I am reading The Standby Stephen King and, so far it is not that bad as I thought it will be. I am wondering what was the scariest fiction that you have read and why?
The torture scene from In The Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. Unflinchingly explicit and sadistic...far worse than the worst movies I've seen...
Heartshaped Box by Joe Hill had me shiverring. The imagery of the ghost was pretty frightening...I loved it.
The book Lucky by Alice Sebold had me shivering with anger and a lot of terror all the way through, because it's a true story. Highly recommended read, though. It helps you understand where her inspiration for The Lovely Bones came from.
The book Hannibal by Thomas Harris is the first that comes to mind. There is something so foreboding about that story. It is just so dark and heavy, I remember while I was reading it, I wouldn't sleep without a light on.
I'm not sure about 'scary', but the most disturbing novel I've ever read was Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim. Brutally graphic and honest, but extraordinarily f-ed up.
Not the scariest I know, but there was a book I started reading when I was about 11 or 12 that had me terrified for about a week after. I can't remember the name, but it was about a bunch of teenagers having parties in abandoned tunnels. There was a presence in the form of a sort of red mist, that would go around and haunt the place. Got about 30 pages through before being scared out of my mind. Even just now, remembering it, I feel a bit shaky. I know it was years and years ago, but wow...
I don't think I've ever been truly scared by a book (unless you count one in particular I thought might be worth the 50 cents I paid, which detailed the amorous activities of various paranormal beings, but that was scary because it's meant to be non-fiction ). Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers has probably come the closest - I found it much more disturbing than American Psycho, actually.
In George R. R. Martin's Storm of Swords when Bran, Jojen, and Meera Reed are hiding in the abandoned castle of the Nightfort and the unknown horror is creeping up the dungeon steps. One of the only times I've actually felt my heart beating faster and faster- actually felt physical fear- as I read a book. *shivers*
Haven't read a lot of horror or seen a lot of horror, but if you read The Hot Zone, it will have you thinking some very dark scenarios by the end. It's on Ebola in the US, and, if you haven't heard what Ebola does to you, it liquefies you from the inside and then you basically crash and bleed from your orifices. Very scary, surprisingly suspenseful, because it's so real, and you have to wonder if it'll ever back.
I read Salem's Lot by Stephen King a little while ago. The other night I had a nightmare and woke up at around 3 in the morning. Strangely my window was open when I was sure I had closed it. The first thing I did was feel my neck for vampire bites! Once I realised what I was doing I stopped, laughed at myself, and closed the window. The book itself wasnt that scary but it seems to have triggered something.
The sequence with Shadow on the tree from American Gods has to be the most frightening thing I have ever read. Not scary in the traditional sense, maybe, but damn that scene got under my skin and fueled my nightmares for weeks.
Hands down was Pet Cemetery by Stephen King. I read it right after my wife and I'd had our first child--a boy--and I think that contributed to the freak factor for me. I got through it but have never went to read it again even though I've read most of his work more than once.
Wetlands - Charlotte Roche - distrubing in a whole new way! I have read several horror ficiton but never had I been physically wanting to throw up in some of her desciptions in her feminist novel!
I read that part too, and it was just... yikes. I never ended up finishing the novel though; I found it a little... well, the whole thing was just weird, and even though I like weird books, I didnt like that one. I've never read a book and been "scared" while reading it, but American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis) had me perturbed for months.
I agree. I like Gaiman's style for the most part, but I was turned off by this one at some point in the middle and never picked it up to finish. I might pick it up again some day...
