When we start to inch up on Halloween, we tend to think of reading horror novels. Do they scare you or do you find yourself afraid while reading other types of books?
I’m always drawn to eerie reads when the weather starts turning chilly. They don’t scare me the way they did when I was in middle school (Reading It in 7th grade was my favorite mistake) but I do enjoy the creepy creeps I get while reading Shirley Jackson or Stephen King.
The last book I read that truly scared me (and one of the scariest books I’ve ever read) was solo/down by Lauryn Allison Lewis (from CCLaP). I need a good grounding in reality, something believable. Evil supernatural creatures are fine, but if they’re the only thing carrying the element of “horror,” the book isn’t going to scare me. It has to mess with my head somehow.
I’m not a fan of horror. Some people are fine with gore but I can’t do it at all. I recently read The Library at Mount Char and loved it but it had way more gore than I usually read and it made me queasy. I’m a wuss!
The Library at Mount Char was gory wasn’t it? That one definitely made me cringe more than a time or two.
I don’t mind gore, but don’t find it scary. Traditional horror doesn’t really do it for me, in terms of getting me on the edge of my seat.
What things scare you most: the supernatural, suspense, horror, or psychological terror? For me, the ones that really get to me are those that mimic the real world and could happen. How to Be a Good Wife freaked me out because this woman knew the truth of what happened to her but was never believed. That scares me!
I tend to be much more creeped out by the psychological, particularly if it’s a book that makes me wait. Slow tension, like the beginning of The Dinner or All the Birds, Singing, is what gets to me.
I’m the same way, Shannon. Traditional horror doesn’t creep me out; at least, not when reading. TV or the movies are a different story. But that slow tension? Yes. The Dinner is a perfect example.
I’m more likely to be kept awake at night by a book with a slow burning psychological thing going on. Books like Room or Before I Go to Sleep are more likely to make me look over my shoulder. I just read The Stepford Wives. Talk about the heebie jeebies!
Dystopian/apocalyptic novels do that to me a lot of times! It’s a matter of “this is messed up” combined with “omg this could really happen…” that does me in.
YES. I totally feel that way sometimes, too. The Beautiful Bureaucrat had me creeped to the max.
We’ve mentioned a number of things that scared us but if you had to pick one or two what are the scariest things you’ve ever read? For me it would have to be Stephen King’s The Stand and It.
I completely agree, Catherine. It and The Stand will forever reign as the scariest freaking books. It changed me. For real.
Right?! I don’t even remember all of it anymore except for sewer drains. I NEVER look into them. I don’t care if my wallet fell down there. I’d be like, ‘Oh, well.’ and keep walking.
What about you, readers? Do you like scary books? If so, what kind and what is your favorite?
What does it take for you to be afraid? Very afraid?
The Socratic Salon 
October 19, 2015 at 6:24 am
Good discussion! I’m in Catherine’s league, though probably to an extreme. Though I admire those who can read “horror” and not get freaked out forever from it, that just isn’t me. For example, I will not touch The Library at Mount Char with a ten-foot pole–never! I just can’t handle it. No blood, guts, or gore for me, please! If something truly scares me I will have bad dreams for a very long time and I can’t get it out of my head! I watched The Exorcist and Poltergeist over 30 years ago and some of those scary images are still clear as anything in my head when I think of those movies. For that reason, I have NEVER read ANY “horror,” nor will I. This is because I have always retained more of what I’ve read than what I watch, and typically, it has more impact upon me. As close as I’ve gotten is to watch and read The Green Mile, although I swore I would never read a Stephen King–too scary. I didn’t really think TGM was true horror though…do you? Plus, there are so many other books/genres that I adore reading, I have no need of increasing my already outrageously long TBR list! 🙂 I was relieved that The Girl On the Train and The Silent Wife didn’t creep me out. But I have been debating with myself for months, basically since its release, whether to read Gone Girl, mainly just because it seems to have become a standard against which everything else is being compared. But…could I handle it? I don’t know…
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October 19, 2015 at 8:04 am
The Green Mile is SO good, but no, I wouldn’t call it horror at all.
