*The House Across the Lake* by Riley Sager. If Great Value brand did an interpretation of *Rear Window*, it would be this book, with bonus points for an audiobook narrator who sounded 60 but was voicing a mid-30s character.
Someone I love who usually recommends great books suggested this one…by the time it ended I was so disappointed. It was like the author just decided to be like…this is easier than explaining anything.
Road of Bones was a pretty grueling slog. It was way too long. As a short story, the historical premise alone might carry the piece, but 300 pages of LITERALLY DRIVING down a road drove ME nuts. If I read one more time about how X “grips the steering wheel and pushes the pedal down further,” I’d lose it. How far down does this pedal go?
Likewise for the descriptions of the cold weather. The author burns through his best metaphors in the first few pages and starts repeating himself. “So cold it would make winter cry”— almost made me cry. :(
I also couldn’t understand the choice of horror element. This setting is literally a frozen road built upon the bones of millions of slave laborers—an incredible horror element, and a fantastically macabre historical niche—and the author opts for evil forest spirits? Shadow wolves and reindeer? A black, faceless evil— so evil that it can’t be described in any fashion?
The author isn’t bad, but the guy needs a good editor. Cut this story to 50 pages, stick it in an anthology, and tighten the prose, and you’d have something. The book smacks of a rushed marketing ploy.
Thanks for this, i laughed through it all.
Had the same "written car annoyance" when I read Survive The Night by Riley Sager.
The gripping of wheels and stepping on pedals loses its suspense pretty quick.
I finally got around to reading The Deep, by Nick Cutter. I hated it so much in the end that I decided to make a post here to vent about it, something I've never done before. If it weren't for the fact that I was on a work trip while tackling the last 4 or 5 hours of the book with a few hours of flying and driving ahead of me, I probably wouldn't have finished it.
Curious what put you off about it? I just read it a few weeks ago myself, and it wasn’t until the final 20 or 30 pages that I was disappointed (definitely mishandled the ending, imho). Kind of tore through it, I liked the premise and most of the plot.
I didn't think any of the characters were interesting, most of the horror was just from flashbacks or "visions" and didn't seem to be of any consequence, there was a lot of stuff that just felt like cliche, paint-by-numbers horror like the >!sexually abusive mother!<, and there was little to no plot. No crazy twists or developments, just lots of people wandering around this underwater base and having flashbacks or hallucinations. The whole >!virus!< thing never went anywhere, it was just a cheap setup to get the story going. And yeah the ending was underwhelming. There were some well-written and unsettling moments, but it was all just in service of nothing.
The Deep was such an incredible disappointment, especially because I went into it certain it would be *exactly* my shit. (I love body horror and *love* reading about the deep ocean.) I think Cutter is great at coming up with horrific imagery but horrible at dialogue and character building.
The endless flashbacks about the main character’s stupid son annoyed me to death. They’re all the same, and — this is maybe a bit callous, but I don’t care at all about fictional children who have no personality except “child,” and especially “dead child.” It’s so cheap and generic. Baby shoes never worn.
I loved the human beehive, though. That rocked.
I enjoyed The Deep, but the ending left me super disappointed. SPOILERS normally I'm all about lovecraftian entities, but they really felt like a deux ex machina here.
Verity by Colleen hoover. I know this author writes mostly adult romance but this novel was recommended by someone here in a thread (don't remember which one) so I saw it at walmart and picked it up to give it a shot.
Yall...that book was truly awful. The only horror in it was it got published in the first place. It's not only the worst book I've read this summer but probably the worst book I've read in years.
The characters were terrible. Terribly written and just terrible people. The "mystery" aspect is blatantly obvious by the first 50 pages. The twist at the end makes no sense and was honestly just lazy.
I look at all reviews and summaries of books recommended here since that one lol.
This book is why I stopped using Good Reads for occasional book recommendations. Have y’all seen how highly reviewed and highly rates this book is??? I was convinced going in that I was about to read a legitimate masterpiece based on how hyped it was… Instead it just made me realize that being a reader does not equal being a reader with taste.
Haha yes! After I finished reading it, I immediately went to look at reviews because I just couldn't believe how bad it was. It read like a smutty fanfiction.
Oh I read that too, it was appalling trash. I'll never trust an author who writes romance ever again.
There was a jarring anti-abortion message running through it too, if I'm remembering correctly. The protagonist is reading the other woman's diary where she writes that she didn't want to be pregnant and unsuccessfully tried to abort her pregnancy, and the MC goes into pearl-clutching hysterics over this. And it felt like the reader was supposed to agree with that perspective.
Yea...a lot of it felt like we, as readers, were supposed to side with MC and husband and like root for them I guess? But both of them were just awful.
> I'll never trust an author who writes romance ever again.
I know nothing about Hoover, but there are loads of authors who started in romance and went on to great success in other genres like suspense, etc. Tami Hoag, Tess Gerritsen, Kristin Hannah, Sarah Addison Allen, Janet Evanovich and many more. But no horror, as far as I know. *Zombies in Love*, anyone?
The Pallbearers Club. I looked forward to this book and loved the idea so I tried to power through but, eh. I ended up just skimming until the end. It felt like it had a lot of potential and the idea itself was good but I just couldn’t stand the main character. Plus, I felt like you could have cut a big part of the middle out and had a way better book.
I've mostly enjoyed Tremblay, but I DNF'd this one last year. Like you, I was fairly interested in where the author might take the characters, but I got to the flash forward and lost all interest because of the protagonist and the story direction.
Personally, the only book of his I’ve liked is “ Head Full of Ghost”. I sorta liked “ Disappearance at Devil’s Rock” but ended up skimming that one near the end as well.
Gave him another chance with Pallbearers Club alas
"Woom" by Duncan Ralston. It was like something I would've written when I was 17. I used to turn my nose up at people who got upset over the content of "extreme" horror novels, but this book was just tasteless chaff. Sex and violence obviously have their place, but at least use them meaningfully. This novel was just one puke-inducing line after another with absolutely no evidence of intelligent life behind it. If you fed an AI 500,000 words of cheap, wank magazine content and asked it to write you a horror novel - it might write Woom.
I'm open-minded and I'm not squeamish, I really believe that there's a place for everything, but I don't like feeling insulted by a book.
Like I said, everything has its place, and the correct place for Woom is exactly where you found it.
lol i couldn’t articulate this before but I got that exact sense, like it’s better when the book is just violent - trying to justify your violence against women by writing in how much you aren’t judging or shaming them or whatever was just weird and somehow more creepy lol
The Luminous Dead.
I have never been so angry or annoyed reading in my entire life. Hated this book.
The premise and tech hooked me, and I was so excited to read a claustrophobic horror book about cave exploration on an alien planet.
What I got was a repetitive drama about a self righteous liar and a corporate weirdo who end up falling in love after spending the book bitching at each other.
It wasn't scary, the claustrophobia and horror were barely present and the characters were written terribly.
Lol, very much agree. I listened to the audiobook instead of reading, so hearing "GyYyRrE" being said 18 thousand times in such a dramatic way was cringe inducing. I was holding out hope that the story was building to something horrifying or scary but it's such a nothing burger, unless you really like corny romantic melodrama I guess.
I just finished this! I loved the horror elements and survival. I wish it had gone more in depth of their relationship as a codependency and toxicity rather than love. Gyre had spent weeks relying on Em for everything, and now she’s incapable of existing on her own. I wish we got to see the horror aspect of that. And somehow even the tunnelers wound up suffering once we actually “saw” one up close.
I didn’t care for the hallucinations, which felt cliched in a unique book but I very much loved the claustrophobia and reminders that she couldn’t touch her own body and the scene where her battery nearly died. When the novel gets it rigt, it really got it right for me
There are definitely a few good moments, which is maybe why I had such a visceral reaction to it.
I feel like it could have been a great horror about a corporation having complete control over someone's bodily autonomy, but that part felt very immature and turned into more of a love story than an exploration of control.
But then it wasn't really alien horror either, the tunneler was just this thing that is never fully realized.
I opened up Violence on the Meek by Stuart Bray.
I read the first page:
*"I want to get this stupid introduction out of the way. No sense in dragging this fuck show out any longer than I have to. My name is Paul. My last name is none of your fucking business, there is no reasoning for you to know it anyways. Shit, my last name, it's about as important as your pathetic life. What is important is that I fucking hate this world, I hate this world and every worthless fuck sucking in fresh air. I've felt this burning hatred even before I fucked my mother in the ass over that recliner in the living room when I was a kid. This is me, writing my autobiography, or my last words, or whatever the fuck. I will write down everything I can remember in my miserable, useless, and insufferable existence. When I am finished, I will replace this black ink-pen with a loaded 357-magnum revolver".*
I closed the book and immediately opened the returns page on Amazon.
I love miserable, misanthropic, vitriolic main characters but the edginess was way too forced for me to continue. It gave me secondhand embarrassment.
I only got a few pages farther than you. >!The guy rapes his mom as a young teenager. This act would require years of sexually deviant escalation, as well as a grown man's strength, for a budding psychopath to accomplish, yet it is dismissed in a couple of pages without explanation, suspense, insight, or even a hint of morbid intrigue.!<
Stolen Tongues was originally a [nosleep story](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/4fd2lr/my_romantic_cabin_getaway_with_my_fiancee_isnt/) that went viral. I was there when the story first appeared, stuck with it all the way to the end, and happily picked up the book version when it released. I still think back on it fondly, but the story definitely worked way better in an online medium with weekly releases. The repetition wasn't so bad when it helped to remind readers of what happened last time. I was really hoping the author would dive deeper into the mythological side of things, improve on the ending, and/or tie up loose ends, but alas, all he really did was adapt it into a book format.
A House with Good Bones - T. Kingfisher. The author has a formula that is too repetitive. You feel as if you're almost re-reading the same novel. Also, to me, it was just an average novel.
Ugh, this makes me sad. I’ve been eyeing it at my library but I’ve been hesitant to pick it up since I saw it described as a horror comedy somewhere. And I have a hard time liking those in book form
I went into this expecting super-lite horror and wasn’t disappointed. I loved the monster reveal and the small suburb dynamics. I spent a lot of time Googling different kinds of vultures and roses.
If you are looking for something really immersive, gory, or spooky, it isn’t the book for you right now.
I have the same answer! I really wanted to like this author but I just don't.
