It is October. It is the time of skeletons, Jack-o-Lanterns, and animated scarecrows. It is the time of haunted DMVs, and jars full of teeth, and vampire driving slowly in the left lane. It is the time of zombie preschoolers with snot-slick hands running toward you at top speed, and the ghost of your disappointed father, and Miley Cyrus hosting Saturday Night Live.
IT IS THE SCARIEST MONTH, OOOOOOOOOOO.
Ahem.
Whatever.
Your job:
Recommend a scary book. Just one. And not your own.
Tell us why it scared you.
Here, let me recommend one: LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR. Scott Hawkins. I don’t even know what the fuck this book is. It’s like if Hogwarts was in America, and instead of it being a school it was actually a weirdo spirit cult, so basically it’s nothing like Harry Potter (though maybe it’s Harry Potter by way of Clive Barker?) but whatever. It has some of the trappings of urban fantasy, but it tells the story as if it’s horror — so, while it still sometimes feels like urban fantasy, it rejects some of the silliness of that subgenre and goes right for the jugular. It’s a terrifying, weird, funny, disgusting book. It features a fascinating cast of inhumans. I adored it.
YOUR TURN, GHOULFRIENDS
Sarah W says:
The novella “Royal Jelly” by Roald Dahl.
Swear to god, that story has stuck with me. I think I read it in 1994 or so, and I still cannot handle anything where people are turning into bees or are eating royal jelly. I just ‘NOPE’ the fuck outta the room. Even the Futurama episode where they do that weirds me out.
October 5, 2015 — 11:49 AM
Alena says:
I found that on my parent’s bookshelf when I was eight or so, and I still remember it clearly today! So creepy!
October 5, 2015 — 3:53 PM
Maethona says:
“Through the Woods” by Emily Carroll. Not only are the ghost stories really creepy but they are also paired with haunting artwork. Read with your lights on.
October 5, 2015 — 12:08 PM
TymberDalton says:
“Bird Box” by Josh Malerman. It pulled me in and before I knew it, I was devouring it. Very different kind of story since you couldn’t “see” the monster or even know what it was.
October 5, 2015 — 12:29 PM
Bridgesong says:
I just got a sample of this on my Kindle! I thought it looked absolutely terrifying and unique.
October 5, 2015 — 1:27 PM
semolinah says:
Oh, there is so much to love about ‘Bird Box’, including as you said not being able to see the creature. The end was terrifying also, but for so many other reasons. Love it.
October 5, 2015 — 7:55 PM
Shecky (@SheckyX) says:
Holy crap, go read Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series. It treats the post-zombie-apocalypse world in an epidemiological light.
October 5, 2015 — 12:36 PM
kathleea says:
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Read it when I was fifteen and slept with the light on for weeks afterwards. Creepy.
October 5, 2015 — 12:37 PM
Victoria Nations says:
I loved that book. We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Sundial are also delightfully creepy.
October 5, 2015 — 5:35 PM
cchrisman says:
I love Click Clack the Rattle bag by Neil Gaiman, it’s a short story. It really got me in the middle of the night after I read it….when I woke up….in the dark
October 5, 2015 — 12:40 PM
mannixk says:
Absolutely! Even the title of that story gives me shivers now. And it seems so simple and innocent in some ways.
October 5, 2015 — 12:46 PM
cchrisman says:
Have you heard Neil reading it outloud? It got me again! in the car in broad daylight! 🙂
October 6, 2015 — 12:27 PM
mannixk says:
I hadn’t heard it, so I found it and took a listen. Jeebus! Even better and creepier. And I forgot about my favourite line in the story: “I think probably they’re made of dark,” said the boy.
I just watched The Babadook for the first time last night, so I’m in full dark scary monster mode.
October 6, 2015 — 1:25 PM
E.S. Henry says:
Cherie Priest’s “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” – I slammed the book shut during a particular scene in an abandoned building. Because SCARY.
October 5, 2015 — 12:43 PM
Simon says:
Wild Fell (a ghost story) by Michael Rowe. Harrowing. Just harrowing.
