Top products from r/horrorlit

I would recommend The Weird, edited by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer. It's a huge anthology, worth every single penny! You can not go wrong there.

Here is a link to one of my favorite shorts, which can also be found in The Weird by the way. It's called The Night Wire by H.F. Arnold. Very weird & eerie!

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Night_Wire

You could also check out The Dark Descent edited by David Hartwell, as it is also a huge anthology with quite a few "weird" pieces included. I have an anthology called American Gothic Tales, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, which looks pretty cool. Not sure if any of the shorts are southern gothic though. I just recently bought that anthology you mentioned and I love it!

Here is another anthology which is pretty well loved by everyone it seems, especially Peter Straub. It's called Great Tales Of Terror And The Supernatural, edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Herbert Wise. It's an old one, but amazon has new copies of the reprint which is where I bought mine. Kind of a smaller hardback, a bit smaller than a book club edition, but really thick & awesome! I'll leave a link so you can check it out! My favorite story out of the bunch was Taboo by Geoffrey Household.

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Terror-Supernatural-Modern-Library/dp/0679601287/ref=sr_1_1?crid=12OX4FJQZ21IK&keywords=great+tales+of+terror+and+the+supernatural&qid=1560355185&s=books&sprefix=great+tales+of+ter%2Cstripbooks%2C213&sr=1-1

Thanks for the reply. I don't do ebooks, but if I did, I definitely would get A Pleasing Terror. It does seem like it contains everything he wrote.

After a little more research, it appears that if I purchase the two Penguin Classics books of his, I'll get 36 stories total (if I counted right in the "look inside" section of the page).

https://www.amazon.com/Count-Magnus-Other-Stories-Complete/dp/0143039393/ref=pd_sbs_14_2/135-7853094-2533143?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0143039393&pd_rd_r=5d9dc4dc-9fad-11e9-b8cb-31d1039f00d9&pd_rd_w=BlGT8&pd_rd_wg=uBywT&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=G1XVSAW8C2150X6MA0GR&psc=1&refRID=G1XVSAW8C2150X6MA0GR

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https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Dolls-House-Stories-Complete/dp/014303992X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/135-7853094-2533143?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=014303992X&pd_rd_r=605a7461-9fad-11e9-a93c-6bb543d57023&pd_rd_w=0ldae&pd_rd_wg=hjSGG&pf_rd_p=a2006322-0bc0-4db9-a08e-d168c18ce6f0&pf_rd_r=JQZW9YM23VVBB6FJRS2M&psc=1&refRID=JQZW9YM23VVBB6FJRS2M

Have you heard anything about these books? It appears they have gotten good reviews. So, now I'm leaning towards getting those two books. Although, I really prefer having all of the stories in one package and I also prefer hardcover because of the better durability of the book.

Ellen Datlow is phenomenal and has edited a ton of really great work. Another standout I think would be Jeff and Ann VanderMeer who edited the outstanding collection The Weird among other things. One of my personal favorites is Thomas F. Monteleone for editing the Borderlands series (I had the White Wolf editions), which contains so many masterfully bizarre and memorable stories and is probably my top collection/series of all time.

I like my anthologies to contain multiple authors across multiple eras, and to provide an overview of the field from some particular perspective.

The classic anthology is Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural a massive 1000+ page stunner that is a great primer for the genre, focusing on earlier work.

Ellen Datlow's Darkness is a great anthology for the 80s - 2000s.

Joyce Carol Oates edited a fantastic history of American gothic fiction, called, not surprisingly American Gothic Tales starting with Washington Irving and ending with Stephen King.

And for a taste of horror from a more modern perspective (while including a lot of classic stories) The Weird is a really terrific overview.

Hey there, the best anthology I've found is Halloween it's an anthology with Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub and many others. A lot of variety.

i09 has a list of good anthologies they tend to lead more toward scifi but the collections look good. If I find more I'll post or edit them in.

The only thing I've read from Braunbeck is his short story Tessellations that was printed in a collection of Halloween stories. It was one of the best stories in the collection and I've been meaning to seek out more of his work. Thanks for the recommendation.

If I may be so bold, my new short story collection, Odd Birds, is available on Amazon. If you enjoyed the Twilight Zone with Rod Serling, this might just be a fun collection to check out.

https://www.amazon.com/Odd-Birds-Stories-Joel-Reeves/dp/1686961707/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1567026553&refinements=p_27%3AJoel+Reeves&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Joel+Reeves

OUP is usually a good bet, but I would also offer the two volumes edited by ST Joshi published by Penguin, complete with some very good notes.

http://www.amazon.com/Count-Magnus-Other-Stories-Complete/dp/0143039393

Paperbacks from Hell I have heard just awesome things and its won awards. I haven’t read it myself but it’s on my to read list for sure.

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is pretty interesting. I read the English translation. Also, Gemma Files' We Will All Go Down Together.

THINKING HORROR and THINKING HORROR vol. 2 are two great and recent collections of great nonfiction essays and interviews. Highly recommended.

The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural is pretty essential here, I figure.

