NintendosBooger said:
I'm new to the genre, so I can't really pinpoint exactly the horror of my taste. I want to read something non-traditional, modern, realistic in the sense of character development and dialogue, and devilishly mystifying to the point where I start to question the fictional nature of the story. Don't know how else to describe it.
Well, let me get this out of the way first.
This is the first of two lists of 100 best horror books compiled by several writers and edited by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. The actual book that this is culled from is a very interesting read. The second one moreso because the book expands a bit outside of the general horror "genre."
Since you're new to reading horror, every year Stephen Jones edits
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. These are huge books and are under $15 and filled with dark short stories and novellas. Each year this is a must buy (for me, at least). There's always something exciting going on.
If you can find it, there's a quarterly short story magazine which focuses on horror/thrillers (their term for horror which isn't supernatural based) called
Cemetery Dance. I really suggest this one too. It's filled with news, reviews and interviews and is generally a good time. Check your better booksellers for this one.
It sounds like you may be good with some post-modern meta-fiction as well. I'm not that familiar with it as a genre beyond Kurt Vonnegut and some later Philip K. Dick, so I can't speak to that aspect (the mind****ery bit).
As for modern horror, I'll have to get back to you. I've been going through the classics and stuff that may be more dark fantasy rather than horror (stuff like Machen and the like).
I think that horror works best in the short form, so I can't really think of anything book length right off the top of my head. I'll post again tonight once I get home and have had a chance to look at my collection of stuff.
Check out
John Shirley's Demons. It's really two books compiled into one paperback. The first part is excellent. The second one, while interesting, is also a bit too strange for my tastes.
edit:
Arthur Machen is more of a fantastical horror writer, but he does a very good job of introducing the horror into the real world. Unfortunately his writing is mostly short stories but The Three Imposters is one of the longer stories and very good.
Machen is absolutely essential, I think. Great God Pan and The Hill of Dreams are currently available in one volume. The White People is a great, great short story. The Bowmen has a more interesting history surrounding it than the story itself, but it's an interested read.
All of these titles are public doman and should be easy enough to
hunt down.
