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Very frightening books
Chu
poopspeesRegistered User regular
poopspeesRegistered User regular
I'm hoping some of you guys can list books that are genuinely scary. Any ideas for books that actually stay with you and are disconcerting in the middle of the night? For example, I found parts of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon to be pretty scary, affecting me even when I wasn't reading.
I posted this in the literature forum, but that was sort of an aside. My main thoughts were a.) procure a list of books in this vein, and b.) discuss the intricacies of deeply pervasive horror in literature.
It's easy to be frightened by things that have visual or audio cues and benchmarks. I think it's far more interesting and challenging to create something that has to frighten on the merits of what is written. What is it in a piece of written work that can actually bother us and remove us from our comfort zone? How about coerce us to walk a little faster to bed when the lights are off, or look around us when we're outside at night? React skittishly to minute sounds? etc.
Discuss and provide books plz.
I posted this in the literature forum, but that was sort of an aside. My main thoughts were a.) procure a list of books in this vein, and b.) discuss the intricacies of deeply pervasive horror in literature.
It's easy to be frightened by things that have visual or audio cues and benchmarks. I think it's far more interesting and challenging to create something that has to frighten on the merits of what is written. What is it in a piece of written work that can actually bother us and remove us from our comfort zone? How about coerce us to walk a little faster to bed when the lights are off, or look around us when we're outside at night? React skittishly to minute sounds? etc.
Discuss and provide books plz.
Chu on
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Clive Barker's Books of Blood has some great stories as well.
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There are one or two Stephen King books which did, but I can't recall which ones.
Sphere by Michael Crichton freaked me out the first couple of times I read it.
Another one I always bring up is John Dies at the End. To quote it's tagline - "An uplifting story of soul-crushing horror!" It's actually a comedy, and a really hilarious comedy at that. However, it's also a horror novel, and some of the scary parts of the book are seriously scary and unsettling. It's just overall really well done, and everyone should read it. The best part is that even though it's headed for print, the full novel (and it's even-better sequel) are both online and can be read right now. So go read it!
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JDatE is freakin' weird. But he has some really intense scenes in it that I was surprised by. I've been visiting pointlesswasteoftime.com for a while and figured the movie would be like the website. It was, insofar as the penis jokes go, but he's actually got some writing chops.
There was a book I read a few years ago that I remember freaking the hell out of me, but I can't remember what it was :P So I'll come back if I do and let you know.
Also, Stephen King is a good bet in general.
I was reading it sometime around Halloween, and I remember a friend of mine was trying to get me to come out to a party she was having, but I just couldn't do it. I didn't want to leave the House, I didn't want to socialize or see anyone, I just needed to stay by myself and keep reading.
The part where it talked about knowing something was in front of you, just out of your view, but you know it's there, just out of your sight or just behind the book you're reading caught me at a point where I was reading around 3:30 at night...I had to go put in a Looney Tunes DVD
Also, Lovecraft has never really terrified me, but his stuff always stays with me for awhile, and can be creepy depending on the story.
Never heard of it, but I just read the first two chapters. This is AWESOME.
Ramsey Campbell is one of the few writers who really goes out of his way to unnerve you, rather than just ladling on violence, supernatural shocks and general gruesomeness. His The Darkest Part of the Woods is fantastically spooky, but you can read pretty much anything by him and be in for a treat.
Or you could check out some of the classic short ghost stories by MR James. James could scare you in a single paragraph via a description of a rumpled bedsheet, and is wonderful beyond belief. The BBC did a series at Christmas a few years ago which consisted entirely of Christopher Lee reading five of these stories aloud while sitting (sinisterly) in a comfy leather armchair. It was glorious. Every ghost story wants to be read aloud by Christopher Lee when it grows up.
The only Stephen King book I can remember being scared by was IT (clownsarethedevil). I can remember being entertained by most of his books, but I didn't often get scared.
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My girlfriend is terrified to this day of The Boogeyman
The Whisperer in Darkness (Lovecraft) tops my list of frightening stories.
I don't disagree, but most of his books are scary to someone. It's just, different books are scary to different people.
I wasn't scared by Salem's Lot or Cujo, but I loved reading them all the same. I was going to suggest IT, but decided just to say King in general simply because I was really disappointed in how IT ended after how amazing the rest of it was.
But when it comes to short stories, I think The Long Walk is his most disturbing work. Not frightening in the traditional sense, though.
Innsmouth and the Color Out of Space were the best in terms of creepiness, I think.
The premise alone of that being a possible reality was what I found rather frightening. Not sure if it's what you're looking for in this thread but I thought I'd offer a different flavor.
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I host a podcast about movies.
Of course, we must procure and discuss deeply pervasive intricacies, because it's leeeeturatuuuuure.
I haven't read many books that were actually scary. House of Leaves was cool and vaguely creepy, but not in the sort of way that sticks with me.
I don't find him scary, but eerie and cool. It's not like I would ever read a Lovecraft story before bed and be weirded out by it.
Could not BE more limed. Crouch End is far and away King's creepiest story, although IT was pretty good too until it gets all post-modern at the end.
And I don't know what happened to Dean Koontz, but somewhere along the way his books went from good, to readable, to absolute garbage.
You'll find that my pretentious nature extends far beyond just literature. Shit, I'm pretentious about the socks that I allow to hang with my feet.
That's why his short stories are usually more effective.
Umm... err... occasionally more effective. There are some god awful King short stories out there. But the ones in Nightmares and Dreamscapes are fantastic.
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH
MMMMMWWWWWWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
At one point it seemed like his books just became formulaic (same story, just different characters and the monster was different). He does have some decent ones though.
We meet again.
It reminds me a lot of the kind of stuff that went on in the Call of Cthulhu game I played for several years.
Now back to reading it.
His first collection of short stories - Night Shift - had quite a few good ones. "The Boogey Man", "I Am the Doorway", "Gray Matter", "The Mangler". His next collection of actually short short stories, Skeleton Crew had that damn story about the cymbal clapping monkey, "Gramma", "Uncle Otto's Truck" and of course "The Mist". I read that story back in the early 80's and to this day I can't go into a department store without mentally cataloging where the food is and what items would make good improvised weapons against mist-monsters.
As for other authors, no one's mentioned Peter Straub yet. He wrote good horror novels in the 80's. Check out Shadowland, Floating Dragon, Ghost Story, Julia.
Even the characters are the same in most of 'em. You've got the Man Who Is Also A Highly Trained Fighter, the Hot Chick, and the Kid. Someone pointed that out to me that if you've read one Koontz book you're read them all.