Sanguinosa

Hey! I I I finished The Last Days of Jack Sparks and I I I loved it so much!!! It had three of my my my (ok, I'll stop) favorite horror tropes - exorcisms, cursed media, and that eerie "this feels like it's based on true events" vibe. It genuinely terrified me, but it was such a treat. <3
I have a few questions, though: (SPOILERS BELOW)

1. Why Adramelech, Mephistopheles, and Baphomet specifically? I guess I didn’t understand or maybe missed the explanation.
2. The paranormal group naming their project Mimi is explained, but then they name the husband Ivan and that gave me the spooks because Maria (Mimi) and Ivan are the most common female and male names in my country (Bulgaria). Does anyone know if that’s just a coincidence? Obviously Maria is a popular name in other countries too, but the combo with Ivan specifically gave me chills, hhaha.
3. Has anyone checked the Jack Sparks site? It’s linked at the end of the book, but I’m too chicken shit to check it out, so I was wondering if someone braver can tell me what’s on there.

Thank you so much!!!

I’m really in the mood for a story where the main character ends up in a facility, town, ship, or some isolated location where something horrible has happened to the people there — and the mystery unfolds piece by piece as they explore and investigate. I love this kind of slow-burn, atmospheric storytelling with a creeping sense of dread or discovery. Some examples of the vibe I’m going for:

• Dead Space (Game)
• Fort Solis (Game)
• Event Horizon (Movie)
• Outlast (Game)

I’m open to horror, mystery, psychological thrillers, even weird fiction. I just really like that core setup of a character arriving somewhere and slowly piecing together what went wrong, preferably with some disturbing revelations. (Just please no books where they hint at something supernatural the entire time and at the end it turns out not to be) If you know of any books like this, please send them my way! Thanks in advance.

I'm working on a horror novel and I want it to be the kind of story that lingers. I’m talking about the stuff that keeps you looking over your shoulder at 3AM and questioning every sound in the house. The main vibe I'm going for is this: no one is ever truly safe — not the characters, and definitely not the reader.

I love the idea of someone (or something) always watching. Not just stalker-creepy, but reality-breaking, dread-soaked horror. Maybe it’s a presence. Maybe it’s a curse. Maybe it’s something worse. I want it to mess with people’s heads.

Any twisted ideas or scenarios you’d love to see in a book like that? Stuff that really made your skin crawl? I want to write something that gets under people’s skin and doesn’t leave.

Drop your scariest thoughts. Let’s build something terrifying. 😈

My biggest fear is the ocean (Thalassaphobia if ya fancy). If I get immersed enough, it could be an awesome (and terrifying) experience for me. What books do you recommend?

As a side note, I'm a lovecraftian fan. Doesn't have to have eldritch elements, I'm just puttin' it out there.

Hi, I know this is very vague, but I'm in a slump of finding novels I really get into & love.

I'm pretty open to anything.. the main thing is that it needs to have interesting characters I can really get into - I want to care about them even if they're problematic. It helps if there are key, believable friendships & relationships (Queer included).

Themes/settings/style I love: atmospheric, small-town, remote nature, college/institution settings, folk, occult, cosmic, adsurdist, building dread, comedy, return to home town, lovecraftian, music or art scene.

Books/authors I enjoy: Stephen Graham Jones, Grady Hendrix, Stephen King, Paul Tremblay, Bunny, Plain Bad Heroines, Into the drowning deep, December Park, Children of the Dark, Our Wives under the sea, Meddling Kids etc

Any suggestions? Please help a girl out 😅

This book has been recommended to me multiple times so I finally got around to it and can say I was pretty disappointed. The premise of the book was good but slow burn doesn’t even begin to describe it. I kept waiting for something to happen and nothing did until the 3/4 into it. I guess it just wasn’t my thing. Overall I give it a 3/5.

I just returned from vacation, where between adventures out in the city where I was, I sat in the lovely park near my hotel and read, enjoyed the sunshine, and dived into The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, by Brian Evenson.

This book is so damn readable. I don't know how else to explain it. Like every word fits together perfectly like a puzzle. My eyes glided across the page, and I was always hungry for what came next. Each story is exactly as long as it should be - never cheaping out, never overstaying its welcome.

It might sound like a diss but I truly don't mean it to be: this collection has a truly admirable workmanlike quality to it. This is a dude who gets writing as a craft. There is such care for the reader here.

Spoilers below!

My favorite stories from the collection:

1. Myling Kommer. I love intergenerational horror. Who's that dead baby and who's coming back for repayment? Where has this curse exerted itself upon the entire family, not just grandma? Fascinating suspense here.

2. Come Up - I love stories where shitbag characters get thrown into situations beyond the severity of their crime. I love that whiplash feeling - someone getting what they deserve until oh God no they didn't deserve that much, that kind of feeling, and this story has it in spades. A cheating spouse, a missing wife, and the call of open water...

3. Curator - I also love "fuck this whole planet" stories. Kudos to the curator here. To hell with humanity! We had our chance -- the next go around, maybe it'll be better.

4. Palisade - The ending image of the multiple wooden copies of the kid walking around in the dark room and all looking at the uncle simultaneously when he strikes a light is terrifying.

5. The Devil's Hand - Good folksy horror. The devil always gets his. In this case, I don't think the devil wanted fingers. It wants the game to continue, and makes fingers transferable to ensure it does. This one's killer.

6. To Breathe the Air - This is perhaps the masterpiece of the work. I would read an entire novel length of this work if he ever expanded it. With such economy, he sets up this complicated 3-tier mystery oppressive government structure and has us move through it effortlessly, never getting bogged down in the many details of the work. Ancient space ships, subterfuge and long revenge - this is a truly remarkable story.

7. The Shimmering Wall - Another story with some amazing whiplash. A glowing humanoid creature tells you they won't hurt you as they use a light-knife to chop your parents up into tiny bits in front of you, and it seems they mean it. Weird story with a fun loop to it. I loved this one.

Overall, he's so good at creating weird worlds, giving you just enough details to fall into them, and then keeping us where the heat is throughout.

I can't wait to read his other stuff; I have a few more of his collections on my library hold list

Damn, this was a good collection!

I know Ben Farthing has some books in this vein and I recently read Josh Malerman's Incidents Around the House and Jason Davis' Demon Seed. Looking for book recommendations with literally a monster in the closet...