Horror Book Club?
May 9, 2018 11:27 AM - Subscribe
Just a thought for people who enjoy reading horror like I do.
I know the horror film club essentially died out. I like reading horror fiction and some of the books I read are interesting enough to want to chat about. I was thinking maybe when someone posts such a book adding a "horrorbookclub" tag would be useful so if one of us is casting about for some dark reading materials, we can easily find them. Or is just tagging "horror" enough? Or maybe some other way to organize a club that I'm not thinking of because I'm a little brain fried.
I know the horror film club essentially died out. I like reading horror fiction and some of the books I read are interesting enough to want to chat about. I was thinking maybe when someone posts such a book adding a "horrorbookclub" tag would be useful so if one of us is casting about for some dark reading materials, we can easily find them. Or is just tagging "horror" enough? Or maybe some other way to organize a club that I'm not thinking of because I'm a little brain fried.
I would love this too!
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 1:55 PM on May 10, 2018
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 1:55 PM on May 10, 2018
Oh cool! Well do you guys want something informal like just a tag or do you want to do a thing where we come up with book list and a schedule?
posted by miss-lapin at 2:02 AM on May 11, 2018
posted by miss-lapin at 2:02 AM on May 11, 2018
This is why I hate Fanfare talk. Why do I bother?
posted by miss-lapin at 8:57 PM on May 16, 2018
posted by miss-lapin at 8:57 PM on May 16, 2018
I'm into a book club, I've been reading a bunch of horror fiction and there's so much dross it's hard to find the good stuff. I'm cool with a tag as a starting place.
Suggestions for a good book to start with? I've been reading a lot of Laird Barron recently and I liked his recent short story collection Swift to Chase, where a bunch of the stories are linked to one another (and then there's a total rando space opera story about a cyborg dog). There are also a bunch of "let's recontextualize Lovecraft" books that might make for interesting discussions, though I haven't found any that I truly love yet.
posted by whir at 3:02 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Suggestions for a good book to start with? I've been reading a lot of Laird Barron recently and I liked his recent short story collection Swift to Chase, where a bunch of the stories are linked to one another (and then there's a total rando space opera story about a cyborg dog). There are also a bunch of "let's recontextualize Lovecraft" books that might make for interesting discussions, though I haven't found any that I truly love yet.
posted by whir at 3:02 AM on May 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ack - popping back into this thread to say that I am definitely interested in this idea, despite not being super active on Metafilter generally. Yes, starting with a tag sounds good.
I'm reeeeally not up to speed with good, recently published horror - part of why I'm interested in a horror book club! - so I've not got much to offer in the way of suggestions for what to read first, but I'll give anything a shot basically.
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 3:15 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm reeeeally not up to speed with good, recently published horror - part of why I'm interested in a horror book club! - so I've not got much to offer in the way of suggestions for what to read first, but I'll give anything a shot basically.
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 3:15 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Right now I'm on the final book of the Southern Reach trilogy. I haven't finished, but the series strikes me as being extremely influenced by the "Colour Out of Space" by Lovecraft. The nice part is that women are major players. In the first book, there's really only one male character.
I'll definitely take a look at Swift to Chase because that sounds like a lot of fun.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:13 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'll definitely take a look at Swift to Chase because that sounds like a lot of fun.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:13 PM on May 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm trying to read more this year and would be on board with this.
I'll have a look at Swift to Chase. I read The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron years ago and thought it was mixed but promising, a couple of stories in particular really stood out for me. There were bits of Lovecraft there but also I was strongly reminded of Clive Barker's short horror (Books of Blood in particular).
Southern Reach trilogy was better than I expected, definitely felt Lovecrafty to me as well. I'd enjoy reading more along those same lines.
The friend who recommended Southern Reach to me also mentioned Bird Box by Josh Malerman. Haven't read it yet so I can't vouch for it, but I'm hoping it'll be worthwhile.
I also read a fair bit of fantasy and science fiction and enjoy dark mixed-genre stuff like C. S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy (dark fantasy with elements of horror and sci-fi) and Blindsight by Peter Watts (hard sci-fi with some dystopian and horrific elements). I'm happy to focus on a more rigid definition of horror if that's the general preference, but if anyone has recommendations in those directions as well, the places where horror bleeds into fantasy and sci-fi and such, I'm all ears.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:08 AM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'll have a look at Swift to Chase. I read The Imago Sequence by Laird Barron years ago and thought it was mixed but promising, a couple of stories in particular really stood out for me. There were bits of Lovecraft there but also I was strongly reminded of Clive Barker's short horror (Books of Blood in particular).
Southern Reach trilogy was better than I expected, definitely felt Lovecrafty to me as well. I'd enjoy reading more along those same lines.
The friend who recommended Southern Reach to me also mentioned Bird Box by Josh Malerman. Haven't read it yet so I can't vouch for it, but I'm hoping it'll be worthwhile.
I also read a fair bit of fantasy and science fiction and enjoy dark mixed-genre stuff like C. S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy (dark fantasy with elements of horror and sci-fi) and Blindsight by Peter Watts (hard sci-fi with some dystopian and horrific elements). I'm happy to focus on a more rigid definition of horror if that's the general preference, but if anyone has recommendations in those directions as well, the places where horror bleeds into fantasy and sci-fi and such, I'm all ears.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:08 AM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
Two unicycles and some duct tape-
That's so weird because I just finished Occultation by Laird Bannon and was going to post it. It's a series of loosely connected short stories, which are pretty clearly Lovecraftian in nature. Not sure about the Imago Sequence, but Occultation is pretty heavy into "geomancy."
I still haven't finished the Southern Reach. I found getting into the third book a bit rocky so I have to restart.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:39 PM on June 15, 2018
That's so weird because I just finished Occultation by Laird Bannon and was going to post it. It's a series of loosely connected short stories, which are pretty clearly Lovecraftian in nature. Not sure about the Imago Sequence, but Occultation is pretty heavy into "geomancy."
I still haven't finished the Southern Reach. I found getting into the third book a bit rocky so I have to restart.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:39 PM on June 15, 2018
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posted by silverstatue at 8:20 AM on May 10, 2018