# Recommend some horror books with unusual premises **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [May 4, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866 "2025-05-04T14:23:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/21 "2025-05-05T14:53:14Z")
It’s not going to be everyone’s cup but “There is no Antimemetics Division” has an unusual premise and is a lot of fun. It’s also on the shorter side. > **[There Is No Antimemetics Division: qntm: 9798721503788: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/There-No-Antimemetics-Division-qntm/dp/B0915M7T61)** > > There Is No Antimemetics Division \[qntm\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. There Is No Antimemetics Division ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/22 "2025-05-05T15:21:07Z")
_Ascension_ Nicholas Binge - A giant mountain appears out of nowhere in the South Pacific. An expedition is sent to climb it and everyone either dies or comes back insane. So, a new expedition is sent… Organized as an epistolary novel ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/23 "2025-05-05T21:51:10Z")
I just read “Incidents Around the House” by Josh Malerman. He also wrote “Bird Box”, which became the Sandra Bullock Netflix movie of the same name. Don’t know if that works as an endorsement or not… Anyway, IAtH is a haunting story told from the point of view of a little girl of about 6 years old. I was highly skeptical of the narrative conceit and gave it a try thinking I would hate it and bail, but I got hooked and found it very readable. > **[Incidents Around the House](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199757490-incidents-around-the-house)** > > A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the … ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/24 "2025-05-06T00:57:43Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Anyway, IAtH is a haunting story told from the point of view of a little girl of about 6 years old. I was highly skeptical of the narrative conceit and gave it a try thinking I would hate it and bail, but I got hooked and found it very readable. I’ve decided to take a run at basically everything in this thread, and I started with this one. I’m on page 110 and I’m completely gripped. It’s already gone in some non-trope-y directions. Though I do keep thinking of Coraline, which is unavoidable. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/25 "2025-05-06T01:55:23Z")
_Terminal Island_ by Walter Greatshell. Really creepy story that takes place on Catalina Island. I have some personal experience with the setting and about how unsettling some of the year-rounders can be. Greatshell has taken that weird vibe and ramped it up to 11. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/26 "2025-05-06T02:05:30Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > I seem to recall we had a recent-ish thread on this topic, but I can’t find it right now. Found! Just needed to narrow my search. > [@I'm jaded. Please recommend me some \*good\* horror fiction](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-jaded-please-recommend-me-some-good-horror-fiction/984018): > > If you’ve read much of what I’ve posted on the SDMB, and Cafe Society in particular, you will have surmised that I’m a big fan of the Horror genre in most media–movies, TV,comics, websites, and, the subject of this post, fiction (with a preference for the short story form, but I also love a good scary novel). My problem is that I’m also a jaded horror fan who sometimes thinks he’s read everything that’s any good. I know damned well that I haven’t read all the horror fiction that’s any good, so … ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/27 "2025-05-06T02:55:03Z")
You might give Graham Masterton a try. He’s a Brit who IIRC lives in Poland now, and he’s the best horror novelist that almost nobody in the U. S. has heard of. He specializes in weird (sometimes completely bonkers) premises that he somehow makes work. For example, [Ghost Virus](https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Virus-Graham-Masterton-ebook/dp/B0798RF48B). This is a horror novel about clothes that come to life and cause innocent people to do horrific things. Just a warning: Masterton is gory. _Really_ gory. Like, “makes Stephen King look like A. A. Milne” levels of gory. But if you don’t mind that, the books are fun and good reads. ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/28 "2025-05-06T07:54:04Z")
**Land of the Beautiful Dead** Not my Genre at all but this one intrigues me. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/29 "2025-05-06T12:48:25Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I’ve decided to take a run at basically everything in this thread, and I started with this one. I’m on page 110 and I’m completely gripped. It’s already gone in some non-trope-y directions. Cool, when you’re done with it let me know what you thought of the ending. > [@Infovore](#): > > You might give Graham Masterton a try. > […] > Just a warning: Masterton is gory. _Really_ gory. Oh yeah, I read a couple Masterson novels as a teen and loved them. The first one I read was ‘[The Manitou](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1828266.The_Manitou?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=dO3zRwUxBS&rank=1)’, maybe his most well-known novel, which was indeed very gory body horror. Then I read ‘[The Devils of D-Day](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2084081.The_Devils_Of_D_Day)’, about a guy who discovers a demon sealed into an old abandoned WWII tank. > [@Infovore](#): > > He specializes in weird (sometimes completely bonkers) premises that he somehow makes work. This is one of those. The concept might sound silly, but it was very weird and creepy, in a good way. At least, as a teen I thought so. I should give it a re-read, see if it still holds up. ---
**Author:** ![SlipperyPete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@SlipperyPete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlipperyPete)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/30 "2025-05-06T14:19:27Z")
George RR Martin wrote an interesting one, set on a Mississippi River steamboat. It’s called Fevre Dream. It’s a vampire story, but the setting makes it very unusual. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/31 "2025-05-06T15:09:12Z")
