Good recent(ish) horror books?

[Silent Runner]

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the post-Apoc thread. I started Bird Box by Josh Malerman yesterday - it was recommended to me on Amazon and was only a couple of quid. 

 

Ordinary people have started to have psychotic incidents. They see *something* outdoors, violently attack anyone near them then kill themselves. No one knows what's happening, television, internet and radio are all dead. People are afraid to leave their homes, they block their windows with blankets and if they go outdoors they go blindfolded. So the whole outdoor World is in darkness.

 

We follow Malorie and her two children as they try to make their way somewhere safe. They are blindfolded the whole time so there's lots of descriptions of sounds and environmental noise which works really well. The timeline jumps between this journey and flashbacks to when these incidents first started. 

I'm 30% in and so far it's been really good. Interesting set-up and characters and the reveals are well paced. But it could all go wrong quite easily though.

 

Anyone read it?

[cassidy]

Yeah read it last year. Enjoyed it a great deal its so bloody intense on occasion. 

[Silent Runner]

Finished Bird Box tonight. It's very good, well paced and quite bleak. I'm not normally a fan of split time-period narratives but I think it works well in this here. 

 

Definitely recommended for post-apoc fiction fans. 

[Silent Runner]

I started The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp during the week. It's the story of a sceptical journalist who starts to write a book on ghosts and the paranormal. Predictably enough he soon starts to encounter some spooky stuff he can't explain.

 

The hook here is that this book is the equivalent of a found footage film. It's meant to be an unpublished manuscript found after the authors death. There's unfinished paragraphs and sentences, notes to editors, messages from family members inserted between chapters. It gets a little meta at times but it gets away with it.

 

It's well written and pretty scary in places. The central character (Jack Sparks) is such a dickhead it will be nice when everything starts to go wrong for him. Good so far.

[cassidy]

Another great book there

[Silent Runner]

Finished it tonight and really liked it. With about a quarter of it left I thought I had it worked out and that I was going to guess the twist. Nope, not even close. I burned though the final few chapters nearly laughing at how wrong I called it and very pleased to have been wrong-footed. 

 

Highly recommended. 

[Exit Chamber]

On 28/08/2016 at 21:59, Silent Runner said:

Finished Bird Box tonight. It's very good, well paced and quite bleak. I'm not normally a fan of split time-period narratives but I think it works well in this here. 

 

Definitely recommended for post-apoc fiction fans. 

About half way through this and loving it. Bleak doesn't begin to cover it though! Had to stop reading it late last night in the dark because it was freaking me out, a bit, can't remember a book doing that in a long time.

[Colonel Panic]

I read Bird Box having seen it recommended here and I thought I'd just chime in about how much I liked it! It was just so bleak and quite a novel take on the post apocalyptic vibe.

[JDubYes]

On 05/10/2011 at 22:47, Uncle Mike said:

I just read and loved "Dark Matter" by Michelle Paver. Apparently, she's reasonably famous as a children's author, and this book appears to be Richard & Judy-approved; don't let either of those facts put you off.

It's a really well told and genuinely chilling ghost story, set in 1937 Arctic Norway. A malevolent ghost threatens an arctic expedition.

It achieved the difficult-for-a-book-to-do-to-me goal of having me look over my shoulder at night, so I consider it a huge success.

 

Was just having a look back through the thread, was interested in this one and decided to look it up on Amazon. Turns out that (at the moment at least) it's 99p on Kindle, if anybody else also fancies giving it a go.

[Silent Runner]

'The Last Days of Jack Sparks' is 99p on Kindle today. Can't go wrong on Halloween for that price.

[Silent Runner]

On 10/17/2016 at 16:43, JDubYes said:

 

Was just having a look back through the thread, was interested in this one and decided to look it up on Amazon. Turns out that (at the moment at least) it's 99p on Kindle, if anybody else also fancies giving it a go.

 

I bought this at 99p a while back and read it over the weekend. It took a while to get going but once the spooky stuff starts it's very good. I love The Thing so any ghost story set in a snowy, isolated location always works for me. The characters and the 1930's technology made this very interesting and the pages turned quickly. 

 

I don't think I'd pay a fiver for it but I'd have no problem recommending it when it's on sale again.

