I’m back on a Stephen King binge, which happens to me about once a year. Rereading The Stand after I found a first edition of the original printing and am reading Cycle of the Werewolf.
Just planting this seed for some possible (zero pressure intended) future content: Maggot Mommy’s Book Maggot horror book club. There’s a whole-ass world of horror literature out there, and I bet this would be a fun community to read it with. Think the “watch-alongs” but a weekly book discussions stream 😎
I would LOVE that I just don’t know if I could be very consistent with it since I tend to take drastically different lengths of time to read different books hahah
@HauntedHippie quarterly reads could work though! And could bump it up to more months a year if you found you started reading more each month or something 😊
If you're expecting more out of Junji Ito, I'd recommend going for his novels _Uzumaki_ and/or Tomie. Both of them are full-fledged novels, not short story compilations like _Fragments of Horror,_ and both of them are spectacular. _Uzumaki_ was my introduction to Ito's work, and it's probably one of my favorite books; and as expected the art is spectacular.
I'm glad you're reading The Hellbound Heart Kylie! One of my faves! Another Clive Barker book I think you'd love is Coldheart Canyon. Clive wrote it after dealing with Hollywood BS for over a decade, so it's basically a hate letter to Hollywood haha It's about plastic surgery, fan clubs and Hollywood ghosts. The ghosts are both literal and figurative. It's not a typical ghost story by any stretch of the imagination! The main character is basically haunted by his own success and how impossible it is to live up to movie star image he created. Then things get really weird! It's a big book, but it flies by fast.
As a Grady Hendrix fan I really really recommend you read the southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires, that is his best book and I think you’d like it.
Night Shift and Skeleton Crew are the 2 short story books by King that I cant recommend enough, I read them when I was a lot younger and reread them years later and they are still great. obviously they dont all hit but when they do they are brilliant. a big chunk of them have made their way onto the screen also ( children of the corn and the raft spring to mind )
Currently working through Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach / Area X books (which were loosely adapted to the film Annihilation). Would recommend if you haven't read those before and enjoy some strange, creepy, and almost Lovecraftian horror.
I felt the same way with Dracula - though my copy was a mammoth compared to yours! It was so hard to finish and I ended up skimming through a lot of the random chapters of just travel and update on the thing we just read from one character to the next like WE GET IT! As a palate cleanser I read Lucy Undying which was a fun modern take on Lucy Westenra’s story and essentially her escape and life after the events of Dracula. Highly recommend.
Sorry forgot the author Lucy Undying by Kiersten White Also my favorite Grady Hendrix has always been Southern Bookclubs Guide to Slaying Vampires - I felt the same way with horrorstör but noticed the biggest shift in that story
You read some great stuff this year! I definitely need to get into Riley Sager and Nick Cutter, I've heard great things about both of them. My favorite novella of the year was Rest Stop by Nat Cassidy, about a guy who gets trapped in a gas station bathroom in the middle of the night. It was a page turner and unlocked a new fear of public restrooms for me
My favorite read of 2024 became an all-time favorite of mine: Jawbone by Monic Ojeda. It's incredibly written and surreal and disturbing. I loved it so much. My first read of 2025 was Woman, Eating--a 20-something artist who is a vampire struggling with her identity. Loved it too!
Even though I don't usually watch booktube videos, I loved this. I seriously need to pick up some books give some a read as it has been so long since I have sat down and read a book. Appreciate your ranking and recommendations! Thanks so much for the second video of the year! Also loved the crunchy ice ASMR in the mic. Its these random chaotic moments that happen in your videos that I will never get tired of
Hahahaha they’ll never stop. But I seriously do recommend trying to get into reading. Reading for half an hour before bed as opposed to scrolling has dramatically helped my sleep
@@HauntedHippie Well I'm glad the chaotic random moments are here to stay as they honestly make the videos even better. I'll actually give reading before bed a try as I already have a hard time sleeping due to my anxiety being so bad
Not all of Clive B is for me but I loved Hellbound Heart and Books of Blood. His Thief of Always fairy tale is a wonderful read as well. Eric LaRocca and his short stories is also worth looking into, like The Trees Grew Because I Bled There is a good starter. I almost bought Carmilla today and happy to hear your review of it. Keep up the good work and happy reading!
