Cosy horror for dark nights

Same nightmares. Different stories.

Book · 1984

Books of Blood - Volume Two

Books of Blood, Clive Barker's 1984 collection, is body horror at its most unflinching.

Books of Blood - Volume Two, an After Dark title card
Year
1984
Kind of horror
Body

Books of Blood is exactly the sort of title that tells you what you are in for, from Clive Barker, first out in 1984.

The horror in it is body horror, so the fear does not come from something hiding in the dark. It comes from what your own body might do, or have done to it, when something else takes an interest. That is a different kind of unsettled to sit with.

It is not comfort horror, and I would not pretend otherwise. This is for a night when you actually want to be a bit shaken, not for one where the television is on in the background and everyone is talking over it.

Best kept for a properly dark evening. Curtains shut, something strong to drink, phone face down. Not one for anyone squeamish about what a body can become, because that squeamishness is rather the whole point.

If you like this, try

Book · 2001

Dreamcatcher

Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher brings alien invasion and body horror together in a suspenseful novel.

Book · 1990

The Bad Place

A man loses every night to a blackout, and two private investigators uncover a frightening reason to fear what happens while he is gone.

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