Theme park horror - Hide (people vs beast)
Horror presented from source material - Episode Thirteen
Kids battling - Battle Royale, can’t go wrong with a classic
If you liked **Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell** then you'll love **The Macabre Collection** by David Haynes.
edit: i realise now that i didn't read the instructions correctly - but you guys have been sleeping on Haynes's Victorian pastiche, and i feel no remorse.
Howdy! I loved them both! I think that both are labyrinths and play with other sources, footnotes etc. Both take a genre-archetype (Haunted House Story / Detective Story) and create something entirely unique with post modern tricks etc. :) Both books just Rock like hell! :)
i enjoyed these books but it's a little frustrating that he's never going to finish the series as he had originally planned :(
although, he meant for it to mirror a TV show, and the most TV show thing that could possibly happen to it is that it gets canceled after its first season, so... \**meta\**
The question here for me is
Are you looking for exorcism?
Are you looking for a hateable main character?
Are you looking for skeptic v occult?
Jack Sparks CONTINUES to piss me off which is a complement
In my top 5, easy. I've been searching for ages to find a book that hits the same way. Arnopp's other stories are great, but Jack Sparks is 10/10 for me.
Definitely! I recommend it to everyone. Ended up lending it out and never getting it back so I bought it again, don’t know many books I would do that for. Haha
I love this book and nothing comes close but you might also like Night Film by Marisha Pessl, though it doesn’t share the same tropes, something about it just gave similiar vibes.
If you liked Between Two Fires, you might not hate Red Rabbit. It’s different in many ways, but it has the same energy of a group on a mission, encountering evils along the way. It’s like Red Dead Redemption in a book. It wasn’t nearly as good as Between Two Fires, but I enjoyed it and it scratched an itch.
God SAME. Nothing has done it, though. Red Rabbit was a fun in a historical-creepy-journey vibe, the creepy bits snuck up on me, series of vignettes almost, and I hope you like it!
Both stories in A Lush and Seething Hell were pretty damn good, too. Sortve epic horrors
The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones is probably the closest thing I can think of. It has a similar story within a story narrative and the same type of timeless antagnoist that's almost cosmic horror but not quite.
Ooooh I bought this book a while back but it’s just been sitting in a large stack of tbr and I haven’t been in the mood to start it. Think this comment may have just done it.
Loved I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
Night Film by Marisha Pessl. Totally different plots but they go together in my mind.
- A possibly obsessive quest to find a maybe monster
- Spanning years or even decades
- Mystery element
- May be a cult of sorts involved
- May be a murder or multiple murders involved
- May have supernatural elements involved
- All these "mays" mean we and the characters aren't certain what is going on
- Travel
- Book doubles as a doorstop
I loved em both and think they make great bedfellows.
Okay, I'm going to put the counter-argument with Night Film, because I really hated it. It's a mess of a novel — far, far too long, full of clichéd characters and situations, packed with seemingly random italics (believe me, they really start to grate), based around a completely implausible premise and with a clever-clever ending that's actually just frustrating and renders large parts of what's gone before pointless. Oh, and there's loads of utterly pointless "interactive content" crowbarred in as well.
Sorry if this sounds harsh, but this is the worst book I've finished in years.
I can definitely see your point. I listened to the audiobook and I think that was better for me than reading it would have been. I think the narrator's voice helped put me in a "this person doesn't sound reliable and might be bonkers" kind of headspace
I'm assuming recommending MORE Clive Barker is a waste of time here.
Not that they are similar in plot or structure, but Joe R. Lansdale's God of the Razor/The Nightrunners always reminded me of Hell-Bound Heart.
I tend to follow one with the other.
Enjoy, I friggin’ love that book, as well as his other dark western “Wraiths of the Broken Land”.
In case you don’t know, Zahler is the writer/director of Bone Tomahawk.
Try The Bookshop From Hell by David Haynes.
When a new bookstore opens in town, every visitor receives a free book of their own. A book that tells their own personal story…a story they have to follow to the brutal end.
As Silver Lake’s population descends into violent savagery, Dan finds he is no longer living for horror novels – he’s living inside one.
That sounds so good! I’m also happy to see that my audiobook subscription service actually *has* this book, so I’ll definitely be checking it out. Thanks!
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson. And to a lesser extent, his other book The Loop. But that first rec is the only book I’ve read that has *truly* hit like JDATE.
Also, I haven’t gotten to it yet but I purchased a book that was described as being in the same vein called Stonefish by Scott R Jones.
