Horror Aficionados discussion

Some books surprised me with wonderful imaginative stories and were a treat to read. A few books I expected to enjoy were a disappointment. I guess this is true of every year. May the new year be one full of surprises.

My favorites for 2024 are:
The Land of Lost Things
The Lincoln Highway
The Thursday Murder Club

My least favorites:
Whalefall
Southern Man
Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo

Least favorite (DNF)
The Ritual
Haunting Adeline

Most favorite
Dead Meat: The Complete Zombie Apocalypse Series Nick Clausen
Under the Breaking Sky: The Complete Apocalyptic Horror Series by Nick Clausen

For a change had a ton of 4.5-5* reads and only a handful of 1*

Faves (some anyway)
Incidents Around the House
Memorials
Horror Movie
Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!
The Third Rule of Time Travel
Cold, Black & Infinite: Stories of the Horrific & Strange
A Better World
The Midnight Feast
The Bang-Bang Sisters
Eruption

Least
Listen for the Lie
Draculas
The Circle
B-Movie Reels

Favorites (limiting myself to horror and related):
Mive and Others: Best Weird Stories of Carl Jacobi Volume 1. Vintage Weird Tales stories by an unsung master.
By the Light of My Skull. It’s Ramsey Campbell. Surely I need say no more?
The Brain Leeches and Other Eldritch Phenomena. I faded quickly on Tim Curran after this book, the first of his I’d read, but I did love this one. The title alone…
Behind. Great Bentley Little.
The Hopkins Manuscript. Vintage cozy apocalypse by R.C. Sherriff. Beautifully written.

Disappointments:
They Lurk. Good title, underpowered stories.
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein. Ackroyd literally adds nothing of importance to the Frankenstein story. I don’t know why this book was published. Worst book of the year for me.

On a not-horror-but-pulp-fiction note, I also enjoyed Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction along with about fifteen vintage Mickey Spillane crime novels.

Sticking to horror only and excluding rereads:

Least favorites:
- Krampus: The Yule Lord (DNF)
- My Life as a White Trash Zombie
- Tumor Fruit

Favorites:
- Genocide on the Infinite Express
- Person
- Space Walrus

I'm going to stick to my strictly horror favorites (GR is a little loose with the horror tag, imo) and excluding rereads and not yet published arcs:

Favorites:

Dark Matter: A Ghost Story
Commodore
Withered Hill
The Fiends in the Furrows II: More Tales of Folk Horror
A Child Alone With Strangers
Rest Stop
You Like It Darker

Least Favorites:

Diavola
The Cormorant
The First Chronicles of Greystone Bay
Coup de Grâce
The Snow

Yep, the boundaries around horror are blurred here. I included Bizarro books since it's common to consider them a horror subgenre but I don't really agree with that. Still, the ones I named are my favorites of the past year ^^

My favorite book of 2024 was I Who Have Never Known Men but it isn't really horror. More Dystopian Sci-Fi.

My horror favorites of 2024:
My Work is Not Yet Done: Three Tales of Corporate Horror
Lovely, Dark & Deep
Johnny Got His Gun
We Used to Live Here
OH FUCK OH FUCK IT HURTS: A Collection of Medical Horror
Hunting Snipe: and Other Notes on the East Texas Cattle Mutilations
A Certain Hunger
The Devil's Shallows

Least favorite of 2024:
Middle of the Night
The Ritual
Murder Road
We Came to Welcome You

My favorites:
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
L’enfant aux cailloux, Sophie Loubière
Anima, Wajdi Mouawad

Least:
Intimité, Alice Ferney

This year seemed to be a mixed bag but I only gave one book five stars which was Still Alice

Favorites, (sticking with horror, no non fiction or other fiction genres):




Least Favorite:

Erin wrote: "This year seemed to be a mixed bag but I only gave one book five stars which was Still Alice"

I haven't read the book but I saw the movie and it was heartbreaking.

WendyB wrote: "Erin wrote: "This year seemed to be a mixed bag but I only gave one book five stars which was Still Alice"

I haven't read the book but I saw the movie and it was heartbreaking."

I remember that book. There was a movie?

Char wrote: "WendyB wrote: "Erin wrote: "This year seemed to be a mixed bag but I only gave one book five stars which was Still Alice"

I haven't read the book but I saw the movie and it was hear..."

The movie came out in 2014. Julianne Moore won an Oscar for playing the title role of Alice. It's a good movie but watch it with a huge box of tissues next to you. Just thinking about it makes me tear up.

