I know, I know, this question has been done to death but I’m absolutely appalled by the recommendations I’ve seen on other subreddits so I thought my own post might attract more likeminded suggestions.
I’m very into fear of the unknown. I found “The Shining” decent because I felt the ‘presence’ of the force, and felt King did a good job of making random elements unsettling. I don’t enjoy when authors over-visualise or over-explain their entity of choice as I lose a lot of that “unknown” fear factor. I enjoyed Haunting of Hill House for similar reasons but I read most of these ‘classic’ scary novels as a teen and am now craving something with more teeth for my adult brain.
Books I’ve been recommended in the past few months that I DIDN’T find scary include: “Incidents around the House” (repetitive plot, cringe dialogue) “House of Leaves” (interesting but more performative with the format than truly terrifying), “Into the Drowning Deep” (literally just YA), “The Elementals” (Beetlejuice-y, not scary), American Psycho (Bateman was deranged but I wasn’t scared of him), “I’m thinking of ending things” (strange but not terrifying), “Cabin at the end of the World” / “The Road” (I think these hit parents a lot harder and don’t scare childless me in the same way), Horrorstör & most Hendrix books (cheesy, catch-all horror), Tender is the Flesh (gross/reflective but not scary) and so much more. That’s not to say these books aren’t good for different reasons, just not what I’ve been craving.
It would be a bonus if the setting happened to be unique and specific (Appalachia, Bermuda Triangle, anywhere that’s not a generic suburban house in the US), or if there were elements of underrepresented/indigenous folklore done in a very effective way but those aren’t strict requirements. While I love vampire novels I read them for fun / amusement, not because they scare me, and I find most apocalyptic or zombie stories to not be scary due to them not having that unknown element. I prefer books to be written for adults, and abhor the YA-ification of modern “horrors”.
I have no restrictions when it comes to content themes, length or anything else. Thank you to anybody who’s read this far and sorry if the tone comes off as grumpy, I promise I’m a nice person, I just need a good book! 🙂
by comediccaricature
16 Comments
Tender is the flesh…as a true horror fan. I read that and took a break from reading (my only true hobby) for months. I think about that book daily.
Have you read Blindness, by Saramago?
I don’t know if you’ll find it scary or not—I tend to find that what I find scary isn’t always what other people find scary, but I’ll go ahead and recommend it anyway:
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez.
It’s set in Argentina between the 1960s and 1990s and blends the supernatural horror elements together with actual political and historical events that were happening at the time while focusing on the psychology and familial relationships of the characters. And I found it very genuinely creepy and disturbing.
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The Fisherman by John Langan.
Maybe A Short Stay In Hell by Steven Peck?
I found The Reformatory quite scary. Also hits that underrepresented folklore quality.
The Gone World
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer! I didn’t find a lot of the books you mentioned scary either (with the exception of House of Leaves) but I did get the heebie jeebies from that one.
The Vegetarian was great. I liked the Wayward Pines series.
I’m convinced truly “scary” books don’t exist 😅
What about Hell House? Classic setting but honestly some creative pretty deranged scares
It wasn’t terrifying, but I thought The Troop by Nick Cutter was a good horror book
I don’t read much horror, but you could look at works written by Bram Stoker finalists.
It’s a manga but have you read Uzumaki yet? Sounds like it’s right up your alley.
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Mind vampires def give a “presence of the force.”