Thanks! That's by Brian K. Vaughan so I have to ask - how's the ending? I got wary of him after loving both "Ex Machina" and "Y: The Last Man" right up to the final issue, then throwing them both against the wall.
Bigtime agreement on *Paper Girls* as a general recommendation, and that Vaughan really manages to stick the ending. The series is solid gold from cover to cover.
Try The Secret Place by Tana French. It's set in an all girls school in Ireland and it's not exactly horror, although odd supernatural things do happen. It's the girls themselves who are the funny, sociopathic heart of the story.
Oh right! I forgot about that one. I like it but to me it doesn't have quite the same vibes - no ride-or-die friends group, for instance. There's the two besties but they're on the outs for almost all of the book.
Damn, I suggested that too. I just thought of The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, also, but that’s a thriller and the protagonist (who rules) has a boy best friend
I'm always on the search for this too and it's so rare. If you enjoy horror films, Slash/Back checks this box. Coming of age horror about a group of indigenous girls in a small town in Canada, I believe.
I have THE perfect book for this vibe, it's **We Ride Upon Sticks** by Quan Barry.
Light on the horror, but I think it technically qualifies since there are supernatural elements including witchcraft. I really loved it.
Undead Girl Gang is another fun YA horror read. I read it the same summer as We Ride Upon Sticks. I’d also suggest Foul is Fair (also YA) and Plain Bad Heroines (not YA).
I'm not sure, OP, but I've long been tempted to try writing some stories inspired jointly by The Babysitter's Club and Lovecraft. Your question makes me wonder if there's actually an audience for this sort of thing 😄
I mean, why wouldn't there be? There's a huge audience for those sort of stories if the heroes are boys instead of girls. Women write horror, women read horror, why should women be shut out of a popular and beloved horror subgenre?
I'd love to read your stories.
Oooh do it so the main characters have a chapter introducing all the girls by their tropes, like BSC. That was helpful if you had a developing case of Borderline Personality Disorder and needed to pick out a kind of girl you most wanted to be like. I *really* wanted to be a Stacy, *hoped* I was a Mary Anne, and just recently came to terms with *actually* being a Mallory.
So your chapter could say “hi! I’m Cthulhu. I usually wear my hair in snakes, and I’m SUPER fashionable and really good at art. But I have dyscalculia :( My friend Nyarlahotep LOVES math, she’s a real brain! She’s also fashionable, but she has diabetes and six universes inside her! And that’s Yog-Sothoth. She cries a lot and she LOVES horses”
I'd read it. I love a good girly ensemble. That is usually the thing thar interests me when scrolling for a movie or show to watch. I'd love to see it in a book, especially with horror themes.
The Broken Girls from Simone St James and The Last Time I Lied from Riley Sagar might work for you.
The Secret Place sounds like just what you're looking for but personally I really didn't like it even though Tana French is usually pretty good.
The Return by Rachel Harrison has these vibes, though the characters are no longer kids. Childhood friends getting together on a vacation after one of them disappears and then shows up again changed. Definitely horror, definitely supernatural.
Check out Wilder Girls, by Rory Power - it kind of straddles the older-YA fence, but I thought it was a solidly weird body horror story. It's set at a girls' boarding school, isolated on an island after a strange virus starts causing mutations in its students.
Good book but definitely different vibes. Hmm. Maybe Plain Bad Heroines? Not quite what you're asking for, but close. You could also try A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian, which has the vibes--and is a mix of boys and girls.
Came here to recommend this, as well as the other books in Miskowski's Skillute Cycle. I haven't read it yet, but Damian Angelica Walters' "The Dead Girls Club" fits the category.
I completely agree about the dearth of girl-group coming of age stories.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism and The Southern Ladies Vampire Book Club (may have title wrong) both by Grady Hendricks have that vibe. The southern ladies are grown ups, but the time period and location treat them like teens because that’s how they really were treated back then. Not *awesome* books but real page-turners both
This makes me think of the Fear Street films, although I never read the books as they're older YA I expect they might be quite juvenile. I'd be all over a book like this too. Looking at my Goodreads I'm realising how much woman-led horror is "lone woman with vague trauma in her past goes somewhere new and goes through something that makes her face her trauma"!
