Great Scary Stuff

OK, it's a new month. I'm giving the fiction a break -- tho it may return -- but instead of writing fiction here I'm going 2 write ABOUT fiction, as a way Back To Reality after 2 weeks of serializing that unfinished rock-group novel. I might even get back 2 reviewing some new-2-me music, possibly as early as 2morrow. But 1st....
I've only just started sniffing at Stephen Jones & Kim Newman's HORROR: THE 100 BEST BOOKS, in which 100 horror writers (Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, etc.) choose their all-time favorite horror novels or short stories -- but it got me thinking....
Back in the '90s, horror fiction was about all I read. Science fiction had pretty-much worn out for me, whereas horror not only offered fresh thrills, it also sort-of at-times addressed things that were going on in the Real World. The best Xample of this I have is that I'd just finished reading Thomas Harris's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS when the Jeffrey Dahmer case broke....
I think I really caught the disease as early as 1984, when I read something like 7 Stephen King novels in a row -- THE SHINING, THE DEAD ZONE, SALEM'S LOT, CHRISTINE, FIRESTARTER, CUJO & CARRIE, then later threw-in DIFFERENT SEASONS (a story collection), PET SEMATARY (yuck), DANSE MACABRE (a non-fiction history/overview of horror), MISERY, TOMMYKNOCKERS, etc., etc., ... & only MUCH later got around to IT & THE STAND.
This OD'ing on 1 writer (which I do A LOT) really worked -- I haven't been able 2 finish anything of King's since NEEDFUL THINGS & THE DARK HALF. More & more over the last 20 years I think King's needed an editor. Started GERALD'S GAME, DELORES CLAIBORNE, ROSE MADDER, couldn't finish. Started INSOMNIA -- it put me 2 sleep. Even THE GREEN MILE -- great movie, couldn't get into the book.
4 much of the '90s I was hooked on Dell's Abyss paperback horror line -- beautifully packaged books that weren't always that great 2 read. But they included lotsa work by my hero Kathe Koja, the writer who ruined my attn span & who has never let me down. Everything she's ever written has been worth it 4 me, even the young-adult novels she's bn writing 4 the last 10 years.
But the Abyss line also had lotsa work I couldn't get thru (by Poppy Z. Brite, Melanie Tem, Nancy Holder, Tanith Lee), or writers that didn't seem worth the trip -- Robert Deveraux, Ron Dee, Daniel Gower, Mary Hanner.... But when they got hold of something good -- WOW. In the past decade I was a subscriber 2 Leisure Books' horror line (mainly 4 Jack Ketchum), but there were some disappointments there 2....
I still feel this way about most horror -- a lot of what's out there is sludge I can't get thru, but the good stuff goes on the permanent shelf. Here's a list of summa the best stuff I can remember....
* Kathe Koja: SKIN, THE CIPHER, BAD BRAINS, STRANGE ANGELS, KINK, THE BLUE MIRROR, EXTREMITIES -- Koja wastes no time. Her abrupt, direct, sometimes brutal writing will plunge you in2 her stories & guarantee that when her characters hurt you will 2. SKIN is my favorite novel ever & includes a sorta performance-art/punk-rock/gothic atmosphere that it whirls around. It's amazing. THE CIPHER's no slouch, either....
* Jack Ketchum: HIDE AND SEEK, SHE WAKES, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, OFF SEASON, JOYRIDE, THE LOST.... Speaking of brutal.... Ketchum's books R usually short & Xtremely direct. HIDE AND SEEK is my choice 4 the best -- a twisted love story, the last 1/2 of it's like being repeatedly punched in the face ... in a good way. SHE WAKES features the rebirth of an ugly, hungry Greek goddess & a brutal finale. The Greek atmosphere is perfect. GIRL NEXT DOOR has a reputation as the most Xtreme horror novel ever -- it's not; some parts could be even more brutal, but it's still pretty tough 2 read Xcept 4 1 almost Bradbury-like moment early in the book ... before the bad things happen.... The others R pretty great 2....
