening and well done, and is thankfully the main focus of the sequel as well. Which is, in my opinion, better than the first book, but that's just me. The main problem with the first book is that he didn't originally intend to write it as a complete novel, but instead a collection of short stories about Dave and John's adventures. But as he did more and more he began melding them together and creating one cohesive novel out of all of them. While he does an admiral job, it's still pretty apparent while reading through it that it was written in sections instead of all at once. The sequel on the other hand, WAS written pretty much all at once, and the way he plans it out is really well done. There's a big payoff at the end of the sequel that is really just an amazing moment once you figure out what's going on, and it's overall just a great read.
John Cheese is one of the greatest figures in literary history. Everything he says or does is comedy gold.
And then he shot the guy "right in the fucking cock"
How do you read that line, without laughing? You don't. I'm almost done with JDATE1 now, I'm on page 31. Hopefully, I'll start the sequel by tonight, after work.
Big DookieSmells great!DownriverRegistered Userregular
edited May 2007
That part was one of my favorite sections in the book. I love it when John talks about kicking the guy so hard he made the batteries fly out. I had to stop reading the first time I got to that part because I was laughing so hard.
Edit - Although the section I'm talking about is on page 34 and 35, so you may not have gotten there yet. You'll know it when you do though, because you won't be able to stop laughing.
You, like, look a the book and hold it in your hands, and it is kinda intimidating.
Kinda hard to figure out how to start reading. It is kinda neat. And if you are reading it in public, people kinda watch cause you are flipping the book over ever 8 pages or so.
Everything about it other than the story is very polished. The novelty kinda wears off before the book is over, and it doesn't really add new elements as it goes one. Always 16, or whatever, great. But, it doesn't build on itself, and the last have of the book is pretty much just downhill.
That part was one of my favorite sections in the book. I love it when John talks about kicking the guy so hard he made the batteries fly out. I had to stop reading the first time I got to that part because I was laughing so hard.
Edit - Although the section I'm talking about is on page 34 and 35, so you may not have gotten there yet. You'll know it when you do though, because you won't be able to stop laughing.
Yeah, I got there. Sheer awesomeness.
"EL SEIZURE! NO ES BUENO!"
I agree with most of the assessments here on Only Revolutions. It's an amazing book, technically speaking, and it's really well put together. And, like HoL, it'll have you thinking about it for some time, trying to figure out what happened, and what everything means. It's definitely worth a read. But yes, the story is pretty meh. I don't hold that against it too much, though, because I don't think the story was meant to be the main focus. The plot is just there to provide the book with an excuse to keep talking about these immortal kids, and explore their characters. In that sense, I think it succeeds.
As for JDATE, I started reading that once upon a time, but I couldn't keep it up. It's difficult for me to read long stretches of text on a computer monitor. If it's being published, I'll definitely pick it up, so I can finally read it.
In other news, I just finished reading Christine again. (Julie hunted me down a first print for Christmas. Also: Firestarter.) It had some really creepy parts, and reminded me how strong King's earlier works are compared to a lot of his later stuff. The ending, in particular, was chilling.
In a nutshell, the car is impossible to destroy, and will eventually find and kill everyone it doesn't like.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
As for JDATE, I started reading that once upon a time, but I couldn't keep it up. It's difficult for me to read long stretches of text on a computer monitor. If it's being published, I'll definitely pick it up, so I can finally read it.
$17 for a trade paperback isn't that much. They run at least fifteen bucks in a book store.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
0
Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
edited May 2007
I just finished John Dies at the End and loved it. Hilarious and creepy, often at the same time.
I have only one gripe:
(don't read the spoiler if you plan on reading the story. Seriously.)
John doesn't actually die at the end!
I mean, what the fuck?
Descendant X on
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
0
Podlyyou unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered Userregular
I would edit that last post, but the jailing puts the kibosh on that until June 9.
What I wanted to say, is I'm wrapping up JDATE, and it has one of the most "Jesus holy damn shit Christ" endings.
Think of the end of Fight Club, when you find out what the deal is with Tyler.
That's not even close to this.
Speaking of drugs, I heard someone mention that haunted house possession stories can be seen as metaphors for hard drug addiction. Anyone heard of that before?
King is pretty explicit in the memoir portion of On Writing that a lot of what he wrote in the late 70s/early 80s was directly informed by his alcoholism and cocaine addiction at the time. It would be hard to reread books like The Shining, The Tommyknockers or Misery without seeing how the protagonist's own spiraling loss of control (or, in some cases, actual addiction) translates from what King was going through at the time.
Also: No love for The Haunting of Hill House in this thread? It's only the best haunted house novel ever written.
I would edit that last post, but the jailing puts the kibosh on that until June 9.
What I wanted to say, is I'm wrapping up JDATE, and it has one of the most "Jesus holy damn shit Christ" endings.
Think of the end of Fight Club, when you find out what the deal is with Tyler.
That's not even close to this.
I wouldn't say that it was ultra crazy, but it ended up having a really good twist.