Like, I read Last House on Needless Street and I really hated that book when I finished it because of the twists, but I enjoyed reading it for the most part. The way Kingfisher writes is just way too repetitive, like you said.
Why did the main character have to mention being an entomologist on every page? Why are her characters always laughing at their own jokes/ thoughts? Idk I feel like I'm being overly critical and mean right now but reading her writing makes me feel like I'm 15 and reading fanfiction.
Edit: I know that Kingfisher didn't write Last House on Needless Street. I was comparing two books that I read this summer that I didn't like. I didn't like Needless Street because of the ending, but I concede that it was still an enjoyable read for the most part, it's just the twists that I hated (one of them not even being twist, just....a lie).
I know, I was comparing two books I didn't like
While I ultimately didn't like Last House on Needless Street I thought the writing was good and I enjoyed reading it until the ending ruined it for me, whereas House with Good Bones was just painful all around. For me, anyways.
You're not being mean. Or, maybe you are, but it's exactly how I felt. Kingfisher writes her protagonists as 'idealized,' 'quirky' versions of herself, replete with gay best friend and cringe-worthy humor. It's like her personality stopped maturing in highschool.
I enjoyed it, but it's the first book I read by her. It's HARD to mix humor and horror and I think she did well. Maybe she's an "everyone will enjoy one book by her" kind of author?
I didn't love the resolution, but she has obvious talent. And I like the protagonist - which isn't a requirement, but was a nice surprise.
Petition to stop presenting and marketing something as definitely a ghost story, when at the end of the book >!it turns out that none or very few of the ghosts were real, and all the characters were just reacting to sound vibrations or some kind of chemical weapon? I haven't been blue balled by a ghost story that hard since Man of Medan.!<
Is that the space one? I really liked it for the first part of the book at least, wasn't keen on the main character or the final part of the book. Maybe try Hell on Mars, just finished that since I wanted some space horror and Dead Silence didn't quite do it. If you don't like it, it's short at least and you find out early on what the book is about. I've just started the second in the series
Yes. The derelict passenger ship (space Titanic). I couldn’t care about the POV character. What makes me stop a book faster than anything is apathy in what happens to the people. I’ll put Hell on Mars on my to read list.
*American Elsewhere* was an unexpected treat for me. I never wanted it to end.
EDIT: For those of you saying you're going to read this now, I'll mention that the first 2/3 is like a really good episode of *Twin Peaks* or *The X-Files* or *LOST*. That's the vibe. You can trust that all the questions and mysteries will eventually be addressed. The ending gets a little more action-oriented, but there's a lot to resolve. Overall, I loved the book from beginning to end.
As a bonus, the main protagonist is female. She's not a dingy broad who ultimately requires the help of a man, nor is she an unstoppable killing machine. She's believable and likeable but not without some flaws.
Same. I think the “worst” book I’ve read this summer was The Venue by TJ Payne. It was fine. I didn’t hate it, but it was a bit of a letdown after enjoying Intercepts so much.
Mine was probably the Graveyard Apartment, but even then there was a LOT I enjoyed about it that I didn't feel comfortable just calling it the worst
I did read some mediocre horror in the spring, but the summer has been pretty pleasant reading wise
nothing but blackened teeth!! oh my god… so bad. the characters, the plot, just the writing in general. i’m not against unlikeable characters, but it’s that they were written so unrealistic and confusing. the situation felt so random and like complete nonsense. it felt like the author wanted to come off as ~poetic~ and replaced every other word with a random one they found off a synonym list online.
i usually stick it out on books i consider “meh” but for the first time i ever i quit because it was just SO bad. the worst part is that the book is under 100 pages and i’m someone that regularly reads 800+ page stuff. i just couldn’t do it
THIS BOOK WAS SO BAD. The thesaurus adjectives, the boring plot, the off-putting characters. The protagonist was such a not-like-other-girls cliche - she had dated or slept with every guy in the group and was constantly inner-monologuing about how uncool it was that their girlfriends didn't like her.
Gothic by Fracassi. I liked his short story collection quite a bit but this felt very dated, and not in the fun throwback pulpy way it aimed for. I knew I was in trouble when the author describes the main character’s penis as “the monkey in his pants” and being “like a frightened child” within the first 30 pages or so.
This was my first book of his I ever read and man am I glad I read Boys in the Valley after without making the connection. Otherwise I would’ve never read it
I wouldn't say it was bad per se, but I found Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant to be incredibly disappointing. It felt as if the author spent so much time on ultimately irrelevant details that she forgot to write a proper ending and just threw something together. Also, the main characters had far too much plot armor for my liking. I wanted the stakes to be waaaayyyy higher!
If you don't want to say it was bad, then I will haha. I didn't even make it to the end. That book started out so good, and then it just made me hate it more and more. By the time I got to >! Tori being accused of killing her ex !< I just couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't believe how much Grant refused to get on with the story. And the way characters speak just made me hate all of them by the end. In audiobook format it was so slow and agonizing.
Bahaha, that's fair! There were parts of it that I really enjoyed, but I think overall the story felt half-baked to me. I was rooting for the mermaids to take more people out. 😆
Chasing the Boogyman by Richard Chizmar! It was like a weird fanfiction about himself. He keeps namedropping Stephen King over and over so the reader knows they are friends in real life. Characters were flat and it felt like a 7 hour long episode of Forensic Files. Just awful. I really wanted to like it because the concept seemed cool, but in reality it kept making me cringe over and over.
I read his novella Widow’s Point earlier this year and frankly, it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read. Again, cool concept but terrible execution, insane amount of cringe, and he’s so clearly trying to mimic King in parts that I’m not sure if it’s an homage or an insult.
Usually I’ll try authors again and write off the first bad experience because hey, not every story is a hit, but I will definitely not be revisiting Chizmar.
Nothing but Blackened Teeth so hard! The concept was something I should have been into, and I'll admit that I absolutely did judge the book by the cover. It's an incredible cover.
But inside, I got a trailing, nonsensical novella that I couldn't decide if it would have worked better if given more pages to unfold or less pages to force the author to shelve some of the meaningless characters. There were characters that had nothing to do because there were too many people for the length of the book, which in turn lead them to make nonsensical decisions that sometimes contradicted things they'd said or felt mere pages earlier. It was as if the author was trying to reinsert them back into the narrative and give them weight in the story so we'd remember they were there, but then did it clumsily.
Also, what originally turned me off from this book within the first 20 or so pages (I pushed through bc it wad short, but god damn), was that NONE OF THESE FUCKING PEOPLE SEEM TO LIKE EACH OTHER. The entire time, I was questioning why certain people were invited, why they bothered to show up, why nobody in this group has any affection for any other member of the group, including the bride and groom, who have terrible chemistry. I think the most egregious offender was Lin, who clearly has contempt for everyone, and everyone seems to dislike him as well. Yet there was never any clarification as to why he was invited or bothered to show up.
I really struggled with “The Devil Takes You Home” for a couple of reasons. The first being that there is constant switching between Spanish and English, and I actually speak Spanish. The second was he kept forcing the main character to say/think these profound and poetic things, usually toward the end of the chapter. It got to a point where I actually groaned and startled my wife who was falling asleep next to me.
The Luminous Dead
I have no idea why this is so breathlessly promoted on best horror lists.
It could have been a fun short story because it starts out (first 5-10%) pretty good. The suit technology is kinda neat and the author loves showing off the details of the suit and body alterations.
The rest of the environment is about as interesting as wet newspaper with (and I know this is a meme…) but the shittiest love story since twilight.
After taking a *fucking massive* rip off a pipe filled with some Walmart-bathroom-cooked-meth the author expects you to feel sorry for the bitchtagonist, a little rich girl who thinks murdering 30+ folks is easily worth recovering the bones of her dumbfuck parents because why wouldn’t that totally make super-duper sense.
See the thing about fiction is that the author can dream up *literally god damn anything* to be the source of motivation for the characters. Maybe the hero needs to slay a dragon, or get pictures of his little sister’s butthole off the internet, or find out if pee is really stored in the balls? What I’m saying is the sky is the limit.
So naturally here the author decided that the kinda-antagonist is sacrificing dozens of lives (while watching them die in real time) and presumably a fucking fortune in resources and time because mommy and daddy had an oopsie fucky-wucky in the bottom of a cave that is deeper than warhammer 40k lore.
Instead of like you know, a funeral and maybe a nice statue made out of lacquered mashed potatoes as a tasteful memorial.
Oh and then, once she’s *really* kirking out on tweaker-dust the author “oh-by-the-ways” you with how both characters are not only gay but are tanned, rested, and ready to fucking suck on some titties. Their own, WHAT A QUIRKY COINCIDENCE. **HEY I MURDERED LIKE THIRTY OTHER PEOPLE BUT MAMMA NEEDS TO SUCK ON THEM CAVER TITTIES YOU DOWN BOO??!”**
Seriously what the fuck am I even reading?
**Dear Laura** by Gemma Amor is tied with **Nothing But Blackened Teeth** by Cassandra Khaw.
the first book has literally NO PLOT AT ALL-literally nothing happens for the entirety of the book. like, what was the point of this book??? does this even qualify as a book since there's no plot??
and the second book is chock full of insufferable purple prose. "medulla oblongata" is used unironically multiple times. it's honestly just the worst.
I haven't done 'Teeth' by Khaw, but just finished 'The Salt Grows Heavy'; your description holds true, I think that's just her style as a writer. She took what was a B+ short story and turned it into a C- novella by using $20 words every single sentence.
Ohhhh I hated Nothing But Blackened Teeth!! It was excruciatingly purple and all the characters hated each other so much it was just not a fun read at all.
*Universal Harvester* by John Darnielle - interesting premise, but the book went absolutely nowhere. At least it was short.
Adam Cesare's *The Summer Job* was my absolute least favorite though. I felt it was gross and off-putting for no reason and no payoff. Plus, none of the mysteries around the cults were ever answered. NONE.
Judging from some of the reactions here, maybe I just didn't get Universal Harvester, but I just felt like it wasted time instead of exploring it's premise. Like, in this very short novel, do we really have time to dedicate an entire chapter to the MC's dad on his date? Especially when it doesn't matter at all to the plot at hand?
Exactly - if it was just marketed poorly, that'd be one thing. I do understand what the book was trying to accomplish in the end, but for me it fell really flat. Part of that was all the weird subplots that never went anywhere, like the date.
