Alright everyone, here's a place for you to tell everyone what you favorite horror novel is or is about. You can also share your favorite writer if you don't have a favorite book. Since I'm the one starting this, I'll be the first one to get it underway. I have noticed a new trend in horror as of late, it seems to all be just gore and violence. Long gone are the days of a truly good scary story. Writers seem to rely on the amount of blood they can throw into our imaginations instead of a quality scare. Gore does not equal horror. That's why I tend to read more "classic" horror novels, from great authors such as Steven King, Clive Barker, and Brian Lumley. My favorite horror novel from Steven King would have to be It. It is the stuff nightmares are made of, quite literally in the book. It is about seven kids that have to survive in a town where an unknown monster is devouring all the children. It can appear anywhere at any time, taking the form of whatever the child fears most. It is your worst dream come true. It is fear made manifest. Steven King's writing is at his best in this novel, and the descriptive narrative as the monster stalks It's prey is sheer genius. There are certain parts that made me shudder with fear, and that's not an easy task. It is not my favorite book from King, but I can say that It is my favorite horror novel of his. The book is quite long, a little over 1000 pages, but each page is well worth reading. I liked it so much that I read It twice. Clive Barker is another excellent author. I don't think there is a book of his that I have started that I've not finished. His workmanship is that astounding. It's hard for me to narrow it down to one favorite book from Clive Barker, since I have four. The first one is called The Hell Bound Heart. If anyone here is familiar with the Hellraiser movies, this is the book the movies are based on. Except the book is 100% better than the movie(s). My other three favorites are a series called The Books of Blood. The Books of Blood are a collection of short stories sure to scare the hell out of you. If anyone knows what Rawhead Rex is, this is where he comes from. One of the scariest stories in TBoB is called Hell's Event. I'll not give it a summary, so as to let those of you who love a good scare the opportunity to find out for yourself what I'm talking about. And last but certainly not least is Brian Lumley. In my opinion Lumley's Necroscope novels are some of the best books that I have ever read. The term necroscope, as defined in the series, describes someone who can communicate with the dead. The "hero" of the series, Harry Keogh, has the ability to not only talk with the dead, but to learn from them as well, granting Mr. Keogh some fantastic abilities. Abilities that he must use to rid the world of vampires. Mr. Lumley's vampires make Anne Rice's look like clowns in comparison. The Wamphyri are parasitic creatures, evil, vile and totally corrupted, and have a taste for human flesh and blood. The series is quite long, containing five novels about Harry Keogh, and three more about his sons. If you have the time, seeing that there are eight books I'm talking about here, These books are definitely worth the read. All excellent novels here in my opinion. All worth reading. Share some of your favorites with me, I'm always open to a new horror novel. Happy reading.
Nice topic. To be honest I haven't read many other authors apart from Stephen King (horror authors that is). I've read a few of his novels and I must say that The Shinning is my favourite. It was a fantastic story written tremendously. Aside from him I have also read one or two Anne Rice novels. Besides what you said, I still enjoyed her work and love what she has written (from what I have read). Lestat is a really cool character. I unfortunately don't have much time to read due to other interests, although I do read a novel now and again. When I do read intensely it is usually for my English university class, as we are required to read many novels, but they are usually boring drama's. Thank you for the information on the above authors apophos. I shall seek them out soon and read some of their work you suggested.
Unfortuneatly I dont have as much time to read these days as I used to, I havnt read a book in months. I enjoy absolutely anything from steven king, most of the movies just dont do the books justice.
I enjoy Anne Rice really well. Lestat is an awesome character, just as a comparison Lumley's vampires make Lestat and company look like children. The Wamphyri are truly chaotic and evil. I agree with you. I love King's books, but most of the film adaptations are a little lacking to put it mildly. The Stand movie was really good, along with The Shining. And let's not forget The Green Mile.....Tom Hanks = AWESOME!
