Literary Horror discussion

I looked at “The Burned House”. My initial impression is that it’s a solid writing effort, yet strangely unsatisfying. Rucker seems to be straining after an Aickman-esque ambiguity, but in this respect it might have benefited (my opinion) from actually being a bit more oblique, at least in terms of the story’s supernatural elements. In the case of the narrator’s psyche, I found myself wishing for a opposite — a bit more clarity. I get a general sense of unfocused ennui, but nothing that really illuminates the psychology that might underlay the character’s actions.

✭✭✭½

I plan to make substantial progress on this book this Labor Day weekend.

I've read this collection already. I was looking for some new horror writers to read a while ago and I saw it recommended on Laird Barron's blog. The impression I got was that Rucker was a writer who is preoccupied with the same few images and they crop up repeatedly in her stories. It felt a bit 'samey' to me although there were a couple of stories that I liked. I'll look at it again.

I'm about 62 percent done with the book. Good stories, closer to 4 stars than 3.

Finished the book. I agree that the second half of the book is stronger than the first half.
There are different types of stories here. One was Lovecraftian. The last story was occult horror, a sub-category I'm interested in. I'm leaning toward 4 stars and I'll put up a review in a few days.