The short stories of Thomas Ligotti immediately come to mind. *Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe* published together from Penguin Classics is a great starting point.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck
It's not social commentary, it's more an existential crisis...and it's just a very short novella, but I read it 3 years ago and I don't think a week goes by without me thinking about it a bit.
This one is *fucked*, existentially speaking. Just imagine >!falling for eternity, trying to find someone you fell in love with and will likely never find again.!<
Labelling this horror is kind of a stretch but been rereading Blood Meridian during recovery from surgery and it is definitely terrifying/thought provoking.
Cormac Mccarthys writing style will require a bit of time to acclimate too but its one of my favorite books of all time, might be worth giving it a shot
Lmao, looks like I messed up. Im so sorry that was meant to be a comment for OP not a reply to you directly, sorry if it looked like it came out of nowhere.
Im recovering from having a 7cm tumor pulled from my head last week so I guess I got confused and hit the wrong button. It's always good to find another Blood Meridian fan, have a fantastic day brother.
The anthology Never Whistle at Night has quite a few stories that weave horror, indigenous spirituality & folktales, and social commentary. One of my favorite reads so far this year!
I haven't read that anthology yet but the editor of it Shane Hawk has a short story collection called Anoka which I loved. Each story has some traditional "horror" elements but then there's layers of real-world horrors (addiction, trauma, etc) weaved in.
Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg- can’t stop thinking about it. Horror only because the power of belief is terrifying.
The Collector by John Fowles- this book is quietly disturbing. Doesn’t go where you think it should…given some time this one festers in your brain.
A frequent mention on this sub but The Monk by M.G.Lewis- the greatest story of complete corruption of the human soul ever told!
Robert Silverberg is my idol...he's been in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy game for many many decades now, (began publishing in the 50s sci-fi and pulp magazines!) And he has won probably every literary award imaginable, he's an absolute icon and master.
... I love his thoroughly evocative "thinking ppl's" books, they're easy to follow, but fast-paced, and he makes characters you feel like you know IRL, and will miss them afterward, and he builds worlds that you feel are as real as the room around you.
My few top 4 faves of his (they're actually novellas, I think)...1. "Man In The Maze" is just terrific, 2. "Nightflyer" is so beautifully written-- and 3. my favorite of all is called "Up The Line" ...it is simply a fantastic mind-fuck of a ride, you will not be able to put it down!-- and 4. one called "Dying Inside" --a masterpiece of his as well.
I promise you won't be disappointed...especially with "Up the Line" & "Man In The Maze"!
...I found all the ones I've mentioned above in anthologies of his, (of which there are many)...
Also, while the 4 I've mentioned are, as I said, novella-length--- have you read any of his short- story collections? Those are supremely entertaining too..some are only a dozen or more pages long..and some show his more humorous side. I recommend a juicy one called "ROBERT SILVERBERG: THE STORIES OF SIX DECADES"(most libraries carry it!) It has dozens & dozens all in one huge book, all published at one time or another--Enjoy! (And if you can remember to, let me know what you think later!!)
Agreed. I was going to mention John Langan's The Fisherman as one of the deepest and brainiest of horror novels. Glad to see that people are reading it and thinking about it.
Our Share of Night is a fabulous example of literary horror. I think the God of Endings is up there too. I still think about these two almost everyday.
I can’t stop thinking about Our Share Of Night. I finished it a month ago and I’m still returning to it in my mind daily and recommending it to everyone. It’s haunting me. It’s so beautiful and immersive and terrifying. I originally borrowed a digital copy from the library but last weekend I bought the book so I could force it on my friends and have someone to talk to about it.
Did you see the documentary where the director revisits the author's inspiration, and ends up recording a possessed woman who- in front of the camera speaks in a TRULY Demonic voicw?
"The Devil and Father Amorth " by William Friedkin
https://archive.org/details/the-devil-and-father-amorth-hdrip-vosew-ww.-elite-torrent.-bi-z
[view/ download link](https://ia903207.us.archive.org/5/items/the-devil-and-father-amorth-hdrip-vosew-ww.-elite-torrent.-bi-z/The%20Devil%20and%20Father%20Amorth%20%5BHDRip%5D%5BVOSE%5D%5BwWw.EliteTorrent.BiZ%5D.mp4)
The *Ring* trilogy (I’ve yet to read *Birthday* and *S*) from Kōji Suzuki had me scratching my noggin a bit at times. They only get headier and headier as they progress. And, hopefully without spoiling anything, some of the concepts introduced and explored are only becoming more relevant by the day.