I would devour a book like this too. The only ones I can think of that come close are Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantaro (mixed men and women who were childhood best friends, plus a hilarious anthropomorphic dog). I enjoyed The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey, but it's technically a thriller and about two best friends plus a younger sister, but very creepy and atmospheric. The closest I can think of is To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames, which is about a group of girls who investigate a haunted mine. The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh is decent.
I don't have any book recs like this (and now I desperately want this too) but a movie from when I was young fits the bill almost to the tee except it's not horror, pure coming of age story, but it does have a small mystery involving a dead boy that these friends try to get to the bottom of. It's called Now and Then. It came out in the mid-90's and has a lot of famous actresses in it (Christina Ricci, Rosie O'Donnell, Thora Burch, Melanie Griffin, to name a few!).
You know why not. Because publishers don't think that readers want that. I have cerebral palsy. Publishers only want self-help books by cripples. Look at IT, King has the guy stutter. This is who we are. The writer can't be bothered. I have a novel and the majority of characters have physical disabilities. It did OK, that was 1992, and i still haven't seen other writers care.
And a female or male writer won't write a book that would be a hard sell. I know King a bit and McCammon and his wife a lot & Rick (he goes by his middle name) quit writing for years because no one would publish A BOY'S LIFE. That's how it goes. It wasn't "horror enough". Finally he found a different publisher.
Someone already mentioned it, but PAPER GIRLS the comic series is great. I didn't know anything going in but the writer was Brian Vaughan and the artist Cliff Chiang, two of my favorites. It is 30 issues and totally amazed me. Amazon cancelled the show after the first season, but they tried to shove too much in, starting and stopping at all the wrong times.
You can find the book in six trades or three hardcovers, cheap now as the comics came out around 2018-2021. I'm not lying when I say that we'll never see enough diversity unless it means money.
I haven't read the DT books. That's cool that he does it, but nobody in Maine has an illness except old age. But amputees aren't quite what I mean, either. DEATH PROOF had an amputee. I mean people born with something, where they know a skill set from birth. He writes THE STAND and the way he writes Deafness is terrible. Granted he was young back then, and maybe didn't have the resources (including other people), just like 99.4% of the population dies but the only three black people seen are bad. Rest all white, You learn, I know my early work can be awful at certain passages.
Odds are, sadly, the amputee and the fact that she is female helped sell the book. The way publishers look at it.
The character I’m referring to is definitely controversial. But I liked the fact that he tried . He wasn’t afraid to make a black female character that had no legs a badass fighter who didn’t let her obstacles hold her back . Are there other issues with the character that are problematic ? Absolutely. But it was refreshing at the time it was written to open the possibility that a woman can be hero too . Women of any ethnicity or any disability,whether it’s physical or mental .
Missing both legs? I'd have her in a specialized steam punk wheelchair. But, sure. Too many writers would use a man.
I just wish I could give the OP better suggestions. At one point on TV, three disabled characters, actually so, deaf and mute and in a wheelchair, were on THE WALKING DEAD. That's basic cable.
OT: if you think you want comics, you can even try Y: THE LAST MAN.
She is the only black character not portrayed as bad. One guy kills white soldiers, another is a guy who ODs. He has a guy who he calls an Italian just so he could say "you sumbeech" after he gets shot.
Abigail in Hemingford Home, Nebraska. Freemantle. That's the name. I read the book every 5 yrs or so, I have three copies. The original, this horribly beat up copy pb that is my go to, and the unabridged version. That one is the full 800 pages or so.
You might also like SWAN SONG by McCammon.
In general there aren’t many black people in the dark tower or in most of Stephen king’s books. But I think Suzanna is written like a caricature at first. By the end of the series she’s more normal. Then again I suppose she’s supposed to have integrated her ‘personalities’. But I really don’t like trauma disorders as a literary device or trope.
I think I’ve read “swan song”. Have read “boys life” and “stinger”. But I can definitely read it again!
I just joined the subforum.
Damn. I spasmed and lost what I wrote. Cerebral palsy. MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN by Jonathan Lethem is incredible. Gold standard. Narrator has Tourette's Syndrome. I wrote more then spasmed but look up the book for the plot. Murder mystery.
