I'm a horror fan, a big reader, and also a film buff. Recently I was having a conversation with a friend about how horror fans are totally spoiled when it comes to movies -you can get very deep into arthouse territory and pretty easily find even very famous high brow directors doing stuff in the genre- but there's not really an equivalent in literature. I'm curious to hear what books people have read that scratches that itch of striking prose and full on scares. Especially interested in novels, since short stories actually seem to have this covered pretty well. A few that come to mind for me are The Blind Owl, House of Leaves, Our Share of the Night, and The Haunting of Hill House.
by TheExquisiteCorpse
5 Comments
For me, that was Straub’s Ghost Story. Scared the snot out of me. He has a lot of solid works out there.
Also, IMO, Salem’s Lot was extrememly well written and is hands down the scariest book I hve read.
Hope this helps. 🙂
– The Croning
– Red X
– Ghost Story
– Night Film
I think Shirley Jackson does this really well in general and would suggest reading more of her work if you haven’t already
I wouldn’t say Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon is really scary but it’s one of my favorite books of all time because it’s spooky but (in my opinion) wonderfully written.
Stolen tongues by Felix Blackwell is really good. This one creeped me out.
The ruins by Scott smith
The troop by nick cutter
Those three were spooky.