|
I was talking to a friend the other day; the two of us are big horror movie buffs and we talked about the last movie that scared either of us, which got us talking about whether books can be "scary". I know horror books are a big genre but I'm curious to know whether a book has ever successfully given you the willies. If so, what book was it & why? I feel like I've been unsettled by books but not really scared. I feel like it has to do with how much horror is a visual/aural phenomenon for me and I don't know that my imagination is capable of drumming up something worse than what the girl from The Ring did to my brain when I was a kid. But then, I don't read a lot of horror either. So I guess I am also farming for recs here too 
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 16:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:03 |
|
|
It can be scary if you let it be scary (think about it seriously enough that you take in all the implications). Plenty of nonfiction on real-life horrors provokes disgust because we can imagine the events as they might have really happened, for example.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 19:19
|
|
|
It takes a lot for a book to be really scary, but exceptionally well made ones can pull it off just fine. Tehanu by Ursula K Le Guin was really nail-biting towards its ending, and Silence by Shusaku Endo had me really wound up during the prison scenes. Without being able to rely on jump scares an author has to really, really work to create a tangible aura of dread.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 20:21
|
|
|
I thought Tender is the Flesh was geniunely unsettling and gave me nightmares for a while. not just cannibalism, but the coldness of the entire book.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 20:28
|
|
|
I found the edge chronicles very scary when I was a kid. They had a small number of illustrations but I think they weren't required. I think the setting matters a lot - it's kind of hard to be scared from a book when sitting in a Starbucks in the middle of the day, on your own in the dark is another story.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 20:55
|
|
|
the more well written and likeable a character is, the less likely you'll want to read them getting gored or whatever. that makes a solid horror novel to me
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 21:15
|
|
|
I was told there was a monster at the end of the book and left more and more unnerved as I ran out of pages
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 22:05
|
|
|
RBA Starblade posted:I was told there was a monster at the end of the book and left more and more unnerved as I ran out of pages I actually loved that book when I was really little because it did indeed scare the poo poo out of me. Poor Grover 
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2023 23:02
|
|
|
Doc Fission posted:I was talking to a friend the other day; the two of us are big horror movie buffs and we talked about the last movie that scared either of us, which got us talking about whether books can be "scary". I know horror books are a big genre but I'm curious to know whether a book has ever successfully given you the willies. If so, what book was it & why? Potentially, I guess? It really depends on how engrossed the reader gets, as well as the book and where you're reading. (Since as distortion park said, sitting in a cafe or park in the middle of the day would kill any kind of stressful mood while reading, for me!) I've definitely been unsettled by things while reading too, but I don't think I've personally been scared while reading. That being said, I don't think I've read too much horror over the years. I do quite like reading horror short stories now and again, though! I like the mystery of what's left unsaid, as there are some authors out there who are very good at adding mystery and suspense by leaving certain details vague.
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2023 01:36
|
|
|
Yeah, for sure. It's a different kind of scare than what movies or games can provide, but not any less so Books are really good at building and maintaining tension. They can work at the speed of thought and have more tricks up their sleeves to manipulate or set fire to your imagination, which is where scares usually come from. They're also really good at cashing in that tension - which, again, is often how horror gets generated. and books are probably forever unparalleled when it comes to characterization and becoming invested in a fictional person: you can get inside their heads, your imagination crafts what it thinks of as a "real" person that's not just an actor or a collection of polygons. You fear for that character and become scared when they are in horrifying situations, and they can be tortured and harried in ways that won't trigger your "pfft, this isn't real" reflex as easily Books can't really do jump scares, though, and its "visuals" are supremely restricted by your own brain. The xenomorph is scary to look at, but I don't think even the most talented author can make it scary to picture in your head. It needs to do something for a book to make it a scary Read The Wasp Factory through chapter 9 and tell me books can't be scary
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2023 06:32
|
|
|
WarpDogs posted:and books are probably forever unparalleled when it comes to characterization and becoming invested in a fictional person: you can get inside their heads, your imagination crafts what it thinks of as a "real" person that's not just an actor or a collection of polygons. Indeed, and that's what's difficult to achieve in any other medium: The text can directly describe different characters' thoughts and sentiments and provides much more direct interiority.
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2023 07:58
|
|
|
when i was younger, the scary stories to tell in the dark books definitely scared me. i also remember clive barker books being creepy several days after i finished them. also, in light of all the current book bannings, i still think it's funny the scary story books were offered at the scholastic book fairs, because i was not ready for them at all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2023 09:08
|
|
|
I was never scared by a book until I read Rosemary's Baby so I guess there's at least that one
|
|
#
?
Apr 24, 2023 23:07
|
|
|
I've had a few books gently caress me up (Lookin' at you Crime and Punishment...), but I don't think any has actually scared me. Not even Goosebumps.
|
|
#
?