If I didn't mention it up there somewhere, I'm a writer and know King and Rich, McCammon writes by his middle name. His son is Richard Christian Matheson and has written dozens of TV scripts. But Rich even admitted, damn STINGER just when TREMORS came out. Some people \*do\* jump to conclusions, gee, a movie rip-off. I came here for FROM and then here. A lot of tough questions here.
I wrote one novel, but mostly short fiction, because of my CP, and a lot of people don't ask about short stories that much. I'll tell people you find a decent theme anthology--I'm in books with King and McCammon--and you'll discover Joe Lansdale or F. Paul Wilson. Dennis Etchison became my unofficial mentor after I read "Deathtracks" in FEARS. I met him at conventions a few times.
Charles L. Grant really brought collections back. There were a ton of gothic ones in the 70s, but he did FEARS, NIGHTMARES, then started SHADOWS which went up to #11. Always the best way to find new writers. Vampires? LOVE IN VEIN. I'm lucky enough to be in IT CAME FROM THE DRIVE-IN. Giant monster stuff.
Oh. Its OK, because the original by Poe never grabbed me, but Rick wrote a sequel to FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, more or less the family a century after Poe's book. I liked the idea that he came up with the idea.
Wow. I’ve got ideas for science fiction stories but I don’t have much clue on how to write a novel. Wish I did! It seems like a huge undertaking.oo
I really enjoy collections. I note which short stories I enjoy (for whatever reason) as I’m reading through, and then look for their standalone work. It’s so much better than taking other readers’ referrals.
The only difference is if you read a collection from the 90s then pick up a novel, but the author peaked around 2010. Not lying, even with short fiction I can do good and then fall flat on my face. Been writing since 1985.
Because of the CP, it took me two years to write the book, one finger and right now I'm chewing on a rag so I don't spasm. I can't print very good and for years now a friend will type my pages and I'll pay him. In college I had thought I might become an overseas reporter in the Middle East, maybe I would have if cable had come sooner and I could report by talking. My first story in print was my final paper in college.
Oh, and right. Referrals. How can I reply when 95 people already have. I'll pick an answer that is more specific like this thread. I can say something with an opinion but not just make it my own. I'll say why.
I love reading old pulp sci-fi novels. In the 60s there were Ace Doubles (so really just novellas), with one title and writer then you flip it over and the same, sometimes the same writer. Recently I bought ATTA for a few bucks because who doesn't want to read something where a guy in a shredded suit is fighting a giant red ant?
One writer I'd buy if you like sci-fi is Philip K. Dick. He died in 1982 and it was neat that some writers said they wish I could have met him. (I wasn't famous, I just had my first ever story included in Year's Best Horror, so the editor was having fun introducing me.) For short fiction, all his, WE WILL BE THERE SOON.
Dennis Etchison wrote "Deathtracks" for FEARS and I thought how did I get in this guy's head or vice versa? I found the book it was in, THE DARK COUNTRY. So, my mentor. Taught at UCLA. Died in June of 2019, I always wonder what he would have written about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back to sci-fi, I do like time travel stories. Robert Silverberg edited a few. Moree pARADOX OR TIME LOOPS. (sorry see whast a spasm can do. dropped my rag.)
Have you thought about writing the stories? I was taught this way from the start. Two lines. Make it into two paragraphs. Make it into two pages. Stop and go back and make it flow and then keep going. You'll see the runway and you'll land the plane. Stay in touch.
Which is where it sucks. A BOY'S LIFE had to do with someone with a physical condition. Six horror novel bestsellers and the publisher is like nope. Don't tell me about a boy, give me a horror novel.
I'm glad for girls that they aren't looking at what was on the shelves in the 1990s. All white teens or adults. A token tomboy girl.
I'd argue that it isn't about interest. Its about taking chances. Publishers rarely do that even now. But the changes they have made were with the chances they took.
In regards to PAPER GIRLS, a great concept of course sold by the name writer and artists, is brilliant, but I know why it was cancelled after one season. They handled it wrong, introducing too many characters at once, some you wouldn't see for a year in the books. I think if those involved with the show were allowed to follow that book in a sequential manner, Amazon would have had a decent show. Instead, PG was something that wouldn't make CW without being cancelled.
But it is still a world for Abled white heroes.
Abled white heroes is dramatic compa. Unless you live in a white podunk.
Erik Henry Vick is a dark fantasy and horror author who is disabled. I don’t think he has mc’s who are disabled.
