October 20th, 2009 / 3:21 pm
Snippets

American Short Fiction put together a list of ‘spooky reads’ but I don’t know, seems lacking. What books truly scare you? [Bonus link: if you haven’t been keeping up with DC’s, he’s been making amazing Halloween-style posts all month.]

51 Comments

  1. Morningstar

      Blood Meridian is pretty horrifying, and I don’t mean because of the violence.

  2. Morningstar

      Blood Meridian is pretty horrifying, and I don’t mean because of the violence.

  3. joseph

      When I first read Lunar Park, the scene where “Bret Easton-Ellis” is opening up all those emails and realizing that there attachments to all his emails…I thought that was successfully scary.

      Thomas Ligoti is pretty good too. I don’t consider the stuff scary, but good and with the theme.

      On DC’s…that Haunted House listed in Columbus, Ohio- involves a staged suicide? That’s pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a HH deal with that.

  4. joseph

      When I first read Lunar Park, the scene where “Bret Easton-Ellis” is opening up all those emails and realizing that there attachments to all his emails…I thought that was successfully scary.

      Thomas Ligoti is pretty good too. I don’t consider the stuff scary, but good and with the theme.

      On DC’s…that Haunted House listed in Columbus, Ohio- involves a staged suicide? That’s pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a HH deal with that.

  5. Nathan Tyree

      The King in Yellow

  6. Nathan Tyree

      The King in Yellow

  7. Richard

      I’ll say Stephen King’s THE SHINING as well as PET SEMATARY, early shorts in NIGHT SHIFT, and a story up at TNY called “Harvey’s Dream”. GHOST STORY by Peter Straub, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and HOUSE OF LEAVES were all great. I found AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis to be really disturbing. Most anything by Jack Ketchum, but he’s pretty brutal. He’s known for THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. Really OLD Dean Koontz is good like WHISPERS and PHANTOMS. Most anything by Clive Barker. Depends on what scares you though. THE ROAD was pretty unsettling at times.

  8. Richard

      I’ll say Stephen King’s THE SHINING as well as PET SEMATARY, early shorts in NIGHT SHIFT, and a story up at TNY called “Harvey’s Dream”. GHOST STORY by Peter Straub, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and HOUSE OF LEAVES were all great. I found AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis to be really disturbing. Most anything by Jack Ketchum, but he’s pretty brutal. He’s known for THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. Really OLD Dean Koontz is good like WHISPERS and PHANTOMS. Most anything by Clive Barker. Depends on what scares you though. THE ROAD was pretty unsettling at times.

  9. Ken Baumann

      House of Leaves is the only book I’ve put down in fear.

  10. Ken Baumann

      House of Leaves is the only book I’ve put down in fear.

  11. mike

      I just read Dawn Raffel’s Carrying the Body last night and it fucked with me so hard I completely could not figure out which toothbrush was mine–at all, and there are only four people that live in my apartment.

      I will second Ligotti, which is “spooky” and awesome though doesn’t “keep me up all night”–he remains one of my favorite authors though. First time reading Cooper’s The Sluts I was totally fucked, mainly for the scene where (potentially, and I guess I should say “spoilarz” or something) the dad sort of whores out his retarded son. Similarly, the ending to Peter Sotos’ Selfish, Little is pretty devastating. Jesus Ignacio Aldapuerta’s short collection The Eyes remains pretty intense.

      There’s also a Ballard short story that totally fucked me up that I can’t remember anything about. So maybe not worth mentioning. There is, like, a single embedded chapter of House of Leaves that fucked me too, incredibly: the chapter on echoes within the Navidson Record, when the daughter (Daisy?) Says she wants to play “always” which, the text points out, is the echo of “hallways.”

      For some reason I found myself totally on edge throughout most of Dick’s Ubik, which really ostensibly seems to be a lighter work, but something about it fucked me up and terrified me. I went to the bar after finishing and yelled about how terrifying it was to anybody who would listen afterward.

  12. mike

      I just read Dawn Raffel’s Carrying the Body last night and it fucked with me so hard I completely could not figure out which toothbrush was mine–at all, and there are only four people that live in my apartment.