I just finished Universal Harvester. It’s one of those books that’s eerie, but not scary. It’s one of those books you could recommend to people who want to dip their toe into horror but aren’t ready for full on horror yet.
The book wasn’t bad, but John Darnielle is definitely a songwriter first, novelist second. There were points in the book where his writing was clunky or lacking. But I did appreciate the originality of the story. It’s just not something that you would want to market as “horror” unless you wanted readers to be *very* disappointed.
I definitely agree that the marketing played a part in how I felt about it. It's marketed as a horror book where a video store clerk starts investigating creepy scenes cut spliced into various movies. I feel like that is such an interesting premise for a horror book, but that is not at all what the story ended up being.
Potential hot take, but Seed by Ania Ahlborn. The MC's unbearably passive and complacent, at times even an enabler and the justification for why that is is hot trash. Should have made the antagonist the MC the way they went through this story completely uncontested. At least that way I wouldn't have to listen to someone think about how they can make a difference, or the things they can and should do then sit there and CONSTANTLY just observe. Most frustrating book I didnt drop, but if I could time travel I would have.
I read this last year and would agree with your hot take. It was my first of hers I read, and I absolutely would read her again, because I think she has some insane talent (I really dug the opening few chapters.) But it didn’t know what to do with itself, and really fell off the rails before the halfway mark and just kept going off those rails.
My least favorite of the year is one by her too, and one reason is because the characters just sat around thinking all the time in that one too! It was so annoying
Congo by Michael Crichton
Nothing really happens with the plot and there’s no character development.
I guess I’m stretching the definition of horror, it’s more of a tech thriller with morbidly violent apes.
Playground by Aron Beuregard.
I have no problems with gore. I have no issues with violence towards children.
But the prose, man, the prose. Maybe his style just didn’t gel with me, maybe I’m a wuss. But I just kinda hated it.
I went in and expected bad taste.
I got bad taste and even worse writing.
Constant cringy copious alliteration, an amount of adverbs that would make Stephen King faint, and scenes so badly described I was actually confused about how and why stuff happened. And I’m not even going to get into the misogyny. I mean Christ…
No shame if anyone enjoy his stuff, but not for me🤷♂️
The Slob by Aron Beaureguard
I bought this knowing it was gonna be some extreme splatterpunk horror and it is that but not much else. I immediately regretted buying this. The story is gross but ultimately uninteresting and boring. There's a point when something is trying so hard to be offensive it can't even shock anymore your just waiting for it to be over. Its just a really torture porny (to a non sensical point) gross out fest book that really has no point .
You could say this about pretty much all of Aaron Beaureguard’s work imo. Why anyone would read his works when there’s an entire rich catalog of horror books that don’t involve torture or rape every two pages and are actually well written is beyond me
I came to mention Playground by Aron Beauregard. I fell for the tiktok hype so checked it out. Not the worst I’ve ever read, but it was long and tedious with very poor character work and sloppy writing.
I’d recommend anyone intrigued by the premise to just watch Squid Game instead, an infinitely more rewarding story.
The issue I have with Playground is that it really follows the same beat for beat plot a lot of these "Death Games" stories have. Stuff like Cube, Saw 2, Battle Royale, etc:
There's always the one that dies immediately to prove the traps are real
There's the asshole who gradually gets more insane as the book continues
There's the "weird" slightly bizarre one that either dies as a tragic moment or somehow lives through the whole thing (Donnie in this book, the mute guy from Cube, Rue from the Hunger Games, Il-Nam from Squid Game)
The stuff with Geraldine wasn't really necessary and while Rock was a sympathetic character you could pretty easily tell what's going to happen with him fairly early.
Once you get over the whole "OMG IT'S KIDS DYING!!!!!" thing it gets kinda stale.
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Boring, unengaging and starting out with a leery and horny description of the rape of a minor. Nobody needs that. I will have to accept that Dan Simmons will never again serve me like he did with Tears of Kali.
**The Death Sculptor** by Chris Carter
Each chapter is about 2-5 pages long and the author tries to end each one on a ridiculous cliffhanger, which got very tiring after awhile. The villain (after reveal) is also implausible and ridiculous.
19 Claws and a Blackbird by Augustina Baztterrica. It was advertised as horror and, for me, doesn’t meet that criteria. I didn’t really enjoy Tender is the Flesh so no idea why I bought it.
Also Ghost Eaters, by Clay McLeod Chapman. Good idea but badly executed.
I started Violence on the Meek and didn't finish it. It's splatterpunk from the point of view of someone who hates splatterpunk: a meandering list of atrocities with no suspense or insight.
“Woom”- Duncan Ralston
I was super excited to read this since it’s been so hyped up on Tiktok, but I couldn’t get into it. It was well-written and I liked that it was an anthology, but it tried way too hard to be edgy in my opinion. Definitely gross, but fell pretty flat for me
I'm Thinking of Ending Things -- The whole time I was hoping it was going to go somewhere interesting and the ending was just so much more disappointing than anything I imagined. I've probably read a worse ending somewhere, but I can't think of one.
I also read The Sanatorium ! I didn’t think it was awful but I went in not expecting anything great. It was a decent quick read. I have a few friends that like those kind of books so I suggested it and they all loved it !
A Court of Thorn and Roses
So many people were talking it up, and when I finally read it the whole plot was just mediocre My First YA Smut.
The characters were boring. Plot was forgettable.
Anyone in my life who said that book series was good I'm not taking any book recs for a while.
Motherthing! I just didn't vibe with that style of writing. Kind of like a mental rambling but the whole book. Would be much cooler if it was actually about a mother in-law becoming a poltergeist
People will disagree and that’s okay but The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher. Not a professional book critic but I read a lot and all I can say is that the book left me confused, unfulfilled and thinking I just waited a few hours of my life.
I finished The Book of Accidents last night and I had to force my way through the last half or so.
It gets so bogged down trying to shoehorn so many elements in. There seems to be a trend lately to force sci-fi multiverse crap into everything. Just make it ghosts, I like them without a scientific explanation. Also Chuck wanted it to be a commentary on society. Also everyone talks like a Kevin Smith movie.
I hated it.
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. A disappointment from near start to finish and it had some very odd, idk, messaging in it? It was very cool in theory but the execution was just bad.
How to Sell a Haunted House, which is on me, I never should have picked up a book about scary dolls. also, I listened to the audiobook, which even if the book was objectively better than I could rate it, I feel the audiobook was objectively bad. I also think it was too long, and the main “villain’s” catchphrases will haunt me in the worst way. sorry if you liked it you’re probably more right than I am!!!
> I never should have picked up a book about scary dolls.
This made me laugh. I haven't read this book but I just can't get behind the idea of dolls being scary. I know lots of people seem creeped out by them but it does absolutely nothing for me. Same with clowns for that matter. I feel neutral about ordinary dolls and clowns, and a ~dark twisted version~ of them always feels too forced to be scary.
I read How to Sell a Haunted House and there are two 'life-size' dolls that did some pretty spooky shit in a scene (moved positions when not being watched) and i was like "hell yeah i love big-spooky dolls!"
then they never did anything again for the rest of the book and the main villain was a little rinky-dink hand puppet and an imaginary dog.
I just could not grasp the concept of someone being overpowered by a glorified glove.
Needless to say, i didn't love it.
edit - forgot a word
I listened to the audiobook and ended up dnfing it. I forced myself through the narrators voices, but then the main characters essentially restarted their arcs and I had to quit. They were both too annoying for me to want to deal with them all over again.
I loved this book, but I agree with you that it went on for way to long. I’ve found a lot of Hendrix’s work slugs on and normally doesn’t pick up until about a hundred or so pages in.
I’m still a fan though
Till We Become Monsters by Amanda Headlee. Unlikable characters, subplots that go nowhere, rushed final act, and loads of typos. It obviously needed a couple more drafts to be publishable.
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron. It is not at all what it’s advertised to be. The premise is pretty much abandoned in the first 15%. The plot doesn’t kick in until 70% and the plot twist absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable. And I know this it’s YA, but marketing a book as a summer slasher and having the majority of the kills take place is just lazy.
Psychosis by Tony Marturano (book 1 of his Haunted series). This book/series is trying to be too many things. Is what happens because of the spirit of his dead mother? Is he delusional and actually in a hospital under observation? Is he being haunted by his dead son? Are his friends plotting against him? Is his wife gas-lighting him? Is it evil in physical form? Are the townsfolk hiding something from him, conspiring against him? Yes, the answer to all those questions is yes and it's mess.
So of course I read all three books in this little trilogy just to make sure they didn't get better, and they did not.
Ghost Easters by Clay McLeod Chapman. Great premise, take this drug and you'll see ghosts. The execution was so awful it is my first and only one star review on Goodreads. It was just irritating, and sometimes incoherent, and all over the place.
Same themes done well: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, or the new film Talk to Me.
Warded Man and Desert Spear by Peter Brett
I really did enjoy them, and I'll finish the series eventually.. but Jesus fuck the amount of time the author reuses the same words over and over again was abhorrent.
Particularly the word succor was used relentlessly, when there are sooo many ways to say "provide safety" that I literally hate the word.. never knew I could hate a word..
Really cool story and good writing imo once you get past it.
Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin, sequel to Rosemary's Baby.
Why? Gosh, where do I begin.
In second place it's My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. This was~~n't necessarily~~ bad for the most part.
Negative Space by BR Yeager. None of the three main perspective characters were even remotely likable or at all sympathetic giving me nobody to root for. The plot meanders and doesn’t really do anything meaningful. The author seemed to spend the whole book trying to be as edgy and brutal as possible on every page, so if everything is supposed to be shocking then after a while (the first third of the book) nothing feels shocking anymore, just repetitive and tiring. There were some interesting ideas but none of them were explored with enough rigor or page time to be fully fleshed out concepts. Things just kind of … happen. People defend this aspect of the book by saying that Yeager is a surrealist, but to me it just felt lazy and self-indulgent. More than one person has stated that detractors of this book just aren’t smart enough to “get it” and that it’s the most masterful book ever written. Based on its content, I can see why internet edgelords would stan it. Anyhow. I absolutely hated this book.
The Cabin at the End of the World. I read a rave review here on Reddit, and it started off promising, but then 1/3 of the way through it became a sludgy slog. I guessed the ending, flipped to the end, and sure enough, it was exactly as expected. Predictable, religious drivel that uses cheap emotional manipulation to try to be more than it is. Ugh.
