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/lit/ - Literature

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16932111 No.16932111 [Reply] [Original]

I'm trying to look up the scariest horror books but all I see are lists that just name popular horror books.

Like IT, Frankenstein, Color out of Space, Dracula etc.

Surely these can't be the "scariest" novels ever? I'm halfway through IT, I like it, some creepy moments but nothing that's making me lose any sleep.

>> No.16932429

That cover is fuckin' cool. Is the book any good?

>> No.16932484

>>16932429
Sorry, wish I knew, I just googled horror novel covers and used it cus it looks cool

>> No.16932493

>>16932111
any reason why you want novels over short stories? short fiction is the ideal form for horror

>> No.16932638

>>16932493
Why though? I've read oodles of sci-fi shorts and they read like bad punchlines after awhile.

I prefer novels over shorts any day.

>> No.16932653

>>16932638
Suspenseful fiction loses tension when it drags on for too long. This is why drama series with too many seasons lose their impact. Horror as a genre is mostly garbage but the seminal authors mostly wrote short stories.

>>16932111
Nonfiction.

>> No.16932658

>>16932638
what the other guy said. science fiction is garbage for children so it's no wonder it's bad. if you really prefer self-indulgent, masturbatory novels, though, and if you haven't realized king is a genre hack, then i think you're beyond hope anyway.

>> No.16932680

>>16932653
Interesting. I'll have to contemplate this.>>16932658
You might be right. I used to read King when I was younger and it doesn't do it for me anymore. Its getting that way with Fantasy, too. I read what was supposed to be top shelf and it was mostly trash.

>Could I actually be (gasp) maturing?

>> No.16932708

>>16932111
Tell us what scares you and we could be more helpful. The Shining, The Haunting of Hill House, The Books of Blood, are typical answers. If body horror scares you, try, The Ruins. Arthur Machen has a reputation for, The Great God Pan, but the audiobook left me unmoved. Try the paper version. I didn't like the ending of IT. I resent reading It.

>> No.16932713

>>16932493
I wouldn't mind short stories. I'm just looking for scary as fuck books. I'm numb to horror movies scaring me at this point, and I know literature has way more potential to scare so I'm just looking for anything that will make me feel scared again

>> No.16932719

>>16932708
Honestly, I am not that picky when it comes to horror, I just don't like stuff that takes place in a fantasy world.
I'm good with scary fantasy stuff happening in a grounded world, but fantasy stuff happening in futuristic or fantasy lands I have trouble connecting with.

>> No.16932759

>>16932429
It's good, although not particularly scary in my opinion. Same author who wrote The Ritual and Last Days, both of which are better and scarier

>>16932111
Naomi's Room is really scary. I would recommend not reading anything about it beforehand as nearly every review contains a kind of vague spoiler imo. Not trolling or anything, I just think the book works much better with no knowledge going in

The Fisherman by John Langan is weird and pretty scary

Also, not really horror, but filled with horrific moments, The Descent by Jeff Long. No connection to the movie of the same name, although it does deal with people living underground (but dealt with in a totally different way)

>> No.16932912

>>16932111
You could try the Pilo Family Circus, if you like clowns. I haven't read it, though.

I like Jaws and Silence of the Lambs, but your mileage will vary.

>> No.16933077

>>16932111
More like the redditing

>> No.16933322
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16933322

>>16933077

>> No.16933333
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16933333

>>16932111
The Exorcist was surprisingly good for what it is, didnt expect such pleasant prose and genuinely scary moments from this type of book. highly rec.

>> No.16933675
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16933675

Not the scariest books, but they are very underrated and obscure.

>> No.16933804

>>16932680
It happened to me too dude.
I can still read stuff with fantasy/horror/scifi elements if it takes risks with prose and has something to say. Tolkein's essays are great, for example, are way better than the slog that is LOTR, and legitimate fairytales you find in folklore collections have an economy of prose and archetypal nature that makes them memorable.

The same goes for any literary fiction. Cormac McCarthy borrows heavily from Westerns but he doesn't feel like he's trying to write a movie pastiche, you can sense the real life landscapes and characters he draws from, and the dark naturalism he sees them through. Genre fiction doesn't suck because it has aliens and cowboys and shit, it sucks because it doesn't explore the realm of thought, or the proxy of language we use to access that realm.

Once you cultivate a good literary intuition most bad books can be dismissed after the first page, or even the first sentence.