Horror Novels

[aBIGsheep]

Stephen King is a given, but do you guys have any good horror stories? It could be anthologies or short stories or poems or whatever you can throw at me, but I really want a good book to make my skin crawl. Something to make my head spin, y'know?

[Dark Muse]

Well I have to touch back to old Edgar Allan Poe, he will remain a faveorite for me in the realm of horror, but if you are looking for something more moden, I acutally like Peter Straub a touch better than Stephen King. Though I have not read as much of his work, what I have read I really enjoyed.

[johann cruyff]

H.P. Lovecraft, perhaps?

[Nossa]

H.P. Lovecraft, perhaps?

I second that.

[aBIGsheep]

I'm not much of a lovecraft fan. His writing style seems sorta convoluted and overrated.

But I'll admit, his subjects were VERRY interesting. I'd read it if I didn't have to read and reread everything he wrote just to understand a single line.

[Guinivere]

Has anyone tried Darren Shan's novels. They were recommended to me but I'm a bit of a newbie in this particular genre.
I like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series though (at least the first 7 books, then the story sort of collapses).
For classic horror, I would read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

[imperiex]

ask me about horror fiction! :D

if you're keen on the Cthulhu Mythos but you dont prefer Lovecraft you can always try Ramsey Campbell. he's a UK chap who wrote some good Mythos stories IMO, but his novels like The Nameless and The Doll Who Ate His Mother arent exactly my fancy. check out Campbell's non-Mythos story 'The Will of Stanley Brooke' in the anthology Cold Print, that'll freak you out real good.

some selections of mine are Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, and for zombie novels check out David Moody at djmoody.co.uk, has some great ebooks of his zombie saga Autumn available for download. also the Book of the Dead, an anthology of zombie literature edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector.

cheers
imperiex

[PeterL]

Lovecraft was great, but one of the best horror novels was Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. Lovecraft is out of copyright, but most U.S. sources don't know that; but his works are available from Australia.

[GothMan]

Sheridan LeFanu's short stories are creepy as hell, I think. Just give them a try!

[Dark Muse]

A lot of Lovecraft stories that I have read thus far I found more "surreal" than truly horrifying. They were dark, but I am not sure I would call them horror, there was one story The Cats of Ulthar that I really liked.

[PeterL]

A lot of Lovecraft stories that I have read thus far I found more "surreal" than truly horrifying. They were dark, but I am not sure I would call them horror, there was one story The Cats of Ulthar that I really liked.

I have found that most Horror stories are not horrifying, and many are rather humorous.

[aBIGsheep]

Hrrmmm.... I found a site with some good short, creepy stories. If you're from a chan then you'd call it creepypasta.

www.creepypasta.com
Some of my favorites stories from her selection are:
http://www.creepypasta.com/the-baby-doll/
http://www.creepypasta.com/the-growths/
http://www.creepypasta.com/my-girlfriends-eyes/
http://www.creepypasta.com/the-red-wristband/
http://www.creepypasta.com/one-more-for-the-orphan/
http://www.creepypasta.com/just-be-careful-out-there/
http://www.creepypasta.com/white-with-red-eyes/

Most of the stories are just redundant instructions on how to employ spirits to kill someone, but sometimes a good story will sneak between the cracks. Pretty sure I've already listed most of them off.

[johann cruyff]

I have found that most Horror stories are not horrifying, and many are rather humorous.

I don't know how anyone could find a book truly horrifying anyway. Dark, surreal, sometimes making the reader uneasy - absolutely, but scary... I don't think it's even possible, as a matter of fact, it can only end up being humorous, especially if the writer is trying too hard.

[Dark Muse]

That is true. I cannot say I have ever found a book truly scary, though chilling at times and unerving, I have never really been frightend by a book as of yet.

[PeterL]

I don't know how anyone could find a book truly horrifying anyway. Dark, surreal, sometimes making the reader uneasy - absolutely, but scary... I don't think it's even possible, as a matter of fact, it can only end up being humorous, especially if the writer is trying too hard.

I suspect that it's something that modern culture has lost. In times past, the night and things that might be out there truly scared people. People disappeared under Puck's hill; there were evil witches who fattened little girls for slaughter. These days there are some Jeffrey Dahmer types, but even he was strange in ways that were sort of funny, even though he did slay and eat parts of his victims.

[Dark Muse]

Yes I agree with that as well, it is largely the modern culture that has made the books less terrifying than I imagine they must once have been.

I can imagine for instance back in the days, reading Edgar Allan Poe by candellight could have been in its time quite terrifying.

[qimissung]

'Thurnley Abbey' by Perceval Landon is a good, scary short story, as is 'To Let' by B.M. Croker. They were Victorian authors.

