For the book length thing, I've heard that publishers aren't that willing to publish overly long books from new authors. Each genre and age group has an average book length that new authors need to stick to. They don't want to risk the cost of publishing a long book from a new author and then not have it sell well. The more you publish the more likely they are to say yes to a long book. People are more willing to read a 500+ page book from an established author that they like vs from someone that they don't know who it is is the thinking.
In the nineties, several authors told me publishers wanted "door stoppers and no short ones because there were fabrication costs (I don't remember the specifics) Besides, in the US, readers wanted long books. Robert Parker entered the best-sellers lists when he first wrote a book twice the side of his usual stuff…
Interesting. I hadn't thought about it but it makes perfect sense. That would explain why most of the tomes I see out there are written by Stephen King. (He always said he had diarrhea of the word processor).
Carrie by Stephen King Off Season by Jack Ketchum The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks The Hellbound Heart by Clive Baker Deadhead by Shaun Hutson The Collector by John Fowles The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin Dead Laura by Gemma Amor You've Lost A Lot Of Blood by Eric Larocca
Sir, your dedication and involvement in horror genre is exemplary. Your knowledge is astounding, certainly a Genius. I only recommend one short story " The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins. It is one of most brilliant and profound stories I have ever read.
A horror story that truly creeped me out was HEX by Thomas Olde Heuveldt. He translated the original into English and moved the location to a small town in upstate New York. A 300 year old witch, eyes and mouth sewn shut and arms chained to her body, appears in various places in the town and even in homes. All townspeople have government provided phones with an app to report sightings and there are cameras everywhere that are monitored by a secret govt group. Oh yeah, and no one who lives in the town can leave for more than a few days without becoming suicidal. I read it 3 years ago and it still creeps me out.
I wonder if you could recommend psychological horror versus blood and gore horror. Think Ligotti, Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce and similar. I don't like a lot of blood and gore, but love the creepy, weird kind of horror.
if you liked Dear Laura, i think you might also enjoy Penpal by Dathan Auerbach. very similar vibes. while i read Dear Laura first and really liked it, i liked Penpal a little better and found it more scary (perhaps because it was also slightly longer, around 300-ish pages). thanks for the list though, it looks fantastic!
A bit OT but books which are criminally forgotten IMHO are John Pritchard's trilogy starting with "Night Sisters", "Angels of mourning" and "The Witching Hour"; A young nurse finds herself target of the Clinicians, medieval surgeons (much inspired by the band Fields oof the Nephilim) and a murderous sorceress. A mix of visceral horror, action, urban fantasy (before the term was coined), very British with a gothic vibe. I know them well, I translated those mothers ! The author seems to have disappeared after one last novel…
I don't think I'd heard of these, although I did just look up Night Sisters and the cover is vaguely familiar (although it does seem very much in the early 90s style). What language did you translate into?
I wonder if you could talk about the focus of a lot of these horror novels/books, a lot of media in general, of the focus of those crimes being mostly women, often sex workers, and the roots of that, based in a lot of sexism and hate on Sexworkers. And Maybe you know some feminist horror books, I'd love to hear your recommendations!
That feels like a challenging topic to do justice to, but I'll definitely give it some thought. There's a refreshing wave of great female horror authors at the moment - I'd definitely recommend checking out V Castro if you haven't already
Of these I have only read ‘The Wasp Factory’ and ‘Carrie’ but when you spoke about ‘The Collector’ it seemed very familiar. So I went to IMDB and I know that I have watched the 1965 movie based on the book starring Terrance Stamp. The movie was creepy and I remember it though I must have watched it in the 1970s/1980s. I will have to see if I can find both the movie and book and compared them.
