Horror lit recommendations

thanks for the recs keep them coming

I've wanted to branch out and read more horror for a while. A few friends recommended "Head full of ghosts" but I lost interest around the 20th time the author brought up "patriarchy" and "male gaze"

Starting to think I'll just have to stick to stuff that was written 40+ years ago in order to avoid that shit.

lol no way did someone really write a horror book w/ those phrases or are you just pulling my meme

Not joking. I keep holding out hope that it's meant to be ironic or some shit, but it doesn't seem to be. So far these types of phrases are relegated to "blog posts" that show up in the book every now and then where the blogger is talking in a VERY tumblr sounding way about the events of the book (The story is basically The Exorcist with the addition of one of those ghost chaser tv shows, and the blogger is "reviewing" the tv show in between chapters of the "what actually happened" stuff. Problem is that due to a plot reveal that happens a little ways in The blogger is one of the 2 daughters that was actually there I really doubt the author wrote it in a way to make us not like the blogger character.)

I honestly haven't been this pissed since I bought Gone Home thinking it was going to be a haunted house simulator.

More horror recs please.

I don't know much about horror genre shit.

I got memed into Ligotti from the last thread & have actually been enjoying it so far. Recommend.

Is Stephen King really that bad or I just got meme'd ?

Memed lad

good lord senpai you may just want to drop that book on the sidewalk and walk away.

i enjoyed gone home tho, but i bought it blindly during a sale, so i didnt have any large expectations.

thats good to hear, ive been wondering if i should pick up some of his stuff. i probs wont order it off amazon or anything, but if i find it at the used books store i frequent, then ill get it.

He's like George lucks. A good ideas man but horrible in execution.

Thinner, It and The Shining are all quite fearful ideas but they have elements that ruin them; the endings of the former two and the bloated alcoholism analogy of the latter.

His works almost always end up better in the hands of others; the mist, the shining, the green mile and Carrie are all better in the hands of others. Carrie may be an unfair example due to how striking the imagery is in the book and how well it translates to film but King himself admits the Mist's film ending makes his own version seem pathetic.

>used book store
Good luck with that, most of his books printed >1000 copies until Penguin

*10000

I would recommend starting with Gothic stories like Dracula and Frankenstein. Both are enjoyable stories but are great jumping off points for other books (Frankenstein more so than Dracula). From there you will have a good framework to see how horror evolved in literature. Also read the Brothers Grimm and Washington Irving.

Kindle + booksee. Just sayin'

So far they're like little dark dream vignettes, slightly Silent Hill in atmosphere. Currently enjoying one called the Red Tower which seems to be a dense description of a highly abstract landscape.

He overwrites, his prose is messy, his characters are cartoons, and his plots always disappoint. Although as you already know he's popular as shit, so I guess people like him and you might too. You can find his books everywhere for cheap and they make little to no demand on your brain, so it's not like you lose much if you try reading him.