Thursday, September 12, 2013

Horror Fiction Help XII

More emails from frustrated folks looking for forgotten horror fictions. Any help would be most appreciated!

1. The main character was a young woman traveling with her husband or boyfriend.  They, somehow, come under the power the an older couple who have twisted religious/ sexual issues.  The older woman takes the heroine and tries to brainwash or dominate her into act like a prepubescent girl.  I seem to remember the main character having to dress in little girls clothes, shave her pubic hair, and hide menstruation, because the older woman thought that was when girls become"dirty".  The older man would sexually abuse the woman, but it took on a creepier tone of " daddys special little girl" involving having to sit on his knee and   be fondled leading up to the inevitable rape. This has to be hidden from the older woman bcause she would blame the "girls" for again being dirty and wicked. The boyfriend meets a bad end.  For "dirtying" the main character, he is murdered, and it is his murder scene that is the most vivid in my memory.  I remember him waking him and having a noose around his neck.  He is standing on a chair, and under his feet in a hotplate.  The woman turns the hotplate on and his feet start to burn.  I remember the horror of reading it because his dilemma is to either step of the plate to save his feet, thereby hanging himself. Or, wait until his feet burn enough that he slowly strangles or involuntarily steps off in extreme pain.  It seems to me that the woman wants some kind of confession from the man, and says she is willing to let him go if he admits his sins. Found! It's:


2. A young girl (very intelligent, pretty and pure) leaving high school and being excepted to a very old, prestigious and expensive college/university far from home on scholarship. she then gets involved with the popular kids.. one or two of the teachers is involved in the occult and "talks" to the school. it is based in America. The school is basically evil and wants a sacrifice mainly being the young " innocent" girl. I think the school embodies Satan. It's quite dark and sexual.  Found! It's:

  


3. The cover was fully black and “puffy” or 3D with white or silver lettering of the title…it may’ve had red eyes as well. I cannot recall the author or the title. I could have sworn it had the word “beast” in it, like Bloodbeast and seem to remember it was just one word in the title. I’ve tried googling in all sorts of ways but with no luck. In the story, the beast is a wolf-like creature shredding people in the lake/outdoorsy town and the sheriff-type guy was on the hunt of it. The book would primarily use the sheriff’s perspective I believe, then go into italics when telling the story from the perspective of the wolf-monster (who I think was female).       

4. The cover has a red-haired woman with a skeletal hand, holding a bloody knife. In the beginning she kills her step-mother with a scorpion and I think later on in the book she kills someone else with a scorpion.

5. Centered around some sort of scientific or military expedition or research group. Of course there was a creature at some point. Based on what I remember of the book, it was a relatively slim volume (200 pages tops, I'd think), and I vaguely recall a pretty bland cover design (something blue and white?) that leads me to believe the publication had to be no later than the early-mid 1970s

6. I read back it in the late 70s or 80s. It was about a book that the people who ever read this book, what ever they read then happened to them. Found! It's:


7. A pedophile who kidnaps a young boy and keeps him for awhile (note: it wasn’t Billy, by Strieber). I want to say that it had a pretty awesome cover, and for some reason my ancient mind even thinks it was a Fawcett paperback (original?). Found! It's:



8. Cult builds a bigger shell for hermit crab.
 

13 comments:

Joe Kenney said...

Some of these books sound pretty bizarre, and I'd like to read them if their titles are ever determined.

I'm pretty sure that #3 is referring to "Throwback," by Mark Manley, which I reviewed on my blog the other year: http://glorioustrash.blogspot.com/2011/10/throwback.html

From the "puffy" cover to the sequences written from the monster's point of view, it sounds pretty much identical to the novel the writer describes.

Will Errickson said...

Joe, thanks so much! This is great. I've sent the title to the reader looking for it. And I see I even commented on your review!

Jonathan Stover said...

#5 sounds an awful lot like Basil Copper's The Great White Space from 1977. The cover isn't exactly bland, but it's definitely blue and white, the volume is slim, and it involves a scientific expedition.

#7 could be Moonbog by Rick Hautala.

#6 could be John L. Byrne's Fear Book, but I haven't read it and haven't been able to find a review online to refresh my memory of a review when it came out in the 1980's.

Adam said...

#6 sounds like it could be William Schoell's Late at Night.

From his website:
"Bedtime Story - They had gathered for a weekend on notorious Lammerty Island, a harsh outcropping of rock off the coast of Maine with an unsavory reputation for repeated violence and bloodshed. But none of the assembled guests believed rumors of an evil psychic force emanating from the accumulated atrocities of the past and awaiting the summons of an uncanny power ... Until they happened upon the mysterious book with a cast of characters exactly mirroring their group, and a plot that foretold their deaths by appalling and supernatural means. They were all doomed -- unless they could unmask and destroy the evil genius calling up the hellish apparitions that emerged ... Late At Night."

Will Errickson said...

#1 is THE NURSERY by David Lippincott.

Craig J said...

4 might be WAIT AND SEE by Ruby Jean Jenson.

highwayknees said...

I'm pretty sure #8 is the somewhat obscure: The Manhood Ceremony. And yer right -it is a Fawcet
PB

highwayknees said...

Sorry, I meant #7

Will Errickson said...

Thank you highwayknees, you just made a horror reader very happy. I emailed him and he said that was the one!

Joe Kenney said...

I haven't read it yet, but I'm pretty sure #2 is "The School" by Ed Kelleher,

Also second the opinion that #6 is "Late At Night" by William Schoell.

Will Errickson said...

Thanks Joe - turns out LATE AT NIGHT was correct, & I emailed the other reader about THE SCHOOL.

Lincoln said...

Is #3 'The Totem', by David Morell?

Rayo Casablanca said...

No. 3 Could also be BLOODSNARL by Ivor Watkins.