Horror Aficionados discussion

Hay everyone so I have only just recently got into reading horror (have always been a fan of horror movies though)and need some suggestions.

So far I have been working my way though all of Joe Hill's books and love them all.However I have still to read any of Stephen King's stuff , apart from his co-written graphic novelAmerican Vampire, Vol. 1, but I plan to read The Stand soon. I am also a huge fan of Richard Matheeson's I Am Legendand plan to read some more of his work. There is a verity of different themes I like in my horror such as vampires( the non sparkly kind) , zombies, the apocalypse, psychological horror and modern settings. So here is some questions I have:

1. What is the best Stephen King books for someone who loves the character driven nature of Joe Hill's work?

2. What Richard Matheson books would you recommend?

2. Do you have any other book suggestions for someone who likes character driven books.

stephen king IT really creeped me out

Sheridan wrote: "stephen king IT really creeped me out"

I loved the movie. I have heard that the book is even better. Does the book jump between when they were kids and present day or is it kinda split into two different times?

Yes, IT jumps between present day and childhood throughout the book. One of my favourite King books! :)

I would recommend any King book. 'Salem's Lot(for the vampires) and The Shining(for the characters) would be good places to start.

I wasn't a fan of Hell House by Matheson, but a lot of people really like that one. I've read DuelDuel: Terror Stories and liked that.

Other books: The Elementals(awesome characters, and scary!), Ghost Story(gave me nightmares), Bird Box(very suspenseful, modern), We Have Always Lived in the Castle(pure amazingness), Boy's Life(magical, wonderful, every good word you can think of...)

Hope you find some great books here! :)

My SK recomendations would be Salem's Lot and Cell.
And the book that gave me the creeps is The Exorcist. Also Seed, by Ania Alhborn, a Kindle author. Amazing Stuff.
Oh, and Rest in Pecae by John Lindqvist.

Stephen King's "Pet Sematary" and "'Salem's Lot"! Read them bothFor I Have Sinned at different times when I was alone and was wonderfully terrified!

Kirstin wrote: "Yes, IT jumps between present day and childhood throughout the book. One of my favourite King books! :)

I would recommend any King book. 'Salem's Lot(for the vampires) and [book:The S..."

Thanks for the suggestions. Duel: Terror Stories sounds great I'm a big sci-fi fan as well so the fact Ray Bradbury is involved really sparks my interest. :)

Seba wrote: "My SK recomendations would be Salem's Lot and Cell.
And the book that gave me the creeps is The Exorcist. Also Seed, by Ania Alhborn, a Kindle author. Amazing Stuff.
Oh, and Rest in Pecae by John..."

I have heard really good things about Cell and the premise of it sounds really good. Thanks for the suggestions. :)

Kristen wrote: "Stephen King's "Pet Sematary" and "'Salem's Lot"! Read them bothFor I Have Sinned at different times when I was alone and was wonderfully terrified!"

Thanks for the suggestion. I loved the Salem's Lot series I really should read the book.

And what about a Joe Hill book suggestion? I haven't read anything from him yet.

Seba wrote: "And what about a Joe Hill book suggestion? I haven't read anything from him yet."

Well it depends what your looking for. If your a comic book fan I highly recommend starting with Locke & Key. If you like books that are a bit of everything Horns is good cause it's got romance eliments and stuff as well. If your looking for something with nerdy references and lots of fantasy to it though try NOS4A2.

If you want to read something different than Stephen King I would recommend James Herbert. He's a UK horror author who sadly passed away last year. My favourite book of his is Once..., but there are quite a few others to choose from too.

It is probably the Stephen King novel that had the greatest impact on me. I loved it! I was 20 when I read it and from talking with other people it seems to be a book best read within a few years either side of that age. Mind you, I'd be into reading it again sometime.

I haven't read much by Matheson but I'd also had fun reading I am legend last year. What did you think of the Will Smith movie version?

Greg wrote: "It is probably the Stephen King novel that had the greatest impact on me. I loved it! I was 20 when I read it and from talking with other people it seems to be a book best read within a few years e..."
I thought it was good as it's own thing but it was so different from the book it shouldn't have even been called I am Legend.

Yeah, I agree. It was more a film 'inspired by' the book but fun all the same.

C.J. wrote: "If you want to read something different than Stephen King I would recommend James Herbert. He's a UK horror author who sadly passed away last year. My favourite book of his is Once..., but there ar..."

I agree about James Herbert. I am on something of a Herbert kick the last year and a half or so. I highly recommend Creed and Magic Cottage, Das Haus auf dem Land (I don't know why that German version is the only one that comes up.) The Rats and The Fog are both good too, in that 80's over the top horror kind of way.

The Fog's not bad. We had a group read about it last year. I liked Once too, but this might be regarded more as dark fantasy. The Fog has a central character but it also has brief stories of other people in it (who are affected by the Fog), each one interesting in its own way. Once is character-driven too for the most part.

My favourtie SK books are Salem's Lot (vampires), Cell (kinda zombie apocalypse novel), Desperation (demonic possessions), Night Shift and Full Dark, No Stars (both of them full of awesome, high-quality tales) and , of course, The Shining.

