Recommend a scarey book

[Tetsubo]

Poppy Z. Brite. She put images in my head that never left. Haunting, ugly, horrifying images. She is without a doubt the best horror author I ever read. I especially recommend Exquisite Corpse.

 

[nick2]

Michael Slade is a pretty good author. He is very descriptive when it comes to violence and gore. I don't know if I'd describe his books as scary, but they do contain more "horror" than the average Stephen King book.

 

[Swoop109]

Cannot remember the authors name off the top of my head, but check out a recent paperback release called, The Risen. Sort of a combination of Day of the Living Dead with Evil Dead. Scared me.

Also, a good OOP book, The Bridge. Written by John Skipp and Craig Spector. In fact, anything by them is worth reading.

 

[Morpheus]

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft
It by Stephen King
Dark Theaters (A Delta Green short story compendium) published by Pagan Publishing has some good stories in it

 

[The Serge]

Caitlin Kiernan's Threshold and Low Red Moon. Her writing is hypnotic and powerful. Her imagery is superb. And she knows how to make you feel really, really uncomfortable (I don't scare easy and her stuff made me a little queasy).

Clive Barker...

Currently reading 'Salem's Lot for the first time in preparation for the TNT movie adaptation. It's pretty creepy too. Enjoying it immensely.

 

[Wombat]

I tend to go "Classic" in my scaries -- Poe and Faulkner can still give me the willies

I dislike a lot of modern "horror" that is really just "splatter" -- King and Simmons are generally above this level, putting a good amount of creepiness into their works, but Barker and his ilk is find more gross than scary.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I tend to go "Classic" in my scaries -- Poe and Faulkner can still give me the willies

Me too. Give me some good old-fashioned Arthur Machen or E.F. Benson or M.R. James any day. And Algernon Blackwood, and Bram Stoker...

Pretty much, I lean towards the original genres, ghosts and vampires and werewolves and deals with the devil. Although vampires are horribly overdone now.

So they're redoing 'Salem's Lot, ehh? The scenes when Mr. Barlow came out of the kitchen floor... that was some good stuff. I hope they keep the old Nosferatu-looking Barlow.

 

[Iron_Chef]

James Herbert: THE DARK or THE FOG (in both books, a mysterious force turns people into sadistic psychos). Also, THE RATS, LAIR and DOMAIN were very good, if you like trilogies about flesh-eating rats!

 

[Pielorinho]

I dislike a lot of modern "horror" that is really just "splatter" -- King and Simmons are generally above this level, putting a good amount of creepiness into their works, but Barker and his ilk is find more gross than scary.

Interesting! I've not read anything by Simmons, but I would reverse the descriptions of King and Barker: where King too often relies on gross-out scenes, Barker builds up terrifying ideas.

It is true that Barker is more interested in the Horror of the Body; short stories by him involve such macguffins as body parts that have their own sentience and lead a bloody revolution, or aphrodisiacs that make lust the overpowering (and extremely violent) motivation of their victims, or villains with the ability to reshape victims' bodies in extremely painful fashion. King, on the other hand, seems more interested in the Horror of the Imagination: an alien that feeds on fearful imagination, or a satan defeated by innocent imagination, or a killer born from an author's imagination.

To that extent, the blood is more central to Barker's work, probably. Still and all, it come sacross to me as creepier and more thoughtful.

Different tastes, I guess .

One more recommendation that I thought of last night: Joyce Carol Oates's novel Zombie, the most terrifying depiction of a serial killer that I've ever come across. Tetsubo, if you like Exquisite Corpse, I'd especially recommend this book to you; it's got a similar plot, only (IMO) much scarier.

Daniel

 

[Krieg]

Interesting! I've not read anything by Simmons,

FWIW an exerpt from a review by Wayne MacLaurin on Simmons' Song of Kali...

Song of Kali is still one long description of unbelievable foulness. But this time, I got it. That's the point. For only in a city that is so foul, depraved, so utterly without promise, could the nightmare that Dan Simmons has crafted, fester and find life.

Song of Kali recounts the horrifying events of an American publisher, Robert Luczak, sent to India to pick up a manuscript. The manuscript is supposed to be the latest work of a famous poet who disappeared years earlier and is presumed dead. However, upon his arrival in Calcutta, Luczak is rapidly drawn into a bizarre series of events that lead him into contact with the cult of Kali, goddess of death, and the plot to unleash this demon-goddess upon the earth.

Very quickly things go from merely strange to utterly horrifying as he is led deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding the poet Das. And, as the journey gets darker and darker, we begin to understand the motivation behind the novel's opening paragraphs where Calcutta is described as simply "too evil to be allowed to exist."

The tale Simmons tells is one of the most chilling I have ever read. The writing is absolutely brilliant and Simmons manages to convey the sense of disgust, hopelessness and utter terror of both the characters and setting of the novel in a way that simply defies description.

It's not often that a book really disturbs me. Song of Kali did. This is the kind of book that makes you squirm as you read it. It's a tale as harrowing as they come.