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Need a horror book that scares me.
Casually Hardcore
Once an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered User regular
Once an Asshole. Trying to be better.Registered User regular
Okay, so I'm tired of reading fantasy and now I want to read some horror.
I'm tired of Stephen King (and I read all his better novels anyways), and I'm sick of detailed explanation of fetuses penises and gore and stuff. Long, drawn out, explanations of someone eating their feces while someone eats their eyeballs out isn't scary.
I also want to read something recent, like this last decade. So no Lovecraft (besides, those novels are a bit boring).
Any suggestions?
I'm tired of Stephen King (and I read all his better novels anyways), and I'm sick of detailed explanation of fetuses penises and gore and stuff. Long, drawn out, explanations of someone eating their feces while someone eats their eyeballs out isn't scary.
I also want to read something recent, like this last decade. So no Lovecraft (besides, those novels are a bit boring).
Any suggestions?
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I'm not sure how "scary" it is, but I don't think it's possible ever to be sure how scary something is, given the wildly varying individual tolerances. I will say that is was incredibly memorable, and quite a bit of it stuck around for a while for me.
http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/B002CMLQXY/ref=pd_sim_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-Legal-Campaign-Rich-Everybody/dp/1591840694/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
Yeah, it's pretty solid.
It's the kind of psychological horror that I wish we could see more of in books and movies, so putting another +1 to House of Leaaves
I also liked the king in yellow. Some of the stories were pretty creepy.
It's a very understandable viewpoint.
Thirding this. It's a fantastic fucking book.
The first bit of the book is not as good as the middle and end of the book. Once you get past the part where the narrator can't go two pages without telling us who he fucked on that particular night it gets a lot better.
Are you looking purely for novels or are you also interested in compilations?
I found HoL creepy at times, but not overly scary. I honestly can't think of any actual scary novels, maybe I just don't get scared that way. Or maybe I'm not reading the right books.
I think the entire movie described in the book would actually make an excellent film. The book is worth reading for those parts alone imo.
It's a novel puzzle.
For you to read.
And solve.
Dean Koontz has some decent scares in some of his novels. Phantoms is the one that most easily comes to mind for that.
Still if that is too strong then try books by Edgar Allan Poe or Richard Matheson (Among others he wrote "I am legend" and the book is much better than the movie).
I recently read "Drood", which was really unsettling at times, followed by "Summer of Night", which is a bit like Simmons take on "It" and after that I read "Winter Haunting".
You kinda notice that Drood was one of his latest books with 20 years between it and Summer of Night, the writing is much more polished, but I enjoyed all 3 of them.
Reading the Hyperion Omnibus right now, but that's SciFi, not horror.
House of Leaves annoyed me. The writer spent way too much time on Thumper his stripper fucktoy instead of the interesting things.
Also, the name being blue and people actually writing it in blue causes Raven-Mac-Fanboy levels of hatred for pretentiousness.
Was going to cite "Life of Pi," but I'm right there with ya.
While I didn't find it scary (well a few parts made me feel pretty tense), it is one of the best and most unique books I've ever read
Very much an excellent suggestion, if you like your eye-widening horror peppered liberally with dick jokes.
Which I did.
John Dies at the End wasn't really scary to me, although I guess it did have a few moments.
Still, I read the entirety of it online in two sittings, so for all of its ridiculousness it's actually a very addictive read.
Yeah, he's one to watch if you're a horror fan imo.
I dunno if Let the Right One In is available in english, but the book is much more horror-centered than the movie; especially the latter half. John Ajvide Lindqvist is a great writer whom Hill reminds me a great deal of. Alas, all his shit is in swedish unless they've been translated.
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Stephen King knew him fairly well (he passed away in 2001 according to Wikipedia) since they were colleagues and was pretty creeped out by by him, so that's something...
Dean Koontz wrote some pretty creepy books early in his career. Phantoms, Winter Moon, and Midnight are probably the best three. Do not read anything recent of his.
It's technically an 80s splatterpunk/crime novel (as the villain is very technically a "normal" human) but Slob by Rex Miller has a truly horrific villain
Deathbird stories by Harlan Ellison is a collection of his lesser-known but great horror work
I host a podcast about movies.
The first 80 pages or so are spectacularly creepy. The rest of the book is good, though not quite at the same level as what is effectively the intro, establishing the overall setting. Still highly worthwhile though, and worth it for the intro alone.
I dunno- I like his recent stuff because he's been going outside of his box more, the characters are more interesting (not the same old copy+ characters he tended to do with his earlier writing), the villians still alluring in their horrid ways, the plots tightly woven (albiet a plot hole or two but that's not why you're reading).
I'd say he's a tad bit hit and miss but not enough to forgoe all his newer works.
Oh and check out "The Bad Place" I remember being sufficiently disturbed by that one.
Also: I will defend House of Leaves to the death, but it's definitely not a horror novel. I didn't find it frightening at all, though I guess if you read chapter 13 really fast it could make a nice creepy short story.