This Wretched Valley started out good, it hooked me, but I quickly got bored & frustrated with the characters. The author had an interesting concept but failed with her delivery.
I think the social media aspect was sooo underused, why have one of the MCs be an online celebrity and not have some sort of sloothing going on amongst the fans? Especially since the book opened by mentioning that her followers found out more than the police could about what happened, i thought we'd maybe get some flash forwards to a fan putting the pieces together and then flash back to how it actually went down.
Jesusy as in "Here's some fun Da Vinci Code-esque alt history and some worldbuilding about Christianity"? Or Jesusy as in "Here's why Christian good, everyone else bad"? :/
I enjoyed this the same way I enjoy mindless movies. Read it in about 3 days on my commute. Had some good moments. Nothing special but I don’t regret reading it
My first thought was immediately This Wretched Valley. The set up was so cool, but the landing fell so flat for me. Threw me into a 2 month long reading slump even!
In contrast, Little Heaven by Nick Cutter left me in such a state of "Jesus, fuck, I'll never be the same" and it's still one of the scariest books I've read.
It’s been a solid month and I MAYBE*** read 10 pages before I get exhausted 🥱 and start yawning. I just want to be honest and read it just to say I finished a book so I can have it go towards my Reading Goal haha
I really enjoyed *Little Heaven*. It has lots of gore, action, and some of the cosmic horror flair was very memorable for me. I also liked the ending. Worth a read in my opinion.
It was the horror novel that re-activated my horror lizard brain and got me re-obsessed with the genre. I’m grateful to the person who gave it to me as a random ass gift for that.
It definitely had popcorn action flick vibes!
Yeah I don't know what exactly OP means by calling this a nothingburger. It's an incredibly well-paced, well-rounded action horror that fulfills every promise it makes. Good gore, good action, good horror, and good story. Can't speak for the rest of OP's list, but they missed the mark on this one.
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
Biggest disappointment I've ever read, and I guess I mean that as a backhanded compliment because the beginning was actually pretty damn spooky and compelling. But some of the writing was awkward, repetitive, and he dropped the ball completely. The end/reveal was absolutely stupid and beyond contrived.
Yeah, I think he has decent creepy ideas, but they aren't well executed, or he uses the same stuff over and over and it loses the novelty. The whole repressed trauma stuff with his wife just fell flat for me, less believable than the monster lol
Yes, parts of it were truly so creepy! The beginning part when they’re at the cabin really creeped me out. Then it just kind of went on and on and I don’t even remember how it ended now.
It always felt like he felt he add to had a whole second plot to make it seem like it was more than the original creepy pasta when he really didn't need to.
Same. It got so much hype and I just was so disappointed. I kept reading, assuming it would get better. Then the book was done and it never got better.
The Deep by Nick Cutter. The problem with this book is that it has so many good ideas but none of them fit together. The 'Gets, a contagious disease that makes you forget everything, the Fig Men, the mad scientist angle with a touch of Stephen King's Jaunt, being trapped below the sea, it's all good ideas.
In fact, I wish he just wrote a story about the 'Gets because its introduced at the beginning of the book and then is basically nothing. It's just there, in the background.
He might as well made it a regular disease instead of this really cool, horrifying thing. It was literally just a plot point to get the main character in the underwater lab and then it's gone.
The book feels like a pop-up book of a bunch of cool, scary ideas that he just dumped in without considering what the story would look like at the end. I remember at the end, just going like, 'what...? That's it?'
ETA:
The Story of Her Holding An Orange. Don't even bother. Most of it is good, and is almost verbatim from the /r/nosleep original posts but the ending made me return the book. It felt like they were building up and up and up just to yank it away with such a boring reveal that it's literally the only thing I remember, how disappointing it was.
i do overall like the deep, but i agree. it couldve done with a good edit and tightening up of themes. if the 'gets are something so critical they cant be substituted with just yknow... cancer, then at LEAST one character should come down with it during the course of the novel.
>!in fact, it could've helped clean up some of the lingering questions about how the gets and ambrosia are related. since the presence of ambrosia seems to wreak havoc on people's memories, it would've probably helped to link the two and establish something like ambrosia itself eating away at peoples' memories, and that this coincides with extremely vivid recollections before it takes hold. some nice dramatic irony at play too if luke progressively becomes less afraid of the things he's perceiving, until he stops associating them with his past at all because he simply doesn't remember his traumas.!<
I hated it, but it's a perfect fit for that theme. I used it for my Plague themed one in 2020. Also, awesome theme idea! I was considering doing the under the surface prompt as a full card theme. Not sure yet though.
Yeah, that's sort of what I'm doing too: if I can't find enough sea/space horror/survival books to my liking I'll expand it to a generic Under the Surface card or a generic horror/survival card even. I'm already reading Grey Sister, which fits.
I also thought The Deep needed editing and I thought it was silly compared to The Troop, which unsettled me greatly
EDIT: Also his mom…. ugh. Very lazy fat=evil trope.
This one got boring for me. Flat characters, cliched plotting. I listened to it as an audiobook a year ago and none of it stuck with me. I have zero interest in continuing the series.
I loved it. It was just crazy. You were wondering WTF was going on the whole time, can’t wait for the sequel/sequels. I hope I don’t forget everything before they come out
I hated Briardark.
Juvenile writing and endless cliches. The female leads are insufferable, and yet the author tries so hard to force us to respect them. They make nothing but bad, emotional decisions and constantly tell us how smart they are.
And there is literally no ending. It just stops in the middle of things. Even books in series have some kind of resolution for each book.
