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real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

I hope the thread title is a useful clump of genre words.

I want to read some horror, but not junky stuff, and not stuff which is overtly in a supernatural based genre i.e vampires, etc - although some supernatural elements in service of something else is fine - and preferably, I'd like to read something set and written after WWII. I've been reading a lot of stuff from before that time period and I want to come into the present a bit.

I can't offer any examples of the kind of book I'm looking for, because I have never read any. I understand Stephen King might kind of do this kind of thing, but like I said I'm looking for something less popular and held in higher regard by the literary world. That's elitist just for the sake of it, yeah, but I figure I can get into Stephen King whenever I want. I'm looking for stuff which isn't going to be on bestsellers lists, but which is well thought of.

The horror elements don't have to be anything specific, just that the book is smart, well written and has themes and characters more than it has plot.

No HP Lovecraft - it's good stuff, but I know about it already, have read some, and isn't within the area I'm looking for recommendations in.

So, does anyone have any books or authors which jump to mind? I'm happy to do a little leg work, I just want some names and titles to hook it on. Right now I don't even know how to search for what I want so I was hoping some real human beings would be more useful.

HORRORSHØW · Mar 2, 2015

danielewski's house of leaves comes to mind, although its postmodern formatting may turn you off. it is also less horror and more psychological dread.

real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

Grimløck;154205675 said:
danielewski's house of leaves comes to mind, although its postmodern formatting may turn you off. it is also less horror and more psychological dread.

oh yeah, I did hear about that, and yeah, the formatting and gimmicky sound of it did put me off. I might be being a little frustrating, but I just gave up on the box man by kobo abe 75% of the way through for being incoherent and gimmicky, I just want some straight shootin well written thematic horror.

ReadingRambo · Mar 2, 2015

No supernatural stuff is going to really limit you in the horror genre. Thomas Harris wrote all of the Hannibal Lecter stuff which you might enjoy.

Red Dragon
The Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal

B-Dubs · Mar 2, 2015

Try Richard Matheson. It's older stuff but it really sets up the genre as we know it today. Go read The Legend of Hell House.

Edit: no supernatural stuff? Weak dude, just ignore me then.

real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

LowKeyedUp said:
No supernatural stuff is going to really limit you in the horror genre. Thomas Harris wrote all of the Hannibal Lecter stuff which you might enjoy.

Red Dragon
The Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal

I'll edit my post. I don't mind supernatural stuff, it's more genre stuff that I want to discount. Stuff which is based mainly on supernatural themes is what I'm NOT looking for, stuff which uses some supernatural elements to explore deeper themes is.

Thomas Harris would fall under bestsellers, not really asking for help finding that stuff. Thanks though!

More_Badass · Mar 2, 2015

Drood and The Terror by Dan Simmons

nicoga3000 · Mar 2, 2015

LowKeyedUp said:
No supernatural stuff is going to really limit you in the horror genre. Thomas Harris wrote all of the Hannibal Lecter stuff which you might enjoy.

Red Dragon
The Silence of the Lambs
Hannibal

What about supernatural stuff?

Also, while it is Stephen King, I feel like "N." is lesser known since it's a novella. Absolutely worth a read.

real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

B-Dubs said:
Try Richard Matheson. It's older stuff but it really sets up the genre as we know it today. Go read The Legend of Hell House.

Edit: no supernatural stuff? Weak dude, just ignore me then.

Like I said, I edited my post because I didn't mean to rule out supernatural, just that it wasn't enough to fulfill what I'm looking for.

Haven't heard of the legend of hell house, i'll look it up. Thanks.

edit:

hell house sounds maybe kinda interesting, i'll keep a note while hopefully this topic points me in more directions.

Mr.Swag · Mar 2, 2015

Avoid Joe Hill. Good books, but def supernatural.

Dont really know what to recommend.

dream · Mar 2, 2015

Dan Simmons's The Terror is really rather good.

edit: it's historical fictiony though.

More_Badass · Mar 2, 2015

The Keep - F. Paul Wilson

"Something is murdering my men.

Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.

