i also like that he and his wife created their own legal last name together. pretty cool idea.
http://gingernutsofhorror.com/5/post/2014/03/horror-author-interview-steve-rasnic-tem.html
i want to read his book Blood Kin. i never knew about the Melungeon people before!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon
― scott seward, Saturday, 19 December 2015 03:41 (eight years ago) link
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/08/the-best-horror-novels-of-all-time.html
I've read...5!
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Friday, 31 August 2018 20:06 (five years ago) link
there is this list too https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779706/click-if-you-dare-100-favorite-horror-stories
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 31 August 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
I've only read 4.
At the Mountains of MadnessDraculaFrankensteinLet the Right One In (This seems like a weird placement to me.)
― jmm, Friday, 31 August 2018 20:22 (five years ago) link
wow i have read 10 from that paste list!
lots of good stuff in there. the thomas tryon book is slept on and recommended but not as good as harvest home
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 31 August 2018 20:31 (five years ago) link
Only read a few but IT at number 2 is absurd.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 31 August 2018 20:55 (five years ago) link
yeah -- i think Carrie deserves more praise than IT tbh
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 31 August 2018 20:56 (five years ago) link
Still need to read it, but I found the screen version of Thomas Tryon's The Other to be the perfect and in my experience very rare example of what Stephen King called "sunlight horror" (in Danse Macabre, which led me to so much good stuff): starts out like several other early 70s flicks did, like it's trying to lift some Little House On The Prairie charm---a sick set-up for the long, perfectly timed sucker punch (just one perfect dab o' gore, barely glimpsed, in the whole thing). Directed by Robert (To Kill A Mockingbird Mulligan, once again deploying his very rare gift for directing children, in this case with even less acting experience than Scout Finch's crew, like 0.
― dow, Saturday, 1 September 2018 01:22 (five years ago) link
But back to print: some good stuff mentioned on both Rolling SF etc. threads, incl:
Also Richard Matheson, who wrote a lot of the best Twilight Zones, Speilberg's Duel, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which Chris Carter credited with inspiring him to create The X-Files, also novels like The Shrinking Man and I Am Legend, which could be an ancestor of Breaking Bad, with the one Normal terrorizing a world of vampires, although in his mind, of course, he's Making Good. Also lots of short stories---Ward Fowler scared the crap out of me by posting this 'un on the old Rolling sf etc. thread:
http://magicmonkeyboy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/drink-my-red-blood-by-richard-matheson.html
^my fave matheson short story, which deeply affected horror-obsessed-young-me when i read it as a boy. the whole treatment of vampirism seems very similar to the vibe that george a romero was going for w/ his movie martin, and i know romero admitted that matheson was the primary inspiration behind NOTLD. you can see why stephen king is such a big matheson fan, too - that 'naturalistic'/everyday treatment of the supernatural. again, this story reminds me v much of parts of the tobe hooper tv movie of salem's lot - vampirism as teenage yearning/disaffection
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, September 9, 2012 4:17 PM (3 years ago)'
― dow, Friday, June 17, 2016
― dow, Saturday, 1 September 2018 01:28 (five years ago) link
Film version of The Other has an absolutely exquisite Goldsmith score. I haven’t read The Other yet, just Harvest Home, but I found both The Other and Night of the Moonbow in used paperback sections within the past month yay!
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 1 September 2018 16:14 (five years ago) link
I bought a used copy of Night of the Moonbow earlier this summer because I remembered reading something about it 15 or so years ago. Beyond that, I know nothing about it or the author.
― Police, Academy (cryptosicko), Saturday, 1 September 2018 18:06 (five years ago) link
Gay Hollywood actor turned horror novelist - I would actually like to know more about tryon himself
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 1 September 2018 21:54 (five years ago) link
I have read 8 of the books on paste’s list
Night Things is a new addition to my look-for list based on that article. Also I did not know Anne rice had just lost a young child when she wrote Interview.
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 1 September 2018 21:56 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I only know Tryon from the movies, as an actor (in The Cardinal etc.)and literary source---what are his books like?
― dow, Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:18 (five years ago) link
Harvest Home is as good as any "outsiders travel to backwards-seeming village with pastoral pagan beliefs about crops, horror ensues" story I've read.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:29 (five years ago) link
Much better than I would expect from an actor tbh -- not to be rude toward actors but I would consider him a writer who acted more than an actor who wrote. Imo.
OtmYou will like harvest home dow- and that’s my money back guarantee
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:41 (five years ago) link
NPR listicle is a pretty good list but terribly written
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 2 September 2018 20:50 (five years ago) link
Paste: Read 12 plus abandoned another on the list. Can't fault their #1 choice.NPR: 37, +1 abandoned, rather to my surprise, though this list is very heavy on the classics
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Monday, 3 September 2018 07:03 (five years ago) link
I think I'm up to like 7 on the Paste list and 13 on the NPR (the short story anthology section of the latter spooked me out because they basically took a photograph of one of my bookshelves). Of the top of my head, I'm only disappointed that House on the Borderland is missing from both. Definitely bookmarking these for future reference.
