Hi fellow horror lovers! I'm planning on querying a manuscript of mine and I was hoping some of you could help me with comp recs. i have some but they are old and I've been reading you need more recent ones- in the five year range if possible. Trying to research on my own but having trouble and hey this is what reddit is for right? well not originally as we are learning... but ANYWAYS.

my plot is dual POV- one POV is a woman trapped in a psych ward convinced that a hallucination of hers is trying to kill her and the second POV is the mulder-esque special agent tasked with finding said woman, since the ward is in another reality.

So any recent books about psych wards, or portals, or x files esque happenings. I was using Haunting of Hill House or Cuckoo's nest and John Dies at the End but they're old and older and I'd like ur opinions. I will obv be reading it before I use it as a comp lol

thank u in advance!!!!

Genuinely started the book last night, downloaded the ebook on my phone cause I was bored and had heard great things about it and finished it this evening. What an amazing book, I have never felt as afraid of a character as I did with Annie! Like genuine visceral fear and pure dread and anxiousness for Paul

I was hoping for recommendations on books with a similar fear factor, I saw a post similar to this asking for the same things that I am like not supernatural but something consisting of the fear of "this could happen to me" but I am specially looking for suggestions for captivity (or fear that could be related to it in a sense, literally or figuratively) and a male captive. thank u!

To preface I should say I have a complicated relationship with SGJ's works. I first picked up The Only Good Indians a few years ago when Reddit was hyping it up and was invested, but ultimately couldn't finish it since I just couldn't get used to Jones' writing style. The same thing happened later with My Heart is a Chainsaw. It's not that his writing is bad by any means, but I feel like until you get used to it, it can be really hard to parse certain passages and figure out what the hell is going on. At least that's how it was for me. Which sucks because I want to like Jones' books; from the jacket summaries, they always sound super interesting.

So a few weeks ago I decided to give SGJ another shot. This time I tried a new approach by picking up his short story collection After All the People Lights Have Gone Off. I thought reading his writing style in smaller doses would help me get used to it. Results were mixed; some of the stories I still had difficulty following, but most of them were pretty good. But afterwards I still didn't feel ready to try diving into Good Indians or Chainsaw again, so instead I picked up one of his novellas: Mapping the Interior.

It's about a Native American boy, Junior, living with his struggling single mother and his developmentally-disabled little brother Dino, who starts seeing the ghost of his father that drowned years ago. At first Junior is thrilled, thinking his father is back and watching over them, especially when his dad's ghost seemingly saves Junior from the neighbors' dogs that had jumped the fence and were trying to maul him.

But it soon becomes clear that his father is far from benevolent; the best way I can describe him is a sort of ghost-vampire hybrid that needs to feed on the living in order to become "whole" again. While the dad does save Junior from the neighbor's dogs, he also comes into the house at night to feed from Dino, in a way that makes his mental faculties even worse and even causes seizures. Junior comes to recognize the monster that his father has become, and realizes he has to step up and stop him to keep his family safe.

The book is described as a Horror Coming of Age, which is an apt description. Junior's arc is all about realizing that his father (who died when Junior was just four) is nothing like the image he'd built up in his head; in life he was kind of a loser, and in death he's become something much worse. Junior's journey from adolescence to manhood is him coming to terms with this as he steps up more and more to protect Dino. First it's from bullies at school; then the neighbor that came looking for payback for his dogs; finally, the thing that used to be their father. It culminates in a... ritual, for lack of a better term, where Junior both fights his monster/ghost dad in the present, and sort of projects himself back in time to see through the eyes of the man who killed his father years ago. (Whom the dad had cheated in some get-rich-quick scheme.)

I admit there were times when Jones' unique style made it a little hard to follow, particularly towards the end when things got all timey-wimey. But that's the thing about SGJ's method of storytelling for me; sure I get lost from time to time, but when it hooks me, it really has my attention. I was fully invested in Junior's emotional journey, especially the climactic final fight where he not only fends off his dad's ghost physically, but in seeing through time to "fight" his father in the past, lets go of the idealized memory of him as well.