October 5, 2015 — 12:44 PM
M.C. Hawkin says:
“The Ruins” by Scott Smith. The novel, but definitely NOT the movie which made many bad-choice changes. Dumbed it to make palatable to mass audience.
October 5, 2015 — 12:45 PM
Elly Conley says:
Mind of Winter, by Laura Kasischke. Not an explicitly horror-genre book, but insidiously creepy and affecting.
October 5, 2015 — 12:46 PM
wardent says:
suspicious river by laura kasischke is also completely chilling, so well written
October 5, 2015 — 4:14 PM
dknippling says:
Okay, I’ve read a couple of horror novels that, because of subtext, I found disturbing enough that I don’t recommend them: writers can be awful people, too.
Here’s one that’s just over that line:
NAKED LUNCH.
By the time you’re done reading it, your brain is different. Uglier, more corrupt, more tired of living. Less likely to raise an eyebrow when consensual reality is broken, or when human monstrosities cross your path.
The real question, I think, is what is the most fun horror I could recommend, and that I might have to think about for a bit.
October 5, 2015 — 12:50 PM
Kristin Mireles (@kristinmireles) says:
OK, you piqued my interest. Please elaborate on the “writers can be awful people, too” part. (I may regret asking you this later.)
October 6, 2015 — 11:13 PM
JL says:
Not sure how scary it is, but I just got Joe Hill’s LOCKE & KEY on audible for *FREE* so I’m gonna give it a try.
(not sure if this link works if you don’t already have an audible account but leaving it anyway: https://mobile.audible.com/pd/Fiction/FREE-Locke-Key-Audiobook/B00YI1CTVU )
October 5, 2015 — 1:18 PM
Bibliobibuli @ The Book Tales says:
I love that! The graphic novel’s brilliant and amazing – the art, the story – classic!
October 6, 2015 — 9:27 AM
Brent McGuffin says:
Yes!! Thank you!!
October 7, 2015 — 11:33 AM
Ridley Kemp says:
I popped over here to recommend the same thing, although if you only get the audio version, you’re really missing it. Hill gives a master class in pacing and making sure you never really know who has the upper hand.
October 9, 2015 — 10:44 AM
Angie Sargenti says:
The Complete Ghost Stories of MR James. Lots of creepy little gems in that one.
October 5, 2015 — 1:19 PM
greg bossert says:
Two recent ones that got under my skin and laid eggs: Nathan Ballingrud’s The Visible Filth and Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts.
October 5, 2015 — 1:47 PM
Jason says:
It, by Stephen King. Keep reading because you’re too afraid to put it down.
October 5, 2015 — 2:07 PM
susan burleigh says:
I loved that book! I prefer to read late at night, and this one gives me spider-shills running up and down my spine every time I pick it up.
October 5, 2015 — 3:55 PM
wardent says:
also the stand by stephen king and the entire dark tower series
October 5, 2015 — 4:15 PM
Bibliobibuli @ The Book Tales says:
Aw, Pennywise – freaky ass devil that clown. The Regulators by the King, when he wrote as Richard Bachman was also pretty scary for me. I couldn’t help imagining our small town harassed by those monsters.
October 6, 2015 — 9:29 AM
Heather Milne Johnson says:
Yup, I was going to say “It” but I figured someone would beat me to it. I read and re-read King’s books over and over but I’m not sure I ever re-read this one. To this day I feel nervous closing my eyes while I wash my face (the drains….)
October 7, 2015 — 10:07 PM
Scott Dyson says:
I still felt that PET SEMATARY (or however it’s spelled) was the scariest King book ever. Not the best, but the scariest…
October 12, 2015 — 4:41 PM
percykerry923 says:
Books of Blood by Clive Barker. I thought King and Stoker were the epitome of good horror writing. But Barker joins the club now. He is literally blowing my mind. Do check this one out if you already haven’t.
October 5, 2015 — 2:15 PM
wardent says:
adore these books!