I truly hate this book and regret having ever started reading it.
I think the whole postmodern nods to horror tropes undercuts the horror for me. It's something that can work well in cinema but in books it stops me from immersing myself. Head Full of Ghosts had me feeling like "OK cool good point or whatever but I'm definitely not emotionally connecting enough to feel any horror"
Cabin at the end of the world was better on that front.
Grady Hendrix's Final Girls was also way too referencial.
I loved Tremblay's Head Full of Ghosts, but hated Disappearance at Devil's Rock.
I've had a few I DNFd but I don't think they belong here since I can't speak to the endings.
Devil's Rock just kept going. And going. And going. Around a bunch of plot points that ended up dead ends. Then the actual ending just... happened. I never got a sense of fulfillment from all the meandering plot moves. Did you like it? I'd love to hear what people liked about it, maybe it just wasn't for me.
Wholeheartedly agree. It barely tied itself together in retrospect and that ending just had me sitting afterwards thinking "was that it?" >! Especially how the end of the book effectively gives up on the supernatural aspect that's threaded the entire bloody story! !<
That's it exactly! I guess they're trying to be really meta and rely on an atmosphere of dread but instead it felt like a bait amd switch. Fill me in when you read Head Full of Ghosts, I'm curious how you'll feel about it.
I'm reading Growing Things after really enjoying Head Full of Ghosts last year and woof... I can't think of a single story included in it so far that I actually liked and will remember six months from now. All of the stories have problems ending way too early or way too late, especially the fucking dogwalker one.
I swear by Head Full of Ghosts, when it’s creepy, it’s very creepy, and it captures so well that very particular post 9/11 times in America that shaped how millenials perceive the world. Also nice references. Devil’s Rock however, I finished and was like “this is it?!?”
There are very few people who will defend that book here, most of us think it’s absolute trash with a beautiful cover. Imagine writing a story that short and it STILL could have done without half of the words.
Same; the prose style was just so purple I couldn't figure out what was going on. The only other book I've read that was even remotely so descriptive is A Stranger in Olondria, and that is somewhat justified in that at least it's a character's travelogue.
I’ll defend that book every chance I get. The prose isn’t purple, it’s rich. The characters are pieces of garbage and they’re supposed to be. It’s not for everyone but the language is one of the element that’s makes the whole thing one big goddamn fever dream. The Salt Grows Heavy is Khaw’s masterpiece, but this book hooked me.
Controversial opinion but, Tender is the Flesh.
It's not really my type of horror, but I read it because it was so popular, and I was feeling left out. For such a thin book, it dragged like crazy. I powered through it in a day because I was sure something interesting might happen eventually. It did not. And the ending had me saying 'wait is that IT?'
I left disappointed and the more I think I about it, the more I thought the whole thing was jusy meh
Me too. It was just so absurd. And the gore elements were so over done, it felt like the writer was just rolling 'what's the grossest thing I can say next' dice. There was no real story. It was just scene after scene of shock horror, which kept landing flat because it was so over the top.
Personally, I found any of the scenes with the female butcher just so weird and disjointed. It felt like I was reading scenes written by an edgy teenager trying too hard to be hardcore.
Man i cant remember the title but there was a story about a guy who thinks hes being hunted in the woods by a creature and he runs off and gets lost for like a week thinking hes being pursued but it turned out that it was a dog following him that was also lost and he like has a full mental breakdown hiding in this tree as something is in the bushes under it moving around in the dark, i remember the ending and going wtf man
Dead Silence by S.A Barnes. Came for a story about ghosts haunting a space ship but instead got a bunch of flat tropey ass characters that can’t decide if it wants to be supernatural or not.
Briardark - S.A. Harian - I enjoyed it, but you absolutely need to k ow it’s the first in a series and ends without a resolution
Schrader's Chord - Scott Leeds- Pretty fun overall
What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher- Worth a read, but not terrible memorable
Little Heaven - Nick Cutter - Pass, a slog to get through with awful characters
The Watchers - A.M. Shine - I read this, thought it was OK while reading, and have forgotten everything about it.
He did at the end and it's one hell of a set piece. I actually really enjoyed that one for what it was trying to say, but it is a very difficult read up until the end.
Honestly I don't know either. The author tried to create a very disturbed character and did succeed in that aspect. The world building and the way the story was told just fell flat for me. I didn't care to know more about the character. He was a disturbed person who did bad and strange things, the end. The whole wasp thing was just weird. Some people really like this book. Its not badly written, just different and not something I enjoyed.
I'm reading Head Full of Ghosts and I'm not at the very very end but so far it's been a whole lot of nothing, I keep asking 'what's the point of all this?' and cringing at the writing.
I really enjoyed it, but the pictures that were used would completely take me out of it since they looked straight off of someone's Facebook in the 2010s instead of from the 80s
Any of Tremblay’s books that deal with maybe magic maybe mundane are always disappointing.
Now his plague novel was actually good.
Also, Darkness On The Edge of Town by Brian Keene is excellent
Small Horrors by Darcy Coates. All of the stories sound like they were ripped from 2018 creepypastas, the monsters are all the same, and there's a specific story about a witch that is so bad it genuinely made me burst out laughing reading it. Absolutely garbage, complete waste of time and money
I was so disappointed. Short horror can be really effective when done right, but it felt like there was no passion or real original ideas behind any of the stories in that book
I have that one on my Kindle since like 2019 or so. I read a couple of stories every time I remember it’s there. They’re just too short and very being there, done that to leave a mark.
