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 Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:12 pm
I've noticed something, and I don't know if it's me, or if there are other people this happens to... but is there anybody who does not find horror novels horrifying? Of all the ones that I have read, I have not found myself scared... maybe a little pumped with excitement, but never fright.
If there is a book out there that is terribly frightening, I want to know about it... I would love a good scare.
Discuss::
-Horror books that don't scare.
-Horror books that do scare.
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Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:32 pm
I've found that horror books aren't the same breed of "terrifying" that horror movies are. While horror movies are all about shock value and visually scary things, their written counterparts are more psychological in nature. In my opinion, while reading a horror novel, it's not about shaking in your shoes while you're reading, but thinking twice about walking down that dark hallway maybe even days later, or second guessing yourself based on something that happened in the book.
The book that did that best for me is IT by Stephen King. I swear, I hightailed it out of the bathroom at university every time I went in for weeks during and after reading it.
~Nicky
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Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:12 am
Interesting comparison. It's the psychological value that probably scarred me as a child, however, I have picked up few supposed scary books for kids (R.L. Stine) and skimmed them. They seem to be going more for that "gore" factor instead of messing with the mind.
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 12:47 am
Ah, I see what you're saying, Nicky.
But I was pretty sure there would be some book that could rouse my fear factor. I guess I have to look hard and also give "IT" a try. I've heard it was very terrifying.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 2:51 pm
I'd recommend a lethal dose of Stephen King, that stuff messes with you brain! I really liked his novella Secret Window, Secret Garden as well as Misery, Needful Things, The Dark Tower series, and the Green Mile.
Poppy Z. Brite isn't a very popular author, but her Gothic Horror novels will give you the creeps once you get near the end of chapters or short stories and realize just what she was REALLY talking about the whole time. Read Lost Souls and her short story collection Wormwood (also know as Swamp Fetus in older editions) to get into her work.
Dean Koontz is up there with King, and Laural K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series is pretty good too.
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:36 am
I've tried reading some of Koontz's work, but I find it difficult to get into them. I would love to start reading his material because my mother's ex-fiance had a rather large collection by him. I was inspired, but I don't know what book to try and read as a first.
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:43 am
If you're going to read Anita Blake for the horror, I'd recommend the earlier ones. The later ones seem more of a smut-fest.
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 9:06 am
I enjoyed William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. It's been too long since I last read the book. I really do have to stop going so long without rereading the books I really liked in my youth. Wretched TBR pile and its guilt factor...
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 7:57 am
Y'know, I just read a zombie book recently (check the post in the Fantasy subforum), and it started giving me the creeps a few days after I read it. Partly 'cause the zombies worked their way into my dreams (I was visualizing while reading that well) and partly because I really started thinking about little details, like the zombie children *shudder*. I don't believe it was intended as a straight-up horror story, but it's a good example of the psych aspect of horror, even with gore.
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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 4:17 pm
I was told IT by Stephen King was a really scary read.
Anything else I'm not too sure. Mostly in Supernatural genre books I usually get a little scared though.
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:15 am
My mom has a whole shelf-full of Stephan King and James Patterson books but I've only read some of them. I read Cross by James Patterson, it's got sort of an eery feel to it, having killing and stuff in it. I also started reading Blaze by Stephan King, it didn't seem very scary...but maybe it's because I'm not that far in it.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:58 am
Well, I read Extreme Measures by Michael Palmer, and it was more of a medical thrill than a scare. The main thing that was scary wasn't just the gore, but the way it made me feel about surgery. A similar book I read was Mount Dragon by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. There was the occasional killing involved, but a lot of it was messing with the mind and trickery. I think that's a lot more horrifying than bloodshed.
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Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:09 pm
Horror movies can be scary, since they're visuals outside of your head, and things popping out of the dark and crap.
Horro books are predictable, and nothing jumps out of the dark since everything you "see" is in your head, where you can see EVERYTHING.
Do I get scared easily?
Certainly not at horror novels.
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Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 8:16 am
iPumperdiddle
I've tried reading some of Koontz's work, but I find it difficult to get into them. I would love to start reading his material because my mother's ex-fiance had a rather large collection by him. I was inspired, but I don't know what book to try and read as a first. Perhaps I can help in this category.. I recently began my exploration to the land of Koontz and the first book I've ever read of his works was Twilight Eyes.. It's really good and personally my favorite so far.. I'll admit that it takes a bit getting used to Koontz's language since hell describe a freakin' lamp post and you'll see it. I say either give Twilight Eyes a try or perhaps look for one of his shorter novels first like The Demon Seed.
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