What I feel helped was the book itself is a fairly short read at less than a hundred pages. I started with a couple pages during my breaks at work a few days ago, then knocked out the remaining 2/3rds in an afternoon. People have described Jones' works as being written like they're being told around a campfire, and that's definitely the vibe I got here. The only real complaint I have is that the book's brevity works against it in one instance: in the epilogue, where a grown-up Junior reveals he grew up and had a son of his own that passed away, and is now preparing to sacrifice Dino in a way that he hopes will bring his son back in the way his father was. It made for a tragic and horrific ending that reminded me of Pet Sematary, but was told in about seven pages when it almost feels like it could be another story in and of itself. But that's just my opinion.

All in all, I still enjoyed Mapping the Interior. Don't know if I'm ready to try rereading Indians or Chainsaw just yet, but think I'll check out more of SGJ's shorter works, starting with his three-novella collection Three Miles Past. What do you think of Mapping and Jones in general?

I know he’s one of a kind, but I’d love some recommendations for lit fiction that focuses on horror with something similar to his prose and imagery. Are there any authors which fit that description?

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Day, Julie C.; Bissett, Carina; and Gidney, Craig Laurance, eds. — Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology (Essential Dreams Press)

Golden, Christopher and Keene, Brian, eds. — The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand (Gallery Books)

Kulski, Kristy Park, ed. — Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora (Bad Hand Books)

Murray, Lee and Jeffery, Dave, eds. — This Way Lies Madness: Stories from the Edge of Darkness (Flame Tree Publishing)

Ryan, Lindy and Wytovich, Stephanie M., eds. — HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror (Black Spot Books)

Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection

Chapman, Clay McLeod — Acquired Taste (Titan Books)

Files, Gemma — Little Horn: Stories (Shortwave)

Langan, John — Lost in The Dark and Other Excursions (Word Horde)

Piper, Hailey — Teenage Girls Can Be Demons (Titan Books)

Tantlinger, Sara — Cyanide Constellations (Dark Matter INK)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Daly, Grace — The Scald-Crow (Creature Publishing)

Karella, Bitter — Moonflow (Run For It)

Pell, Tanya — Her Wicked Roots (Gallery Books)

Steel, Hester — The Faceless Thing We Adore (Page Street Horror)

Tennison, Kathryn — Molting (Uncomfortably Dark Horror)

Viel, Neena — Listen to Your Sister (St. Martin’s Griffin / Titan Books)

Wehunt, Michael — The October Film Haunt (St. Martin’s Press)

Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

Bunn, Cullen (writer) and Luckert, Danny (artist) – Jumpscare (Dark Horse Comics)

King, Sandy (editor) – John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight, Volume 11 (Storm King Comics)

Kraus, Daniel (writer) and Dani (artist) – Athanasia (VAULT Comics)

Mignola, Mike – Bowling With Corpses and Other Tales from Lands Unknown (Dark Horse Comics)

Tynion IV, James (writer), Foxe, Steve (writer), and Kowalski, Piotr (artist) – Let This One Be a Devil – (Dark Horse Comics & Tiny Onion Studios)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

Ballingrud, Nathan — Cathedral of the Drowned (Tor Nightfire / Titan Books)

Ha, Thomas — “Uncertain Sons” (Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Undertow Publications)

Langan, Sarah — “Squid Teeth”(Reactor)

Langan, Sarah — Pam Kowolski is a Monster! (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Wise, A.C. — “Wolf Moon, Antler Moon” (Reactor)

Superior Achievement in Long Non-Fiction

Borwein, Naomi Simone, ed. — Global Indigenous Horror (University Press of Mississippi)

Grafius, Brandon R. and Morehead, John W., eds. — The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press)

Hieber, Leanna Renee and Janes, Andrea — America’s Most Gothic (Kensington Publishing)

Scrivner, Coltan — Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can’t Look Away (Penguin Random House)

Spratford, Becky Siegel, ed. — Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction (Saga Press)