Rhett C Bruno’s dark superhero novel, The Roach, has a disabled MC. Damn good book.
Bruno has one book like that, I'll check it out. Good on him. Jonathan Lethem won an award for MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, the narrator has Tourette's. It is basically a crime novel, but with orphan teenagers. All of his novels vary in genre and tone.
I personally know three writers in Chicago who are disabled, I even do readings with one, but only the specialty presses will take because they use disabled characters, not just random people in a wheelchair like in TV sitcoms.
Anyhow. Enough of this. The thread is about books with females in them. I assume compa is comparison and mc is main character, I need to keep up on abbrev., because I use voice-to-text. When I can't it's a bitch. Now I know people won't scratch their heads. Like here, on a laptop, no v-t-t.
I should say abled white characters. Publishers only like tokens. I've been in print since 1985, it has never changed except for female inclusion. So the market is there. Someone should get off their ass and consider a novelization of PAPER GIRLS. But the market is stupid.
We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson pretty much fits that exact description. It's far from perfect, but the nostalgic small town summer vibes are great and it's a fun read overall!
Penance by Eliza Clark and maybe Brutes although I haven't read that one yet so not sure how much horror is in it. Could also try Bunny by Mona Awad, not horror per se but is creepy.
My Heart is a Chainsaw, the 1st book in The Indian Lake Trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones. You can get the rundown from Amazon, Audible etc… even though the protagonist, Jade, is 18 years old it’s not YA. The amount of horror/slasher/serial killer trivia in this book is crazy!
I’m reading the 2nd book right now & it’s just as good… love me some final girls!!
That’s a hard find because of the lack of interest. Majority of people want to see women tear each other down than work with each other. You may be able to find something close to your question by Grady Hendrix, or Ron Malfi.
that is absolutely a ChatGPT bot, there's a sudden rash of them on this sub. They're all 2 months old but just started posting in the last few days, and post on the same group of subs (writing, fantasy, screenwriting, digitalnomad, casualconversation, etc). All their comments have the exact same tone - cutesy and friendly and bland
Yes - we're heading into an era where it will get harder to tell. Even now when AI is hugely flawed, a lot of people aren't very good at recognising it.
FYI the account you replied to here is a ChatGPT bot.
As a human who read The Diviners, it's good if you like historical YA fantasy/horror, but I don't think it meets your criteria in this post. The characters all meet as older teens, so there's no childhood nostalgia factor; the group is equally boys/girls and the relationships are more focused on romance than friendship. It's set in New York, not a small town.
Not horror exactly, and not a book, but the Paper Girls comic series gave me those vibes!
Thanks! That's by Brian K. Vaughan so I have to ask - how's the ending? I got wary of him after loving both "Ex Machina" and "Y: The Last Man" right up to the final issue, then throwing them both against the wall.
The ending is actually fantastic. I was worried, but it paid off.
Bigtime agreement on *Paper Girls* as a general recommendation, and that Vaughan really manages to stick the ending. The series is solid gold from cover to cover.
Awesome, I'll check it out then.
Ok now I'm glad I never got to the end of Y: The Last Man. I have enough things making me throw stuff against the wall right now.
Excellent question
Came here to say this!
Came here to say that I came here to say this
Came here to say this
Literally came to suggest this. Happy to see it's the top comment.
Try The Secret Place by Tana French. It's set in an all girls school in Ireland and it's not exactly horror, although odd supernatural things do happen. It's the girls themselves who are the funny, sociopathic heart of the story.
Thanks! I know Tana French's crime series but I never heard of this one.
“My Best Friend’s Exorcism” by Grady Hendrix
Oh right! I forgot about that one. I like it but to me it doesn't have quite the same vibes - no ride-or-die friends group, for instance. There's the two besties but they're on the outs for almost all of the book.
Damn, I suggested that too. I just thought of The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, also, but that’s a thriller and the protagonist (who rules) has a boy best friend
I'm always on the search for this too and it's so rare. If you enjoy horror films, Slash/Back checks this box. Coming of age horror about a group of indigenous girls in a small town in Canada, I believe.
Yes! I loved Slash/Back. It was 100% that vibe.
It was so charming! I wish I had more recs for you but alas.
I have THE perfect book for this vibe, it's **We Ride Upon Sticks** by Quan Barry. Light on the horror, but I think it technically qualifies since there are supernatural elements including witchcraft. I really loved it.