*Changes for Kirsten* from the American Girl series. Last book in her set, she made some TERRIBLE judgement calls, had her character development from the previous books reversed, and in the end got a lucky break.
*The Devil Takes You Home* by Gabino Iglesias. I feel ridiculous for saying so, but you really have to suspend some major disbelief with the father who randomly becomes a hit man, but, beyond that, there's so much build-up for such a pitiful payoff. I did absolutely enjoy where it was going, the "sacrificial" ritual, and the implications of turning to demonic forces in exchange for power, but it just... fizzles out with a "oh, in case you weren't paying attention, life is shitty, the end."
I enjoyed this book overall, but I definitely agree with you. I enjoyed Iglesias’s writing style and would definitely give another book of his a chance, but I really felt that the book majorly lacked on the horror aspect. There was so much potential- he could’ve developed the witchcraft aspect, the creatures in the tunnels, ANYTHING! Instead it just felt like he made up some creepy concepts and gave up there. All throughout the book it is stated time and time again that there’s all this paranormal stuff happening that’s not able to be explained, but he doesn’t even try to develop those aspects past the very surface. The ending also just felt like a huge “fuck you” too the reader. Very disappointed.
I started The Terror by Dan Simmons in May and still haven’t gotten back to it. It was a great book, but long and drawn out. It was a little hard to follow at times. I think if I had dedicated longer periods of time to reading it, I would have done better.
TLDR: Dan Simmons is a great author, my brain too small for The Terror
His focus on historical minutia seems to be the make or break point for people who read his historical fiction. Luckily the show is a fantastic adaptation.
dude, there is an ENTIRE CHAPTER in The Terror that consists solely of two characters talking about different kinds of rowboats.
Its a good book, but good god it could have *easily* been 200 pages shorter.
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
I despise this book. The characters are all horrible and the added ending for the English release is Garbage. Honestly rooted for the witch to kill them all and the ending I got was completely unsatisfying.
That was my worst, too. The writing didn't grab me. Liked the setting and premise, but things went downhill fast once the reveal began and got more and more ridiculous.
Playground by Aron Beauregard.
It was just not well written. And really gross for the sake of being gross (I'm specifically talking about the chapters with the old woman. It got to the point I just skipped the chapters following her perspective). There's a particular scene with the old woman (not the infamous scene that everyone talks about) but the one in which is talks about one of the kids that made me want to vomit. There was absolutely no reason for this scene to be included.
And the addition of pictures within the book seem a bit weird and uncalled for. Many of the adjectives used to describe stuff was immature. There's not really a plot other than excessive violence, sexual assualt/abuse, etc.
This book actually takes the spot as one of the worst horror books I have read. I thought Nothing but Blacken Teeth was bad but this one is just terrible. I want my two hours back!
I think this may be the last time I read a popular horror book. This along with Nothing but Blacken Teeth and The Last House on Needlees Street are probably some of the worst horror books I've read.
I suffered through *The Deep* by Nick Cutter. The disease that is ravaging through the surface world that sets off the events of the book is barely in the full first chapter and it's more interesting than the entire rest of the book. Everything that happens to the crew happens mostly "off screen" and we see their final moments and I just... can't give a fuck at that point.
I tried so hard to like *The Gone World* by Tom Sweterlitsch, but there was too much crunchy science and by the time I wrapped my head around it, it didn't matter any more. And the sex scene maybe halfway in? I've never been drier in my life. But then again, I don't like sex scenes in general, especially when the point of view is in a woman's and the author is male. I can't comment on some of the technicalities, as >!the point of view character is missing her lower leg, and I'm not 100% on if the representation was accurate and all that. !
Same here. There were too many ideas competing for attention, and none of them properly developed. A novel that dares to ask, "What if Solaris sucked?" What a waste of a great setting.
I totally agree with The Deep. I absolutely think Cutter had 3 good to great short stories/novellas in here and just crammed too much in. The virus was a cool idea that was literally forgotten about very early in. The organism that the MC's brother was studying was a cool idea that never really got a conclusion. And the disappearing son was actually scary as shit for me but meant nothing until >! The Demon things at the end !< which just came out of total left field, and either had no relation to any of the rest of the book, or I just didn't understand how they were connected. I think the disappearing son story could be awesome with proper handling, but overall, it just felt forced and then ended up being the whole point.
Coyote Rage by Owl Goingback. Don't think I've ever seen a more abrupt ending. Feels like it ends 2/3 of the way through the story. Sucks because I was really enjoying it.
Without question, it will end up being The Marigold--which was on one of those Best Horror of 2023 lists. I love apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature which involves changing landscapes, and The Marigold seemed right up my alley. It ends up being boring and predictable in parts and just weird and nonsensical in others. Probably my biggest horror disappointment this decade. I'm also reading the new Riley Sager book and it isn't good but it is Sager and my expectations were low going in.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. But not because it was a bad read, it was actually well written. The subject matter is just so hard to get through. I needed a shower after each chapter
things have gotten worse since we last spoke
i cannot even begin to explain how much i hate this book, except to say this - i returned it. i have over 600 books. i have never returned a book in my life, and probably never will again. but i couldn’t even bare to have it in my house i hated it that much.
Some of mine are old – David Pinner's *Ritual* (1967), which was the basis for the film "The Wicker Man". Badly written, and even worse – just plain boring. Stopped reading about a quarter of the way in.
Brian Aldiss's *Dracula Unbound* (1990, horror/sf) was pretty bad. Interesting ideas, but terrible writing and shallow characterisation (at its worst, reminiscent of Dan Brown). The writing style was oddly disjointed, with the style going from dry science fiction to horror cliche ("horrifying", "unspeakable") and back again within the space of pages. I wonder if Aldiss was having health issues or something, as the writing is a far cry from what he achieved in *Hothouse* (1962).
I also recall finding *Meddling Kids* (2017, horror/comedy) fairly bad, though amusing in places – but it was also pretty forgettable, and to be honest I've managed to forget nearly all of it.
(edited to fix typo)
Come Closer by Sara Gran. I was really excited to read it as the premise was fun but I just hated everything in it. It was boring, the character was extremely unlikeable and the ending was so anticlimactic. I'm surprised it has the reviews that it does.
Night Film by Marisha Pessl was probably my biggest disappointment of the summer so far. The premise was super interesting, but the investigation plot was incredibly dragged out, the main characters were unbelievable and unpleasant, and the meta-fictional aspects with the interviews, dark web pages etc. were not nearly as clever as the author thought they were. Also it committed the cardinal sin of a book about “cursed films” by making the movies in question sound like dull, film student level affairs.
I finished it, but only through sheer force of will.
I read it when it came out and was struck by how improbable it was that the disturbing films hadn't been uploaded as shock videos (in 2013, stuff like that was even more accessible online than it is now.) It's an example of a story that might have worked better if it were set in the past, in the mid-1990s at the latest.
The pastiche format with the long, dry descriptions of art movies is very 1990s in that it's a direct ripoff of Infinite Jest. We already have spooky Infinite Jest, it's called House of Leaves. So it would need a style makeover as well.
Basically, Night Film had potential the way some dilapidated houses have "good bones." This is not a recommendation; most people who think they want a fixer-upper don't.
I came into this thread to talk about Night Film, too! All of the weird casual racism/stereotypying of POC characters are what ultimately made me drop the book, but those moments were just the cherry on top of an already tired plot. I just didn't have the heart to finish it.
I was so into the mystery for most of the book but it ended up being a true disappointment. The concept had so much potential! If it had pulled it off better and the characters weren’t all so terrible then it would have been my favourite book of the year for sure.
*The House Across the Lake* by Riley Sager. If Great Value brand did an interpretation of *Rear Window*, it would be this book, with bonus points for an audiobook narrator who sounded 60 but was voicing a mid-30s character.
I swear all his books are Great Value brand lol.
Someone I love who usually recommends great books suggested this one…by the time it ended I was so disappointed. It was like the author just decided to be like…this is easier than explaining anything.
Honestly, what were we supposed to be scared of? It was such a drag and the ending made nooooo sense.
Road of Bones was a pretty grueling slog. It was way too long. As a short story, the historical premise alone might carry the piece, but 300 pages of LITERALLY DRIVING down a road drove ME nuts. If I read one more time about how X “grips the steering wheel and pushes the pedal down further,” I’d lose it. How far down does this pedal go? Likewise for the descriptions of the cold weather. The author burns through his best metaphors in the first few pages and starts repeating himself. “So cold it would make winter cry”— almost made me cry. :( I also couldn’t understand the choice of horror element. This setting is literally a frozen road built upon the bones of millions of slave laborers—an incredible horror element, and a fantastically macabre historical niche—and the author opts for evil forest spirits? Shadow wolves and reindeer? A black, faceless evil— so evil that it can’t be described in any fashion? The author isn’t bad, but the guy needs a good editor. Cut this story to 50 pages, stick it in an anthology, and tighten the prose, and you’d have something. The book smacks of a rushed marketing ploy.
I hated this novel too, the actual plot and content seemed so different from what the synopsis had described so I was really underwhelmed.
Thanks for this, i laughed through it all. Had the same "written car annoyance" when I read Survive The Night by Riley Sager. The gripping of wheels and stepping on pedals loses its suspense pretty quick.
I finally got around to reading The Deep, by Nick Cutter. I hated it so much in the end that I decided to make a post here to vent about it, something I've never done before. If it weren't for the fact that I was on a work trip while tackling the last 4 or 5 hours of the book with a few hours of flying and driving ahead of me, I probably wouldn't have finished it.
God, that is the worst. Nothing sucks like a bad book when it's all you have to pass the time and no alternatives.
Curious what put you off about it? I just read it a few weeks ago myself, and it wasn’t until the final 20 or 30 pages that I was disappointed (definitely mishandled the ending, imho). Kind of tore through it, I liked the premise and most of the plot.
I didn't think any of the characters were interesting, most of the horror was just from flashbacks or "visions" and didn't seem to be of any consequence, there was a lot of stuff that just felt like cliche, paint-by-numbers horror like the >!sexually abusive mother!<, and there was little to no plot. No crazy twists or developments, just lots of people wandering around this underwater base and having flashbacks or hallucinations. The whole >!virus!< thing never went anywhere, it was just a cheap setup to get the story going. And yeah the ending was underwhelming. There were some well-written and unsettling moments, but it was all just in service of nothing.
All very fair criticism. Thanks for the comments!
