What's the most terrifying book?

I'm in the mood for something scary. Not just a little suspenful, or creepy, no, I want to be terrified.

Out of the horror books/stories I've read, I'd say The Shining was the scariest. Took a long while before I was comfortable enough to close the shower curtain after reading it.

Salems Lot, Dr Sleep, Dracula, Bird Box, and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream get honorable mentions.

I'm looking for something that will make me sleep with the lights on. Got any recommendations?

 

Not many horror stories actually scare me, but one series that does is Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach trilogy (soon to be a quadrilogy, on oct 22). That doesn't sound very scary or anything, I know. The books all have one-word titles starting with an A: Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, and the new one will be called Absolution. There's a movie based (loosely) on the first one, starring Natalie Portman. Actually it pulls in parts of several of them, but leaves a lot out and approaches it a bit differently. I like the movie too, but it doesn't begin to do justice to the books. Masterworks if you ask me. And there's a strong Stephen King influence in his work to boot (I'm also a big fan of some of King's novels).

Have you read Carrie? One of his best IMO.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look into that.

Yes, I read Carrie and wow does her mom takes the cake for most horrible. I didn't find it scary so much as I felt sad for her. But it was a great read nonetheless.

 

Yeah Carrie didn't scare me either, but I really admire the technical skills King showed. The way he handled third person limited in rambling free indirect discourse. I just finished re-reading it specifically to examine how he approached that.

 

I respond most strongly to psychological horror, where the bad thing is inside the main character so it can't be escaped. That's what really gets me about the Shining (though I prefer Kubrick's film version to King's book), and about Mulholland Drive, the most frightening movie I think I've ever seen. And if we're gonna talk scary movies, there's one from a few years ago called The Witch that got to me in the same way, but it isn't psychological. The whole atmosphere of the movie is just deeply disturbing.

 

Peter Straud's Ghost Story is on my list right after King's Salem's Lot, which has my vote for Scariest Novel.

 

1984 scared me so bad I slept with the lights on for a few nights. I also recommend The Resurrectionist by E. B. Hudspeth. Not a long book, but the illustrations are just beautiful in that uncomfortable way. The reviews for this book kind of said it's not worth the read, but the underlying stuff really got to me, and I still think about it to this day.

 

Advanced Calculus....

Joking aside, another vote for Salem's Lot. Read it, then watch the 1979 miniseries. In the dark, on your own.

 

I dont get scared by a books... but out of the ones i've read, listening to the audiobook for Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak at night with the lights off got my heart rate up.

I'm told its scarier when you read the physical book, because Rekulak includes the pictures that the characters reference and draws. i looked at them after i listened to the audiobook and, yeah, they are pretty creepy

 

I am putting my money on Dreamcatcher. I skimmed it when I was younger and man, it scared me so badly.
Second, Junji Ito's Human Chair story. I didn't want to sit down for about a week.

 

One of the best ones I've read in a while is The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones. Lots of good scares in it. I read a lot of horror, so I'm pretty used to most of the techniques a lot of horror authors will use, but this one has so many good reveals and moments that just made my skin crawl that I actually had to put it down for a moment because I was scared to find out what happened next, which has never happened before.

 

Alright, I got Annihilation on hold, looked up movie and realized it was already on my list to watch. Hidden pictures is on hold now too, sounds wonderfully frightening. The Only Good Indians sound interesting, also on hold now. Can't find Human Chair yet, or Ghost Story, but I'll keep eye open at library.

I read Dreamcatcher, I liked it though I found it dragged on some. Never gave IT a try. I bet it would be scary, but never have been able to talk myself into reading it, or Misery either. I love a psychological thriller and agree they, as well as dystopians are frightening. 1984 was scary but so darn good. Salem's Lot is one of the better horror stories I've read so far.

You know one that scared me that wasn't really a horror? 20,000 League's Under the Sea. Being kidnapped by a deranged captain and held under sea in a submarine, freaked me out. I got the worst agita ever while reading it. Didn't even finish it to this day.

The Resurectionist is available, and will be read shortly. I'll let you know what I think.

So many good recommendations, I'll look into them all, thanks everyone. Here's hoping I'll be scared witless soon.

Eta...

 

I don't think this is really a horror book but Kafka's The Metamorphosis troubled me a lot to the point I didn't finish the book.