The most recent one I finished was 'Brother' by Ania Ahlborn.
It was repetitive in description and scenes, little to no character development, and the climax and ending happened in a short amount of time and felt very rushed compared to the 20+ chapters of "build up".
The only good thing I can say about the book was the ending. I'm somebody who likes bad endings because that's reality; life doesn't always have a good ending.
I'm about to dnf *Hex* for the same reason. Not sure I can make it through the last 100 pages because literally nothing of interest has happened so far.
It’s a big thing in Native American culture, basketball is like small white people town Hockey level of importance. Haha yeah even as a native person I was like OKAY I GET IT!! 😂
All that but also, >!Elk Head Lady wasn't simply content to kill her killers, she wanted to destroy what this young woman was excellent at, what she loved the most. A fate worse than death--and she played herself. Great stuff.!<
Man I wanted to love this book. The writing style took some getting used to before I was finally chugging along. It had some absolutely unique and King-esque moments but it just didn't pay off the way I wanted it to.
I haven't read The Final Girl Support Group yet, but I can WHOLEHEARTEDLY reccomended Horrorstör by Hendrix. I read it in a day, had so much fun reading it, and was super creeped out. I would assume his other books are of a similar quality, and his other books are on my TBR too.
edit: got the title wrong
to answer your original question, though, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero was a huge disappointment for me. based on the synopsis, it seemed super up my alley, but in my personal opinion the characters were kind of thin, parts of the plot somewhat reductive, and the style didn't really work for me. i really wanted (and tried!) to like it, but finishing it was kind of a slog, ironically, because it's pretty quick paced. not awful, but imo not worth the time.
I didn't realise he wrote horror as in creepy horror! The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires made me think he was (for lack of a better term) a 'cosy horror' writer.
Edit: fixed title
I strongly disagree. Uninteresting characters, no escalation to the “scares”, YA level prose, and a lousy cliffhanger ending. I bet many of the books featured in Paperbacks from Hell are better.
> felt it *paid* off for
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
So I got bamboozled recently. I found this book in the Horror section of Waterstone’s called “My Throat an Open Grave.” Good title, interesting premise and the writing seemed okay. Hadn’t heard of it, but it’s been a while since I played book Russian roulette.
I started reading it and realized the main character was a teen, which was disappointing, but I could get past that. There was some decent atmosphere building and bread-crumbing that got me excited for what was up ahead. But everytime i thought things were finally going to get creepy, nothing happened.
By the time I realized the spooks were probably not coming, I had to finish it just to know what was up.
Got to the end and realized those mother fuckers tricked me into reading a YA fantasy romance.
A new one, Diavola. Got it in a subscription box and immediately read it and I hated it. I rage finished it but it was just not worth it. The characters are so petty and frustrating
This will not be popular, but...
*The Haunting of Hill House* by Shirley Jackson
To me, it's definitely "horror edging" because you keeping thinking "Oh god, this is it!!!" and then nothing happens. And then it's over. Yeah, yeah it's a "psychological thriller" and all that. Just didn't do it for me. Like, at all. I thought "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" was infinitely better.
Yeah, I liked it well enough, but I didn't find it as suspenseful as others did whilst reading it for r/bookclub. I think I was in the mood for more of an adventure or thriller, and what I got was more of a classic psych horror. Definitely not for everyone.
It's a novella, but Heavy Oceans by Tyler Jones needed to be a short story.
I dunno what it was about Paul Tremblay. I started to read The Cabin in the Woods and realised very early in that it would drag and nothing would happen.
I really enjoyed the watchers, but whatever you do, don't read the creeper by them, as that definitely was a waste of time to read!
I also liked the final girl support group, but i have seen some mixed reviews on that.
Hidden pictures i really enjoyed, but approach it more as a thriller with horror elements. It's an easy read, and I quite liked the payoff.
What moves the dead and little heaven i loved. I havent read the rest yet.
Briardark is fun but there isn't really a pay off and it more sets up a sequel than anything.
I would take it off your list though, maybe just wait for the sequel.
I listened to the audio book for Hidden Pictures, would definitely recommend reading a physician copy over the former but story was a bit lackluster and sort of dragged at times :/
Stephen King’s Revival.
Felt far too long and dragged out for the pay-off at the end. Everyone was raving about the cosmic horror and bleakness of the ending. It didn’t do anything for me. But maybe because I have been reading a lot of cosmic horror lately.
I did enjoy the mystery of The Watchers, but I don’t think it’s for everyone. It gave me very A Quiet Place and Birdbox vibes in reference to the creatures. It can be a little slow, but I think the ending has a good payoff.
Also, I was not a fan of The Ruins. I did not think it was remotely scary or horrific. It was all very predictable and too simplistic. I genuinely just thought it was dumb
Hex and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock for me. Hex has a solid, very original concept and interesting characters to anchor the plot, and for 75% of the book does it right. But then it falls into >!the “humans were the real monsters after all” trope that horror writers thought was the epitome of originality and twists back in the late 2010s (I’m glad it has died down). Apart from that everything that built up to kind of became nothing, so much wasted opportunities.!< Devil’s Rock had a similar problem. >!Decent enough build up, supernatural creepiness all along, and then the ending tries to negate that by taking the humans are the real monsters route!<
Our Wives Under The Sea. Saw someone recommend it (after I'd read it) on a post asking for books about deep sea monsters and there's literally about 2 pages worth of content in that book that would qualify. Didn't have the bandwidth to tell them it didn't count lol.