      I will second Ligotti, which is “spooky” and awesome though doesn’t “keep me up all night”–he remains one of my favorite authors though. First time reading Cooper’s The Sluts I was totally fucked, mainly for the scene where (potentially, and I guess I should say “spoilarz” or something) the dad sort of whores out his retarded son. Similarly, the ending to Peter Sotos’ Selfish, Little is pretty devastating. Jesus Ignacio Aldapuerta’s short collection The Eyes remains pretty intense.

      There’s also a Ballard short story that totally fucked me up that I can’t remember anything about. So maybe not worth mentioning. There is, like, a single embedded chapter of House of Leaves that fucked me too, incredibly: the chapter on echoes within the Navidson Record, when the daughter (Daisy?) Says she wants to play “always” which, the text points out, is the echo of “hallways.”

      For some reason I found myself totally on edge throughout most of Dick’s Ubik, which really ostensibly seems to be a lighter work, but something about it fucked me up and terrified me. I went to the bar after finishing and yelled about how terrifying it was to anybody who would listen afterward.

  13. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      I feel like text’s ability to truly frighten is sometimes very contextual. When I read “Closer” by Dennis Cooper, I was really, really terrified (like felt raw and was clutching at my own body and looking behind me and shit) when George Miles wandered into the situation w/ the murderous dude, because based upon the little I knew of Dennis Cooper’s writing at the time (and having just read Ugly Man), I did not think he was going to survive, and then after that, when he did survive (altho you could probably argue abt what survival really means in this context), I was never able to feel as legitimately fearful or as deeply emotional in general for any of the characters in future books in the cycle (even when other books turned out to be my “favorites”), like I had emotional scar tissue or something, and it made me wonder if that’s part of what Dennis means by material from earlier books in the cycle no longer being available or accessible later in the cycle.

      …I think the most afraid I’ve ever been reading a book, though, was when I stayed up late in 3rd grade finishing Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia, and got to that part where they were voyaging into some freaky far-flung place where there were, like… faces or something in the water, I think? I just remember being alone in my dark bedroom w/ a tiny reading light like scared as shit to get up and got to the bathroom to pee.

      So I feel like age, emotional state, location, lighting, etc all shape how much fear I’m able to access or something.

  14. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      I feel like text’s ability to truly frighten is sometimes very contextual. When I read “Closer” by Dennis Cooper, I was really, really terrified (like felt raw and was clutching at my own body and looking behind me and shit) when George Miles wandered into the situation w/ the murderous dude, because based upon the little I knew of Dennis Cooper’s writing at the time (and having just read Ugly Man), I did not think he was going to survive, and then after that, when he did survive (altho you could probably argue abt what survival really means in this context), I was never able to feel as legitimately fearful or as deeply emotional in general for any of the characters in future books in the cycle (even when other books turned out to be my “favorites”), like I had emotional scar tissue or something, and it made me wonder if that’s part of what Dennis means by material from earlier books in the cycle no longer being available or accessible later in the cycle.

      …I think the most afraid I’ve ever been reading a book, though, was when I stayed up late in 3rd grade finishing Voyage of the Dawn Treader from the Chronicles of Narnia, and got to that part where they were voyaging into some freaky far-flung place where there were, like… faces or something in the water, I think? I just remember being alone in my dark bedroom w/ a tiny reading light like scared as shit to get up and got to the bathroom to pee.

      So I feel like age, emotional state, location, lighting, etc all shape how much fear I’m able to access or something.

  15. sean

      That vampire book by King scared me but this was years ago. Sucky books scare me.

  16. sean

      That vampire book by King scared me but this was years ago. Sucky books scare me.

  17. Nathan Tyree

      I read it in a single setting and felt very, very claustrophobic and paranoid

  18. Nathan Tyree

      I read it in a single setting and felt very, very claustrophobic and paranoid

  19. Richard

      Salem’s Lot. I almost mentioned that.

  20. Richard

      Salem’s Lot. I almost mentioned that.

