Recommend me novels: horror, sci-fi, thriller

[Deschain]

I've read all the Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Max Brooks and Joe Hill books. I've read The Expanse (everyone should read The Expanse). I've read LOTR and Song of Ice and Fire. Recently I read Station Eleven and a couple other post-apocalyptic thrillers.

I need some new stuff, preferably sci-fi or horror (not Ketchum though, he's too gross). Thanks!

[TheUsualSuspect]

Sci/Fi : Project Hail Mary


Dead Silence is sci/fi and horror. It's a great premise but okay book.


The Only Good Indians is an interesting take on Folklore

[Takoma11]

(not Ketchum though, he's too gross).

He IS gross! Thank you for validating this opinion!

I'm pretty sure you've read The Troop and The Ruins, right?

I also really recently enjoyed Vida Nostra, which is like dark fantasy horror.

I'm also gonna throw Bears Discover Fire out there. It is a short story anthology.

Have you read The White People by Arthur Machen?

[crumbsroom]

We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
The Sundial - Shirley Jackson


Outside of short fiction, which would mostly be Poe, Lovecraft and more Shirley Jackson, I'm left extremely cold by nearly all horror fiction.

[Rockatansky]

The Hellbound Heart and Books of Blood volumes I and II by Clive Barker

[crumbsroom]

Oh, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters was surprisingly good. Some might not find it to be purely horror enough, though.

[pahaK]

The Sound of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros
Let the Right One In and Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Gateways to Abomination: Collected Short Fiction by Matthew M. Bartlett
Between Two Fires and The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
The Descent and Deeper by Jeff Long

[crumbsroom]

Let the Right One In


I think I have this somewhere. I should probably give it a shot at some point.

[DiscoGremlin]

The Hellbound Heart and Books of Blood volumes I and II by Clive Barker

I second this. Clive Barker is amazing, very imaginative and The Books of Blood are some of the best horror I've ever read.

Although they're more dark fantasy than horror you should also check out Cabal and Imajica.

[Deschain]

Thanks for the recs so far everyone! I haven't read any of these and most of them are at least being wish listed. But not gonna lie Project Hail Mary is probably at the top of the pile because I loved The Martian novel.

Keep 'em coming if you got 'em and I'll post my thoughts on the ones I read in here.

[Deschain]

I finished The Troop last night and it was a GRUESOME ****ing book. I asked for horror and I got it. Unfortunately I didn’t really like it overall, mainly because I didn’t like the characters. Scoutmaster Tim was probably my favorite but he’s not in it much. Out of the five kids, four were terrible and one had very little character development. I’m wondering if the author did this on purpose to make it more palatable if one of them dies. There were a couple terrific sequences toward the end that almost make up for a pretty lackluster book. Sorry Takoma11. :(

I didn’t know Nick Cutter also wrote The Deep, which I’ve had my eye on for a while but never pulled the trigger because of mixed reviews, so if anyone read The Deep lmk how it is.

Up next Project Hail Mary.

[Takoma11]

I finished The Troop last night and it was a GRUESOME ****ing book. I asked for horror and I got it. Unfortunately I didn’t really like it overall, mainly because I didn’t like the characters. Scoutmaster Tim was probably my favorite but he’s not in it much. Out of the five kids, four were terrible and one had very little character development. I’m wondering if the author did this on purpose to make it more palatable if one of them dies. There were a couple terrific sequences toward the end that almost make up for a pretty lackluster book. Sorry Takoma11. :(

I didn’t know Nick Cutter also wrote The Deep, which I’ve had my eye on for a while but never pulled the trigger because of mixed reviews, so if anyone read The Deep lmk how it is.

Up next Project Hail Mary.

No worries. The gruesomeness of it was what lingered in my mind.

I realized that in my original post I managed to miss out probably one of my favorite horror books: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. It's a werewolf story told in free verse (but don't worry, it reads more like prose than poetry). It's also just a really cool story about a person reinventing themselves, and it does things with the werewolf mythology that I absolutely loved. I've read it two or three times and I love it more each time I read it. It's also a book you can read in two or three sittings.

I hope you're enjoying Project Hail Mary!

