I guess it takes a lot to scare me

[kaelcarp]

I have yet to find a book that can really legitimately scare me. I can get creeped out by films or even music, but I generally find it hard to get it from books. I'm not sure why. I've read Stephen King and Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft and things like that, and I tend to like scary stories, but I don't actually get scared by them.

So I'm wondering if there are any good books or authors who could possibly scare people who are hard to scare. Any suggestions?

 

[HoopyFrood]

I agree, horror films can often creep me out, but it's rare to find a book that can incite a similar feeling. But films have more techniques at hand to create such feelings, I guess. I have to say, though, that one of the only few books that has managed to make me feel quite uncomfortable and make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck is the The Shining, and more specifically the part where Danny hears the thing moving around in room 217; when he hears the footsteps running across the floor and then the door handle turning as the thing inside grasps it. I think it's the fact that you can hear it but can't see it that makes it all the more scary. Rrr. And a similar thing from The Hound by Lovecraft -- when you hear the hound scratching at the doors and moving outside the house, that was quite eerie, too. It seems the be the hearing-but-not-seeing that makes me uncomfortable!

As for suggestions on books that might scare...well, honestly, I think I'd like to steal some of the suggestions that might come from other people, because I'd also like to read such books!

 

[Woodfoot]

What about Shrine?

 

[sanityassassin]

I am presuming you mean James Herberts Shrine which is quite good but the scariest book I have read was another JH 'Domain' the third part of the Rats trilogy but that might have something to do with the nuclear explosion senario which freaked me out as a child

 

[j d worthington]

I'd say you're not likely to find something that "scares" in the sense of being startled, jolted, or "stung"; and as for "creeping [you] out"... a lot of it relies on how you react imaginatively to suggestion. After all, outright violence and grossnss are seldom truly scary or eerie; but something that has spreading implications that unsettle you, or get you to reexamine your worldview because they resonate... there are a fair number of those in literature. Of course, not all are supernatural, either. "Leiningen vs. the Ants" is a good example of the non-supernatural ones, as are "Moonlight Sonata" and 1984. For modern writers who do the supernatural (or at least preternatural) sort, I'd suggest Thomas Ligotti, one of the most subtly disturbing and unsettling writers around. Ramsey Campbell has done his share of truly unsettling tales, too, both supernatural and non-supernatural. Campbell is more prolific, and a bit uneven, but a little searching will turn up titles of those that are most likely to appeal to you personally, while Ligotti is a bit hard to track down save in anthologies, but well worth searching for....

 

[nomadman]

About the only affordable Ligotti book at the moment is The Nightmare Factory, a graphic novel comprising four of Ligotti's more famous tales: Teatro Grotessco, Dream of a Manikin, Dr Locrian's Assylum, and The Last Feast of Harlequin (there is a collection of his work by the same name, but this, along with much of Ligotti's other stuff, is out-of-print and expensive). There are also two stories available at Thomas Ligotti Online.

 

[kaelcarp]

I'd say you're not likely to find something that "scares" in the sense of being startled, jolted, or "stung"; and as for "creeping [you] out"... a lot of it relies on how you react imaginatively to suggestion. After all, outright violence and grossnss are seldom truly scary or eerie; but something that has spreading implications that unsettle you, or get you to reexamine your worldview because they resonate... there are a fair number of those in literature. Of course, not all are supernatural, either. "Leiningen vs. the Ants" is a good example of the non-supernatural ones, as are "Moonlight Sonata" and 1984. For modern writers who do the supernatural (or at least preternatural) sort, I'd suggest Thomas Ligotti, one of the most subtly disturbing and unsettling writers around. Ramsey Campbell has done his share of truly unsettling tales, too, both supernatural and non-supernatural. Campbell is more prolific, and a bit uneven, but a little searching will turn up titles of those that are most likely to appeal to you personally, while Ligotti is a bit hard to track down save in anthologies, but well worth searching for....

Maybe it's just that I'm an adult now, and a science-minded adult with no real supernatural belief. I do get disturbed by the thought of a particular type of world (Richard K. Morgan's Market Forces was the last book I read that depicted a scary world), so I can get scared on a sort of intellectual level. It's that visceral, tense feeling that I don't often get from books. The feeling that I got when watching Pan's Labyrinth as the Pale Man woke up is something I've never been able to get from a book. Is it that my imagination is lacking (I don't think so)? Perhaps I am just more emotionally attached to images and sounds than to concepts.

Books do make me think more. They do present concepts and realities that are scary, but scary in a detached sense.

 

[j d worthington]

It may be that you are more attached to visual images. Then again, it may be you're in something of a transitional phase. I know that I went through such for a while, as I left all belief in anything supernatural or preternatural behind. Now I find myself often (though not exclusively) much more affected by the classics of the (written) weird or terror tale than I do that on a screen. In part, it's because -- as mentioned above -- of the spreading implications, the way the words play on my symbolic imagination. But a large part of that "eeriness" factor is also awe; a feeling for what Burke called "the sublime". And, if you've not read his essay, you might give that a try. That, and one by Ann Radcliffe on the supernatural in poetry. Showing that these questions were given serious philosophical thought and probing analysis over two centuries ago. One does not have to agree with many of their points -- especially the religious ones -- in order to see that they nonetheless had some very worthwhile ideas on the importance of such things to our imagination and emotions. Below I include the links to Burke's essay -- including a short related introductory essay on taste -- and to Radcliffe's thoughts, as well:

Burke, Edmund. 1909–14. On Taste. Vol. 24, Part 1. The Harvard Classics

Burke, Edmund. 1909–14. On the Sublime and Beautiful. Vol. 24, Part 2. The Harvard Classics

Radcliffe, On the Supernatural, p. 1

 

[that old guy]

This one scared the living crap out of me...

