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mae
10-26-2012, 08:54 PM
This is from last year, but still:

http://literaryman.com/2011/10/28/top-ten-scariest-books-of-all-time/

We’re not just about prize-winners and underappreciated books here at The Literary Man. And since Halloween’s only a few days away, we present you with The Scary Book List. We specifically chose the term ‘scary’ and not ‘horror’, or ‘thriller’, or even ‘paranormal’ because like most good lists, ours is inclusive and written to point our readers in the right direction rather than the last word in this or any subject. Discerning readers will point out glaring omissions, of course. Where are ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula’, you ask? Safe and sound in their ancient, seminal places, where they belong. We like Shelley and Stoker as much as you do (possibly more), but we’re not sure if they still have the power to scare us. The countless film adaptations and re-imaginings have rendered those classics impotent in our amygdalas. And after all, the primary task of a scary novel is to scare. So herewith, The Literary Man’s Top Ten Scariest Books of All Time:

10) The Stand – Stephen King

Cold and flu season is the perfect time to read this post-apocalyptic scenario. Someone close to you comes down with the sniffles one day and dies in three. Before you know it, almost everyone you know is dead and you’re wandering around the Midwest barefoot and armed, looking for the Messiah. Scary books don’t get more eschatological than this.

9) Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin

Ordinary (well, extraordinarily beautiful) woman gives birth to the son of Satan. Do we need to explain this more? Besides giving rise to ‘The Mia’ haircut, the story was also responsible for several family planning surgeries in the 70’s (no, not really. But we like to think that it could be true).

8) The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris

Word perfect. Go ahead. We dare you to read the entire novel and present us with a single cliché or tired trope. It’s one of the best-written novels (horror or otherwise) out there, and terrifying to boot. David Foster Wallace assigned it to his students. Not to get all acolyte on you guys, but if it’s good enough for DFW, it’s good enough for us.

7) I am Legend – Richard Matheson

Ok, so you’ve all seen Will Smith drive around an eerily empty Manhattan and marveled at the awesomeness of it all, but have you read the book? Do you understand the terrifying agony of loneliness that can only come from living as a human in a world occupied by vampire-like creatures? No? Then you should read ‘I am Legend’.

6) Red Dragon – Thomas Harris

Again, written with perfection. Thomas’s two Hannibal novels showcase the writer’s talent for keeping his readers on edge without sacrificing good writing. This prequel to ‘Silence of the Lambs’ presents Will Graham, FBI profiler extraordinaire who leads us into a haunting psychological hunt for ‘The Tooth Fairy’. Fans of the movie rejoice. The book is different enough in places to warrant a read even if you don’t particularly care for wonderful words.

5) The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

Almost a prize winner. ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ was a national book award finalist in 1959. What’s amazing about the novel is that it not only features unhinged characters, it actually renders the reader a bit off her hinge as well. By the time you finish it, you’re left wondering if you hallucinated it all. We won’t lie to you. It’s quite possible that you did.

4) House of Leaves – Mark Danielewski

Danielewski once said in an interview that a woman came up to him in a bookstore and said, ‘you know, everyone told me it was a horror book, but when I finished it, I realized it was a love story’. It’s true that ‘House of Leaves’ could certainly be a love story. But for the most part, it scares the living bejeezus out of us. We’re not sure if it’s the excessive use of footnotes or the mirror writing, but constantly having to adjust your perception of what the book is, and what’s going on in it, have the effect of fucking with our minds rather beautifully.

3) Ghost Story – Peter Straub

We’re happy to champion this best seller. Where to begin? At the motel where a grown man is debating whether or not to kill a little girl he has just kidnapped? With the formation of the sinister Chowder society? Or the sexy Eva who makes advances towards men and then abandons them? No matter where we start, the story stays the same and recurs in terrifying ways. Great title, too.

