To ask you for your best scary book

[Floursacktabletop]

I want to read something scary for October. I don't already own anything . Here's my wants
Must be horror genre, not crime thriller or mystery like The Girl on the Train type.
I've read most of the older Stephen King novels, Needful Things/The Green Mile probably faves
Not gory or body horror.
Any great recommendations? Would be much appreciated.

Have you read Stephen king thinner or the tommyknockers?

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons scared the crap out of me 😂

I went in and read the Goodreads reviews of The Silent Companions before I started the prequel just to refresh my memory.

I binged it when it arrived. So good. Properly creepy.

Great recommendations - I enjoyed them all. I also enjoyed Scuttler’s Cove by David Barnett (author of Withered Hill).

I’m currently reading The Hollowing by Tony Marturan and although I’m only half way through It’s very creepy and genuinely scary.

Despite reading horror books all my life, Horrorstor was one of the first books that actually made me feel genuinely creeped out. It was brilliant.

I think it is ok to call the Hannibal novels horror, rather than crime, so I'd like to recommend those. Horror, because the bad guy (and a couple of additional bad guys) are so over-the-top powerful and monstrous that they are more like supernatural figures than criminals.

These novels are very scary, largely because they are really brilliantly written, The characters are so well developed (esp Clarice, wonderfully non-sexistly portrayed) that the fears and shocks they feel are real so us, which helps us to feel those fears and shocks ourselves.

Amazing that he can combine psychological realism with having a central character that is so massively inhumanely demonic.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova I found very scary, and I'm an afficiando of scary stories, having read Dracula when I was ten.

The Hannibal novels are great. Make for some really good teachable moments, and there's an increasing amount of really good quality criticism on them. They're often seen as a modern-day retelling of the vampire narrative, only Lecter's supernatural ability is his phenomenal, inhuman level of intelligence.

The ending of Hannibal has been controversial but it makes perfect sense to me. The system broke Starling in the end, which isn't the most inspiring outcome for a woman of her abilities but is nonetheless the result of the same sexism that's held so many women back professionally. Formerly a dedicated agent, there comes a point when she no longer feels compelled to keep their rules and in her position I can hardly say I blame her. But there are also very interesting questions around whether she really does make a free choice.

All adds layers to the narrative and interest to the story, IMO. As for the films, Ted Levine is a real undersung star in Silence. His performance was stellar and he's perfect in that role (the voice!) although he's often overshadowed by Hopkins who IMO is peerless: best in the business.

'Put the fucking lotion in the basket!' 😂

I did also enjoy Scuttler's Cove (and the suggestion of the next book at the end), although not as much as it did involve a trope I'm not a fan of (without too much detail for spoilers: very very rich people). I've read on kindle but the cover art is stunning.

I’m going to have to look into some of these. Mind you, I went to see The Conjuring at the cinema last week and I’m still freaked out by that at the moment!

I've recently reread Stephen King's Firestarter and Dean Koonz's The Eyes of Darkness. Both are about what happens when experimental conspiracies involving innocent civilians get out of hand, and how ruthless are the endeavours to test the subjects to destruction and take out anyone who tries to stop them.

Our inclination in a democratic society to turn to the state and its trusted authorities to help us, and this is really challenged in these books. They also call into question the kind of corruption we've already seen exists within the establishment (ie the Met Police and its attitude toward women).

I find the idea of when the powers who should protect a country's citizens become the mechanism by which to kill them - when there's nowhere to go for protection when you're fleeing persecution (with the one exception of the media) - far more frightening than a whole closet full of supernatural bogeymen.

Edited to add a disclaimer: I'm not a conspiracy theorist, by the way!

Yes, it is an incredibly bleak ending that drives home just how comprehensively she is driven out of the FBI and success more generally by institutional politics and sexism.

There is no place for her in society, and so, as far as Hannibal is concerned she can only achieve self-realisation by means of the actual outcome of the story.In that sense he genuinely sees her and understands and cares about her. But of course, because he is grandiose and insane, the outcome also reflects his need to possess and control her - just not by eating; he wants to possess her in a different way.

The ark of the story over several novels is utterly bleak and impressively feminist.

I often think of Stephen King, at least in his later novels, as trying endearingly hard to get past the confining sexism of horror genre novels but largely not succeeding. Thomas Harris otoh really gets there.

EDIT: Oh, and, Yes! about Ted Levine. Brilliant performance. Very thought provoking in our current times of course.

I didn't realise MP had brought a new book out. Just ordered it on Audible, and as a bonus it's read by Richard Armitage, so win win!
Thanks for the heads up

Following for ideas

This!
I read it in one sitting and wouldn't have put it down if the roof had fallen in on me i don't think.

a lot of early Stephen kings books, especially Cujo, I threw it as I was reading it. It just seemed so real. Truly frightening.

I loved Desperation by Stephen King, it was the first king book I read when I was about 16

I haven't anything to add to the novel suggestions, but the scariest short story I have ever read was
"The Haunted and the Haunters" by Edward Bulwer Lytton

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14195

Seconding The Little Stranger. A superbly-written spooky story which works on several levels.

The Woman in Black

Every one of his early books takes me to the place i was when i read them. Mostly my teens.

Many of his books center around young people and the dynamics between them. He captures teenage angst and childhood fears like no one else for me.

When i read Christine i was the same age as the main young characters and i refuse to watch the film as that book tapped right into my head at the time.

Sorry OP. Steven King lovers coming out of the woodwork 😀