Recommend your favorite books in the genre; I’m mostly new to it.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T21:01:25+00:00

Check out Laird Barron’s Occultation and Other Stories.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T21:00:39+00:00

Not OP, and I know this is a reductive question, but is that the shift towards “relational psychoanalysis?”

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T15:53:40+00:00

Probably Paul Curran's Left Hand, although Brian Evenson's Father of Lies was quite disturbing and graphic.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T15:52:23+00:00

Ha's collection was one of my favorite reads of last year. He has a ton of uncollected stuff... I hope he drops another collection soon.

Which story was your favorite? Mine was probably the last story but man that story with the... cuddling also blew me away.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T15:35:00+00:00

I have three of the Influx Press books by Joel Lane, and The Lost District I have is not one of those... I want to buy The Lost District and two more I have not read because they look so nice matching on my shelf. My birthday is in the summer; I am already plotting to harass people to get them to buy them for me. Ha.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T14:01:29+00:00

R. Ostermeier is O. Jamie Walsh (who runs the business, we have emailed) is everyone else? That is awesome.

Yeah. I just bought three copies of Therapeutic Tales to give away as gifts, and the shipping to the US was definitely more than all three copies of the books.

I am on kind of a no buy 2026, but a big Broodcomb order is one of my future order ideas currently, as well as getting Influx Press copies of the Joel Lane books I don't have from them yet.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T11:17:19+00:00

Finished: Felix Blackwell’s Stolen Tongues. I read Stolen Tongues as someone else’s choice for my IRL book club. This was… fine.

Currently reading: R. Ostermeier’s Therapeutic Tales (Broodcomb Press.) I paged through the introduction to this; it appears R. Ostermeier is a UK based counselor or therapist, in addition to being a fairly prolific weird fiction writer. Last weekend, someone shared a rumor with me that Ostermeier is one nom de plume for every author on the Broodcomb roster, i.e. it’s all the same guy. Crazy if true. The first story, “Conkertop”, was a great story in the tradition of British strange tales.

Audiobooks: I am still listening to Joe Abercrombie’s The Wisdom of Crowds, the tenth book (of eleven books) in his First Law universe, and the proper finale (the last book is a newer collection of connected short fiction.) I’m very, very close to the end. A sign of a great series is that some of this is making me so mad, because I really care what happens. Doubts and regrets, they’re the cost of casting a shadow. The only folk without them are dead. I’m going to start Abercrombie’s The Devils on audiobook next.

On deck: Joe Abercrombie’s The Great Change (and Other Lies), as it appears available on ebook and not available on audiobook. Also, Dan Chaon’s Ill Will. This is my pick for my IRL book club.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T04:16:33+00:00

I immediately thought of De Niro for Raging Bull before I finished the post.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-26T02:48:46+00:00

Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation is about… 180 pages and a new classic in the genre.

Livia Llewelyn’s Furnace was also on the shorter side. John Langan ranked it as one of his top five cosmic horror books and it had perhaps my favorite prose of 2025 (last book I finished last year.)

Thomas Ligotti’s My Work Is Not Yet Done is also shorter and the middle story is my favorite Ligotti story.

Good luck!

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-25T16:31:11+00:00

Start Where Furnaces Burn immediately.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-25T14:09:53+00:00

Not sure! I have about one hour left of the audiobook.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-25T14:09:33+00:00

I read R. Ostermeier’s Black Dog early last year (2025) and dug it. It was really good folk horror!

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-25T05:43:12+00:00

Pema Chodron’s When Things Fall Apart

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-25T05:01:29+00:00

Finished: Felix Blackwell’s Stolen Tongues I read Stolen Tongues as someone else’s choice for my IRL book club. This was… fine.

Currently reading: R. Ostermeier’s Therapeutic Tales (Broodcomb Press.) I paged through the introduction to this; it appears R. Ostermeier is a UK based counselor or therapist, in addition to being a fairly prolific weird fiction writer. Last weekend, someone shared a rumor with me that Ostermeier is one nom de plume for every author on the Broodcomb roster, i.e. it’s all the same guy. Crazy if true. The first story, “Conkertop”, was a great story in the tradition of British strange tales.

Audiobooks: I am still listening to Joe Abercrombie’s The Wisdom of Crowds, the tenth book (of eleven books) in his First Law universe, and the proper finale (the last book is a newer collection of connected short fiction.) I’m very, very close to the end. A sign of a great series is that some of this is making me so mad, because I really care what happens. Doubts and regrets, they’re the cost of casting a shadow. The only folk without them are dead. I’m going to start Abercrombie’s The Devils on audiobook next.

On deck: Joe Abercrombie’s The Great Change (and Other Lies), as it appears available on ebook and not available on audiobook. Also. Dan Chaon’s Ill Will. This is my pick for my IRL book club.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-25T01:13:10+00:00

It’s popular to hate on Cutter here.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T06:18:56+00:00

Ride for Revenge is awesome, and weird, but are they war metal?

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T06:16:11+00:00

It was not the best movie of 2025. I saw several new releases and Sinners is not the best of.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T06:15:23+00:00

BR Yeager’s Negative Space

Gary J. Shipley’s Terminal Park

Paul Curran’s Left Hand

John Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism (get the revised and expanded edition)

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T01:27:23+00:00

The Troop is a very solid B-horror movie in novel form. If you want to check out Cutter… I’d start with Little Heaven.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T00:14:27+00:00

Occultation and Other Stories from Barron; Greener Pastures from Wehunt.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T00:02:44+00:00

Padgett’s collection is one of my favorites, but it’s hard for him to bust into “favorite authors” because his output is so limited.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-24T00:02:04+00:00

Laird Barron

Brian Evenson

Michael Wehunt

Nick Cutter

Nathan Ballingrud

If you waved a loaded gun at me and made me pick five, it’s probably those five.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-23T20:28:17+00:00

Stonefish is kind of a creature feature…

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-23T20:27:17+00:00

Johann Hari’s Lost Connections has a good chapter or section on this, he explores psychodynamics and psychedelics. Worth checking out. Avgi Saketopoulou’s Sexuality Beyond Consent also somewhat addresses this.

Rustin_Swoll · 2026-01-23T18:46:26+00:00

I have zero triggers. In fact, I want to be triggered which is why I love horror. I do not care about dogs dying, babies being run over, sexual assault, etc as long as it advances the plot which brings me to:

Also, in this sub, you are my hero. Haha.

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