October 5, 2015 — 4:15 PM
Katie Baldwin says:
I loved loved loved The Good House by Tananarive Due. It was a ghost story with a good helping of voodoo and the magic. What made it unique for me was how attached I became to Angela the protagonist. If you want to snuggle by the fire with a well written scary book – this is the one. Believe me.
October 5, 2015 — 2:28 PM
Pat says:
I agree whole heartedly!
October 5, 2015 — 4:25 PM
myric says:
13 Bullets by David Wellington. The man single-handedly saves the vampire genre from the foofy, overly romanticized and sappier-than-actual-sap love story and/or YA high school clique melodrama and makes vampires actually scary again.
October 5, 2015 — 2:35 PM
wardent says:
i also love: let the right one in by john ajvide lindqvist
October 5, 2015 — 4:18 PM
Nick Nafpliotis (@NickNafster79) says:
Probably on a lot of folks radars already, but two Joe Hill books:
NOS4ATU
Locke & Key Volume 1.
…and two by Lauren Beukes:
Broken Monsters
The Shining Girls
October 5, 2015 — 3:21 PM
wardent says:
the sundial: shirley jackson, the bird’s nest: shirley jackson, the shoemaker: flora rheta schreiber (non-fiction), lost souls: poppy z brite, final truth: autobiography of a serial killer: donald gaskins (non-fiction)
October 5, 2015 — 3:38 PM
Riley Redgate says:
Coraline! Christ, how can a book that’s like 9 pages long haunt me for this long? Basement scenes are the worst. And this is the worst of the basement scenes. Huahrg.
October 5, 2015 — 3:41 PM
Pat says:
So you took my recommendation, Sensei. The Library at Mount Char didn’t scare me, but my brain cells have just begun to settle. It was recommended to me as “weird”. Yup. I’d say amazing, as well. I earnestly hope for a sequel.
October 5, 2015 — 4:24 PM
Nick says:
Misery by Stephen King. That book is one of my all time favs. The deep psychological horror that Paul endures from Annie is terrifying. Physically, can anyone say the word, axe.
October 5, 2015 — 5:01 PM
James R. Tuck says:
THE BIG HEAD by Edward Lee Downright the most disgusting book I have ever read. It’s scary and stomach curdling. I almost put it down. I have never put a book down for going too far.
EXQUISITE CORPSE by Poppy Z. Brite (Billy Martin) a love story to the gruesomeness enjoyed by a Jeffery Dahmer inspired serial killer. Disturbing on levels most people don’t ever reach.
THE HELL BOUND HEART or THE BOOKS OF BLOOD by Clive Barker. Scary shit that locks in why Clive Barker is jacked into some other dimensional spookism.
October 5, 2015 — 5:26 PM
Victoria Nations says:
Stephen King’s Duma Key and Bag of Bones (not the miniseries) are each frightening in their own right. The scene descriptions are haunting. The sound of the shells rustling under the house in Duma Key is one of my favorite scene elements of all time.
October 5, 2015 — 5:44 PM
otterpoet says:
Getting into the Way-back machine, I’d suggest THE SCREAM by John Skipp & Craig Spector. Dated, but very crunchy. Easily one of the best opening paragraphs in horror…
THE ASSOCIATION by Bentley Little will have you running from your homeowner’s association like you’re on fire.
THE DARK by James Herbert… yay, don’t expect to turn off the lights after reading this one.
October 5, 2015 — 6:05 PM
vstarsam says:
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, because it’s all wrong, all the time.
Any of Richard Laymon’s books, because he was a fearless and under-appreciated writer of 80’s style horror.
The Straw Men, The Upright Man, and The Blood of Angels by Michael Marshal. A conspiratorial twist on serial killers that grabbed me by the throat and kept me thinking for weeks.
October 5, 2015 — 6:13 PM
Deb Atwood says:
The Bag of Bones by Stephen King, one of his older works. I’m a big fan of ghost fiction (and read a lot of it). I was rollicking along in The Bag of Bones when it took a dramatically darker tone. I actually gasped reading it alone in my bed. Great read.