[aBIGsheep]

I can imagine for instance back in the days, reading Edgar Allan Poe by candellight could have been in its time quite terrifying.

That's how I read most of my scary stories. Closed door, the AC recreating the 3rd ice age, dark as night, silent save for every little thing that creaks.

When you're in the right mood, that's when you crap the most bricks.

[Dark Muse]

Sounds nice, I loved love to read huanted, scary tales by the hearth fire on some stormy winter night.

I have been reading Dr. Jeykell and Mr. Hide, in the wee hours of the night, every night right before going to bed. That is kind of fun.

[Immortall708]

I like to read horrors. But not these which don´t have imagineable involution in them.It loses my time.I prefer horrors with dull and freezy story of the great involution in them. A lot of movies were books before.Those ones have story mostly other atmosphere than when you read books with same story. You can reading a book, and being perfectly relaxed, but scary. However, you watch a movie, you can be cofused and perplexed, because you don´t know, for example, something about someone, what is not explain it in the movie.:)

[Judas130]

there isn't too much these days that can be deemed that scary with modern horror movies desensitising us to a good dark book. Yet you have to go with Poe, the Raven gave me chills on a warm day when i picked it up in a bookstore. Though i find his detective writings a tad tedious. Lovecraft is the other suggestion but you already said you didnt dig him too much. Try searching about for some fantasy fiction or sci/fi. You might find something...

[kasie]

That's how I read most of my scary stories. Closed door, the AC recreating the 3rd ice age, dark as night, silent save for every little thing that creaks. ....

I scared myself silly reading M R James in a public library with other borrowers too-ing and fro-ing beside me and the August sun streaming in through the windows. :D

A good writer can set the scene no matter where you are reading but perhaps we as readers have been de-sensitised by tv or films, as one poster has already suggested, or perhaps the constant images of war-time horror on news channels or detailed reports of the (fortunately rare) monsters who commit multiple atrocities (the Yorkshire Ripper or the Wests in the UK for example) have made horror an everyday sensation. Which makes me wonder - why do we read Horror nowadays?

[Melmoth]

I don't know how anyone could find a book truly horrifying anyway. Dark, surreal, sometimes making the reader uneasy - absolutely, but scary... I don't think it's even possible, as a matter of fact, it can only end up being humorous, especially if the writer is trying too hard.

Even more, Johan, is there nowadays any really scary movie, apart from The Exorcist? And that's not really a modern film.... he he:(

To the point, I agree with GothMan, LeFanu is a must when dealing with horror stories, take In a Glass Darkly, where you'll find such pieces as Carmilla, Green Tea or Mr Justice Harbottle...

There are some -lesser known- interesting horror stories by Edith Wharton -the female Henry James as I personally reckon her- ... yes, the same one who wrote The Age of Innocence or The House of Mirth...

By the way, I remember taking a compilation of some of her horror stories -I'm sorry, I can't remeber the name- in whose preface she stated that with the invention of electricity, ghosts somehow disappeared....:eek2:

[aeroport]

I've been reading a bit of Lovecraft these past couple days, and have been surprised at what different styles he took on during his career. As far as his earlier stories go, 'The Rats in the Walls' and 'The Music of Erich Zann' are the only ones I really care for. I was getting fed up reading about 'unspeakable horrors' and madness in these stories that are pretty unbelievable as it is. But as he matures, he develops a really fascinating and much more realistic method before introducing the frightful and unnatural. It's fantastic, really. Looking forward to more.

[Leabhar]

If you like Stephen King why not try one his own favorite writers, Dan Simmons if you haven't already. Night in the Lonesome October by Richard Laymon is probably my favorite horror novel.

[Dark Muse]

I enjoy his fantasy and surreal writing. I like the wierd and the bazzar, I just haven't found the stories to be truly "horror" by my estimation. But I still find them interesting.

[librosdesangre]

I recomend you "Books of Blood" by Clive Barker. These books are a collection of short stories combining horror and fantasy. I like these stories very much because in many cases you don´t know how the story ends and in other cases there are twist in the stories.

[DeadAsDreams]

I second the Books of Blood, also I'd reccomend anything by Laird Barron.

[Terror Firmer]

The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman, 11 tales from the master of the strange!

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

The Dark Side by Guy de Mauppasant (warning some of these 31 tales are abit repetitive or similar themed, but his explorations into madness and the macabre is truly inspired if not abit leaning towards Poesque)

Didnt want to toss out the usual lists.

[Thespian1975]

Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson.

Scary without resorting to graphic

[Terror Firmer]

Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson.

Scary without resorting to graphic

One of the scariest novels I have ever read and I would plug Richard Matheson's Hell House and I Am Legend too.