Amazon.com: Neo-conservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea: Books: Irving Kristol

 

[j d worthington]

This one scared the living crap out of me...

Amazon.com: Neo-conservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea: Books: Irving Kristol

Oh, now, that's on a whole 'nother level of scary, that one.....

Meant to mention: Keep an eye out for Ligotti in secondhand shops, though... that's where I found my copies of Grimscribe, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and Noctuary... all of which I found in quite good shape (almost mint) for less than $5....

 

[scalem X]

I have the sollution and it's really simple:
atmosphere!

I know this is totally weird and the question is: do you want to be scared?
Where do you read?
Consider yourself reading on a train. There are like 5 other people around you. It doesn't really sound very disturbing. Even if you read the most disturbing tale, you won't be scared unless the people start to act strangely. Consider the fact that now, there is only one person at night and the story you're reading is Clive Barker's midnight meat train. Maybe at one point, you might look up and make a connection between the two. That's when you start to get scared, when you read, yet jump up every time the guy makes a noice. Consider the coach empty. You might be right, but maybe the coach isn't empty. As you read on a certain a person touches you (and asks for your ticket).

I think the trouble is that your surroundings while reading are too comfortable, too familiar. Take things that disturb you (e.g. procelain dolls, scary pictures, hatchets,...) in a bag, go out alone in a dark forrest, and try again.

 

[j d worthington]

I have the sollution and it's really simple:
atmosphere!

I know this is totally weird and the question is: do you want to be scared?
Where do you read?
Consider yourself reading on a train. There are like 5 other people around you. It doesn't really sound very disturbing. Even if you read the most disturbing tale, you won't be scared unless the people start to act strangely. Consider the fact that now, there is only one person at night and the story you're reading is Clive Barker's midnight meat train. Maybe at one point, you might look up and make a connection between the two. That's when you start to get scared, when you read, yet jump up every time the guy makes a noice. Consider the coach empty. You might be right, but maybe the coach isn't empty. As you read on a certain a person touches you (and asks for your ticket).

I think the trouble is that your surroundings while reading are too comfortable, too familiar. Take things that disturb you (e.g. procelain dolls, scary pictures, hatchets,...) in a bag, go out alone in a dark forrest, and try again.

Ummm, Scalem....

http://www.horrormasters.com/Text/a0178.pdf

 

[HoopyFrood]

Heh, you might be onto something there Scalem. Next time I'm in the house alone, I'll pull out one of my more scary books and start reading it...

 

[scalem X]

Good story, JD.

Nevertheless, it seems to work.

 

[nomadman]

Meant to mention: Keep an eye out for Ligotti in secondhand shops, though... that's where I found my copies of Grimscribe, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and Noctuary... all of which I found in quite good shape (almost mint) for less than $5....

Good finds. I trawl second-hand bookshops fairly regularly but have yet to strike it lucky. Not that I won't keep looking, but were they hard to find?

 

[j d worthington]

Good finds. I trawl second-hand bookshops fairly regularly but have yet to strike it lucky. Not that I won't keep looking, but were they hard to find?

I'll admit that they weren't easy. I'd been looking for anything by Ligotti for about two years or so with no results. Then: Grimscribe and Songs of a Dead Dreamer appeared in the same day (both for around $2.50-$3.00), and Noctuary showed up about two weeks later for about $4.50....

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yeah, no book's ever freaked me out, either, despite the vivid imagination I have. I don't know why that is.....though I do have to say Pet Sematary came close, and not just because it conjured movie images up, either....no other book, though, has ever came close to scaring me, some I've actually found funny, in a sick, macabre sort of way....

 

[tangaloomababe]

Very few books would have "scared" me, given me the creeps a little yes. In fact I brought Vampyrrhic on the recommendation that it would scare me. It didn't, don't bother. 1984 did sort of creep me out, especially good old Room 101 but I didn't have to put it down and save it until daylight hours.
None of Stephen Kings books have scared me as such. I have not read Shrine, maybe I should!

 

[Connavar]

A good scary book is a like a good scary movie, you cant read it in daylight and in a happy mood.

You have wait for the dark silent night and set yourself in a right mood and then a good horror story will scare you.

Atleast that how it has worked for me.

Maybe i have sick mind but when i read a good horror story my imagination makes the scary scenes in the books i read alot worse. I have even dreamt them coming at me when i go to sleep.

That happened with Clive Barker short stories i read not so long ago,that i try to imagine and dream about something nice when i slept after reading it but i couldnt escape The Midnight Meat Train

 

[kaelcarp]

That happened with Clive Barker short stories i read not so long ago,that i try to imagine and dream about something nice when i slept after reading it but i couldnt escape The Midnight Meat Train

The closest I can remember getting to being scared is reading the Clive Barker story "Rawhead Rex" when I was quite young. There's no way it would scare me now. It's more blood and gore than chills. But there was something in it - I think in part it's that a child dies very graphically in it - that creeped me out.