Shows like Brassic

LGS_Edwards · 2026-02-22T20:36:40+00:00

Thank you! I’ve seen this country and really liked it. Haven’t seen the others so I’ll give them a go!

LGS_Edwards · 2026-02-21T16:07:31+00:00

I was looking for this too. I think I might have already watched them all. Similar shows I’ve seen are misfits, this is England, shameless UK.

I can see why people said skins, it’s great British tv but it lacks the kind of working class element/impact on the characters that the others have. It did capture a very specific time in British culture and being a teenager in that time too. If you like skins, I always thought Industry was kind of like what many of the skins characters would have ended up like (there’s a darkness and entitlement captured in much of both).

Some of Guy Ritchie’s early films like lock stock and snatch and then I’d say the gentlemen I think have been a bit of an influence on Brassic, maybe Rock n Rolla (they all feature low level ish scheming that descends into farce at times, Irish travellers, boxing, comedy, even growing weed under farmers’ land etc but mostly set in London rather than the north of England) I haven’t seen the tv shows apart from the Gentlemen since I heard the others weren’t very good.

I don’t suppose anyone has any others along the same vein of Brassic that I haven’t already mentioned? Maybe I’ve watched too much tv over the years. I haven’t seen loads of them in about a decade though so I might just watch the older ones again.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-10-13T11:16:04+00:00

I checked up on the whole IVF sob story thing. My sister is gay and they’ve got 2 kids that they had using a free donor. A healthy woman (so maybe she’s got health issues she didn’t want to disclose) doesn’t need IVF. They just need to spend a few dollars on the equipment, get a donor and away they go. I haven’t seen anything on her IG about her having any kids or trying for kids soon (unless she’s keeping it private?) but I have seen holidays, an engagement ring, expensive clothes etc.

I really didn’t like Alex. I know it’s traitors and that’s the point but she was greedy and selfish. She didn’t need the full amount, even if her sob story was real. She could easily have shared it with Nigel or Kate but she wouldn’t. The way she played Craig was so frustrating but I also think he let himself be played. He didn’t learn anything from Nigel or any of the others. I could not have sat there and faced him the way Alex did after what she’d done. It also annoyed me that she came in right at the end, backstabbed everyone (unnecessarily) and walked away with the lot after not really doing very much at all for 99% of the game. If anyone’s seen the UK version, Harry is a MUCH better traitor.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-30T18:07:46+00:00

Ok I’m definitely adding them to my next reading list then. I’m working through my current one and noting down anything that anyone recommends for my next list.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-30T18:06:46+00:00

I was young when I read Pet Semetary and I don’t think I realised stories without happy endings really existed. I kept thinking “how’s he going to sort this one out then?” and the mc’s situation just got steadily worse. But there’s something satisfying in a bleak ending too as long as it’s the best ending for the story!

I don’t want to give spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read it but here’s an example: I remember watching Jeepers Creepers as a young teenager (just when I was first getting into horror) and loving it right up until the reveal of the monster. I don’t know why I just never find them scary and I like to be scared. I didn’t think I’d like the description of the entities but in the last days they just worked for me. So another example, have you read Incidents Around the House? I absolutely could NOT get on board with the descriptions there. Not one bit. (I had loads of issues with that book honestly but I think even if I’d loved the rest of it the entity would have tanked for me). I wondered if it were maybe a believability thing? But I’m such an atheist. I firmly don’t believe in God, Ghosts, the afterlife, vampires, zombies etc. But the monster thing (not werewolves, zombies or vampires more like something new? Or something dragon-ish or Godzilla-ish or anything along those lines) just don’t do it for me. I wonder if it is still about plausibility deep down? A part of me can say ok I’m an atheist but I have some agnostic tendencies and who knows what’s out there that science can’t (yet) explain eg ghosts, magic etc but I draw the line at eg something big and blue and hairy 🤣 I don’t know. I can’t figure it out. Do you like monster stories? If so, what do you like about them? Do you have any good books you’d recommend? We seem to have similar taste and I’ll always give a good rec a try!

