Hey guys. I've been craving a good horror book and I'm wondering what your recommendations are. What books have you read, or even short story that just scared you to no end?
Well, I'm difficult to scare (through literature at least. God damn spiders kill me) but A Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill was decent, I thought.
"The Return" by Bentley Little, hands down. Most of the time I don't like horror novels -- I love the the horror genre, but prefer short stories -- because horror novels only have a few scary parts throughout the whole thing. "The Return" IS at a scary part more than 75% of the time. It also deals with supernatural horror, which I find creepier than killers/stalkers/etc in books and movies. But nothing cheesy like ghosts; it's actually chilling imo. Edit: I'd like to recommend an awesome book of horror shorts (real ones, not 8-year-olds' campfire stories) called "100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories" compiled by Al Sarrantonio.
As much as i loved Heart Shaped Box, it was far from scary. A must read though in my opinion. Second.
How is House of Leaves scary? I might have to check it out, but only few things actually creep me out to read.
Stephens Kings short stories, The Raft and Monkey Under the Stairs scared the crap out of me. But i was a kid at the time. But nonetheless, i think the former would still creep me out. I think they were in Skeleton Crew. It, would have scared me if King could turn a tome into a decent sized book. Edit - There is a book called, A child called It. Very VERY creppy and Horrific. More desturbing in a humanitic way, but a good read.
Jack Ketchum is great, or Brian Keene. Gord Rollo is another good one and a great guy as well, my partner has spoken to him many a times now over blurbs and various other writing related things. There is also Douglass Clegg, Simon Clark, Peter Straub. Edward Lee, Graham Masterton, Richard Laymon. The list is endless really. THere is also, John Ajdive Lindqvist, who wrote Let The Right One In, Harbour and Handling the Undead. You also have Neil Gaimon, Shaun Hutson, Jeff Strand. I read Pressure by Jeff Strand myself, and have to say, it really is a great read. My partner is a horror novelist, as well as avid horror novel reader, and those authors he reads on a constant basis and is constantly saying how much he enjoys their work. He's also spoken to half the writers on that list as well, and they are all pretty decent people. He's actually got the same German publisher as Edward Lee. I could honestly give you a massive list of brilliant horror books to read. Definitely check out some of those authors though. Just be warned, some of their novels are quite gore filled and gruesome. If you want to see lists of their works and what people have to say about them, have a look on good reads. It's great for that kind of thing. You'll definitely never have to ask for a book again once you see the lists on there!
That one's more of a memoir than a horror story. It's about a very sad and horrific case of child abuse. The author wrote 2 other books detailing how he got out of the situation and coped with all the things that happened to him.
The Pit and the Pedalum by Edgar Alan Poe is one of the most frightening mind numbing horror stories ever. Even though a very dated story it can still scare the hell out of you.
It's more creepy than anything. It's not over the top scary, but it's very unsettling and is one of those stories that sticks with you. Some people might not find it scary, but I did.
One of my favorite horror novels is Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, another is King's classic 'Salem's Lot. Robert R. McCammon's They Thirst is out of print now, but may still be available from a library.