October 5, 2015 — 6:31 PM
mannixk says:
That one spooked me plenty too.
October 5, 2015 — 8:17 PM
pwodoom says:
I wanted to hate this book because the MC was a writer, but It’s one of my favorite King books now.
October 5, 2015 — 8:49 PM
DanielleKGirl says:
The Magic Cottage by James Herbert. Read it a thousand years ago after coming across it in a second-hand store and the story has never left me. Very subtle scary and fantastic slow build.
Also, Pet Sematary by Stephen King – what list would be complete without this guy. Really wish that one would leave me. Really.
October 5, 2015 — 6:40 PM
Cari Hislop says:
I highly recommend The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. A YA book published in the ’70’s or late ’60’s, it’s got some serious creep going on. Various facets of horror unfold in the story. As a child I listened to the record and was totally creeped out. I bought a copy of the book as an adult and it creeped me out even more. It’s a classic! I should just note that if you have a Cat phobia – this is NOT for you! It’s creeping me out just thinking about it.
October 5, 2015 — 6:47 PM
Jocelyn @ 52Letters says:
The Dark House by Dawn Kurtagich was ridiculously creepy, combining multiple personality disorder with paranormal voodoo. It is permanently set in the dark, with an incredibly unreliable narrator and a pervasive sense that absolutely no part of the story can be fully trusted. I had to put it down at points to regroup because I was so creeped out.
October 5, 2015 — 7:58 PM
Christopher Jones says:
This is “The Dead House” (not ‘Dark’), in case anyone else is trying to hunt it down. 🙂
October 7, 2015 — 1:22 PM
kseniaanske says:
The Ritual by Adam Nevill. Dripping woods, ancient evil. Will spook your pants off.
October 5, 2015 — 8:03 PM
Lili Nemo says:
I recommend ‘The Devil’s Dream’ by David Beers. This is the first of a trilogy very much worth reading. The mind is such unexplored territory, smart and crazy make a formidable antagonist.
October 5, 2015 — 8:20 PM
LillianC says:
The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters. It’s a credible end of the world scenario. What really frightened me was the exploration of how different people chose to cope with the inevitable. The realism of the details and the spare power of Winters’ writing really got to me.
October 5, 2015 — 9:08 PM
pwodoom says:
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff. It was super creepy weird in a good way. Her new one Fiendish is in the queue. Also King’s From a Buick 8 and Tom Piccirilli’s A Choir of Ill Children are good.
October 5, 2015 — 9:11 PM
Christopher says:
Stephen King’s short story “The Raft.” I read it as a teenager right before going to summer campy with a lake. Bad idea. It still creeps in when I go swimming every now and then, fifteen years later!
October 5, 2015 — 9:26 PM
Christopher says:
*summer camp lol
October 5, 2015 — 9:27 PM
curleyqueue says:
Oh yes- read this one ages ago and wouldn’t participate in any group swims to the raft on the local lake for many a summer!
October 6, 2015 — 8:20 AM
Annie Howland says:
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Short story, written in 1892. SO well-written and SO seriously creepy that I re-read it every few months just because I love it. Original Gothic horror…with a delicious twist at the end.
October 5, 2015 — 10:14 PM
Cari Hislop says:
Yes! That is one creepy tale. I’d totally forgotten it…probably on purpose.
October 6, 2015 — 5:15 AM
Erin says:
I found the first half of Pet Sematary nigh on interminable — it took me four tries to get through it — but the second half… I couldn’t put it down and finished the book at 2am on a night when I just happened to be alone in the house. I have never recovered.
October 6, 2015 — 3:15 AM
mambutcher says:
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti is an amazing collection of short horror stories. The philosophy of Lovecraft delivered in the setting/style of Kafka. It’s some of the most amazing horror I’ve ever read
October 6, 2015 — 5:38 AM
Corey Peterson says:
I love this thread and want to have babies with it. So many cool suggestions!
It’s hard to pick one. So I’ll cheat like many others have and pick two.