Kylie, another great video. Stephen King is such a prolific author. It's quite amazing the number of books he's written. (King's latest short story collection, You like it Darker, has been widely praised. Worth reading.) I've just started reading a Nick Cutter book, The Troop. Oh, the film rights have been optioned by James Wan. Oh, Nick Cutter is a pseudonym. Real/given name is Craig Davidson. Under Craig Davidson he's written 7 books.
My Top 5 Horror/Horror Adjacent books from 2024, in no particular order: 1. Beta: A Technological Nightmare - Sammy Scott 2. A Short Stay In Hell - Stephen L. Peck 3. Crossroads - Laurel Hightower 4. In The Tall Trees - Angel Van Atta 5. Slewfoot - Brom
Good review of books you read last year. I agree with you on Stephen King. I feel too that when he has a good story he does not know how to end it. I use to read a lot of books while I was working. I too an express bus and it was fifty minutes to and from. So I got some reading done. One set of books I remember there was two authors. When I read the bio, one was a good story teller and the other ended the book. The story teller said I can tell a good yarn but don’t know when to end it. I hope you get some better stuff this year to read. Yes a lot of books get translated into movies. Sometimes it work sometimes not. It’s ok that you’re not into Lord of the Rings. I read them all long ago before the movies. When I heard that they were making movies I thought, what a job to tackle. But Jackson did a pretty good job in my book. Maybe someday do a review of books turned into movies that were good to the original book. We know all about Kings stuff and other stuff would be interesting. Maybe a few movies better than the book. And some worse than the book.
Happy New Year! I felt the same way about Dracula-the beat parts were with Johnathan in the castle. Just ordered Tear cause that sounds like something I would love (sad and depressing fiction mixed with horror right up my alley😂). Hope you like Clive Barker he is one of my favorites that man’s imagination should be studied. Great list!!
I absolutely loved Final Girls by Riley Sager. It's definitely my fav of his books, which is a super hot take since most people think it's one of his worst.
I honestly don't remember finishing reading Dracula. I found it just as tedious, but I also loved Frankenstein. I also struggled reading Lord of the Rings for the first time due to the amount of seemingly pointless information and overwhelming amount of names and locations. It's like reading the Bible, The Silmarillion even more so. I recommend just pushing on through and not focusing on anything other than the main characters and locations for the first or second read through, which you should be familiar with if you have watched the movies. Some people obviously love they amount of detail present, but for others like myself it can be overwhelming and can somewhat get in the way of the storytelling. They're still some of my favourite books, but they're certainly not without fault. I much more prefer Frank Herbert's world building in Dune.
Great to see you Kylie. A new episode of haunted hippie. Looking forward to seeing your list of books. I enjoy reading books. Reading Rosemary's Baby right now. It's a Christmas gift. The book is good. It is hard to pick between Stephen King's stories. Yes some are better than others. Vampires have been popular for a long time. Your the best Antichrist. Best You Tube channel out there. Happy reading! 👹😃🧛🦇
Man I love Nick Cutter so much. The Deep was the first book of his i read was The Deep. And you are right about the ending. But the rest? ...man ... buzz buzz
I strongly recommend the Lord of the Rings on audiobook, specifically the version performed (not just read) by Andy Serkis. That man is a talented voice actor and impressionist. It helps enormously to hear a story packed so densely with detail.