  21. marco

      E.T.A. Hoffmann “Der Sandmann”
      Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper”
      Ryūnosuke Akutagawa “Cogwheels”
      Arthur Machen “The White People”
      Ray Bradbury “The October Game” (from “Long After Midnight”)
      Shirley Jackson “The Haunting of Hill House”
      M John Harrison “Gifco” (from “Things That Never Happen”)
      Kelly Link “Stone Animals” (from “Magic for Beginners”)

  22. marco

      E.T.A. Hoffmann “Der Sandmann”
      Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper”
      Ryūnosuke Akutagawa “Cogwheels”
      Arthur Machen “The White People”
      Ray Bradbury “The October Game” (from “Long After Midnight”)
      Shirley Jackson “The Haunting of Hill House”
      M John Harrison “Gifco” (from “Things That Never Happen”)
      Kelly Link “Stone Animals” (from “Magic for Beginners”)

  23. Richard

      I’ll add a couple more in here. To some degree, HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk. I AM LEGEND and HELL HOUSE by Richard Matheson. I’d add in IT and DIFFERENT SEASONS (especially “Apt Pupil”) by Stephen King. THE DESCENT by Jeff Long was a creepy little book.

  24. Richard

      I’ll add a couple more in here. To some degree, HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk. I AM LEGEND and HELL HOUSE by Richard Matheson. I’d add in IT and DIFFERENT SEASONS (especially “Apt Pupil”) by Stephen King. THE DESCENT by Jeff Long was a creepy little book.

  25. Blake Butler

      Stone Animals is a horror masterpiece, yes.

  26. MoGa

      Agreed. I had to read it with the lights on, and I couldn’t read it at night.

  27. Blake Butler

      Stone Animals is a horror masterpiece, yes.

  28. MoGa

      Agreed. I had to read it with the lights on, and I couldn’t read it at night.

  29. davidpeak

      ligotti’s story “the last feast of harlequin”

      the first story in evenson’s fugue state–forgot the name

      and there’s a joe hill story “my father’s mask” that just destroyed me

      i can’t think of anything else that’s ever scared me

  30. davidpeak

      ligotti’s story “the last feast of harlequin”

      the first story in evenson’s fugue state–forgot the name

      and there’s a joe hill story “my father’s mask” that just destroyed me

      i can’t think of anything else that’s ever scared me

  31. Matthew Simmons

      GREAT APES by Will Self nearly drove me insane. That was a little scary.

  32. Matthew Simmons

      GREAT APES by Will Self nearly drove me insane. That was a little scary.

  33. Nathan Tyree

      oh “The Yellow Wallpaper” ! Yes! I read that in sixth grade. It creeped me out for days

  34. Nathan Tyree

      oh “The Yellow Wallpaper” ! Yes! I read that in sixth grade. It creeped me out for days

  35. tom k

      Frisk by Dennis Cooper.

      What else? fear is an odd one, i can’t think of anything in particular now.

  36. tom k

      Frisk by Dennis Cooper.

      What else? fear is an odd one, i can’t think of anything in particular now.

  37. Ryan Call

      gogol’s ‘viy’ scared the hell otu of me

  38. Ryan Call

      gogol’s ‘viy’ scared the hell otu of me

  39. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      is the first story in fugue state with the two little girls? the toy horse somebody at the door? fucking scary.

  40. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      is the first story in fugue state with the two little girls? the toy horse somebody at the door? fucking scary.

  41. Ryan Call

      yes.

  42. Ryan Call

      yes.

  43. Blake Butler

      ‘Younger’

  44. Blake Butler

      ‘Younger’

  45. davidpeak

      i don’t know why, it scared me half to death. i felt massive amounts of anxiety while/after reading it.

  46. davidpeak

      i don’t know why, it scared me half to death. i felt massive amounts of anxiety while/after reading it.

  47. Amelia

      Great list! Link’s “Catskin” creeps me out in a real way too

  48. Amelia

      Great list! Link’s “Catskin” creeps me out in a real way too

  49. Rawbbie

      Monster Blood and It Came From Beneath the Sink…

  50. Rawbbie

      Monster Blood and It Came From Beneath the Sink…

  51. Matt

      Turn of the Screw