Any recommendations for a scary book, please?

[Reallywanttogotobednow]

I really fancy reading something eerie/uncanny but I think I've worked through a lot of the usual recs (The Woman in Black, The Haunting of Hill House, The Little Stranger, M R James). I quite liked Dark Matter but was slightly less keen on the follow-up by the same author. I'm not massively fond of Stephen King, apart from The Shining. I can deal with small amounts of violence but find lots of gore a bit dull. Any suggestions will be very welcome!

[Smallinthesmoke]

David Mitchell- Slade House, Shirley Jackson- The Haunting of Hill House. Both bloody brilliant and fit the eery bill perfectly.

[Smallinthesmoke]

eerie FFS

[Smallinthesmoke]

Just noticed you have already read Haunting of Hill House sorry Her other stuff is good too... thinking for example "We have always lived in the castle" which is pretty bonkers.

[Reallywanttogotobednow]

Thank you! I have a secondhand copy of We Have Always Lived In The Castle lying around somewhere - I think I picked it up on a stall on the Embankment and never got round to reading it. Will have to give it a try!

[Clawdy]

The Silent Companions - Laura Purcell. Very creepy and well written. The Greatcoat - Helen Dunmore.

[macnab]

I see you're not mad on Stephen King, but his latest offering "The Outsider" is very good and not overly scary, just quite creepy. I did enjoy it (and I don't like horror novels)

[cdtaylornats]

Pig Island by Mo Hayder
Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. A born sceptic, he believes everything has a rational explanation. But when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned. Questions mount: Why has the community been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader, Pastor Malachi Dove? And perhaps most important, why will no one discuss the strange apparition seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island? Their confrontation, and its violent and bloody aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oaksey...

[MrsW85]

The ghosts of sleath by James Herbert.i had to sleep with the light on after reading this one .

[ChristmasFluff]

If you like MR James, then EF Benson did short stories in a similar vein, and The Room in the Tower gives me the creeps just thinking about it.

[MeAgainSparkle]

I enjoy James Herbert - I find he sets a brilliantly creepy scene.

[iklboo]

314 series by A R Wise. Very creepy.

[PepeLePew]

The House Next Door - fabulously creepy Southern Gothic story with everyone drinking martinis and trying to keep up appearances while bad bad things happen.

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp

Both brilliantly chilling.

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

Oh, sorry, you've read DM!

[Reallywanttogotobednow]

Thank you for the recommendations, everyone! Those are brilliant suggestions. Oh, and I read The Room in the Tower in what was supposed to be a children's anthology decades ago, and I didn't sleep well for about six months afterwards

[ChristmasFluff]

Yikes! It freaked me the hell out as an adult!

Susan Hill's 'the man in the picture' novella is also good in the MR James sort of vein

[VittysCardigan]

Thin air by Michelle Paver
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill (he is Stephen Kings son)