Oh wow. I’m actually surprised you never read a manga before. Specially Junji Ito. Like that guy is great. Dude they have like 14 books out right now. Try Uzumaki it’s got a longer and more detailed story with an overall theme. Tomie is a well loved story is as well if you’re looking for something longer. Like every story is related it’s not like chapters instead of an anthology
It’s so refreshing to hear another person say that Grady Hendrix isn’t for them. Everyone hypes up his books so much which got me excited to check them out, but I just could not get into his writing no more how hard I tried :/
We love book content! Dracula is so orientalist and annoys me no end for its whole “Mina needs to stay away and let the boys handle things” vibe haha. Anyhoo, loved this video!!
Not to spam the comments, but I am so pleased to know that a fellow horror-head enjoys the first bit of Dracula, the bit in Transylvania, the best. I think I enjoy Dracula more than you overall, Kylie, but it’s one that is definitely a slog once it starts to be more about what’s going on in England. Since Dracula has long been in the public domain, I’ve been plotting out my own riff on it that takes places SOLELY in Castle Dracula. I look at as my way of scratching both an itch for creepy, old-world folklore AND cool haunted house eeriness. I might never actually write it, but it’s something I have fun running through my head when I’m down for the night.
I have not read The Deep, but I have read The Troop by Nick Cutter and I thought it was fantastic. Nasty stuff. I'll make The Deep a priority. Are you familiar with Kathe Koja? She's worth a shot. Skin and The Cipher are particularly good. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite is great, as well. Trigger warning for that one tho.
Not horror but anybody who likes Harry Potter I have a series I started that I LOVE! It's called Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega. She has 3 books as of right now and I've heard a 4th and 5th is coming. The Golden Frog Games and the House of Elephants are the 2nd and 3rd. Apparently there's a 1.5 based around one of the main 3 characters Valley. But I think it was sent in a newsletter and on her website it won't let me join. It never sent the email to confirm even after trying a few times. Instead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione it's about Seven, Thorn, and Valley. It's got very similar vibes and world building the way Harry Potter does. I've noticed many similarities in certain ways. I love that it's based around 3 girls and I love the idea of what their covens are and the placement and story in the books. I just started the 3rd book yesterday and I've been reading it to my daughter a chapter at a time before bed. So many nights I read a couple extra chapters once she's asleep. It's just so good to me 😅I can't wait til the 4th and 5th. You can even do a little quiz to see where you'd be placed similar to Harry Potter. But there are more covens in Witchlings and they differ on what they are about which I love. I do see resemblances of Seven the main character and Harry Potter but not huge. I just love each of their back stories and arcs they have made separately and together as a coven.
I’m back on a Stephen King binge, which happens to me about once a year. Rereading The Stand after I found a first edition of the original printing and am reading Cycle of the Werewolf.
The Stand is a huge one I need to tackle still
Just planting this seed for some possible (zero pressure intended) future content: Maggot Mommy’s Book Maggot horror book club. There’s a whole-ass world of horror literature out there, and I bet this would be a fun community to read it with. Think the “watch-alongs” but a weekly book discussions stream 😎
I would LOVE that I just don’t know if I could be very consistent with it since I tend to take drastically different lengths of time to read different books hahah
@ Same, same! Some books whisk you right through them… and others feel like they’re dragging you through a bog of molasses.
@HauntedHippie quarterly reads could work though! And could bump it up to more months a year if you found you started reading more each month or something 😊
If you're expecting more out of Junji Ito, I'd recommend going for his novels _Uzumaki_ and/or Tomie. Both of them are full-fledged novels, not short story compilations like _Fragments of Horror,_ and both of them are spectacular. _Uzumaki_ was my introduction to Ito's work, and it's probably one of my favorite books; and as expected the art is spectacular.
I'm glad you're reading The Hellbound Heart Kylie! One of my faves! Another Clive Barker book I think you'd love is Coldheart Canyon. Clive wrote it after dealing with Hollywood BS for over a decade, so it's basically a hate letter to Hollywood haha It's about plastic surgery, fan clubs and Hollywood ghosts. The ghosts are both literal and figurative. It's not a typical ghost story by any stretch of the imagination! The main character is basically haunted by his own success and how impossible it is to live up to movie star image he created. Then things get really weird! It's a big book, but it flies by fast.