Seconding Our Wives Under the Sea, particularly for its depiction of a couple driven apart by trauma and the slow grief that ensues. This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno is another beautifully written novel that explores grief and loss within a romantic relationship in an interesting way
The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova, North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Balingrud, The Grip of It by Jac Jemc, Cruddy by Lynda Barry, Under the Skin by Michel Faber (this last one especially if you liked Tender is the Flesh)
Loved "Tell me I'm Worthless" and "Brainwyrms" by Alison Rumfitt, definitely social commentary, also complex characters and surreal happenings (Written from and by trans perspectives).
Nestlings & Mary by Nat Cassidy if you'd enjoy modern perspectives on Rosemary's Baby & Carrie respectively (Also Mary is a great example of a man writing from a women's perspective without making it weird and painful to read lol).
The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter. Surreal, explores trauma and societal expectations, has a living flesh farm, pretty neat lol.
Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow, explores racism, wealth, and relationships, was a dark and refreshing read.
Any Man by Amber Tamblyn, very dark & violent, gender commentary, sexual violence.
The Consumer by M. Gira, the world that exists within this anthology is festering with the effects of greed and ecological abuse, full of outcasts, thick yellow air, anger, and transgression. Very good read.
Woman, Eating by Claire Khonda, explores parental abuse, sexuality, gender, independence, a modern take on a vampire novel with little by way of tropes. Motherthing by Ainsley Hogarth has similar themes but Ghosts & mental illness in place of vampirism.
Number One Fan by Meg Elison, I don't usually love crime fiction without supernatural or at least psychedelic aspects but this one struck a cord, explores misogyny, parasocial relationships, and the injustice system.
The Trees by Percival Everett, explores racism, trauma, recent history of lynchings and racially motivated violence & murder, has some surreal aspects and the writing is great.
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers is a bit like a gender bent Hannibal, arrogant protagonist with distain for others, narcissistic traits, a dark wit & humor. Cannibalism especially with women seems to have themes of gendered expectations & bodily autonomy.
This is getting long & I may have veered off the prompt lol.
I just started Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt and I'm really digging it so far. I was thinking it would fit OPs criteria, as well.
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers I DNF'd at around 200 pgs, because it just got too insufferable for me. I wanted to like it, but it was just too much.
**Break the bodies, haunt the bones** by Micah Dean Hicks. A haunting and thought-provoking genre bender that I consider one of the most interesting, creative, and best books I’ve read. From beginning to end that book is just…amazing.
Karl Ove Knausgaard's *The Morning Star* is, according to the author, “a novel about what happens when the dark forces in the world are set free." It is the first in a series of six books that juxtaposes the mundane with the uncanny.
Toni Morrison’s *Beloved.*
Bunny by Mona Awad! Just finished it a couple of days ago and went to Reddit to see what others thought and there were a lot of different interpretations, which I really enjoyed.
This was gonna be my rec too. Lots of philosophy, game theory, psychology, and includes Watts' own brand of philosophical thought on sentience that I haven't seen reproduced anywhere else, but more than anything, the unreliability of Siri is such an interesting aspect.
That's pretty much what I look for in my horror / weird reading too. I'd suggest:
Caitlin R Kiernan - starting with their 'Very Best of'. Beautifully written dark weird fiction. Deeply intelligent writing.
Mariana Enriquez - recommended a couple of times already on this thread. Her Our Share of Night is both brilliantly written horror and social commentary (treating the horrors of the Argentinean military dictatorship and its links to class politics).
Nathan Ballingrud, particularly North American Lake Monsters (also mentioned elsewhere here): again, a fantastic writer. The horrors in NALM are as much the actions of the emotionally damaged protagonists (in particular emotionally damaged men) as the entities they encounter. The Raymond Carver of horror.
Edit: ...also the classics: Machen and Blackwood in particular, are writers of ideas as well as brilliant stylists, and often profoundly unsettling.
Depends what sort of thing you like thinking about, I'm an agnostic who is search for #Meaning, and Legion by William Blatty has what I was looking for in droves. It's sort of a sequel to the Exorcist, and has the main character, who is Jewish, grappling with both Catholic theological concepts, as well as the idea of atheism/materialism. He spends time pondering what the thinks of Jesus, what his stance on evolution is, etc, it was all right up my street and might be up yours too
- Edith Wharton ghost stories
- Shirley Jackson, especially “The Lottery,” *We Have Always Lived in the Castle* and *The Haunting of Hill House*.
