Scary horror novels

A holey book with great depth.

The copy I had gave the author's name as Jere Cunningham. The printer must've lost his 'y' and only had one 'm'.

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I haven't actually read much horror, but Stephen King's It was a terrifying read for me. Some moments from I Am Legend by Richard Matheson are also quite vivid upon remembering.
 
There are lots of different kinds of ways to scare the reader. My favourite is MR James who often attempts to rationalise the events by setiing them in a believable historical context. Often the decision as to whether it is a supernatural being, coincidence or the results of a vivid imagination are left to the reader to decide, as often are the fates of those affected.

Different things frighten different people and for different reasons; often it can resonate with a past event that we ourselves have gone through , or which mimics a particularly scary nightmare. Being chased through a graveyard may be scary to some, whilst others may be terrified by a large rat or spider. One of the scariest things I ever saw in the 80s was a film called Threads depicting the results of a nuclear attack on Sheffield. It was particularly harrowing because it felt like a vision of what was to come (and probably a tamer version than we would have been subject to).

I also think that there has to be a willingness to let a story frighten you, and preparedness on the part of the reader to allow themselves to be drawn into the story. In fact I think that horror stories ask more co-operation and effort from the reader than other type of story. If you're going in to a story challenging it to frighten you then it probably won't; but if you're prepared to be drawn in to the world of the story teller then it could result in a few sleepless nights.
 
The Rats by James Herbert scared me, but then I can't stand rats so it was never going to be an easy read. Herbert did a lot of cool horror but I think he lost his edge with later novels. Dean Koontz scared me a little with Odd Thomas (the first one) and the twist at the end was brilliant.
 
Capricorn42 said:
The Rats by James Herbert scared me, but then I can't stand rats so it was never going to be an easy read. Herbert did a lot of cool horror but I think he lost his edge with later novels. Dean Koontz scared me a little with Odd Thomas (the first one) and the twist at the end was brilliant.
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I read that one along time ago. Its a really good horror novel.
 
BAYLOR said:
I read that one along time ago. Its a really good horror novel.
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I prefer Domain, the (third?) in his series of books. What's worse than rats? Rats and nuclear bombs.

Tbh Rats aside Herbert is not one of my favourite horror writers, neither is Dean Koontz. From what (little) I've read of them they seem to rely on gory descriptions for their chills. I'm not particularly squeamish, but it's not the form of horror I find that scary.
 
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Ambrose said:
M.R. James is still hard to beat. And what about Le Fanu??
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Try Donovan's Brain by Curt SIodmak . it's a terrific science fiction novel and is included in the list great horror novels.
 
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Anything by Lovecraft just to be predictable, he defined horror for me and still does.
 
Cayal said:
Is anyone actually scared by horror novels? This isn't a post criticising the genre, I don't read many horror novels just because I don't think they could achieve what I think they set out to do. However I could be wrong in their intentions.

Are horror stories meant to be scary or just have a horror implication? (like *real* vampires attacking kids or monsters from the bog stalking the abandoned amusement park etc.).

The last novel that freaked me out was Phantoms by Dean Koontz. Before that, it was probably R. L. Stine and his Goosebumps (that's how long ago I am talking).
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I think the last horror book that scared me was back in elementary school - you know those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books? But I have to admit that was in large part because of those horrifying watercolor illustrations. Before that, I was a huge Goosebumps fan, but it never actually frightened me in the same way. Since then, I don't think I've read a horror book that has scared me, especially if it lacks the visual aspect. (And I agree that horror movies get much more flexibility since they can leverage jump scares and scary visuals to their advantage.)

I will say that the last book in general that creeped me out was a thriller that I read a while back - don't really remember the name - and what was scary about that was more the psychological nature of the thriller, about an intruder who keeps getting into young women's homes. The idea of that bothered me a lot - not that I hadn't seen it already in film and through other media, but in this particular book, something about the way it was described and the way the story was told was simply creepy.

So, I think psychological horror is the thing that creeps me out now in books, because through a textual medium you do have a good chance at really getting under the reader's skin and unsettling them. But this also means it can be very subjective, since people have different fears.
 
Hyba said:
I think the last horror book that scared me was back in elementary school - you know those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books? But I have to admit that was in large part because of those horrifying watercolor illustrations. Before that, I was a huge Goosebumps fan, but it never actually frightened me in the same way. Since then, I don't think I've read a horror book that has scared me, especially if it lacks the visual aspect. (And I agree that horror movies get much more flexibility since they can leverage jump scares and scary visuals to their advantage.)

I will say that the last book in general that creeped me out was a thriller that I read a while back - don't really remember the name - and what was scary about that was more the psychological nature of the thriller, about an intruder who keeps getting into young women's homes. The idea of that bothered me a lot - not that I hadn't seen it already in film and through other media, but in this particular book, something about the way it was described and the way the story was told was simply creepy.

So, I think psychological horror is the thing that creeps me out now in books, because through a textual medium you do have a good chance at really getting under the reader's skin and unsettling them. But this also means it can be very subjective, since people have different fears.
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The House on the Borderland and also by him Adrift on the Haunted Seas.

In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
 
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Horror is a really tricky genre to do well, so a genuinely scare book is hard to come by. I'm not too much a fan of gore.
 
History books can be horrifying. I read an account of Auschwitz concentration camp and then took a trip to Poland to see it for myself. The written word, which was dry and matter-of-fact, horrified me more than any fiction ever did. Actually being there somehow brought all the words back and doubled the impact. I guess that fiction can never compete with history when it comes to horror.
 
I don't think a reader should expect to be scared by horror stories. We're past the time when the presence of a ghost or vampire is in and of itself horrifying.

When I read horror I expect to be entertained by being unsettled, disturbed, perhaps made anxious for the well-being of the characters and shown something that is outside my usual parameters of reality and which I find threatening (as opposed to most s.f. or fantasy, where I expect it to produce wonder and awe). When I'm lucky the experience of reading horror is also thought-provoking in a way that's uncomfortable perhaps because it offers an insight into a state of mind (Red Dragon), or it induces dread because of a different perception of the world (Thomas Ligotti), or it frightens because something about it could become manifest in the real world. And sometimes the dread stems from realizing it's already a metaphor for something threatening in the real world.

The last story to leave me really unsettle me was Charles Stoss's "A Colder War".
 
BAYLOR said:
The House on the Borderland and also by him Adrift on the Haunted Seas.

In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner
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All of these sound like they have a great psychological horror dimension to them!

The House on the Borderland sounds quite interesting. The idea of isolation causing/being possibly related to what could be a slow descent into madness has always intrigued me, and I write about it in a small way in one of my books.

Adrift on the Haunted Seas sounds interesting to me for the reason that it is influenced by the author's own experiences, and I think that would rather be a good set of stories to check out! I'm guessing that these stories might come with elements of isolation of their own - being out in the open waters, even with a group of other sailors, can be quite lonesome, and probably also messes with your mind a bit.
 
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