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October 19, 2015 at 9:56 pm
I LOVE The Green Mile and would not call it horror at all. I get scared but wouldn’t find it scary. I thought it was sad and beautiful.
Reading Gone Girl might be all right but don’t watch the movie. The book falls in the category of psychologically creepy but the movie gets gross.
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October 20, 2015 at 7:46 am
I was going to say the same thing about the movie. It’s a great adaptation, but there’s definitely some gore that I didn’t remember being quite as shocking in the book.
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October 30, 2015 at 8:43 am
Okay, Gone Girl–read the book but skip the movie! Got it!!
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October 25, 2015 at 9:14 am
I have to tell you that watching The Exorcist for the first time was something I’ll never forget. I slept on the floor of my mom’s room that night. (I was in high school!)
It sounds like you should definitely stay away from Mount Char. If a book was to give someone nightmares…whew!
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October 29, 2015 at 8:02 pm
As the King aficionado of the group ‘The Green Mile’ definitely isn’t horror, and he has quite a few other books like that. The JFK one, a novella called ‘The Body’ which the movie ‘Stand by Me’ was based on, and perhaps most famously, ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ 🙂
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October 19, 2015 at 8:00 am
I hate hate hate horror in movies, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize I really like reading it. I’m not a fan of gore, but other than that anything goes. My favorites are probably those with just a hint of the supernatural, the kind that makes you wonder if there are otherworldly things at work or if it might all be in the character’s head.
Still, I wouldn’t say it scares me. Real life is definitely way more scary. I’d say psychological thrillers easily beat most horror novels when it comes to actually getting my heart pounding. The only book I remember actually having to walk away from because it was so intense is Elizabeth Haynes’s Into the Darkest Corner.
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October 19, 2015 at 9:58 pm
I’ve not heard of that one. The only book I wished I’d never read, that I forgot about until now, was We Need to Talk About Kevin and it was about a mass murder at a school so not ‘horror’ but horrible. It was so psychologically chilling and upsetting…pure evil. Ugh.
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October 20, 2015 at 9:51 am
Oh, I didn’t mean walk away from as in DNF. It was a great (if disturbing) book, I just needed to take breaks now and then. But I still wouldn’t classify it as scaring me.
I never did read We Need to Talk About Kevin. But yeah, I can imagine that being hard to read.
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October 25, 2015 at 8:26 pm
I really want to read We Need to Talk About Kevin and Defending Jacob. I would like to compare them to One Mississippi by Mark Childress and Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon.
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October 26, 2015 at 12:33 am
Lynn, based on your comments below I’d say you don’t want to get anywhere near the Kevin book. It is GRAPHIC, horrifying violence. I was nauseated. As I said, I wish I had never read it because it took a long time to get the images out of my head.
The subject of school violence is an important one and the book is well-written but it gets into pure sociopathic evil.
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October 26, 2015 at 12:40 am
Thank you for the warning. I kinda got that from the comments, but am very glad you detailed it for me. I do own Defending Jacob and loved Finding Jake. One Mississippi was good, too. See? You just helped me…we are connected…as in Clegg’s world? 😉
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October 25, 2015 at 9:11 am
I’d MUCH rather read about gore than see it in a movie. I hadn’t really thought of that!
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October 19, 2015 at 8:34 am
I would love to be scared by a book – not just disquieted, that does happen for me – but truly scared. I much prefer ghost or psychological frights, and I’ve recently enjoyed Catriona Ward’s gothic ghost story – Rawblood, but it still wasn’t can’t-turn-the-lights-off scary. I’ve read a lot of Stephen Kind and feel the same, so if anyone has any recommendations for books that will terrify me, I’d love to hear them. (Solo/Down sounds really interesting, and I’ve added it to my tbr list)
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October 19, 2015 at 9:52 pm
As someone with a hyperactive imagination I’m no good with scary recommendations- everything scares me! I would say that Stephen King’s It has so many components to it that touch on fear that it is a classic. Have you read it?
