#that's not sarcastic by the way I am highly susceptible to flattery where people tell me I'm right

[notbecauseofvictories]

hi sarah! i got into tma way back when you posted something about it (2 years ago, i think??) and while i was a little, er,,, disappointed by the ending, i still really really liked a lot of the statements and characters. i have a little time on my hands these days w everything going online again and wanted to ask if you had any podcast or book recs? when i finished tma i looked back on your posts and your analysis was always spot on so i'd love to know what you've liked.

Ah, the way to a woman's heart: tell her that she's got the most valid takes!

Anyway, I can't recommend anything similar to The Magnus Archives specifically---however, I do love horror as a genre and am happy to talk some more about my latest finds.

PODCASTS So historically, I am bad at listening to podcasts. I just am; I listen to a few episodes while doing dishes or walking, think "this is so cool!" and then utterly forget about it. However! As long as you go into this with that caveat in mind, we should be fine.

I unequivocally recommend I Am In Eskew and The Silt Verses to everyone. They come from the same creative team, and while the podcasts can be different tonally, they are some of the best horror writing I have come across in the genre. They are smart and good and fucked up, and it should tell you something that Silt Verses season 2 is coming out soon and I am only slightly worried about that will go.

Archive 81 (the original podcast!) is a little hit-and-miss for me---I thought season 1 was fine but not much else, adored season 2, then liked some episodes from season 3 and Left of the Dial. However, it's a fun time and if you're looking for something similar to TMA this is probably your best bet.

I've only listened to season 1 of The White Vault, but it is 100% stand alone and so very good. I'm a sucker for "And Then There Were None"-But-Eldritch plots, and White Vault provides in abundance.

I've listened to even less of Unwell, Parkdale Haunt, Point Mystic, and Mabel, but from those few episodes, they were all enjoyable! Parkdale Haunt and Mabel lean heavily into haunted houses (plus demons and the Fair Folk, respectively), while Unwell and Point Mystic have differing takes on the weirdness of small towns.

BOOKS/STORIES

Most recently I finished The House of Small Shadows, by Adam Nevill, which---despite some frustration with the writing style---I found delicious. Amid creepy puppets and taxidermized grotesqueries, Nevill sets up a protagonist who is overly paranoid and frustratingly passive in turns, but drags you into her specific madness with her. Slow to start, but worth it in the end.

The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, by Brian Evenson, is a short story collection---not quite traditional horror, but very much takes its cues from some of the more literary horror out there. "Curator", "The Shimmering Wall", and "Palisade" in particular are knockouts; a collection about...despair, sort of? About things going to rot, and inevitability.

I mentioned Revelator, by Daryl Gregory, in my "Best Books of 2021" list---it's a fun trip into Appalachian/Lovecraftian horror, very much in the vein of the "Old Gods of Appalachia" podcast. Also worth checking out is Margaret Killjoy's Danielle Cain series---very fun novellas, plus a fucked up deer! And who can resist a fucked up deer?

TV & MOVIES

I absolutely 100% did not just tack this category on to go tell people to watch Severance, a show that is firmly in the vein of what I'm going to call "corporate horror"---along with Thomas Ligotti, Episode 11 of I Am In Eskew and Chapter 7 of Silt Verses, and those scenes in Cabin in the Woods where the guys in ties complain about the Japanese office. As a corporate drone myself, this is my favorite sub-genre so everybody should go watch it and talk to me about it.