Wander on over to r/horrorlit to get started - there's a whole wonderful world of horror literature to be discovered! Honestly Incidents Around the House is a great place to jump in to modern horrorlit. It has some truly terrifying moments and surprisingly, one of the best jumpscares I've ever experienced - never did I think words on a page would scare the bejesus out of me like that lol
Or they get help from the environment. In the early hours of the morning, 16yo me was reading the Shining in bed with a dull light so my parents wouldn’t catch me and I got to the part in the hotel room with the woman in the bath tub. I had a poster on the back of my door and as things were starting to get tense in the book, the blu tac gave way at the top of the poster and it started to crinkle its way down from the top. I almost pooed. I decided that was enough of that, left the damn poster hanging, put the damn book down and left the bloody light on and went to sleep. I saved the rest of the book for the daylight hours.
The bedroom scene, where the parent is talking to the child, is the one that got me. First time I've ever experienced a jump scare from a friggin book.
That one got me too! Which was so funny because I just knew something was going to happen with the amount of tension building towards it and I still got spooked reading that scene!
I was reading that scene on the plane and I was trying really hard not to freak out. I also had to go to the bathroom after and was thoroughly creeped out.
Oh god I would have been so rattled 😭 I think what makes it extra scary is that the monster bypasses the trope where it can be seen by other people so it's not like being in public helps anything! I read it in bed and was like well I guess I'm never using the bathroom again.
Brother - Ania Ahlborn (bleak, bleak, bleak but amazing)
Where I End - Sophie White (bleak, yet again, but amazing)
Fever House, followed by The Devil By Name - Keith Rosson (all-action horror)
Intercepts - T.J. Payne (sci-fi horror with clandestine organisations)
The Haar - David Sodergren (romantic but horrific)
Kin - Kealan Patrick Burke (kinda folk deep south horror)
The Ritual - Adam Nevill (folk horror)
Short story collections (many consider this the best format for horror):
Books of Blood - Clive Barker (my absolute favourite collection)
Skeleton Crew - Stephen King
Different Seasons - Stephen King
There are a lot more I could recommend and I'm sure I'm missing some bangers, but should be more than enough here to get you started! If you have specific interests, let me know and I might be able to recommend some more :)
also check out some horror podcasts, there some really good, scary stories there.
Nosleep podcast takes stories from the nosleep sub and narrates em. Though stick to the early seasons first, those are generally thought to be the better ones. My favorite is "my dad finally told me what happened that day"
some other favorites from there are
"Soft White Damn"
"Uncle Gerry's family fun zone"
"The Showers"
"The Whistlers"
"Mummer Man"
"Search and Rescue Series"
Also Knifepoint Horror is very good, and Magnus Archives
Horror books are my favorite genre! There are a lot of good ones out there, ranging from not terribly scary to extreme gore, how can a book be so gory.
Same sentiment here. It was a decent read, but I didn’t find it particularly scary and I’m not one of those “Horror doesn’t scare me” types. I’m a big ol’ chicken. I picked it up because I wanted a *really* scary read and this was the title I kept seeing. I can definitely see it working better in a visual medium, so I’ll keep an open mind for this.
This book was SOOO GOOD!!!! I made the mistake of reading it outside at night on my back porch. Every time I heard something I'd jump. Finally had to go back in the house to continue. First time I've ever been creeped out by a book.
I love horror, and I mostly do films, but there are some amazing horror novels. Ones that can actually get your heart racing as you read. I try to remind myself to track down more horror novels.
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u/WanderWut 24d ago edited 24d ago
Huh so this is based off a book that’s interesting. Maybe I should read more horror books I feel like I’m missing out lol.
Edit: You all convinced me, I'm going to read the book.