Superior Achievement in a Middle Grade Novel

Dawson, Delilah S. — Ride or Die (Delacorte Press)

Kuyatt, Meg Eden — The Girl in the Walls (Scholastic Press)

Malinenko, Ally — Broken Dolls (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Oh, Ellen — The House Next Door (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Russell, Ally — Mystery James Digs Her Own Grave (Delacorte Press)

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Hendrix, Grady — Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (Berkley)

Hill, Joe — King Sorrow (William Morrow)

Jones, Stephen Graham — The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (Saga Press / Titan Books)

Moreno-Garcia, Silvia — The Bewitching (Del Rey)

Wagner, Wendy N. — Girl in the Creek (Tor Nightfire)

Superior Achievement in Poetry (Collection and Long Form)

Addison, Linda D. and Hodge, Jamal — Everything Endless (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Gold, Maxwell I. — Songs of Enough: An Inferno All My Own (Hippocampus Press)

Kearns, Shannon — The Uterus is an Impossible Forest (Raw Dog Screaming Press)

Peebles, Cate — The Haunting (Tupelo Press)

Raguso, MarieAnn C, PhD — Allegories of Beauty & Violence: a collection of Gothic Romance Poems (Analyze This)

Superior Achievement in a Screenplay

Coogler, Ryan — Sinners (Warner Bros. / Domain / Proximity)

Cregger, Zach — Weapons (New Line Cinema / Domain / Subconscious)

Garland, Alex — 28 Years Later (Sony / Columbia Pictures / TSG Entertainment)

Hancock, Drew — Companion (New Line Cinema / BoulderLight Pictures / Vertigo Entertainment)

Philippou, Danny and Hinzman, Bill — Bring Her Back (Causeway Films / Salmira Productions / The South Australian Film Corporation)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

Daniels, L.E. — “Stomata” (Darkness Most Fowl, The Godmother of Horror Press)

Joseph, RJ – “Inheritance” (Full Throttle: A Dark Dozen Anthology, Uncomfortably Dark Publishing)

Szczepaniak-Gillece, Jocelyn — “Saint Dymphna’s School for Borderland Girls” (Weird Horror #10, Undertow Publications)

Taborska, Anna — “[Ir]reversible” (Witches and Witchcraft: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Essays, Hippocampus Press)

Wongsatayanont, Champ – “Autogas Ferryman” (Nightmare Magazine #156, Adamant Press)

Superior Achievement in Short Non-Fiction

Barb, Patrick — “Deathwish Wolf Man: The Tragic Hero at the Heart of the Universal Monster” (Interstellar Flight Magazine) (Interstellar Flight Press)

Due, Tananarive — “My Long Road to Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Jones, Stephen Graham — “Why Horror” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Moshaty, Mo — “Haunted Thresholds: Liminal Horror and the Psychological Disintegration of Women from Post-Partum, Grief, Trauma and Religious Fanaticism” (Darkest Margins: 24 Essays on Liminality and Liminal Spaces in the Horror Genre) (1428 Publishing Ltd)

Pelayo, Cynthia — “My Mother Was Margaret White” (Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Fiction, Saga Press)

Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

Chapman, Clay McLeod – Shiny Happy People (Delacorte Press)

Cheng, Linda — Beautiful Brutal Bodies (Roaring Brook Press)

Chupeco, Rin — We’re Not Safe Here (Sourcebooks)

Rodriguez Wallach, Diana — The Silenced (Delacorte Press)

Roux, Madeleine — A Girl Walks Into The Forest (Quill Tree Books)

Source

I like novels but I have to work and don’t have the time to read through the whole thing in one sitting. I recently read a few horror short stories (1,000-7500 words) and I like them so much more because they’re quick and get into the action with just one page of protagonist backstory which is all I need. Who else likes short stories more?

