# Can anyone recommend genuinely scary horror novels? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685 "2020-01-20T00:28:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/1 "2020-01-20T00:28:38Z")
[Yes, I have seen the SDMB Book Recommendation Thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=599130), though it appears that we have not re-visited the horror genre in some time. I thought perhaps it would be a good time to see what scary books people have been reading over the past years. One book that was recommended to me was **The Mailman** by Bentley Little, but I am having a heck of a time finding its audiobook at any lending library near me. In Michigan, we have MEL(Michigan Elibrary) and we have access too Hoopla, but none of that appears to have much from Bentley Little in audiobook format, my preferred way of experiencing books lately. Anyway, I’m looking for horror novels that are: - genuinely scary or disturbing - not hugely long(like The Stand or IT) - available in audiobook I’ve read a pretty good amount of Stephen King and a few other authors. Books I will start recommending are: - \*\*The Sorcerer’s House \*\*by Gene Wolfe - a book that immediately demands you go back and re-read it to see if you…well, I won’t go further. Probably the best horror book I’ve read in the past few years, though I am not a huge reader of this genre. - \*\*Bones of the Moon \*\*by Jonathan Carroll (no audiobook, sorry) - D **octor Sleep** by Stephen King(a surprisingly good folllow-up to the Shining) - **Lockwood and Co.** - a young adult horror series that is actually quite good. I’ve read 3 of 5 of them and love them As a bonus, a couple duds I would avoid: **The Institute** by Stephen King - wow, snoozefest for me \*\*The Land Across \*\*by Gene Wolfe - I would put this in horror, but it fails to be scary or intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/2 "2020-01-20T02:14:23Z")
Following… ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/3 "2020-01-20T02:34:33Z")
Arthur Machen’s “The White People.” More of a novella, I guess. 1904. One of the eeriest damn stories ever written, and H.P. Lovecraft agrees. Michael Arlen’s **Hell! Said the Duchess** (1934). Very weird short novel which includes aspects of thriller, social novel, detective story, but definitely ends up as horror. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/4 "2020-01-20T03:06:51Z")
You read Pet Semetary? Also, Amityville Horror scared the crap out of me as a kid. When, you know…one believed that it was a true story. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/5 "2020-01-20T04:14:52Z")
I found Stephen King’s _'Salem’s Lot_, about vampires overwhelming a small Maine town with a lot of unpleasant secrets, pretty damn scary when I first read it back in the Eighties, and when I re-read it recently it held up very well. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/6 "2020-01-20T04:30:39Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Arthur Machen’s “The White People.” More of a novella, I guess. 1904. One of the eeriest damn stories ever written, and H.P. Lovecraft agrees. > > Michael Arlen’s **Hell! Said the Duchess** (1934). Very weird short novel which includes aspects of thriller, social novel, detective story, but definitely ends up as horror. And as a bit of a riff on Machen, try Ursula Vernon writing as T. Kingfisher’s [The Twisted Ones](https://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Ones-T-Kingfisher-ebook/dp/B07P55QS3X). I personally wasn’t horrified (although I did find a number of scenes to be very disturbing), but I am apparently the exception to the rule. Quite a few people, even other writers, said that she actually managed to execute a \*written \*jump scare. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/7 "2020-01-20T04:33:19Z")
Does Peter Clines’s _14_ count as “genuinely scary horror”? I think a case could be made for that. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/8 "2020-01-20T04:48:10Z")
Poppy Z. Brite wrote some deeply disturbing psychosexual horror back in the nineties. [Drawing Blood](https://www.audible.com/author/Poppy-Z-Brite/B000APW4MC) can get you started. Are novellas/short stories in your wheelhouse? Clive Barker’s [Books of Blood](https://www.amazon.com/Books-Blood-1/dp/B00CIJ81UM) are some creepy body horror goodness. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/9 "2020-01-20T05:00:40Z")