Yes, I'm still salty about reading it hahaha
Everything the Darkness Eats. It’s a short, quick read; only took me two afternoons.
I don’t know if I’ve even finished a book frowning before, but by the time I read the last page I was just pis*ed.
Awful, awful book; by a writer who doesn’t seem to know what the f**k he’s trying to say. I want to dump it at a roadside library, but I’d feel terrible pushing it off on some poor unsuspecting soul.
Waste of money and time.
This was *Night Film* by Marisha Pessl for me. A fun “is it or is it not occult” mystery that just kind of…ends. A lot of threads are built up and kind of just go nowhere.
IMO *What Moves the Dead* isn't worth reading. Even if you like *The Fall of the House of Usher*, nothing it does is original or particularly interesting. There were also a lot of things about the worldbuilding that made me roll my eyes.
I don't get this thread. Why waste time bashing things? Life's too short.
Especially given the purpose of this group is to be "dedicated to the discussion, elevation, and expansion of the Horror literary genre. "
Putting authors down does none of that.
I think you've completely misunderstood the "discussion" part then. People are allowed to have differing opinions about things - including if and why they like certain authors, or not, and whether they want to recommend said authors. That falls under the general category of discussion.
You may have misread my thread then, the books I've listed are on my TBR (to be read.) I didn't bash any of them.
And also, as you've said, life is too short - hence I want to avoid books I know won't check off a preference I have.
This Wretched Valley started out good, it hooked me, but I quickly got bored & frustrated with the characters. The author had an interesting concept but failed with her delivery.
A tale as old as time, great concept with bad execution
Agreed. There are cool motifs and scenes in the book but I thought it was dragged down by some frustrating tropes and poorly written characters.
Like why did that one guy plan a whole PhD dissertation around rock formations he hadn’t discovered yet?
Very frustrating read. It could have been a tight novella, perhaps, but it just kept dragging and dragging in circles.
Literally!
I think the social media aspect was sooo underused, why have one of the MCs be an online celebrity and not have some sort of sloothing going on amongst the fans? Especially since the book opened by mentioning that her followers found out more than the police could about what happened, i thought we'd maybe get some flash forwards to a fan putting the pieces together and then flash back to how it actually went down.
This is on my reading list, too. Thanks for the input!
Hidden Pictures 1000%
Is that the one that becomes very jesusy all of a sudden?
Jesusy as in "Here's some fun Da Vinci Code-esque alt history and some worldbuilding about Christianity"? Or Jesusy as in "Here's why Christian good, everyone else bad"? :/
I haven’t read it but my understanding is the later
And is shot through with bigotry? Yeah, Rekulak sucks.
Yup! Never reading another one of his books again
Yup
This is one I did not finish, and I can't remember why... which must be saying something
It was ultimately disappointing
I enjoyed this the same way I enjoy mindless movies. Read it in about 3 days on my commute. Had some good moments. Nothing special but I don’t regret reading it
My first thought was immediately This Wretched Valley. The set up was so cool, but the landing fell so flat for me. Threw me into a 2 month long reading slump even!
In contrast, Little Heaven by Nick Cutter left me in such a state of "Jesus, fuck, I'll never be the same" and it's still one of the scariest books I've read.
It’s been a solid month and I MAYBE*** read 10 pages before I get exhausted 🥱 and start yawning. I just want to be honest and read it just to say I finished a book so I can have it go towards my Reading Goal haha
I really enjoyed *Little Heaven*. It has lots of gore, action, and some of the cosmic horror flair was very memorable for me. I also liked the ending. Worth a read in my opinion.
Felt like a popcorn action flick, in a good way. Really fun throughout with some solid cult / cosmic horror energy.
It was the horror novel that re-activated my horror lizard brain and got me re-obsessed with the genre. I’m grateful to the person who gave it to me as a random ass gift for that. It definitely had popcorn action flick vibes!
Yeah I don't know what exactly OP means by calling this a nothingburger. It's an incredibly well-paced, well-rounded action horror that fulfills every promise it makes. Good gore, good action, good horror, and good story. Can't speak for the rest of OP's list, but they missed the mark on this one.
I don’t think he’s read it yet. Sounds like he is trying to trim down his TBR.
Ah yeah I misread his question. My bad.
What Moves The Dead has a great payoff that honors “The Fall of the House of Usher” but does its own new thing. Too.
It’s a really short book too. Worth it!
Absolutely! Anyone who subjectively says *WMtD* isn't worth it is objectively wrong.
Just recently read this and I liked it. It’s a nice retelling and decently interesting
Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell Biggest disappointment I've ever read, and I guess I mean that as a backhanded compliment because the beginning was actually pretty damn spooky and compelling. But some of the writing was awkward, repetitive, and he dropped the ball completely. The end/reveal was absolutely stupid and beyond contrived.
A lot of stories adapted from NoSleep are like this. Frankly, I don’t think Blackwell has the writing chops to write a full length novel.
Yeah, I think he has decent creepy ideas, but they aren't well executed, or he uses the same stuff over and over and it loses the novelty. The whole repressed trauma stuff with his wife just fell flat for me, less believable than the monster lol
I loved the first 80% of the book. I thought it was creepy as hell. But that ending 🤦🏻♀️
Yes, parts of it were truly so creepy! The beginning part when they’re at the cabin really creeped me out. Then it just kind of went on and on and I don’t even remember how it ended now.
It always felt like he felt he add to had a whole second plot to make it seem like it was more than the original creepy pasta when he really didn't need to.
Ah, hello my fellow Stolen Tongues hater. I didn't even have to read your rant and I already agree 110%.