[Deschain]

No worries. The gruesomeness of it was what lingered in my mind.

I realized that in my original post I managed to miss out probably one of my favorite horror books: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. It's a werewolf story told in free verse (but don't worry, it reads more like prose than poetry). It's also just a really cool story about a person reinventing themselves, and it does things with the werewolf mythology that I absolutely loved. I've read it two or three times and I love it more each time I read it. It's also a book you can read in two or three sittings.

I hope you're enjoying Project Hail Mary!

Thanks for the rec. I’ll add it to the list.

Only three chapters into Project Hail Mary but I like it a lot so far. It’s familiar enough to be a cozy read but different enough to not feel like I’m just reading The Martian again.

[Deschain]

I finished Project Hail Mary and loved it. At first I wasn’t on board with the introduction of

aliens but learning about that race was very interesting and I loved Rocky. He was such a good boy. I’d love a sequel about how close to extinction Earth got before the beetles made it back, implementing xenonite and Astrophage into our technologies, and then studying Erid from afar and maybe sending an ambassador to make contact.

It’s a lot more science fictiony than The Martian and there’s some plot conveniences but overall it was great.

[Deschain]

I finished Devolution. Terrible name, can never remember it. Started off slow but loved the ramp up and the pacing once it got going. It’s got kind of that same problem as found footage movies though of like, “why are you still shooting during this emergency?” Because the main character continues journaling throughout. But otherwise I liked it, especially since there isn’t a lot of good Bigfoot horror out there.

Starting The Hellbound Heart tonight. I hope it has such sights to show me.

[TheUsualSuspect]

I finished Project Hail Mary and loved it. At first I wasn’t on board with the introduction of

aliens but learning about that race was very interesting and I loved Rocky. He was such a good boy. I’d love a sequel about how close to extinction Earth got before the beetles made it back, implementing xenonite and Astrophage into our technologies, and then studying Erid from afar and maybe sending an ambassador to make contact.

It’s a lot more science fictiony than The Martian and there’s some plot conveniences but overall it was great.

Loved this book.

[TheUsualSuspect]

I finished The Troop last night and it was a GRUESOME ****ing book. I asked for horror and I got it. Unfortunately I didn’t really like it overall, mainly because I didn’t like the characters. Scoutmaster Tim was probably my favorite but he’s not in it much. Out of the five kids, four were terrible and one had very little character development. I’m wondering if the author did this on purpose to make it more palatable if one of them dies. There were a couple terrific sequences toward the end that almost make up for a pretty lackluster book. Sorry Takoma11. :(

I didn’t know Nick Cutter also wrote The Deep, which I’ve had my eye on for a while but never pulled the trigger because of mixed reviews, so if anyone read The Deep lmk how it is.

Up next Project Hail Mary.

The Deep I liked less than The Troop.

[Deschain]

Hellbound Heart was excellent. Compact and concise story. It helps that I’m already a fan of Hellraiser, which I’m definitely rewatching this October now. This book feels like it was written and takes place around the turn of the century despite being from 1986.

Gonna start The Ruins...right now.

[Takoma11]

Hellbound Heart was excellent. Compact and concise story. It helps that I’m already a fan of Hellraiser, which I’m definitely rewatching this October now. This book feels like it was written and takes place around the turn of the century despite being from 1986.

Gonna start The Ruins...right now.

I've read The Scarlet Gospels and thought it fit nicely in that universe.

I hope you like The Ruins. I'd say you'll know about 50 pages in if it's something you want to stick with.

[John McClane]

The Asteroid Wars

By Ben Bova

[Sedai]

Pandora's Star - Peter F. Hamilton
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville

[Torgo]

Darcy Coates is a good writer of haunted house stories. The Haunting of Ashburn House and Craven Manor are both good places to start.

[Deschain]

I finished The Ruins a couple nights ago. It’s about as gruesome as The Troop but I liked this one quite a bit more. Right from the start The Ruins sets up these college kids as so privileged and clueless that the locals in Cancun and tourists from other countries mock them to their face and take advantage of them. It could not be more clear that these kids do NOT have what it takes to survive the least bit inconvenience. And that tickled me to no end.

