I'm actually fairly new to reading Dark Fiction and haven't read nearly as much as I would like to. I'm curious what other people thing are MUST READS, the books you compair all others to, the ones that have had the biggest impact. It just might help me decide what books to read next :)

From my all time favorites shelf. Many of these may arguably be dark fiction but what made them stick with me are the darker aspects of each story.

Cat's Cradle
I Am Legend
Crime and Punishment
Fahrenheit 451
The Road
Perdido Street Station
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wuthering Heights

I'm going to post a few books that are highly recommended:

my life in the bush of ghosts, by amos tutuola
push, by sapphire
the trial, by franz kafka
heart of a dog, by mikhail bulgakov
naked lunch, by william s burroughs
funeral rites, by jean genet
cruddy, by linda barry
malloy, malone dies, the unnameable (postwar trilogy), by samuel beckett
light in august, by william faulkner
this way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen, by tadeusz borowski
anything by kathy acker


i would second crime and punishment, but the idiot gets my vote as dostoevsky's darkest novel

I would second Kafka, though I have only read The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Excellent collection.

the kafka stories are great!

for those of you that are looking for something dark, read his story, the penal colony.

maybe we could discuss the metamorphosis in this thread?

Started a new thread :)

Karl Hans Strobl
Hanns Heinz Ewers
H.P. Lovecraft
Arthur Machen
Algernon Blackwood
M.R. James
Walter de la Mare

nice! i don't really know any of those writers, with the exception of lovecraft.

Procella wrote: "Karl Hans Strobl
Hanns Heinz Ewers
H.P. Lovecraft
Arthur Machen
Algernon Blackwood
M.R. James
[au..."

Wow, thanks Procella!

While looking through your list, I was able to download The White People and Other Stories The Best Weird Tales of Arthur Machen and The Hill of Dreams by Machen, and The Wendigo and The Willows by Blackwood.

I wouldn't be surprised if more from these authors is available here on Goodreads. Thanks for the recs. and I'll get back to you soon. I think I'll start with Blackwood's Wendigo. It's short and I'm hoping it will give me a taste for the author. :) Thanks so much!

I have never heard of Kathy Acker until a week ago when I got a hold of a CD in which she read some of her writing. It was emotionally draining in a dark but pleasant way. I will be looking for some of her books.

I second Machen, Blackwood, and M.R. James and would add Sheridan LeFanu.

i've only read in memoriam of identity, by kathy acker, so i'm not a well informed reader, but there were a lot of good things about that book. she's a pretty brainy punk, if you ask me...and "dark" doesn't begin to describer her literary imagination.

WARNING:
The only thing these books have in common is the fact that I find them all dark and worth reading ;)

Dama Numero Trece / The Number Thirteen Lady
Art of Murder / Clara y la Penumbra
The Athenian Murders / La Caverna De Las Ideas
Mystery
Floating Dragon
Ghost Story
Harvest Home
The Gormenghast Novels Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone
Rebecca
The Golem
The House of Doctor Dee
Rosemary's Baby
The Return of the Native
Jude the Obscure
Mythago Wood
The Turn of the Screw

I'm waiting to borrow Rosemary's Baby from my mom. I also have Jude the Obscure packed away somewhere and will get to it some day. I had a very difficult time finishing The Turn of the Screw. I'll have to check out the others. Awesome, thanks Procella!

Question has anyone read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson ... i have seen the movie and didn't like the ending is the ending different for the book or the same and is the book to the movie the same or way off different.. ??

I've seen the movie and have ordered the book at the library. I know Kathryn's read it and I think she liked it alot. I'm sure you could get a thread started and people would participate.

*Stephanie* wrote: "Question has anyone read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson ... i have seen the movie and didn't like the ending is the ending different for the book or the same and is the book to the movie the sam..."

Hey Stephanie, good to see you :)
I'll start a separate thread and I will not include any spoilers in my first post but after that, discussion may include spoilers.

Sorry, idjiut me sees no reason why the entire thread can't be spoiler free :) If anyone wants to talk spoilers, we'll just start another.

Thank u for the invite Kathryn :) and thank u so much for writing ur review it did help and i did learn something.. :) i will need to buy the book and knowing its a book that some people want to read and liked makes it easier for me to buy and want to read.

u know i will have to say i never... Never knew Wuthering Heights is a dark Fiction. i guess most people think Wuthering Heights classic novel. but i guess when u think of it is a dark fiction. :)

great group. i know i will have fun in here :) love to learn lol...