Apr 25, 2023 03:58
|
|
|
When I was younger, I could be properly scared by books and would sometimes be afraid to go to sleep or turn the lights out. The last time I remember being properly scared by a book I was maybe 24, started a book and couldn't handle the tension and was afraid to keep reading while alone, so I put it down and never finished it. I took a long break from horror and noticed when I started reading it again that I still enjoy it but for some reason don't get properly scared like that anymore  I'm not sure what changed, but I wish I could still feel that way from reading a book. Unsettled or unnerved, absolutely. But scared? Not really. It's a weird thing to want to be scared by a book, and I'm not sure exactly why it has bothered me so much since I realised that books don't scare me anymore.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2023 12:07
|
|
|
As a kid yeah, as an adult, yeah, if I'm super stoned. I love reading extremely corny, basic horror like The Blackstone Chronicles when I'm toasted because you're actually stupid enough and get stuck in your head enough to over-imagine.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2023 13:20
|
|
|
I'm picking up a book about the Congo war next week that includes interviews so I'm pretty interested in the new and exciting ways I'll traumatize myself reading about the worst things imaginable. Edit: King Leopolds ghost is basically non fiction horror. Lawman 0 fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Apr 28, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2023 14:15
|
|
|
I could never handle horror movies so I figured I wouldn't be able to handle horror books. For some reason around the time my daughter was born and I was awake multiple times during the night feeding her I read We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. It was creepy as poo poo but it didn't really scare me. Over the next few years I read the rest of his books and similarly they're creepy, unnerving, spooky, but not really scary. Until I read his latest, How to Sell a Haunted House. It legitimately kept me awake at night. But at least no nightmares like when I watched a horror movie as a kid. I think the big reason it was actually scary to me was because there's a lot of endangering kids and kids being possessed and my kids are roughly the ages of the kids in the book.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2023 14:56
|
|
|
I've read tons of horror and the Haunting of Hill House is one of the only books that truly terrified me. Full-on shudders when I think about "Good god -- whose hand was I holding?"
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2023 21:19
|
|
|
Books don't scare me in the "a monster pops out" or "lots of blood" way, but I think books excel at existential horror- like books have scared me in a "oh the human soul and the society its built is fundamentally broken" way that even like a Silent Hill can't, even if those are capable of scaring me with just atmosphere and mood.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2023 02:38
|
|
|
House of Leaves legitimately scared me. I love impossible geometry, non-euclidean areas, and the entire concept of whatever that area is in the five and a half minute hallway. I enjoyed the weird meta things that were being done with the book, and it's a story that I keep thinking of to this day. Read it over a decade ago. At one point, I was so pulled in that I actually got startled reading a specific thing in it. I really was watching it in my head like a terrifying and creepy movie. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Apr 29, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2023 21:45
|
|
|
Lawman 0 posted:
That's a rough fucken read. I've been scared by a couple books. When I was a middle school dude, the mirror scene in The Ghost in the Mirror scared me something fierce. 'Salem's Lot when one of the main characters(don't remember which one) went down into the master's basement got me good and scared- that was the most recent one, would have been about a decade or so ago. There was also The Exorcist, which I was reading, as an (sort of) adult of 22 years, in the middle of the day in the living room full of people. Still scared me enough that I had to take a break. I think the first time I read Dracula in 8th grade was another one. I thiiiiiiiiink it was when he was crawling down the side of the castle. And, of course, the true crime works by John Douglas, particularly Obsession, which I read in an apartment by myself. But that's not the same, I don't think. I like to be scared by movies, books, and games, so I always go into them with a receptive attitude, but it isn't a common occurrence anymore. I like to be scared, but I don't like to be scared and also, like, full of despair, so the crushing nightmare of reality and the world we've been cursed with aren't what I'm looking for in horror.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2023 22:00
|
|
|
I was pretty freaked out by Dan Simmons’ The Terror. It alludes to a supernatural horror throughout but it’s also clearly a manifestation or premonition of how terrible the crew can be to each other as they descend into starvation, base instinct and cannibalism. Comedy answer: as an 8 year old, reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein late at night under the bedsheets. I was a little spooked but then I got up and saw a very tall man in shadow walking into the neighbour’s house  Logically the creature is fictional but I couldn’t shake the thought he was lurking there for years
Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Apr 29, 2023 |
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2023 22:35
|
|
|
When I was a kid I was scared by Scary Stories to Read in the Dark but I'm certain part of that was due to the visuals of the creepy pictures. As an adult, I'd echo what others have said: a book isn't going to give you a jump scare, but a book can be phenomenal at building tension and dread that bad things are going to happen to characters you're emotionally invested in, and I think that's an effective form of being scary even though it isn't the same form you would get in a medium like movies or TV that are more visual and directly control the pace at which you experience them.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2023 15:04
|
|
|
as a child books were definitely scary, but I still had a thing for them. when I was 8 or 9 child-friendly horror stories was all I ever read. stories of people being buried alive freaked me out the most
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2023 11:56
|
|
|