[paddyo]

On 23/06/2015 at 05:59, rumblecat said:

I can thoroughly recommend A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay.

A 24 year old woman returns to the house where fifteen years ago her older sister suffered an apparent possession, a series of events that was captured by a documentary series at the time. There's a real unsettling feeling that develops over the first half of the book and Tremblay turns an initially (and deliberately) annoying central character into someone you genuinely feel for, giving the end quite an emotional punch.

It's been picking up rave reviews from all over the place, mostly justified, I can see it being one of those books that gains more and more popularity through word of mouth as well- it's this years The Girl With All The Gifts. I don't think its quite as good as Carey's novel, but it's definitely up there.

Just finished this tonight, wow!! What a book!! The characters have eeal deoth, its genuinely creepy and the ending will stay with me for a long time. I would highly recommend this book!!

[Anne Summers]

Eeal deoth you say? I have had this on my bookshelf for a while but not got round to it, but now i know the characters have eeal deoth, I will. 

[paddyo]

Lol now with more eeal deoth!! I meant real depth in case you didnt guess, but yeah, read it cos its amazing. Been thinking about it all day tbh

[Scribblor]

I'm listening to the Audio book now. I'm about two thirds of the way through. Perhaps it's the otherwise good narrator, but I absolutely cannot stand the parentheticals in the blog posts. The analysis parts are good, but all the 'scratch that' stuff makes me want to hurt someone.

 

Edit: turns out I was more like 80% through. I've finished it now. I thought it was building towards something else, rather than winding down. On the whole, I didn't really like it very much. The writing was okay, but I don't feel like the story paid off, and I feel like Merry was badly drawn as an eight year old. Maybe that's because I'm the father of an eight year old girl and see lots of her and her friends but the behavior and thought processes the author gives Merry ring really false. Like a caricature of what someone with no actual contact with children thinks an eight year old should be like based only on watching sitcoms.

[Silent Runner]

I'm about 100 pages into Disappearance at Devils Rock by Paul Trembaly. The story of three friends who go camping, one goes missing and soon after spooky things start to happen. Pages from the missing boys diary start to appear in his house, he starts to appear to his friends and family in shadows and outside their windows. The story is told from the POV of his family and friends as they look for him and deal with the strange stuff that's happening. 

 

I enjoyed Trembalys previous book, 'Head Full of Ghosts', up to a point but the reality TV stuff and some of the characters kind of annoyed me. This is much better. Good, creepy atmosphere and a nice mystery with characters behaving the way you would expect them to in their situation.

 

Recommended based on the first 100 or so pages. Two quid on Kindle.

[Silent Runner]

Finished Disappearance.... today and didn't really enjoy it. It felt way too long for the amount of plot involved and the ending was unsatisfying. Good first 100 pages, bad last 250 pages. Recommendation retracted. 

[Padaxes]

I'm getting stuck into Birdsong , thanks for the recommendation I'm enjoying it so far. At this point it feels more post apocalyptic. As a result I'd recommend "Nod" which I just finished, I put a link in the apoc thread.

[McFly]

I really like Scott Siglers stuff so id heartily suggest "Ancestor", "Nocturnal", "Earthcore" and the "Infected", "Contagious", "Pandemic" trilogy. Its maybe not full on horror but sci-fi/techno horror kinda thing. 

[Silent Runner]

I fancied some new horror over the weekend so I picked up Relics by Tim Lebbon. I'd never heard of this writer but the book reviewed well and it was only a couple of quid on twitter. Angela and Vince are a London couple - he's an estate agent, she's a student. He goes missing, for some reason Angela doesn't call the police, and instead she starts looking for him herself. This leads her to a dark Underworld trade in magical relics; unicorn horns, angel wings and all that bollox.

I'm not an urban fantasy fan but this is pretty decent. Angela is a compelling character and the gangster world/monster world cross over works well. That said, the dialogue is atrocious. I know dialogue is a tricky thing to master but bad dialogue jumps off the page. This reads like it was written by a person who has never heard a conversation between two adults. 

 

Urban fantasy fans will probably dig this. 

