Looking for a horror book that’s mostly just depressing
I love any type of media that sticks with me, and my favorite genre is horror, so why not combine those? I want to read something eerie but also so tragic that you can't just let it go.
The Passage by Cronin. Apocalyptic vampires, but the human characters will stay with you mentally much longer than you would like.
NotBorris on
Not really horror but The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat involves the guy trying to justify his existence to his shadow.
RuthTheWidow on
Ruth The Widow, by M.R. MacFarlane, on Kindle/Amazon. Its horrible. Death, domestic violence, verbatim arguments, and witness statements. LOL. Ugly book.
Ecstatic_Vanilla7441 on
The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick!!
The6Book6Bat6 on
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. The horror comes from the cruelty people are capable of committing against each other, and how easily people are able to obey instructions that are obviously evil if they come from anyone with authority.
taykray126 on
Pet Sematary
kawaii_jendooo on
The horror in these is mostly body horror, so if that’s not your thing, I would definitely stay away from these because they can get pretty disturbing, but they are definitely all depressing horror reads of varying degrees.
-“Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn
-“Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” by Eric LaRocca
-“Earthlings” by Sayaka Murata
forgiveprecipitation on
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Is it depressing? Yes.
Is it horror? Well,… also yes.
RefrigeratorHappy887 on
I haven’t dipped my toes too deeply into horror, but Shirley Jackson’s *The Haunting of Hill House* certainly fits this description, and is generally viewed as a horror staple.
mrsmedeiros_says_hi on
Baby Teeth.
Nocturnal-Philosophy on
*The Book of Disquiet,* Fernando Pessoa
I’ll take this opportunity to put you on to one of my favorite books of all time. t’s not strictly horror, but this book shook me more than any horror novel ever did, and the horror comes not from violence or anything of the sort, but from the insights of the character(s) alone. Throughout the text the character reflects on the mere facts of his existence in a series of detailed, almost aphoristic, journal-like entries, and I’m not kidding when I say that I have something highlighted on almost every single page, because Pessoa just gives you that much to think about. Interestingly enough though, what separates this from a lot of more didactic philosophical works as well is that the narrator is not some monolith of intellect dropping wisdom on his readers, but instead is just some guy, lost and tired just like the rest of us: *“None of this is truly stoical. It’s only in words that my suffering is at all noble. I complain like a sick maid. I fret like a housewife. My life is totally futile and totally sad.”*
Its not quite the explosive sense of horror you would read in a straight-up horror book, but it’s the type of thing that slowly sits in the back of your mind. It’s a type of horror that I really like, but it’s hard to find good examples of it and with as much depth, that is, existential horror of course, but this is like existential horror on crack, or antidepressants rather, because you’ll need them after you read this lol. One second you’ll get an abstract metaphysical theory with horrific implications that’ll make you stop and think, and in the next second you’ll read a personal conversion so sad and sincere that you’d think he was in tears when he wrote it. This book is truly beautiful, sad, and horrific all at once. The only caveat I have is that this book is as literary as they come. Deep Introspection is the main point of the book, and there is absolutely zero action. But if you’re into existential horror or more literary-leaning horror, that shouldn’t matter much.
*“Whether or not they exist, we are slaves to the gods.”*
funpantsmcgee on
Red Black Rainbow will shake you to the fucking core.
Turloughs_skinnytie on
If you enjoy British Folkish horror then The Loney is pretty bleak.
13 Comments
The Passage by Cronin. Apocalyptic vampires, but the human characters will stay with you mentally much longer than you would like.
Not really horror but The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat involves the guy trying to justify his existence to his shadow.
Ruth The Widow, by M.R. MacFarlane, on Kindle/Amazon. Its horrible. Death, domestic violence, verbatim arguments, and witness statements. LOL. Ugly book.
The Monsters We Deserve by Marcus Sedgwick!!
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. The horror comes from the cruelty people are capable of committing against each other, and how easily people are able to obey instructions that are obviously evil if they come from anyone with authority.
Pet Sematary
The horror in these is mostly body horror, so if that’s not your thing, I would definitely stay away from these because they can get pretty disturbing, but they are definitely all depressing horror reads of varying degrees.
-“Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn
-“Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” by Eric LaRocca
-“Earthlings” by Sayaka Murata
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Is it depressing? Yes.
Is it horror? Well,… also yes.
I haven’t dipped my toes too deeply into horror, but Shirley Jackson’s *The Haunting of Hill House* certainly fits this description, and is generally viewed as a horror staple.
Baby Teeth.
*The Book of Disquiet,* Fernando Pessoa
I’ll take this opportunity to put you on to one of my favorite books of all time. t’s not strictly horror, but this book shook me more than any horror novel ever did, and the horror comes not from violence or anything of the sort, but from the insights of the character(s) alone. Throughout the text the character reflects on the mere facts of his existence in a series of detailed, almost aphoristic, journal-like entries, and I’m not kidding when I say that I have something highlighted on almost every single page, because Pessoa just gives you that much to think about. Interestingly enough though, what separates this from a lot of more didactic philosophical works as well is that the narrator is not some monolith of intellect dropping wisdom on his readers, but instead is just some guy, lost and tired just like the rest of us: *“None of this is truly stoical. It’s only in words that my suffering is at all noble. I complain like a sick maid. I fret like a housewife. My life is totally futile and totally sad.”*
Its not quite the explosive sense of horror you would read in a straight-up horror book, but it’s the type of thing that slowly sits in the back of your mind. It’s a type of horror that I really like, but it’s hard to find good examples of it and with as much depth, that is, existential horror of course, but this is like existential horror on crack, or antidepressants rather, because you’ll need them after you read this lol. One second you’ll get an abstract metaphysical theory with horrific implications that’ll make you stop and think, and in the next second you’ll read a personal conversion so sad and sincere that you’d think he was in tears when he wrote it. This book is truly beautiful, sad, and horrific all at once. The only caveat I have is that this book is as literary as they come. Deep Introspection is the main point of the book, and there is absolutely zero action. But if you’re into existential horror or more literary-leaning horror, that shouldn’t matter much.
*“Whether or not they exist, we are slaves to the gods.”*
Red Black Rainbow will shake you to the fucking core.
If you enjoy British Folkish horror then The Loney is pretty bleak.