2) The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty

Here’s another book that’s hard to pick up if you’ve seen the movie and its ten thousand sequels. But bear with us. Despite our love of literature, we don’t always believe the book is better than the movie, but here’s one that really, truly is. Somehow, Satan dwelling inside the body of a thirteen year old girl is much, much more real when you read lines like, “Friday she made us geflite fish, right? Only all week long, the whole week, no one gets to take a bath on account of my mother has the carp in the bathtub, it’s swimming back and forth, back and forth, the whole week, because my mother said this cleaned out the poison in the system! You’re prepared?” There’s nothing like absurd humor to relieve and escalate tension simultaneously.

1) The Shining – Stephen King

Naturally, we begin and end with the King. But this one’s so good we’re forced to resort to clichés: “It’s a masterpiece.“ “Gripping from cover to cover.” “Read it once and you’ll remember it forever.” If the vision of dead twin girls and stoically evil bartenders don’t haunt you for the rest of your days, the thought of a topiary coming alive certainly will. You will drop everything to finish this book, if you haven’t already. We did. That’s why it took us so long to finish this list.

ur2ndbiggestfan
10-27-2012, 03:27 AM
The only two books that ever scared me as I was reading them are THE EXORCIST and HELL HOUSE. I've re-read HELL HOUSE since then and it didn't scare me at all the 2nd time around. I haven't re-read THE EXORCIST though. So I'm still looking for 8 more books to add to my list.

EDIT - I've read 7 of the books on the above list.

Jean
10-27-2012, 04:28 AM
what, no Pet Sematary?????? or It??????

mae
10-27-2012, 06:09 AM
Hm, I didn't find It (or The Stand) very scary. Pet Sematary, yes.

Jean
10-27-2012, 07:13 AM
Ok, supposing with It it's different for different people (depending who finds what scary), but I thought PS was universally scary? I mean, The Shining? WTF? There are some scary parts, but it is miles away from Pet Sematary bloodcurdle.

By the way, the only book on the list I've found actually scary (I haven't read them all yet, though - I sure will) is The Haunting of Hill House. In addition to being one of the sweetest, saddest, most moving and finely crafted books I've read in my life, there are some parts I still don't want to think about when alone at night.

ETA: and again - WTF? Two Harrises on the list and only two Kings?

mae
10-27-2012, 08:26 AM
ETA: and again - WTF? Two Harrises on the list and only two Kings?

:) What would be your Top 10?

mae
10-27-2012, 08:41 AM
A bit more on the topic:

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/10/edgar_allan_poe_stephen_king_a.html

King may be king of the modern psychological-horror novel, but the prolific author has some strong company in the field. A look at some classic psychological-horror fiction:

• Works by Edgar Allan Poe (wrote from 1827 until his death in 1849). You can't name just one title when it comes to the influence of this American icon. Author, critic, poet, short-story and detective-fiction innovator . . . the master of the macabre did them all. He also penned some of the -- to this day -- most influential examples of slow-building, heart-stopping psychological horror, such as "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." "It all starts with Poe, my favorite horror writer," says "The Twelve" author Justin Cronin.

• "The Turn of the Screw," Henry James, 1898. James described his interest in ghost stories as "the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy." This story about a governess and her young charges in a remote country mansion embodies his aesthetic.

• Works by Patricia Highsmith (wrote from 1950 until her death in 1995). The horror in Highsmith novels comes not from the supernatural, but the evil and coldness within humanity. Almost anything by Highsmith can terrify, but her series about the amoral Mr. Ripley may be the most chilling.

• "The Haunting of Hill House," Shirley Jackson, 1959. Regarded by many as the best ghost story ever written, Jackson's classic walks on the edge of the supernatural and insanity as a group of individuals set out to determine if Hill House is really haunted.

• "The Other," Thomas Tryon, 1971. "The roots are as old as Cain and Abel and as fresh as the headlines we can't stop consuming," says lauded Cleveland Heights author Dan Chaon of the appeal of this slow-building tale of 13-year-old twins in a small Connecticut town, one good, one evil. Chaon wrote the afterword to the newly reissued version, all the more terrifying for its portrayal of evil in humdrum daily life.