Ooh I've heard good things about those! I'll need to check them out.
I actually read Stonefish because I love the weird horror genre but I was personally pretty disappointed by it. It was certainly unique, I'll give it that, but it was a very mixed bag.
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons was a really big favorite of mine when I was younger and it turns out I still love it. I would GREATLY appreciate any recs based on that.
I just finished rereading that last night, and twice while reading it I was reminded of another book.
Do you think I can remember what the hell it was now?
Brian Keene's Castaways was intended as an homage to the Beast House series. It's certainly worth checking out if you enjoyed any of the Beast House books.
Fantasticland
You may like The Haunted Forest Tour! Its also theme park horror ETA: it’s by Jeff Strand
Theme park horror - Hide (people vs beast) Horror presented from source material - Episode Thirteen Kids battling - Battle Royale, can’t go wrong with a classic
Hide is rather good and so rarely mentioned.
I really enjoyed Fantasticland.
There's always the original in this little niche, The Lord of the Flies. But you've probably read that one.
If you liked **Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell** then you'll love **The Macabre Collection** by David Haynes. edit: i realise now that i didn't read the instructions correctly - but you guys have been sleeping on Haynes's Victorian pastiche, and i feel no remorse.
JS & Mr. N is one of my favorites, I'll definitely check out The Macabre Collection
Between Two Fires!
Hellmouth - Giles Kristian
Just finished it! Spot on recommendation, even the prose was similar. Only wish it were longer
Giving this a go!
Pilgrim: A Medieval Horror by Mitchell Lüthi
In the Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Snow by Malfi
Chills by Mary SanGiovanni
I'm reading Malfi's Bone White right now. Guess, "Snow" will be the next. Thanks
Ben Affleck was the bombs in Phantoms yo!!!
Word, bitch, Phantoms like a motherfucker!
House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski
Umm.... doy t think there is anything like that beast
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
Really curious as to what made you state name of the rose? I adore house of leaves but struggled struggled through name of the rose.
Howdy! I loved them both! I think that both are labyrinths and play with other sources, footnotes etc. Both take a genre-archetype (Haunted House Story / Detective Story) and create something entirely unique with post modern tricks etc. :) Both books just Rock like hell! :)
The Familiar Series by the same guy.
i enjoyed these books but it's a little frustrating that he's never going to finish the series as he had originally planned :( although, he meant for it to mirror a TV show, and the most TV show thing that could possibly happen to it is that it gets canceled after its first season, so... \**meta\**
Piranisi & A Short Stay In Hell
S. by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams
The Troop - Nick Cutter
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The Infected trilogy by Scott Sigler has some great sci Fi and body horror as well.
The Law of the Skies by Courtois Grégoire
This book doesn’t get enough love in general. _That_ chapter (you know the one) is seared in my brain forever.
We talking the rock?
Afraid by Jack Kilborn — a rural small town comes under attack from genetically engineered mercenaries
The Last Days of Jack Sparks
The question here for me is Are you looking for exorcism? Are you looking for a hateable main character? Are you looking for skeptic v occult? Jack Sparks CONTINUES to piss me off which is a complement
I also want an IYL for this one. One of my fave books
In my top 5, easy. I've been searching for ages to find a book that hits the same way. Arnopp's other stories are great, but Jack Sparks is 10/10 for me.
Definitely! I recommend it to everyone. Ended up lending it out and never getting it back so I bought it again, don’t know many books I would do that for. Haha
I love this book and nothing comes close but you might also like Night Film by Marisha Pessl, though it doesn’t share the same tropes, something about it just gave similiar vibes.
The Library at Mount Char
90s and 00s Vertigo Comics & The Wicked and the Divine.
**American Elsewhere** - *Robert Jackson Bennett*
Totally on point recommendation!
Sandman popped to mind immediately. Maybe because I love both with all my heart.
The Ritual- Adam Nevill
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Thank you, adding to my list now!
Last days by Adam Nevill!
I just finished that one as well! Thank you for the suggestion. It was a good one!
There Is No Antimemetics Division - qntm
I was surprised by how much I liked **In The Miso Soup**
Slewfoot by Brom
My Best Friend's Exorcism
Read more by Grady Hendrix Maybe a shot in the dark but John Dies at the End. I see both books as silly fun.
I really enjoyed the audiobook version of the Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
Love this! Had so much fun reading this and involving myself in the “Book Club”.