Omg that sounds amazing. I already finished Hellbound Heart! It flew by
As a Grady Hendrix fan I really really recommend you read the southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires, that is his best book and I think you’d like it.
Night Shift and Skeleton Crew are the 2 short story books by King that I cant recommend enough, I read them when I was a lot younger and reread them years later and they are still great. obviously they dont all hit but when they do they are brilliant. a big chunk of them have made their way onto the screen also ( children of the corn and the raft spring to mind )
You should read Maeve Fly. I think you’ll be into it. I also really like the hellbound heart, just as good as hellraiser.
Currently working through Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach / Area X books (which were loosely adapted to the film Annihilation). Would recommend if you haven't read those before and enjoy some strange, creepy, and almost Lovecraftian horror.
I felt the same way with Dracula - though my copy was a mammoth compared to yours! It was so hard to finish and I ended up skimming through a lot of the random chapters of just travel and update on the thing we just read from one character to the next like WE GET IT!
As a palate cleanser I read Lucy Undying which was a fun modern take on Lucy Westenra’s story and essentially her escape and life after the events of Dracula. Highly recommend.
Sorry forgot the author Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
Also my favorite Grady Hendrix has always been Southern Bookclubs Guide to Slaying Vampires - I felt the same way with horrorstör but noticed the biggest shift in that story
Someone else said the same thing about Hendrix, I’ll have to give that one a try
"Lock Every Door" by Riley Sager was my absolute favourite last year. I gave it a rare (for me) 5 stars. It had its hooks in me from start to finish.
You read some great stuff this year! I definitely need to get into Riley Sager and Nick Cutter, I've heard great things about both of them. My favorite novella of the year was Rest Stop by Nat Cassidy, about a guy who gets trapped in a gas station bathroom in the middle of the night. It was a page turner and unlocked a new fear of public restrooms for me
I’ve always had a fear of public restrooms so that’s PERFECT
My favorite read of 2024 became an all-time favorite of mine: Jawbone by Monic Ojeda. It's incredibly written and surreal and disturbing. I loved it so much. My first read of 2025 was Woman, Eating--a 20-something artist who is a vampire struggling with her identity. Loved it too!
Jawbone is so disturbing, one of my favorites of the year as well! And beautifully written as you point out
Even though I don't usually watch booktube videos, I loved this. I seriously need to pick up some books give some a read as it has been so long since I have sat down and read a book. Appreciate your ranking and recommendations! Thanks so much for the second video of the year! Also loved the crunchy ice ASMR in the mic. Its these random chaotic moments that happen in your videos that I will never get tired of
Hahahaha they’ll never stop. But I seriously do recommend trying to get into reading. Reading for half an hour before bed as opposed to scrolling has dramatically helped my sleep
@@HauntedHippie Well I'm glad the chaotic random moments are here to stay as they honestly make the videos even better. I'll actually give reading before bed a try as I already have a hard time sleeping due to my anxiety being so bad
@@HeroesKey ahh felt. I’m the same it just doesn’t turn off. So distracting my brain with a book is the moooove
Not all of Clive B is for me but I loved Hellbound Heart and Books of Blood. His Thief of Always fairy tale is a wonderful read as well. Eric LaRocca and his short stories is also worth looking into, like The Trees Grew Because I Bled There is a good starter. I almost bought Carmilla today and happy to hear your review of it. Keep up the good work and happy reading!
Happy reading :)
Kylie, another great video. Stephen King is such a prolific author. It's quite amazing the number of books he's written. (King's latest short story collection, You like it Darker, has been widely praised. Worth reading.) I've just started reading a Nick Cutter book, The Troop. Oh, the film rights have been optioned by James Wan. Oh, Nick Cutter is a pseudonym. Real/given name is Craig Davidson. Under Craig Davidson he's written 7 books.
