I Need Something Chilling

[Piebald]

I Want to read a book that is absolutely frightening. Okay, no jokes! I have read a lot of Stephen King... pretty much all his "famous" works. I don't really know where to turn. But I need a book so horrifying that it is going to give me nightmares for weeks. The last good scary book I read was The Regulators and it wasn't that scary. Don't go posting Hillary Clinton's autobiography or something, I need serious reccomendations before my vacation ends on Tuesday!

[NSMinistries]

we sell a book here titled after the song the wheels on the bus go round and round. Any parent can tell you how absolutely frightening that could be...

[Piebald]

:brood:

[NSMinistries]

:brood::lmbo:

[Piebald]

I'm re-reading Stephen King's short story "1408".. for some reason that story scares the heck out of me.

[NSMinistries]

I will not read or watch that clown book he wrote. Two kids from the towm I lived in for 4th and 5th grade were killed by someone dressed as a clown...

[bar Jonah]

Yes, "It" was definitely very frightening (although I absolutely abhor the disgusting ending, which they had to leave out of the TV miniseries .. which also btw was scary).

My brother had to stop reading Pet Semetary. LOL

Hm, what else? Well, I would suggest going to the Lovecraft mythos, the whole Cthulhu mythos, the stuff that inspired what many consider to be the best John Carpenter movie ever made -- In the Mouth of Madness.

Great stuff, extremely creepy, very dark and scary. Just the idea that even knowing of these evil beings will slowly drive you mad... is unsettling to the reader. So I would start there!

[flipper]

Pet Semetary is probably the scariest Stephen King book written, although It would probably be a close second. Also, if you can find his novella "The Mist" that's probably one of his best.

I might also recommend Clive Barker's Books of Blood although they do range a bit in their depictions of, um, alternate sexuality. So you might not like that. Extremely well written horror stories though.

Much though I love H.P. Lovecraft, in my opinion his stuff is a bit overblown and heavy handed pulp gothic. He created an interesting mythos but his writing is a bit too hamfisted in its attempts to be - woooOOoo - scarey and grotesque. Not as bad as some of his imitators, though. Some of his short stories are still classic. I think that The Color Out of Space is his best.

Something HPL-like you might enjoy and can find for free is The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman. It's a very short story and always a good recommendation for new mothers who are feeling a bit trapped in those post-partum first weeks, I find.

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman/The_Yellow_Wallpaper/The_Yellow_Wallpaper_p1.html

[Piebald]

I've read It and Pet Semetary, never really got into Lovecraft (the writing in his Cthulhu short story put me off).

Clive Barker is a good suggestion, thanks! I actually did a project on The Yellow Wallpaper in High School!

Anyone know a good collection of short stories?

[mossrose]

Try "The Keep" or "The Tomb" from F. Paul Wilson.

"The Keep" is creepier.......

And then there are a whole bunch of books that follow that may or may not be creepy, depending on how high your creeped out level is.

:teeth:

[NeilUnreal]

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James are something to avoid if you don't like feeling nervous. It's my favorite collection of scary stories, and reading it can still give me the creeps on a lonely fall afternoon. And reading M.R. James after dark is something to be avoided at any cost (you have been warned!).

There are a lot of cheap editions of his work. I think the stories are old enough to be in the public domain, so I'm bet they're available on the web as well.

If you haven't read them, don't sell these stories short just because of their age, they are among the best ghost stories ever written.

-Neil

p.s. Another really creepy read (and the world's greatest mummy story IMHO) is Lot No. 249. by Arthur Conan Doyle. It will cure you of going for walks at night...

[Piebald]

Woah! Thanks for the reccomendation!

[NeilUnreal]

I was editing, see my postscript as well.

[bar Jonah]

To be honest, the last book that gave me nightmares was The Time Traveler, by George Orwell. Those dang Morlocks. :rigreen:

[Piebald]

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is free online!

http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/8486

[Xavier]

Gotta love Good Ole Project Gutenburg....

Great stuff.

[Amazing Rando]

Aww man, I love Stephen King. Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are two of my favorite novels ever.

[Piebald]

Ahh yes, The Green Mile was excellent. Haven't read .. uh.. what's it called.. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

[Epoetker]

I only see one scary movie a year now. The Ring last year, the Grudge this year, and Ring 2 next.

Conquering one major fear-image a year is great for dealing with a whole bunch of little fears that might have taken you otherwise.

[NeilUnreal]

Conquering one major fear-image a year is great for dealing with a whole bunch of little fears that might have taken you otherwise.

This is why I only clean the bathroom once a year...

-Neil

[Piebald]

I only see one scary movie a year now. The Ring last year, the Grudge this year, and Ring 2 next.

The Grudge was pretty good, though I thought it was a little too esoteric. They didn't explain the backstory of the two ghosts as much as I would have liked!

[CodePoet]

I'm new here and really just trying out the TWeb features. And, I know your vacation is long gone; but... check out Dan Simmons sometime for a good alternative to Stephen King. I found Simmons' Summer of Night to be pretty spooky. He also writes SciFi (which I really dig), and that can get real creepy, too. His Hyperion series is awesome. Some of the imagery from that series has stuck in my head for years. Brrrr....

Other oldies but goodies are Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series -- also his The Gap into Conflict series. Both rated fairly high on my goosebump scale.