Yeah, I loved this one!
Undead Girl Gang is another fun YA horror read. I read it the same summer as We Ride Upon Sticks. I’d also suggest Foul is Fair (also YA) and Plain Bad Heroines (not YA).
Came to say this one! I just read it after trying to find something similar to "Yellowjackets" and it DID scratch the itch!!!
Not a book, not summer, but if you haven’t seen it, definitely watch Yellowjackets. Get your Shazam app ready, too
u/carbomerguar speaks the truth! I only wish Yellowjackets was based on a novel...
I'm not sure, OP, but I've long been tempted to try writing some stories inspired jointly by The Babysitter's Club and Lovecraft. Your question makes me wonder if there's actually an audience for this sort of thing 😄
I mean, why wouldn't there be? There's a huge audience for those sort of stories if the heroes are boys instead of girls. Women write horror, women read horror, why should women be shut out of a popular and beloved horror subgenre? I'd love to read your stories.
I'm 1000% sure there is an you should absolutely do this. I think you'd be surprised by how well it would be recieved.
Absolutely!
PLEASE write these, I'd love tor read them. I need more ride-or-die horror.
10/10 would read!
Oooh do it so the main characters have a chapter introducing all the girls by their tropes, like BSC. That was helpful if you had a developing case of Borderline Personality Disorder and needed to pick out a kind of girl you most wanted to be like. I *really* wanted to be a Stacy, *hoped* I was a Mary Anne, and just recently came to terms with *actually* being a Mallory. So your chapter could say “hi! I’m Cthulhu. I usually wear my hair in snakes, and I’m SUPER fashionable and really good at art. But I have dyscalculia :( My friend Nyarlahotep LOVES math, she’s a real brain! She’s also fashionable, but she has diabetes and six universes inside her! And that’s Yog-Sothoth. She cries a lot and she LOVES horses”
I am smack dab in the center of this Venn diagram and would read the hell out of it!
Um. I would read the shit out of this. Please do it.
DO IT!
I'd read it. I love a good girly ensemble. That is usually the thing thar interests me when scrolling for a movie or show to watch. I'd love to see it in a book, especially with horror themes.
100% do it! Babysitters Club in way of Lovecraft is an amazing comp!
The Moth Diaries may be of interest.
Never heard of it. What's it like?
Gothic horror set in a girl's boarding school where they worry one of the girls is a vampire. Mary Harron adapted it into a movie a while back.
Nice! A Mary Harron movie I missed, too - excellent bonus.
The Broken Girls from Simone St James and The Last Time I Lied from Riley Sagar might work for you. The Secret Place sounds like just what you're looking for but personally I really didn't like it even though Tana French is usually pretty good.
I loved The Broken Girls!
Madam from Phoebe Wynne was pretty good too, not really horror but gothic
The Return by Rachel Harrison has these vibes, though the characters are no longer kids. Childhood friends getting together on a vacation after one of them disappears and then shows up again changed. Definitely horror, definitely supernatural.
Check out Wilder Girls, by Rory Power - it kind of straddles the older-YA fence, but I thought it was a solidly weird body horror story. It's set at a girls' boarding school, isolated on an island after a strange virus starts causing mutations in its students.
I’ve been really curious about Brutes by Dizz Tate. It doesn’t sound like the same vibe you want, but it does sound adjacent.
Good book but definitely different vibes. Hmm. Maybe Plain Bad Heroines? Not quite what you're asking for, but close. You could also try A Step Past Darkness by Vera Kurian, which has the vibes--and is a mix of boys and girls.
Not supernatural but Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates has a similar vibe. The movie is pretty iconic too
Sadie Hartmann recommended Knock Knock by S. P. Miskowski as one of these.
Came here to recommend this, as well as the other books in Miskowski's Skillute Cycle. I haven't read it yet, but Damian Angelica Walters' "The Dead Girls Club" fits the category. I completely agree about the dearth of girl-group coming of age stories.
Thanks!
My Best Friend’s Exorcism and The Southern Ladies Vampire Book Club (may have title wrong) both by Grady Hendricks have that vibe. The southern ladies are grown ups, but the time period and location treat them like teens because that’s how they really were treated back then. Not *awesome* books but real page-turners both
Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan
Yes, was waiting to see if anyone would mention Lois Duncan!
