#horror lit

[doomsayings]

“Anna’s hysteria, the creature, the doppelgangers – all suggest a purification process that leads to a higher state of being akin to divinity. The awful other, when we grapple with it, can turn out to be not demonic, but gracious. “Do you believe in God?” she asks Marc. “It’s in me!” Though the word ‘God’ is thrown around a lot in the latter half of the film, conventional religion – at least in any contemporary sense – is a far cry from the grotesquerie of the creature. Instead, Anna’s relationship to divinity is based upon those non-rational elements that informed religion in earlier times – the mysterious, the uncanny, the awesome and terrifying. Just before the subway incident she visits a church, and as she cries out to the crucified figure above her, it lays silent and stationary and does not answer her whimpering pleas. It resists her projections of weakness, fragility, hopes, fears and fantasies. She is left to create her own idol, which becomes a thing both beauteous and monstrous.”

Kier-La Janisse, House of Psychotic Women

#possession 1981 #kier la janisse #REALLY enjoyed this section #horror lit #reading log

[silvermoon424]

I uploaded my PDF collection of Christopher Pike books for y'all to enjoy

I've been on a huge nostalgia kick for Christopher Pike lately, a horror YA author I adored in my teen years. If you never read his books, perhaps he's more familiar to you as the source material for Netflix's/Mike Flanigan's The Midnight Club (which not only was a book of his, but from what I've heard the series adapts several of his other books as stories the characters tell. Unfortunately the series got the axe despite being successful because it was on Netflix, of course it did)

Thanks to the Internet Archive and other independent archivists, I've managed to accumulate almost everything Pike ever wrote. There are some gaps, but thankfully most of my faves have been preserved!

If you're curious to get into some 90s horror goodness but don't know where to start, I can recommend some of my old faves:

The Season of Passage: VAMPIRES on MARS!!!

Monster: VAMPIRES from MARS ANOTHER PLANET!!!

The Immortal: Retelling Greek mythology before Percy Jackson made it cool again.

The Eternal Enemy: A Terminator-esque story that legit made me cry every time I read it as a 14-year-old (if you're wondering why, it's because the main character's nobility and love for humanity really struck a chord with me).

The Last Vampire series: A fun series (6 original books + 3 reboot books) about a hot, powerful 5,000-year-old vampire named Sita and her many escapades. I can't vouch for the reboot books but I loved the original series; it was my Twilight, lol.

Remember Me: The ghost of a teenage girl must solve her own murder. The first book is super strong; there are two sequels but tbh they're not nearly as good.

Honorable mentions go to Last Act, Witch, and Die Softly. Scavenger Hunt also gets a mention for being absolutely fucking insane in an entertaining way (it involves sexy immortal lizard teens and ritual sacrifice).

#christopher pike #ya literature #ya lit #horror literature #horror lit #book recommendations #the midnight club #mike flanagan

[oddishfeeling]

do you have any book recommendations? pls i need lots 💙💙

this is such a loaded question friend. but lucky for u, i am procrastinating assignments, my take out has yet to arrive, and i just finished another book!

horror fic has been my choice for the last several books

the centre by ayesha manazir siddiqi is about a young Pakistani woman living in the UK. she's a translator for Urduru films. language and translation are central to this book. people are becoming fluent in a matter of weeks in complex languages.... the centre is gorgeous if not entirely mysterious, magical even. but whats the catch?? beautifully written. vivid details. anisa is a flawed, honest, and genuine feeling mc, as are the people in her life. i just finished it a couple hours ago n i miss my girls.

slewfoot by brom is set in 17th century Connecticut. our protag, Abitha, is not from this town but she does he best to adhere to the Puritan standards, if not for her well being, than that of her husband's. something stirs in the outskirts of the village, in the forest and beyond. she finds help from an unlikely source while also fostering a deep inner power of her own. these characters felt so well thought out, the writing is magnetic and the action is well paced. it puts so many preconceived notions right on their head. i loved this book and can't wait to read brom's other novel, the child thief, a retelling of peter pan and the lost boys!

sister, maiden, monster by lucy a. synder was oh so gay and oh so cosmically horrendous. this is like h.p. lovecraft wasn't a weird racist. this is like if biblically accurate angels were once just women in love. this is horrifying, visceral, and relevant to our COVID world. i was gawking at so many of the details. there are so many monster themes actually, it's perfect. the story is told through 3 povs of 3 different women. and we love women! and horror! i didn't expect to pick this one up but I'm so glad i did.