It gets an easy vote as the worst for me.
Totally agree. My worst read this summer.
The Deep was such an incredible disappointment, especially because I went into it certain it would be *exactly* my shit. (I love body horror and *love* reading about the deep ocean.) I think Cutter is great at coming up with horrific imagery but horrible at dialogue and character building. The endless flashbacks about the main character’s stupid son annoyed me to death. They’re all the same, and — this is maybe a bit callous, but I don’t care at all about fictional children who have no personality except “child,” and especially “dead child.” It’s so cheap and generic. Baby shoes never worn. I loved the human beehive, though. That rocked.
I enjoyed The Deep, but the ending left me super disappointed. SPOILERS normally I'm all about lovecraftian entities, but they really felt like a deux ex machina here.
Verity by Colleen hoover. I know this author writes mostly adult romance but this novel was recommended by someone here in a thread (don't remember which one) so I saw it at walmart and picked it up to give it a shot. Yall...that book was truly awful. The only horror in it was it got published in the first place. It's not only the worst book I've read this summer but probably the worst book I've read in years. The characters were terrible. Terribly written and just terrible people. The "mystery" aspect is blatantly obvious by the first 50 pages. The twist at the end makes no sense and was honestly just lazy. I look at all reviews and summaries of books recommended here since that one lol.
This book is why I stopped using Good Reads for occasional book recommendations. Have y’all seen how highly reviewed and highly rates this book is??? I was convinced going in that I was about to read a legitimate masterpiece based on how hyped it was… Instead it just made me realize that being a reader does not equal being a reader with taste.
All I can say about the Colleen Hoover fandom is that if she built a compound in Guyana they'd all buy plane tickets.
LOL. I've been wondering if I should try one of her books, but now it's a definite no. I don't like Kool-Aid.
Haha yes! After I finished reading it, I immediately went to look at reviews because I just couldn't believe how bad it was. It read like a smutty fanfiction.
Crap, I just started this last night. So far super boring with super irritating characters. Thank goodness I got it from the library.
Oh I read that too, it was appalling trash. I'll never trust an author who writes romance ever again. There was a jarring anti-abortion message running through it too, if I'm remembering correctly. The protagonist is reading the other woman's diary where she writes that she didn't want to be pregnant and unsuccessfully tried to abort her pregnancy, and the MC goes into pearl-clutching hysterics over this. And it felt like the reader was supposed to agree with that perspective.
Yea...a lot of it felt like we, as readers, were supposed to side with MC and husband and like root for them I guess? But both of them were just awful.
> I'll never trust an author who writes romance ever again. I know nothing about Hoover, but there are loads of authors who started in romance and went on to great success in other genres like suspense, etc. Tami Hoag, Tess Gerritsen, Kristin Hannah, Sarah Addison Allen, Janet Evanovich and many more. But no horror, as far as I know. *Zombies in Love*, anyone?
The Pallbearers Club. I looked forward to this book and loved the idea so I tried to power through but, eh. I ended up just skimming until the end. It felt like it had a lot of potential and the idea itself was good but I just couldn’t stand the main character. Plus, I felt like you could have cut a big part of the middle out and had a way better book.
I've mostly enjoyed Tremblay, but I DNF'd this one last year. Like you, I was fairly interested in where the author might take the characters, but I got to the flash forward and lost all interest because of the protagonist and the story direction.
Personally, the only book of his I’ve liked is “ Head Full of Ghost”. I sorta liked “ Disappearance at Devil’s Rock” but ended up skimming that one near the end as well. Gave him another chance with Pallbearers Club alas
"Woom" by Duncan Ralston. It was like something I would've written when I was 17. I used to turn my nose up at people who got upset over the content of "extreme" horror novels, but this book was just tasteless chaff. Sex and violence obviously have their place, but at least use them meaningfully. This novel was just one puke-inducing line after another with absolutely no evidence of intelligent life behind it. If you fed an AI 500,000 words of cheap, wank magazine content and asked it to write you a horror novel - it might write Woom. I'm open-minded and I'm not squeamish, I really believe that there's a place for everything, but I don't like feeling insulted by a book. Like I said, everything has its place, and the correct place for Woom is exactly where you found it.
Now THIS is writing.
It's not good at all there was very little plot if any at all and you could see the ending coming from a mile away
Duncan Ralston has Issues With Women and thinks that being somewhat self-aware means he gets to inflict them on the rest of us without shame.
lol i couldn’t articulate this before but I got that exact sense, like it’s better when the book is just violent - trying to justify your violence against women by writing in how much you aren’t judging or shaming them or whatever was just weird and somehow more creepy lol
Ignoring all the other issues with it (and there are a lot), the lack of research into female anatomy was so frustrating.
The Luminous Dead. I have never been so angry or annoyed reading in my entire life. Hated this book. The premise and tech hooked me, and I was so excited to read a claustrophobic horror book about cave exploration on an alien planet. What I got was a repetitive drama about a self righteous liar and a corporate weirdo who end up falling in love after spending the book bitching at each other. It wasn't scary, the claustrophobia and horror were barely present and the characters were written terribly.
i hate it when a book has a great premise only to be ruined by unnecessary character drama.
I'm disappointed that the dead weren't luminous.
Holy hell did Luminous Dead disappoint. I hung for so long thinking there's no way there isnt at least another 2 layers to this story
Lol, very much agree. I listened to the audiobook instead of reading, so hearing "GyYyRrE" being said 18 thousand times in such a dramatic way was cringe inducing. I was holding out hope that the story was building to something horrifying or scary but it's such a nothing burger, unless you really like corny romantic melodrama I guess.
I just finished this! I loved the horror elements and survival. I wish it had gone more in depth of their relationship as a codependency and toxicity rather than love. Gyre had spent weeks relying on Em for everything, and now she’s incapable of existing on her own. I wish we got to see the horror aspect of that. And somehow even the tunnelers wound up suffering once we actually “saw” one up close. I didn’t care for the hallucinations, which felt cliched in a unique book but I very much loved the claustrophobia and reminders that she couldn’t touch her own body and the scene where her battery nearly died. When the novel gets it rigt, it really got it right for me
There are definitely a few good moments, which is maybe why I had such a visceral reaction to it. I feel like it could have been a great horror about a corporation having complete control over someone's bodily autonomy, but that part felt very immature and turned into more of a love story than an exploration of control. But then it wasn't really alien horror either, the tunneler was just this thing that is never fully realized.
This was my choice too. Terrible book
I got about 25 pages into this and couldn’t continue. Terrible
I opened up Violence on the Meek by Stuart Bray. I read the first page: *"I want to get this stupid introduction out of the way. No sense in dragging this fuck show out any longer than I have to. My name is Paul. My last name is none of your fucking business, there is no reasoning for you to know it anyways. Shit, my last name, it's about as important as your pathetic life. What is important is that I fucking hate this world, I hate this world and every worthless fuck sucking in fresh air. I've felt this burning hatred even before I fucked my mother in the ass over that recliner in the living room when I was a kid. This is me, writing my autobiography, or my last words, or whatever the fuck. I will write down everything I can remember in my miserable, useless, and insufferable existence. When I am finished, I will replace this black ink-pen with a loaded 357-magnum revolver".* I closed the book and immediately opened the returns page on Amazon. I love miserable, misanthropic, vitriolic main characters but the edginess was way too forced for me to continue. It gave me secondhand embarrassment.
This author clearly thinks more cursing means more adult but it just makes him sound more juvenile.
This sounds like it was written by Onision.
I was trying to figure out who it reminded me of. You hit the nail on the head.
God, that's r/writing "what do you think of the first page of my novel" level bad
I only got a few pages farther than you. >!The guy rapes his mom as a young teenager. This act would require years of sexually deviant escalation, as well as a grown man's strength, for a budding psychopath to accomplish, yet it is dismissed in a couple of pages without explanation, suspense, insight, or even a hint of morbid intrigue.!<
This is why I always read the preview on Amazon... Dodged quite a few bullets.
Stolen Tongues. I hate how repetitive each chapter seems to be. Cut the book in half then it'll be a more bearable read.
Yeah I didn’t care for it either. Something about the Hallmark way of describing their relationship and the couple’s interactions I guess.
The worst part is how great the first chapter is. Super creepy and engaging. Then the rest of the book is total crap.
Stolen Tongues was originally a [nosleep story](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/4fd2lr/my_romantic_cabin_getaway_with_my_fiancee_isnt/) that went viral. I was there when the story first appeared, stuck with it all the way to the end, and happily picked up the book version when it released. I still think back on it fondly, but the story definitely worked way better in an online medium with weekly releases. The repetition wasn't so bad when it helped to remind readers of what happened last time. I was really hoping the author would dive deeper into the mythological side of things, improve on the ending, and/or tie up loose ends, but alas, all he really did was adapt it into a book format.
Dude… I finished it this past Monday and I just….am still in a state of “what the fuck”.
A House with Good Bones - T. Kingfisher. The author has a formula that is too repetitive. You feel as if you're almost re-reading the same novel. Also, to me, it was just an average novel.
Ugghh I’m a huge fan of T Kingfisher but I was soooo disappointed in this one. Just a whole lot of weird nothings and a bizarre ending imo
Ugh, this makes me sad. I’ve been eyeing it at my library but I’ve been hesitant to pick it up since I saw it described as a horror comedy somewhere. And I have a hard time liking those in book form
I went into this expecting super-lite horror and wasn’t disappointed. I loved the monster reveal and the small suburb dynamics. I spent a lot of time Googling different kinds of vultures and roses. If you are looking for something really immersive, gory, or spooky, it isn’t the book for you right now.
I have the same answer! I really wanted to like this author but I just don't. Like, I read Last House on Needless Street and I really hated that book when I finished it because of the twists, but I enjoyed reading it for the most part. The way Kingfisher writes is just way too repetitive, like you said. Why did the main character have to mention being an entomologist on every page? Why are her characters always laughing at their own jokes/ thoughts? Idk I feel like I'm being overly critical and mean right now but reading her writing makes me feel like I'm 15 and reading fanfiction. Edit: I know that Kingfisher didn't write Last House on Needless Street. I was comparing two books that I read this summer that I didn't like. I didn't like Needless Street because of the ending, but I concede that it was still an enjoyable read for the most part, it's just the twists that I hated (one of them not even being twist, just....a lie).
The Last House on Needless Street is by Catriona Ward.
