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#1 (permalink) |
Stumbling to the end
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Scariest book you've ever read
I'm trying to come up with some good scary reads to settle down with after I finish the book I'm working on. Anyone have any really eerie or scary books to suggest?
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Persuaded, paraded, inebriated, and down Still aware of everything life carries on without |
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#2 (permalink) |
pinche vato
Location: backwater, Third World, land of cotton
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I am a scary book junkie, and one book stands FAR above the rest - "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub. The opening line is "What's the worst thing I've ever done? I won't tell you that, but I will tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me..."
Chills....... (plus, our avatars almost match)
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Living is easy with eyes closed. |
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#4 (permalink) |
32 flavors and then some
Location: Out on a wire.
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I second Ghost Story, and Shadowland by Peter Straub is also very scary.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Psycho by Robert Bloch
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I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that. ~Steven Colbert |
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#5 (permalink) |
Adequate
Location: In my angry-dome.
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Slightly old news by now, but The Hot Zone had me gagging for a couple days. Richard Preston's true stories with lengthy descriptions of the effects of hemorrhagic fever are gripping. Enjoy bedtime ebola stories? This one's for you.
<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385479565.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg">
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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195 |
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#9 (permalink) |
Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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for me it was Phantoms by Dean Koontz....
I didn't sleep with the lights off for like 3 weeks, and neither did anyone who I loaned the book to... of course the movie sucked...
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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. |
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#11 (permalink) |
Junkie
Location: Toronto
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Stephen King is creepy, and clive barker is transcendental. But I have to throw my vote in with Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
This book actually gave me nightmares. Not ghost nightmares: I had a dream that i was doing homework, I had a climateology course at university and was doing an isobar map. My dream was that the isobars came to life, malevolently, jumping from the page i was working on , wrapping themselves around my neck and attempting to strangle me. It woke me up from a deep sleep, and I was sweating like crazy and breathing heavy. I swear, the movie does not do this book justice (and the movie was good) |
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#12 (permalink) |
Crazy
Location: Georgia Southern University
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This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman by Tadeusz Borowski.
I have read several books on the Holocaust for my Holocaust class (the joys of being a history major), but this is by far the most graphic and relentless in it's portrayal of the authour's imprisonment. The images rush into your head and don't go away. It is by far more graphic than Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak, or Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. You find yourself both digusted at the things the author does to survive but questioning yourself whether or not you would do the same things in order to survive. A truly sad and horror filled story (collection of his works about his imprisonment to be more precise) from a man who was so haunted by the things he had done in the name of self preservation that he took his own life. There have been very few books or films that I have had to put down and walk away from for a while to collect myself and my thoughts, but this is one of them.
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I will not walk so that a child may live! - Master Shake |
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#13 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
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Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
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#14 (permalink) |
Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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If read during a thunderstorm, when you are all alone, and are prone to hearing things.. Amityville Horror made the hair on the back of my neck stand up...
I'm a huge fan of Dean Koontz, and some of his earlier stuff made me jumpy -- Servants of Twilight, Whipers, Phantoms all had that scare factor. King's Pet Semetary- totally dumb movie.. but creepy book...
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Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
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#15 (permalink) |
Insane
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The Hot Zone I read when it first came out and it was freaky but in a different kind of way more realistic... in terms of horror when I read the Amytiville Horror when I was in 6th grade everytime I looked out the window I thought I saw Jodie's red eyes. Doesn't help that it's (though this is debatable) 'true' or based on 'fact'
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#16 (permalink) |
Stumbling to the end
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Looks like I'll definitely be picking up Peter Straub's Ghost Story. I've seen "It" named often on other boards too as one of the scariest. As far as myself, I only started reading horror (basically just King and Koontz so far) in the past couple of years. I guess the scariest I can think of off the top of my head was Koontz's Shattered.