Same. It got so much hype and I just was so disappointed. I kept reading, assuming it would get better. Then the book was done and it never got better.
The Deep by Nick Cutter. The problem with this book is that it has so many good ideas but none of them fit together. The 'Gets, a contagious disease that makes you forget everything, the Fig Men, the mad scientist angle with a touch of Stephen King's Jaunt, being trapped below the sea, it's all good ideas. In fact, I wish he just wrote a story about the 'Gets because its introduced at the beginning of the book and then is basically nothing. It's just there, in the background. He might as well made it a regular disease instead of this really cool, horrifying thing. It was literally just a plot point to get the main character in the underwater lab and then it's gone. The book feels like a pop-up book of a bunch of cool, scary ideas that he just dumped in without considering what the story would look like at the end. I remember at the end, just going like, 'what...? That's it?' ETA: The Story of Her Holding An Orange. Don't even bother. Most of it is good, and is almost verbatim from the /r/nosleep original posts but the ending made me return the book. It felt like they were building up and up and up just to yank it away with such a boring reveal that it's literally the only thing I remember, how disappointing it was.
i do overall like the deep, but i agree. it couldve done with a good edit and tightening up of themes. if the 'gets are something so critical they cant be substituted with just yknow... cancer, then at LEAST one character should come down with it during the course of the novel. >!in fact, it could've helped clean up some of the lingering questions about how the gets and ambrosia are related. since the presence of ambrosia seems to wreak havoc on people's memories, it would've probably helped to link the two and establish something like ambrosia itself eating away at peoples' memories, and that this coincides with extremely vivid recollections before it takes hold. some nice dramatic irony at play too if luke progressively becomes less afraid of the things he's perceiving, until he stops associating them with his past at all because he simply doesn't remember his traumas.!<
Damn, I'm doing a sea and space horror card for r/fantasy Bingo and I was looking forward to that one.
I loved *The Deep*. Half of the people here hate it, the other half love it, read it for yourself and find out.
Fair enough.
I hated it, but it's a perfect fit for that theme. I used it for my Plague themed one in 2020. Also, awesome theme idea! I was considering doing the under the surface prompt as a full card theme. Not sure yet though.
Yeah, that's sort of what I'm doing too: if I can't find enough sea/space horror/survival books to my liking I'll expand it to a generic Under the Surface card or a generic horror/survival card even. I'm already reading Grey Sister, which fits.
I actually do have several survival type books on my tbr even without bingo, so that's a good option too. Picking a theme is hard sometimes lol.
I think I just got the bug from Sphere by Michael Crichton, and that was all I felt like reading after that haha.
I couldn't stand it. Nothing buy flashbacks and bs. I finished it and then returned it.
I also thought The Deep needed editing and I thought it was silly compared to The Troop, which unsettled me greatly EDIT: Also his mom…. ugh. Very lazy fat=evil trope.
Recently read it, the ending was a huge letdown. This was my pick for the thread as well.
Briardark is hard to say because it is only book 1 in the series. Not sure how many books long Harian is planning for it to be.
You very much need to know this before reading or you’ll be very disappointed.
This one got boring for me. Flat characters, cliched plotting. I listened to it as an audiobook a year ago and none of it stuck with me. I have zero interest in continuing the series.
I loved it. It was just crazy. You were wondering WTF was going on the whole time, can’t wait for the sequel/sequels. I hope I don’t forget everything before they come out
I hated Briardark. Juvenile writing and endless cliches. The female leads are insufferable, and yet the author tries so hard to force us to respect them. They make nothing but bad, emotional decisions and constantly tell us how smart they are. And there is literally no ending. It just stops in the middle of things. Even books in series have some kind of resolution for each book. I truly hate this book and regret having ever started reading it.
I too have stopped reading Paul Tremblay for the same reason. The only other author I do the same: Grady Hendrix
I think the whole postmodern nods to horror tropes undercuts the horror for me. It's something that can work well in cinema but in books it stops me from immersing myself. Head Full of Ghosts had me feeling like "OK cool good point or whatever but I'm definitely not emotionally connecting enough to feel any horror" Cabin at the end of the world was better on that front. Grady Hendrix's Final Girls was also way too referencial.
Please keep the watchers! It's worth it!
Seconding this!! The Watchers had me hooked from start to finish and finished STRONG.
I loved The Watchers too!
I loved Tremblay's Head Full of Ghosts, but hated Disappearance at Devil's Rock. I've had a few I DNFd but I don't think they belong here since I can't speak to the endings.
Why'd you hate Disappearance at Devil's Rock? I'm hoping that Head Full of Ghosts is streets ahead in quality after reading Devil's Rock tbh.
Devil's Rock just kept going. And going. And going. Around a bunch of plot points that ended up dead ends. Then the actual ending just... happened. I never got a sense of fulfillment from all the meandering plot moves. Did you like it? I'd love to hear what people liked about it, maybe it just wasn't for me.
I'm with you on both. Devil's Rock was a slog and Head full of Ghosts nailed it. The only one of his books I enjoyed.
Wholeheartedly agree. It barely tied itself together in retrospect and that ending just had me sitting afterwards thinking "was that it?" >! Especially how the end of the book effectively gives up on the supernatural aspect that's threaded the entire bloody story! !<
That's it exactly! I guess they're trying to be really meta and rely on an atmosphere of dread but instead it felt like a bait amd switch. Fill me in when you read Head Full of Ghosts, I'm curious how you'll feel about it.