* Thomas Harris: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, RED DRAGON. You've read these, of course. LAMBS locks you in by Page 10. RED DRAGON grabs you by the throat on the FIRST PAGE. (Wish I could figure out how he did that....) The later HANNIBAL is almost a great novel until the stupid throwaway ending that made me wanna throw it across the room. Haven't gotten 2 HANNIBAL RISING yet....
* Peter Straub: IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW, KOKO, THE THROAT. KOKO's the best Vietnam War novel ever. THE THROAT is a stunning epic, worth the 600 pgs. IF YOU COULD is a strange 1 -- I reread it every 10 years & each time it seems like a different story, or I pick up more or get more out of it. Straub's short stories "The Juniper Tree" & "Blue Rose" R pretty great 2. & the horrifying "Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff"....
* Stephen King: IT and THE STAND R amazing epics, worth the 3 months it'll take you 2 read them. The TV miniseries' of these in no way do them justice.... King's got some amazing short stories 2, all seemingly with "The" in the title: "The Body," "The Reach," "The Mist," "The Raft," "The Jaunt," "The Mangler"....
* James Ellroy: THE BLACK DAHLIA, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, THE BIG NOWHERE. You probly think these R police-procedural novels, but horrifying out-of-control nightmarish stuff happens in each of them....
* Michael Blumlein: XY, THE BRAINS OF RATS. XY is a brutal nightmare with no exit. BRAINS OF RATS includes some amazing, scary, outrageous short stories -- the title story, "Tissue Ablation," "Bestseller," "The Wet Suit," "Shed His Grace" ... & the quiet & moving "The Thing Itself."
* K.W. Jeter: MANTIS. An unreliable narrator leads you in2 a creepy, dark LA world where a (possibly imaginary?) femme fatale leads him 2 kill.... 1 of a kind.
* Edward Lee: COVEN. Can horror also B funny? This is. Brutal, gloppy, slimy, like a really bad B-movie you hate yourself 4 liking. So over-the-top you can't take it seriously. & I mean WAY over the top....
* Dan Simmons: SONG OF KALI. The Calcutta setting rings true, & the thuggees who follow Kali R scary enuf. But the brutal ending is what will stay with you years later....
* Clive Barker: I can't read his novels. But some of the stories in his BOOKS OF BLOOD were pretty direct & pretty great, especially "In the Hills, the Cities," "Dread," "Revelations," "The Age of Desire"....
* David J. Schow: Also very direct & vivid. Any short-story collection will do, but especially check out "Not From Around Here," "Red Light," "Lonesome Coyote Blues," "Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You," "Pulpmeister"....
* Michael Shea: "The Autopsy."
* Martin Cruz Smith: NIGHTWING. Much more than just another vampire-bats-attack-people novel....
* Melanie Tem: WILDING has 1 beautifully-written chapter in the center of the book when her werewolf heroine runs thru the streets of Denver; the rest of the story's about average. DESMODUS had possibilities but I couldn't take the man-bashing. REVENANT has a beautiful framing device: a ghost town narrates the stories of the souls that "live" there; but the stories themselves were so sad I couldn't finish the book.
* George R.R. Martin: FEVRE DREAM puts vampires on a Mississippi riverboat. Definitely something diffrent. THE ARMAGEDDON RAG had possibilities, but the '60s nostalgia is buried by an evil cloak&dagger plot 2 destroy the world....
* Daniel Gower: THE ORPHEUS PROCESS. Frankenstein moved 2 today, grim & creepy & sad & not really worth it.
* Mary Hanner: RAPID GROWTH. Women in California's Silicon Valley start giving birth 2 giant tumors. Eeeuuuu....
...& of course the 3 scariest non-fiction books I can think of:
* Richard Preston: THE HOT ZONE, THE DEMON IN THE FREEZER. HOT ZONE's about ebola, DEMON's about smallpox; both R fascinating & neither R a picnic....
* Tim Cahill: BURIED DREAMS. The terrifying true story of infamous Chicago serial-killer John Wayne Gacy, who buried the bodies of 33 young men under his house. 4 chapters near the end R like being hit over&over by a sledgehammer. Amazing reporting, if you can take it....
And your favorite scary stuff is...?