This was another great analysis--though I have not read most of these I enjoy hearing the analysis. I do remember reading Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Stand when I was young and they were quite memorable. It's well known here that Maine is the "South of the North" meaning you run into the "hick culture" in New England as well as the South. There is a long standing tension between rural and urban here particularly the more rural south and the more urban north which has changed over the decades but was a holdover from the Civil War. I have been meaning to ask this question and it is just based on my casual observation...but why is it that Scottish writers produce (or seem to produce) such gruesome and/or violent type of works at what seems like a disproportionate rate...it just seems like something I have noticed and I might be totally off but I am wondering if there is some affinity there. Even the grotesque things like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or the weird medical experimentation by doctors on cadavers etc...it just seems like there is some weird vibe that comes out of that area. (I am both southern and lots of Scots background so I am not casting aspersions if any take umbrage). 🤓
Interesting! I never knew that about Maine, but it does fit with some of the books I’ve read set there. That rural/urban split seems to be quite a central part of the mood of America, playing out in politics a fair bit from what I can see as an outsider. Interesting comment on Scots writers and it’s true there do seem to be a lot of (in particular) successful crime writers from up there. I think there’s a degree of honest bluntness to Scottish culture that probably suits writing about the darker side of life quite well
Off Season was a crazy and grotesque ride but I loved it! If you like exploring the demented minds of disturbed killers I'd highly recommend Exquisite Corpse. I plan in reading the entire list!
I have about a dozen anthologies of supernatural stories…so many good short stories and novellas….I can’t possibly remember all the great ones off the top of my head. Personally, I think some of the best were written in Victorian times/early 20th century. I prefer ghost stories over slasher/violent horror. EF Benson’s “Mrs Amsworth” is a good one, a vampire story (I have always wondered if this story inspired King’s “‘Salem’s Lot”) and the very short “Graveyard Shift” by Richard Matheson.
@@CriminOllyBlog yes! The best are Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, and Masterpieces of Terror and the Supernatural. The latter no longer in print, I’ve seen it going for close to $200 USD…..though I doubt anyone would want to buy my tattered, well worn old copy (not that I’d ever give it up) Also Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories is a good one.
I've read The Hellbound Heart, Carrie, and Off Season and I enjoyed them all. I will have to read the other books on this list eventually. So many books so little time
I don’t mean to push Stephen King, but another favourite for me is ‘The Mist’, more of a novella, I suppose. And then there’s ‘Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption’, which is more ‘horrible’ than ‘horror’ in its concept, but with a wonderfully satisfying ending. The film makers dropped ‘Rita Hayworth’ from the title because they thought people would think it was a biographical film about Rita Hayworth. 😂😂😂
Salem's Lot was the first SK novel I read. The man has an incredible imagination. He's also an author whose books make very good audio books. I'm currently listening to his After Sunset book of short stories.
I have only read the collector from this list and it still creeps me out when I think about it or if my eyes happen across it on my bookshelf. thanks for the list!
Yeah The Wasp Factory was slammed by snobby critics when it first came out, but that didn't stop me from reading & enjoying it - & J.G. Ballard praised it, which was good enough for me to pick it up, despite what almost everybody else said about it. Anyway the author had the last laugh, because his book is still in print, at a time when most other mainstream novels are long forgotten. If you like shorter type horror, may I recommend a novelette called "The White People" by Arthur Machen if you haven't already read it.
I'm curious about that John Fowles book. Also, that Library of America book beneath the copy of Autumn Gothic in the back - would that be Ulysses S Grant's civil war memoirs? If so, recommend?
Some of my favorites: "The Haunted and the Haunters, or, the House and the Brain," by Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It's the CLASSIC haunted house story. "The King in Yellow," by Robert Chambers. It's a book about a book called "The King King in Yellow," the reading of which makes one insane. "The Great God Pan," by Arthur Machen. After publishing it, the author was INVITED to join "The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn." Normally, one had to prove oneself worthy, to be admitted into that occult society. "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," by H.P. Lovecraft. Need I say more? : "Mind Ye Boy, raise up not that which Ye cannot put down!" "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell. "The Thing" movies were based on this. I think the title of the novella is more creepy, especially when you know what it means.
I’ve been enjoying you videos and some of your recommendations. I watched John Dies in the End. I liked it. Question: Many of these books have been adapted to movies. What would you generally recommend first, the film or the book? Personally I feel that the reading experience is so much richer and able to be inside the characters than pictures shows can manage, plus I favor atmosphere over plot so I would say there is less disappointment in watching the movie first than the other way around. What do you think? 10:06
Glad you're enjoying the channel. I'm a traditionalist, so I'll always go book before movie. I do get what you mean though. Psycho is a great example of a book that works really well after watching the movie.
not too long ago i watched the film "cruising" with al pacino. i then read the book by gerald walker. the book has a different focus than the film. there are parallels between the 2 and they both enhanced the character of steve burns. when he said , "i want you to show me the world", horrified and kind of nauseated me. it was a creepy and unsettling experience. and if the script had been more developed it would have been a very good film.
