I can't sleep anyway... (Scary book recommendations)

Thief13x on 2/6/2012 at 05:19

at least some nights.

So why not read something that's going to keep me up all night?:cool: Problem is, the 'scary' I've read so far haven't quite cut it for me. Stephen King's Pet Cemetery and Cell (my favorite of the two) were both good, but hardly books I would call truly terrifying. Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm pretty green in the genre so anything suggested I'm apt to try.

Sulphur on 2/6/2012 at 05:29

House of Leaves
Ulysses

Thief13x on 2/6/2012 at 05:55

Ah very good, thank you sir. These look right down my alley (especially House of Leaves).

keep em coming please.

redface on 2/6/2012 at 08:57

Try some Poe.

Kolya on 2/6/2012 at 12:07

The Sandman by E.T.A. Hoffmann is a nice psychological horror trip and fits your situation.

EDIT:(http://manybooks.net/titles/hoffmannetother06sand-man.html) Download in various formats

Tocky on 3/6/2012 at 05:48

I liked World War Z by Max Brooks and Day by Day Armegeddon by J L Bourne but you have to like zombies and you may just be looking for creepy. House of Leaves was creepy but not terrifying though I can think of nothing that is. Algernon Blackwood had (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=the+willows+algernon+blackwood&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yankeeclassic.com%2Fmiskatonic%2Flibrary%2Fstacks%2Fliterature%2Fblackwood%2Fstories%2Fwillows.htm&ei=u-_KT43BGIWEgweSlZ3hBg&usg=AFQjCNGwUZ_LRzethSTmW8XCz8WH6Y8Oow) The Willows and (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=the+wendigo+algernon+blackwood&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CHIQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yankeeclassic.com%2Fmiskatonic%2Flibrary%2Fstacks%2Fliterature%2Fblackwood%2Fstories%2Fwendigo.htm&ei=VPDKT8W7NNHdgQeLy9m8Bg&usg=AFQjCNHxPBmmI-zfTZqIueSnqT-U-6WMJw) The Wendigo which are enhanced by his supposed belief in such things and they are good. The first and last stories (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=castle+spirits+spookiest&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.castleofspirits.com%2Fspookiest.html&ei=4fTKT6u1FYax6AGw44Qb&usg=AFQjCNHSAt43R5aIBdiLKUN3WExpylRLqg) here are oddly spooky. Nothing terrifying though. I guess you will just have to go into the woods at night alone and invoke spirits somehow. You could anger them. I hear that works well.

Vasquez on 3/6/2012 at 07:59

Jeff Long is probably better known from his "Hell"-novels, but for me The Wall was much more scary. It's not fast-paced in-your-face -monsters and splatter horror, but more subtle, stirs those demons in your subconsious mind :)

If you have fear of heights, the better...

Xorak on 3/6/2012 at 08:09

I've also been looking for novels that are so terrifying that I'll have to burn the books after I've finished reading them, just to assure myself that the horror has passed. I wonder if such novels exist?

demagogue on 3/6/2012 at 18:50

The Hot Zone had me feeling really unsettled, considering it was a true story of a small ebola outbreak in northern Virginia, thankfully unmutated to humans or whoa nelly, there goes half the federal government.

Anyway ... (http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-sci-fi-horror-elitist-books/lm/R15TLQ0ED9BUED) this list isn't too bad for fiction on the horror / mindfuck end of the kind you're talking about Xorak.

nickie on 3/6/2012 at 19:15

This thread takes me straight back to when I was 18 and read a Dennis Wheatley book, possibly the Devil Rides Out. I didn't sleep that night, or the next, or the next. I slept in the daytime when it was safe. It would probably be considered very tame these days, but I still remember the terror I felt.

But I loved the Day of the Triffids in your list demagogue. Perhaps I was older and my imagination had done a runner.