• " 'Salem's Lot," Stephen King, 1975. King's second published novel remains his most terrifying -- and arguably THE definitive vampire tale (sorry, Bram Stoker). When a successful writer returns to his small New England hometown, strange deaths start occurring, which seem to coincide with the arrival of a mysterious Austrian immigrant. Heart-stoppingly scary, heart-rendingly compassionate.

• "Ghost Story," Peter Straub, 1979. No less an authority than King called Straub's creepy, twisted tale of suicides, murder, ghosts, nightmares and strange old men one of the best horror novels of the late 20th century, in his collection of essays on horror writing, "Danse Macabre."

Jean
10-27-2012, 09:30 AM
ETA: and again - WTF? Two Harrises on the list and only two Kings?

:) What would be your Top 10?
yes!!! let's all make our lists!!!

I know my top three:

1. Nikolai Gogol. A Terrible Vengeance (Н.В.Гоголь. Страшная месть)
2. Stephen King. Pet Sematary
3. E.A.Poe. The Tell-Tale Heart

ETA: the present conversation should be moved to the Mansion. I'll see how best to do it

ETA: done (http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?16267-Top-10-Horrors-Our-Own-Lists&p=733957#post733957)

Merlin1958
10-27-2012, 04:56 PM
This is from last year, but still:

http://literaryman.com/2011/10/28/top-ten-scariest-books-of-all-time/

We’re not just about prize-winners and underappreciated books here at The Literary Man. And since Halloween’s only a few days away, we present you with The Scary Book List. We specifically chose the term ‘scary’ and not ‘horror’, or ‘thriller’, or even ‘paranormal’ because like most good lists, ours is inclusive and written to point our readers in the right direction rather than the last word in this or any subject. Discerning readers will point out glaring omissions, of course. Where are ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula’, you ask? Safe and sound in their ancient, seminal places, where they belong. We like Shelley and Stoker as much as you do (possibly more), but we’re not sure if they still have the power to scare us. The countless film adaptations and re-imaginings have rendered those classics impotent in our amygdalas. And after all, the primary task of a scary novel is to scare. So herewith, The Literary Man’s Top Ten Scariest Books of All Time:

10) The Stand – Stephen King

Cold and flu season is the perfect time to read this post-apocalyptic scenario. Someone close to you comes down with the sniffles one day and dies in three. Before you know it, almost everyone you know is dead and you’re wandering around the Midwest barefoot and armed, looking for the Messiah. Scary books don’t get more eschatological than this.

9) Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin

Ordinary (well, extraordinarily beautiful) woman gives birth to the son of Satan. Do we need to explain this more? Besides giving rise to ‘The Mia’ haircut, the story was also responsible for several family planning surgeries in the 70’s (no, not really. But we like to think that it could be true).

8) The Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris

Word perfect. Go ahead. We dare you to read the entire novel and present us with a single cliché or tired trope. It’s one of the best-written novels (horror or otherwise) out there, and terrifying to boot. David Foster Wallace assigned it to his students. Not to get all acolyte on you guys, but if it’s good enough for DFW, it’s good enough for us.

7) I am Legend – Richard Matheson

Ok, so you’ve all seen Will Smith drive around an eerily empty Manhattan and marveled at the awesomeness of it all, but have you read the book? Do you understand the terrifying agony of loneliness that can only come from living as a human in a world occupied by vampire-like creatures? No? Then you should read ‘I am Legend’.

6) Red Dragon – Thomas Harris

Again, written with perfection. Thomas’s two Hannibal novels showcase the writer’s talent for keeping his readers on edge without sacrificing good writing. This prequel to ‘Silence of the Lambs’ presents Will Graham, FBI profiler extraordinaire who leads us into a haunting psychological hunt for ‘The Tooth Fairy’. Fans of the movie rejoice. The book is different enough in places to warrant a read even if you don’t particularly care for wonderful words.

5) The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

Almost a prize winner. ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ was a national book award finalist in 1959. What’s amazing about the novel is that it not only features unhinged characters, it actually renders the reader a bit off her hinge as well. By the time you finish it, you’re left wondering if you hallucinated it all. We won’t lie to you. It’s quite possible that you did.

