‘House of Leaves’ (2000) as fleeting as, well, a house of leaves
Book club book report: Still, the unusual format and decent character building make this bizarre, fantastical journey worth checking out.
‘The Birds’ (1952) flies higher as a short story than as a movie
On a Hitchcock kick (Book review): Stay beyond the Hitchcock homework for other du Maurier classics in the nine-story “Don’t Look Now” collection.
‘Jurassic Park’-style concepts don’t face ‘Extinction’ yet
Book review: Douglas Preston uses a Crichtonian concept as a launching point for a mysterious page-turner up to his usual standards.
The moor the merrier in ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ (1902)
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Doyle’s gothic-horror descriptions of the moor and its denizens stand out more than the clues.
‘Insomnia’ (1994) is long but not sleep-inducing
Stephen King flashback (Book review): Although it reads like an important novel to King, it for some reason is not a popular target for adaptation.
Pessl wades into delicious darkness in ‘Night Film’ (2013)
Book club book report: The author imagines a pitch-black horror filmmaker and delves into his world for answers about a mysterious suicide.
‘Omen IV: Armageddon 2000’ (1983) continues horror saga in novel form
Frightening Friday (Book review): The novelization author of the third film gives us a crisp, unsurprising continuation. But at least it’s better than the “Omen IV” film.
‘Night Theater’ (2020) mixes body horror, spiritual questions
Book club book report: Vikram Paralkar digs into the human body and dark ideas in an incongruously readable short novel.
‘John Dies at the End’ (2009) a passion project, despite myriad influences
Book club book report: David Wong’s comedic horror novel is written in such an entertaining manner that it almost doesn’t matter that the story is familiar.
‘The Ruins’ (2006, 2008) a creepy exercise in fatalism
Frightening Friday (Book and movie reviews): It’s a shame Smith hasn’t written a novel since, but “The Ruins” holds up as elite horror.