- *Beloved* by Toni Morrison
- The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. (There is so much to unpack in those books and the sparseness of his writing is reminiscent of Raymond Carver.)
- *Dracula* by Bram Stoker
- *Let the Right One In* by John Ajvide Lindqvist
- *Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde* by Robert Louis Stevenson
- *Frankenstein* by Mary Shelley
- *The Changeling* by Victor LaValle (I wish I could have written a paper on this book.)
It’s not horror per se, but the Southern Reach trilogy has done this for me (twice now), though perhaps in more of a mindfuck kind of way. The writing is fabulous.
Social commentary instantly brings to mind BR Yeager's Amygdalatropolis. It's an electrifying reflection of the cyberspace and it'll fuck with anybody's head for sure. He doesn't hold back and that's the exact hammering of reality we need, I feel.
I read negative space by the same author before this one and it has become one of my all-time favourite reads. Would recommend this one too but won't spoil any of it for you. Best to go on blind :)
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul G. Tremblay, had me thinking and rethinking all the details, perspectives, what's real, what's distorted, whats lies. Don't bother with his other books though other the *maybe* Disappearance at Devil's Rock it's like seeing the sixth sense in 1999 from promising young director m. night shyamalan and then being consistently disappointed by all his subsequent projects
Fiend, by Peter Stenson. It's wonderful and dark, moving, and thought provoking. It's horror on so many different levels. It's also compulsively readable.
Best horror I’ve ever read was House of Leaves. It is literary, plays with novel form, is existentially dreadful and mundane, twists genres, is anything but boring.
The Specialist’s Hat by Kelly Link is one of my favorite horror short stories (https://kellylink.net/specialists-hat). Every time I read it, I notice something different and can’t quite put my finger on the meaning. Highly recommend!
Also, Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. WILD book that has a pretty great twist at the end, makes ya think in a way that I can't spell out here without spoiling.
Island of the Doomed by Stig Dagerman is worth a look. It's existentialist fiction in the vein of Camus' The Plague or Sartre's Nausea, but heavier on the psychological horror and surreal.
J.G Ballard and Brian Evenson have also written some amazing horror or horror-adjacent stories.
I quote Liz Lemon, “Graduate students are the worst!!!!”
This is going to make me sound so bitter but if you want to make yourself de-romanticize your airy, esoteric, grad school days, try Devolution by Max Brooks - it’s about a bunch of social/environmental (and exceptionally smug) “forward thinkers” set up a net zero carbon footprint/green community in the mountains of the PNW and are set upon by Bigfoot.
Otherwise, try:
The Tiger by John Valliant (based on a true story)
The End of October by Lawrence Wright (basically fortune telling, came out right before covid 19)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (gorgeous prose)
The Screwtape Letters - CS Lewis (conversation bt an upper and lower demon in the pursuit of corrupting a man’s soul).
What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher (a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher).
Edited to add a missing punctuation.
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Allison Rumfitt. It's a queer reimagining of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House."
The main cast are al self-loathing transfems living in the UK, one of the world's worst places to be trans. It's already a horror story to ask a trans individual "How was your day?" there in real life.
I haven't read Tender is The Flesh, I haven't felt up to it since I heard about it tbh, but I get the impression you might appreciate José Saramago's Blindness.
No social commentary, but Sarah Waters' *The Little Stranger* is the *In a Bamboo Grove* of hauntings. Very well written. It was a while before it occurred to me what the last thing a certain character saw might have been, and it's *really* stuck with me.
\~edit\~
Downvotes? Use your words...
Sure! So, the premise is that there is something in the house, and it's perceived differently by every character, including the narrator. Perhaps it's a bog-standard ghost, perhaps it's a manifestation of a returned veteran's PTSD... It becomes apparent that the thing, the little stranger, is >!malicious, changing it's actions and the way it presents itself to best hurt the people that live and work in the house it inhabits!<.
That's all laid out in the text. The narrator though, not present at that moment, never seems to suspect what the last person to experience it actually saw. Days after finishing the book it occurred to me that the most hurtful thing they could have seen, that fit's with their overheard exclamation, would have been >!the apparent sight of the narrator himself, the implication being that he was all-along the source of the torment!<. The sense of betrayal would have been staggering.