I didn’t mention it since I’m in the middle of reading it now, but the more I read it, ‘[The Hitchcock Hotel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204316865-the-hitchcock-hotel)’ seems to fit the bill for the OP: Kind of a unique premise, small group of people, no vamps or werewolves. It may be more ‘mystery’ than ‘horror’ but it’s categorized under both in Goodreads. The basic setup: a man who’s such a huge Hitchcock movie buff that he opened up a Hitchcock-themed hotel invites his old college friends over for a reunion visit. They were all very close in college, but had some sort of serious falling-out in their Senior year (hinted at, but not yet revealed as of my place in the book) that caused them to go their separate ways. The hotel owner, Alfred (named by his mother, who first turned him on to Hitchcock movies- shades of Norman Bates and his mother!), has a hidden agenda, again only hinted at as of my place in the book so far, in which he plans to do something that will both punish his old friends for how they treated him way back when, and put his financially failing hotel on the map. What could it be…MUHHHHdah? _ **Not** _ a spoiler, everybody’s alive so far where I’m at in the book, but it _ **is** _ a Hitchcock-themed mystery novel, so somebody prolly gonna die. The narrative structure alternates chapters between the POVs of each friend character, which is a nice storytelling device. The guests, who all have their own emotional damage and baggage, start seeing and hearing weird things…which may or may not be caused by Alfred. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/32 "2025-05-06T16:13:56Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The [Pendergast series](https://www.prestonchild.com/books/series/) (starring a most atypical FBI agent, Aloysius Pendergast, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) provides a plethora of bizarre plots\* made more palatable by excellent writing. A certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief is required for full enjoyment. These books are fantastic and @Jackmannii 's description is bang on. And, though not a book, but a movie _ **Ghosts of War** _. It is ostensibly a horror and ghost story, taking place in a French chateau in WW II, with a completely unexpected and moving ending. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/33 "2025-05-06T17:04:57Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > I’ve only seen the film, but Christine, Stephen King’s novel about a demonic car, seemed an unusual premise to me at the time of its release, and I’ve not seen too many vehicle-possession movies since. Stephen King’s short story “Trucks” was the basis of two movies, “Trucks” (for TV) and “Maximum Overdrive”. I sometimes still feel a sense of unease when walking narrow spaces between vehicles in a parking lot. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/34 "2025-05-06T18:18:34Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Cool, when you’re done with it let me know what you thought of the ending. I felt that ending was inevitable, or mostly inevitable, if only to escape from her parents…they were adding a lot of pressure on top of Other Mother, even if in their own idiosyncratic ways they were trying to solve the problem. (Ursa by yelling and lashing out, Russ by endlessly pontificating and enabling). Other Grandma at the end was quite creepy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/35 "2025-05-06T18:22:11Z")
The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. As I say in my review: Part 1 scared me so much I would actually call my dog over and have her sit next to me on the couch before I’d start reading. Part 2 gets a bit too preposterous to be that creepy anymore. Part 3 was a genre-jumping mind-fuck that I thought was rather ingenious. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/36 "2025-05-06T21:21:09Z")
I’m nearing the end of _The Necromancer’s House_ by Buehlman, which is a rather convoluted horror novel about a man who, years ago, stole a horde of various old alchemical & magical books from the then Soviet Union. But now his past is catching up with him and wants revenge. Great descriptions of how the magic is created and the horrific results of it’s use. Personally, I think The Daughter’s War is better read after reading the earlier The Blacktongue Thief, although that doesn’t have many horror elements to it. Good fun though! ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/37 "2025-05-08T19:39:30Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > While it was written over fifty years ago — and it’s been almost that long since I read it — I found _Demon Seed_ by Dean R Koontz quite chilling. One interesting thing about it is that it’s told (IIRC) mostly from the POV of the antagonist. Man, was I ever confused. I checked it out online, and was reveling in how foresighted it was when there was a very male gaze exposition about the computer stalking Winona Ryder. What the what? Ah, from his website: > As Berkley Books was preparing to reissue DEMON SEED in 1997, I read the book a quarter of a century after having written it–and I realized it was more a clever idea than it was a novel. Furthermore, the technology, which had been cutting-edge in the first book, was now antique. I rewrote it from first page to last, and I had a good time doing so. Just so’s ya know. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/38 "2025-05-10T17:34:52Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. As I say in my review: I’ve read that one, and really enjoyed it. _Ghoster_, also by Arnopp, ended up having a really interesting premise. I’ve read all his books that are available for Kindle, and I hope he writes more. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/39 "2025-05-10T18:19:56Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. That wouldn’t by any chance be the same Jack Sparks from “The List of Seven” by Mark Frost, would it? ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866/40 "2025-05-10T19:20:44Z")
> **[Under the Skin by Michel Faber](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/may/02/firstchapters.reviews?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other)** > > Isserley always drove straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her. I read this a few years ago, creepy and lowkey horror, it has stuck with me ever since. Vulnerable looking woman purposefully cruises the Scotland highways looking for male hitchhikers to pick up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-horror-books-with-unusual-premises/1017866.md?page=3)