Hmmm I'm quite a fan of Dean Koontz. But I do remember reading a book called The Dark...cant remeber who the author was but it was very creepy. King books....yey! My memory is terrible but one of his books was about a guy living in a city in the US and he started seeing demons, to everyone else they were normal people,,,his boss friends etc all walking around the city acting normal except he could see their true form. He couldnt let on that he knew who they really were. Does this sound familiar to anyone.....???
Stephen King is tops, closely followed by James Herbert and Dean Koontz. You cant beat them for horror novels.
It is from a collection of short stories called Nightmares and Dreamscapes. The name of the story is called "The Ten O'Clock People". I thought I'd let you know just in case you wanted to go pick up a copy.
Honestly, books have never scared me.. maybe make me thing of unusualy stuff, but they don't scare me.. Stephen King is a great author though, but I think he moves on from book to book too quickly..
I agree. Some of his books that I've read feel like he had to rush through them to make a deadline or he just got tired of writing the book. A perfect example is The Dark Tower part 7. If you've read it, then you know what I'm talking about. It's still a great book, but it feels like he was just trying too hard to get to the end.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series, some of the stories + illustrations are still creeping me out. Especially the one about the woman with white face and small eyes that sits at the bed and just looks at you. The illustration for that is really creepy. I wanted to read "It" but it was too long. The best horror stories I've read are all short stories, maybe it's because that's the way I like my horror stories. As if someone tells you like it was a rumor or a legend and it might be true hence why it's usually short. Don't know the title of the story but my favorite story is about the weird things in this house. It's told from a maid's point of view. The maid finds has this one weird job of delivering basket of food using a cloth line to a room that's you can't access from anywhere else in the house except the window. The basket is always returned to the top of the line again the next day. She gets curious and one day slips a piece of paper with the food and a pen. When she found the basket again she found the note but instead of ink the words were written in blood. She continues to pass notes and finds out that it was the wife of the owner in that room. my memory gets fuzzy here and I don't remember exactly what happened but you find out that her limbs are cut off so she only has her thighs and upper arms left. Why did the husband do that? I don't remember Ring a bell? I would love to read this story again.
I've only ever read one book which you guys would probably consider horror and that is the first book in Clive Barkers "Books of blood". The story about the school for delinquents and the pig terrified me. I have read "World war Z" by Max Brooks which is the book he wrote after "The zombie survival guide" but I've met several people who don't consider that to be a proper horror novel so i'm not sure you guys will count it. Regardless of where it stands it scared the shit out of me and had me walking around twitchy as hell for weeks. I'd be walking around look for signs of the apocalypse and looking for the nearest bludgeoning implement and a safe route of escape.
OMG! You are missing out on a terrific read. "IT" is one of my favs from King. I read it twice as a matter of fact.
Stephen King is my favorite also although my favorite by him - The Stand - is not so much a horror story as it is a scary story (i.e., there is not a maniac on the loose but the story is quite horrifying). The premise of The Stand is essentially a good-v-evil theme taken to a whole different level. 98% of the population is wiped out by an awful Government grown virus that kills people quite quickly by effectively liquefying their internal organs. Anyone who comes in contact with the virus is dead within 24 hours save for a chosen few. Those few are divided into people who want human kind to survive and people who want to rule the remaining survivors (good guys and bad guys). Once you get into the book you can't put it down despite it being one of his longest novels; somewhere between 800-900 pages. I have also read many of his others and I would have to say that 2nd place would be a very close tie between "IT" and "The Shinning". Third place would go to either "The Tommyknockers" or "Misery". I hate to rate them as 1,2,3 because I don't think any of them were bad. If anyone is interested in Stephen King's work but not willing to invest the time to one of those books, they should pick up a copy of "Skeleton Crew"; a collection of many of his short stories. All of them captivating but none longer than 20-30 pages.
Skeleton Crew? Never heard of it, but it sounds interesting. Maybe I should read some Stephen King. I remember the movie "It" it was scary and I barely watched the beginning before I turned it off. And I still did not finish watching that haha.
Yeah - it is a great start for any Stephen King reader. Here is a Wikipedia link to the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_Crew
