Mumsnet Talk

I've just finished reading "The Woman in Black" after seeing the film and stage play.
The book is excellent, though I didnt find it as scary as the play!
Good for a quick read, I finished it in a few hours.

Oh god yes! Naomi's Room. The Jack Nightingale Trilogy by Stephen Leather. Peter James does supernatural (just don't get mistaken with his detective novels) well.

Mind's gone blank. I'll gander at my shelves later and report back but they should keep you going

Oh gosh - I hope you like it. It's one of my favourite books ever. Please don't come back and tear it to pieces!

Or maybe, you agree with me, you don't need to like characters or empathise with them to enjoy a book

By the way, Lolita is Amazon.fr's Kindle deal of the day. I bought it & look forward to reading it soon.

Not heard of it - will google.

I found 'Shallow Grave' very, very difficult to like - basically because I didn't give a toss what happened to any of them. Ditto the dross that was, 'Never Let Me Go' and ditto Gatsby.

But I love, 'Lolita' for example, even though I find none of the characters likeable and can't really empathise with any of them. I guess that the genius of the writing makes you want to watch in a sort of horrified fascination, maybe?

Remus - You can have Roland. He is not my type

That was a very serious question, by the way. I very honestly don't get why many people feel the need to like (or empathise with) the characters to care what happens in the book they are reading.

Does this work with films, too? I watched "Mr Brooks" last night, with Kevin Costner & Demi Moore and really liked it. I'm thinking of the characters now and can't imagine I'd like or empathise with any of them. I'd be interested to hear what you think of that film if one day you watch it.

if you could see me now by peter straub is a pretty good read wiki link

Gah Cote. I didn't say that I HAVE to like characters but I do at least have to care a bit about what happens to them. And I didn't care at all about the sisters in Duma Key. Plenty of really unlikeable characters in literature who the writers are still able to make people empathise with in some way - A Clockwork Orange and a lot of Chuck P's stuff would be examples. Characters who do horrible things but who you still end up bothering about a bit. I saw Attack The Block recently and felt the same way about the teen gang in that.

And you didn't get to Roland dancing!

^should say 'Rook' and 'Tooth and Claw'. Too many ands.

Graham Masterton has written some good easy reading supernatural horrors, some I've not been able to put down until I'd finished them. Rook and Tooth and Claw are two that spring to mind.

I was properly scared by Duma Key, too. Who knew tennis balls washing up on a beach could be so scary? SK is definitely a master, if not the master, of horror.

I'm with you Cote when it comes to Duma Key. I love the creeping terror in the way the paintings develop. I love the way King deals with the character recovering from serious head trauma - it's very well done indeed, and I suspect it's very personal to him too. I love the bits which are written from the child's perspective, and I don't need a detailed exposition of who and why Perse is - it's scary enough as it is.

And I actually like Edgar because he is a flawed human being, and I don't think the women in the book are one dimensional at all, just damaged.

Sexy characters are not a prerequisite unless I am indulging in vampire porn.

I don't get this idea that the reader has to like the characters of a book. Seriously. I read it on Amazon reader reviews as well and find it very puzzling.

Like, "I didn't like the main characters so didn't care what happened to them" etc.

I've enjoyed books about serial killers, psychopaths, and on one notable occasion, a man slowly going insane. I didn't "like" any of those characters but loved the books.

Btw Roland wasn't sexy, at least not in that book. He was ill, shivering with fever, and incapacitated for most of the story. Which was mostly about giant lobsters saying "Chick-a-dick" etc.

Duma Key has a much better story and has far greater impact than that book imho

I liked the main character and the old lady and the dude who looks after her. But I thought the whole siblings thing was boring and the girls were completely one dimensional. And I can't be doing with him when the 'terror' is something which he can't actually describe - things in the wilds but with no sense of what etc. In 'Lisey's Story' the 'thing with the piebald sides' is equally inadequately defined and thus ineffective imho.

And nobody in either of those two novels is half as sexy as Roland!

Why did you think Duma Key was silly, Remus?

How would you compare it negatively to, say, that Dark Tower book of SK's that you recommended to me last year?

I think 'Duma Key' is one of King's sillier novels. The Shining is better. King rates (and I can't stand) a book called 'The Haunting Of Hill House.' Have forgotten the writer, sorry.

Lots of people like 'The Little Stranger' by Sarah Waters - I didn't. And lots of people like, 'The Woman In Black' by Susan Hill but I thought it was rubbish.

Clearly I am far too fussy though. Watching this with interest though. In the meantime, check out some Victorian ghost stories.

Duma Key is probably my favourite King, and I found it very scary (And I don't scare easily).

I'd go for early Phil Rickman instead of the Merrily Watkins series - Candlenight, Crybbe, December, and the Man in the Moss. All brilliant.

And if you can get them (they tend to be out of print) try Joe Donnelly - The Shee, Bane, Stone and Still Life are all great. Shrike, not so much.

Surely you have to read Stephen King.

Duma Key is pretty good, among his more recent books. Many of his old books are on supernatural horror, as well. The Shining, etc.

Phil Rickman might be a good author to look at, particularly the novels featuring Merrily Watkins as the diocesan exorcist in an area on the Englsh/Welsh borders.

I think of the very few of these books I have read, "Pet Sematary" by Stephen King probably stuck in my mind. And that was over 20 years'ago. I don't know if a zombie type theme would be your thing, if I recall correctly one character was a young boy so you may prefer to avoid this one.

Can anyone reccommend any supernatural horror which is easy to read?