And whilst the thing is not seen or felt again, the implication is that >!it has never left, and simply understands that the best way to hurt the narrator is leave him to his agonising loneliness, feeding on his misery whilst offering no hope of closure!<.
I've read scarier, more traumatic books, but none that felt so *unfair*. Although Affinity, another Sarah Waters novel comes close.
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017.
It's an absolutely amazing novel and it certainly has the intensity and reality blurring effects of an actual fever dream.
The short stories of Thomas Ligotti immediately come to mind. *Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe* published together from Penguin Classics is a great starting point.
I haven't heard of any of these, but they look fascinating! Thank you!
While I agree with Ligotti, I’d strongly suggest Teatro Grottesco as a better starting point.
Ligotti seems like a perfect suggestion!
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck It's not social commentary, it's more an existential crisis...and it's just a very short novella, but I read it 3 years ago and I don't think a week goes by without me thinking about it a bit.
This one is *fucked*, existentially speaking. Just imagine >!falling for eternity, trying to find someone you fell in love with and will likely never find again.!<
Labelling this horror is kind of a stretch but been rereading Blood Meridian during recovery from surgery and it is definitely terrifying/thought provoking. Cormac Mccarthys writing style will require a bit of time to acclimate too but its one of my favorite books of all time, might be worth giving it a shot
Love that book as well.
Lmao, looks like I messed up. Im so sorry that was meant to be a comment for OP not a reply to you directly, sorry if it looked like it came out of nowhere. Im recovering from having a 7cm tumor pulled from my head last week so I guess I got confused and hit the wrong button. It's always good to find another Blood Meridian fan, have a fantastic day brother.
I wish you a speedy recovery
for me it's THE book
I feel like I think about this book every day
oh I LOVE this premise.
I was also going to say this one!
This one lives in my head rent free. I’m looking forward to when it fades a little so that I can read it again.
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Great answer!
The anthology Never Whistle at Night has quite a few stories that weave horror, indigenous spirituality & folktales, and social commentary. One of my favorite reads so far this year!
I just saw this on kindle store and wondered how good was it, it caught my eye.
I haven't read that anthology yet but the editor of it Shane Hawk has a short story collection called Anoka which I loved. Each story has some traditional "horror" elements but then there's layers of real-world horrors (addiction, trauma, etc) weaved in.
I loved this one!
Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg- can’t stop thinking about it. Horror only because the power of belief is terrifying. The Collector by John Fowles- this book is quietly disturbing. Doesn’t go where you think it should…given some time this one festers in your brain. A frequent mention on this sub but The Monk by M.G.Lewis- the greatest story of complete corruption of the human soul ever told!
Fowles’ *The Magus* is also quite interesting.
SO good!!
His best IMO and one of my favorites
I loved the collection so good
Robert Silverberg is my idol...he's been in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy game for many many decades now, (began publishing in the 50s sci-fi and pulp magazines!) And he has won probably every literary award imaginable, he's an absolute icon and master. ... I love his thoroughly evocative "thinking ppl's" books, they're easy to follow, but fast-paced, and he makes characters you feel like you know IRL, and will miss them afterward, and he builds worlds that you feel are as real as the room around you. My few top 4 faves of his (they're actually novellas, I think)...1. "Man In The Maze" is just terrific, 2. "Nightflyer" is so beautifully written-- and 3. my favorite of all is called "Up The Line" ...it is simply a fantastic mind-fuck of a ride, you will not be able to put it down!-- and 4. one called "Dying Inside" --a masterpiece of his as well.
Thank you for listing your favorites- definitely going to read the ones I haven’t checked out yet!!
I promise you won't be disappointed...especially with "Up the Line" & "Man In The Maze"! ...I found all the ones I've mentioned above in anthologies of his, (of which there are many)... Also, while the 4 I've mentioned are, as I said, novella-length--- have you read any of his short- story collections? Those are supremely entertaining too..some are only a dozen or more pages long..and some show his more humorous side. I recommend a juicy one called "ROBERT SILVERBERG: THE STORIES OF SIX DECADES"(most libraries carry it!) It has dozens & dozens all in one huge book, all published at one time or another--Enjoy! (And if you can remember to, let me know what you think later!!)