[Silent Runner]

Gave up on this ^ - complete drivel that's the first part of a trilogy apparently. *Delete From Device.*

 

There's a few Richard Laymon books I've not read so I stuck a couple of them on the Kindle and started Night In Lonesome October yesterday. A college guy breaks up with his girlfriend and starts to walk the streets at night because he can't sleep. As he walks around the edges of his town he encounters all kinds of excitement, horror and weirdness.  

 

Great stuff so far. Love me some Richard Laymon and not a faerie or unicorn horn in sight. 

[sandman]

Can anyone recommend me a good recent horror book set in the uk?

 

I am in the mood for one!

[Banjaxed]

If you haven't read Adam Neville he's well worth a read most of his books are set in the U.K.  The best of them for me was Last Days, that was one creepy novel!! 

 

If if you have Prime his short story collection Some will not Sleep is free until Sunday night on Kindle. 99p if you don't have Prime. 

[neoELITE]

On 18/07/2017 at 15:04, sandman said:

Can anyone recommend me a good recent horror book set in the uk?

 

I am in the mood for one!

 

David Moody - Hater. It's rather good fun and quite an interesting take on a genre that's been done to death and been brought back to life. It's not particularly recent though.

[neoELITE]

On 20/07/2017 at 20:49, Banjaxed said:

If you haven't read Adam Neville he's well worth a read most of his books are set in the U.K.  The best of them for me was Last Days, that was one creepy novel!! 

 

If if you have Prime his short story collection Some will not Sleep is free until Sunday night on Kindle. 99p if you don't have Prime. 

 

Last Days is set in the UK, France and the US. I've just finished it actually and posted a bit of an impression in "what are you reading".

[James Lyon]

On 8/24/2016 at 10:49, Silent Runner said:

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the post-Apoc thread. I started Bird Box by Josh Malerman yesterday - it was recommended to me on Amazon and was only a couple of quid.

Anyone read it?

 

Thanks for the recommendation. Picked this up from the library and finished it off in a week, which is astoundingly speedy for me these days.

 

I thought it was pretty good. Went along at a fair pace and didn't try to tie itself up explaining everything that happened.

 

Just a few niggles with some of the plot details, though:

 

Spoiler

They way it was set up with all the media reports, there's no way the people in the house wouldn't have figured that the things shouldn't be viewed through a camera, or that it makes animals mad as well. Especially if they seemed as prevalent as the story makes them out to be.

 

Apart from that, I thought it held together well.

[neoELITE]

On 02/09/2016 at 09:22, Silent Runner said:

I started The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp during the week. It's the story of a sceptical journalist who starts to write a book on ghosts and the paranormal. Predictably enough he soon starts to encounter some spooky stuff he can't explain.

 

The hook here is that this book is the equivalent of a found footage film. It's meant to be an unpublished manuscript found after the authors death. There's unfinished paragraphs and sentences, notes to editors, messages from family members inserted between chapters. It gets a little meta at times but it gets away with it.

 

It's well written and pretty scary in places. The central character (Jack Sparks) is such a dickhead it will be nice when everything starts to go wrong for him. Good so far.

 

I just bought a second hand copy for £3 delivered as I've finished Joe Hill's The Fireman yesterday - I thought that was relatively interesting up until about page 250 - it's sooooooo long and the ending is farcial to be honest but it wasn't terrible.

[little che]

I finished the silent companions by Laura Purcell and can recommend it very highly. It's the story of a young widow who travels to  to her late husbands country estate.   There is definitely something wrong in the house.   It was genuinely unsettling at times and I powered through it. 

[neoELITE]

@Silent Runner - good recommendation on Jack Sparks. I've almost finished it. Jack is indeed a complete prick however, I do like horror and I do like novels with an unreliable narrator and that's what this is. Good stuff. 

 

I have nothing to read after this though. I am giving Adam Nevill a rest and I've read two Joe Hill novels in the last six months, read Head Full of Ghosts - I think Bird Box has been recommended a lot so I might give that a try.

 

I've read ten books in the past six months and I want to read at least twenty books this year*. I've read two already this year so I'm already ahead of schedule. I don't have a list so I'm struggling a bit beyond that.

 

*not all the length of The Fireman or NOS4R2 though. 

[little che]

Bird box is excellent.  Can I recommend Dark matter by Michelle Paver... A ghost story set in the Arctic... Its a cracking read.