mary: an awakening of terror by nat cassidy do u know what it's like to be virtually invisible? forgotten? disaffected? do u know the pure joy of having a precious collection, adding to it over time, and it being almost ur only reason for living anymore?? then you're a lot like mary. and mary is a lot like plenty of women who get the chance to live beyond adolescence, who are cast out by society-- deemed invaluable. mary is utterly lost at a time in her life she feels she should have it all figured out. she goes back to her hometown, an ambiguous small town in the middle of the desert, and some unlikely characters help her piece things back together. i finished this book feeling so close to mary. we are friends now. there is mystique, horror, fables, myths, bad guys, mysterious architecture, and well mary is not the most reliable narrator. loved this one too.

the last house on needless street by catriona ward i had no idea where this book was going and i loved piecing the narrative together through several characters and their povs. it forces u to confront ur own biases regarding mental health. u are sympathetic to the characters in the most painful, heart wrenching ways. there is murder. there is mystery. there is missing children. there are cats. this book surprised me and it was fun to have to find a couple reddit threads to be sure i was understanding the story correctly. i felt like i read this kind of fast! which is always fun too.

brother by ania ahlborn this one pissed me off a bit. but in a good way because i was so deeply invested. this one is set in Appalachia. i'm not one for stereotypes, especially bc i think Appalachians have a bad rep and it's of no fault of their own. that being said, the insular feel of the book and the absolute claustrophobia those mountains create in this story were like a character in it of itself. our protag, michael, knows there's something beyond. he's seen them on colorful postcards. but his own mind and his own heart seem utterly trapped here. this one is heartbreaking. it's horrifying. and it'll make u dizzy from the amount of times u change ur mind. excited to read her other novel, Seed, because this one stuck with me so much!

a couple honorable mentions that fit the theme:

the vegetarian by han kang korean food. infidelity. art. nightmares. inexplicable mindfucks! this story was scary because it felt very.. possible? no monsters this time. no spells. just... the mind deteriorating. could happen to any of us.

a certain hunger by chelsea g. summers what if girlbossing is just a quick pivot from sociopathy?? what if the crimes are so much more gratifying than say, fame or fortune or even love?? women can be sociopaths too, you know!! this one is fun bc the protag is crazy and it's fun to slip into these characters. cathartic even. omg did i mention, she's a foodie too! just like me :-)

#book recs #horror lit #halloween reading list #the centre #ayesha manazir siddiqi #slewfoot #brom #sister maiden monster #lucy a. snyder #mary: an awakending #nat cassidy #the last house on needless street #catriona ward #brother #ania ahlborn #the vegetarian #han kang #a certain hunger #chelsea g. summers

[rofax]

I just finished reading Tender Is The Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica as the August read for my women's horror book club... and I also curiously looked online to see what other horror lit circles thought.

There is a very interesting trend of mixed gender spaces and especially men viewing Marcos as sympathetic throughout the book and feeling blindsided by the ending, and the women's responses being like, "I have just met this man and I hate him with every fiber of my being, i cannot stress enough the red flags he is throwing out."

#ro talks #tender is the flesh #horror lit #feminist critique #the man views women as either sex objects or mothers #nothing else #he has sucked shit from the start

[a-typical]

The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty

#the exorcist #william peter blatty #quotes #excerpts #book #reading #atypicalreads #horror #horror lit #books #horror books #scary books #scary recs #pazuzu #father karras #damien karras

[ladzwriting]

Expert on queer gothic and queer vampires @ghostpoetics, author of A FLAME IN THE NIGHT, has the following to say about The Fealty of Monsters:

“With the dark gothic fantasy sensibilities of Berserk, Castlevania, and Bloodborne, Ladz’s first volume of THE FEALTY OF MONSTERS is thrilling, gory, and queer as hell. A must-read.”

It's Valentine's Day and I need to shout out their forthcoming F/F/F vampire romance, UNHOLY WITH EYES LIKE WOLVES, coming out April 16, 2024, which I called "indulgent, depraved, and sanguine"

It's Carmilla. It's Elizabeth Bathory. It's so much fun.

The Fealty of Monsters comes out on March 12, 2024

#books #vampires #vampire books #gothic #indiebook #indie books #lgbt books #sapphic horror #wlw books #horror books #horror lit #book recs #blurbs #vodkapunk #the fealty of monsters #transbooks365 #faves #hype #queer horror #queer books

[sidhewrites]

Just finished Whalefall by Daniel Kraus and DAMN was it amazing.