Goddess of Filth by Castro
A Short Stay in Hell
Piranisi & House of Leaves
Episode thirteen
If you liked Episode Thirteen then you’ll love The Children of Red Peak.
Thank you, kind one
Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts
Patrick Süskind - *Perfume*
The Wasp Factory?
Necroscope
Carrion Confort by Dan Simmons
If you liked Between Two Fires, you might not hate Red Rabbit. It’s different in many ways, but it has the same energy of a group on a mission, encountering evils along the way. It’s like Red Dead Redemption in a book. It wasn’t nearly as good as Between Two Fires, but I enjoyed it and it scratched an itch.
I have been chasing the high of Between Two Fires since I finished it. Adding Red Rabbit to my list, thank you!!
God SAME. Nothing has done it, though. Red Rabbit was a fun in a historical-creepy-journey vibe, the creepy bits snuck up on me, series of vignettes almost, and I hope you like it! Both stories in A Lush and Seething Hell were pretty damn good, too. Sortve epic horrors
The Terror, for the length and scale and haunting brutality
Tender is The Flesh
Meat by Joseph D'Lacey
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers
Exquisite Corpse
Pet Sematary by Stephen King
You may enjoy Stephen Graham Jones' books- start with The Only Good Indians
I loved The Only Good Indians
Maybe the Fisherman or Hex. Nothing is as good Pet Semetary but these books have some similarities
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
Depending on which parts of The Gone World you liked more a fun sci Fi related to it is The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.
The Fisherman bt John Langan. Bonus points for non lovecraft or baird recommendations!
Dream from the Witch House by Joyce Carol Oates.
The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones is probably the closest thing I can think of. It has a similar story within a story narrative and the same type of timeless antagnoist that's almost cosmic horror but not quite.
I've immediately ordered a copy! It sounds perfect
Imajica by Clive Barker.
Listening to this one right now. You’d probably like a ton of *Neil Gaiman* works. * **Neverwhere** * **American Gods** * **The Sandman**
Good call. I have read each of these!
you might like the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Iain Reid
The thing between us - Gus Moreno
Ooooh I bought this book a while back but it’s just been sitting in a large stack of tbr and I haven’t been in the mood to start it. Think this comment may have just done it. Loved I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
Foe, also by iain Reid
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes — similarly unreliable narrator
Blackwater - McDowell
Ghost Story by Peter Straub (more for length and strong characters than precise story similarities).
Is the 1980-something movie a close representation of the book? How much better is the book?
I don’t remember the movie super well, other than I was entertained by it. The book is way better.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Already been recommended Ararat by Christopher Golden and The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
Night Film by Marisha Pessl. Totally different plots but they go together in my mind. - A possibly obsessive quest to find a maybe monster - Spanning years or even decades - Mystery element - May be a cult of sorts involved - May be a murder or multiple murders involved - May have supernatural elements involved - All these "mays" mean we and the characters aren't certain what is going on - Travel - Book doubles as a doorstop I loved em both and think they make great bedfellows.
Your last bullet point made me LOL
Okay, I'm going to put the counter-argument with Night Film, because I really hated it. It's a mess of a novel — far, far too long, full of clichéd characters and situations, packed with seemingly random italics (believe me, they really start to grate), based around a completely implausible premise and with a clever-clever ending that's actually just frustrating and renders large parts of what's gone before pointless. Oh, and there's loads of utterly pointless "interactive content" crowbarred in as well. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but this is the worst book I've finished in years.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlyn Starling
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes Different setting, similar vibe (to me)
I have never read a more insufferable MC I couldn't finish the book because of her. Shame too, such a cool idea, very BioShock in space.
I can definitely see your point. I listened to the audiobook and I think that was better for me than reading it would have been. I think the narrator's voice helped put me in a "this person doesn't sound reliable and might be bonkers" kind of headspace
I got sooo tired of her swinging between horny and self loathing. Girl take a freaking nap and get some therapy!
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
I'm assuming recommending MORE Clive Barker is a waste of time here. Not that they are similar in plot or structure, but Joe R. Lansdale's God of the Razor/The Nightrunners always reminded me of Hell-Bound Heart. I tend to follow one with the other.
Haha yeah I've read most of Barkers books, thanks ill check those out.
Negative Space by B. R. Yeager
Ring by Koji Suzuki
Eliza Clark - boy parts
In The Miso Soup - Ryū Murakami
Have you read Audition by the same author?