I Am Legend is a hell of a book and I'm still waiting for a good film adaptation. The latest movie version was more based on the movie "The Omega Man" (1971), with Charlton Heston, which at the same time was based on "The Last Man on Earth" (1964), starring Vincent Price. As this first adaptation wasn't faithful to the book, the next ones weren't as well. In none of them the affected population is the bunch of vampires appearing in Matheson's books. By the way, there is a direct-to-DVD production, starring Mark Dacascos entitled "I Am Omega".
Other recommended titles by Matheson: Hellhouse and Stir of Echoes.

I also recommend you any novel by Ramsey Campbell and Richard Laymon (For me The Stake is an awesome one!).

Finally, if you love vampire books check out "The Light at the End" by John Skipp and Craig Spector and Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons.

Raul wrote: "I also recommend you any novel by Ramsey Campbell and Richard Laymon (For me The Stake is an awesome one!)."

If you're talking Richard Laymon, my favorite remains Swan Song. Vaguely reminiscent of SK's The Stand, which I also love.

Can anyone suggest a good horror audio book? I've got a credit on audible and don't have a clue what to get.

Hey Raul,

Swan Song is written by Robert R. McCammon, and, yes, a fine post-apocalypse tale (but not, in my opinion, comparable to King's amazing The Stand).

Hey Abby,

Check out my FREE audiobooks: http://librivox.bookdesign.biz/author...

I'd be thrilled if you gave them a try. For a twist on the post-apocalypse theme, try SHAT. (Did I mention it's free?)

Addy wrote: "Can anyone suggest a good horror audio book? I've got a credit on audible and don't have a clue what to get."

Hey Addy, just my $0.02 worth. I've honestly not found a lot of great horror audiobooks. The availability has increased in the last couple of years, because prior to that about all you could find was Stephen King and Dean Koontz's latest books. While you can find a lot of other authors now, the problem I have is finding ones that have good narrators. A bad narrator can actually drag down an otherwise good book, unfortunately.

Having said that, given that you're on a Clive Barker run lately :-), a lot of his books are now available on audio that didn't used to be, at least unabridged. Simon Vance does a number of them, and I think he's pretty good, if I remember right. I'm thinking of getting Weaveworld, since I'm more likely to get to it sooner on audio than I am reading it. Mister B Gone is actually read by Doug Bradley (Pinhead), which is cool - that one is fun, though not scary.

If you're interested in trying something a little different, Robert McCammon's series of books about Matthew Corbett are excellent, but are more (at times dark) historical fiction. I'm traditionally not a fan of historical works, but I love those, and the narrator is great.

For something even further from horror, if you want something really entertaining but also more than a little "science nerdy", I was totally blown away by Andy Weir's "The Martian". The narrator is excellent, ad the book is incredibly entertaining.

It's a shame audible doesn't have the unabridged "Hitchhker's Guide to the Galaxy" books read by Douglas Adams himself. I love that series, and there's nothing quite like the author reading their own work (even authors with annoying voices like Stephen King).

Sorry, long answer that told you little about what you actualy asked, but I am a fan of audiobooks, since they allow me to increase my "fiction throughput". :-)

Geez, can't believe I forgot to mention this, given I have mentioned the book a half dozen times here in the last few days. :-) You can also try the audiobook of Stewart O'Nan's "The Night Country". Amazing book, and very good narrator.

Awesome! Thank you! I remember u mentioning Night Country and it looks really good. I just didn't want to spend the money. I didn't even think about the audio book, so I think I'm gonna go with that since I have a free credit:) Thanks again Robert!

I liked the Bleeding Room by Barry Napier.

Salem's Lot was so good.

It's unorthodox but give Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter a looksee. Absolutely love the characters. It's a weird western but it's like Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft, and spaghetti westerns got slapped into a blender. You'll have to do it quick though. First book is goin out of print soon.

Anything Simon Clark has ever written. He changed my view of the genre.

Ashe wrote: "Salem's Lot was so good.

It's unorthodox but give Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter a looksee. Absolutely love the characters. It's a weird western but it's like Robert..."

So would there be a character called Clint Conan Dexter Ward in it? :P

If you like Zombie books :Zombie Fallout
The Remaining
Oh I can't think, click on my profile and I have a zombie shelf, along with Vampire and Horror. The Bizarro Shelf is fun too!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Greg wrote: "Ashe wrote: "Salem's Lot was so good.

It's unorthodox but give Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter a looksee. Absolutely love the characters. It's a weird western but it'..."

There might be ssomewhere in the background. Ed packed those books full of references. Including a Ghostbusters reference that I was the first, and possibly still only, person to get.

Ashe wrote: "Greg wrote: "Ashe wrote: "Salem's Lot was so good.

It's unorthodox but give Merkabah Rider: Tales of a High Planes Drifter a looksee. Absolutely love the characters. It's a weird we..."

Sounds like a good excuse to watch Ghostbusters again before reading the book! :)

That particular reference was in the third book, but I mean, it's Ghostbusters. Any excuse to watch is a good excuse haha.

Ashe wrote: "That particular reference was in the third book, but I mean, it's Ghostbusters. Any excuse to watch is a good excuse haha."

Exactly! It was one of my fave movies as a teen.

Ghoatbusters had a prfound effect on me. Very important.

Ashe wrote: "Ghoatbusters had a prfound effect on me. Very important."

Another important movie for me around the same time was Return of the Living Dead which looks a bit hammy now. LOL

RotLD is probably the darkest silly movie ever though.

Anywho, I think we hijacked the thread...

Yes we did slightly. To put things back on track, I'd recommend as a good page-turning English zombie book!