Scary book recommendations?

hajenkatt
hajenkatt Posts: 331 Member
in Chit-Chat
I am looking for recommendations on books that you thought were scary. I don't mind some gore, but I feel those books are easy to come by, and I am looking for something creepy rather than gross. For those of you who watched Friends, and Joey would put the book in the freezer when it scared him--that's the vibe I want. Like I need to lock the book in the trunk of my car at night. :) What do you have for me?

Replies

  • hajenkatt
    hajenkatt Posts: 331 Member
    Thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely have to check out the ones by Herbert. I, too, like some of Steven King's writings, but I want to go with something I haven't tried before.

    Any other suggestions out there?
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    Twilight. It was scary awful.
  • LaLouve_RK
    LaLouve_RK Posts: 899 Member
    After many years, I am still searching for a book or movie that will scare the crap out of me... it's a desperate search....
  • lisamarie1780
    lisamarie1780 Posts: 432 Member
    Stephen king books aren't scary at all, unless you're 12. The scariest book I ever read was the omen and there are three of them so you can have a good long fright fest!
  • hajenkatt
    hajenkatt Posts: 331 Member
    Stephen king books aren't scary at all, unless you're 12. The scariest book I ever read was the omen and there are three of them so you can have a good long fright fest!

    Ooh! Didn't realize these were a set. Adding to my reading list now.
  • barkin43
    barkin43 Posts: 508 Member
    Hide by Lisa Gardner==scary, creepy, well written mystery.
  • Sunnyjb
    Sunnyjb Posts: 220
    Stephen King, Duma Key
  • Sunnyjb
    Sunnyjb Posts: 220
    Addison House by Clare McNally
  • kar328
    kar328 Posts: 4,159 Member
    It's not new, but Intensity by Dean Koontz. I read it on the patio in the middle of the day and was creeped out.
  • Sunnyjb
    Sunnyjb Posts: 220
    any book by Clive Barker. Imajica isn't exactly scary but is definitely creepy and worth your time
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
    I'm going to go with a classic here - "Dracula".

    Also, "The Exorcist" is a great scary novel... probably one of the best horror novels ever written, really.
  • AbdicoVeritas
    AbdicoVeritas Posts: 46
    You could check out H.P. Lovecraft.
    One of the real classics and more creepy than scary imho.
  • XmanMike
    XmanMike Posts: 183 Member
    any book by Clive Barker. Imajica isn't exactly scary but is definitely creepy and worth your time

    Definitely Clive Barker. The Books of Blood and I recommend The Great and Secret Show.
  • vstraughan
    vstraughan Posts: 163 Member
    Stephen King, Pet Cemetary. The only book that's ever given me nightmares!
  • drvvork
    drvvork Posts: 1,162
    Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door

    http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Girl_Next_Door.html?id=TchQToVsAYcC

    Well written but the content still haunts me.
  • kwagganin
    kwagganin Posts: 34
    The shining (stephen king) was kinda creepy.

    The nightingale series - stephen leather . Not so scary, but weird.
  • EIEIElenaO
    EIEIElenaO Posts: 101 Member
    I just finished "Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End" by Manel Loureiro.

    If you like "Walking Dead," you'll love this. It's the best zombie book I've read in a long time.

    Here's a blurb from GoodReads.com:

    "A mysterious incident in Russia, a blip buried in the news—it’s the only warning humanity receives that civilization will soon be destroyed by a single, voracious virus that creates monsters of men.

    Humanity falls…

    A lawyer, still grieving over the death of his young wife, begins to write as a form of therapy. But he never expected that his anonymous blog would ultimately record humanity’s last days.

    The end of the world has begun…

    Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called “Safe Havens” are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. Armed only with makeshift weapons and the will to live, a lone survivor will give mankind one last chance against…"

    Enjoy!
  • fivepence
    fivepence Posts: 33 Member
    The Exorcist. It's a great book and I found it really scary.
  • misskerouac
    misskerouac Posts: 2,242 Member
    The Last Victim:A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer by Jason Moss

    Not "scary" necessarily, but disturbing.
    There were a few times I had to put it down and walk away for a while.
  • jlwbeans0823
    jlwbeans0823 Posts: 178 Member
    Pontypool Changes Everything; very strange, weird and creepy.
  • EIEIElenaO
    EIEIElenaO Posts: 101 Member
    Gone Girl was creepy in a quiet, disturbing way. (and Gillian Flynn's 2 prior novels too)
  • EIEIElenaO
    EIEIElenaO Posts: 101 Member
    Pontypool Changes Everything; very strange, weird and creepy.

    Thanks. It's on my to-read list now!
  • anels449
    anels449 Posts: 3,187 Member
    You could check out H.P. Lovecraft.
    One of the real classics and more creepy than scary imho.

    Agreed on Lovecraft; he's a classic and has influenced so many other writers after him!

    Also, I just finished "Haunted" in my Chuck Palahniuk class. It's more gore than scary, honestly, but it's about a group of people locked in a sealed building and to pass the time they tell each other stories. But seeing the lengths people will go toward themselves and others to make a better story is pretty creepy.

    Apparently "House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski is classified as a horror novel. I'm not sure I totally see that, but it does have my pretty good psychological elements that could freak you out. It's about a manuscript that was written to prove a fictional move exists and as the reader reads the manuscript the more drawn in he becomes and starts going mad trying to prove the fictional movie exists. But I *always* recommend "House of Leaves," so maybe I'm just biased. :p
  • hellokathy
    hellokathy Posts: 540 Member
    Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

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