When an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find something that's both powerful and terrifying. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore--who just happens to be Jewish--to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way--a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny."

Quikies83 · Mar 2, 2015

dream said:
Dan Simmons's The Terror is really rather good.

edit: it's historical fictiony though.

I actually put this down after a few hundred pages. I loved it until the monster shows.

ReadingRambo · Mar 2, 2015

Well The Terror is another best seller so that's out.

Just start with King until you figure out what you like in the genre. he's a good starting point. Salem's Lot is a great one. It's one of his earliest and best, quick read too.

norm9 · Mar 2, 2015

I'm reading Fiend by Peter Stenson right now. Its a zombie book from the point of view of a meth addict. Lots of parallels to being a junkie and a zombie. Pretty funny too.

old · Mar 2, 2015

I just got King in Yellow. Don't know if you consider 1895 modern though. Came across it reading up on True Detective.

Secret Fawful · Mar 2, 2015

Hell House is supernatural, but it's also very literary, very obscene, and really creepy. It's also really good. It ALSO uses the idea of science vs. the supernatural quite literally. Fighting ghosts with scientific theory and application features strongly in the story. Dunno if that'd be your thing or not. For most of the story, you're not even quite sure if there are really ghosts or if it's in the minds of some of the characters. It plays with that too.

User 479360 · Mar 2, 2015

I'm going to be watching this thread, because I've been looking for similar recommendations.

I've been working my way through Joe Hill's stuff as of late.

ReadingRambo · Mar 2, 2015

OCDChewie said:
I'm going to be watching this thread, because I've been looking for similar recommendations.

I've been working my way through Joe Hill's stuff as of late.

Heart Shaped Box was so good.

pokeystaples · Mar 2, 2015

I like Lauren Beukes a lot. There's a bit of scifi in her work though. I know Joe Hill is divisive, but I enjoyed N0S4A2.

real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

Secret Fawful said:
Hell House is supernatural, but it's also very literary, very obscene, and really creepy. It's also really good. It ALSO uses the idea of science vs. the supernatural quite literally. Fighting ghosts with scientific theory and application features strongly in the story. Dunno if that'd be your thing or not.

It's hard too tell but yeah, hell house comes the closest from the recommendations so far I think. It was adapted into a film, which is a negative point, and supernatural vs science isn't a theme I'm super interested in, but the synopsis stresses the psychological effects the house has in exploiting the characters weaknesses - sounds more like it to me.

I appreciate the replies so far, but it does feel like people are just seeing the word horror and dropping whatever they are aware of which falls under that, despite this topic kind of being intended to generate names outside of the mainstream suggestions that it is attracting. I appreciate the help, though, just maybe dig a little deeper for those recommendations!

SD-Ness · Mar 2, 2015

Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy against the Human Race (prob the most “literary” on this list)
Jack Ketchum - Off Season (not supernatural)
Bret Easton Ellis - American Pyscho (not supernatural)
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves (postmodernist horror)
Colson Whitehead - Zone One (literary take on zombie fiction)
Victor LaValle - The Devil in Silver (another literary one)
Robert R. McCammon - Swan Song (awesome)
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend, Hell House (classic stuff)
Robert Bloch - Psycho
William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist
Ira Levin - Rosemary’s Baby
Dan Simmons - Drood
Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island
David Wong - John Dies at the End
Dan Simmons - The Terror
John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In
Peter Straub - Ghost Story
Thomas Harris - Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs (not literary but well-crafted IMO)
Stephen King - The Dead Zone (I know you said no SK but I think The Dead Zone is pretty fucking close to "literary" fiction IMO)

Secret Fawful · Mar 2, 2015

real_slime said:
It's hard too tell but yeah, hell house comes the closest from the recommendations so far I think. It was adapted into a film, which is a negative point, and supernatural vs science isn't a theme I'm super interested in, but the synopsis stresses the psychological effects the house has in exploiting the characters weaknesses - sounds more like it to me.

That's not just a minor plot point either. The way the house affects people psychologically is insidious, gross, intricate, clever, constant, and horrifically cruel all at once.