My Top 5 Horror/Horror Adjacent books from 2024, in no particular order:
1. Beta: A Technological Nightmare - Sammy Scott
2. A Short Stay In Hell - Stephen L. Peck
3. Crossroads - Laurel Hightower
4. In The Tall Trees - Angel Van Atta
5. Slewfoot - Brom
Read Uzumaki from Junji Ito if you want to see his best work, or if you just love good (cosmic) horror!
The first book that I read that was Stephen King was Cujo. I traded a kid my Harry Potter book because I wasnt into wizard stuff. ❤
Good review of books you read last year. I agree with you on Stephen King. I feel too that when he has a good story he does not know how to end it. I use to read a lot of books while I was working. I too an express bus and it was fifty minutes to and from. So I got some reading done. One set of books I remember there was two authors. When I read the bio, one was a good story teller and the other ended the book. The story teller said I can tell a good yarn but don’t know when to end it.
I hope you get some better stuff this year to read. Yes a lot of books get translated into movies. Sometimes it work sometimes not. It’s ok that you’re not into Lord of the Rings. I read them all long ago before the movies. When I heard that they were making movies I thought, what a job to tackle. But Jackson did a pretty good job in my book. Maybe someday do a review of books turned into movies that were good to the original book. We know all about Kings stuff and other stuff would be interesting. Maybe a few movies better than the book. And some worse than the book.
im currently reading final girl support group. trying to read more books this year
Happy New Year! I felt the same way about Dracula-the beat parts were with Johnathan in the castle. Just ordered Tear cause that sounds like something I would love (sad and depressing fiction mixed with horror right up my alley😂). Hope you like Clive Barker he is one of my favorites that man’s imagination should be studied. Great list!!
I hope you enjoy Tear cuz it’s definitely a unique one. Could be a total miss 😅
I finished the Hobbit in 1 day, love it obviously. Lord of the Rings was tough don't even remember if I finished Return of the King.
Early Clive Barker is great, his short stories (the books of blood) are interesting. Plus it gives you the original version of Candyman.
My goal is to read more this year so perfect timing! *Takes notes*
I absolutely loved Final Girls by Riley Sager. It's definitely my fav of his books, which is a super hot take since most people think it's one of his worst.
I honestly don't remember finishing reading Dracula. I found it just as tedious, but I also loved Frankenstein. I also struggled reading Lord of the Rings for the first time due to the amount of seemingly pointless information and overwhelming amount of names and locations. It's like reading the Bible, The Silmarillion even more so. I recommend just pushing on through and not focusing on anything other than the main characters and locations for the first or second read through, which you should be familiar with if you have watched the movies. Some people obviously love they amount of detail present, but for others like myself it can be overwhelming and can somewhat get in the way of the storytelling. They're still some of my favourite books, but they're certainly not without fault. I much more prefer Frank Herbert's world building in Dune.
Yes you put it into words well!
This channel go crazy 😈
Great to see you Kylie. A new episode of haunted hippie. Looking forward to seeing your list of books. I enjoy reading books. Reading Rosemary's Baby right now. It's a Christmas gift. The book is good. It is hard to pick between Stephen King's stories. Yes some are better than others. Vampires have been popular for a long time. Your the best Antichrist. Best You Tube channel out there. Happy reading! 👹😃🧛🦇
Happy reading!!
Man I love Nick Cutter so much. The Deep was the first book of his i read was The Deep. And you are right about the ending. But the rest? ...man ... buzz buzz
I strongly recommend the Lord of the Rings on audiobook, specifically the version performed (not just read) by Andy Serkis. That man is a talented voice actor and impressionist. It helps enormously to hear a story packed so densely with detail.
Awesome Selection of horror books
Oh wow. I’m actually surprised you never read a manga before. Specially Junji Ito. Like that guy is great. Dude they have like 14 books out right now.
Try Uzumaki it’s got a longer and more detailed story with an overall theme.