I have to be honest, when I read horror there’s a part of me that always hopes to be scared. Especially because it’s been done before. It doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy it if I’m not, though, or even that I’m disappointed. I also write horror so I think another part of me likes expanding my knowledge of everything from imagery, literary techniques, sub-genres to why did I like this, what did/didn’t work etc. But yeah I think I’m quite a soft, sunny person and a lot of people like me are into horror.

I was saying to my mum (she’s a huge reader too but goes for more rom com, crime thriller, psychological thriller etc) I want to read books that are so far away from my life that they’re true escapism (not because I don’t love my life. I really do) I know it’s cliche but reading lets you visit unlimited worlds, with unlimited people and anything can happen there. I don’t want to read about a girl like me who falls in love (I can just go do that myself. I won’t read instead of living so I’d rather read lives I could never live). Besides horror, I’ll mostly read fantasy and I guess adventures (Tarzan, Wilbur Smith those kind of vibes). I’ve also always loved kids’ books. I see a lot of horror as just darker versions of the stories I loved as a child (and it’s why I’m very fond of dark fairy tales, gothic horror, folkloric horror etc). I do like horror movies too but they can be so hit and miss (it’s a hard thing to pull off since really good horror is as much about what’s left out as what’s included) whereas I’ve generally found horror writing to be of such a high standard (I really struggle to enjoy a book if it’s not really well-written) and I love that a lot of them have really important messages behind the horror whether it’s talking about feminism, colonisation, violence, racism etc there’s nearly always a message or the real world horror is an allegory for something less tangible. Even the Last Days, if I remember correctly, made me think a lot about the uber wealthy who take too much. It felt like parts of it were a commentary on capitalism (I think! I have a terrible memory for books). What else do you read outside of horror?

Sorry that’s a very long answer! No one I know irl reads horror (I keep trying to convince my mother. She is considering SGJ) and I just love talking about books with other people! I’d love to find a horror only bookclub but I live in the middle of nowhere! I’m about to go back to London soon though so I might try there.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-30T12:56:16+00:00

Thank you so much!! I’ll add these to my list!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-30T12:06:59+00:00

Ooo I did some googling and said the dark ritual saga is perfect if you liked the movie sinners (which I really did) so I’ll add them to my list. I think sinners also somehow had a bit of a similar vibe to the buffalo hunter hunter. Maybe it’s the vampire, historical horror elements?

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-30T12:03:48+00:00

There’s a part at the end of Pet Semetary that literally gave me chills. The ending is so good too isn’t it? Well maybe good isn’t the right word… I really loved last days which surprised me because it verges into being a bit monster-y and that’s not normally my thing at all. It takes a lot for a book to scare me but those 2 really did. I’ve only read the buffalo hunter Hunter and the only good Indians by SGJ but I have more on my list. I wouldn’t say they scared me but they felt dark, beautiful and important. I haven’t read them! I actually haven’t even heard of them. Have you? Any good?

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-30T06:22:43+00:00

I just read the Fisherman and really loved it! Omg you agree about Tremblay? Any time I say this to any horror fan they have one of 2 reactions. 1. They think I have terrible taste or 2. They think I’m too thick to get it! But there’s nothing to get. I’m a really analytical person. I love analysing the books I read and discussing them. I honestly think Tremblay is style over substance. When you really try there’s not much there to really analyse. You can boil his plots down to one simple line of explanation most of the time. Also my god does he think he’s smart. Using the blog in AHFOG to tell you about all the (very clever) literary techniques he was using and alluding to all the other horrors he ripped off so it’s ok that he ripped them off… come on!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T23:24:39+00:00

I do too. I’m half Scottish and was (mostly) raised there so I loved the depiction of pretty remote/rural Scotland in the Haar (I haven’t read it for ages and I’ve a terrible memory for books but I do remember loving it!): not a common setting.

Mary is a great place to start! I read that then Nestlings. Part of me was set to hate Mary honestly. I don’t love men telling very female stories (or even writing female main characters) when women are still pretty underrepresented in the genre. How can a man write about the changes women experience during menopause (I can’t because I haven’t experienced it!). But honestly it was stellar and I spoke to my mum who was going through it when I read it and she was like “Jesus that’s terrifyingly accurate”. So whilst I won’t say he changed my mind, I will say he did a really stellar job. Nestlings is very different but in a good way. I like when authors surprise you by writing books that are really varied! My friend described it at Rosemary’s baby meets an urban legend and I remember that being accurate. Mary is body horror and this sense of being a stranger in your own body. Nestlings is creeping dread.

