What are you reading in 2026?

[gnarlygninja]

Ah, she hasn’t written many in a modern setting and she’s probably weakest there, honestly: 19th century works well for her. Was it The Twisted Ones? That was her first foray into horror, I think, and it’s a bit uneven but I liked it well enough.

A House with Good Bones, and I think The Hollow Places are both set around the same fictional North Carolina town too. I think the highs of her contemporary horror are higher than the historical ones I've read, but they drop off hard after the monsters show up.

 

[Vael]

I just finished There is No Antimemetics Division by QNTM and ... I really enjoyed it. Legit frightening and enthralling.

 

[Autumnal]

It really works, yeah, with a lingering creepiness a bit like Stephen Peck’s A Short Stay in Hell.

My reading lately has been heavy on the Tolkien: Andy Serkis reading (including the songs) The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, and The Silmarillion. Been good for my soul. I’ll see how far I get in the rest, but I’m really in a Tolkien mood.

 

[cbwjm]

I've gone back and read The Wizards and the Warriors by Hugh Cook, a book I remember reading years ago. I quite enjoyed it but, perhaps a little unfortunately, it has a point which feels like an ending and I kind of lost momentum after that. Still 16 chapters to go, I'll see about finishing it then might move onto the second book.

 

[Retros_x]

Knowing that she's weakest in modern settings tells me whatever I read probably wasn't near her best--on the other hand, it's the horror setting I pretty-strongly prefer

I can recommend Hollow Places (see below), but it is a very specific kind of horror. There is not too much gruesome stuff happening, its more about an uncanny place (without spoiling too much) that gets explored.

Also a big no-no for many readers who don't like her books is the humor. There is nothing funny happening, the events are always horror, but the characters joke a lot about it. Honestly its what I love about her books because it makes the characters make feel very realistic and human to me. Lot of people use humor as coping strategies in unsettling and frightening situations. But some readers really don't like it, which I can understand.

but they drop off hard after the monsters show up.

I have only read Hollow Places from her modern era horrors and it was vice-versa to me. Hated the beginning but once they entered that door I was hooked and was hooked until the end.

 

[Mannahnin]

Just read Robin McKinley's 1984 The Hero and the Crown, which was recommended to me as a friend's childhood favorite, and was a Newbury Award winner. Nice and short at 227 pages, it has a mythic/storybook tone for a lot of it (The City where the heroine lives is never named, for example), though many of the things she goes through and her personal relationships are pretty grounded, including some injuries and recoveries. A few elements feel a little underdeveloped, but the adventures are dramatic, the arc is good and the resolution satisfying.

 

[SkidAce]

Re-reading the Malazan Books of the Fallen, including spinn-offs and Eisselmont's

 

[prabe]

I can recommend Hollow Places (see below), but it is a very specific kind of horror. There is not too much gruesome stuff happening, its more about an uncanny place (without spoiling too much) that gets explored.

Also a big no-no for many readers who don't like her books is the humor. There is nothing funny happening, the events are always horror, but the characters joke a lot about it. Honestly its what I love about her books because it makes the characters make feel very realistic and human to me. Lot of people use humor as coping strategies in unsettling and frightening situations. But some readers really don't like it, which I can understand.

I am reasonably sure it was not the existence of humor that bothered me. King Sorrow is laden with it, as are many of the novels of Stephen Graham Jones. I (still) am not sure which novel it was that I thought was so bad, but it was probably one of the two y'all have mentioned, though the synopses I'm seeing online aren't ringing any bells. And I don't have the heart to ask my friend who lent me the book if he remembers which T Kingfisher novel he lent me that I thought was such crap, since he lent it to me as a rec ...