I’m only 17 pages into The Descent but it’s already pretty ****ing metal. \m/

And I see there’s some new recommendations here. Thank you for those, I added them to the list. More are welcome.

[Takoma11]

I finished The Ruins a couple nights ago. It’s about as gruesome as The Troop but I liked this one quite a bit more.

Glad you liked it.

It's been probably 15 years or so since I read it, but certain elements have always stuck in my mind, like the woman holding the baby early on with the weird rash, and the girl isn't sure if the baby is alive or not. Or the part where they realize that the plants can mimic the phone sounds. Or just that part at the end where only the one girl is left and she's like "Screw it!" and eats and drinks all of the remaining rations because she knows she won't survive.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I loved Clive Barker's The Damnation Game and you should also check out Dan Simmons. He's written in just about every genre but all of his stuff is good including his horror novels. Summer of Night is excellent. There's a sequel titled A Winter of Haunting, but that one's more of a psychological thriller. And there's Children of Night. His best known is The Terror which was made into an AMC miniseries.

If you're in the mood for hard boiled noir read his Joe Kurtz novels or his fictional biographies Drood and Black Hills. He's also known for numerous sci-fi novels.

I don't much like his politics but he's a damn good writer.

[pahaK]

His best known is The Terror which was made into an AMC miniseries.

The Terror deserves the usual "book is better" clause. It's a bit too long, but the ideas are more interesting than in the miniseries.

[WHITBISSELL!]

The Terror deserves the usual "book is better" clause. It's a bit too long, but the ideas are more interesting than in the miniseries.He does write some gargantuan novels. I remember Drood being a behemoth at around 800 pages.

[Deschain]

I finished The Descent last night. Now this is what I’m talking about! Pulpy Michael a Crichton is the best way to describe it. I do think it does go on for a little too long. The early parts of the book spend so much time setting up the world and I was definitely enjoying that as well but it was almost halfway through before the book was finally like, “Ok main characters here’s your mission.” I appreciated the macro level storytelling and wondered if they could have kept it up for the whole time, or maybe some new stories in this world it sets up. Overall I liked it a lot.

Next up is Final Girl Support Group, which I don’t think was directly recommended in this thread but fit what I was looking for.

[MonnoM]

Unseaming - Mike Allen
North American Lake Monsters - Nathan Ballingrud
Occultation - Laird Barron
Whom the Gods Would Destroy - Brian Hodge
The Imago Sequence - Laird Barron
Last Days - Adam Nevill
Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds
Vurt - Jeff Noon
The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster
Mutt - Eden Fenn
Ship of Fools - Richard Russo
The Willows - Algernon Blackwood
Dreamer - Daniel Quinn

[Deschain]

I finished The Final Girl Survival Group last night and liked it quite a bit. I especially liked Lynette, the way she processed her trauma was fascinating and the way she changes over the course of the book was well done. And while there are parody elements of '80s and '90s slasher movies, her backstory was genuinely upsetting, which helped me understand her issues. I liked that the other final girls aren't perfect, they all got their own problems and don't get along with each other well.

The parodies of the slasher movies was kind of all over the place though. Sometimes it was generic and had me guessing what they were referenceing and other times it was almost exactly a franchise. Like Julia's backstory for example was literally Scream, right down to the ghostface killer, his motivations, and the making of the Stab movies, which are the name of the movies in the Scream world. And this book does want to stay grounded in reality for the most part so they're pretty vague about what The Dream King was all about, since Nightmare on Elm Street was the most supernatural and surreal of the franchises. The acknowledgments section was cute too. I want to see Sweet Dreams are Made of Screams. :D

Overall though it's a solid read. Next up is The Island.

[Takoma11]

Yay, glad you liked it!

I also really liked that the central cast of women was in their 40s/50s/60s. It's not an age bracket you usually get in horror.

[beelzebubble]

I guess it is considered fantasy but I heartily recommend American Gods and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.

[Deschain]

I finished The Island last night and enjoyed it. Nothing else in recent memory conveyed such an imminent threat and sense of danger like the chases in this. It felt like our heroes could be killed at any moment. Overall a compact survival thriller. I might look into some of the author’s crime novels.

Next up: Summer of Night.