Tomie is a well loved story is as well if you’re looking for something longer. Like every story is related it’s not like chapters instead of an anthology
Horror Movie and Head Full of ghosts by Paul Tremblay, Devil House by John Darnielle, are among my top 5
Going to watch this later. Is One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest on the list? That book was absolutely terrifying.
Haven’t read it yet 🫣
@HauntedHippie nothing like the movie. Author Ken Kesey.
@HauntedHippie i was shocked at how different it was.
It’s so refreshing to hear another person say that Grady Hendrix isn’t for them. Everyone hypes up his books so much which got me excited to check them out, but I just could not get into his writing no more how hard I tried :/
Negative Space by BR Yaeger is incredible.
Gawd I read The Swarm by Andy Marino…. My goodness it affected me. That’s rare. Recommend but not for the faint of heart
Good for you to get so much reading done
Excellent Video You did good amount of good horror reading
We love book content! Dracula is so orientalist and annoys me no end for its whole “Mina needs to stay away and let the boys handle things” vibe haha. Anyhoo, loved this video!!
Thanks for the excellent New video Kylie 👍
You may enjoy David Sodergren? Maggies Grave was so fun and The Haar gets alot of love.
Oo thank you!
Not to spam the comments, but I am so pleased to know that a fellow horror-head enjoys the first bit of Dracula, the bit in Transylvania, the best. I think I enjoy Dracula more than you overall, Kylie, but it’s one that is definitely a slog once it starts to be more about what’s going on in England.
Since Dracula has long been in the public domain, I’ve been plotting out my own riff on it that takes places SOLELY in Castle Dracula. I look at as my way of scratching both an itch for creepy, old-world folklore AND cool haunted house eeriness. I might never actually write it, but it’s something I have fun running through my head when I’m down for the night.
I wish you would write it!
@@HauntedHippie 🥹🥹 Thank you 🥹🥹
I have not read The Deep, but I have read The Troop by Nick Cutter and I thought it was fantastic. Nasty stuff. I'll make The Deep a priority.
Are you familiar with Kathe Koja? She's worth a shot. Skin and The Cipher are particularly good. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite is great, as well. Trigger warning for that one tho.
I’m not! Thanks for the tip
do you read on kindle also and do you read listen to audiobooks just curious
I do not, I’m quite old fashioned
you might prefer Junji Ito's longer works
I love: Uzumaki, Gyo, Sensor, Tomie
I own but haven't read yet: Black Paradox, Dissolving Classroom
Gotta have Stephen King in there, the legend. I'm currenly in the middle of Duma Key, which is (so far) an interesting read.
Did you ever read any Ray Garton books?
Not yet!
Have you read Rose Madder by Stephen King?
Haven’t heard of that one yet!
Nice book collection
totally agree with fragments of horror. its Itos weakest work
Not horror but anybody who likes Harry Potter I have a series I started that I LOVE! It's called Witchlings by Claribel A. Ortega. She has 3 books as of right now and I've heard a 4th and 5th is coming.
The Golden Frog Games and the House of Elephants are the 2nd and 3rd. Apparently there's a 1.5 based around one of the main 3 characters Valley. But I think it was sent in a newsletter and on her website it won't let me join. It never sent the email to confirm even after trying a few times.
Instead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione it's about Seven, Thorn, and Valley. It's got very similar vibes and world building the way Harry Potter does. I've noticed many similarities in certain ways.
I love that it's based around 3 girls and I love the idea of what their covens are and the placement and story in the books. I just started the 3rd book yesterday and I've been reading it to my daughter a chapter at a time before bed.
So many nights I read a couple extra chapters once she's asleep. It's just so good to me 😅I can't wait til the 4th and 5th. You can even do a little quiz to see where you'd be placed similar to Harry Potter. But there are more covens in Witchlings and they differ on what they are about which I love.
I do see resemblances of Seven the main character and Harry Potter but not huge. I just love each of their back stories and arcs they have made separately and together as a coven.
Fun! I haven’t heard of those yet