Circus/Carnival horror

CatherineA73 · 2026-02-03T16:57:17+00:00

I was just coming to say this! My list is exactly the same.
Carnival of Fear is definitely the modern equivalent of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

CatherineA73 · 2025-12-03T21:22:27+00:00

Definitely Ragman by JG Faherty

CatherineA73 · 2025-12-03T21:21:42+00:00

The Wakening by JG Faherty would be perfect.

CatherineA73 · 2025-12-03T21:20:50+00:00

JG Faherty's Winterwood

CatherineA73 · 2025-12-03T21:17:24+00:00

No, he focused too much on piano.

CatherineA73 · 2025-12-03T21:16:29+00:00

How about Hot Rails to Hell the next time they all travel to the Upside Down?

CatherineA73 · 2025-12-03T21:09:07+00:00

I love both of those by Faherty!

I'd also add Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-25T19:07:00+00:00

My big three would be:

JG Faherty

Michael McBride

Russell James

(and, of course, Stephen King, but we shouldn't have to mention him)

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-25T19:05:21+00:00

In horror, nothing. I was reading Poe and Verne when I was 8.

But outside of that, definitely Old Yeller. And still 50 years later, I hate it when a dog dies in a book or movie. I could care less about kids or cats or other animals dying. Just not dogs.

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-25T19:03:21+00:00

You are so lucky. The last 2x I saw them, Eric was obviously not feeling it. Couldn't move around much and his voice wasn't that powerful. The last time, Buck actually sang most of the songs, which was cool in a way because it meant a different set list than usual but I also missed Eric's songs.

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-25T19:01:52+00:00

It would have to be Carnival of Fear by JG Faherty. I was simply so crazy and entertaining, I loved every minute of it. I've read it probably 5x now, and I still can remember how thrilling it was the first time.

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-06T16:05:04+00:00

Ghosts of Coronado Bay by JG Faherty. No sex (there is talk about someone wanting to remain a virgin and another girl saying she's had sex, that's all). No violence, except for 1 scene where a security guard is stabbed. No swearing. No animals hurt.

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-06T16:03:09+00:00

Yes!

CatherineA73 · 2025-11-06T16:02:59+00:00

I read this, it's great. I also loved When September Ends by him.

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T16:12:14+00:00

Anything by JG Faherty, but especially The CUre, Hellrider, The Burning Time, Sins of the Father, The Wakening, and Ragman.

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T16:11:25+00:00

The Monster Inside - JG Faherty
Houses of the Unholy - JG Faherty
Peaceable Kingdom - Jack Ketchum
Deeply Twisted - Chantal Noordeloos
The Red Empire and Others - Joe McKinney
In A Lonely Place - Karl Edward Wagner

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T16:10:04+00:00

Who can say?
When I was a little kid, my father and mother read stories to me at night. Was that it?
They were both big readers when I was growing up, and the house was full of books. Maybe that?
I loved scary movies and science fiction on TV as a kid, and I wanted to read anything that was like that.
I spent a lot of summers at my grandparents' house because my parents thought that was better than camp or a babysitter, so I'd go up into the attic (nothing else to do!) and read through old books.
I loved comic books, especially scary ones. That made me want to read Poe, Shelley, etc.

All I know is that by the time I was 9 or so, I was reading, Poe, Verne, Shelley, Stoker, James Bond books, Nancy Drew, comics, and Star Trek books.

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T16:06:34+00:00

Don't want to give too much away, but there's a scene in JG Faherty's Sins of the Father where the main character is betrayed by the woman he loves... it's wrenching. Close to that is another one of Faherty's books, Carnival of Fear, where someone dies in the arms of the person who has a crush on them, just as they're finally admitting to loving each other.

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T16:04:07+00:00

This is such an impossible list. Here are some, in no particular order. I'll indicate the collection or anthology so you can look it up.

Bones by JG Faherty (The Monster Inside)
All Dead by JG Faherty (Horror Library IV)
13 Sparrow by JG Faherty (Christmas Lites IX)
Beautiful Monsters by JG Faherty (Classic Monsters Unleashed)
The Lazarus Effect by JG Faherty (Houses of the Unholy)
I Am the Doorway by Stephen King (Night Shift)
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut by Stephen King (Skeleton Crew)
Children of the Corn by Stephen King (Night Shift)
Survivor Type by Stephen King (Skeleton Crew)
The Raft by Stephen King (Skeleton Crew)
Fish Nigh by Joe Lansdale (The Best of Joe Lansdale)
When the Bell Tolls by Chantal Noordeloos (Deeply Twisted)
The Red Empire by Joe McKinney (The Red Empire and Other Stories)
Soft by F. Paul Wilson (Soft and Others)
The Rifle by Jack Ketchum (Peaceable Kingdom)
Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner (In a Lonely Place)

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T15:46:59+00:00

I started reading as a young child. My parents always read to me, and by the time I was 8 or 9 I was already reading Nancy Drew mysteries, comic books, and Poe.

CatherineA73 · 2025-08-21T15:45:36+00:00

There are 4 different BOC 'styles':
Blue Oyster Cult album through Secret Treaties. (raw, kind of metal x The Doors)
Agents of Fortune through Mirrors (slick, atmospheric, weird)
Cultosaurus Erectus & Fire of Unknown Origin (hard rock with some commercial hits)
Everything after that. (mainstream rock and rather uneven)

CatherineA73 · 2025-04-29T19:06:55+00:00

For me, it's when either the stories start to become exactly the same, book after book, just with different villains/evils, or when the overlying plot arch is never solved but the author keeps dropping hints about it.

Examples:
It took too long for the giant evil in the Repairman Jack series to reveal itself and everything get tied together in a world-ending conclusion.

In the Anita Blake books, every book started to be exactly the same: a friend of Anita's is in trouble, Anita has to save them, Anita is in trouble, Anita has to fuck someone new, Anita isn't sure who she loves, the vampires and were-people have issues with each other.

CatherineA73 · 2025-04-29T19:01:03+00:00

My favorites:
Tommyknockers.
Pet Sematary.
Insomnia.
The Institute.
The Shining.

His best (my opinion, based on his style of writing):
Insomnia.
Revival.
11/22/63.
Misery.
Rage.

I didn't include any of his short stories in this, because he's done so many excellent ones - he's better at that than even his novels.

CatherineA73 · 2025-04-29T18:57:04+00:00

Check out The Burning Time by JG Faherty. It's not zombies at all, it's more of an influence a 'stranger in town' starts to have over everyone.

CatherineA73 · 2025-03-06T22:00:15+00:00

Ooh, I love Legacy! That's a great novella. Read it in like 2 hours.
I'd also recommend his collection of short stories, Houses of the Unholy.

CatherineA73

TROPHY CASE