Suggest a more mature version of this guy.I've read some of his works, they are beautifully written but I just don't feel the horror at all. I think he's perfect for me when I was 14-16 y.o.
>>22506699Poe?
Arthur Machen
Thomas Ligotti
Henry S. Whitehead, whom Lovecraft himself admired.
>>22506699Laird Barron
>>22508063Everything I’ve read by Ligotti has been either “Hey, there’s a ventriloquist dummy AAAAAAAHHH WE SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN BORN!!!!!” or “I’m walking by some creepy 19th century European buildings AAAAAAAHHH WE SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN BORN!!!!!”Good for you, Tom.
>>22506699Clark Ashton Smith.
>>22506699Read Houllebecq's work on Lovecraft then return.
>>22508535Ligotti has three type of stories1. The narrator is actually something monstruous2. The narrator's encounter with something monstruous reaffirms his belief in the inherent meaningless of his existence3. A semblance of what the modern world would be if Constantinople had not fell
>>22508540One of the finest prose stylists America has produced. I like Lovecraft quite a bit but it is a shame his work overshadows Smiths so heavily.
>>22506699Spooky tales after Lovecraft, by John Faggot
>>22508540easily my favorite of the lovecraft circle, I dont find his writings very scary but fantastical and macabre!
>>22508535Sounds like you havent read many of his stories cause thats a gross misrepresentation of his work!
>>22509745>I dont find his writings very scary but fantastical and macabre!This is similar to what I’d say to the OP about Lovecraft. “Horror” in literature can be harder to do in such a visceral, unsettling way as in cinema, except perhaps with gruesome unsettling depictions of torture, murder, etc. (which can be the same level of schlockiness and cheapness as jump scares and gore are in cinema). Lovecraft isn’t really going to “scare” you so much, assuming you’re a reasonably sane adult, it’s more like a sense of wonder, the fantastic, the eerie, the unsettling, the magical, the wondrous, the grim, macabre, etc. It’s more like the atmosphere and suspense that you read it for.However, one book I found genuinely terrifying when I first read it was Whitley Strieber’s “Communion.” Funnily enough, this is reputedly nonfiction according to Strieber, and he’s maintained this staunchly for decades, although he did have a career as a horror writer for many years before coming out with it. It’s one of those rare books that had me scared in broad daylight, although I was an impressionable teenager (16-17) when I first read it.
Arthur Machen is great
>>22508535>“Hey, there’s a ventriloquist dummy AAAAAAAHHH WE SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN BORN!!!!!”This made me put him on my shortlist to read, if I'm being honest.
>>22509949I don't think Ligotti has ever written about a ventriloquist or a dummy though. There's a couple marionettes here and there though
>>22506699As others have said Arthur Machen (The Great God Pan)Lord Dunsany (Heavy influence on the Dreamscapes if that's your thing)Edgar Allen Poe (Obvious, is more apparent in Lovecrafts early work)William Hope Hodgson (House on the Borderland. Also The Night Lands if you also love incredible worlds hidden behind impenetrable text)Algernon Blackwood (The Willows)Frank Bleknap Long (Hound of Tindalos)there's also Ramsay Campbell (Alone with the Horrors, Hungry Moon, and Midnight Sun)
>>22510399OP here, thanks for compiling the replies for me lol. I've taken a screenshot of each recommendations. I think I'll check Clark Ashton Smith for now because I found a digital copy compiling all his works (very convenient). Will buy the book that interests me most.
>>22509857>Whitley Strieber’s “Communion.”Will check it out, thanks!
>>22506699In a lonely place by Karl Edward Wagner. I love the whole rural feel in some of the stories
>>22509857>le anal probe guyStreiber's fucking weird, and most likely a counterintelligence asset (whether conscious or not) that destroys any shred of credibility the UFO crowd had.
>>22510399>Night Lands if you also love incredible worlds hidden behind impenetrable text)Why do people dickride this book so much? Is there really anything in it that hasn't been handled better elsewhere?
>>22508540This
>>22508540He is magnificent
>>22510399>Arthur Machen (The Great God Pan)Is this really that good?
>>22513493Not him but it really is great
>>22506699Darrell Schweitzer does some good HP Lovecraft pastiche.
Lovecraft's immaturity is what makes him Lovecraft.
