Scary horror novels

[Cayal]

Is anyone actually scared by horror novels? This isn't a post criticising the genre, I don't read many horror novels just because I don't think they could achieve what I think they set out to do. However I could be wrong in their intentions.

Are horror stories meant to be scary or just have a horror implication? (like *real* vampires attacking kids or monsters from the bog stalking the abandoned amusement park etc.).

The last novel that freaked me out was Phantoms by Dean Koontz. Before that, it was probably R. L. Stine and his Goosebumps (that's how long ago I am talking).

 

[Fried Egg]

I think that horror stories are not going to scare in quite the same way as films do. That is because the way the medium of film can cleverly make use of sound and vision to create frights. In addition, the film maker can precisely control the pace with which events unfold. In books, you just can't really do that.

Books have to work in a different way. They rely on firing your imagination in such a way that you scare yourself. Good horror books are not a passive affair in the way horror films often are. There the director carefully orchestrates your experience and you just sit back and enjoy the ride. If you go from having watched a lot of horror films to reading horror and expect the same experience, you will innevitably be disappointed. Books require far more of an "investment" by the reader. They require the reader to actively engage, to flesh out with your imagination what is described, sometimes to fill in the deliberate blanks, to contemplate the implications yourself.

So yes, I think they can scare. And I think that they can be ultimately more rewarding than a film if you are prepared to engage with them properly (and it's a good book of course).

 

[Jennifer Kirk]

I've never yet been scared reading a horror novel, though as has already been said, this may be more down to the limits of the medium than anything else. Is this because I've not read proper really behind-the-sofa scary books yet? Maybe. Certainly being scary in book form is a more subtle art in the writing. Even a mediocre horror film can be scary because it provides you with all the visual information that you need. In a book this is always going to be far harder to do.

 

[zaltys13]

the only book thats ever really scared me was Mark Z Danielewski's House Of Leaves, and I've been reading horror fiction for 25 years. That's not to say I dont enjoy a good Horror novel it's just that the real world is far more frightening.

 

[blacknorth]

Generally I just like to be mildly spooked so don't read for extreme thrills of any kind. But I did read a novel by F Paul Wilson that scared by the bejesus out of me. Having said that - it re-used an old horror stalwart - burial alive - to good effect: a Cornell Woolrich favourite.

 

[Cayal]

the only book thats ever really scared me was Mark Z Danielewski's House Of Leaves, and I've been reading horror fiction for 25 years. That's not to say I dont enjoy a good Horror novel it's just that the real world is far more frightening.

I really enjoyed that book, but I didn't think it was scary.

 

[dlsevern]

Horror novels absolutely can be scary. Lovecraft actually gave me nightmares. Stephen King's "It" terrified me as well as Bentley Little's "The Return", and Peter Straub's "Floating Dragon". I'm pretty desensitized to horror now but there are always new novels that that give me the willies!

 

[biodroid]

I also thought Phantoms was scary, Watcher by Koontz is also freaky. Stephen King wrote some scary ones, The Shining and Pet Sematary are especially freaky.

 

[dlsevern]

Horror novels absolutely can be scary. Lovecraft actually gave me nightmares. Stephen King's "It" terrified me as well as Bentley Little's "The Return", and Peter Straub's "Floating Dragon". I'm pretty desensitized to horror now but there are always new novels that that give me the willies!

I would also like to add to this Gord Rollo's "Crimson", Ramsey Campbell's "The Grin of the Dark", and I'm reading Dan Simmon's "Summer of Night" which is so far excellent.

 

[paranoid marvin]

'Horror' is in the mind of the belholder. To some it is simply a clown or a particularly icky looking bug. To others it's the dark ,or confined spaces , or the thing hiding under your bed....

Try 'Poe' (The Monkeys Paw) or Wheatly (The Haunting of Toby Jugg) , 2 of my favourite horror novels. Also many of King's short story collections send shivers up the spine , with the Sun Dog (from Four Past Midnight) being a particular favourite.

As well as finding the right novel , it is important to read a horror novel in the right place. Sat on a train full of commuters or during your lunch break in the canteen is not the place for setting the scene. Try a comfortable chair in front of the fire at night with the lights turned down low after your other half has turned in ; or if alone , sat up in bed with only a bedside lamp for illumination. It's amazing how the magination can go into overdrive when the correct buttons are pushed.

 

[dask]

You mean W. W. Jacobs's "The Monkey's Paw" don't you? Or did Poe really write a story by that name?

 

[paranoid marvin]

Sorry , I lost part of my sentence (I get a little ahead of myself sometimes!). I meant Poe's 'The Telltale Heart' or Jacob's 'The Monkeys Paw'

 

[Tinsel]

Is anyone actually scared by horror novels? This isn't a post criticising the genre, I don't read many horror novels just because I don't think they could achieve what I think they set out to do. However I could be wrong in their intentions.