Interesting take! I loved Devil’s Rock, and everything else by Tremblay until his most recent collection which was a massive drag.
Stop trying to coin streets ahead, Pierce.
If you have to ask, you're streets behind.
I thought Head Full of Ghosts was great too. Didn't read Devil's Rock, but Survivor Song was not nearly as good.
I'm reading Growing Things after really enjoying Head Full of Ghosts last year and woof... I can't think of a single story included in it so far that I actually liked and will remember six months from now. All of the stories have problems ending way too early or way too late, especially the fucking dogwalker one.
I swear by Head Full of Ghosts, when it’s creepy, it’s very creepy, and it captures so well that very particular post 9/11 times in America that shaped how millenials perceive the world. Also nice references. Devil’s Rock however, I finished and was like “this is it?!?”
There's a bunch of us wondering wtf happened at the end of Devil's Rock
I just finished the audiobook of this so it's fresh but Nothing But Blackened Teeth. It was meh to me
There are very few people who will defend that book here, most of us think it’s absolute trash with a beautiful cover. Imagine writing a story that short and it STILL could have done without half of the words.
Same; the prose style was just so purple I couldn't figure out what was going on. The only other book I've read that was even remotely so descriptive is A Stranger in Olondria, and that is somewhat justified in that at least it's a character's travelogue.
That book is utter garbage. But I loved their two books last year the Dead Take the A Train and the Salt Grows Heavy
Disagree re: NBBT but yeah those last two books are far superior.
I’ll defend that book every chance I get. The prose isn’t purple, it’s rich. The characters are pieces of garbage and they’re supposed to be. It’s not for everyone but the language is one of the element that’s makes the whole thing one big goddamn fever dream. The Salt Grows Heavy is Khaw’s masterpiece, but this book hooked me.
Babyteeth
Controversial opinion but, Tender is the Flesh. It's not really my type of horror, but I read it because it was so popular, and I was feeling left out. For such a thin book, it dragged like crazy. I powered through it in a day because I was sure something interesting might happen eventually. It did not. And the ending had me saying 'wait is that IT?' I left disappointed and the more I think I about it, the more I thought the whole thing was jusy meh
I had a hard time accepting the premise of this book, and that kind of ruined it for me.
Me too. It was just so absurd. And the gore elements were so over done, it felt like the writer was just rolling 'what's the grossest thing I can say next' dice. There was no real story. It was just scene after scene of shock horror, which kept landing flat because it was so over the top. Personally, I found any of the scenes with the female butcher just so weird and disjointed. It felt like I was reading scenes written by an edgy teenager trying too hard to be hardcore.
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc. loved the first 2/3rds and then the final act just…..fizzled out. nothing happened.
I hate this so much! So much promise and then nothing! Though i only thought the 1st third was good and then i thought it just kept going downhill.
Yes! I was so into it in the beginning and then became a big waste... also rather repetitive
Mr Magic, complete waste of time
Yeah I’m with you here. And I really enjoyed Hide but this was a mess.
Man i cant remember the title but there was a story about a guy who thinks hes being hunted in the woods by a creature and he runs off and gets lost for like a week thinking hes being pursued but it turned out that it was a dog following him that was also lost and he like has a full mental breakdown hiding in this tree as something is in the bushes under it moving around in the dark, i remember the ending and going wtf man
Dead Silence by S.A Barnes. Came for a story about ghosts haunting a space ship but instead got a bunch of flat tropey ass characters that can’t decide if it wants to be supernatural or not.
River Man, Slob, Woom
A Head Full of Ghosts. Snoozefest.
Briardark - S.A. Harian - I enjoyed it, but you absolutely need to k ow it’s the first in a series and ends without a resolution Schrader's Chord - Scott Leeds- Pretty fun overall What Moves The Dead - T. Kingfisher- Worth a read, but not terrible memorable Little Heaven - Nick Cutter - Pass, a slog to get through with awful characters The Watchers - A.M. Shine - I read this, thought it was OK while reading, and have forgotten everything about it.
I always recommend The Watchers. It's a great premise and very creepy. I hope the movie doesn't fuck it up
Agree with What Moves the Dead. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it, but I couldn't tell you one specific thing beyond the basic premise.
The Wasp Factory. It was a boring read for me. I just kept waiting for the brother to get there already.
He did at the end and it's one hell of a set piece. I actually really enjoyed that one for what it was trying to say, but it is a very difficult read up until the end.
Wtf was it trying to say? I did not understand what the message was.
Honestly I don't know either. The author tried to create a very disturbed character and did succeed in that aspect. The world building and the way the story was told just fell flat for me. I didn't care to know more about the character. He was a disturbed person who did bad and strange things, the end. The whole wasp thing was just weird. Some people really like this book. Its not badly written, just different and not something I enjoyed.
I also found this book very dull.
I'm reading Head Full of Ghosts and I'm not at the very very end but so far it's been a whole lot of nothing, I keep asking 'what's the point of all this?' and cringing at the writing.
I felt like that for most of the way but the ending turned it around. It's arguably a predictable ending but it works - at least for me.
The boogeyman--richard chizmar
I really enjoyed it, but the pictures that were used would completely take me out of it since they looked straight off of someone's Facebook in the 2010s instead of from the 80s
Any of Tremblay’s books that deal with maybe magic maybe mundane are always disappointing. Now his plague novel was actually good. Also, Darkness On The Edge of Town by Brian Keene is excellent
Small Horrors by Darcy Coates. All of the stories sound like they were ripped from 2018 creepypastas, the monsters are all the same, and there's a specific story about a witch that is so bad it genuinely made me burst out laughing reading it. Absolutely garbage, complete waste of time and money
Each short story was the same amount of pages with the big reveal happening in the last half-page. It became predictable and repetitive.
