I really want to become a horror/paranormal book connoisseur (like one of those pretentious literature obsessed dark-academia kinda people)- ik how cringey this sounds but i’m anonymous so i can afford to be perfectly candid.
anywyas, please tell me where i should begin, which authors i should see (and in what order), which books, basically just guide me through my journey of becoming a pretentious literary freak.
thanks and cheers!
by Nine_elevenn
3 Comments
So, if I’m understanding, you want horror that’s more literary or classic, is that right? If that’s the case I’d recommend The Turn of the Screw, Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, Dracula, and I’m sure there’s more I haven’t read yet. On the somewhat more obscure side, I liked All Hallows by Walter De La Mare, and on the very obscure side, I liked Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams (though this one might cure you of pretension rather than encourage it!). But of course, you can like old literature without being pretentious.
Start with the classics. Haunting of Hill House, Rosemary’s Baby, and anything by MR James and Poe. Stephen King is always a good jumping off point too, especially with The Shining or Pet Semetary (though I’m not a big reader of King myself).
There’s a lot of subgenres of horror, here are my specific recommendations for some:
Atmospheric: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Cosmic: The Fisherman by John Langan
Weird: Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Gothic: The Elementals by Michael McDowell
Literary: Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Monster: Devolution by Max Brooks
Fantasy: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
Folk: Slewfoot by Brom
There’s also body horror, survival, apocalyptic, comedy horror, etc.
Names in the genre to look out for are Grady Hendrix, Stephen Graham Jones, Tananarive Due, Nick Cutter, Paul Tremblay, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, Isabel Cañas, John Saul, Thomas Ligotti, Joe Hill, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Michelle Paver…
Oh do read Comfort Me With Apples.