Screampunk on
0
LibrarianThe face of liberal fascismRegistered Userregular
edited May 2007
After following some recommendations on Amazon which were tied to House of Leaves I eventually found this book and ordered it:
I really hope this is as good and scary and deep as it sounds, I am not familiar with the works of Cormac McCarthy so far, only know that his book "All the pretty horses" was made into a movie and that I totally disliked the title and filed it under girlie-horse-movie in my mental movie/book directory, which was probably incorrect.
But it seems like his earlier works are generally very dark and weird tales from the wild west.
Also, what`s a good recent book by King? I was a huge fan of him from the age of 14 to 17 or so and read everything he wrote up to Dolores(including the Bachmann books), so I guess he will have written about 100 new books in the 13 years I have ignored his work.
The problem with King in my opinion is that after a while his books seem pretty formulaic, I read about 2 thirds of Desperation last year and ended up getting bored.
But it seems like his earlier works are generally very dark and weird tales from the wild west.
Funny you should mention such a phrase.
I have always found Nancy Collins to be a great writer of vampire(and werewolf)-fiction, (Due to her awesome character, Sonja Blue) but her books are never really that scary. If you are looking for a short story book that is full of horror-western stuff, then you really need to check outDead Man's Hand: Five Tales of the Weird West.
She won a Bram Stoker Award for her vampire novel Sunglasses After Dark and it spawned a bunch of sequels and short stories and such. As I said, they are much like Stephen King books, due to the fact that they are more intertaining horror, than real scary horror.
Check her out.
Edit: After much debate, I can safely say that she is my favorite writer.
I just finished John Dies at the End and loved it. Hilarious and creepy, often at the same time.
I have only one gripe:
(don't read the spoiler if you plan on reading the story. Seriously.)
John doesn't actually die at the end!
I mean, what the fuck?
Isn't the sequel called "John Dies at the End 2"?
It's been awhile since I finished the book but unless I've completely messed things from the end up in my head
John DOES die some time before the end. The "John" who narrates the entire last section, from the time he has something in his shed onward, is in fact not John but the otherworldly doppleganger. He just breaks with his supposed mission, is accept by John's friends, and goes on to lead John's life
werehippy on
0
Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
I just finished John Dies at the End and loved it. Hilarious and creepy, often at the same time.
I have only one gripe:
(don't read the spoiler if you plan on reading the story. Seriously.)
John doesn't actually die at the end!
I mean, what the fuck?
Isn't the sequel called "John Dies at the End 2"?
It's been awhile since I finished the book but unless I've completely messed things from the end up in my head
John DOES die some time before the end. The "John" who narrates the entire last section, from the time he has something in his shed onward, is in fact not John but the otherworldly doppelganger. He just breaks with his supposed mission, is accept by John's friends, and goes on to lead John's life
Nope. Dave is the one who is killed and replaced by the doppelganger.
Descendant X on
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
I really hope this is as good and scary and deep as it sounds, I am not familiar with the works of Cormac McCarthy so far, only know that his book "All the pretty horses" was made into a movie and that I totally disliked the title and filed it under girlie-horse-movie in my mental movie/book directory, which was probably incorrect.
But it seems like his earlier works are generally very dark and weird tales from the wild west.
Also, what`s a good recent book by King? I was a huge fan of him from the age of 14 to 17 or so and read everything he wrote up to Dolores(including the Bachmann books), so I guess he will have written about 100 new books in the 13 years I have ignored his work.
The problem with King in my opinion is that after a while his books seem pretty formulaic, I read about 2 thirds of Desperation last year and ended up getting bored.
I dunno about horror, but McCarthy writes very good violence. No Country for Old Men is fucking bananas, and I've heard Blood Meridian is moreso.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The focus isn't to scare but I think it's short enough so that it's moments are worth reading the entire thing since it is a good story.
We Can Get Them For You by Neil Gaiman. That title probably isn't accurate but the ending, short as it may be, really got me for a moment.
Posts
Some of GK Chesterton's Father Brown stories are very haunting.
Mwahaha, brilliant, gotta sig that!
And yeah, the end of the book when Piggie is smashed by the Rock is really disturbing.
But then it's got the biggest copout ending ever. I'm still mad about that, and it's been like 10 years since I read it.
The ending was perfect.
Those are novellas. They're basically almost-novels, but a little too short. King's actual short stories are usually a lot tighter.
Or is it one of those things we don't talk about like the hitchhiker movie.
Unless you're talking about Only Revolutions, in which case it:
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
Aahhh
thanks for clearing that up. I kept reading that it was a follow up to House but I was never sure what that meant. So...not worth it?
That said, technically, it's pretty incredible. The entire book was designed around the concept of revolutions and cycles. The book is 360 pages long, and it tells the same story from each teen's point of view - 180 pages for the guy, 180 pages for the girl. Each story starts from opposite ends of the novel, and you read it by flipping back and forth between the two stories, working your way toward the center of the novel until the stories meet up (both literally and narratively), and then again spiral away from each other as you continue back to the other side of the book. On top of this, each page contains 360 words, and the novel supposedly contains exactly 129,600 words in total, or 360 squared. There are a lot of other neat little technical things like this that are worked into the novel, but it'd take me forever to list them all.