I only remember two novels that genuinely frightened me to the point of sleeping with a loaded pistol beside my bed for several nights. These were from the early 1970’s which was a good period for those sorts of novels and movies, with a flair toward the supernatural and macabre. They were: 1) The Exorcist; and 2) Helter Skelter (which was not actually a novel but a non-fiction account of the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family). Other scary or unsettling books from that era make me wish similar fiction could find me nowadays, but I do precious little reading these days. Too lazy, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/10 "2020-01-20T08:12:38Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Does Peter Clines’s _14_ count as “genuinely scary horror”? I think a case could be made for that. Of course. Pure Lovercraftian cosmic horror. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/11 "2020-01-20T11:55:04Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I only remember two novels that genuinely frightened me to the point of sleeping with a loaded pistol beside my bed for several nights. These were from the early 1970’s which was a good period for those sorts of novels and movies, with a flair toward the supernatural and macabre. > > They were: 1) The Exorcist; and 2) Helter Skelter (which was not actually a novel but a non-fiction account of the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family). Other scary or unsettling books from that era make me wish similar fiction could find me nowadays, but I do precious little reading these days. Too lazy, I suppose. I totally thought of Helter-Skelter. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/12 "2020-01-20T12:32:01Z")
I’m not really a fan of the genre, but have read a few Stephen Kings in my time. _Misery_ was the scariest/most horrifying to me. I don’t know how it would hold up if you come across it for the first time as an adult, but I read (and watched the original TV adaptation of) Susan Hill’s _The Woman in Black_ 20 years ago at the age of 14, and I still occasionally get spooked by it - I’d be interested if you gave it a try. It seems to be available on Audible. I’d say it’s closer to a novella than a novel, so hopefully what you’re looking for. Not to be confused with the Wilkie Collins classic _The Woman in White_, which is completely different. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/13 "2020-01-20T14:13:35Z")
**The Fisherman** by John Langan. One of my favorite horror novels. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/14 "2020-01-20T14:30:30Z")
I’ve never found Stephen King’s novels particularly scary, but one of the scariest books I ever read was his collection of short stories, _Night Shift_. When I was a kid, True Crime books like _Helter Skelter_ scared the hell out of me, but I suspect most of us have become pretty innured to that kind of gory murder thanks to Hollywood and the evening news. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/15 "2020-01-20T14:38:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I found Stephen King’s _'Salem’s Lot_, about vampires overwhelming a small Maine town with a lot of unpleasant secrets, pretty damn scary when I first read it back in the Eighties, and when I re-read it recently it held up very well. I first read Salem’s Lot as a teenager in the 80s as well. I started it on a Saturday night around 9 PM, I literally could not go to bed until I finished it because it was so scary. Finished it around 4 AM, then had to wait another few hours for the sun to come up before I could go to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/16 "2020-01-20T14:55:48Z")
While not a horror geanre novel, The Sum of All Fears scared the hell out of me in high school. Its a very plossable story of how terrorists will nuke the Super Bowl. Which was scary enough they changed the entire plot to make a movie shorty after 9/11 because it was too close to reality. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/17 "2020-01-20T15:07:38Z")
From back when King was King: 'Salem’s Lot It Pet Sematary Needful Things ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/18 "2020-01-20T15:20:19Z")
Peter Straub’s “Ghost Story” scared the bejesus out of me when I read it back in 1980. Reading it at the beach on a sunny day, and I got cold shivers! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/19 "2020-01-20T15:33:52Z")
I’ve read a lot of horror over the past 30 years, so it takes a lot to impress me. **Bird Box** by Josh Malerman is by far the scariest thing I’ve read in years. **Heart-Shaped Box** by Joe Hill is fairly impressive too. Sadly, I haven’t been nearly as impressed by other stories by either of them. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685/20 "2020-01-20T16:36:15Z")
This was kind of a creepy one - Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon It’s one of VERY few books I’ve read more than once. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-genuinely-scary-horror-novels/846685.md?page=2)