Glad you're here Stephanie! And o how I would love to talk Wuthering Heights with someone! I love that book. It's one of those that I feel justified as claiming to be dark fiction because of how it makes me feel. The characters are so cruel to each other!

I'm partial to:

Flicker- Theodore Roszak
The Wasp Factory- Ian Bainks
Pygmy- Chuck Palahniuk
The Secret History- Donna Tartt
Lord of the Flies- William Golding
John Connolly's Charlie Parker books
Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard mysteries


I tried to list titles that are dark, but not horror. It was hard...I've got a LOT of horror on my shelf.

i'm partial to:

beyonce....(whooops! sorry, but her picture just flashed in some ad to the rights of these posts)

i'm going to hunt down The Secret History, you've gone and sold the deal, rob.

Phillip wrote: "beyonce....(whooops! sorry, but her picture just flashed in some ad to the rights of these posts)"

They can be distracting can't they! Though I'd rather have Beyonce than the fleas crawling across my screen today!


There is a TON of great suggestions in this thread. It's going to take me a while to read even a portion of them.

I read Crime & Punishment in High School and hated it - but then I hated most books they tried to make me read. I've been meaning to pick some of the old assignments up now that I have a more open mind. I've got Their Eyes Were Watching God here but Crime & Punishment might just fit the bill.

Please seek out the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Crime and Punishment (or any of Dostoevsky's work, or Russian literature in general)...the difference between that and most of the other translations are notable; I've done quite a lot of comparisons (and I speak Russian, fairly well). P&V really reads well for the contemporary English-speaking person. Highly recommended.

Jeez. All I have on my screen is an ad for Dove body wash. :(

timing is everything, apparently.

Haha...me too. It makes me never want to buy it though. I doubt that's what they intended.

I'm the same way. I try to remember the ad so I won't buy the product, simply because I was annoyed. We're so petty.

Hey, if I'm looking for body care sites, then I don't mind. If I'm looking at books, back the f%@# off, Dove... :)

I've always loved dark fiction, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy is an incredible read. Lord of the Flies by William Golding a classic.
I've just released my first work of fiction named The Judas Syndrome. You can view the book trailer at http://www.the-judas-syndrome.com

Thanks for participating Michael. I'll check that out...feel free to post info on your works under our SELF PROMOTION folders.

anyone around here dig thomas pynchon? today i picked up his newest novel, inherent vice. some of his novels are pretty dark, like gravity's rainbow. i read his last novel, against the day, last year and loved it.

I haven't tried anything by him yet, but I've been thinking about it. What would you suggest starting with?

Phillip, I've picked up Gravity's Rainbow but continued to put it off. It's massive. I'm interested in starting with one of Pynchon's shorter books, to get a taste for his writing.

well, the crying of lot 49 is quite good, and is more of a novella than a novel. i am enjoying the new novel, which weighs in at a mere 369 pages (practically a short story in pynchon territory!). it is a kind of post-noir thing set in los angeles in the late '60's, and, having grown up in LA during that era, I'm here to say that he is nailing it. there is the usual pynchonian veneer of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll floating above a dark underbelly of racism, corruption, and good ol' fashioned greed - all wrapped in a brightly colored blanket of mystery and laugh out loud humor.

my all time favorite pynchon is against the day, his last book. i laughed so hard reading it i had to refrain from reading it in public.... the book completely restored my faith in literature, i LOVED it, an absolute masterpiece. there was a little lull around page 300 that lasted for a few short episodes, but other than that, i loved every sentence of its 1,286 pages. yes, it took a couple of months to read, but those were four months of pure joy. i wanted to go back and re-read it as soon as i finished it, but instead went back and re-read gravity's rainbow.

Thanks Phillip. I'll find Crying first and defintiely look into his others. I love strong recommendations so I'll keep what you wrote in mind.

