When I was a little girl, a friend of mine gave me a book entitled Phonecalls From The Dead. I admit it scared the living daylight out of me that I had to return the book the next day. Just yesterday again, a work colleague offered me the same book without its cover (because it was pretty old). Now I am back to square one: the unnecessary fear. So is there anyone else who has, or is currently reading a really scary book?
Heartshaped Box by Joe Hill was really scary, but it was also an excellent novel. That book kept me up at night!
I'd second this. A classic ghost story, done with simple effectiveness by a fantastic writer. I'd also suggest the work of Gary McMahon, particularly his novella The Harm (which you certainly could get for a fiver from the publisher TTA Press). It's very dark, psychological and atmospheric fiction. Superb horror.
I second "House of Leaves." Also, I found "The Return" by Bentley Little to be quite scary. The ending is cheesy, but the rest of the book up til that is frightening. It's actually disturbing the whole way through, too, not like many of Stephen King's books where there's only a few "scary parts."
IT. I read that book when I was only twelve, so perhaps that's why I remember it being so scary (and I can't stand clowns, though It wasn't an actual clown). It's more of an adventure storyline with some horror elements mixed into it than an actual horror book though. It still has some scary scenes in it. It does have some plot holes and some unnecessary romance scenes in it that don't contribute to the storyline at all, but it's still one of the few Stephen King books that I like.
Pfft, I'm consistent. Good ol' Gazza produces some fantastic fiction. I'd suggest the reason for that is that a lot of what King writes, especially nowadays, is not horror. He wrote a lot of horror in the early years, but he's tried to branch out into a lot of different things (with varying success), whilst the original horror writer moniker has still stuck.