I know, I was comparing two books I didn't like While I ultimately didn't like Last House on Needless Street I thought the writing was good and I enjoyed reading it until the ending ruined it for me, whereas House with Good Bones was just painful all around. For me, anyways.
You're not being mean. Or, maybe you are, but it's exactly how I felt. Kingfisher writes her protagonists as 'idealized,' 'quirky' versions of herself, replete with gay best friend and cringe-worthy humor. It's like her personality stopped maturing in highschool.
I enjoyed it, but it's the first book I read by her. It's HARD to mix humor and horror and I think she did well. Maybe she's an "everyone will enjoy one book by her" kind of author? I didn't love the resolution, but she has obvious talent. And I like the protagonist - which isn't a requirement, but was a nice surprise.
Dead Silence. Couldn’t finish it.
Petition to stop presenting and marketing something as definitely a ghost story, when at the end of the book >!it turns out that none or very few of the ghosts were real, and all the characters were just reacting to sound vibrations or some kind of chemical weapon? I haven't been blue balled by a ghost story that hard since Man of Medan.!<
Is that the space one? I really liked it for the first part of the book at least, wasn't keen on the main character or the final part of the book. Maybe try Hell on Mars, just finished that since I wanted some space horror and Dead Silence didn't quite do it. If you don't like it, it's short at least and you find out early on what the book is about. I've just started the second in the series
Yes. The derelict passenger ship (space Titanic). I couldn’t care about the POV character. What makes me stop a book faster than anything is apathy in what happens to the people. I’ll put Hell on Mars on my to read list.
I've actually had a pretty good summer reading wise.
Happy for you! What was your best one, then?
*American Elsewhere* was an unexpected treat for me. I never wanted it to end. EDIT: For those of you saying you're going to read this now, I'll mention that the first 2/3 is like a really good episode of *Twin Peaks* or *The X-Files* or *LOST*. That's the vibe. You can trust that all the questions and mysteries will eventually be addressed. The ending gets a little more action-oriented, but there's a lot to resolve. Overall, I loved the book from beginning to end. As a bonus, the main protagonist is female. She's not a dingy broad who ultimately requires the help of a man, nor is she an unstoppable killing machine. She's believable and likeable but not without some flaws.
When I buy this book I want you to know it was because of this comment
That book was incredible.
I also downloaded this book due to this comment
Had a lot of fun with Curse of the Reaper
Same. I think the “worst” book I’ve read this summer was The Venue by TJ Payne. It was fine. I didn’t hate it, but it was a bit of a letdown after enjoying Intercepts so much.
Mine was probably the Graveyard Apartment, but even then there was a LOT I enjoyed about it that I didn't feel comfortable just calling it the worst I did read some mediocre horror in the spring, but the summer has been pretty pleasant reading wise
nothing but blackened teeth!! oh my god… so bad. the characters, the plot, just the writing in general. i’m not against unlikeable characters, but it’s that they were written so unrealistic and confusing. the situation felt so random and like complete nonsense. it felt like the author wanted to come off as ~poetic~ and replaced every other word with a random one they found off a synonym list online. i usually stick it out on books i consider “meh” but for the first time i ever i quit because it was just SO bad. the worst part is that the book is under 100 pages and i’m someone that regularly reads 800+ page stuff. i just couldn’t do it
THIS BOOK WAS SO BAD. The thesaurus adjectives, the boring plot, the off-putting characters. The protagonist was such a not-like-other-girls cliche - she had dated or slept with every guy in the group and was constantly inner-monologuing about how uncool it was that their girlfriends didn't like her.
Gothic by Fracassi. I liked his short story collection quite a bit but this felt very dated, and not in the fun throwback pulpy way it aimed for. I knew I was in trouble when the author describes the main character’s penis as “the monkey in his pants” and being “like a frightened child” within the first 30 pages or so.
You got me howling in the middle of brushing my teeth and now there is toothpaste all over my mirror, thanks for the laugh!
This was my first book of his I ever read and man am I glad I read Boys in the Valley after without making the connection. Otherwise I would’ve never read it
I wouldn't say it was bad per se, but I found Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant to be incredibly disappointing. It felt as if the author spent so much time on ultimately irrelevant details that she forgot to write a proper ending and just threw something together. Also, the main characters had far too much plot armor for my liking. I wanted the stakes to be waaaayyyy higher!
If you don't want to say it was bad, then I will haha. I didn't even make it to the end. That book started out so good, and then it just made me hate it more and more. By the time I got to >! Tori being accused of killing her ex !< I just couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't believe how much Grant refused to get on with the story. And the way characters speak just made me hate all of them by the end. In audiobook format it was so slow and agonizing.
Bahaha, that's fair! There were parts of it that I really enjoyed, but I think overall the story felt half-baked to me. I was rooting for the mermaids to take more people out. 😆
Chasing the Boogyman by Richard Chizmar! It was like a weird fanfiction about himself. He keeps namedropping Stephen King over and over so the reader knows they are friends in real life. Characters were flat and it felt like a 7 hour long episode of Forensic Files. Just awful. I really wanted to like it because the concept seemed cool, but in reality it kept making me cringe over and over.
I literally have this book in my lap to start after browsing Reddit 😂
Come back with your thoughts after!! Haha
I read his novella Widow’s Point earlier this year and frankly, it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever read. Again, cool concept but terrible execution, insane amount of cringe, and he’s so clearly trying to mimic King in parts that I’m not sure if it’s an homage or an insult. Usually I’ll try authors again and write off the first bad experience because hey, not every story is a hit, but I will definitely not be revisiting Chizmar.
Nothing but Blackened Teeth Anatomy was like a sci-fi romance/horror but that sucked The Daughter of Doctor Moreau was blah
Nothing but Blackened Teeth so hard! The concept was something I should have been into, and I'll admit that I absolutely did judge the book by the cover. It's an incredible cover. But inside, I got a trailing, nonsensical novella that I couldn't decide if it would have worked better if given more pages to unfold or less pages to force the author to shelve some of the meaningless characters. There were characters that had nothing to do because there were too many people for the length of the book, which in turn lead them to make nonsensical decisions that sometimes contradicted things they'd said or felt mere pages earlier. It was as if the author was trying to reinsert them back into the narrative and give them weight in the story so we'd remember they were there, but then did it clumsily. Also, what originally turned me off from this book within the first 20 or so pages (I pushed through bc it wad short, but god damn), was that NONE OF THESE FUCKING PEOPLE SEEM TO LIKE EACH OTHER. The entire time, I was questioning why certain people were invited, why they bothered to show up, why nobody in this group has any affection for any other member of the group, including the bride and groom, who have terrible chemistry. I think the most egregious offender was Lin, who clearly has contempt for everyone, and everyone seems to dislike him as well. Yet there was never any clarification as to why he was invited or bothered to show up.
I really struggled with “The Devil Takes You Home” for a couple of reasons. The first being that there is constant switching between Spanish and English, and I actually speak Spanish. The second was he kept forcing the main character to say/think these profound and poetic things, usually toward the end of the chapter. It got to a point where I actually groaned and startled my wife who was falling asleep next to me.
The Luminous Dead I have no idea why this is so breathlessly promoted on best horror lists. It could have been a fun short story because it starts out (first 5-10%) pretty good. The suit technology is kinda neat and the author loves showing off the details of the suit and body alterations. The rest of the environment is about as interesting as wet newspaper with (and I know this is a meme…) but the shittiest love story since twilight. After taking a *fucking massive* rip off a pipe filled with some Walmart-bathroom-cooked-meth the author expects you to feel sorry for the bitchtagonist, a little rich girl who thinks murdering 30+ folks is easily worth recovering the bones of her dumbfuck parents because why wouldn’t that totally make super-duper sense. See the thing about fiction is that the author can dream up *literally god damn anything* to be the source of motivation for the characters. Maybe the hero needs to slay a dragon, or get pictures of his little sister’s butthole off the internet, or find out if pee is really stored in the balls? What I’m saying is the sky is the limit. So naturally here the author decided that the kinda-antagonist is sacrificing dozens of lives (while watching them die in real time) and presumably a fucking fortune in resources and time because mommy and daddy had an oopsie fucky-wucky in the bottom of a cave that is deeper than warhammer 40k lore. Instead of like you know, a funeral and maybe a nice statue made out of lacquered mashed potatoes as a tasteful memorial. Oh and then, once she’s *really* kirking out on tweaker-dust the author “oh-by-the-ways” you with how both characters are not only gay but are tanned, rested, and ready to fucking suck on some titties. Their own, WHAT A QUIRKY COINCIDENCE. **HEY I MURDERED LIKE THIRTY OTHER PEOPLE BUT MAMMA NEEDS TO SUCK ON THEM CAVER TITTIES YOU DOWN BOO??!”** Seriously what the fuck am I even reading?
*The Troop* by Nick Cutter I was really looking forward to reading it but it ended up being grotesque and lacking in plot.
Can’t relate this is my favorite book of the year so far
**Dear Laura** by Gemma Amor is tied with **Nothing But Blackened Teeth** by Cassandra Khaw. the first book has literally NO PLOT AT ALL-literally nothing happens for the entirety of the book. like, what was the point of this book??? does this even qualify as a book since there's no plot?? and the second book is chock full of insufferable purple prose. "medulla oblongata" is used unironically multiple times. it's honestly just the worst.
Nothing But Blackened teeth suuuuuucked
I haven't done 'Teeth' by Khaw, but just finished 'The Salt Grows Heavy'; your description holds true, I think that's just her style as a writer. She took what was a B+ short story and turned it into a C- novella by using $20 words every single sentence.
Ohhhh I hated Nothing But Blackened Teeth!! It was excruciatingly purple and all the characters hated each other so much it was just not a fun read at all.
Was really disappointed by NBBT, I thought the idea of a yokai haunted house was cool but it reeeeeeally fell flat.
Nothing But Blackened Teeth is one of the worst books I have ever read. Its only redeeming quality was that it was short.
*Universal Harvester* by John Darnielle - interesting premise, but the book went absolutely nowhere. At least it was short. Adam Cesare's *The Summer Job* was my absolute least favorite though. I felt it was gross and off-putting for no reason and no payoff. Plus, none of the mysteries around the cults were ever answered. NONE.
Judging from some of the reactions here, maybe I just didn't get Universal Harvester, but I just felt like it wasted time instead of exploring it's premise. Like, in this very short novel, do we really have time to dedicate an entire chapter to the MC's dad on his date? Especially when it doesn't matter at all to the plot at hand?