It was so weird and haunting, that my mind was constantly trying to find the answers as to why the protagonist fell into his situation. Kafka's concepts and thinkings made my mind wander into what message he was trying to convey yet I was immersed into following this unbelievable plot and start. It was scary for me (and I read this at the time when I had zero ambitions to write) because of the complexity and strangeness of the story. It terrified me and it is odd to say, but that book influenced me greatly in how I write, yet I still cannot stomach the courage to read it fully.

 

Infected by Scott Sigler. The MC is contaminated by spores from an alien invasion.

Spoiler

The spores begin to grow inside the MC's flesh. Then the eyes of the growing spores open. The most horrific part was the MC's self surgery to remove the spores. These scenes are more horrific for males.

 

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski freaked me out so comprehensively that I had to put it down and I've not picked it up since. And you know me and how I love a footnote. Well, this thing is full of them. And it's not that the subject matter is objectively terrifying. But while reading it at 2AM one sleepless night, I started to doze off. Then during one such fugue it occurred to me: what if it was the book making me do that?! What if it meant to get me into a state of semi-slumber, or if was the author's intent, or the book's, or the weird larger-on-the-inside house? Startled, I snapped awake. Then I started having really weird thoughts. What if the next words on the page described exactly the thoughts I was having? I was completely convinced of this. With one eye open, I peeped. To my utter horror the next paragraph detailed almost verbatim to my panicked mind the sort of terror I was experiencing! The demonic story and I had entered some sort of symbiotic crazy dance of fear that promised no end. Even now I know I am not fully free of its malign influence.

Is it possible that a story - not a book but a story - can be haunted or possessed? It's currently upstairs in my daughter's room, watching, waiting, lurking like a thing in a cave.

 

Blood Meridian has a bit of meme status recently since McCarthy's death, but honestly, Blood Meridian. It ought to be a classic. It's alternately beautiful and disgusting, poetic and completely crass. Masterfully done. Poe's pretty good in general but Bernice in particular made me want to puke.

 

It definitely is unbelievably brutal and bloody, but I wouldn't call it a horror story. More like historical fiction. Just to make sure nobody mistakes it for horror. As for terrifying—it's probably more disgusting and horrendous. But I'll second it as one of the most beautifully and poetically written books I've ever seen, at times anyway.

 

In terms of short stories, it's got to be The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, followed by The Man The Trees Loved by the same author. Both concerning the mystical power of our arboreal overlords, they depict man's descent into tree-lined madness in a gloriously prolix, beautifully camp gothic styling. Lots of "cries of dismay" and "Faugh!" and "But I — I cannot — it is — " and stuff, but the terror is real and the trees are marching.

 

Wow, a big thank you to all who contributed. Lots of choices to work with and this is the best month for starting a descent into terror.

A "Tree lined madness" you say? I must admit that I'm intrigued. Have always considered them more a kindred spirit of sorts. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

I'll heartily second that one! And it just so happens the entire story can be read for free in the Sample for a massive book called The Weird, edied by Jeff Vandermeer and his wife Ann:

• The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories @ Amazon

If you just wait a moment that link will open the Sample, then you want to scroll UP, into the Table of Contents, and you'll see The Willows is a blue link, meaning it's visible in the Sample.

And while we're talking about short stories from those halcyon days of yesteryore (or whatever) as well as Weird stories, I also want to recommend two by Athur Machen (the Mach Daddy as I like to call him)—The White People and The Great God Pan.

Both are available for free reading on Archive.Org:

• The Great God Pan
• The White People

I find reading both enhances your understanding of each. Separated I don't think I would have liked them nearly as much. It also helps to bear in mind that Pan, the goat-legged satyr boy with his pan pipe, was the god of Panic and Pandemonium, a spreader of pagan chaos.

 

And suddenly (I started reading The White People) I'm reminded of The Music of Erich Zann, by Lovecraft:

• The Music of Erich Zann PDF

It's a PDF, so unless you want it on your computer right-click and Open in New Tab.

 

Ah yes, but of course, that's what they want you to think. It benefits them, for us to believe that. They're farming us, you see, from carbon producers to fungal nutriments. And they live for a thousand years. How many more ways can I say 'Dark Lord'?