What's your least favorite type of story?

[Jazlyn]

Hi, I'm Jaz. This is my first time posting lol

I don't like 'end of the world/technology is evil/ cell phones will end life as we know it/everyone is corrupt and the goverment is after us' kinda novels lol

I mean, I don't mind a little politically correctness in my books and I'm not saying it isn't true, maybe cell phones are evil and hey, the goverment is corrupt lol. It's good to address would issues. But not when the whole book is soley dedicated to that and it overshadows the plot. If I want to read that type of thing I'll read Micheal Moore or something. lol I just feel like sometimes the book is supposed to be scary/funny or whatever but it seems 'preachy'. Oh well. I'm iffy about 'futuritic' novels in general, I dunno.

I also don't like blood and guts books/stories. I don't mind a little gore, but not just blood and guts for the sake of it. It has to back up the plot/storyline.

[Susan]

I don't like ones that go into horrendous dream sequences where reality is all warped and you can't figure out whether the character is dreaming, insane, or in another dimension. I like the basis of the story to be believable, then layer on the creepy surprises.

[Thomas]

Hey there Jaz. I didn't like The Cell much either.
A popular plot line that always ruins a book for me is when the werewolf/scarecrow/ghost is revealed to be a regular person. Then, during the supposedly terrifying climax, the monster is no longer threatening. Never fails to disappoint.
I was thinking of calling it 'The Scooby Doo' but on those cartoons at least they were smart enough to keep the monster scary until the very last moment.

[Jazlyn]

Hey Tommy. I totally agree with you. A good way to ruin a book fast for me is the "king kong"(what I like to call it) I hate when the main monster or whatever turns out to be some friendly thing and they and the main character become "buddies". That ruins the whole "Horror" aspect of it for me lol

[[deleted user]]

I detest flying humanoids. I'm not an aerodynamic engineer, but the human form is not built for flight without mechanical aid. For example, vampires who just lift off the ground and go zooming about the sky like James Bond with a jet pack are unpardonably ridiculous.

Things that heal incredible fast--right before your eyes!--from severe wounds are also kind of silly.

[Jazlyn]

Hey yea! Totally agree! I dont care for vampire stories, but they are SO popular. I love werewolf stories, but you hardly find any good ones. I love werewoleves lol

[Fredstrong]

Ohhh, I love a good Vampire story! If anyone would like to read a funny one, check out Blood Sucking Fiends, by Christopher Moore. As for least favorite horror stories, I'll just give an example: Violin, by Anne Rice. I adored her Vampire Chronicals, Witching Hour series, and many others. She is a master of her craft. However, Voilin was an example of taking a ghost story and merging it with a really sappy tragic/romantic premise. I like horror books to be scary, or at least creepy. Violin was niether.

[Christina]

I really can't stand paranormal eroticism that masquerades as horror. That would include Laurel K. Hamilton and most of Anne Rice.

I want something to disturb me and make me look under the bed or in the closet. A seductive vampire who wants to seduce every mortal or fae or werewolf is not scarey.

[Fredstrong]

The eroticism could get under my skin at times also, but what I love about Rice is the fact that you are seeing the situation from the monster's vantage, rather than the victim's. Granted this does take away some of the horror, which is ultimately derived from the victim's perspective, but but what can I say? I'm a sucker for the anti-hero, and identifying with the vampire/witch was a nice twist on an old genre.

[alicia]

I am not a big fan of horror stories with aliens in them.

[Cathy]

I don't like splatterpunk/extreme horror. I have no interest in reading graphic descriptions of gore, torture, and dismemberment.

I also don't want to read romance novels pretending to be horror -- Laurel K. Hamilton and Charlene what's-her-name are in this category for me. I want to like supernatural detective types of books -- I like the idea -- but in practice I've never read one I enjoyed. Oh, unless Falling Angel counts as "supernatural detective"; I loved that.

[Paul]

Speaking in more broad terms that most who have responded here, where horror is concerned, I prefer Short Stories to Novels any day. Particularly in the case of Horror, Short Stories are more capable of providing that sudden shock that makes you sleep with the lights on which is harder to sustain over the course of a novel: Not that there aren't notable exceptions, of course, but that's just my preference...

[Kim]

Rob, you'd probably like Ed Lee. I think his publisher is Leisure.