Heavy-set by Ray Bradbury. Talk about domestic violence.
In full length novel Christopher Fowler’s Psychoville is not for the faint hearted. His short stories also manage to dislocate normal suburban life.
Short stories? Just about anything by M. R. James.
Novels? I second The Haunting of Hill House.
The scariest story I ever read was called Don’t Look Behind You. The premise of the story(which is written in the 1st person and addressed to whoever is reading the story), is that the author made a bet with someone that they could pick someone at random and kill them. So they arranged to have this particular story put in this particular book(it’s deliberately vague as to whether you’re reading a magazine, a book or whatever), and then it was agreed that whoever had the book(i.e. YOU, the reader) would be the intended victim. The final lines are
"So keep on believing it’s all a prank. Don’t look behind you.
Until you feel the knife. "(italics theirs)
It took about six months before I slept with a light off.:eek:
Chris W
It’s amazing, how a story that I read so long ago still has a unexplainable effect on me. I’m not superstitous, and I don’t scare easy, but even now, at age 33, I STILL don’t leave the closet door open “Just a crack.” I will get up and shut it every time.
And I guess when you boil it all down, that’s what makes good horror/scary stories. When every part of you knows, believes, and understands none of it exists, and will NEVER happen, there’s that one little part of your brain that can’t let go and says “what if…”.
Ann Rule’s “The Stranger Beside Me.” NOTHING is scarier than real life.
Okay, this seems like an appropriate thread. If anyone knows the answer to this, they’ll be hangin’ out here. My very first Harlan Ellison experience was in Omni magazine. That month, they had four short stories by four horror writers. There was a Stephen King story, a Poul Anderson story, and the scarriest short I’ve ever read, by Harlan Ellison, and I can’t freakin’ remember the title! It’s about this serial killer (very gruesome stuff he does, too. At one point in the story, he slices open a woman’s belly, pulls out her itestines, with the woman still alive, and makes her lick them. That’s an image that was good for a few sleepless nights). But the twist is that the murderer knows how to transport his essential self into someone else’s body. In the story, this is called “shriking”. He gets his comeuppance in the end, but, boy, what a creepy ride! Can anyone here name this story for me?
Other than that, I’d have to say Trucks by King (the Night Shift collection), though Boogeyman creeped the hell out of me, too.
The Ceremonies by T.E.D. White was a book that I was really creeped out by, although I read it again recently and didn’t get why.
I think (obviously) that the creepyness of a written story is a combination of the skill of the writer and what psycholological state you are in as you read. Many of the stories that people have written here were read in their teens. I read the above book in my mid twenties when my wife and I were trying without success to concieve. Now that we have kids I think some of the issues in the book didnt match my state of mind as well.
The finale of The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (and the scene in the hospital basement) certainly gave me the willies.
House of Leaves still counts as the one that’s done my head in the most. first time i read it i was listening to Kid A a lot as well, which led to some…interesting dreams.
The story with the cat in it from Smoke & Mirrors by Neil Gaiman really freaked me out too. The part where he describes the devil.
A lot of the Alan Moore swamp thing comics really stuck in my head as disturbing too, if they count.
Dennis Etchison’s “They Only Come Out at Night.”
Clive Barker’s THE HELLBOUND HEART - I’d seen the first two Hellraiser films many times before reading this, but the book gave me a major nightmare.
Non-fiction- CRUEL SACRIFICE by Aphrodite Jones about the torture killing of a 12-yr old girl in a lesbian love triangle gone awry…IN MY HOME TOWN!
Why did I just read the link cichlidiot posted? I get claustrophobia reading about dwarf mines in Terry Pratchett books. That was really spooky.
There is a Stephen King story about a kid who got a camera from grandmother and it is VERY VERY SCARY. It doesn’t take a picture of the objects/views in front of it, it takes a picture of a dog getting closer and closer-- I think it is called “The Sun Dog”.
“Children of the Corn” is the SK story that affected me most. While it didn’t have me jumping at every sound, it haunted me for days.
Great story, best one from Four Past Midnight. Think they’re filming it at the moment.
“Where are you going, where have you been” by Joyce Carol Oates. It is just a really, really creepy read. It gets creepier every time you read it.
Superdude, I know the one you’re talking about. I think that was in Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. It creeped me out dreadfully!
One of the scariest books I’ve ever read was Ammie, Come Home by Barbara Michaels, with House of Many Shadows as a close second. When I first read them, of course–now that I’ve read each multiple times it doesn’t frighten me at all.
Ray Bradbury also does a good job of scaring me.
The same goes for me. One of the most frightening and sad things I have ever read (had me crying) is “Biafra: A People Betrayed” by Kurt Vonnegut. You can find the complete text online here, but probably in violation of the author’s copyright, that’s why I’ll only link to it and not quote it.
H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” - the only time I’ve ever not been able to sleep after reading something.
AND! When I went to see Big Fish last night, I saw a preview for Secret Window, with Johnny Depp as Mort Rainey and John Turturro as John Shooter. I didn’t even know they were making one.