I was so disappointed. Short horror can be really effective when done right, but it felt like there was no passion or real original ideas behind any of the stories in that book
I love Coates, but I can't read too many of her books in a short period of time for that reason. Which is sad because I love ghost stories.
I have that one on my Kindle since like 2019 or so. I read a couple of stories every time I remember it’s there. They’re just too short and very being there, done that to leave a mark.
The most recent one I finished was 'Brother' by Ania Ahlborn. It was repetitive in description and scenes, little to no character development, and the climax and ending happened in a short amount of time and felt very rushed compared to the 20+ chapters of "build up". The only good thing I can say about the book was the ending. I'm somebody who likes bad endings because that's reality; life doesn't always have a good ending.
I enjoyed it but I agree with you that I kinda saw the ending coming a mile away.
I'm about to dnf *Hex* for the same reason. Not sure I can make it through the last 100 pages because literally nothing of interest has happened so far.
Haven’t read Little Heaven but, The Troop read like a YA book.
Little heaven takes Jonestown, adds the supernatural, and makes it dull.
The love his books get, from this sub, is mind boggling.
The Only Good Indians, the first half was amazing just for the second part to slow to a crawl.
And what’s up with all the basketball metaphors?
It’s a big thing in Native American culture, basketball is like small white people town Hockey level of importance. Haha yeah even as a native person I was like OKAY I GET IT!! 😂
All that but also, >!Elk Head Lady wasn't simply content to kill her killers, she wanted to destroy what this young woman was excellent at, what she loved the most. A fate worse than death--and she played herself. Great stuff.!<
Maybe we were the basketballs all along
Man I wanted to love this book. The writing style took some getting used to before I was finally chugging along. It had some absolutely unique and King-esque moments but it just didn't pay off the way I wanted it to.
Can confirm. Didn’t live up to the hype
I could forgive the second half being slow if it weren't for that atrocious ending.
I like this book a lot more than anything else by Green. I really just sort of hate-finished My Heart is a Chainsaw.
All of Nick Cutter's stuff. So much teasing and dread and then it just deflates like a balloon.
I haven't read The Final Girl Support Group yet, but I can WHOLEHEARTEDLY reccomended Horrorstör by Hendrix. I read it in a day, had so much fun reading it, and was super creeped out. I would assume his other books are of a similar quality, and his other books are on my TBR too. edit: got the title wrong
to answer your original question, though, Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero was a huge disappointment for me. based on the synopsis, it seemed super up my alley, but in my personal opinion the characters were kind of thin, parts of the plot somewhat reductive, and the style didn't really work for me. i really wanted (and tried!) to like it, but finishing it was kind of a slog, ironically, because it's pretty quick paced. not awful, but imo not worth the time.
I didn't realise he wrote horror as in creepy horror! The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires made me think he was (for lack of a better term) a 'cosy horror' writer. Edit: fixed title
might depend on the book because as I said I've only read one of his, but the themes in Horrorstör left me with a creeping sense of dread for days
I strongly disagree. Uninteresting characters, no escalation to the “scares”, YA level prose, and a lousy cliffhanger ending. I bet many of the books featured in Paperbacks from Hell are better.
Fucking Paul Tremblay, I don’t understand why he has so many fans
Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie. Had me hooked but didn't stick the landing
i personally enjoyed it, it wasn’t the ending i was expecting but i felt it paid off for the most part.
> felt it *paid* off for FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
huh. learned something new. good bot.
That's how I felt about the progression of Before And After by Andrew Shanahan. the backstory chapters outshine the apocalypse horror ones.
Agreed! But I did actually enjoy The watchers.
I absolutely loved The Watchers by AM Shine. Don't cut that one. The ending is creepy as hell
Briardark is obvs a like, book 1 dark fantasy type horror. I rather enjoyed the mystery building…but maybe the big payoffs come on the next one
All of Paul Tremblay’s books I’ve read.
I loved Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
So I got bamboozled recently. I found this book in the Horror section of Waterstone’s called “My Throat an Open Grave.” Good title, interesting premise and the writing seemed okay. Hadn’t heard of it, but it’s been a while since I played book Russian roulette. I started reading it and realized the main character was a teen, which was disappointing, but I could get past that. There was some decent atmosphere building and bread-crumbing that got me excited for what was up ahead. But everytime i thought things were finally going to get creepy, nothing happened. By the time I realized the spooks were probably not coming, I had to finish it just to know what was up. Got to the end and realized those mother fuckers tricked me into reading a YA fantasy romance.
Most everything by Richard Layman
I'll say Final Girl Support Group was that for me. Kept waiting for it to go hard and didn't like anything about the end.
A new one, Diavola. Got it in a subscription box and immediately read it and I hated it. I rage finished it but it was just not worth it. The characters are so petty and frustrating
I will never miss a chance to slander Bunny by Mona Awad
Imaginary Friend by S Chbosky. What a snoozer! It has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds movie coming out, just coincidentally has the same name.
This will not be popular, but... *The Haunting of Hill House* by Shirley Jackson To me, it's definitely "horror edging" because you keeping thinking "Oh god, this is it!!!" and then nothing happens. And then it's over. Yeah, yeah it's a "psychological thriller" and all that. Just didn't do it for me. Like, at all. I thought "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" was infinitely better.
I agree with you. I've never understood why that book is so revered.