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Persuaded, paraded, inebriated, and down Still aware of everything life carries on without Last edited by Booray; 04-20-2005 at 06:34 PM.. |
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#17 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: The True North Strong and Free!
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It's the only book thats really freaked me out like that.
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"It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don't believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it." Winston Churchill |
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#19 (permalink) | |
Insane
Location: Charlotte, NC
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Seriously, I don't think I feel asleep for days and I refused to open my windows at all even though it was the middle of August.
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Put the blame on me So you don't feel a thing Go on and save yourself Take it out on me |
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#20 (permalink) |
...is a comical chap
Location: Where morons reign supreme
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Cujo, by Stephen King. Probably because I already have a phobia of dogs, and since it was actually a credible story, it scared the everloving shit out of me. I read it before I had my son, and the thought of having something like that happen to me AND my son...it gives me chills.
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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa |
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#21 (permalink) | |
Insane
Location: Illinois
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I really liked this book-- we had to read it in 10th grade biology and write a paper on it. I thought it was really interesting-- more of a gross out book rather than a scary one. I can't really think of any books I've read that would be scary. When I was younger, I read one of the Goosebumps series books-- I had to read it all in one night and then sleep in the hallway with the light on because it freaked me out... I was young though. |
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#22 (permalink) |
Crazy
Location: antioch IL
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pretty much king books only:
salem's lot (greeneyes, be careful they can MAKE you open the window!) it (Daval, i know the feeling with the eyes, would not walk by the shelf in the dark) the shining (first movie was scarier, nightmares of nicholson chasing me with an axe) others: 1984 (just being watched...) sidenote, for all you King and Straub fans try the Talisman and Black House, colaboration between the two authors, both very good.
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there are three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way, and my way, which is the wrong way faster. |
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#23 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: Toronto
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i did not find it to be a scary book, more like an exciting adventure story and very original, but leveraging off of Jules Vern and Stephen King/cCive barker. For Stephen King, I have read just about everything, eg Talisman and Black House. I dont find them scary, just a bit creepy, and fun to read. Salem's Lot is probably the scariest of King's work. Peter Straub's Floating Dragon is another creepy book, very King -like in format. I'm still looking for another book to really scare me like Ghost Story did. |
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#25 (permalink) |
Insane
Location: The reddest state ever. :(
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The shining is the only king book that I have read and had to keep the lights on to go to sleep. The woman in the tub.......gah, still gives me the willies. Anyone ever read any Lovecraft stuff?
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CUBS WIN, CUBS WIN!!!! - Pat Hughes "Don't surround yourself with yourself." Yes |
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#26 (permalink) | ||
Born-Again New Guy
Location: Unfound.
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Personally, after reading The Stand I felt weird for a while. Not only did I notice people being sick a lot more, but started wondering what kind of role I would play in such a situation... and if I'd just be one of the poor dolts who never had a chance... |
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#27 (permalink) |
It's all downhill from here
Location: Denver
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"Finishing Touches," by Thomas Tessier.
Not a very well-known book, but very unsettling. Sexual and disturbing. Tessier is one of the more literate writers of disturbing fiction I have come accross. This is probably one of my favorite reads of all time. "Rapture," also by Tessier, is an amazing take on obsession. Don't let the tacky cover fool you. "The Cipher," by Kathe Koja. This was her first novel and - in my opinion - the only one worth reading. It is amazingly original. After the first paragraph you'll know she has a style and vision all her own. You can't just casually read this book. The abstract style she uses forces you to concentrate on every sentence. If you have the patience, this is one disturbing read.
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Bad Luck City |
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#29 (permalink) | |
Insane
Location: Georgia
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Quote:
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I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. ~Marsha Doble |
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#30 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
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Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
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#31 (permalink) |
Devoted
Donor
Location: New England
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I've read very little horror. I read "House of Leaves"; I found it fascinating instead of scary, but if that counts, I'll throw in "Silence of the Lambs". I picked it up at my mother-in-law's place, read for a while, then tried to go to sleep. It was so riveting that I could not sleep, so after 3 hours of tossing and turning, I got back up and finished the damned thing.