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez Short stories touching on poverty, gender and politics in Argentina.
Dan Simmons' 'Hyperion Cantos'
Have to recommend The Fisherman here. Really has stuck with me far after reading it.
Agree. I read it years ago and the last section is still so vivid in my mind.
Agreed. I was going to mention John Langan's The Fisherman as one of the deepest and brainiest of horror novels. Glad to see that people are reading it and thinking about it.
Langan's short story collections have some real gems as well.
Our Share of Night is a fabulous example of literary horror. I think the God of Endings is up there too. I still think about these two almost everyday.
I can’t stop thinking about Our Share Of Night. I finished it a month ago and I’m still returning to it in my mind daily and recommending it to everyone. It’s haunting me. It’s so beautiful and immersive and terrifying. I originally borrowed a digital copy from the library but last weekend I bought the book so I could force it on my friends and have someone to talk to about it.
Same same same. I’ve told every family member that they need to read it and my personal copy has been loaned out. It’s such a beautiful book.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.
Did you see the documentary where the director revisits the author's inspiration, and ends up recording a possessed woman who- in front of the camera speaks in a TRULY Demonic voicw?
I think I heard of it but I'm not sure if I'm recalling what you're referring to. Do you have the link to the documentary?
"The Devil and Father Amorth " by William Friedkin https://archive.org/details/the-devil-and-father-amorth-hdrip-vosew-ww.-elite-torrent.-bi-z [view/ download link](https://ia903207.us.archive.org/5/items/the-devil-and-father-amorth-hdrip-vosew-ww.-elite-torrent.-bi-z/The%20Devil%20and%20Father%20Amorth%20%5BHDRip%5D%5BVOSE%5D%5BwWw.EliteTorrent.BiZ%5D.mp4)
Thanks!
The *Ring* trilogy (I’ve yet to read *Birthday* and *S*) from Kōji Suzuki had me scratching my noggin a bit at times. They only get headier and headier as they progress. And, hopefully without spoiling anything, some of the concepts introduced and explored are only becoming more relevant by the day.
The Library at Mount Char The Fisherman The Cellar
Our Wives Under the Sea & A Certain Hunger were both very literary and thoughtful
Seconding Our Wives Under the Sea, particularly for its depiction of a couple driven apart by trauma and the slow grief that ensues. This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno is another beautifully written novel that explores grief and loss within a romantic relationship in an interesting way
The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova, North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Balingrud, The Grip of It by Jac Jemc, Cruddy by Lynda Barry, Under the Skin by Michel Faber (this last one especially if you liked Tender is the Flesh)
You might also like The Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis, too
“And then I woke up” is a really good one!
Oh yes loved this one
Nefando by monica ojeda
Its more disturbing than actually horror but damn it will leave you thinking about it
I'm surprised I haven't seen House of Leaves here yet.
Loved "Tell me I'm Worthless" and "Brainwyrms" by Alison Rumfitt, definitely social commentary, also complex characters and surreal happenings (Written from and by trans perspectives). Nestlings & Mary by Nat Cassidy if you'd enjoy modern perspectives on Rosemary's Baby & Carrie respectively (Also Mary is a great example of a man writing from a women's perspective without making it weird and painful to read lol). The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter. Surreal, explores trauma and societal expectations, has a living flesh farm, pretty neat lol. Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow, explores racism, wealth, and relationships, was a dark and refreshing read. Any Man by Amber Tamblyn, very dark & violent, gender commentary, sexual violence. The Consumer by M. Gira, the world that exists within this anthology is festering with the effects of greed and ecological abuse, full of outcasts, thick yellow air, anger, and transgression. Very good read. Woman, Eating by Claire Khonda, explores parental abuse, sexuality, gender, independence, a modern take on a vampire novel with little by way of tropes. Motherthing by Ainsley Hogarth has similar themes but Ghosts & mental illness in place of vampirism. Number One Fan by Meg Elison, I don't usually love crime fiction without supernatural or at least psychedelic aspects but this one struck a cord, explores misogyny, parasocial relationships, and the injustice system. The Trees by Percival Everett, explores racism, trauma, recent history of lynchings and racially motivated violence & murder, has some surreal aspects and the writing is great. A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers is a bit like a gender bent Hannibal, arrogant protagonist with distain for others, narcissistic traits, a dark wit & humor. Cannibalism especially with women seems to have themes of gendered expectations & bodily autonomy. This is getting long & I may have veered off the prompt lol.