I'd recommend Sawbones by Stuart McBride to add to another such list. All of McBride's work is darkly awful and funny, but Sawbones is a short. It's genuinely horrific and amusing in equal measure. His novel Half Head is dystopian horror and utterly unique. Highly recommend both.
Carrie is just a mean, flaming, propulsive machine. Truly the birth of the King. You've Lost a Lot of Blood sounds like it owes a bit of debt to Dennis Cooper. And maybe Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse? Which probably means it's not for me, but I've seen enough people snapping it up recently that I'm sure it's doing just fine without me.
I’ve not read Cooper or Brite, but from what I understand of their work I think that LaRocca’s book is different. It’s definitely graphic, but in quite a fantastical way rather than being gruelling
Fantastic video thank you! One of my favorite authors is Patrick McGrath. I’ve had a hard time finding anything I love as much as his stuff. Psychological Horror without the gore.
Excellent review. I've added a few of these to my list. I highly recommend The Other by Thomas Tryon. I read the first time as a teen and again as an adult and it really has stuck with me.
This was excellent! How did I miss this? Do you put out a video every day?! Who DOES that? Anyway, there are a bunch of books here I haven’t read yet and now I really want to.
I actually put out 8 videos last week in an attempt to be even more insane than you. I haven’t quite reached Steve D levels of insanity yet, but the men in white coats are standing by.
Just adding some of the books mentioned to my Amazon wish list, and discovered that Fever Dream has been filmed by Netflix. Do I watch first, or read first? Lol
Thanks for the recommendations! Jack Ketchum's novels always leave me feeling as tho someone placed a steel bucket over my head then hammered as hard as possible with a sledgehammer.🤣
Great list and observations. I have only read The Hellbound Heart and Carrie, but have The Wasp Factory sitting beside me for when i have finished Mirror by Graham Masterton. I would recommend Wet Work by Philip Nutman, a fairly short zombie apocalypse that has stayed in my head over the years. I would love to read Off Season but i highly doubt I'll find it in my 'back' neck of the woods.
Thanks Cliff! I’ve not read Wet Work so will see if I can track down a copy. Whereabouts are you? I was able to get Off Season from eBay in the UK quite affordably
@@CriminOllyBlog We live in South Africa so will have to import it at some time. Not an issue though, I have many books on my tbr list and a fairly well stocked second-hand bookstore in our village. I'll keep browsing the shelves.
There are four I haven’t read: Bleeding a Lot, Deadhead, Dear Laura, and The Loney. I might have to pick them up. The Collector is not traditionally classified as horror, but it is very chilling nonetheless.
Have you read full dark no stars by Stephen King? it’s so good but at the same time it’s one of his most twisted and approved works he left me feeling very cold after reading it
I agree about advising the new aspiring King fan to start with "Carrie". When you want to get to know an author reading their books in the order they were written is often a good way to go about it.
Yes!! I wasn’t initially the biggest fan of “Things Have Gotten Worse” Right after I finished reading it, but it kept creeping back into my thoughts… fantastic
There is a Novella by King called “in the Tall Grass” that is twisted, warped and deeply unsettling. But at the same time, completely fascinating. Most would have seen the movie Netflix made from it, but the book definitely deserves a mention.
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, by Canadian author Tony Burgess (no, not Anthony Burgess who wrote A Clockwork Orange). He also wrote Pontypool. Brilliant stuff.
James Herbert's Haunted has some delightful spooky moments and comes in at about 230 pages. Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe is also a good short one as well, at about 200 pages. Valley of Lights by Stephen Gallagher, which predated the film Fallen, is a real gripper of a book, again only a couple hundred pages long.
Years ago I read Dean M Drinkel tres liborium prohibitorum series. Now cant remember each individual shorts stories but I still remember the cover arts shuddered me. Google them you shall know what I meant. I am wondering if you knew any other authors write similarly?
And my very humble and very personal opinion is, for those super successful writers like Stephen King and many others, they got so successful that their editors (who tend to be younger and less experienced than the writers with time pass by) don’t dare to tell them that they need to cut their rambles lol.
I always thought it interesting that (and interviewers never asked why) in the movie, Clive Barker changed Kirsty from Larry's mistress to his daughter; I guess to keep the lines of innocent/whom-we're-rooting-for vs. guilty/rooted-against clearer? I kind of preferred the way the events in the book just kind of pushed Kirsty to the side, and she's left standing outside the house at the end, out of the loop and completely baffled by what has transpired, a stranger looking in through the (very proper English) windows....
Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, tweeted about a book called "The Troop" by Nick Cutter. What an amazing horror story. Super creepy and gross. Lots of tension. Couldn't put it down and kept thinking about it long afterwards. "The Deep" is also another good one by Nick Cutter.
@@the_eerie_faerie_tales there were 2 scenes of animal cruelty that were super shocking. I skipped them the second time I read the book. So gross and sad
A couple of short horror novels that I enjoyed are by Patrick McGrath. The Grotesque and Spider were great, short books. His short story collection Blood and Water is also great.
I read Off Season and enjoyed it immensely. Then I read the sequel Offspring. And I was blown away by it. I found it to be more satisfying. Both books are among my very favorite horror stories. There is another book making it a trilogy, which I think is called The Woman. What I've read about it, because I can't find it anywhere, is deeply disturbing. And I think the theme of the civilized becoming primitive is fully realized here, and I think Ketchum shows the dark side of that shift.
Another great and very informative list, Olly. When I watch one of your vids (I've been bingeing your channel lately) I always find out about at least one book I've never heard of but should really know (being a long-time horror fan), so thanks. Also - I've been boring people at parties for years telling anyone who will listen that the short novel is Stephen King's best 'canvas', so to speak. His short stories are often hit and miss, and his longest novels are always just a little too long (IT would be perfect with one or two characters less and a couple of sub-sub-plots trimmed a bit). But I can't think of a novella of King's I really dislike. And DIFFERENT SEASONS forever remains in my top ten King books of all time. What do you think? Am I crazy? 😁 Keep up the fine work.
Thanks Stephen, glad you’re enjoying the channel. I think I’m of the opinion that King is capable of doing any length of book well, but also capable of messing any of them up 😂
Thank you for the recommendations. Stephen King has always been my go-to author, and I kind of fell into that safe zone in which his books were all I would read. So it's nice to hear about authors and books I'd most likely leave this world never have discovered on my own. Have you ever read any books by Robert McCammon? Swan Song is his The Stand. Very similar in plot structure (the end of the world, good vs evil), but told in a way that doesn't make you think that McCammon is ripping King off in any way. He's a very visual author. I'd remember parts of his novels years later, and the memory of certain chapters were as vivid as stand-out scenes in actual movies. Boy's Life, Mystery Walk, Baal, and Mine are a few great McCammon novels, as well as his book of short stories, called Blue World.
I have read McCammon but I definitely need to read more. Loved A Boy's Life and Swan Song (in fact there's a review of that one on the channel). Thanks for watching!
I’ve been enjoying you videos and some of your recommendations. I watched John Dies in the End. I liked it. Question: Many of these books have been adapted to movies. What would you generally recommend first, the film or the book? Personally I feel that the reading experience is so much richer and able to be inside the characters than pictures shows can manage, plus I favor atmosphere over plot so I would say there is less disappointment in watching the movie first than the other way around. What do you think?
The only horror that's ever bothered me is the short story "The Boogeyman" by Stephen King. I developed amazing calves jumping from the hall to my bed so that the Boogeyman couldn't grab me from standing next to the bed.
I received "Carrie" as a birthday gift the year it came out. It was the first Stephen King book I read and I remember staying up all night reading it. I also saw the movie in theaters when it came out but I prefer the book because there's much more character development in the book.
Ah, forgot to add: I haven't read any of the books you mentioned here, but I made a short list so I can buy four them and read five: Off Season, The Wasp Factory, Deadhead, The Collector (I have that exact edition you showed), and The Loney. The others did not interest me. Thanks for saying what the blurbs leave out on books, particularly that one about the dream/nightmare/kid in the hospital: one of my pet peeves is to reach the end of a book and realize that there is no "ending", no resolution; no answers (good or bad) to reward my time spent in the book. When this happens, I see it as time wasted and I tend to cross off the author. Therefore, whatever her name is, I'm not buying, borrowing, reading anything by that author. Thanks for saving me the aggravation. I would recommend Frankenstein (annotated) and Dracula (annotated) as short, classic horror in English. If you feel adventurous, I strongly recommend Horacio Quiroga (Uruguayan), a short-story writer who can still send chills down your spine (go for The Decapitated Chicken). His collection of stories is available in English. Word of caution: different culture, different "exotic" settings, original Spanish language, he straddles the 19th and 20th centuries. A sad, tragic life, and a way to express the conflict between humans and nature unique to him. Guy de Maupassant wrote The Horla, a longish horror short story, and he has several stories that, if not entirely horror, border it. If you like cosmic horror, I would not recommend H.P., because you've read him (he's excellent, btw). But I would recommend William Sloane's To Walk the Night, and The Edge of Running Water, two novellas collected in one volume by the New York Review Books (nyrb) publishing house under the title "The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror." It's not expensive, it has a great cover and,for me at least, the first novella (To Walk the Night) is worth the price of admission. Well, okay, that's it now. Thanks for the video.