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October 26, 2015 at 4:31 am
I’ve read a lot of his other stuff, but actually not It.
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October 25, 2015 at 9:12 am
King seems to be able to scare just about everyone, I’d give his stuff a whirl for sure.
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October 26, 2015 at 4:31 am
Thanks Jennifer, but I have read a lot of Stephen King (sorry typo in my comment and I wrote Stephen Kind), and he doesn’t really scare me.
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October 29, 2015 at 8:00 pm
I’m like you. It takes a whole lot to get me to can’t turn off the lights scary. ‘It’ had it’s moments for me and there’s a short story in Skeleton Crew by King that terrified me when I was younger. But then again, ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ is something I listen to on audio at night when I’m trying to fall asleep 😀
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October 19, 2015 at 9:59 am
I love horror movies (not as much these days, as they seem to lean towards true gore for shock’s sake), but I don’t think I’ve ever been scared by a book. I used to consider that a failure of imagination, so I’m heartened a bit to see I’m not alone. I love a feeling of suspense, and I’ve certainly felt that with a book that might be considered to have an element of horror (Bird Box, anyone?). Most recently, the fantastic offering by Paul Tremblay, A Head Full of Ghosts. But I just don’t get “scared,” per se, feel creeped out being alone, or not want to turn off the lights. Sometimes I wish I DID feel that way when reading such a book. Other times, I’m glad I don’t. I like Claire’s use of the word “disquieted,” that’s a perfect description.
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October 20, 2015 at 7:47 am
Between you and several other people, I think I’m getting sold on A Head Full of Ghosts. Off to the library website!
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October 20, 2015 at 9:57 am
I think it is definitely in your sweet spot.
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October 19, 2015 at 12:48 pm
I don’t read much horror. Most of the time it just doesn’t interest me, but when I have read it, the things that scare me are the things that could truly happen.
Once, I was reading a creepy book in bed and I turned the lamp off and went to the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom, into my dark room, I saw this eerie green glow on the floor beside my bed and it scared me to death! The book cover was GLOWING IN THE DARK! I kicked it under the bed and removed the cover the next time I picked it up.
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October 19, 2015 at 9:48 pm
Oh, I would have lost it! A funny story in the telling but it must have been so scary.
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October 20, 2015 at 10:42 am
Oh my gosh, I am laughing so hard! BUT I would have been totally freaked out!
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October 25, 2015 at 9:09 am
Ha ha, that made me chuckle 😉
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October 19, 2015 at 6:06 pm
I don’t read much horror because of the gore, but I do have The Library at Mount Char that I want to read. The Dinner has been on my TBR list forever, it seems. I absolutely love reading thrillers and creepy stories in the fall that have me leaving the lights on and sleeping with one eye open. I’m one who prefers the eerie and creepy, mind-bending books that have such a realism about them that I can’t help but be scared. That is why You by Caroline Kepnes creeped me out so much. It could actually happen and was so passive in its crazy. I’m not one to really be scared by the Dracula’s and Wolfman stories, although Salem’s Lot was the exception, but I do enjoy anything Halloweenish in books and movies around this time.
It by Stephen King has to be the scariest book I’ve ever read, and the movie was just as creepy and horrifying. Salem’s Lot comes in second, although I haven’t read that book and only saw the movie. Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is one that I’ve always thought was perfect, so perfect that I used to teach it as part of a short story unit. A friend who is now in my book club came into class while we were working on The Lottery. She isn’t normally a thriller, creepy, scary book type of reader but loved that one and still talks about it after so many years.
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October 20, 2015 at 7:46 am
Thanks for the reminder about You! It’s one that I kept hearing about for a while and was very curious about – it sounds like it would be something I’d definitely like.
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October 20, 2015 at 6:41 pm
You should really try it. The second point of view and passive voice of Joe is what really makes this one creepy. It has a lot of lulls in places, but they are kind of necessary to add to his character. What Joe wants, Joe gets. He’s scary and warped in so many ways, but I couldn’t help myself and loved him.
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