I wanna kickstsrt out of a reading slump, and im a suckered for plant and fungal horror, especially fungal. Ive read Ghost Eaters, The Bog Wife, Bloom, Don't Let the Forest In, Paradise Rot, What Moves the Dead, A Botanical Daughter, Mexican Gothic, and Semiosis if you count that, in this vein of things. I don't really know how big this type of horror is, please give me reccomendations for more 🥺

I just finished reading The Descent by Jeff Long, which I thought was amazing. I am looking for more Adventure horror like that. Preferably where exploration is done by a group.

I prefer something that tends more towards realism than Fantasy. Of course, there is going to be some of that, but I prefer a minimal level.

Something to do with nautical exploration/boat horror. Like those movies where a cruise ship or ocean liner enters another dimension.

Something to do with archaeological exploration would be nice too.

Hi Reddit! I’m a film student working on an independent study for a class, and I’m hoping this community can help me find material and inspiration.

For this project, I’m focusing on splatterpunk, and my research will look at themes and conventions of splatterpunk, especially how it relates to excess gore, gender, and morality, etc...

Historically, the genre has been male-dominated and often fetishizes violence, particularly toward women and marginalized bodies and I want to examine how gender shapes the genre! (more in depth: who can create extreme horror, whose bodies are centered as ‘spectacle’, and how audiences respond to creators of different identities and/or genders, etc.) I’m interested in whether splatterpunk can be reclaimed in ways that aren’t exploitative. And seeing if it's possible to translate to film or not (because like, would large audiences want to see a movie of Woom being made? - Those are the questions I'm trying to answer 🙃)

I’ll likely reference theorists like Laura Mulvey, bell hooks, etc.

Some of the main questions I’m exploring:

• Where is the moral line in extreme horror?
• When does graphic content serve a story or theme versus just trying to shock?
• How does the portrayal of violence differ between literature and film, and how does that affect what feels “too far”?

This connects to my own work as a writer :)
People often tell me my scripts “don’t go far enough,” and I usually pull back because I’m unsure of audience limits. So, for this project, I hope that doing a deep dive into splatterpunk will help me build toward graphic moments purposefully, so they feel meaningful rather than gratuitous. I’m also hoping this helps me out of my writer's block and focus on an idea/project. 😅😭

My research journal will track novels and films, analyze their intentions, look at patterns of violence, and consider audience reception. (I’m especially interested in creators who critique the genre from within, which is where you guys come in!) At the end, I’ll include ten pages of my own screenplay material inspired by splatterpunk, seeing how far I can push the story while keeping it thoughtful (for the lack of a better term lol).

So far, I have a couple of books I’m definitely using:

• Woom by Duncan Ralston
• Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

I need help finding:

• Three more books
• Five movies

I’m organizing them into these categories:

1. Gore against women, written/directed by a man
   • Woom – Duncan Ralston
2. Gore written/directed by a woman
   • Tender Is The Flesh – Agustina Bazterrica
3. Book/movie written/directed by a person of color
4. Gore against a POC, written/directed by a white person
5. Foundational splatterpunk
   • Maybe possibly The Metamorphosis?

I’m also looking for essays, video essays, or other material to cite. Anything about horror, body horror, the “final girl,” fetishistic scopophilia, etc. (Mulvey, bell hooks like stated earlier)

Also! No suggestion is too vulgar; the more extreme, the better. I’ve read stuff like The Slob (and its sequel), 100% Match, etc.

Any recommendations for books, films, or critical material would be amazing. Thanks!

I've already read pretty much everything relevant by King or Dan Simmons, I read Blackwater(my absolute favorite), I even read and enjoyed Imaginary Friend. My personal preference would be a book that's content to let you forget it's horror until it's ready to remind you, letting you enjoy the characters and setting in the meantime.

I was browsing my local bookshop a few weeks ago and I came across a book that I thought I might pick up a little later (had already bought too many books that month).

When I came back the book was sold out and to make things worse I can't for the life of me remember the name or the authors name.

What I do remember is that it had a silhouette of a robed monk-like figure on the cover, I think it was published in 2025, and it's about a monk travelling in medieval France with a young person, and comes to this village seeking shelter. Things in the village are then obviously more horrific than he thinks and they're trapped.

I've tried googling but my google-fu is lacking at the moment.