My favorite horror novel is one that was mentioned already, “Summer of Night” by Dan Simmons. Just an amazing coming-of-age horror novel that completely nails every aspect of being a kid on summer vacation. I’ve read it a few times and it gets better each time. I think for sure “IT” was an inspiration for Simmons, but I think “Summer of Night” is the better book….and I’m over the moon about “IT”.
For Stephen King, the book that freaked me out most was “Gerald’s Game”. I don’t think it’s anywhere near his best, and it’s not my favorite of his either. I’d also give “Pet Sematary” the edge for being more disturbing start to finish. It’s been years since I read “Gerald’s Game”, but something about the reveal (SPOILERS) that that ghoul standing in the corner of the room, rattling a bag full of jewels, was real and not a hallucination….it just haunted me.
October 6, 2015 — 10:22 AM
writing, writing, words words words. says:
Another King fan: IT by Stephen King. I’d read some before bed then put it in the garage and lock the door. It’s a tie, though, with The Hellfire Club by Peter Straub. A lot of people hated it but screw them, I *loved* it.
October 6, 2015 — 1:32 PM
Stephanie says:
IT by Stephen King. Specifically the first few chapters, when the protagonist’s little brother goes down to the creepy basement to grab paraffin (had no idea what paraffin was until I read this book). King’s description captured that all-too-familiar terrifying childhood experience of “going down to the basement,” an innocent, completely irrational fear. And then he pairs that in the next chapter with that same younger brother getting killed brutally by a scary clown in a sewer. King really takes it to the next level in this book, and disturbs the reader on so many levels–and not just through the villains. The heroes also do obscene things in the name of saving others and themselves that I’m sure has made most readers uncomfortable.
October 6, 2015 — 2:58 PM
Anna says:
“The Shining” because while there are ghosts in the story, I think the way our past contributes to who we are as a person and the things we are capable of doing when pushed can very well become a horror story.
October 6, 2015 — 4:32 PM
janinmi says:
Factory Town by Jon Bassoff. O. M. G. Absolutely relentless.I had to finish it because it was an assigned review (I freelance for Foreword Reviews), otherwise I’d have hidden it in my blanket chest for later. Shivery.
October 6, 2015 — 7:08 PM
Melinda Davis says:
Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Honestly, there were a few sections where I nearly put the book down. I don’t as a rule like books where children are victimized, but I felt that the author was doing something important with it, and it didn’t feel exploitative. I’m truly not sure which scared me more: the human monsters or the vampires. It was haunting and masterfully written. Truly the stuff of nightmares.
October 6, 2015 — 9:14 PM
Kristin Mireles (@kristinmireles) says:
I loved The Stand (the extended version) by Stephen King. It’s the only book that has ever given me nightmares. (Why, oh, why didn’t they give it a better treatment in the miniseries? The book was amazing!)
October 6, 2015 — 11:11 PM
kakubjaya says:
Alright, so I don’t read horror (because honestly… generally kinda boring), but the scariest book I’ve read recently is “Farthing” by Jo Walton. Not ‘jump out and say BOO!’ scary, but existentially scary… a reality where the UK made peace with the Nazis early in the war. And everybody is either cool with it or just quietly shrugs about it… very much the Banality of Evil and that shit always gets at me.
October 7, 2015 — 12:20 AM
Rob Marvin says:
I can’t say enough good things about Laird Barron’s short fiction. You can’t go wrong with either Occultation or The Beautiful Thing that Awaits Us All. As for novels, Caitlin Kiernan’s The Red Tree is an elegant, haunting read. Didn’t keep me up at night, but books haven’t done that since I was 14.
October 7, 2015 — 11:50 AM
Carolina Mac says:
Needful Things, by King is one scary ass book. Yikes.
October 7, 2015 — 2:57 PM
Faith Colburn says:
Gina Barlean’s Dead Blow. Particularly scary because what happens to make the murderer a murderer could make any of us crazy. Barlean does a convincing job of following the killer’s mental acrobatics.
October 8, 2015 — 3:04 PM