Looks like used copies are going pretty cheap these days, too.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/White-House-Horrors-Martin-Greenberg/dp/0886776597

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^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

I quite enjoyed Hex, even if the ending was a a bit off:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765378817/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fHSHDbEMZW34Y

Books by Michael McDowell may be of interest to you. See: The Elementals, Cold Moon Over Babylon

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Cthulhu-Mythos-H-Lovecraft/dp/034542204X

This anthology contains one of my all-time favorite stories set in that universe- The Freshman by Philip Jose Farmer.

Also Crouch End from Stephen King’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes!

The Monster Show was interesting and so was On Monsters.

This one is probably my favorite: https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Bentley-Little/dp/0451236378

I went on a Ed Lee anthology hunt.

https://www.amazon.com/White-House-Horrors-Martin-Greenberg/dp/0886776597

Good times.

Thinking Horror, Vol. 2 just came out and might be of interest (disclaimer: i have an essay in it). Really enjoyed volume 1 and looking forward to reading the rest of 2. link

Thinking Horror is worth checking out!!!

It seems that your comment contains 1 or more links that are hard to tap for mobile users.
I will extend those so they're easier for our sausage fingers to click!


Here is link number 1 - Previous text "Hex"



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^Please ^PM ^/u/eganwall ^with ^issues ^or ^feedback! ^| ^Delete

Have you ever read the graphic novel series wytches?
https://www.amazon.com/Wytches-Vol-1-Scott-Snyder/dp/1632153807/ref=nodl_

If you read comics, I would highly recommend Wytches by Scott Snyder and Jock. Another good horror comic with witches is Redlands by Jordie Bellaire and Vanessa del Ray.

https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0143133144

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos

Here is a link to the in print book containing hounds plus many other Cthulhu mythos goodies
https://www.amazon.com.au/Tales-Cthulhu-Mythos-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/034542204X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523742862&sr=8-1&keywords=Tales+of+the+Cthulhu+Mythos

The Troop by Nick Cutter

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Black Hole by Charles Burn

Is this the same book?

Cows https://www.amazon.com/dp/0987453661/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_FJVSDbF8196DK

The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal is everything you need.

The Weird is likely the most comprehensive, though I'd also suggest Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural.

Bently Little is hit or miss for me. The Haunted was mostly a hit. I can say this for sure: it scared me.

The Elementals - Michael McDowell

Southern Gothic Horror

https://www.amazon.com/Elementals-Michael-McDowell/dp/1941147178

You 100% want to grab yourself a copy of Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks From Hell, which will provide you with more delightfully awful 70s/80s horror than you can poke a sharp stick at. (And to sweeten the deal, some of those books have been reissued - with introductions by Hendrix - under the aegis of Valancourt Press, who, truly, are doing the Lord's work.)

For my part, I'll recommend Cathy Cash Spellman's Bless The Child. This book has everything: New Age bookstore owners who double as axe-wielding warrior princesses, a lead character who is way too young and beautiful to be a grandmother (which you'll know because literally every damn character spends about three pages marveling at how young and beautiful she is and how they can't believe she's a grandmother), Satanic nannies who keep severed goat heads in their closets, astral-plane sex, a theology that seems to draw from just about every religion that's ever existed up to and including the ones that involve Atlantis, an evil cult leader who uses Gmail, sweary demons, and the deathless line "STAND BACK! THIS HOST IS CONSECRATED!!!"

Here's a couple of comic books that will be up your alley:

1. Wytches by Scott Snyder (http://www.amazon.com/Wytches-Vol-1-Scott-Snyder/dp/1632153807)
   
   
2. Fell by Warren Ellis (http://www.amazon.com/Fell-Vol-1-Feral-City/dp/1582406936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1459367957&sr=1-1&keywords=Fell+warren+ellis)
   
   Witches is distinctly small town. Fell is about a detective dealing with the isolated crappy side of a big city. It's a detective noire story, but it might as well be horror based on the tone and the way the city itself is treated as a character.

Some of these are a bit older and aren't all single-author collections, but they contain some really high-quality stuff:

Prime Evil by Douglas Winter (ed)

Dark Forces by Kirby McCauley (ed)

Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti

The Dark Descent by David Hartwell (ed)

Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell

Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein

Wormwood by Poppy Z Brite

Black Evening by David Morrell

Ah, creature features. Stephen King has a few fun ones tucked into in short story anthologies. Nightmares and Dreamscapes comes to mind. The Troop is sort of creature-y. Not really b-movie, but close. For that 'childhood summer of fighting monsters' feel, there's also Summer of Night.

I know we're in horror lit, but you should also check out Slither, Feast, and The Bay.

This is tough, because everyone's definition of horror is different. But in terms of feeling like the narrator is also suffering along with you, here are a few I can think of where the worst monsters are human...

COWS by Matthew Stokoe. I had nightmares. I keep thinking about maybe rereading it and then I chicken out.

HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk, which has the added benefit of providing multiple writers/narrators who are all completely messed up!

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum, or really almost anything by him, but this one is based on a true story and is told from the perspective of a young man/boy who is profoundly uncomfortable with what he's witnessing.

THE PAINTED BIRD is an incredibly messed up but now debunked "true" wartime story by Jerzy Kosinski.

JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo is a very tough, claustrophobic, powerless experience.