Strong recommendations from people whose reading tastes I admire...he's definitely moving up on my list - thanks Phillip. I'm a book weirdo though, I'll probably try to read his stuff in order, cuz I'm a little OCD like that. :)

works for me, but slogging through gravity's rainbow before getting to mason and dixon or against the day is like training on a marine corp obstacle course so you can run the mile.

but, as archy would say, wot the hell...wot the hell. i salute your process! back in the 80's i did that with william faulkner, gertrude stein, kafka, and a few others.

i haven't read v., his first novel. his second book, the crying of lot 39 shows his greatness (style) "in progress", and is a book about a woman who goes on a mind-bending journey of self-discovery after inheriting an unexpected fortune from a former lover. gravity's rainbow shows his mature style in full bloom, and is a challenging book. it wasn't until the second time around that i fully appreciated it. it's a rather surrealistic view of the second world war and the development of the bomb. i didn't read vineland, but it is supposed to be one of his more popular books, much easier to read, and set in the pacific northwest. mason and dixon and against the day have some similarities structurally, but are very different stories. mason and dixon allow pynchon to paint a portrait of america as the railroad etched its way across the continent. against the day is a brilliant novel that starts with the murder of anarchist webb traverse (the names pynchon comes up with are usually achingly funny), in colorado during the late 1880's and follows the lives of his four children and his widow as their paths criss cross the globe, leading us to the decade after the first world war.

i'm just getting up and going with his newest work, inherent vice, a post-noir potboiler set in los angeles in the late 1960's, and is, as usual, brimming with sex, drugs, and rock n' roll....ala pynchon....which is to be birthed from one of america's greatest literary imaginations.

Thought I would throw JG Ballard into the mix. I haven't read many of his books (like his early sci-fi and his more recent work, not to mention Empire of the Sun), but I recently read High Rise and Concrete Island, and read Crash way back in the day. But really, such strange nightmarish stories...

yeah, i hear a lot of good things about him and have seen a few films based on his writing. any book in particular you would give a solid recommendation?

Well Phillip, of the three I've read I'd recommend starting with Crash. Its better known and I think it's a prime example of what made Ballard such a distinctive writer.

I've also heard interesting things about The Atrocity Exhibition, which is more experimental, but I haven't gotten around to checking it out yet. The thing with Ballard though, is that almost any book of his that you pick up is pretty much guaranteed to be unlike anything else out there...

i saw cronenberg's film of the novel crash, and i think i was one of the only people i know who liked it, so i'll check that out. i've heard the book was worth seeking out. thanks for the rec.

I haven't seen the movie, but I'm pretty sure if you like the one, then you'll like the other.

Reminds me that Cronenberg also did Naked Lunch. That guy is the king of unfilmable novels...

Haha! CRASH, with James Spader?? I don't know why, but I've always had a thing for him, the nasty pervert! :) I thought that was a good movie too. What did I just see from him? Oh, EASTERN PROMISES...very good. He must like Viggo Mortensen, cuz he did A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE too and that was also pretty good.

Did you ever see him in Secretary? Very good movie.

secretary was such good fun! you ladies continue digging james spader, i'm going to fixate on maggie gyllenhall.

i preferred eastern promises to history of violence, it seems that cronenberg has stepped away from the supernatural for a while to focus on the horror of everyday reality.....

naked lunch is a brilliant film, i thought his approach, showing what burroughs' life was like while writing the book, was the best way to explore the books' subject matter without trying to realize the novel in any kind of concrete way (which, as cronenberg says, would have cost more money to make than any other film only to be immediately banned in all countries).

Phillip wrote: "which, as cronenberg says, would have cost more money to make than any other film only to be immediately banned in all countries"

Ha, I've never heard that Cronenberg comment before. That's actually pretty funny (and probably true). Man, the typewriter, that's a visual I've never forgotten...

I don't know how it is I haven't seen Secretary yet. Ladies, I think my local video store owes you a commission!

I hope you like it! Secretary is one of my favorites!

Daniel,

If you're interested, rent the Criterion Collection print of Naked Lunch. It has an extra disc that has a wonderful documentary on the making of Naked Lunch....lots of interviews with Cronenberg and Burroughs, selections of Burroughs reading from NL, etc. That's where I pulled that quote..

Thanks Phillip! I'll have to check that out...

cheers, and watch secretary with a friend if you can....it's sure to spark an interesting conversation.

Haha! SECRETARY is one of the most-watched DVDs that I own...I bought it and was telling everyone about it for YEARS and nobody had seen it besides me...that's why I love this group! I also preferred EASTERN PROMISES, just more dark and for me, a better storyline altogether. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE left out too much of the story behind the characters -- it felt over-edited.