Recommend a truly scary book

[The Anti-Man]

I AM LEGEND is an absolutely amazing book, I completely second that choice. Loads of the fiction works of Henry James are really scary too.

 

[mariacallas]

The Amityville book scared the shit out of me

Thanks for reminding me !! im going to read my copy now before sleeping

You know The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty is a pretty fucking scary book too...i read it when i was 12 years old !

 

[SilverFeniks]

"Phantoms" by Dean Koontz, which is the scariest novel I've read by him so far (I'm a Koontz neophyte, though). For suspense I'd recommend his "Mr. Murder", which raced along at breakneck speed.

I haven't read any Koontz for years; need to get some, as I always loved what I did read.

Mr. Murder might have been one of the first Koontz books I read, probably 10 years ago ... when they came out with a TV movie version of it, I wrote a letter to Koontz lambasting him for allowing his name to appear on such a gross misrepresentation of his work. I had/have NEVER seen a story changed so much from book to video.

I was probably 12 at the time, never got a response

And now I'm off to read some Patterson on a rainy day.

 

[randycaver]

^ you would.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm not a violent person.


Come visit.. I need to give American Psycho a re-read.

 

[Pharcyde]

Where the Wild Things Are........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[ayjay]

^what is really scary about "Wild things" is that I know it off by heart (my 2 yo son loves it)

Lovecraft can be kinda hokey, but some of his stories are great. If you're a completist ya gotta read him. And he gives good quotation...

 

[syymphonatic]

bram stoker dracula
it's not so much as scary as it is chilling and unsettling.
i read it alone with my back to an open window very late at night, and i couldn't sleep that night.

 

[axl blaze]

^ good choice cait. it's not really terrifiying... but come on you know the dude wants to eat his neck off through the whole thing.

 

[captainballs]

Okay I've been thinking a lot lately about breaking down and buying that new Lovecraft short stories collection, but after hearing some of the posts here I don't think those stories would be scary enough for me. As far as Koontz, his books are too easy to read. I want something that challenges me intellectually while torturing me at the same time. I know that's weird, but hey - I'm an anonymous guy so ha!

 

[psilonaught]

^ yeah i agree, i hate reading books that just flow too easily, i'd much rather something that challenges me.

I've never really read a book that scared me that much. Stephen kings It was pretty scary, I read it before watching the movie as well when i was probably only 12 or so.

 

[JerryBlunted]

The original book of the Exorcist is pretty good.
Bag of Bones by Stephen King is pretty good, a lot of King's stuff has already been mentioned but it is hard for me to really be scared by it. I love his work, though, and find his ability to spin an enthralling narrative to be nothing short of genius.

 

[JerryBlunted]

A sort of suspense/horror type of thing that has more of an intellectual side and will make you think a bit is "Foucault's Pendulum" or "Name of the Rose" by Umberto Ecco. They are mysteries more than horror, I guess....

 

[pennywise]

Books that are more "fantasy/horror" really aren't all that scary for me. I think the more realistic you get, the more scary things become, which leads me to my next point...nonfiction is infinitely more scary than fiction. Things that actually happened have the capacity to scare me, not monsters. Human beings are actually the scariest monsters of all in my book. On that note:

Fiction -
"the killers" by ernest hemingway - short story about a robbery.

"the murder of Raymond Vasquez" by charles bukowski, from the collection "the most beautiful woman in town"(full of other disturbing stories as well) - a short story about two men who kill a man for no reason

and, of course, "scary stories to tell in the dark" - a 3 book compilation of old folk tales and ghost stories. They are scary for their stark simplicity as well as some haunting artwork.

NONFICTION -

"Zodiac" by Robert Graysmith - a journalists account of the Zodiac murders. The serial killer who was never caught and taunted the cops. Excellent book, very scary.

"Communion" by Whitley Strieber - man who claims to have been abducted by aliens hundreds of times since he was a child. He claims it is non-fiction, and he is not a kook or nutcase. He was a successful novelist before he wrote "communion" and craziness does not come through in his writing. He makes some outlandish claims and while he could be lying, it still makes for some scary reading.

"The devil in the white city" by Erik Larson. Story about a serial killer who followed the Worlds Fair to Chicago at the turn of the century and built a hotel with secret passages and torture chambers so that he could murder the young women who stayed there. Also lots of interesting stuff about the Worlds Fair. Scary and true.

Also this is a no-brianer but have you ever read any Poe? He's pretty damn scary.

 

[brothermarcus]

In A Dark Place : The Story of a True Haunting
by Ray Garton

the book (based on a true story) is Amityville^10... a priest gets anally raped trying to clean the house. i got the book for a quarter at a yard sale, and when i just checked it out the first edition is going for over $50 on amazon. w00t.

 

[Infernal]

Lovecraft is a very descriptive writer and some of his 'horror' very noteworth but his Dream cycle, especially Unknown Kadath is truly his best work. None of it is really scary just bizarre.