I was just looking at my review of it and the book made me cry. Maybe I will bypass the film version. lol

Keeping it in the horror genre otherwise there'd be a lot more. 😂 My favorites were all 5 stars and my least favorite were 2 stars. I only had one 1 star but it wasn't horror.

Favorite:


Least Favorite:

Jessica wrote: "Keeping it in the horror genre otherwise there'd be a lot more. 😂 My favorites were all 5 stars and my least favorite were 2 stars. I only had one 1 star but it wasn't horror.

Favorite:
[bookcove..."

LOL 3 of some of my favorites from previous years are on your least favorite list! Sure would be boring if we all liked the same things.

Ain't that the truth! A lot of the books I read were because I saw so many great reviews for them and I really just didn't like them but that's ok. There are plenty of books that I loved that I see others hating. 😂

Top 3:





Bottom 3:

🙄😠
🤢🤮
🥱😴

Erin wrote: "This year seemed to be a mixed bag but I only gave one book five stars which was Still Alice"

Only 1 book got 5 stars!?? I'm sorry, Erin. I hate when that happens.

Okay, looking through everyones least favorite books and I keep thinking to myself; "Why am I even trying to read those books then??"

Krampus and The Ritual is consistent, even with folks not in this group. *sigh*

Alondra wrote: "Top 3:



.."

SA Cosby is one of my new fav authors. I've read two of his books and they both had great writing and great stories.

Alondra wrote: "Top 3:





Bottom 3:

🙄😠
[bookcover:Sunrui..."

As far as I'm concerned, anything by S.A. Cosby gets 5 stars and as some of you probably already know, McDowell's Blackwater is one of my all time favorite books, period.

I like your taste, girl!

Horror only - Not including any re-reads

Least favorite

Sea Sick - this KU author has some great stuff usually
Convict - well, this was a cheesy one for a challenge and it lived up to expectations of being horrible
Night of the Mannequins - didnt like
I Was a Teenage Slasher - 3 stars, okay
The Haunted
The Watchers - my book club liked but I found it boring, did audio of this one and that may be well, didn't like narrator much
Welcome to Nightmare Island

Favorites (no 5 stars this year with horror and new books)

Aliens: Bishop
Black Mouth
Children of the Dark 2: The Night Flyers
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
Doctor Sleep
Fever - usually she writes romance but this is a standalone dark one and was very good
I Found Christmas Lights Slithering Up My Street - my book club picked this and it was a lot of fun
Incidents Around the House
Merfolk -- Not fully horror but I loved this one, not much happens violence wise but it fascinated me for some reason and I enjoyed the characters
Nestlings
Not Even Bones - the entire dark trilogy is very good
The Bog - Yet another good audio narrated by Matt Godfrey and from Valancourt

WendyB wrote: "SA Cosby is one of my new fav authors. I've read two of his books and they both had great writing and great stories..."

That's what I hear, so , i picked up Razorblade Tears. I can't wait!

Char wrote: "As far as I'm concerned, anything by S.A. Cosby gets 5 stars and as some of you probably already know, McDowell's Blackwater is one of my all time favorite books, period.

I like your taste, girl!.."

You and this group recommended Blackwater, and I am so glad you did. It was good from beginning to end. Most of the recs from this good have been winners.

Favorite horror:
The Trees by Percival Everett (known for literary fiction, this still belongs here)
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
Don't Fear the Reaper
The Angel of Indian Lake all by Stephen Graham Jones
Malpertuis: The Classic Modern Gothic Novel by Jean Ray
A Maze for the Minotaur by Reggie Oliver
Lonely Vigils by Manly Wade Wellman

My least favorite books were outside the horror genre and, honestly, I didn't really dislike them, just wasn't as thrilled as I was by other books.

Oooh, The Trees looks really, really good. How have I not heard of it before?
I love Stephen Graham Jones, but the slasher trilogy wasn't my bag. I don't care for slasher movies and I didn't get enough of the references in the first book to carry on.
That said, I very much enjoyed I Was a Teenage Slasher.

Malpertuis also looks very interesting, Randy. Thanks for posting!

I think the best one for me was

And the worst.

I somehow missed this thread but I read tons of books last year that I liked and didn't like so will just plop down a few here. Sticking with horror totally and excluding rereads.

Favorites:

They Stalk the Night - 5 stars
Close Your Eyes - 5 stars
A Shadow on the Wall - 5 stars
The Handyman - 5 stars
Ghost Virus - 5 stars
The Suffering - 5 stars
Genesis - 5 stars (sequel to The Exorcist's House)
Haunted - 5 stars

Least Favorite:

Murder Road - 2 stars (should have been a 1 star)
The Book of Accidents - 1 star