Disgraced · Mar 2, 2015

Creepypasta?

User 479360 · Mar 2, 2015

pokeystaples said:
I like Lauren Beukes a lot. There's a bit of scifi in her work though. I know Joe Hill is divisive, but I enjoyed N0S4A2.

I read some of Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes, but couldn't get into it. It was a bit too weird, if that's an appropriate term. Jumped around too much.

N0S4A2 was one I quite enjoyed, though.

LowKeyedUp said:
Heart Shaped Box was so good.

Yeah, it was good. The dread and horror that were built up in the first half didn't pay off as much as I'd anticipated, though.

Right now, I'm reading 20th Century Ghosts. I'm only about 13 pages into the first story.

FeedMeAStrayCat · Mar 2, 2015

I haven't read any of his work (yet), but a family member of my girlfriend is Norman Prentiss, who is a horror author, so I figured I'd share in case there was any interest.

http://normanprentiss.com/

Some more recent works are The Narrator, The Fleshless Man, and Invisible Fences. Apparently one of his first novels is based off of my girlfriend's family. Eek!

real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

SD-Ness said:
Thomas Ligotti - The Conspiracy against the Human Race (prob the most literary on this list)
Jack Ketchum - Off Season (not supernatural)
Bret Easton Ellis - American Pyscho (not supernatural)
Mark Z. Danielewski - House of Leaves (postmodernist horror)
Colson Whitehead - Zone One (literary take on zombie fiction)
Victor LaValle - The Devil in Silver (another literary one)
Robert R. McCammon - Swan Song (awesome)
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend, Hell House (classic stuff)
Robert Bloch - Psycho
William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist
Ira Levin - Rosemarys Baby
Dan Simmons - Drood
Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island
David Wong - John Dies at the End
Dan Simmons - The Terror
John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In
Peter Straub - Ghost Story
Thomas Harris - Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs (not literary but well-crafted IMO)
Stephen King - The Dead Zone (I know you said no SK but I think The Dead Zone is pretty fucking close to "literary" fiction IMO)

taking a look into thomas ligotti (seems to have a strong fanbase, but i haven't heard of him!) and victor lavelle. thanks for those.

Rug Monkey · Mar 2, 2015

In the future if one book of Stephen King's output is going to be regarded as a classic then it will be 'The Shining' if you haven't read it you should, it's better written than most people think it is.

also:

Richard Laymon - The Cellar
David Morrell - The Totem
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory
Peter Ackroyd - Hawksmoor
William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist
Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House
T.E.D. Klein - The Ceremonies
Susan Hill - The Woman in Black

way more · Mar 2, 2015

I don't know how much luck you will have. I searched NPR's book review section on Horror and there are only six entries and two of them are King.

http://www.npr.org/books/genres/191663270/horror-supernatural/

And New York Times Review of Books doesn't even have a horror section

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html

I think the only thing you have in your corner is King. I have admittedly not read It or his other classics but he does manage to push out some very well written stuff with concepts that will keep you up at night. What I like of him are the incredibly mundane stuff he can communicate as horror. He does have mountains of crap so you have to be selective.

Someone who knows how to describe a book finally explained why Lovecraft is good to me. Everytime I ask a person who reads him about what he does they say crap like, "it's about the Ancients and old monsters and . . . " and then my eyes glaze over. But it guess it's a genre known as Cosmic Horror. I plan on giving it a shot but if it relies too much on monsters than lame.

Personally, this is the book that has been keeping me up at night.

It's short stories and I can only read one or two before getting so depressed I switch to another book. I've read two other books to keep my mind off it and I'm not even halfway though it. Maybe what you are looking for is Southern Grotesque? Stories about horrible people and how their acts harm the world?

User 479360 · Mar 2, 2015

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but if you have great supernatural recommendations feel free to quote me and post them or PM them to me. I'd appreciate it.

TestMonkey · Mar 2, 2015

John Dies at the End by David Wong. Rides the line between parody and horror greatness. Seems silly at times and then you think about it and it gets scary.