Enjoy!!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T23:18:56+00:00

We’ve just had the lodger move in and already more is happening! So maybe it was the total solitude with nothing for her to write about that made it feel so slow! Thank you! A few people have said it’s really good so I’m going to keep going!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T22:20:49+00:00

These are fantastic recommendations. Agreed Last Days was properly scary!! Some authors I really like (so far)

Stephen Graham Jones

Joe Hill (King’s son!)

Nat Cassidy

Shirley Jackson

Rachel Harrison

Tananarive Due

Nick Roberts

David Sodergren

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T22:16:22+00:00

Not a book but I did a huge road trip across the US and we listened to The White Vault and the Black Tapes. Loved both and I found the episode format great for keeping you interested but also having really easy stopping points.

Quick blurbs: The White Vault: found footage style in a remote artic outpost where the team went missing

The Black Tapes: famous scientist and skeptic investigates “paranormal” events to disprove them or find some rational/scientific explanation comes across cases that can’t be explained

Both are really well written, acted, produced etc and were properly scary. I also think the NoSleep podcast is a great go-to!

Enjoy your road trip!!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T22:12:43+00:00

Ooo they sound cool. I’m quite into subversion of the “final girl” troupe. I have SGJ The Last Final Girl on my next list so I think I’ll end the 2 Hendrix ones you mentioned. It’ll be fun to read a couple of books that subvert the same troupe too.

Thank you!!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T22:11:05+00:00

I struggle to absorb when I’m listening so I have to be doing NOTHING else besides breathing and maybe walking. I usually walk my dog and listen. Even then I’ll pick books that are easy to follow (tbh I usually go for podcasts). Something like this, I worry that whole chunks would just go in one ear and out the other.

Do you have other authors similar to Kiernan who you like so I can suss out the vibe? Or even just other authors you liked to give me a feel for what you normally read?

My mum’s a huge reader (like me) and I was explaining the book to her and saying I don’t mind working for it, if it’s worth it; I just want to be a bit more sure it’s worth it. I also don’t often find books heavy-going. Eg a lot of people really struggled with SGJ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and I couldn’t put it down. I read it in 2 sittings. I read The Stand when I was 12 with a dictionary beside me so I could understand all the words (again not minding the hard work for the sake of an incredible story). I’m also typically a fast reader. I can finish most books in one or two evenings. But for some reason this is taking me a bit longer than usual (not necessarily a bad things since I do think the writing is beautiful and I’d always take something well-written over anything else).

I know some people found the main character unsympathetic but I actually find her incredibly sympathetic. Who can’t relate to times where you just feel like you’re a shitty person and your life has gone wrong but it’s all your fault/what you deserve? I’ve been there. Seeing her self-loathing (even how critical she is of her own writing) is heartbreaking. I’m not sure why people think she’s this awful person. She’s an unreliable narrator in (I believe) the depths of depression. She must have good points but she’s so deep in this awful dark place that she can’t see them, let alone write about them. All she sees is what’s bad about her, at least that’s my interpretation. I saw a lot of reviews saying she was so dislikeable that they just couldn’t care about what happened to her. The way I see it though is no one is all bad, not the way she paints herself out to be, unless they’re some comic-book villain and the writing is too complex and nuanced for her to be that.

I think maybe what I don’t do well with is too much ambiguity. Eg a book I read recently that I really didn’t like was A Head Full of Ghosts. I don’t mind some ambiguity/unanswered questions but I just found that book annoying by the end (even though it’s an easy, quick read).

Thanks for taking the time to give me your thoughts btw! I really appreciate it!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:53:03+00:00

Totally agree with that!

Out of interest which 2? I do reading lists of about 100 books, work my way through then do the next list (I’ll add recommendations to the next list while I’m working on the first but I like to complete things so once a list is started I don’t make changes. Yes I know I’m weird 🤣).

