Recommend a good horror (or horrifying / disturbing) book

[makingitupaswegoon]

Any type of horror or horrifying fiction welcomed. Supranational horror (haunted houses, vampires, zombies etc), psychological horror, fantasy / sci-fi horror, crime / real life horror - you know the sort of thing.

Have read loads of Stephen King but think ‘The Long Walk’ is one of his best (maybe not horror but definitely disturbing). House of Leaves creeped me out too.I’ve read some horrifying dystopian fiction too (e.g. The Road). Loved ‘Let the Right One In’ (vampires). So I’ve got broad tastes ...

Have you read The Institute? I thought that was very good. I am currently rereading The Fog by James Herbert and enjoying the nostalgia.

When I was a teenager (many moons ago) I read a creepy book I loved called The Seasons of Passage.

The Undead Series by R.R. Haywood there are 24 books so far all on Amazon.

Was wondering about The Institute as it is on offer on Amazon at the moment ...

@makingitupaswegoon

Was wondering about The Institute as it is on offer on Amazon at the moment ...

The institute is good.

Intensity by Dean Koontz. Creepy as fuck.

Have you read "Handling the undead" OP? It's by the same guy who wrote "Let the right one in", and I absolutely loved it. It's kind of zombie-ish (you probably guessed that by the title!) but it's not like "braaaaaaaains" zombies chasing folk down the street, it's about loved ones coming back to life.

Terrific story, I really enjoyed it. Nicely creepy but sad too, really well thought-out book.

Dark matter for me too , in my top 10, have also read Thin air and Wakenhurst by her all excellent but Dark matter the best for me.

I really really wanted to enjoy the institute but it was awful! The audiobook of Dark Matter is great.

Mark Edwards is a great one I discovered during lockdown, I have read all of his now, all great.

A series of short stories called Tales of the macabre by Daphne du Maurier. The Apple tree in particular is seriously creepy

Sorry- Echos of the macabre by Daphne du Maurier.

James Herbert - The Fog

The only book to have ever really scared me. I had nightmares about it for ages after reading it.

Dark matter- thought it was a really good book. Found it a bit creepy, but not scary at all. It’s probably a good intro to horror.
The two books I’ve read that terrified me are
The Croning, sort of a cosmic horror.
The last days of jack sparks. Starts off hilarious, quickly turns into the stuff of nightmares.

Have you read any Shirley Jackson?
Slade House by David Mitchell is creepy
I also love Edgar Allen Poe

Slade House (and The Bone Clocks) are bloody good books! I get the a bit creepy bit but neither was a book that sprung to mind when I read this post.

Richard laymon
Endless night
Terrifying book I went around checking my doors were locked 😂

Dark Tales is a book of really unsettling short stories by Shirley Jackson.

I enjoyed Fellside by MR Carey, and A Headfull Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay.

Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box and NosFerR2 were excellent - he writes very much in the style of his dad (SK) but is better at endings

I love spooky stuff but I’m always worried that I’m going to scare myself too much. I have Dark Matter on my shelf - dh has read it and said it wasn’t too bad, but it’s always held up as particularly scary on here!

I found The Silent Companions scary, but I think mainly because we were staying in quite a spooky hotel when I read it, rather than at home - and then I saw flipping wooden cutout children on a balcony in Monterey on the same trip .

I found The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter very disturbing, even though it’s probably thought of as quite mild on the spooky scale - something about it really got to me.

I've just finished 'Last one at the party' by Bethany Clift. Terrifying but I couldn't put it down.

I became a bit obsessed with Shirley Jackson after reading The Haunting of Hill House - the book is much better than the TV show and quite different. Her short stories are so good - the Lottery could easily have been inspiration for the Hunger Games.

I've just read The Nothing Man and enjoyed it - it's a thriller really, but very good.
Have recently enjoyed Follow You Home by Mark Edwards.

Incarnate by Ramsey Campbell

Clive Barkers books of blood, damnation game, hellbound heart.

I read Dark Matter, and also didn’t really find it scary, although very atmospheric and a good story.
The Shining totally shit me up.
The Last days of Jack sparks saw me having to get DH to come to the loo with me.
The Croning is also a terrifying read, properly disturbing.
Adam Nevills stuff is very good too.