JasonUresti · Mar 2, 2015

Demon Theory by Stephen Graham Jones

Yes, look into Evenson to.

I do have to say though you are limiting your reading by prescribing to marketed elitism.

Hilbert · Mar 2, 2015

Check out brian Evenson's books.

Hilbert · Mar 2, 2015

Also, might I suggest that you browse my horror fiction thread? It focuses mainly on books, there are plenty of suggestions, and is a good place to ask for recommendations as well!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=491047

real_slime · Mar 2, 2015

i've begun reading the conspiracy against the human race by thomas ligotti

it is non-fiction but it is absolutely what i was looking for, so thanks.

if people have more recommendations, keep em coming! cos i foresee getting through this book quite quickly (and will definitely be moving onto his fiction, which is mostly short stories), so i will be looking for more.

Nappuccino · Mar 2, 2015

While he might not quite scratch the literary itch, Richard Laymon has many unsettling works. Some are super natural and others are not. I'd suggest Traveling Vampire Show, Night in Lonesome October, Island, and In the Dark.

HK-47 · Mar 2, 2015

Thomas Ligotti is the author you want.

Ratrat · Mar 2, 2015

Is the best thing ever.

A lot of people haven't read the op judging by recommendations...

obin_gam · Mar 2, 2015

More_Badass said:
Drood by Dan Simmons

This so much! It's Charles Dickens and Friend getting high on opium in Victorian London! You don't get much more horror than that!

B-Dubs · Mar 2, 2015

real_slime said:
It's hard too tell but yeah, hell house comes the closest from the recommendations so far I think. It was adapted into a film, which is a negative point, and supernatural vs science isn't a theme I'm super interested in, but the synopsis stresses the psychological effects the house has in exploiting the characters weaknesses - sounds more like it to me.

I appreciate the replies so far, but it does feel like people are just seeing the word horror and dropping whatever they are aware of which falls under that, despite this topic kind of being intended to generate names outside of the mainstream suggestions that it is attracting. I appreciate the help, though, just maybe dig a little deeper for those recommendations!

Try not to let the fact it was adapted into a film turn you off, I should note that it was Matheson himself who wrote the screenplay for the film. Even if you don't like that particular idea for a story it's worth going through the rest of his works as he has done pretty much every different kind of horror story there is. Hunted Past Reason, for example, has no supernatural stuff whatsoever and plays more off it's characters and setting, while something like Shadows in the Sun is purely a supernatural folktale type horror story, and is quite good.

atr0cious · Mar 2, 2015

TestMonkey said:
John Dies at the End by David Wong. Rides the line between parody and horror greatness. Seems silly at times and then you think about it and it gets scary.

This and it's sequel are great, the movie less so.

So for a little fantasy check out David Wellington. He even has some of his books for free completely online. I started with Monster Island, a genuine fresh look at zombies, and never looked back. 13 bullets is a "realistic" take on vampires, which gets even more fantastic in the follow ups. All of his works are pretty great.

Pimplitosaurio · Mar 2, 2015

Do you read manga/comics/children books?

Because if you do read manga, then you might like, Junji Ito. Loved all his work

I loved a "children" book, called The Viewer, from Gary Crew and Shaun Tan. If you have 5 dollars to spare its a cool but short book

*Edit: If you see The Viewer on amazon, PLEASE don't read all the description, unless you want to be spoiled

guggnichso · Mar 2, 2015

Steven Hall - The Raw Shark Texts

Not horror per se - or is it?

besada · Mar 2, 2015

Peter Straub, particularly the Blue Rose books (Mystery, The Throat, and Koko).

Joyce Carol Oates does quite a bit in the genre. Ramsey Campbell's short stories might fill your need.

Hilbert · Mar 2, 2015

besada said:
Peter Straub, particularly the Blue Rose books (Mystery, The Throat, and Koko).

Joyce Carol Oates does quite a bit in the genre. Ramsey Campbell's short stories might fill your need.

Joyce Carol Oates' novel Zombie(does not contain zombies) is possibly my favorite horror novel of all time. Good suggestion.

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