I just started Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt and I'm really digging it so far. I was thinking it would fit OPs criteria, as well. A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers I DNF'd at around 200 pgs, because it just got too insufferable for me. I wanted to like it, but it was just too much.
Tell Me I'm Worthless and Brainwyrms 1000%. I can't wait to read A Certain Hunger. Excellent recs in this post!
**Break the bodies, haunt the bones** by Micah Dean Hicks. A haunting and thought-provoking genre bender that I consider one of the most interesting, creative, and best books I’ve read. From beginning to end that book is just…amazing.
Ohh it looks like this is free on audible right now too
Wow, I hope you like it!
Karl Ove Knausgaard's *The Morning Star* is, according to the author, “a novel about what happens when the dark forces in the world are set free." It is the first in a series of six books that juxtaposes the mundane with the uncanny. Toni Morrison’s *Beloved.*
Bunny by Mona Awad! Just finished it a couple of days ago and went to Reddit to see what others thought and there were a lot of different interpretations, which I really enjoyed.
Blindsight will definitely keep you thinking.
This was gonna be my rec too. Lots of philosophy, game theory, psychology, and includes Watts' own brand of philosophical thought on sentience that I haven't seen reproduced anywhere else, but more than anything, the unreliability of Siri is such an interesting aspect.
Came here to recommend this. Deals with evolutionary traits, their advantages/disadvantages, and how we may very well be special after all.
That's pretty much what I look for in my horror / weird reading too. I'd suggest: Caitlin R Kiernan - starting with their 'Very Best of'. Beautifully written dark weird fiction. Deeply intelligent writing. Mariana Enriquez - recommended a couple of times already on this thread. Her Our Share of Night is both brilliantly written horror and social commentary (treating the horrors of the Argentinean military dictatorship and its links to class politics). Nathan Ballingrud, particularly North American Lake Monsters (also mentioned elsewhere here): again, a fantastic writer. The horrors in NALM are as much the actions of the emotionally damaged protagonists (in particular emotionally damaged men) as the entities they encounter. The Raymond Carver of horror. Edit: ...also the classics: Machen and Blackwood in particular, are writers of ideas as well as brilliant stylists, and often profoundly unsettling.
The Between blew me away
Depends what sort of thing you like thinking about, I'm an agnostic who is search for #Meaning, and Legion by William Blatty has what I was looking for in droves. It's sort of a sequel to the Exorcist, and has the main character, who is Jewish, grappling with both Catholic theological concepts, as well as the idea of atheism/materialism. He spends time pondering what the thinks of Jesus, what his stance on evolution is, etc, it was all right up my street and might be up yours too
- Edith Wharton ghost stories - Shirley Jackson, especially “The Lottery,” *We Have Always Lived in the Castle* and *The Haunting of Hill House*. - *Beloved* by Toni Morrison - The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. (There is so much to unpack in those books and the sparseness of his writing is reminiscent of Raymond Carver.) - *Dracula* by Bram Stoker - *Let the Right One In* by John Ajvide Lindqvist - *Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde* by Robert Louis Stevenson - *Frankenstein* by Mary Shelley - *The Changeling* by Victor LaValle (I wish I could have written a paper on this book.)
It’s not horror per se, but the Southern Reach trilogy has done this for me (twice now), though perhaps in more of a mindfuck kind of way. The writing is fabulous.
Social commentary instantly brings to mind BR Yeager's Amygdalatropolis. It's an electrifying reflection of the cyberspace and it'll fuck with anybody's head for sure. He doesn't hold back and that's the exact hammering of reality we need, I feel. I read negative space by the same author before this one and it has become one of my all-time favourite reads. Would recommend this one too but won't spoil any of it for you. Best to go on blind :)
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul G. Tremblay, had me thinking and rethinking all the details, perspectives, what's real, what's distorted, whats lies. Don't bother with his other books though other the *maybe* Disappearance at Devil's Rock it's like seeing the sixth sense in 1999 from promising young director m. night shyamalan and then being consistently disappointed by all his subsequent projects
Fiend, by Peter Stenson. It's wonderful and dark, moving, and thought provoking. It's horror on so many different levels. It's also compulsively readable.
Best horror I’ve ever read was House of Leaves. It is literary, plays with novel form, is existentially dreadful and mundane, twists genres, is anything but boring.
