What are you currently reading?

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Thunderstorm LE of Edward Lee's "Mr. Tilling's Basement & Other Stories". If you're an Edward Lee fan, then you'll love this one as it's everything that you hope for with his books. Each novella was a blast, some truly horrific stuff mixed with the blackest of humor and eroticism. I was also over the moon to find that a couple of the novellas tie into Lee's City Infernal books which I always found to be lots of fun. I recently read the Thunderstorm version of Lee's "The Television" and generally disliked it. Mr. Tilling's Basement & Other Stories definitely was a return to form IMO. Glad to have this one in my Thunderstorm/Lee collection!

Am now reading Kristopher Triana's "The Old Lady". I have high hopes for this one as I'm a big Triana fan and get Jack Ketchum vibes when reading the description.

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Thunderstorm LE of John Wayne Comunale's "Death, Scum, & TV Fun". Have never read anything by this author previously and wasn't sure what to expect. Overall, the book was pretty fun, and you can tell that the author has a voice of his own, but you also can tell that these three novellas are some of the author's earliest stories as there is a bit of roughness to each. I really enjoyed the first novella, "Death Pacts & Left-Handed Paths". It's essentially about a deal with a demon that spins out of control and felt a bit like early Lansdale in terms of voice & willingness to mix a bit of humor into the dialogue and story. I hated the second novella, "Scummer". It was basically about a recently divorced male who decides to just let himself completely go and uses a local degenerate from the bar called Scummer to model himself after. Felt kind of like a Charles Bukowski story with a tinge of horror added and just did not work for me at all. Plenty of grossouts but no real plot. The last novella, "As Seen on TV" landed in the middle of the previous two for me. It's basically about a serial killer who collects and uses As Seen on TV products to get rid of his victims' bodies and how there may be something guiding him without his knowledge. The story was very solid and had some truly bizzarro and horrific scenes but just didn't quite land as well as I was hoping. Overall, I'm glad to have finally read something by this author and to have added this book to my Thunderstorm collection.

Am now reading the Thunderstorm LE of Edward Lee's "Mr. Tilling's Basement & Other Stories". Very much looking forward to this one! 

[brlesh]

Too funny. I read that a few months back as well, also for the first time in many decades.

If anything, I appreciated the story more on this reread than the last time I read it in college.

A timeless classic, for sure!

B

[brlesh]

I’m 150 pages into Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar and really enjoying it.

It definitely starts out on a much faster pace than the first boogeyman book.

B

[dannyboy121070]

FWIW, the ebook editions of Leviathan will be released at the same time as the trade hardcover in early December 2024.

Glad to hear it! I loved the book, but by the end, I felt like I was going blind, lol.

[goathunter]

I just started Robert McCammon's SEVEN SHADES OF EVIL, and while I'm thrilled to be reading another Matthew Corbett book the typeface in the trade hardcover is SO....SMALL...as to be almost unreadable. If this is what Lividian is planning for the last book in the series, I'll probably wait for the e-book.

FWIW, the ebook editions of Leviathan will be released at the same time as the trade hardcover in early December 2024.

[RonClinton]

Halfway through Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck.

First time reading this classic in nearly 30 years.

B

Too funny. I read that a few months back as well, also for the first time in many decades.

[brlesh]

Halfway through Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck.

First time reading this classic in nearly 30 years.

B

[brlesh]

Finished up The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay

It’s the fifth novel I’ve read by Tremblay, and by far ranks as the worst of the five.

A glacially paced storyline without a payoff at the end, uninteresting characters, and written in an experimental style that quickly grew tiresome.

Here’s hoping Horror Movie is a return to form for Tremblay.

B

[dannyboy121070]

Camelot just put the Lansdale up on their site, so I grabbed it...I've had my eye on it for a while, but I held off since I hate pre-ordering. Hopefully it'll be worth the cost and the shipping....

[RonClinton]

Yeah, the price for these actually held me back from purchasing them. Love each author but for such short books, it didn't seem worth it, especially considering that it's highly likely that each author will include them in a future collection of their stories.

Very true -- and, to be honest, had that thought occured to me I probably would have skipped them as well...at least the Lansdale, as you know that one's going to be in a future collection since all his stories find their collective way sooner or later.

[sholloman81]

Just finished the two recent horror novellas from Sub Press: Michael Marshall Smith's TIME OUT and Joe Lansdale's THE AFFAIR OF THE CRAWLING RAZOR. Both were good, though all in all I'd probably give the nod to the MMS as the more interesting and less predictable of the two. Have to say, though, both seemed awfully overpriced at $45 each for novellas barely over 100 pages and with no interior illustrations, but I guess that's increasingly par for the course these days.

Yeah, the price for these actually held me back from purchasing them. Love each author but for such short books, it didn't seem worth it, especially considering that it's highly likely that each author will include them in a future collection of their stories.

[RonClinton]

Just finished the two recent horror novellas from Sub Press: Michael Marshall Smith's TIME OUT and Joe Lansdale's THE AFFAIR OF THE CRAWLING RAZOR. Both were good, though all in all I'd probably give the nod to the MMS as the more interesting and less predictable of the two. Have to say, though, both seemed awfully overpriced at $45 each for novellas barely over 100 pages and with no interior illustrations, but I guess that's increasingly par for the course these days.

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Thunderstorm LE of Edward Lee's "The Television". I've always been a big fan of Lee's work, but this one was slightly underwhelming to me. There were lots of good gore scenes; however, the story itself never really went anywhere and the ending was a big letdown, even if it left room for a sequel. Overall, I'm glad to have read this story but have read much better books from Lee prior to this and would most likely recommend one of them rather than this book.

Am now reading the Thunderstorm LE of John Wayne Comunale's "Death, Scum, & TV Fun". Have never read anything by this author, but this book sounds crazy; so, I've got my fingers crossed that it's good.

[Boggle Champion]

I wasn't aware of this edition, but just tracked down the info on it. I'm inclined to wait for the SST edition -- assuming they're doing one -- but may weaken when Sunday's BB ordering period opens...we'll see. Only reason I'd go for the BB edition is that I'm betting SST is not doing a limited edition...but I'm thinking that's probably a losing gamble since they've done all the others.

Yeah, I just hope that the UK special edition rights weren't transferred or anything.

If I hadn't pre-ordered the Barnes & Noble edition, I would have bought the Broken Binding one. I actually prefer the US trade edition cover though, and the extras in the b&n edition are a nice bonus.

Broken Binding said they'll be publishing more horror books in the future, so I'm definitely looking forward to what else they have in store.