I saw it as a recommendation on a horror lit forum some months back, and immediately put a hold on it at the library because I was looking for some claustrophobic or oceanic horror. Turns out it’s about a diver from SoCal, which, hey, I’m that, who gets swallowed by a whale, which, hey wtf?

What ensued was some of the most unique, claustrophobic scenes with incredibly realistic scuba diving and (presumably) realistic whale guts doing what whale guts do. Usually, the immersion is broken when a book uses scuba diving due to some small inaccuracy that most people wouldn’t even think to include, but the only time I surfaced (hehe) was to point out everything I recognized as familiar. Amazing prose, fantastic planting and payoff 10/10 no notes. (Ok some notes, but any issue I had was subjective gripes that don’t take away from the effectiveness of the story. )

If you’re even a little bit interested, absolutely read the book, it’s absolutely worth it.

#horror lit #bookblr #text post #fun fact: the MC has an oceanic BCD in the book. I also had one as a teenager :3 #Whalefall #book rec #horror #horror rec #Daniel Kraus

[schweizercomics]

Starting to pencil the first of two DRACULA figure sets for Patreon. Here's Dr. Van Helsing and the eponymous Count himself, in his youthened London appearance. I'm going off the book descriptions as much as I can:

Van Helsing: "a man of medium height, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes me at once as indicative of thought and power. The head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart, such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods."

Dracula: often mentioned as quite tall, and "His face was a strong--a very strong--aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin."

#Dracula #Van Helsing #Count Dracula #Character Art #Horror Literature #Horror Lit #Bram Stoker #Halloween Art

[lupinedreaming]

Remember, horror friends, it’s okay to have boundaries in the horror media you consume! Don’t let anyone make you feel like you’re not a real fan if there are certain things you don’t want to watch or read, even if they’re popular or classics.

Personally, I don’t want to watch torture p*rn at all, so I refuse to watch the Saw movies and the Terrifier films. I want nothing do with extreme horror books either.

There are other movies and books I just personally have no interest in because the plots don’t strike my fancy.

Gatekeepers are losers, If you like horror media, even if it’s tamest stuff, that’s all you need to be a horror fan! 👻

#horror movies #horror films #horror media #horror fandom #horror community #horror books #horror lit #🌹 eclipse talks

[nicktoddauthor]

If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can now get a copy of the e-book of We Are the Beast in the Woods for FREE!

Give it a download, and please give it a review!

#we are the beast in the woods #lgbt characters #novel #lgbt #book #books #horror #werewolf #werewolves #horror novel #horror lit

[doomsayings]

wait why is this so correct. Actually say that

#friday the 13th #horror lit #this is so funny to me BUT ALSO TRUE!!

[dark-libraries]

Without Warning, 1981, by Fern Michaels (a prolific romance novelist whose Wikipedia page doesn't even list this one, lol)

When I first started looking for old horror paperbacks, this wasn't the first one I bought, but it was the first one that awakened me to the joys hiding in the racks. This one was in the lobby of a second-floor bookstore, who had lined the entryway and stairs up with shelves of cheap paperbacks; the delight I felt when I reached in to look at this one and saw SANTA HOLDING A BOMB is indescribable.

The cover is literal, too: this is a book about a psychic girl hunting a killer mall Santa. There's an entire middle passage where she goes and lives in his house for a few hours, which turns out to be irrelevant, bc it's a psychic impression left in another person's photo that cracks the case. There's also a memorable vignette about a sick little kid across the street begging to go to the mall to meet Santa seeing him leaving the bombs on the roof, and waving to him cheerfully

SPOILER ALERT: in a shocking twist, they fail to stop the Santa, and the mall is bombed. Lots of children are dead but a cop's wife had her baby so it all balances out, probably

#horror books #vintage horror #christmas horror #horror lit #pulp horror #pulp novels #paperbacks #horror paperbacks #books

[moonshinemagpie]

Please reblog with the scariest horror book you've ever read

Please I'm desperate for the high of feeling the Spooks but I'm so immune 😭😭

#horror #horror books #horror lit #my contribution is #House of Leaves

[mintyfreshfiend]

Do any of yall read extreme horror/bizzaro horror books. Im trying to find more fun reads but everything that keeps coming up on those OoOoooHh most disturbing books! Lists I read and just kinds go. Well alright. That wasn't. Disturbing, that was just someone being turned inside out. Which, while fun, I'm like actively trying to find a book that will disturb me and not make me go. Huh. Ew.

