Literary Fears :)

[unodiablo]

Hello Little Fears Fans,

I thought I'd start a post about this... So far, everyone seems to mention Stephen King's 'IT' as the book to read to get into the mood for Little Fears. I, for one, can't stand reading that long-winded hack (my opinion, I don't want to start a discussion @ King). I'd like to hear some more suggestions for more books that are close to the subject matter of Little Fears.

I have two I'll kick in to start the list off:
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
- A novel set in the 30's, dealing with murders in a small town, supposedly done by 'The Goat Man'. The main character is a young boy, and his sister is a big part of the story so far as well (haven't finished it, but I will this weekend!). This is textbook LF material, and expands the scope by providing setting info for running a game in the 1930's. Scary as heck in parts, and I'm only about 1/3 of the way done!

Little Brothers by Rick Hautala
-I bought another used copy of this recently, so I could re-read it preperation for playing some LF. A young boy in a rural setting faces some evil 'lil gremlin-guys. I remember this being an excellent horror novel with a young protagonist.

I'll come up with further titles for another post, I'm interested in more titles, ones that I haven't read yet...
Sean

[Jason L Blair]

Books I want to check out:
Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce (and his other works)

Books to look out for:
To The Ocean by Jason L Blair (in the works) :wink:

[jburneko]

Mostly for atmosphere I recommend The Gashlycrumb Tinys by Edward Gory.  It's a short little book that is nothing more than an ABC rhyme detailing the horrible deaths of 26 little children.

Examples:

"A is for Aby who fell down the the stairs, [and]
 B is for Basil devowered by bears!"

But my favorite two lines from the book are:

"M is for Mary who was sweapt out to sea, [and]
 N is for Neville who died of ennui!"

Jesse

P.S. Oh and Clive Barker's The Thief of Always is a good one too.

[ This Message was edited by: jburneko on 2001-12-07 14:42 ]

[Ron Edwards]

Ha! I just started reading The Bottoms this very day. I agree with Sean that it's excellent Little Fears material.

I like John Bellairs' The House with a Clock in its Walls, as Josh Neff suggested a while ago. (Isn't there a thread about this stuff?) The Phantom Tollbooth offers a more psychological, less out-and-out horror model which I like a lot.

Best,
Ron