CP

[D. Medvedev Fan]

What about Edgar Allen Poe, or Faust? Or the original Frankenstein?

*refrains from suggesting Sponge Bob Squarepants or Barney*

[Piebald]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Poe is a good idea.. I love his poem "Dreamland," I always remember the line: .. where an Eidolon named Night on a black throne reigns upright . . .

[D. Medvedev Fan]

Poe is an excellent poet, all-be-he not quite as high on my list as Pablo Neruda.

[One Bad Pig]

[Dan Simmons] also writes SciFi (which I really dig), and that can get real creepy, too. His Hyperion series is awesome. Some of the imagery from that series has stuck in my head for years. Brrrr....
The first two are good. The second two? Meh. Didn't care much for them.

Other oldies but goodies are Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series -- also his The Gap into Conflict series. Both rated fairly high on my goosebump scale.

CP
I've read the 1st and 2nd Chronicles, but don't recall them being all that scary. They're good though. They managed to stretch my vocabulary, and that doesn't happen often these days. :hehe: I have the first 4 Gap books, but haven't gotten around to them yet.

Poe is always good. I have "Twists of the Tale", an anthology of cat horror edited by Ellen Datlow that gave me the shivers. C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy is very well-written dark fantasy. Glen Cook's Black Company series is also good dark fantasy. On the sci-fi end of things, check out Phillip K. Dick (not so much scary as odd) and Fritz Leiber ("Gonna Roll the Bones" is a memorable short story).

[CodePoet]

The first two are good. The second two? Meh. Didn't care much for them.

I've read the 1st and 2nd Chronicles, but don't recall them being all that scary. They're good though. They managed to stretch my vocabulary, and that doesn't happen often these days. :hehe: I have the first 4 Gap books, but haven't gotten around to them yet.

Poe is always good. I have "Twists of the Tale", an anthology of cat horror edited by Ellen Datlow that gave me the shivers. C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy is very well-written dark fantasy. Glen Cook's Black Company series is also good dark fantasy. On the sci-fi end of things, check out Phillip K. Dick (not so much scary as odd) and Fritz Leiber ("Gonna Roll the Bones" is a memorable short story). I guess -- now that I think about it more -- Donaldson's books that I've read aren't so much scary as they are dark, with a focus on the potential depravity & inhumanity of his characters. This is especially true with his Gap series. That's what gave me chills. I would read the story thinking, "this just can't get any worse" -- and then I'd turn the page.

I never cared that much for Poe myself, maybe because I was forced to read him in school. I'll be on the lookout for Friedman and Cook. Sounds interesting. Fritz Leiber... ah, that takes me back to my high school days. I had plenty o' Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser books (Lankhmar stories). I may have to reread those someday.


Mark

[lee_merrill]

You might try The Monkey's Paw (http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/mnkyspaw.htm), it's one scary story I remember, and I don't remember too many of them...

Blessings, as you shiver,
Lee

[Cleombrotus]

I Want to read a book that is absolutely frightening. Okay, no jokes! I have read a lot of Stephen King... pretty much all his "famous" works. I don't really know where to turn. But I need a book so horrifying that it is going to give me nightmares for weeks. The last good scary book I read was The Regulators and it wasn't that scary. Don't go posting Hillary Clinton's autobiography or something, I need serious reccomendations before my vacation ends on Tuesday!


Regardless of when your vacation ends, pick up a copy of William Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency but don't expect it to be "entertaining".

[gethsemenerose]

ok how about a book about a guy who gets leprosy to start out and then his life gets worse sound chilling enough is not dean koontz type chilling but it gets the mind thinking. I am actually here to start a discussion about the leprosy of Stephan Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series and leprosy in the bible as well as a discussion of todays social lepers whatever they might be. Interested?

[One Bad Pig]

ok how about a book about a guy who gets leprosy to start out and then his life gets worse sound chilling enough is not dean koontz type chilling but it gets the mind thinking. I am actually here to start a discussion about the leprosy of Stephan Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series and leprosy in the bible as well as a discussion of todays social lepers whatever they might be. Interested?
Sure! It would be better to start a thread on it in another forum (not sure where that would fit- perhaps the Student Lounge).

[guacamole]

Even though your vacation is long gone I would recommend Brian Lumely's Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi had some good stories in it.

[tiffanyh]

I have to say, when I read Stephen King's Pet Cemetary when I was in college, I seriously couldn't sleep that night. Never had a book affect me like that. (However, that's why I steer very clear of horror movies...)

If some of these suggestions are scarier than that, I think I'll put them on the 'avoid at all costs' list ...

[Piebald]

Pet Semetary is pretty scary, yes. I think that with scary books you mostly scare yourself with your own imagination . . . I scare myself a lot. I am 25 years old but I'm still scared of the dark. More accurately, I'm scared of my imagination when I'm in the dark :teeth:

[One Bad Pig]

I'd be scared of your imagination in the dark, too. :egad:

[Piebald]

Yes, you would :mischief: :wicked:

[RumTumTugger]

I'd be scared of your imagination in the dark, too. :egad:

:yhtht:

[autigerfan]

I agree about Dan Simmons' "Summer of Night". It is a spooky read and also manages to be a sweetly nostalgiac book about a group of kids in the 1960s (a la Stephen King's "It"). It is well worth the time/money.