Unfortunately, in this case, the desire for such a specific format did more harm than good to the story. Hopefully in his next book he'll focus more on telling a good story than making a technically perfect novel.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
As much as I love those two...how the hell is that supposed to work?
It looks awesome.
Also, they are making Stephen King's The Mist into a movie as well.
I can't wait.
:!!: :!!: :!!:
Is really frightening and well done, and is thankfully the main focus of the sequel as well. Which is, in my opinion, better than the first book, but that's just me. The main problem with the first book is that he didn't originally intend to write it as a complete novel, but instead a collection of short stories about Dave and John's adventures. But as he did more and more he began melding them together and creating one cohesive novel out of all of them. While he does an admiral job, it's still pretty apparent while reading through it that it was written in sections instead of all at once. The sequel on the other hand, WAS written pretty much all at once, and the way he plans it out is really well done. There's a big payoff at the end of the sequel that is really just an amazing moment once you figure out what's going on, and it's overall just a great read.
John Cheese is one of the greatest figures in literary history. Everything he says or does is comedy gold.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
And then he shot the guy "right in the fucking cock"
How do you read that line, without laughing? You don't. I'm almost done with JDATE1 now, I'm on page 31. Hopefully, I'll start the sequel by tonight, after work.
Edit - Although the section I'm talking about is on page 34 and 35, so you may not have gotten there yet. You'll know it when you do though, because you won't be able to stop laughing.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
Typographically and shit, it is amazing.
You, like, look a the book and hold it in your hands, and it is kinda intimidating.
Kinda hard to figure out how to start reading. It is kinda neat. And if you are reading it in public, people kinda watch cause you are flipping the book over ever 8 pages or so.
Everything about it other than the story is very polished. The novelty kinda wears off before the book is over, and it doesn't really add new elements as it goes one. Always 16, or whatever, great. But, it doesn't build on itself, and the last have of the book is pretty much just downhill.
Yeah, I got there. Sheer awesomeness.
"EL SEIZURE! NO ES BUENO!"
I gotta try that sometime.
As for JDATE, I started reading that once upon a time, but I couldn't keep it up. It's difficult for me to read long stretches of text on a computer monitor. If it's being published, I'll definitely pick it up, so I can finally read it.
In other news, I just finished reading Christine again. (Julie hunted me down a first print for Christmas. Also: Firestarter.) It had some really creepy parts, and reminded me how strong King's earlier works are compared to a lot of his later stuff. The ending, in particular, was chilling.
Just watched it.
My faith is restored.
Here
Wong used to have it on CafePress but as soon as he got a real publisher he had to take that down. $17 is a bit much, though.
I have only one gripe:
(don't read the spoiler if you plan on reading the story. Seriously.)
I mean, what the fuck?
What I wanted to say, is I'm wrapping up JDATE, and it has one of the most "Jesus holy damn shit Christ" endings.
Think of the end of Fight Club, when you find out what the deal is with Tyler.
That's not even close to this.
King is pretty explicit in the memoir portion of On Writing that a lot of what he wrote in the late 70s/early 80s was directly informed by his alcoholism and cocaine addiction at the time. It would be hard to reread books like The Shining, The Tommyknockers or Misery without seeing how the protagonist's own spiraling loss of control (or, in some cases, actual addiction) translates from what King was going through at the time.
Also: No love for The Haunting of Hill House in this thread? It's only the best haunted house novel ever written.
Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
I really hope this is as good and scary and deep as it sounds, I am not familiar with the works of Cormac McCarthy so far, only know that his book "All the pretty horses" was made into a movie and that I totally disliked the title and filed it under girlie-horse-movie in my mental movie/book directory, which was probably incorrect.
But it seems like his earlier works are generally very dark and weird tales from the wild west.
Also, what`s a good recent book by King? I was a huge fan of him from the age of 14 to 17 or so and read everything he wrote up to Dolores(including the Bachmann books), so I guess he will have written about 100 new books in the 13 years I have ignored his work.
The problem with King in my opinion is that after a while his books seem pretty formulaic, I read about 2 thirds of Desperation last year and ended up getting bored.
I have always found Nancy Collins to be a great writer of vampire(and werewolf)-fiction, (Due to her awesome character, Sonja Blue) but her books are never really that scary. If you are looking for a short story book that is full of horror-western stuff, then you really need to check out Dead Man's Hand: Five Tales of the Weird West.
She won a Bram Stoker Award for her vampire novel Sunglasses After Dark and it spawned a bunch of sequels and short stories and such. As I said, they are much like Stephen King books, due to the fact that they are more intertaining horror, than real scary horror.
Check her out.
Edit: After much debate, I can safely say that she is my favorite writer.
It's been awhile since I finished the book but unless I've completely messed things from the end up in my head
I dunno about horror, but McCarthy writes very good violence. No Country for Old Men is fucking bananas, and I've heard Blood Meridian is moreso.
The focus isn't to scare but I think it's short enough so that it's moments are worth reading the entire thing since it is a good story.
We Can Get Them For You by Neil Gaiman. That title probably isn't accurate but the ending, short as it may be, really got me for a moment.
omg guyz order of teh phoenix lolz!!!!!1!!1!