So glad you referenced 'Fever Dream' by Samanta Schweblin. I loved it and was baffled by it. Also, if you haven't read it, there's "The Grip of It' by Jac Jemc (no idea how to pronounce the name) which is a terrific psychological haunted house/possession narrative.
Late to comment, but I'm watching your videos in a more or less non-linear way. I see that you have Eye of the Sh*t Storm behind you. I have four books in the series, but I haven't read them and now they are in some box somewhere in my garage because I do not own a bookcase (renting; too long and boring a story). Wanted to know if you have read the series and if you liked it. I'm still working my way through some Spanish classics, peppered here and there with SK (Billy Summers, didn't care for it, but the anti-trump content that triggers the redhats in this country was precious), Greg Iles (Cemetery Road), and a fantasy trilogy (The Powder Mage, ho-hum, entertaining, but eminently forgettable). I could use a touch of humor, and the series about the girl who could move sh*t with her mind appears to be right on cue. Well, that's it.
If you like the chunky books of Stephen King, you should enjoy a book called "The Ceremonies" by T.E.D. Klein. His collection of novellas called "Dark Gods" is brilliant as well.
I’m trying to find a book that I started, but deleted the sample…I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, and can’t find it ANYWHERE. It’s a med student who loves and names a corpse. Any ideas????
Fantastic and inspiring presentation. Yes, the shorter the book the greater the impact. The great classics like Frankenstein , Dracula and the Dystopian and disturbing. Lord of the Flies come to mind. There are many others too.Any great Horror anthologies ( short stories ) you can recommend? I think of the Pan Horror anthologies which were my basic diet growing up in the 1960s
yah been reading shaun hutson since the late 80s, love his writing, yes its trashy but its entertaining over the top, horrifying as what a horror novel is supposed to be. His action writing flows quite well and blending with over the top horror. My fave Hutson are: Erebus, The SKull, Assasin, Renegades, Testament(Sequel to Renegades). when I hear splatterpunk, Hutson is an icon, yes when I hear the word first authors who come to mind is Skipp and Spector but Hutson wow, he is the most iconic of the splatterpunk writers. I also enjoyed his war novels concering German army unit sledgehammer in a series of novels set int he Eastern Front.
Good review on the book A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. I read it in 1995, and I was hooked from page 1 to the end because it was so suspenseful and I wanted to know what's going to happen. I could not put it down, and it's one of the best thrillers I ever read. There was a movie that was from the book, which is very faithful to the book and it was just as good. I tried to read more of Scott Smith books but he wrote one more . Do you if he's written anymore novels?
I have looked for a book i read as a teen It involves 3 children raised by a domineering mom. They grow up to start a devil wirship cult. They kidnapp girls and keep them in cages for sacrifice. Cant remember the name
They say brevity is the soul of wit; it's also the soul of horror. Have no idea why a horror book needs to be more than 250 pages, get your scare and get out. Best horror novel of all time is Some of Your Blood and it's 150 pages.
Love a shorter book. I read The Stand by Stephen king and I was literally angry that I read the whole thing. Book could have easily been half the length and done just as much with the story. Absolutely wasted my time.
Summer, Fireworks and My Corpse is a short story from the pov of the dead body, pretty cool perspective. If you buy the paperback it has two other short stories by the Japanese author Otsuichi.
This is he first list I've seen that includes he wasp factory such a great book i read over thirty years ago when i was 17 . Not horror but i would also recommend The Crow Road also by the late grrat Ian Banks.
Side note, several American serial killers were known to be obsessed with The Collector. Leonard Lake and Charles Ng in particular, but there were others as well.
