1989 The Year in Horror
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2024
- Part 10 of my 10-part retrospective of horror from the 1980s where I go year to year, pick out 3 or 4 titles, read them with fresh eyes and report back to you with my honest opinions. #booktube #books #reading #horrortube #1980s
Music used in this video
Alfred Schnittke, Cello Sonata 1, movement II, Presto
I have, books of psychological horror and dark literary fiction.
Support this channel. But a book, enjoy it, and leave a review.
Edifice Complex - Karim immigrates to Paris and has his tenuous grip on reality further jeopardised when he develops an erotic, obsessive relationship with a residential building set for demolition.
Amazon US - www.amazon.com...
Amazon UK - www.amazon.co....
The Orthography of Madness and Misgivings - a short-story collection representing 3 years of my career and 5 countries I was living in while creating dark surreal fiction
Amazon US - www.amazon.com...
Amazon UK - www.amazon.co....
Follow me on Goodreads:
www.goodreads....
Great to see you back. Nice job finishing up the 80's retrospective, you managed to find some good ones amidst the apparently slim offerings. I have grabbed my copy of Edifice Complex, I promise to leave a review soon. Hi, Zvyezda, hope you're happy in your new home. :)
Thank you, Roo! Poor Zvyezda. She has been moving a lot lately. And our new home is only temporary, too:(
@@Michael_Wertenberg Aww, bless her.
Fun video. I like your vivid plot descriptions.
Thank you😁
Hello, Michael & Zvyezda. Great seeing you both again. I hope all's well. Totally agree with you, Geek Love is many things, but it ain't horror.
Hi Brent! Thanks for the kind words😊
Awesome video Michael! Your kitty is in heaven! If you enjoy folklore horror, you will really enjoy Maggie's Grave from David Sodergren.. Carrion Comfort is not an airport book 🤣🤣You have been going to the wrong airport! 🤣Seriously though, The Terror is completely different, historical, horror at its best. Is Clive Barker Hollywood, Sex and Armageddon... absobloodylutely! 😀I think you should continue your journey into the 1990s, would be fun. I think it would also be fun to have a ranking, discussing Clive Barker chat with you.
I've been going to the wrong airport😂ain't that the truth!😅🤣
You're right. Silence of the Lambs had a deleterious effect on the horror genre, especially once the film came out. Every other book was a knockoff with yet another Lecter. The 90s was a sallow decade for horror, although I still certainly read a lot of it. I discovered Richard
Layman around '93. Although I liked a lot of his works, I didn't think he was the second coming of King or Barker and digging into his early catalogue I saw very little growth. So, although I found his books to be a lot of fun, I never thought Laymon was going to reinvigorate the genre. The 90s had the same handful of bestselling horror authors we saw in the 80s. King, Koontz, Straub, Rice, Saul, etc. Although there's been a resurgence of horror, it doesn't have the same level of raw energy and creativity behind it witnessed in the 70s and 80s.
The '70s was the best for horror, IMO. Though today we get a lot more and from more diverse sources. But stil, nothing beats the charm of '70s horror!
It's good to see you. The Terror is on my winter TBR. It will be my first Dan Simmons book. I would like to see you continue this series.
Thanks. I've toyed with the idea of continuing, but there isn't a single horror book from 1990 that I would wabt to read. Any ideas or recommendations?
@@Michael_Wertenberg Well, I'm a bit biased, but I recommend Stephen King's Gerald's Game and Dolores Claiborne, which were both published in 1992. A couple of 90s horror novels that I haven't read but am interested in are Summer of Night by Dan Simmons (1991) and Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite (1992).
@@literarylove123 Lost Souls is definitely on my TBR. I'm taking an extended (permanent?) break from Stephen King. Tomorrow's video will explain...
Good to see you and precious, little Miss Z. She's so adorable. I hope your new home is being kind to both of you.
Unfortunately, our current home is only temporary. (I did a bad job chosing an apartment when we arrived in Latvia.) We'll be moving apartments again in a few months (poor cat).
@@Michael_Wertenberg I'm so sorry the apartment isn't working for you. She's with you so she's happy. ❤️
@@lesliepowell-mccarty7067 😊
Zvyezda! (Did I spell her name correctly?) Still traumatized with the move to Vidzeme?
The only person on Booktube that can make 1080p look like 360.
I always hope that you and the little one are safe.
Perfect spelling! I'm not sure what the resolution issue is. I am definiely deficient in everything tech related. Minor miracle I'm able to upload anything to YT.
yah same feeling with Carrion Comfort, I remember reading a much lauded review on Locus magazine on it, thought it was like Interview with a vampire but nope , quite different.
Heyyy! Good to see you back, I missed you and Z! Hope you're settled and all is well. Dan Simmons and I don't have a great relationship 🤣🤦♀️ I didn't care for Carrion Comfort. I DNF the Terror, it wasn't terrible but just oh so Flippin ass long! Lol. I finally started Grey Dog. Love it bunches! Yes, do 90s books! If you want. I don't care.🤓xx❤️
Hi Angel😀Good to be back; Grey Dog, my least favourite Led Zepplin B side
@@Michael_Wertenberg 😂🤦♀️you make me dazed and confused.
