• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Books that have scared the pants off you

Sakedon

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
42
MBTI Type
ESFJ
So lately I've been reading a lot more, and mostly crime thriller/horror based stuff. In the last little while I've read: Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, 1408 and The Exorcist. You'll notice all of these have been made into movies, which I've also seen lol.

Problem is, despite how good these books are (Silence of the Lambs especially) I've yet to find something utterly terrifying. I want to be scared. I want it to stick with me. I guess I'm thrill-chasing and these books have gotten me halfway there. I want a page turning, up all night, wide eyed, can't wait to read what happens next, adventure. So I'm going to pick your brains and ask for scary/thrilling read suggestions to fill my book shelves with.

Who's got something good?
 

five sounds

MyPeeSmellsLikeCoffee247
Joined
Jul 17, 2013
Messages
5,393
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
729
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
The Stand gave me some pretty scary dreams.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Interestingly, I find I get more "physically scared" from movies. Books are more engrossing, less "sheer terror." Also, as I've gotten older, I have less shock moments.

But there are pieces of certain books that really can unsettle me, even in books that aren't necessarily perfect. For example, there's a scene in Graham Masterson's "Manitou" series where the orderly is seen screaming from inside the hospital room where the manitou is emerging from the host mother's body, and suddenly there's a huge spray of blood where the manitou used a spell to turn the guy completely inside out.

Similar stuff:
- Stephen King is probably the most famous since he's put out such a huge volume of work. His story of the "The Raft," for example (despite the really crappy adaptation for Creepshow 2) just left me ill and scared to go in the water after. The whole storyline of Mordred in "Dark Tower 7" is also pretty harrowing and horrific.
- Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" stuff might overall be high fantasy but has a lot of dark overtones to it, in terms of the evil that is involved. I remember reading it when I was in middle school and there are a lot of sequences that could fit into horror; for example, the whole bit in The Illearth War where one of the lords has a horrific vision of the race of Giants being exterminated, so they send a squad of soldiers into the marshlands to reach the Giant's home and they disappear... and they later send another group in with the same purpose, and they find the missing soldiers + far more than they bargained for. If you like your high fantasy with lots of scary/starkness, well, he has that.

I'll try to think of some other things. I agree with you about Tom Harris' stuff. I think I found Red Dragon "scarier" than Silence of the Lambs, honestly. Harris is a tremendous writer, but I didn't exactly find his books 'scary' per se even while they were engrossing.
 

Sunny Ghost

New member
Joined
May 28, 2010
Messages
2,396
So lately I've been reading a lot more, and mostly crime thriller/horror based stuff. In the last little while I've read: Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, 1408 and The Exorcist. You'll notice all of these have been made into movies, which I've also seen lol.

Problem is, despite how good these books are (Silence of the Lambs especially) I've yet to find something utterly terrifying. I want to be scared. I want it to stick with me. I guess I'm thrill-chasing and these books have gotten me halfway there. I want a page turning, up all night, wide eyed, can't wait to read what happens next, adventure. So I'm going to pick your brains and ask for scary/thrilling read suggestions to fill my book shelves with.

Who's got something good?

"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski is it's own brand of mystery/horror. You should pick it up.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy sticks with me. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book is very good.
 

Sakedon

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
42
MBTI Type
ESFJ
I'll try to think of some other things. I agree with you about Tom Harris' stuff. I think I found Red Dragon "scarier" than Silence of the Lambs, honestly. Harris is a tremendous writer, but I didn't exactly find his books 'scary' per se even while they were engrossing.

You know I hear this a lot, that people liked Red Dragon more than Silence of the Lambs. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for thinking the other way around. I'll admit a lot of RD was unsettling, but it moved at a really slow pace for me. SotL I was page turning and eating up. o_o different minds, I guess. I do have yet to read Hannibal. Maybe I should add that to my 'to read' list.

Awesome suggestions everyone! I am writing all these down. Keep them coming! ;D
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
You know I hear this a lot, that people liked Red Dragon more than Silence of the Lambs. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for thinking the other way around. I'll admit a lot of RD was unsettling, but it moved at a really slow pace for me. SotL I was page turning and eating up. o_o different minds, I guess. I do have yet to read Hannibal. Maybe I should add that to my 'to read' list.

ROFL!!!!

Okay, I'm gonna be blunt.
The book and the movie (Hannibal) actually share a lot of similarities. That's not a compliment for the book. What's in Harris' favor is that he's SUCH a good writer, that he could take an absurd villain, absurd situations, and still make them palatable on the page... because they sure did not come off as believable during the movie. (I have trouble watching the movie, let alone not laughing the entire way throughout it.)

My personal opinion of Hannibal is that it was Harris' "fuck you" to his audience and to his publisher, for obsessing so much over SotL. He basically sold them a book that was just ridiculous, that they already had to print, that they already knew they'd make lots of money off, and that people would suck up and read regardless just because it was a Hannibal book... and he did it because he could get away with it and wanted to rub everyone's nose in that fact.

