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2015 Trick or Treat
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2015-10-02 11:29 PM (#11429)
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I've set up a new challenge, 2015 Trick or Treat , which is super easy - just one book, but you have to be quick as the deadline is Halloween, so you'll need to get started!

I also thought that it would be fun if people were to recommend some of their (hopefully lesser known) horror favorites.

I'll start with Kingsley Amis's The Green Man.  It's a fantastic novel - at turns scary, riotously funny, and deeply philosophical/theological.  The all too human protagonist is wonderfully drawn, and the writing is marvelous (this is Amis, after all).  It's entirely satisfying in every way.  Don't read any more about it - it might spoil it dreadfully.  Just get it, read it, and enjoy!

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spectru
Posted 2015-10-03 8:50 AM (#11434 - in reply to #11429)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		I just started Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Then I saw your new challenge. But I can't check off Something Wicked, because, I'm guessing, it isn't classified in the horror genre.
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justifiedsinner
Posted 2015-10-03 11:26 AM (#11435 - in reply to #11429)
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But it is definitely Halloween related.
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2015-10-03 12:32 PM (#11436 - in reply to #11429)
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It's absolutely horror (and it's on a couple of top horror lists to boot).  It' hadn't been tagged as horror, but I've changed that, so it's eligible now.
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daxxh
Posted 2015-10-03 1:12 PM (#11437 - in reply to #11436)
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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I would read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow if it was in the database. This would be an excuse to read the real version and not the little kid version that I read ages ago.
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2015-10-03 2:44 PM (#11438 - in reply to #11429)
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I suppose that the reason that The Legend of Sleepy Hollow isn't already in is because of it's length - it's a novella of some 40 pages and isn't usually published in a stand alone form (and is instead included in an endless number of collections and anthologies).  I've added a stand-alone version, so there you go!
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daxxh
Posted 2015-10-03 3:12 PM (#11439 - in reply to #11438)
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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I didn't know it was so short. Thanks for putting it in.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-10-04 4:18 AM (#11442 - in reply to #11429)
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Location: UK		I would have liked to scare the wits out of myself this year with Mark Z Danielewski's House of leaves but unfortunately (fortunately?) it is out on loan at the moment at the library,and I wont get it in time.. So I am going for a nice sedate collection of traditional ghost stories,M R James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary,which includes the famous ''Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You,My Lad''
I was privileged way back in 1968 to see Jonathan Miller's wonderful TV adaptation with Michael Horden. There were some changes from the original story of course,but that scary scene on the beach had a stunning effect of viewers back then. No videos back then to record,of course,but it is etched firmly in my head even today.Of course,it is on YouTube these days,but nothing is like the effect of watching it on a small blurred black and white TV,with the lights out to even be able to SEE the picture!
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Weesam
Posted 2015-10-04 3:59 PM (#11446 - in reply to #11429)
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Location: New Zealand		I thought I had the perfect book for this challenge, Dan Simmons' Summer of Night. I've been meaning to read it for quite some time and just decided this week it was up. But sadly it seems to be classified as fantasy rather than horror.
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spectru
Posted 2015-10-04 4:50 PM (#11448 - in reply to #11446)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		So - I completed the challenge. Something Wicked This Way Comes is perhaps not what Ray Bradbury is most famous for, but it is the best Bradbury I've read.
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Engelbrecht
Posted 2015-10-04 5:52 PM (#11450 - in reply to #11429)
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dustydigger - 2015-10-04 2:18 AM I would have liked to scare the wits out of myself this year with Mark Z Danielewski's House of leaves but unfortunately (fortunately?) it is out on loan at the moment at the library,and I wont get it in time

Maybe next year - that's a great book!  I/m not so sure about his current 27 book project though...

Weesam - 2015-10-04 1:59 PM I thought I had the perfect book for this challenge, Dan Simmons' Summer of Night. I've been meaning to read it for quite some time and just decided this week it was up. But sadly it seems to be classified as fantasy rather than horror.

I've reclassified Summer of Night - it's definitely horror.

spectru - 2015-10-04 2:50 PM So - I completed the challenge. Something Wicked This Way Comes is perhaps not what Ray Bradbury is most famous for, but it is the best Bradbury I've read.

That was quick!   Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of my favorites of his.  The movie is worth watching as well - it felt like it really honored the spirit of the book.

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dustydigger
Posted 2015-10-29 4:23 PM (#11595 - in reply to #11429)
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Location: UK		I read M R James's Ghost Stories of an Antiquary on a suitable rainy dull October day,. Much more restrained than Poe,less exotic than Lovecraft,just a sedate selection of tales about literary gentlemen searching out arcane manuscripts,sketches where the picture changes,a hotel room 13 that is only there occasionally,it disappears during the day,a curse from a witch on a family,and the consequences of blowing on an old whistle found on a beach. Not as melodramatic as Poe,and nearly everyone survives encounters with the supernatural.Occasionally the excellent premise of the tales is let down by rather weak execution,but all in all it was good fun.
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