@@angelwalker979
Coming to Grief is a wonderful story by Clive Barker, found in the anthology Prime Evil, which I highly recommend.
I thought I had read everything by Clive Barker, but apparently not. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll be checking that one out for sure.
When I think about what I read in horror in 1989, the books that come to mind are McCammon's The Wolf's Hour, which is wonderful; The Dark Half by King which is good; Walkers by Graham Masterton; Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons is great, but certainly not perfect; Midnight by Koontz is one of his best, albeit weirdest books. I enjoyed it. Barker's Great and Secret Show was certainly a highlight of 1989, but not horror. It still has moments of horror, but it's mostly a very engaging fantasy adventure. I loved it and its sequel Everville. Walkers by Graham Masterton was very good.
I need to read more from Masterton. Walkers is on my radar. Thanks.
Any Guy N. Smith but 'dead end ' for me was a treat.
Good to know. Thanks
Hi Michael! Nice to see you as always! Geek Love is an amazing book but no, no, not horror. And I loved Hyperion but it struck me as hard-core sci fi so not sure it would be something you would like, though it is beautifully written.
I might have a go at hard-core sci-fi. 2024 is meant to be the year I tretch my horizons...
I bought Geek Love a couple of weeks ago for $1 thinking it was horror but will read it anyways since you say it is a good book nonetheless. The Terror is amazing and Hyperion is my fav sci fi novel. Good video.
I really liked Geek Love. Let me know what you think when you get around to it.
Not sure if I envy you or Z the most. I really miss having a cat. Haven't read any of the books. I thought Geek Love was a romance.🤭 But do wish to read something by Dan Simmons and I got The Terror somewhere. Should I read it this summer? And please continue with the retro series' I found your channel because of it.❤💞
You make a very strong case for continuing the series. I'll give it some thought...
1989 was an amazing year for shoet horror. John Skipp and Craig Spector’s Book of the Dead produced 3 of the Stoker nominees, including Joe Lansdale’s “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks”. Razored Saddles included Chet Williamson’s amazing and neglected “Yore Skin’s Jes’ So Soft n’ Purdy, He Said”, which I’m pretty sure you’d like if you could find it.
Over to novels. Nancy Collins’ Sunglasses After Dark is a really enjoyable action vampire novel, first of a series that remains solid throughout.
Holy cow but there was a lot of franchise crap on film. But there there were also Pet Semetary and Tetsuo: The Iron Man and The Woman In Black, and the sludge can take itself out.
Thanks for the recommendations! And, yeah, lots of franchise sequels that year. Your Skin's Jes'....What a creepy title!! I'll have to look for it.
@@Michael_Wertenberg It’s a brutal story that may also be about true love.
Your kitty is so sweet!
😊
yah loved Great and Secret show, read it back in 89. Barker's John Constantine Harry D Amour makes an appearance
The start of the unfinished trilogy, but I'm perfectly happy with the way it concludes in Everville.
yah my fave 1989 horror movies:
Society
The Woman in Black
For TV:
Tales from the Crypt series season 1
Monsters season 2
Yes! Love me some Tales from the Crypt
Currently made it to chapter 6 in Edifice Complex. A very interesting read so far. I was/am slightly confused on 1 relationship or ig moreso how he spoke to the person.. that being his fixed date, it seemed normal at first but immediately switched to a very weird and hostile relationship with the sexslave stuff and she casually brushes it off abit 😅.. not sure if thats supposed to be an unreliable narrator part of the story or if im just confused on it. But it seemed to switch immediately. As well as i was assuming that was their first time being with eachother due to how it was a fixed date by his brother, but ig they had have multiple dates at that point.
Not sure, like i said maybe its on me not reading it correctly as im dyslexic, or its supposed to be like that 🤔.
And the other issue i had was reading the synopsis on the back, felt like you spoiled just abit too much on the outcome but maybe at the end of the story itll make sense.
Other than that its been very interesting so far. Definitely has some American Psycho vibes, with an extreme erotic fantasy iver his brothers place.
I love it! Thanks for the feedback. His brother had fixed him up well before that scene with them; not specified how long they'd been going out, but I get how that might not have been obvious. Great point on the synopsis, too! Thanks😃
Its interesting that books can be read 35 years later, and stand on their merits as literature. I often say there are enough books in existance to last us all and we don't need more, but most people seem to want to only read the latest book out today, often following a herd. The question is, will these books still be readable in 2060? In the 1980s people wrote to create entertainment, today its mostly a form of virtue signallingand appeasing the powers that place authors in the spotlight, with the story often being irrelevent. It would be interesting to know what the survival rate of books actually is.
Yes, there is a lot of virtue signalling in books these days! But we need to keep buying new books!! I have a cat to feed 😃
80s best decade for horror?
At least in the film medium.
@@BlueEyedMatt42 Yes, for film you could make a strong case the 80s were the best for horror. For books, I don't think the decade comes close to the '70s.