A subversion of the Latin American magical-realist, multi-generational family epic, turned into a socio-political, occult horror saga... unnecessarily long, badly structured, and terribly paced.
Tag: horror fiction
Stephen King · Holly
At the height of the pandemic, Holly investigates multiple, seemingly unrelated disappearances, which lead her into the basement of married, semi-retired academic octogenarians.
Stephen King & Owen King · Sleeping Beauties
With this meandering, richly populated, and intentionally provocative novel, the Kings have succeeded in writing a critical parable of gender politics disguised as a dark horror fantasy.
Stephen King · Revival
If the punch King spends the entire book setting up lands, this novel's Lovecraftian cosmic-horror ending makes it the bleakest, most depressing book he's ever written.
Stephen King · Later
King does M. Night Shyamalan in this snappy, genre-spanning, excellently paced, and nostalgia-tinged coming-of-age story about the forced loss of innocence.
Stephen King · Duma Key
On the surface, Duma Key is another Stephen King ghost story, but supernatural elements aside, it's really an ode to art and the creative process as a way through and out of hell.
Richard Matheson · Hell House
The Haunting of Hill House meets 120 Days of Sodom and The Wizard of Oz in Matheson's lurid take on a gothic ghost story with his signature pseudo-scientific spin.
Henry James · The Turn of the Screw
This cornerstone novella has kept readers guessing for over a century, and it is this ambiguity that was its saving grace—the screw kept on turning, but it didn't tighten.
Agustina Bazterrica · Tender is the Flesh
A relentless, revolting, yet riveting dystopia where there are humans who eat, and those who are eaten. It's absolutely worth sinking your teeth into... if you're not faint of heart (or stomach).
Stephen King · The Outsider
An addictive first half veers off into paint-by-numbers King territory once a supernatural explanation is introduced, but it still makes for a compulsively readable novel.