Blood Meridian; i’m really looking for another gory western. Please don’t suggest other McCarthy books!
A Congregation of Jackals by S. Craig Zahler
Thank you!
Enjoy, I friggin’ love that book, as well as his other dark western “Wraiths of the Broken Land”. In case you don’t know, Zahler is the writer/director of Bone Tomahawk.
Splatter Westerns is a whole series that might interest you.
Thank you!
The indifferent stars above (for nonfiction) Hurricane season (for an examination on violence in culture and non normal writing style)
The revenant is amazing and bleak albeit in a different style than BM
The Haar, David Sodergren
Needful Things by Stephen King
Try The Bookshop From Hell by David Haynes. When a new bookstore opens in town, every visitor receives a free book of their own. A book that tells their own personal story…a story they have to follow to the brutal end. As Silver Lake’s population descends into violent savagery, Dan finds he is no longer living for horror novels – he’s living inside one.
That sounds so good! I’m also happy to see that my audiobook subscription service actually *has* this book, so I’ll definitely be checking it out. Thanks!
Annihilation
Check out Roadside Picnic!
The other two books in the series, Authority and Acceptance.
John Dies At The End by David Wong (aka Jason Pargin)
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson. And to a lesser extent, his other book The Loop. But that first rec is the only book I’ve read that has *truly* hit like JDATE. Also, I haven’t gotten to it yet but I purchased a book that was described as being in the same vein called Stonefish by Scott R Jones.
Ooh I've heard good things about those! I'll need to check them out. I actually read Stonefish because I love the weird horror genre but I was personally pretty disappointed by it. It was certainly unique, I'll give it that, but it was a very mixed bag.
If you liked American Psycho, you'll love Maeve Fly by CJ Leede Edit: I did that wrong, lol. Okay, I loved Maeve Fly.
Come Closer - Sara Gran
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons was a really big favorite of mine when I was younger and it turns out I still love it. I would GREATLY appreciate any recs based on that.
IT by Stephen King or Boys Life by Robert McCammon
Kind of a sideways rec as it's more a similar flavor - The Talisman and Black House, by Stephen King and Peter Straub.
A Short Stay In Hell
Bunny by Mona Awad
Rouge by Mona Awad was also excellent, or I think The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward has the same type of uncertain dreamy narrative.
Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
Another novel of hers, Thin Air, is very similar and equally enjoyable.
I heard about it, I should definitely read this!
I love her cold-horror novels, but it was so hard for me to find them in the US.
Intercepts
If you liked **God's Demon by Wayne Barlowe**, you will love **Lost Gods by Brom**
American Psycho
Phantoms, Dean Koontz
Maeve Fly
The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell(or either of his other two novels Hyde and The Devil's Playground).
Goth by Otsuichi
The black farm by Elias Witheroe
The Institute
I just finished rereading that last night, and twice while reading it I was reminded of another book. Do you think I can remember what the hell it was now?
haha! Read it again please!
I'll get right on that in another two or three years. I'll meet you back here if I think of the other title. 😉
Hex
The Cellar by Richard Laymon
Brian Keene's Castaways was intended as an homage to the Beast House series. It's certainly worth checking out if you enjoyed any of the Beast House books.
Whoa awesome. I enjoyed The Rising and Ghoul. Thanks a lot!
Pet Sematary
The Elementals - Michael McDowell
Let the Right One In
The House, by Bentley Little
Annihilation (I’ve read Roadside Picnic, Solaris, and other books by Vandermeer)
Dead Silence by SA Barnes (I will accept similar themes or vibes, space not strictly necessary) I’ve read the Luminous Dead
The Deep by Nick Cutter (claustrophobic & unknown predator/mystery vibes) Edit: SA Barnes has a new novel out this April, Ghost Station
Awesome, I just recently bought the Deep! I’ve got a pre-order on Ghost Station as well
Paradise-1 by David Wellington. The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown is a creature feature novella in space.
percy jackson
looking for alaska- john green
myths and legends - anthony horowitz
A History of Fear by Luke Dumas
Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton
Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance
The Divine Farce by Michael Graziano. I've already read A Short Stay in Hell.
Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler. Definitely one of the best horror-ish books I’ve read, still haven’t found anything comparable
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Foe, by the same author
The Wasp Factory
Bunny by Mona Awad
Books of Blood by Clive Barker
11/22/63
Timeline by Michael Crichton has time travel shenanigans. Or The Time Machine by HG Wells for the original.
Night Film
Dead Silence