I heard about RIP IV on Tempting Persephone and My Friend Amy today, and I just have to sign up. This is a Halloween challenge hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings. I'm always up for reading more supernatural stuff. Plus my Dystopia Challenge ends on August 31 so a new challenge is just what I need.
But here's where you come in. I need some freaky, scary book suggestions. Something that's going to make me afraid the dark; my own shadow; my mother! Something that will raise the hairs on the back of my neck when I read it home alone. Or perhaps some dark fantasy. Or Gothic mystery. Something with teeth and dank, dark dungeons, and things that go moan in the night. It doesn't necessarily have to be young adult, either.
Saying that, I don't like anything sadistic, or excessively cruel, or with hateful, violent sex. I picked up a Poppy Z. Brite book of short stories in my teens and I've never been the same since. And not in a good way. I'd just finished reading everything that Anne Rice had ever written and was looking to branch out. One story (rather regrettably) has stuck in my mind. One character sodomized another with a shotgun, and in the heat of passion the gun went of and blasted the poor boy's guts all over everything. I'll probably still have the memory of this story when I'm eighty.
So apart from stories that deal with shot-gun sodomy, I'm open to suggestions! Sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, ghost stories, horror (cruelty free, please) thriller and paranormal.
So go ahead. Freak me out.
The Thirteenth Tale is a very good gothic mystery... i'm afraid I don't do gory things lol. I'll leave the really scary suggestions to others! I'm sure you will get them!
ReplyDeleteRead Faces In The Fire by T L Hines. The Unseen too by T L Hines. Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher is goood too.
ReplyDeleteFrankenstein, Dracula never fail!
Here is my RIP IV read list
I second The Thirteenth Tale as a good gothic novel, dripping with atmosphere. I just read Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's, The Strain, and thought some of the description of what was happening were pretty creepy.
ReplyDeleteThe Graveyard Book by Gaiman, The Thirteenth Tale by Setterfield, Rebecca by du Maurier, Frankenstein, Dracula, Bradbury, The Historian which I see you are already reading (yay!), and there are tons of YA that would fit. The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Life as We Know it, The Knife of Never Letting Go, and on and on and on!!
ReplyDeleteoh, and I'm so glad you decided to join in with us this year! Yay!!!
ReplyDeleteHow about The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos?
ReplyDeleteWow thanks so much for these suggestions! Dracula is a fantastic idea, and it looks like The Thirteenth Tale is a must. I'm going to look up the others you've suggested and put my four books together.
ReplyDeleteCarl, I'm just glad I found your challenge, and thank you so much for hosting it!
Oh you want scary, you say? SLIGHTS by Kaaron Waren is bleak and a terrible force (and I don't think has any shotgun sodomy, though it is incredibly dark); HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Danielewski gave me nightmares and it's a truly bizarre, post-modern masterpiece of a novel; or you can never go wrong with Stephen King. IT, 'SALEM'S LOT, THE GUNSLINGER, THE LONG WALK (<--dystopian novel that THE HUNGER GAMES again borrows from), THE MIST, collections like FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT...I could go on and on and on. Then there's teh master, Dan Simmons - SONG OF KALI or THE TERROR or SUMMER OF NIGHT are horror/thrillers in very different ways, but are equally beautiful in writing.
ReplyDeleteI could seriously go on all day :p
I knew you were going to pop up with some choice selections Thea! I shall investigate these, but I know you like your horror truly horrifying, so you'll forgive me if I'm, you know, a pussy and don't get through them. But The Long Walk, you say? Interesting ... By the way I'm looking up Monster by Pike at my library. If Ana can read it, so can I!It'll be a good YA addition to the challenge.
ReplyDeleteYA-wise: I just finished reading "The Monstrumologist" and I really liked it. (Scheduled out in September!)
ReplyDeleteMmm...it's not YA, and it's not precisely horror, and it's got a good bit of mythology, but it's guaranteed to freak you out...get AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman, if you haven't read it. I found it almost too dark to read...which is good for Halloween, I suppose? Nothing absurdly cruel or horrible
ReplyDelete...your short story synopsis will start haunting me at night, I think...ugh!
Joe Hill's work is very good. I'd recommend his short story collection, 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS, the best (it was a Halloween read for me a couple years' past), but I also love his novel HEART-SHAPED BOX.
ReplyDeleteThe Monstrumologist - called the best horror novel of the year by Booklist . . . would love to hear what you think about my gothic horror/adventure/mystery. Cheers. Rick Yancey
ReplyDelete