― Digital Squirts (Old Lunch), Monday, 3 September 2018 14:12 (five years ago) link
Ketchum's The Girl Next Door from the Paste list is an extremely disturbing read. Although I'm not sure I'd even classify it as a horror novel
― Number None, Monday, 3 September 2018 15:44 (five years ago) link
LL's description of Harvest Home sounds appealing. I'll try to track that down.
― jmm, Monday, 3 September 2018 15:49 (five years ago) link
It's really good! The Widow Fortune is a character I will never forget.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Monday, 3 September 2018 16:01 (five years ago) link
I've read 17 on the Paste list, 29 on the NPR list ... there are a lot of titles on both that I've intended to read for a long time, especially those Tryon novels.
The Elementals is a perfect horror beach book.
― Brad C., Monday, 3 September 2018 16:29 (five years ago) link
Started / the woman in black / , going well so far. Review was correct in saying that it could pass as having been written a hundred years ago
― calstars, Monday, 3 September 2018 21:07 (five years ago) link
“Burnt Offerings” comes close to being a masterpiece and just might be.
― calstars, Saturday, 17 November 2018 17:59 (five years ago) link
Still need to read that. The paperback cover (for movie tie-in?) used to give me the heebie jeebies as a kid. I wasn’t even familiar with the title phrase at the time, which added to it.
― Recnac and my 📛 is Yrral (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 November 2018 18:34 (five years ago) link
Actually don’t think they had movie tie-ins per se at the time, when the book was written beforehand. There were novelizations of course, but that’s different.
― Recnac and my 📛 is Yrral (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 17 November 2018 18:37 (five years ago) link
It starts kind of pedestrian but then gets good.
― calstars, Saturday, 17 November 2018 19:01 (five years ago) link
I just bought the movie sight unseen the other day. I'm guessing it isn't quite as classic.
― My mother set great store by that microwave oven! (Old Lunch), Saturday, 17 November 2018 19:03 (five years ago) link
I don't know how it compares to the book, but it's a very decent 70s horror flick ... good cast, good score, lots of atmosphere, some scary set-pieces
― Brad C., Saturday, 17 November 2018 19:32 (five years ago) link
Book is undoubtedly a source for king’s shining
― calstars, Saturday, 17 November 2018 19:37 (five years ago) link
I think he's acknowledged that, yeah
― Number None, Saturday, 17 November 2018 19:43 (five years ago) link
Anyone read the Ceremonies by Klein?
― calstars, Friday, 23 November 2018 03:28 (five years ago) link
Yes... about 20 years ago. My recall of it is hazy but it’s on my reread list
― valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Friday, 23 November 2018 04:58 (five years ago) link
Just two weeks ago!
― ArchCarrier, Friday, 23 November 2018 09:19 (five years ago) link
I read it relatively recently too. Felt like all sizzle and no steak to me. Plus the villain is lame
― Number None, Friday, 23 November 2018 12:54 (five years ago) link
The villain is a centuries-old charred treehugger with one eye. Not lame at all.
― ArchCarrier, Friday, 23 November 2018 14:01 (five years ago) link
He's a little old man who runs around giggling a lot
― Number None, Friday, 23 November 2018 14:22 (five years ago) link
That's the sidekick.
― ArchCarrier, Friday, 23 November 2018 14:25 (five years ago) link
Familiar perhaps. But he has a lot more screentime
― Number None, Friday, 23 November 2018 14:51 (five years ago) link
I see it's discussed way upthread, but it's new to me:
I'm working my way through the VanderMeer-edited The Weird anthology, and so far it's the best-curated collection of this kind I've seen. I like the way it's limited to the 20th and 21st centuries, with all the texts presented in chronological order, and I especially like the way stories by the canonical English-language writers sit side-by-side with equally strong works in translation (many of them newly translated for this book). About a quarter of the way through, my biggest discovery has been the Belgian writer Jean Ray, represented by two quite different but equally unnerving stories. I've already downloaded some more of his work for future reading.
I'm glad I've got The Weird on my iPad -- handling the dead-tree edition would be a strength workout.
― Brad C., Friday, 23 November 2018 15:23 (five years ago) link
Wow - 110 stories, you’re not kidding
― calstars, Saturday, 24 November 2018 07:35 (five years ago) link
my gf got me the dead-tree anthology and i always feel terrible for not reading more in it but it's not exactly a book i can toss in the bag for an idle moment.
― JoeStork, Saturday, 24 November 2018 09:11 (five years ago) link
xxp description of The Weird also applies to the VanderMeers' massive Big Book of Science Fiction, which suggests to BB reader me that you should brace yourself for recurring bouts of inconsistency, esp. when DO YOU SEE social commentary trumps art & entertainment value. But keep on keepin' on.
― dow, Saturday, 24 November 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link