Sorry to hear a few haven't dug Tom Pic's Choir and Lower Deep. Man, I LOVED those books, and essentially everything I've read by him. Be sure to check out Hexes, Lie Down Already, and Headstone City.

Edward Lee

HEADSTONE CITY is one of my all-time faves. CHOIR is great. I have read A LOWER DEEP twice. That book is deeper than I am! Too much pain for me.
More that halfway through IN LAYMON'S TERMS. Enjoyed 3 stories.
Read a couple Deadite releases by a guy named Lee. I had read these short stories one by one as they were published. A book full of them? Wow. Insanity. What a bunch of wild-ass shit. Congrats, Ed!

Hitting on a few points here, from a bunch of previous posts:

I really liked Jigsaw Man. Gord took a story not being done much in horror these days and made it exciting. My favorite of his.

Fires Rising by Michael Laimo is indeed bad. Very bad. But try Deep in the Darkness, The Demonologist, or Dead Souls - I thought they were all far superior to Fires Rising.

With Tom Piccirilli, his older work was definitely, how should I say it...dense? I love his work, because the way he writes is beautiful. But if you want some lean and mean prose, try his books The Cold Spot and The Coldest Mile. They are awesome.

My contribution for a bad book is The Tower by Simon Clark. I've heard so much praise for the guy, and this was my first read of his. And for years, it's been my last. Geez, that book was atrocious. I did recently buy the Cemetery Dance hardcover of King Blood, because I've only heard great things about it. Here's hoping!

Add The Slab by Michael R. Collings to the list. I've just given up on it at around 90 pages after he spent about 5 of those pages describing a father getting his kids ready for school, compplete with bland conversation between dad and kids. This guy uses 5 pages where a paragraph would do.

Worst book I never finished was Hogg by Samuel R. Delany. It was just way to sick and just got repetitive after a while. I'm not even sure I'd call it horror, more just rape and brutality fiction. Anyone else heard of/read/finished this book? This is the first book I've refuse to finish because of how sick it was.

I read Hogg this year. Not sure I have the vocabulary to adequately describe how it made me feel, but I did finish it.

I've never discarded a book because it was too sick, only because it was shite. But, I did almost fail to finish Survivor (Gonzalez). That one scene in the middle of the book almost sent me over the edge, but I went back to it after a day or so.

A couple days ago I went sniffing round the internet for a stream of A Serbian Film to watch. First round of searching brought up a 2 minute clip. Upon viewing said clip, I was hit with the realization (based on similarity to Survivor) that there was a high likelihood that I would not be able to sit through it. I was PISSED!!!!! Motherhood is turning me into an incorrigible pussy (lame).

I actually did get rid of a book once (Special by Peter Soto); I can't say that it was bad but, jeez! It was so negative and misogynistic I couldn't have it in my proximity. It gave off so negative a vibe from my bookshelf, I had to give it away!

Edward Lee

Ha! Sotos!! I felt the same way. He's somewhat associated with the power electronics project WHITEHOUSE and they're pretty misogynistic as well. But Sotos seems to do it not for shock or entertainment value but for some deep psychological compulsion. That's one dude I wouldn't want to spend time with! His fans sometimes claim his work is some sort of sociological commentary... but I don't see it. I HOPE that's what it is. Or maybe he's the Marquis de Sade of this era, I don't know.

My feeling on Sotos is that he writes what he knows. As long as he doesn't act on his feelings he will stay out of prison. A person can't fake his way into writing the things he writes. I got rid of the Sotos in my house also. Who needs that shit.

I picked up a novel by Poppy Z. Brite a short time ago, and I can't seem to get past the first 30 pages. I think it is called "Lost Souls". It just seemed so "predictable/rehashed/same ol' stuff" to me. I have heard that Poppy is a great writer, but honestly, it was so stale to me, that I have stayed away from any other Poppy books for the time being.
If you are going to write a vampire novel, and have it take place in New Orleans....it better be fresh, and VERY good, cause you are on very storied (Anne Rice) territory! lol!
That being said, "fresh" is exactly what I found in "Brides Of The Impaler" by Mr. Lee. Good stuff!
Other than "Night Chills", I have had the some "boring book" issues with several Dean Koontz works as well. Again, a great writer, but perhaps not quite my style? Enjoyed "Night Chills" though.
Incidently, I was told by a few friends, that "Empire" by David Dunwoody, was quite slow and boring, and that it should have been so much better, having an interesting storyline such as it does....so I bought the book today, to see for myself!

All great writers, no disrespect intended,
Brandon Lee Spitler.

Oh god Sotos...I read everything I could get my hands on by him, when I went through my GG Allin faze. I'm glad that is over His zines that I ended up burning Pure is some of the sickest crap I every forced on myself. I hope to hell he wasn't or doesn't believe what he writes. Got me thinking about all the other twisted crud I read, anyone else ever venture into Full Force Frank, Randall Phillip's Fuck Magazine or the Goad's Answer Me!? You can read or download a copy of the first three issues of Answer me on internet archives, if you are curious. "These are the people in my neighborhood..."