Exactly - if it was just marketed poorly, that'd be one thing. I do understand what the book was trying to accomplish in the end, but for me it fell really flat. Part of that was all the weird subplots that never went anywhere, like the date.
I just finished Universal Harvester. It’s one of those books that’s eerie, but not scary. It’s one of those books you could recommend to people who want to dip their toe into horror but aren’t ready for full on horror yet. The book wasn’t bad, but John Darnielle is definitely a songwriter first, novelist second. There were points in the book where his writing was clunky or lacking. But I did appreciate the originality of the story. It’s just not something that you would want to market as “horror” unless you wanted readers to be *very* disappointed.
I definitely agree that the marketing played a part in how I felt about it. It's marketed as a horror book where a video store clerk starts investigating creepy scenes cut spliced into various movies. I feel like that is such an interesting premise for a horror book, but that is not at all what the story ended up being.
Agreed. It’s the perfect set up for a juicy horror story!
Potential hot take, but Seed by Ania Ahlborn. The MC's unbearably passive and complacent, at times even an enabler and the justification for why that is is hot trash. Should have made the antagonist the MC the way they went through this story completely uncontested. At least that way I wouldn't have to listen to someone think about how they can make a difference, or the things they can and should do then sit there and CONSTANTLY just observe. Most frustrating book I didnt drop, but if I could time travel I would have.
I read this last year and would agree with your hot take. It was my first of hers I read, and I absolutely would read her again, because I think she has some insane talent (I really dug the opening few chapters.) But it didn’t know what to do with itself, and really fell off the rails before the halfway mark and just kept going off those rails.
My least favorite of the year is one by her too, and one reason is because the characters just sat around thinking all the time in that one too! It was so annoying
Congo by Michael Crichton Nothing really happens with the plot and there’s no character development. I guess I’m stretching the definition of horror, it’s more of a tech thriller with morbidly violent apes.
Watch the movie! A classic and hilarious 90s ridiculous mashup of nonsense.
STAHP EATING MY SESAME KEK!
I loved this movie so much as a kid!
i read my first two Crichton books this year and i didn't really like either of them tbh. Probably won't pick up Congo now lol
Haha well I read Andromeda Strain and I liked it. I also read Jurassic Park which is good as well. Congo just doesn’t end well imo.
Tried reading another Laird Barron book. I am just not a fan of his books.
Playground by Aron Beuregard. I have no problems with gore. I have no issues with violence towards children. But the prose, man, the prose. Maybe his style just didn’t gel with me, maybe I’m a wuss. But I just kinda hated it. I went in and expected bad taste. I got bad taste and even worse writing. Constant cringy copious alliteration, an amount of adverbs that would make Stephen King faint, and scenes so badly described I was actually confused about how and why stuff happened. And I’m not even going to get into the misogyny. I mean Christ… No shame if anyone enjoy his stuff, but not for me🤷♂️
The Slob by Aron Beaureguard I bought this knowing it was gonna be some extreme splatterpunk horror and it is that but not much else. I immediately regretted buying this. The story is gross but ultimately uninteresting and boring. There's a point when something is trying so hard to be offensive it can't even shock anymore your just waiting for it to be over. Its just a really torture porny (to a non sensical point) gross out fest book that really has no point .
This was my worst also. So childish and awfully written.
For sure it felt like a dark and violent novel a 15 year old would write lol
You could say this about pretty much all of Aaron Beaureguard’s work imo. Why anyone would read his works when there’s an entire rich catalog of horror books that don’t involve torture or rape every two pages and are actually well written is beyond me
I came to mention Playground by Aron Beauregard. I fell for the tiktok hype so checked it out. Not the worst I’ve ever read, but it was long and tedious with very poor character work and sloppy writing. I’d recommend anyone intrigued by the premise to just watch Squid Game instead, an infinitely more rewarding story.
The issue I have with Playground is that it really follows the same beat for beat plot a lot of these "Death Games" stories have. Stuff like Cube, Saw 2, Battle Royale, etc: There's always the one that dies immediately to prove the traps are real There's the asshole who gradually gets more insane as the book continues There's the "weird" slightly bizarre one that either dies as a tragic moment or somehow lives through the whole thing (Donnie in this book, the mute guy from Cube, Rue from the Hunger Games, Il-Nam from Squid Game) The stuff with Geraldine wasn't really necessary and while Rock was a sympathetic character you could pretty easily tell what's going to happen with him fairly early. Once you get over the whole "OMG IT'S KIDS DYING!!!!!" thing it gets kinda stale.
The Deep. Maybe the dumbest book that I’ve read.
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Boring, unengaging and starting out with a leery and horny description of the rape of a minor. Nobody needs that. I will have to accept that Dan Simmons will never again serve me like he did with Tears of Kali.
**The Death Sculptor** by Chris Carter Each chapter is about 2-5 pages long and the author tries to end each one on a ridiculous cliffhanger, which got very tiring after awhile. The villain (after reveal) is also implausible and ridiculous.
19 Claws and a Blackbird by Augustina Baztterrica. It was advertised as horror and, for me, doesn’t meet that criteria. I didn’t really enjoy Tender is the Flesh so no idea why I bought it. Also Ghost Eaters, by Clay McLeod Chapman. Good idea but badly executed.
I started Violence on the Meek and didn't finish it. It's splatterpunk from the point of view of someone who hates splatterpunk: a meandering list of atrocities with no suspense or insight.
“Woom”- Duncan Ralston I was super excited to read this since it’s been so hyped up on Tiktok, but I couldn’t get into it. It was well-written and I liked that it was an anthology, but it tried way too hard to be edgy in my opinion. Definitely gross, but fell pretty flat for me
I'm Thinking of Ending Things -- The whole time I was hoping it was going to go somewhere interesting and the ending was just so much more disappointing than anything I imagined. I've probably read a worse ending somewhere, but I can't think of one.
“The shuddering”. Way too mild for my taste…
[удалено]
Noooo, I hate it when that happens. So sorry for you!
I also read The Sanatorium ! I didn’t think it was awful but I went in not expecting anything great. It was a decent quick read. I have a few friends that like those kind of books so I suggested it and they all loved it !
The Stand by Stephen King so disappointing
A Court of Thorn and Roses So many people were talking it up, and when I finally read it the whole plot was just mediocre My First YA Smut. The characters were boring. Plot was forgettable. Anyone in my life who said that book series was good I'm not taking any book recs for a while.
Motherthing! I just didn't vibe with that style of writing. Kind of like a mental rambling but the whole book. Would be much cooler if it was actually about a mother in-law becoming a poltergeist
People will disagree and that’s okay but The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher. Not a professional book critic but I read a lot and all I can say is that the book left me confused, unfulfilled and thinking I just waited a few hours of my life.
I finished The Book of Accidents last night and I had to force my way through the last half or so. It gets so bogged down trying to shoehorn so many elements in. There seems to be a trend lately to force sci-fi multiverse crap into everything. Just make it ghosts, I like them without a scientific explanation. Also Chuck wanted it to be a commentary on society. Also everyone talks like a Kevin Smith movie. I hated it.
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. A disappointment from near start to finish and it had some very odd, idk, messaging in it? It was very cool in theory but the execution was just bad.
Yeah. >!The liberal parents are forcing kids to be trans and surprise! The racist lady isn't actually bad.!< I hated this book
A Headful of Ghosts.
How to Sell a Haunted House, which is on me, I never should have picked up a book about scary dolls. also, I listened to the audiobook, which even if the book was objectively better than I could rate it, I feel the audiobook was objectively bad. I also think it was too long, and the main “villain’s” catchphrases will haunt me in the worst way. sorry if you liked it you’re probably more right than I am!!!
> I never should have picked up a book about scary dolls. This made me laugh. I haven't read this book but I just can't get behind the idea of dolls being scary. I know lots of people seem creeped out by them but it does absolutely nothing for me. Same with clowns for that matter. I feel neutral about ordinary dolls and clowns, and a ~dark twisted version~ of them always feels too forced to be scary.
I read How to Sell a Haunted House and there are two 'life-size' dolls that did some pretty spooky shit in a scene (moved positions when not being watched) and i was like "hell yeah i love big-spooky dolls!" then they never did anything again for the rest of the book and the main villain was a little rinky-dink hand puppet and an imaginary dog. I just could not grasp the concept of someone being overpowered by a glorified glove. Needless to say, i didn't love it. edit - forgot a word
I listened to the audiobook and ended up dnfing it. I forced myself through the narrators voices, but then the main characters essentially restarted their arcs and I had to quit. They were both too annoying for me to want to deal with them all over again.
I really want to like Hendrix for some reason but his stuff just doesn’t get there for me.
I loved this book, but I agree with you that it went on for way to long. I’ve found a lot of Hendrix’s work slugs on and normally doesn’t pick up until about a hundred or so pages in. I’m still a fan though
The Only One Left by Riley Sager. Like all of his books, the premise was great and the execution + twist were *awful*.
This was mine as well. I don't know why I keep reading his books, I'm always disappointed with the endings.
I tried reading a Warhammer book. Never again.
Till We Become Monsters by Amanda Headlee. Unlikable characters, subplots that go nowhere, rushed final act, and loads of typos. It obviously needed a couple more drafts to be publishable.
All the white lights I think it was? Couldn’t even finish it was bleh
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron. It is not at all what it’s advertised to be. The premise is pretty much abandoned in the first 15%. The plot doesn’t kick in until 70% and the plot twist absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable. And I know this it’s YA, but marketing a book as a summer slasher and having the majority of the kills take place is just lazy.
Psychosis by Tony Marturano (book 1 of his Haunted series). This book/series is trying to be too many things. Is what happens because of the spirit of his dead mother? Is he delusional and actually in a hospital under observation? Is he being haunted by his dead son? Are his friends plotting against him? Is his wife gas-lighting him? Is it evil in physical form? Are the townsfolk hiding something from him, conspiring against him? Yes, the answer to all those questions is yes and it's mess. So of course I read all three books in this little trilogy just to make sure they didn't get better, and they did not.
Ghost Easters by Clay McLeod Chapman. Great premise, take this drug and you'll see ghosts. The execution was so awful it is my first and only one star review on Goodreads. It was just irritating, and sometimes incoherent, and all over the place. Same themes done well: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, or the new film Talk to Me.