#bizzaro horror #extreme horror #splatterpunk #horror #horror lit #horror literature

[libraryspectre]

It'd be cool if you gave a rec for what you voted in the tags :)

#horror lit

[ill-try-to-do-book-reviews]

Our Wives Under The Sea

Julia Armfield

Rating: 🕯🕯🕯🕯🔥 (4.5/5)

Our Wives Under The Sea is a slow but sure dive into thallasophobia, body horror, and, surprisingly, grief. Though it is a horror novel, it deals with the grief of losing a loved one, and more strongly, with the grief of mourning someone who is not dead. This book is, in my opinion, the quintisential "came back wrong" trope, executed marvelously well.

Summary: "Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. But It soon becomes clear that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone."

MY DETAILED REVIEW (SPOILER WARNING):

This story was difficult to get into. It was a slow start and I admit I had to dredge through the first few chapters.

However.

The slow start ends up giving the book a "frog in the pot" effect. By the time you're aware of what's really happening, you're already completely invested. By the time that Jelka starts losing her mind, the horror of Leah's and crew's situation really settles into your bones, you've already become enthralled, already curled up under the blankets at 3am soaking up every single word, and truthfully, you couldn't even pinpoint when you got so invested or what got you so hooked to begin with.

Leah and Miri's relationship is seen in two parts: flashbacks of the past and horrors of the present. Miri frequently recalls the beginning of their long-standing relationship through the duration of their current deterioration. Pamela, the time she saw Leah off and a fellow wife was surprised she didn't know Flat Stanley, the time she saw her off for the last time, meeting Jelka briefly and feelibg that nothing was wrong.

Interspersed among these flashbacks are glimpses into Leah and Miri's present, as Miri desperately tries to get in contact with the evasive corporation that had sent her wife to her doom, as Leah shifted and changed into something Miri no longer recognised, bleeding from her pores and gums, losing weight and spending increasingly more time in the bathroom.

At some point in your read-through, long after you're already neck deep in the story, you - and the characters - begin to question if their descent was actually an accident. By this point, though, Jelka is already long gone.

Jelka's death is very sudden and isn't made into a big deal during or after its reveal. The shock of someone having committed suicide via deep sea pressure never really hits our characters - which, while a little frustrating, serves the story well, in my opinion. They've been down here for months, isolated, alone, with literally no signs of any other life, despite how densely populated the ocean is known to be. Jelka had begin losing herself long before and one can only imagine how desensitised you would become in that situation. It also goes to show just how soon Leah and Matteo's transformation begins; they haven't even seen the eye yet before their humanity begins to slip.

Another thing that is never fully addressed, and honestly is kind of just dropped, is whether or not The Centre actually did intentionally drop them, leave them for 6 months, and then bring them back, or if it actually was a freak accident. It is heavily implied that this was intentional, and truthfully the fact that it is only ever implied wouldn't bother me so much were it not for The Centre just completely erasing itself from the face of the earth seemingly overnight.

To my understanding, The Centre is a megacorp of sea exploration; brand new and the first of its kind. Enigmatic, but really, all corporations are. Miri is able to contact them throughout the duration of the story, up until Leah's changes become undeniably apparent, at which point they somehow know to pack up shop and snap themselves away.

It could be argued that the therapist was involved in reporting, but unless they had kept Matteo, how would they have known something was going to go wrong to the point of asking the therapist to report back to begin with?

Also, what happened to Matteo? They resurfaced together and then were never brought up again, ever. I don't know, the Matteo thing just didn't sit right with me I guess.

My final issue is what the hell does Leah become? Obviously some sort of deep-sea creature, but what? Or does she just become a fish? Also what prompts this physical transformation? Presumably the giant Eldritch octopus they made eye contact with has something to do with it, but what exactly was never really clear to me.

I will say, though, Leah's last thought before resurfacing being Miri, and wanting to get back to her wife, was a special kind of devastating.

I hope Leah is happy out there in the ocean and I hope Miri makes a home out of her dead mother's house. I hope they visit each other often.

All in all, despite the questions I was left with, Our Wives Under The Sea turned out to be a fascinating and captivating read. I think it is 100% worth an initial read-through, but I doubt I will be reading it again.

#bookblr #book tumblr #book reviews #book review #our wives under the sea #julia armfield #horror lit #booklr #horror #horror literature