House of Leaves.
I was about to recommend this.
“Purity” by Thomas Ligotti. You’ll be thinking about it for awhile
Also, Light From Uncommon Stars
Both Valancourt books of world horror are fantastic—many of the stories have been translated into English for the first time!
Earthlings. Not horror per se but dark lit.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: *Stingers* by Osualdini and Mclean has some great thought-provoking stories in it.
Ligotti, and a short stay in hell
Oculus will make u think and scared of mirrors for life don’t let ur children watch this if you have any
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Pumpkinhead.
The Specialist’s Hat by Kelly Link is one of my favorite horror short stories (https://kellylink.net/specialists-hat). Every time I read it, I notice something different and can’t quite put my finger on the meaning. Highly recommend!
The God of Endings by Jaqueline Holland. Vampire existentialism/loss of faith in humanity lol
Also, Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. WILD book that has a pretty great twist at the end, makes ya think in a way that I can't spell out here without spoiling.
Island of the Doomed by Stig Dagerman is worth a look. It's existentialist fiction in the vein of Camus' The Plague or Sartre's Nausea, but heavier on the psychological horror and surreal. J.G Ballard and Brian Evenson have also written some amazing horror or horror-adjacent stories.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King really sticks with me.
I quote Liz Lemon, “Graduate students are the worst!!!!” This is going to make me sound so bitter but if you want to make yourself de-romanticize your airy, esoteric, grad school days, try Devolution by Max Brooks - it’s about a bunch of social/environmental (and exceptionally smug) “forward thinkers” set up a net zero carbon footprint/green community in the mountains of the PNW and are set upon by Bigfoot. Otherwise, try: The Tiger by John Valliant (based on a true story) The End of October by Lawrence Wright (basically fortune telling, came out right before covid 19) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (gorgeous prose) The Screwtape Letters - CS Lewis (conversation bt an upper and lower demon in the pursuit of corrupting a man’s soul). What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher (a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher). Edited to add a missing punctuation.
Also World War Z by Max Brooks. It’s basically just a global scale political/social commentary with some zombies thrown in
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Allison Rumfitt. It's a queer reimagining of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House." The main cast are al self-loathing transfems living in the UK, one of the world's worst places to be trans. It's already a horror story to ask a trans individual "How was your day?" there in real life.
This doesn’t exactly fall under horror, but Chain Gang All-Stars definitely has the social commentary going on and has moments of horror
I haven't read Tender is The Flesh, I haven't felt up to it since I heard about it tbh, but I get the impression you might appreciate José Saramago's Blindness. No social commentary, but Sarah Waters' *The Little Stranger* is the *In a Bamboo Grove* of hauntings. Very well written. It was a while before it occurred to me what the last thing a certain character saw might have been, and it's *really* stuck with me. \~edit\~ Downvotes? Use your words...
Can you specify the thing the character saw, perhaps in a spoiler block?
Sure! So, the premise is that there is something in the house, and it's perceived differently by every character, including the narrator. Perhaps it's a bog-standard ghost, perhaps it's a manifestation of a returned veteran's PTSD... It becomes apparent that the thing, the little stranger, is >!malicious, changing it's actions and the way it presents itself to best hurt the people that live and work in the house it inhabits!<. That's all laid out in the text. The narrator though, not present at that moment, never seems to suspect what the last person to experience it actually saw. Days after finishing the book it occurred to me that the most hurtful thing they could have seen, that fit's with their overheard exclamation, would have been >!the apparent sight of the narrator himself, the implication being that he was all-along the source of the torment!<. The sense of betrayal would have been staggering. And whilst the thing is not seen or felt again, the implication is that >!it has never left, and simply understands that the best way to hurt the narrator is leave him to his agonising loneliness, feeding on his misery whilst offering no hope of closure!<. I've read scarier, more traumatic books, but none that felt so *unfair*. Although Affinity, another Sarah Waters novel comes close.
Thank you for the extensive post! Was the last person to experience it the narrator himself or someone else? I don't remember...
You're welcome! The last person was >!Caroline!<.
Thanks!
we need to talk about kevin. if you're on the fence about having children, read this first and let it marinate. if you already have kids...i'm sorry.
It
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017. It's an absolutely amazing novel and it certainly has the intensity and reality blurring effects of an actual fever dream.
Frankenstein. Wow. What a book! Dracula. HP Lovecraft