That's how I felt while I was reading it... like it was one big joke that Harris' pulled on his audience and his publisher. Annoying and amusing to me all at the same time.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy sticks with me. I haven't seen the movie yet, but the book is very good.

I saw the movie first. It ambled a bit, not really having the clearest arc (and thus not as satisfying a resolution), but I will say tonally it was pretty amazing, and the acting was excellent. It actually convinced me to buy and read the book. Charlize Theron was haunting, and Viggo M was just dogged and lovely and forlorn and... well, he very much loved his son. I've read part of the book since, I should actually finish it.
 

RaptorWizard

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 19, 2012
Messages
5,895
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Inside the New Age Nightmare

51B5QBFEMKL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
 

Sakedon

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
42
MBTI Type
ESFJ
ROFL!!!!

Okay, I'm gonna be blunt.
The book and the movie (Hannibal) actually share a lot of similarities. That's not a compliment for the book. What's in Harris' favor is that he's SUCH a good writer, that he could take an absurd villain, absurd situations, and still make them palatable on the page... because they sure did not come off as believable during the movie. (I have trouble watching the movie, let alone not laughing the entire way throughout it.)

My personal opinion of Hannibal is that it was Harris' "fuck you" to his audience and to his publisher, for obsessing so much over SotL. He basically sold them a book that was just ridiculous, that they already had to print, that they already knew they'd make lots of money off, and that people would suck up and read regardless just because it was a Hannibal book... and he did it because he could get away with it and wanted to rub everyone's nose in that fact.

That's how I felt while I was reading it... like it was one big joke that Harris' pulled on his audience and his publisher. Annoying and amusing to me all at the same time.

Interesting! Apparently there's a 4th book floating around in that series (Rising?) that people have cautioned me to steer clear from for this very reason. :) Did you make it to book four?
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Interesting! Apparently there's a 4th book floating around in that series (Rising?) that people have cautioned me to steer clear from for this very reason. :) Did you make it to book four?

I honestly had never heard of a fourth book, but that was during a dark period in my life and I missed a lot that was going on. I didn't realize the fourth movie had actually been based on another book.

I found Lecter far more interesting when we didn't know much about him. Sometimes you can explain too much, and it becomes more and more implausible as you do.

I do highly recommend the TV show, which will enter its second season in a few months.
 

highlander

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
26,562
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Salem's Lot

Revelation (from the New Testament)
 

SubtleFighter

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
253
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Salem's Lot

Seconded. I couldn't leave my curtains open for the longest time after reading it! And I still jump if I hear a noise at the window after dark. To the OP, you gotta stick with this one for a couple hundred pages in the beginning because King takes awhile to get going. But once he does, he REALLY does!

Also, along the same vampire vein (get it? huh? huh? I marvel at my wit), you might try I Am Legend. The book is so much better than the movie.
 

Sakedon

New member
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
42
MBTI Type
ESFJ
Seconded. I couldn't leave my curtains open for the longest time after reading it! And I still jump if I hear a noise at the window after dark. To the OP, you gotta stick with this one for a couple hundred pages in the beginning because King takes awhile to get going. But once he does, he REALLY does!

Also, along the same vampire vein (get it? huh? huh? I marvel at my wit), you might try I Am Legend. The book is so much better than the movie.

That's good to know, I really didn't like the I am legend movie. Maybe I'll give the book a try?
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
That's good to know, I really didn't like the I am legend movie. Maybe I'll give the book a try?

The movie doesn't have much to do with the book, honestly, except the same name and maybe a broad theme or two. It was also written in the 50's? 60's? So even the setting is different.
 

Eilonwy

Vulnerability
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
7,051
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
4
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I forget at what age that our public library allowed children to go into the adult side of the library, but I'm going to guess around 11 years old. That's when I discovered Thomas Tryon and his books "The Other" and "Harvest Home". I don't know that they would hold up in today's world, but they scared the pants off of me then.

And, of course, "The Shining" by Stephen King. I was reading it alone in the house on a school night. The upstairs family room was right next to a big bathroom, then there was a long hallway that led to my bedroom. I was at least 16, but I couldn't bring myself to even take my feet off of the couch to put them on the floor (there had to be something under the couch!), much less go past the bathroom (lady in the tub!), down that long hallway (scary children!) to my bedroom. So, I stayed up most of the night reading so that I could get to the end of the book and know what happened. It was still difficult to walk to my bedroom, though.

ETA: I'm not sure that I can experience that kind of terror any more through reading. It seems to be a part of being young. Movies and real life provide that terror now.
 

SubtleFighter

New member
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
253
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
That's good to know, I really didn't like the I am legend movie. Maybe I'll give the book a try?

I'd definitely recommend it. Probably my favorite vampire book ever (yes, they're vampires in the book, not zombies like in the movie). Even if it doesn't scare you, it's just really well-written.
 
Top