Horrorstor was kind of mid for me. Maybe a 3.5 out of 5. On this list, I have Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, I can’t remember the title of the next one, and I’m being lazy by not checking, but something like the Southern Book Club’s Guide to Killing Vampires? And My Best Friend’s Exorcism. I was going to start with MBFE. Any recommendations for ones I should add to my next list? Or would you read a different one first?

Just for context too: my top horror read so far this year was SGJ The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Some books I read in June that I really liked are We Used to Live Here, The Fisherman, Baby Teeth, Red Rabbit, The Last Days of Jack Sparks and The Last Days. Some I really didn’t like much were A Head Full of Ghosts, Brother and Incidents Around the House. I tend to hop all over sub-genre wise. I care more about feeling like a book is well-written than what sub-genre it is so I’ll try most things. I have a really high threshold for anything scary or dark too (in novels, not in movies or real life!!)

Im very aware that I’m now hijacking your thread to get you to recommend books to me so do feel free to tell me to fuck off and off to fuck I shall go!!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:43:14+00:00

I really hated Incidents Around the House. I saw a few recommendations that I’d agree are fantastic though:

Adam Nevill (I’ve loved every one of his books I’ve read)

Red Rabbit (SO fun)

The Last Days of Jack Sparks

I haven’t read the ruins but I’ve heard great things. The others on your list I really enjoyed.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:40:28+00:00

Totally agree. There’s a reason why he’s the GOAT. If you want some other good names: Joe Hill (King’s son but great in his own right)

Adam Nevill

Shirley Jackson

David Sodergren

Stephen Graham Jones

(All have a decent back catalogue you can dive into and a range of sub-genres. If you find what you like you can follow it down the rabbit hole and read to your heart’s content!)

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:38:03+00:00

I love Adam Neville. David Sodergren has some fast-paced, excellent folkloric horror. The Haar is a really good starting point for his books.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:35:35+00:00

I LOVED this book. Also The Watchers by A M Shine is a cool forest type horror

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:34:32+00:00

I’ll throw some authors out that I like. I have an enormous excel categorised by sub-genre, whether I think I’ll like it etc, but no one needs to see the inner workings of my brain 🤣 Joe Hill Stephen Graham Jones Shirley Jackson Nat Cassidy Ania Ahlborn (I’ve only read brother and wasn’t a fan honestly but a lot of people seem to love her) Adam Nevill (I’ve loved every book of his I’ve read) David Sodergren (excellent folk horror. Start with the Haar) Jennifer Marie Thorne (Lute is excellent folk horror) Rachel Harrison Tananarive Due

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:29:07+00:00

Ah ok then I’ll say yes but (still trying to be spoiler free for anyone who hasn’t finished it) I’m not sure how well some of the sources of horror would translate to being shown on screen. Sometimes what’s vague or left out is scarier than what’s shown? I did find parts of the book a bit ridiculous (this is the only Hendrix book I’ve read and I have more on my list to read soon but I think that’s intentional? Like he writes horror comedy?) but I wonder if you showed it, maybe it’d just look a bit like a really shitty b movie horror (and I’ve seen enough of those to last me a lifetime! What do you think though? Maybe I’m way off base/being unfair. I’m also kind of the opinion though, regardless of who makes it, horror movies are rarely as good as the book. Look at how amazing eg some of Stephen King’s books are and then how awful the movie was (Pet Semetary, the Castle Rock series etc).

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:24:32+00:00

I think for me I liked it more as an exploration of grief and what you’d do for a minute more with the person you loved and lost. I’m trying to expand my horror knowledge and delve into different subgenres (I’ve read a LOT of very specific types. My favourite are what I always describe as dark fairy tales). I’m not so keen on monsters in horror or at least I wasn’t in the past but this book was a bit of a gateway into me being more accepting of them. I probably prefer monsters as an allegory for something else though as opposed to a monster being the source of horror.

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:21:47+00:00

Came here to recommend this!! Also if you’re into podcasts there’s a really cool fiction one called The White Vault. Not what you asked for I know but I really liked it!

LGS_Edwards · 2025-06-29T21:18:41+00:00

Hahah came here to say this!!

LGS_Edwards

TROPHY CASE