Wednesday, October 23, 2024

What is the Scariest Book You've Ever Read?


What's your Number 1 Scariest Novel? I'm tempted to exclude Stephen King novels just to make it interesting, but let's put them in the competition. I'll later update the post with my own pick of the scariest novel but will now mention that Stephen King's novella "The Mist" comes in second for me.

Some other nominees I've heard over the years include:

  • Dracula by Bram Stoker
  • The Shining by Stephen King
  • Ghost Story by Peter Straub
  • Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
  • Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
  • I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
  • The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
  • The Terror by Dan Simmons
  • The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
  • House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
  • The Lower River by Paul Theroux [Not classic horror but very scary.]
[Confession: I read dystopian novels but have stopped reading purely horror novels. Doing so has brightened my life.]

[Update: For me, the hands-down winner would be Ghost Story by Peter Straub. The movie version was mediocre, but the book is truly frightening.]

[Photo by Neven Krcmarek at Unsplash]

No comments: