As you may have guessed by the title of today’s article, I want to know about really scary books. I debated with myself on when I should post my Halloween topic. I decided to post it now because I thought you might want to actually read some of the scary books mentioned while the Halloween season is still going on, rather than after it ends.
I’ll start by mentioning a book I just recently read called Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs. This book gave me a serious case of the heebie jeebies. It wasn’t the blood and gore that gave me nightmares, it was the creepy things watching from a distance that gave me the bad dreams. You can see my review for a more detailed description. Neverland by Douglas Clegg is another one that I found creepy, though not quite on the same scale as Southern Gods.
Tell us about a really frightening book that everyone should be reading during the Halloween season. I’ll make it a little tougher by asking that you keep it within the fantasy or sci-fi genres. Paranormal romance, or any books with vampires, zombies, and other such ilk, counts.
One that scared me recently was Dead Iron by Devon Monk. Creepy steampunk with werewolves and witches!
I agree with Kelly. There were times I was figuratively peeking through my fingers while reading. (Like I used to do at scary movies). Dead Iron was a great book, but seriously creepy.
I’m only scared by bad and boring books:)
The only scary book I’ve read recently was The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore
Its a YA book, but I was listening to Sabriel by Garth Nix on audiobook while taking a six hour drive home during a rainy night and was seriously going white-knuckle during some parts. Tim Curry did such creepy voices for the villians and monster. Creepy.
I got a little creep-ed out reading Bram Stocker’s Dracula while working night-shift in steel mill once and I used to work with a guy named Roland that was very eerily like the Roland in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, in character and looks, -well this guy may have been a little uglier.
But the one time I really got the chills; I was reading a a book by Robert B. Parker about Wyatt Erp and the gunfight at the OK Corral, called Gunman’s Rhapsody. I was at work, reading it during my lunch. It was a dreary day,and the floor I was on was practically empty, plus the lighting was kinda poor. I was reading about where Wyatt was seeing his brother off on a train and gunfight was about to break-out, when a train went by my office and blew the whistle. I nearly came-out of my seat, I didn’t even realize there were tracks that close by.
The first book that ever scared me as an adult was Salem’s Lot; the scene where the little boy’s dead friend is tapping on the window. Recently, The LIttle Stranger by Sarah Waters scared me. Underneath the 1950’s class struggles in England is an entity filled with anger and cruelty and Waters made me feel it. I’m looking around the room as I type this, remembering how creepy it was.
Oooh…rain and Sabriel. Eerie…
joe57, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks. Please contact me (Tim) with your choice and a US address.