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#34 (permalink) | |
Minion of the scaléd ones
Location: Northeast Jesusland
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Second the Lovecraft and the King, but Harlan Ellison makes them look like Fred Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. "Deathbird", "Shatterday", "Slippage", "Paingod", all deeply disturbingly horrid. Where Lovecraft and King rely on monsters and boogiemen, Ellison goes more for the horror of situations, or, when he goes for the monsters, chances are they are the main character and you don't kniow about it. Of course, Ellison is all short stories, so there's never a chance to get your feet under you.
I found Dan Simmons', "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion" hugely frightening too. Not in a "This could happen to you" sort of a way but in a "Jesus Haploid Christ, those poor people," sort of way. For real, realistic, grotesque horror, the only book that has ever brought me to the edge of vomiting would be Brett Easton Ellis', "American Psycho." Well written, but I gave away my copy and will never read it again. Made me sick. Meticulous descriptions of sexual torture involving nail guns, jumper cables, habitrails, and a live rat, and glowing if completely incorrect reviews of Whitney Houston, Genesis, and Huey Lewis. *shiver* Or, there is that Reagan biography... Quote:
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Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life. |
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#35 (permalink) |
Stumbling to the end
Location: Atlanta, GA
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I finished Ghost Story recently and really liked it. Thanks for all the recommendations. Definitely pretty creepy with some good scary moments.
I rented the movie from Netflix and, although it's got some big time acting veterans (John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas, Fred Astaire, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Patricia Neal), they've changed the story so drastically and thrown in some really cheesy special effects that cause me to wonder if I'll ever finish the movie (I've sat down to watch it 2 times, picking up where I'd left off and still have only been able to stomach sitting through 30 minutes worth). They really need to remake this (maybe as a 2 or 3 part miniseries to accomodate the entire story).
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Persuaded, paraded, inebriated, and down Still aware of everything life carries on without Last edited by Booray; 05-15-2005 at 07:22 AM.. |
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#36 (permalink) |
Insane
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"Rose Matter" by Stephen King scared me when I read it. It is about this woman who is abused and trys to get out but her husband looks for her and then it gets creepy. I have read "House of Leaves" but found the style odd and too distracting to be truly scary for me.
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"Mommy, the presidents are squishing me!" "Using the pull out method of contraceptive is like saying I won't use a seat belt, I'll just jump out of the car before it hits that tree." Sara |
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#37 (permalink) |
I got blisters on me fingers!!!
Location: In my stressless expectation free zone.
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1984 is scary
but Handmadain's Tail is 5 times more so.
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If you are not outraged than you are not paying attention! "Reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert |
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#38 (permalink) |
Upright
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I'm new here....so, HI.
![]() Looking forward to a good read is one of the greatest anticipations, in my opinion. Most all of the books mentioned, I would agree are scary..especially IT. I've read it several times, and if you haven't read the unabridged edition, well, you owe it to yourself. It came out many years ago and is about as thick as a concrete block. For myself, I find Thomas Harris' books right scary. ![]() And, you get it. Don't think about the movie. Movies never make the grade compared to the novels. Except for one and I can't think of it. ![]() ![]() ![]() I gotta get an avatar.... ![]() |
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#39 (permalink) | |
Minion of the scaléd ones
Location: Northeast Jesusland
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Loved peeking around inside Hannibal's noggin. The idea of a memory palace is excellent, and I have got to read those books on it that Harris cites. I thought Julianne Morre made a less convincing but, paradoxically, better Starling than Jodie Foster, but then, Julianne Moore makes a better anything than Jodie Foster. *leer*
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Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life. |
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#40 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Location: LI,NY
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Me too! I had to turn the book over at night so I did not see the cover. and low flying balloons still give me the chills.
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"Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles." ~Alex Karras |
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