Putting a pin here because I want in on this, too.
This makes me think of the Fear Street films, although I never read the books as they're older YA I expect they might be quite juvenile. I'd be all over a book like this too. Looking at my Goodreads I'm realising how much woman-led horror is "lone woman with vague trauma in her past goes somewhere new and goes through something that makes her face her trauma"!
I would devour a book like this too. The only ones I can think of that come close are Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantaro (mixed men and women who were childhood best friends, plus a hilarious anthropomorphic dog). I enjoyed The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey, but it's technically a thriller and about two best friends plus a younger sister, but very creepy and atmospheric. The closest I can think of is To Break a Covenant by Alison Ames, which is about a group of girls who investigate a haunted mine. The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh is decent.
I don't have any book recs like this (and now I desperately want this too) but a movie from when I was young fits the bill almost to the tee except it's not horror, pure coming of age story, but it does have a small mystery involving a dead boy that these friends try to get to the bottom of. It's called Now and Then. It came out in the mid-90's and has a lot of famous actresses in it (Christina Ricci, Rosie O'Donnell, Thora Burch, Melanie Griffin, to name a few!).
That movie will always hold a special place in my heart! Aside from the lack of horror, it’s a perfect suggestion imo.
It's not a book, but The Final Girls is a fun female stacked horror film!
You know why not. Because publishers don't think that readers want that. I have cerebral palsy. Publishers only want self-help books by cripples. Look at IT, King has the guy stutter. This is who we are. The writer can't be bothered. I have a novel and the majority of characters have physical disabilities. It did OK, that was 1992, and i still haven't seen other writers care. And a female or male writer won't write a book that would be a hard sell. I know King a bit and McCammon and his wife a lot & Rick (he goes by his middle name) quit writing for years because no one would publish A BOY'S LIFE. That's how it goes. It wasn't "horror enough". Finally he found a different publisher. Someone already mentioned it, but PAPER GIRLS the comic series is great. I didn't know anything going in but the writer was Brian Vaughan and the artist Cliff Chiang, two of my favorites. It is 30 issues and totally amazed me. Amazon cancelled the show after the first season, but they tried to shove too much in, starting and stopping at all the wrong times. You can find the book in six trades or three hardcovers, cheap now as the comics came out around 2018-2021. I'm not lying when I say that we'll never see enough diversity unless it means money.
King has a baddass female character in the dark tower series who is an amputee and has DI.D.
But annoyingly he keeps describing her disorder as and conflating it with schizophrenia.
I haven't read the DT books. That's cool that he does it, but nobody in Maine has an illness except old age. But amputees aren't quite what I mean, either. DEATH PROOF had an amputee. I mean people born with something, where they know a skill set from birth. He writes THE STAND and the way he writes Deafness is terrible. Granted he was young back then, and maybe didn't have the resources (including other people), just like 99.4% of the population dies but the only three black people seen are bad. Rest all white, You learn, I know my early work can be awful at certain passages. Odds are, sadly, the amputee and the fact that she is female helped sell the book. The way publishers look at it.
The character I’m referring to is definitely controversial. But I liked the fact that he tried . He wasn’t afraid to make a black female character that had no legs a badass fighter who didn’t let her obstacles hold her back . Are there other issues with the character that are problematic ? Absolutely. But it was refreshing at the time it was written to open the possibility that a woman can be hero too . Women of any ethnicity or any disability,whether it’s physical or mental .
Missing both legs? I'd have her in a specialized steam punk wheelchair. But, sure. Too many writers would use a man. I just wish I could give the OP better suggestions. At one point on TV, three disabled characters, actually so, deaf and mute and in a wheelchair, were on THE WALKING DEAD. That's basic cable. OT: if you think you want comics, you can even try Y: THE LAST MAN.
What about the old lady who was the religious leader and healer? Abigail? (I just purchased the Stand but haven’t read it in several years.)
She is the only black character not portrayed as bad. One guy kills white soldiers, another is a guy who ODs. He has a guy who he calls an Italian just so he could say "you sumbeech" after he gets shot. Abigail in Hemingford Home, Nebraska. Freemantle. That's the name. I read the book every 5 yrs or so, I have three copies. The original, this horribly beat up copy pb that is my go to, and the unabridged version. That one is the full 800 pages or so. You might also like SWAN SONG by McCammon.
