Horror / Creepy stories

[JAPAB]

Read any good creepy novels recently? Always on the look-out. Read many horror stories that I have enjoyed or can recognise intellectually that it would be scary should such things happen, but which didn't particularly give me that creepy feeling. In the past year the ones that did are:

Dean Koontz - Winter Moon
Stephen King short story - The Man In The Black Suit
Michael McDowell - The Elementals

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

The Ghost Stories of MR James (read in the daylight).

Bram Stoker’s Dracula - it’s really creepy, even if the language is a little archaic.

I recently finished Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, which is about a haunted IKEA knock-off. I also enjoyed his earlier My Best Friend's Exorcism. They're lighter horror, definitely funny, but funny in a smart way and I felt the requisite chills when I was supposed to.

For short stories, I'm partial to the collection Dangerous Red by Mehitobel Wilson. These stories are more graphic than the Hendrix books and they won't be for everybody. But some of them, especially The Mannerly Man, have really stayed with me and can still make me shiver.

I have recently read Christopher Ransom - he writes ghost/horror but with a flare for veering off into the downright impossible, in that his stories always leave you thinking “What the heck have I just read?”.

I’ve read all of his books twice, and after the second readings feel as if I got so much more out of the story than on the first reading,

I started with The Orphan, which was creepy and also confusing, and then worked my way through all his novels.

Try Adam Nevill’s books, particularly Ritual and Last Days. Creepy as all fuck.

Thanks for the suggestions. Already have The Ritual and it was already on the list, so will bump it up, and check out some of the others.

Oooh place marking

I find Shirley Jackson is always unsettling. The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

Classic Stephen king is always creepy; Pet Semetary, The Shining, Christine, IT, Carrie etc. His newer stuff not so much! James Herbert is also good, particularly The Rats.

The Silent Companions
The Corset

Both by Laura Purcell

Cracking Gothic horror novels.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is very creepy.

Pig Island by Mo Hayder

I second the Joe Hill & Laura Purcell books.
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Dark Matter by Michelle Pavin.

Also look up House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. I couldn't finish it as it was so huge but I plan to try again.

Fellside by MR Carey was very creepy.

I haven't enjoyed Adam Nevill's other books but I read Last Days on a mini-break by myself when I was pregnant and I got too scared to get up and go to the loo (complete disaster with a baby sitting on my bladder).

I'm so glad I found this thread! I just started Satan Loves You by Grady Hendrix, and it's brilliant. I have a couple James Herbert next on my list too, after watching The Secret of Crickley Hall on Netflix.

Lovecraft is always creepy and of course Susan Hill.

James Brogden is very good, particularly The Hollow Tree. Raw blood, by Catriona Ward is fabulous, one of my all time favourites. China Mieville’s short stories are creepy and quirky (The Ball Pit, about an Ikea play area is horrid). Also short stories by Simon Kurt Unsworth, particularly Diseases Of The Teeth.