vyelkin posted:When I was a kid I was scared by Scary Stories to Read in the Dark but I'm certain part of that was due to the visuals of the creepy pictures. As an adult, I'd echo what others have said: a book isn't going to give you a jump scare, but a book can be phenomenal at building tension and dread that bad things are going to happen to characters you're emotionally invested in, and I think that's an effective form of being scary even though it isn't the same form you would get in a medium like movies or TV that are more visual and directly control the pace at which you experience them. I still sometimes think about the picture of the girl with spiders coming out of her face.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2023 14:09
|
|
|
Stephen Gammell's illustrations are so iconic and horrifying. There was a rerelease a while back with different artwork, but it's kinda soulless.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2023 22:09
|
|
|
Narzack posted:Stephen Gammell's illustrations are so iconic and horrifying. There was a rerelease a while back with different artwork, but it's kinda soulless. That's a travesty. You'd be better off keeping the illustrations and changing the text.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2023 02:57
|
|
|
Rupert Buttermilk posted:House of Leaves legitimately scared me. I love impossible geometry, non-euclidean areas, and the entire concept of whatever that area is in the five and a half minute hallway. Was just about to post this, totally agree
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2023 05:06
|
|
|
Narzack posted:'Salem's Lot when one of the main characters(don't remember which one) went down into the master's basement got me good and scared- that was the most recent one, would have been about a decade or so ago. i still remember this scene and i read the book over 20 years ago
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2023 17:01
|
|
|
Annihilation has some legit dreadful moments, IMO. Also, yeah, the Gammell-illustrated Scary Stories books are 
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2023 23:18
|
|
|
Rupert Buttermilk posted:House of Leaves legitimately scared me. I love impossible geometry, non-euclidean areas, and the entire concept of whatever that area is in the five and a half minute hallway. Immediately thought of just how genuinely unsettling this book is when I read the thread title. It's masterful in that it pulls you in by being so un-booklike in it's construction and the details keep adding up into this huge unwieldy thing that sort of feels real and so what the Navidsons go through becomes real too. I will add that there's a few moments in King works that, when described to someone later would seem like comedy but in the moment are real and perfectly spooky. The crabs in the Dark Tower, the sewers in IT, the experiments in Firestarter, Randall Flagg in The Stand, the visions in Dead Zone... He's a master for a reason. Clive Barker also gives me chills - the golem made of bodies in The Books of Blood, the whole ending of Imajica, some of the transformations in Great and Secret Show Dr. Yinz Ljubljana fucked around with this message at 04:34 on May 22, 2023 |
|
#
?
May 22, 2023 04:30
|
|
|
Reading feels more active than watching a movie, but you don't have any power to change what's happening like you might in a video game. Sometimes that makes you feel kinda complicit in the horror and creates the Pet Sematary dread where you want to stop reading but can't. Since books are good at putting you behind the eyes of characters they can make you inhabit hosed up people and their hosed up thought processes more thoroughly too. Well-written books can stack up layers of disquiet, and there's something about the ambiguity of the novel form, the way you have to work to imagine it, that makes it good at colouring (revealing?) how you see the world. It's been a long time since a book has made me jump, but the quieter and more massive fear of (for eg) The Trial by Kafka has stuck in my mind for years
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2023 18:57
|
|
|
Shogi posted:It's been a long time since a book has made me jump, but the quieter and more massive fear of (for eg) The Trial by Kafka has stuck in my mind for years I realize I might be contradicting what you just said, but, the film adaptation of The Trial might be the best capturing of the "feel" of a book I've ever seen. well worth a watch if you'd like to feel that sensation again.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2023 19:05
|
|
|
Famethrowa posted:I realize I might be contradicting what you just said, but, the film adaptation of The Trial might be the best capturing of the "feel" of a book I've ever seen. well worth a watch if you'd like to feel that sensation again. oh no shade on movies at all, they've got their own tools and they can be deeply unsettling too. cheers, i've never seen it and it would be cool to compare
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2023 19:55
|
|
|
Dr. Yinz Ljubljana posted:Clive Barker also gives me chills - the golem made of bodies in The Books of Blood, This one’s an amazing story but never quite scared me the same way as his kids’ book, The Thief of Always. Freaky enough if you are a kid, especially those loving illustrations. But now I’m old the bit where he and his friend go back home and find their parents aged and embittered freaks me out even more.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 19:22
|
|
|
Dr. Yinz Ljubljana posted:I will add that there's a few moments in King works that, when described to someone later would seem like comedy but in the moment are real and perfectly spooky. The crabs in the Dark Tower, the sewers in IT, the experiments in Firestarter, Randall Flagg in The Stand, the visions in Dead Zone... He's a master for a reason. The one King story that's frightened and disturbed me for decades now has been The Jaunt; it's the kind of thing that sticks with you. And then I read his novel Revival and that ending joined the entirety of The Jaunt in taking up residence in my mind for loving ever. 
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2023 23:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:03 |
|
|
It’s been a long time since I remember being properly scared reading a book. As an early teen, Stephen King’s Pet Sematary would scare me so badly I had trouble getting to sleep. Especially the trips through the woods with the Wendigo. Other books I’ve recall being (at least) unsettling at times include Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
|
|
#
?
May 24, 2023 01:44
|
|