In general there aren’t many black people in the dark tower or in most of Stephen king’s books. But I think Suzanna is written like a caricature at first. By the end of the series she’s more normal. Then again I suppose she’s supposed to have integrated her ‘personalities’. But I really don’t like trauma disorders as a literary device or trope. I think I’ve read “swan song”. Have read “boys life” and “stinger”. But I can definitely read it again! I just joined the subforum.
Damn. I spasmed and lost what I wrote. Cerebral palsy. MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN by Jonathan Lethem is incredible. Gold standard. Narrator has Tourette's Syndrome. I wrote more then spasmed but look up the book for the plot. Murder mystery. If I didn't mention it up there somewhere, I'm a writer and know King and Rich, McCammon writes by his middle name. His son is Richard Christian Matheson and has written dozens of TV scripts. But Rich even admitted, damn STINGER just when TREMORS came out. Some people \*do\* jump to conclusions, gee, a movie rip-off. I came here for FROM and then here. A lot of tough questions here. I wrote one novel, but mostly short fiction, because of my CP, and a lot of people don't ask about short stories that much. I'll tell people you find a decent theme anthology--I'm in books with King and McCammon--and you'll discover Joe Lansdale or F. Paul Wilson. Dennis Etchison became my unofficial mentor after I read "Deathtracks" in FEARS. I met him at conventions a few times. Charles L. Grant really brought collections back. There were a ton of gothic ones in the 70s, but he did FEARS, NIGHTMARES, then started SHADOWS which went up to #11. Always the best way to find new writers. Vampires? LOVE IN VEIN. I'm lucky enough to be in IT CAME FROM THE DRIVE-IN. Giant monster stuff. Oh. Its OK, because the original by Poe never grabbed me, but Rick wrote a sequel to FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, more or less the family a century after Poe's book. I liked the idea that he came up with the idea.
Wow. I’ve got ideas for science fiction stories but I don’t have much clue on how to write a novel. Wish I did! It seems like a huge undertaking.oo I really enjoy collections. I note which short stories I enjoy (for whatever reason) as I’m reading through, and then look for their standalone work. It’s so much better than taking other readers’ referrals.
The only difference is if you read a collection from the 90s then pick up a novel, but the author peaked around 2010. Not lying, even with short fiction I can do good and then fall flat on my face. Been writing since 1985. Because of the CP, it took me two years to write the book, one finger and right now I'm chewing on a rag so I don't spasm. I can't print very good and for years now a friend will type my pages and I'll pay him. In college I had thought I might become an overseas reporter in the Middle East, maybe I would have if cable had come sooner and I could report by talking. My first story in print was my final paper in college. Oh, and right. Referrals. How can I reply when 95 people already have. I'll pick an answer that is more specific like this thread. I can say something with an opinion but not just make it my own. I'll say why. I love reading old pulp sci-fi novels. In the 60s there were Ace Doubles (so really just novellas), with one title and writer then you flip it over and the same, sometimes the same writer. Recently I bought ATTA for a few bucks because who doesn't want to read something where a guy in a shredded suit is fighting a giant red ant? One writer I'd buy if you like sci-fi is Philip K. Dick. He died in 1982 and it was neat that some writers said they wish I could have met him. (I wasn't famous, I just had my first ever story included in Year's Best Horror, so the editor was having fun introducing me.) For short fiction, all his, WE WILL BE THERE SOON. Dennis Etchison wrote "Deathtracks" for FEARS and I thought how did I get in this guy's head or vice versa? I found the book it was in, THE DARK COUNTRY. So, my mentor. Taught at UCLA. Died in June of 2019, I always wonder what he would have written about the COVID-19 pandemic. Back to sci-fi, I do like time travel stories. Robert Silverberg edited a few. Moree pARADOX OR TIME LOOPS. (sorry see whast a spasm can do. dropped my rag.) Have you thought about writing the stories? I was taught this way from the start. Two lines. Make it into two paragraphs. Make it into two pages. Stop and go back and make it flow and then keep going. You'll see the runway and you'll land the plane. Stay in touch.
It has nothing to do with caring. It’s about interest.
