Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Bagley's List of Horror

It's all lowercase today on the blog, and that's because today's guest is none other than s.j. bagley: artist, musician and horror scholar extraordinaire. I've been friends with him for at least a decade and can honestly say I've met no one else like him and, as you'll soon see, he's come up with quite a unique and amazing list for this series. 

but enough from me; i'll let him make his own list introduction. --DTW

as a critic, reader, and critical reader i strongly loathe the culturally hegemonic position that the novel holds, being popularly (and incorrectly) considered the only truly valid literary form. in fact, my dislike of the novel as cultural construction is one of the first things most readers discover about me and i thought it would interesting to upend that particular personal narrative, momentarily, and give our illustrious host mssr. wilbanks a list of twenty horror novels of the twenty-first century that i highly recommend.

i have resisted the nigh overwhelming urge to editorialise or evangelise and have decided to let the list stand, alone. please bear in mind that this is not a list of twenty 'favourite' novels and they are listed in alphabetical order, not by order of importance or personal taste.

laird barron- 'the croning.'
jesse bullington- 'the sad tale of the brothers grossbart.'
ramsey campbell- 'the darkest part of the woods.'
michael cisco- 'the tyrant.'
elizabeth hand- 'generation loss.'
caitlin r. kiernan- 'the drowning girl.'
victor lavalle- 'big machine.'
alain mabankou- 'african psycho.'
john mantooth- 'the year of the storm.'
daniel mills- 'revenants.'
s.p. miskowski- 'knock knock.'

adam neville- 'ritual.'
david nickle- 'eutopia.'
joyce carol oates- 'daddy love.'
tom piccirilli- 'a choir of ill children.'
david searcey- 'ordinary horror.'
jeffrey thomas- 'boneland.'
lee thomas- 'the german.'
kaaron warren- 'slights.'
conrad williams- 'the unblemished.'

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