4) House of Leaves – Mark Danielewski

Danielewski once said in an interview that a woman came up to him in a bookstore and said, ‘you know, everyone told me it was a horror book, but when I finished it, I realized it was a love story’. It’s true that ‘House of Leaves’ could certainly be a love story. But for the most part, it scares the living bejeezus out of us. We’re not sure if it’s the excessive use of footnotes or the mirror writing, but constantly having to adjust your perception of what the book is, and what’s going on in it, have the effect of fucking with our minds rather beautifully.

3) Ghost Story – Peter Straub

We’re happy to champion this best seller. Where to begin? At the motel where a grown man is debating whether or not to kill a little girl he has just kidnapped? With the formation of the sinister Chowder society? Or the sexy Eva who makes advances towards men and then abandons them? No matter where we start, the story stays the same and recurs in terrifying ways. Great title, too.

2) The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty

Here’s another book that’s hard to pick up if you’ve seen the movie and its ten thousand sequels. But bear with us. Despite our love of literature, we don’t always believe the book is better than the movie, but here’s one that really, truly is. Somehow, Satan dwelling inside the body of a thirteen year old girl is much, much more real when you read lines like, “Friday she made us geflite fish, right? Only all week long, the whole week, no one gets to take a bath on account of my mother has the carp in the bathtub, it’s swimming back and forth, back and forth, the whole week, because my mother said this cleaned out the poison in the system! You’re prepared?” There’s nothing like absurd humor to relieve and escalate tension simultaneously.

1) The Shining – Stephen King

Naturally, we begin and end with the King. But this one’s so good we’re forced to resort to clichés: “It’s a masterpiece.“ “Gripping from cover to cover.” “Read it once and you’ll remember it forever.” If the vision of dead twin girls and stoically evil bartenders don’t haunt you for the rest of your days, the thought of a topiary coming alive certainly will. You will drop everything to finish this book, if you haven’t already. We did. That’s why it took us so long to finish this list.

Can't really argue very much with this list IMHO, but honorable mention to "Black House", "Dracula" and "Floating Dragon". They were some seriously scary books as well!!!

mattgreenbean
10-28-2012, 06:50 AM
Since I was only really scared by books when I was a kid, these are the ones that scared me:
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, all of them
All the true ghost story paperbacks that I have i.e. Haunted Kids, Haunted Places, etc...
The story of Lizzy Borden

Ben Mears
10-28-2012, 07:46 AM
This...
" Salem's Lot, Stephen King, 1975. King's second published novel remains his most terrifying -- and arguably THE definitive vampire tale (sorry, Bram Stoker). When a successful writer returns to his small New England hometown, strange deaths start occurring, which seem to coincide with the arrival of a mysterious Austrian immigrant. Heart-stoppingly scary, heart-rendingly compassionate.

pathoftheturtle
10-28-2012, 04:47 PM
I think Kubrick's movie was scarier than The Shining novel. Probably not as good, ultimately, but scarier.

Merlin1958
10-28-2012, 05:34 PM
I think Kubrick's movie was scarier than The Shining novel. Probably not as good, ultimately, but scarier.

I would disagree, but that is mostly because I was as infuriated by the changes to the story as King was. I think the King produced TV version was better cast (with the exception of Jacky-Boy) and far superior for the "Scare" factor. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion!!!

pathoftheturtle
10-28-2012, 06:11 PM
I think Kubrick's movie was scarier than The Shining novel. Probably not as good, ultimately, but scarier.

I would disagree, but that is mostly because I was as infuriated by the changes to the story as King was. I think the King produced TV version was better cast (with the exception of Jacky-Boy) and far superior for the "Scare" factor. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion!!!So is it your opinion that it's true The Shining by itself (no points either way for adaptations) is the scariest book of all time? :nope:

Merlin1958
10-28-2012, 06:17 PM
I think Kubrick's movie was scarier than The Shining novel. Probably not as good, ultimately, but scarier.