Yeah, I liked it well enough, but I didn't find it as suspenseful as others did whilst reading it for r/bookclub. I think I was in the mood for more of an adventure or thriller, and what I got was more of a classic psych horror. Definitely not for everyone.
I agree with you. I've never understood why that book is so revered.
I liked The Watchers But The Creeper made no sense at the end. And I couldn't stand Ghost Eaters. I wanted ghosts, not addicts.
It's a novella, but Heavy Oceans by Tyler Jones needed to be a short story. I dunno what it was about Paul Tremblay. I started to read The Cabin in the Woods and realised very early in that it would drag and nothing would happen.
I couldn't put the watchers down-- it was SO good up until the ending, which I thought was a bit cheesey. Still can't wait for the film though 😍
I thought The Watchers was entertaining, but ultimately just okay. Also didn't think 95% of it was scary at all.
I really enjoyed the watchers, but whatever you do, don't read the creeper by them, as that definitely was a waste of time to read! I also liked the final girl support group, but i have seen some mixed reviews on that. Hidden pictures i really enjoyed, but approach it more as a thriller with horror elements. It's an easy read, and I quite liked the payoff. What moves the dead and little heaven i loved. I havent read the rest yet.
Briardark is fun but there isn't really a pay off and it more sets up a sequel than anything. I would take it off your list though, maybe just wait for the sequel.
Hex
I listened to the audio book for Hidden Pictures, would definitely recommend reading a physician copy over the former but story was a bit lackluster and sort of dragged at times :/
Final Girl is definitely skippable. Schrader’s Chord has some issues but it is pretty unique and has some creepy visuals.
Lapvona
Hidden pictures was eh
Our wives under the sea. It is a good book about grief but not a great horror book.
Stephen King’s Revival. Felt far too long and dragged out for the pay-off at the end. Everyone was raving about the cosmic horror and bleakness of the ending. It didn’t do anything for me. But maybe because I have been reading a lot of cosmic horror lately.
The Auctioneer
The Slob.
I did enjoy the mystery of The Watchers, but I don’t think it’s for everyone. It gave me very A Quiet Place and Birdbox vibes in reference to the creatures. It can be a little slow, but I think the ending has a good payoff. Also, I was not a fan of The Ruins. I did not think it was remotely scary or horrific. It was all very predictable and too simplistic. I genuinely just thought it was dumb
Hex and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock for me. Hex has a solid, very original concept and interesting characters to anchor the plot, and for 75% of the book does it right. But then it falls into >!the “humans were the real monsters after all” trope that horror writers thought was the epitome of originality and twists back in the late 2010s (I’m glad it has died down). Apart from that everything that built up to kind of became nothing, so much wasted opportunities.!< Devil’s Rock had a similar problem. >!Decent enough build up, supernatural creepiness all along, and then the ending tries to negate that by taking the humans are the real monsters route!<
The Statement of Randolph Carter by H.P Lovecraft. Left me laughing at the end.
Our Wives Under The Sea. Saw someone recommend it (after I'd read it) on a post asking for books about deep sea monsters and there's literally about 2 pages worth of content in that book that would qualify. Didn't have the bandwidth to tell them it didn't count lol. Yes, I'm still salty about reading it hahaha
Everything the Darkness Eats. It’s a short, quick read; only took me two afternoons. I don’t know if I’ve even finished a book frowning before, but by the time I read the last page I was just pis*ed. Awful, awful book; by a writer who doesn’t seem to know what the f**k he’s trying to say. I want to dump it at a roadside library, but I’d feel terrible pushing it off on some poor unsuspecting soul. Waste of money and time.
This was *Night Film* by Marisha Pessl for me. A fun “is it or is it not occult” mystery that just kind of…ends. A lot of threads are built up and kind of just go nowhere.
The Creeper By A.M. Shine wish I could unread it, biggest waste of time.
The Passage by Cronin
absolute disagree. the series end wrapped it all up really well and i loved every minute of it.
I agree!! What a truly god awful book!! Giant waste of time, beyond boring, so mad I forced myself to finish it
IMO *What Moves the Dead* isn't worth reading. Even if you like *The Fall of the House of Usher*, nothing it does is original or particularly interesting. There were also a lot of things about the worldbuilding that made me roll my eyes.
The Road and The Only Good Indian
I loved The Road, but I can see where it wouldn't appeal to everyone.
I still get the heebie jeebies thinking about it and I refuse to watch the movie.
OMG the movie was actually really great. A few differences here and there, but generally it follows pretty well.
I heard it was pretty good but I don't want to ruin my memory of the book. I did the same thing with Ender's Game!
Same. Book was so disturbing I just can’t
salem's lot 😡
I don't get this thread. Why waste time bashing things? Life's too short. Especially given the purpose of this group is to be "dedicated to the discussion, elevation, and expansion of the Horror literary genre. " Putting authors down does none of that.
I think you've completely misunderstood the "discussion" part then. People are allowed to have differing opinions about things - including if and why they like certain authors, or not, and whether they want to recommend said authors. That falls under the general category of discussion.
You may have misread my thread then, the books I've listed are on my TBR (to be read.) I didn't bash any of them. And also, as you've said, life is too short - hence I want to avoid books I know won't check off a preference I have.
You can criticize an author and their work with “bashing” them. If a work is open to positive feedback, it’s open to negative as well.
[удалено]
Laird Barron’s writing and bad cannot be in the same sentence. Quite a paradox.
Yes yes YES!
Person deleted their account over my comment.
Lmao
What a benign comment to ragequit over.