Are horror stories meant to be scary or just have a horror implication? (like *real* vampires attacking kids or monsters from the bog stalking the abandoned amusement park etc.).

The last novel that freaked me out was Phantoms by Dean Koontz. Before that, it was probably R. L. Stine and his Goosebumps (that's how long ago I am talking).

There is some fear in the modern world, but the modern world is not very mysterious, so the plots that use fear, have no place in horror since what threatens us is natural conflict.

Modern horror existed in the 1950 - 1980's and than it slowly became comedy. It is all reflective now and more like nostalgia for the power that once existed, expressed, and still felt by the reader.

It just is not a leading force anymore, so horror is not scary, although there might be a little bit of tension that you would feel over some supernatural plot line however people don't develop superstition into real life paradoxes, so there is no reason to fear.

 

[shaun45]

i think it all depends on your imagionation like really were as with films you dont need the imgination its just there

 

[drosdelnoch]

If you're looking for something different you might want to try Graham Masterton, theres a lot of research into his subject matter and its pretty good scares along the way.

 

[Demonomania]

I'm constantly seeking manipulation of my emotions from books/film/music etc so tend to read a bit of horror fiction. Personally, I've found that it takes a while for the true implications of the things described in writing to take full effect. I like to let it seep in for a few days, thinking it over and re-imagining - a method I've found to be very effective. This being said there have been two books I've read recently that had moments of instantaneous fear; 'Weaveworld' by Clive Barker and 'Century Rain' by Alastair Reynolds (which isn't even horror, it's sci-fi) this I attribute to the quality of the writing.

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I've been frightened by horror books too many times to count. As I read I visualise the story, so it's sort of like a TV show or movie unfolding in my head.

Right now I'm reading The Strain, a horror/vampire book co-authored by Guillermo Del Toro. I wasn't at all scared until the few paragraphs where a pilot describes a monster he calls Mr. Leech, that terrified him when he was a child staying over at his grandmother's. I kept "seeing" Mr. Leech's evil sneering face and that scared me.

I suppose, what scares me the most is when an author creates characters or scenarios that seem to mirror the many things that have scared me since childhood. Another example, there is a Stephen King short story about a man who sees a finger come out of the bathroom drain. That story scared me so much that I couldn't finish it. Why? Because one of my irrational fears is having some scary thing crawl out of a drain.

I think a good horror writer is one who is acutely aware of the very real fears (no matter how irrational) that many people have.

 

[Lemmy]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't read horror to be scared. Sure there have been creepy books, like Stephen Law's Spectre, Morgan Fields' Shaman Woods and, of course, Pet Semetary by Stephen King. (of which I am a proud owner of the first edition.) But while they were creepy as hell, none of them scared me. I even have horror music, of all things. Look up King Diamond-albums like Abigail, The girl with the bloody dress and Puppet Master, and you find excellent horror stories.

I think the main reason I love horror is because it has a very different tone than other genres. If it's a comedy, you have a few predictable laughs and know it will end well. Or if it doesn't, it still ends in a funny way. Dramas are often character driven and can be quite, uh, dramatic, but while you might think about them for a while after you read them, they are nothing too special.

But horror? In horror, anything goes. It's easy to say it always ends well in the end, but that's not the case. Every genre has rules, but good horror often breaks them. Nothing is sacred. The main character can die, or worse. (in an Elm Street novel I read, the main character was locked up in a mental institution, too scared to fall asleep again after her friends and a lot of other people had been killed.) Just when you think you know what's going to happen, the rules can change entirely and give you a whole new kind of horror. Jeepers Creepers, anyone? Horrible movie, but interesting plot twist.

My point is I love horror because good horror is so unpredictable, and horror in general spans pretty much everything from historial dramas to sci-fi to anything in between. The only common thing they have is that anything goes. Think you know your Chucky? He got a girlfriend and son. Think you knew Godzilla? Add a bunch of other monsters into the mayhem. Think you know Jason? He didn't die until the fourth movie, but then came back from the dead in the sixth. Anything goes.

 

[joanmak]

My favorites are Kirkman's graphic novels The Walking Dead, The Rising by Brian Keen, and Zombie University by Trip Ellington

 

[kromanjon]

As I write mostly horror short stories I've come across the problem of being scary many times. In the end though I don't find horror in litterature scary. What it can be is suspensful and disturbing.

Closest thing to being scared by a book was when I read American Psycho and found myself sitting on the subway one day monologing in my head in the voice of Patrick Bateman. That was wierd.