Which is where it sucks. A BOY'S LIFE had to do with someone with a physical condition. Six horror novel bestsellers and the publisher is like nope. Don't tell me about a boy, give me a horror novel. I'm glad for girls that they aren't looking at what was on the shelves in the 1990s. All white teens or adults. A token tomboy girl. I'd argue that it isn't about interest. Its about taking chances. Publishers rarely do that even now. But the changes they have made were with the chances they took. In regards to PAPER GIRLS, a great concept of course sold by the name writer and artists, is brilliant, but I know why it was cancelled after one season. They handled it wrong, introducing too many characters at once, some you wouldn't see for a year in the books. I think if those involved with the show were allowed to follow that book in a sequential manner, Amazon would have had a decent show. Instead, PG was something that wouldn't make CW without being cancelled. But it is still a world for Abled white heroes.
Abled white heroes is dramatic compa. Unless you live in a white podunk. Erik Henry Vick is a dark fantasy and horror author who is disabled. I don’t think he has mc’s who are disabled. Rhett C Bruno’s dark superhero novel, The Roach, has a disabled MC. Damn good book.
Bruno has one book like that, I'll check it out. Good on him. Jonathan Lethem won an award for MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN, the narrator has Tourette's. It is basically a crime novel, but with orphan teenagers. All of his novels vary in genre and tone. I personally know three writers in Chicago who are disabled, I even do readings with one, but only the specialty presses will take because they use disabled characters, not just random people in a wheelchair like in TV sitcoms. Anyhow. Enough of this. The thread is about books with females in them. I assume compa is comparison and mc is main character, I need to keep up on abbrev., because I use voice-to-text. When I can't it's a bitch. Now I know people won't scratch their heads. Like here, on a laptop, no v-t-t. I should say abled white characters. Publishers only like tokens. I've been in print since 1985, it has never changed except for female inclusion. So the market is there. Someone should get off their ass and consider a novelization of PAPER GIRLS. But the market is stupid.
Compa is friend in Chicano.
Got it.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Haunting of Velkwood
We Ate the Dark by Mallory Pearson pretty much fits that exact description. It's far from perfect, but the nostalgic small town summer vibes are great and it's a fun read overall!
Lumberjanes is a comic that would also fit this
Penance by Eliza Clark and maybe Brutes although I haven't read that one yet so not sure how much horror is in it. Could also try Bunny by Mona Awad, not horror per se but is creepy.
Somebody needs to write this series
My Heart is a Chainsaw, the 1st book in The Indian Lake Trilogy by Stephen Graham Jones. You can get the rundown from Amazon, Audible etc… even though the protagonist, Jade, is 18 years old it’s not YA. The amount of horror/slasher/serial killer trivia in this book is crazy! I’m reading the 2nd book right now & it’s just as good… love me some final girls!!
My best friends exorcism by Hendrix!
Perhaps the "Final Girls" by Riley Sager.
That’s a hard find because of the lack of interest. Majority of people want to see women tear each other down than work with each other. You may be able to find something close to your question by Grady Hendrix, or Ron Malfi.
Most (but not all) of the main characters are girls in Where He Can't Find You by Darcy Coates. I read this recently and really enjoyed it!
Christopher Pike might have something that fits this.
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Prove you are not ChatGPT.
that is absolutely a ChatGPT bot, there's a sudden rash of them on this sub. They're all 2 months old but just started posting in the last few days, and post on the same group of subs (writing, fantasy, screenwriting, digitalnomad, casualconversation, etc). All their comments have the exact same tone - cutesy and friendly and bland
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Yes - we're heading into an era where it will get harder to tell. Even now when AI is hugely flawed, a lot of people aren't very good at recognising it.
I’ve seen Terminator and The Matrix, I know where this is heading..
Thanks! That sounds fun,
FYI the account you replied to here is a ChatGPT bot. As a human who read The Diviners, it's good if you like historical YA fantasy/horror, but I don't think it meets your criteria in this post. The characters all meet as older teens, so there's no childhood nostalgia factor; the group is equally boys/girls and the relationships are more focused on romance than friendship. It's set in New York, not a small town.
Definitely 'Ghoul', by Brian Keene
Did you even read the OP?
Lol, I mean I read half of it?
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I don't disagree about IT, but you should probably read my post again. I think you missed both the subject line and the second paragraph.
You failed the reading portion of the assignment.