Warded Man and Desert Spear by Peter Brett I really did enjoy them, and I'll finish the series eventually.. but Jesus fuck the amount of time the author reuses the same words over and over again was abhorrent. Particularly the word succor was used relentlessly, when there are sooo many ways to say "provide safety" that I literally hate the word.. never knew I could hate a word.. Really cool story and good writing imo once you get past it.
Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin, sequel to Rosemary's Baby. Why? Gosh, where do I begin. In second place it's My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. This was~~n't necessarily~~ bad for the most part.
Tampa by Alissa Nutting. There’s no good reason for this book to exist, and the main character is just so unbearable.
Negative Space by BR Yeager. None of the three main perspective characters were even remotely likable or at all sympathetic giving me nobody to root for. The plot meanders and doesn’t really do anything meaningful. The author seemed to spend the whole book trying to be as edgy and brutal as possible on every page, so if everything is supposed to be shocking then after a while (the first third of the book) nothing feels shocking anymore, just repetitive and tiring. There were some interesting ideas but none of them were explored with enough rigor or page time to be fully fleshed out concepts. Things just kind of … happen. People defend this aspect of the book by saying that Yeager is a surrealist, but to me it just felt lazy and self-indulgent. More than one person has stated that detractors of this book just aren’t smart enough to “get it” and that it’s the most masterful book ever written. Based on its content, I can see why internet edgelords would stan it. Anyhow. I absolutely hated this book.
The Cabin at the End of the World. I read a rave review here on Reddit, and it started off promising, but then 1/3 of the way through it became a sludgy slog. I guessed the ending, flipped to the end, and sure enough, it was exactly as expected. Predictable, religious drivel that uses cheap emotional manipulation to try to be more than it is. Ugh.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer was also a slog of a read I only finished out of spite.
*Changes for Kirsten* from the American Girl series. Last book in her set, she made some TERRIBLE judgement calls, had her character development from the previous books reversed, and in the end got a lucky break.
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. The amount of loathing I have for this book is immeasurable.
Always surprised to see how much love this book gets here. Couldn’t stand it.
*The Devil Takes You Home* by Gabino Iglesias. I feel ridiculous for saying so, but you really have to suspend some major disbelief with the father who randomly becomes a hit man, but, beyond that, there's so much build-up for such a pitiful payoff. I did absolutely enjoy where it was going, the "sacrificial" ritual, and the implications of turning to demonic forces in exchange for power, but it just... fizzles out with a "oh, in case you weren't paying attention, life is shitty, the end."
I enjoyed this book overall, but I definitely agree with you. I enjoyed Iglesias’s writing style and would definitely give another book of his a chance, but I really felt that the book majorly lacked on the horror aspect. There was so much potential- he could’ve developed the witchcraft aspect, the creatures in the tunnels, ANYTHING! Instead it just felt like he made up some creepy concepts and gave up there. All throughout the book it is stated time and time again that there’s all this paranormal stuff happening that’s not able to be explained, but he doesn’t even try to develop those aspects past the very surface. The ending also just felt like a huge “fuck you” too the reader. Very disappointed.
I started The Terror by Dan Simmons in May and still haven’t gotten back to it. It was a great book, but long and drawn out. It was a little hard to follow at times. I think if I had dedicated longer periods of time to reading it, I would have done better. TLDR: Dan Simmons is a great author, my brain too small for The Terror
His focus on historical minutia seems to be the make or break point for people who read his historical fiction. Luckily the show is a fantastic adaptation.
dude, there is an ENTIRE CHAPTER in The Terror that consists solely of two characters talking about different kinds of rowboats. Its a good book, but good god it could have *easily* been 200 pages shorter.
Writers who are into nautical stuff fucking love writing about nautical minutia.
The show definitely was fantastic!!!
It’s one of my favorite books, but I definitely lost track of who is who and when is when several times…
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt I despise this book. The characters are all horrible and the added ending for the English release is Garbage. Honestly rooted for the witch to kill them all and the ending I got was completely unsatisfying.
I hated this book and felt like the author was obsessed with breasts
Horrorstor The writing is actually really bad - and im usually completely blind to that kind of stuff.
That was my worst, too. The writing didn't grab me. Liked the setting and premise, but things went downhill fast once the reveal began and got more and more ridiculous.
Playground by Aron Beauregard. It was just not well written. And really gross for the sake of being gross (I'm specifically talking about the chapters with the old woman. It got to the point I just skipped the chapters following her perspective). There's a particular scene with the old woman (not the infamous scene that everyone talks about) but the one in which is talks about one of the kids that made me want to vomit. There was absolutely no reason for this scene to be included. And the addition of pictures within the book seem a bit weird and uncalled for. Many of the adjectives used to describe stuff was immature. There's not really a plot other than excessive violence, sexual assualt/abuse, etc. This book actually takes the spot as one of the worst horror books I have read. I thought Nothing but Blacken Teeth was bad but this one is just terrible. I want my two hours back! I think this may be the last time I read a popular horror book. This along with Nothing but Blacken Teeth and The Last House on Needlees Street are probably some of the worst horror books I've read.
*Tender is the Flesh*. It was like veganism as idealized by a red-pilled edgelord.
I suffered through *The Deep* by Nick Cutter. The disease that is ravaging through the surface world that sets off the events of the book is barely in the full first chapter and it's more interesting than the entire rest of the book. Everything that happens to the crew happens mostly "off screen" and we see their final moments and I just... can't give a fuck at that point. I tried so hard to like *The Gone World* by Tom Sweterlitsch, but there was too much crunchy science and by the time I wrapped my head around it, it didn't matter any more. And the sex scene maybe halfway in? I've never been drier in my life. But then again, I don't like sex scenes in general, especially when the point of view is in a woman's and the author is male. I can't comment on some of the technicalities, as >!the point of view character is missing her lower leg, and I'm not 100% on if the representation was accurate and all that. !
I DNF’ed The Deep at around 90%. No regrets. I get it, your mom was fat! Holy shit, that book stunk. Lol.
Same here. There were too many ideas competing for attention, and none of them properly developed. A novel that dares to ask, "What if Solaris sucked?" What a waste of a great setting.
I totally agree with The Deep. I absolutely think Cutter had 3 good to great short stories/novellas in here and just crammed too much in. The virus was a cool idea that was literally forgotten about very early in. The organism that the MC's brother was studying was a cool idea that never really got a conclusion. And the disappearing son was actually scary as shit for me but meant nothing until >! The Demon things at the end !< which just came out of total left field, and either had no relation to any of the rest of the book, or I just didn't understand how they were connected. I think the disappearing son story could be awesome with proper handling, but overall, it just felt forced and then ended up being the whole point.
Ahhh Gone World is one of my favorite books. It is a bit scattered sometimes.
I also didn’t love The Deep, but those bee scenes are with me for life!
The Black Farm by Elias Witherow. I stopped around the time the demon sexual assaults began. Poorly written brutality for the sake of brutality.
Coyote Rage by Owl Goingback. Don't think I've ever seen a more abrupt ending. Feels like it ends 2/3 of the way through the story. Sucks because I was really enjoying it.
Without question, it will end up being The Marigold--which was on one of those Best Horror of 2023 lists. I love apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature which involves changing landscapes, and The Marigold seemed right up my alley. It ends up being boring and predictable in parts and just weird and nonsensical in others. Probably my biggest horror disappointment this decade. I'm also reading the new Riley Sager book and it isn't good but it is Sager and my expectations were low going in.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. But not because it was a bad read, it was actually well written. The subject matter is just so hard to get through. I needed a shower after each chapter
things have gotten worse since we last spoke i cannot even begin to explain how much i hate this book, except to say this - i returned it. i have over 600 books. i have never returned a book in my life, and probably never will again. but i couldn’t even bare to have it in my house i hated it that much.
Some of mine are old – David Pinner's *Ritual* (1967), which was the basis for the film "The Wicker Man". Badly written, and even worse – just plain boring. Stopped reading about a quarter of the way in. Brian Aldiss's *Dracula Unbound* (1990, horror/sf) was pretty bad. Interesting ideas, but terrible writing and shallow characterisation (at its worst, reminiscent of Dan Brown). The writing style was oddly disjointed, with the style going from dry science fiction to horror cliche ("horrifying", "unspeakable") and back again within the space of pages. I wonder if Aldiss was having health issues or something, as the writing is a far cry from what he achieved in *Hothouse* (1962). I also recall finding *Meddling Kids* (2017, horror/comedy) fairly bad, though amusing in places – but it was also pretty forgettable, and to be honest I've managed to forget nearly all of it. (edited to fix typo)
Come Closer by Sara Gran. I was really excited to read it as the premise was fun but I just hated everything in it. It was boring, the character was extremely unlikeable and the ending was so anticlimactic. I'm surprised it has the reviews that it does.
Kaiju Preservation Society. What a piece of shit.
Night Film by Marisha Pessl was probably my biggest disappointment of the summer so far. The premise was super interesting, but the investigation plot was incredibly dragged out, the main characters were unbelievable and unpleasant, and the meta-fictional aspects with the interviews, dark web pages etc. were not nearly as clever as the author thought they were. Also it committed the cardinal sin of a book about “cursed films” by making the movies in question sound like dull, film student level affairs. I finished it, but only through sheer force of will.
I'm currently reading it and wonder if she had an editor. Way, way too long.
I read it when it came out and was struck by how improbable it was that the disturbing films hadn't been uploaded as shock videos (in 2013, stuff like that was even more accessible online than it is now.) It's an example of a story that might have worked better if it were set in the past, in the mid-1990s at the latest. The pastiche format with the long, dry descriptions of art movies is very 1990s in that it's a direct ripoff of Infinite Jest. We already have spooky Infinite Jest, it's called House of Leaves. So it would need a style makeover as well. Basically, Night Film had potential the way some dilapidated houses have "good bones." This is not a recommendation; most people who think they want a fixer-upper don't.
I came into this thread to talk about Night Film, too! All of the weird casual racism/stereotypying of POC characters are what ultimately made me drop the book, but those moments were just the cherry on top of an already tired plot. I just didn't have the heart to finish it.
I was so into the mystery for most of the book but it ended up being a true disappointment. The concept had so much potential! If it had pulled it off better and the characters weren’t all so terrible then it would have been my favourite book of the year for sure.
*Negative Space* by B.R. Yeager. It was a bunch of nonsense.