I would disagree, but that is mostly because I was as infuriated by the changes to the story as King was. I think the King produced TV version was better cast (with the exception of Jacky-Boy) and far superior for the "Scare" factor. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion!!!So is it your opinion that it's true The Shining by itself (no points either way for adaptations) is the scariest book of all time? :nope:

IMHO I rate it in the top 5, but "Dracula" by Bram Stoker really stands out to me as well as "The Exorcist". You have to remember though that I read both when I was young and when it came out, respectively. It really does make a difference, no?

I do remember reading the last page of "The Shining" and saying to myself, "Self, Jack Nicholson IS "Jack Torrance"!! I guess I would put "The Shining at number 3 (with a small margin) for the time period that it was issued. If that makes sense to ya?

pathoftheturtle
10-29-2012, 05:39 AM
Not really... but other people very rarely do. (Make sense to me, I mean.) You're saying, I think, that you did read the novel after you had seen the original movie. And you don't think that affected your feelings?

BTW, The Exorcist is of the same period as The Shining, (1971 and 1977, respectively) but Dracula is not... so that statement of yours also confuses me on several levels.

Merlin1958
10-29-2012, 08:57 AM
Not really... but other people very rarely do. (Make sense to me, I mean.) You're saying, I think, that you did read the novel after you had seen the original movie. And you don't think that affected your feelings?

BTW, The Exorcist is of the same period as The Shining, (1971 and 1977, respectively) but Dracula is not... so that statement of yours also confuses me on several levels.

Yeah, I can see how that would be confusing. What I meant to say was that when I read "Dracula" I was much younger and the "Mores" of the times were much different. Same with "The Exorcist". You almost felt like you were going to hell just reading it.

I read "the Shining" before the movie came out and it indeed scared the crap outta me, but did not have the, IDK the phrase to use, overtones? That Dracula and The Exorcist did. That make more sense?

pathoftheturtle
10-31-2012, 06:26 AM
So before the film existed, you were already thinking Nicholson?

mikeC
10-31-2012, 10:46 AM
The Shining, yes. The Stand, no. Pet Semetery, yes.
I'm listening to Ghost Story now, it's pretty good but not very scary so far.

Merlin1958
10-31-2012, 06:45 PM
So before the film existed, you were already thinking Nicholson?

Yep, Right when I closed the book on the last page!!!

Merlin1958
10-31-2012, 06:48 PM
So before the film existed, you were already thinking Nicholson?

Yep, Right when I closed the book on the last page!!!

I also recall thinking, at the same time, "he'll never top this one'. And I suppose to many I was right!!! Two good calls in thirty years!! LOL

Ricky
10-31-2012, 06:59 PM
I think the only book that ever scared me was Pet Sematary. It's one of my favorites (King and in general), but just haven't been able to bring myself to re-read it. :scared:

Merlin1958
10-31-2012, 07:02 PM
I think the only book that ever scared me was Pet Sematary. It's one of my favorites (King and in general), but just haven't been able to bring myself to re-read it. :scared:

"The Exorcist" (book) didn't scare you? Not even a little?

Ricky
11-01-2012, 12:49 PM
Some parts were definitely creepy but not "scary."

Merlin1958
11-01-2012, 01:07 PM
Some parts were definitely creepy but not "scary."

How times change!!! I remember thinking I was going to hell reading "The Exorcist" at the time!!! Hey, it was the '70's!! LOL

And "Dracula", was intense even for that period and at that time!!!

pathoftheturtle
11-01-2012, 01:37 PM
The whole world really could be wiped out by some virus... that's definitely frightening... but, yes, The Shining is "scarier" even though The Stand is a better book, altogether. And Pet Semetary is scarier than The Shining. -- we're talking comparatively. Plus, It is both better AND scarier than The Shining: how come that book isn't on the list?!

BROWNINGS CHILDE
11-01-2012, 04:19 PM
Pet Sematary is definitely #1 for me. After that, I'm not sure any book has truly scared me. With Pet Sematary, it is interesting. As a child, I was scared of Gage, and as a father I was horrified by losing him.