horror reads in 2004

[joysilence]

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dfordoom)

It's the time of year to start looking back on what we've been reading. hese are the horror novels I've read in 2004.

Clive Barker, COLDHEART CANYON – not one of his great books, but entertaining

Poppy Z. Brite, SWAMP FOETUS (aka WORMWOOD) – this was a reread, and it’s every bit as good as I’d remembered it. No-one did erotic horror like Poppy, except of course Lucy Taylor.

James Hogg, PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER – bizarre but compelling gothic novel from the 1820s

Shirley Jackson, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE – a classic haunted story

Jack Ketchum, OFF SEASON – lots of gore but dreary and predictable, a very poor book

Tanith Lee, HEART-BEAST – an unconventional werewolf story, wonderfully lush writing, dripping with morbid atmosphere, great book

Elizabeth Massie, SINEATER – disturbing hillbilly religious weirdness

Richard Matheson, HELL HOUSE – another classic haunted story

Patrick McGrath, THE ANGEL AND OTHER STORIES – very uneven

Abraham Merritt, BURN WITCH BURN – not as good as his fantasy masterpiece “The Ship of Ishtar”, but the devil are extremely disturbing. Written in the 1920s.

Melanie Tem, REVENANT – a very different kind of ghost story, a novel and grief and loss, very moving