Favourite horror novel?

oeNeo · 02-02-2003 7:30pm #1

Might be more destined for literature but weh.

I haven't read that many but of the ones I have read, Stephen King - The Stand takes the biscuit. Oh or else Stephen King - Salems Lot. Great books!

davej · 03-02-2003 9:38am

I have to say I haven't really read many Horror books per se. Although I am a fan of the Horror genre in film. Dracula wasn't bad and I've read a couple of Stephen King books.

I don't suppose the Ann Rice books are considered horror are they ? I also like Neil Gaiman, again arguably this is often more fantasy than horror.

Has anyone read a book that truely scared the shìte out of them?

davej

Washout · 03-02-2003 9:46am

The First time I read IT by Stephen King. It scared the bejesus out of me.

Brerrabbit · 03-02-2003 9:58am

Pick up a copy of "The Dark" by James Herbert; one of the most atmospheric and well written horror novels ever written.

Yeah "It" was class too.

oeNeo · 03-02-2003 9:09pm

I'm starting to read Black House, Kings new novel but it's kinda hard to get into.

Anyone read it yet?

Raskolnikov · 03-02-2003 10:26pm

James Herbert's latest books are dross, i wouldn't wipe my ass with them even in an extreme case of diaahrea.

ykt0di9url7bc3 · 03-02-2003 10:35pm

Turn of the Screw
by
Henry James

anything by Clive Barker

and Desperation by Stephen King, and its companion book The Regulators by Richard Bachman

Karl Hungus · 03-02-2003 10:41pm

Jesus, I'd be hard pressed to choose.

Anne Rice's earlier works pretty brilliant, DaveJ.
But her more recent stuff is just being pulled from her arse.

Clive Barker's is always brilliant.
I'd say maybe... Cabal.

spooky donkey · 04-02-2003 2:05am

The older James herbert books did it for me! Rats and the like!

Its so long since i read a horror book, i think the last one was Barney goes to the zoo or something!

MrPudding · 04-02-2003 1:29pm

I liked Herbert when I was younger.

Clive Barker does it for me. The Great and Secret Show(is that horror) well any of his book really.

daveg · 04-02-2003 5:48pm

Stephen Kings Pet Cemetary, IT, Carrie. Also James Herberts Creed - excellent book.

Has anyone else read any Shaun Hutson ? Good books but WAY WAY over the top.

BioHazRd · 04-02-2003 5:57pm

Any of the Necromancer series from Brian Lumley - now they are what I call vampires.

But the one that had the most effect on me was actually a collection of short stories by Stephen King called nightshift. I read this years ago, and haven't seen it since. There was one story about a guy who turned into a giant slug type thing after drinking from a can of beer "and felt something from inside the can slide down his throat". I actually had problems drinking from cans for a while after reading that - It creeped me out.....

Bio

spooky donkey · 04-02-2003 8:07pm

Thats why you dring beer outa them little bottles now man!

Yeah I used to read a lot of King and Barker stuff years ago. Though im gone off king! He`s sort of the bill gates of Horror novels these days!

04-02-2003 10:07pm

Any thing by Clive Barker or Dean Koontz.
Stephen King has really gone downhill lately. His latest "From A Buick Eight" was not in the least bit scary acutually it was kinda crap.

Karl Hungus · 04-02-2003 10:20pm

Originally posted by BioHazRd
Any of the Necromancer series from Brian Lumley - now they are what I call vampires.

Dont you mean Necroscope?

ThenComesDudley · 06-02-2003 11:56pm

its listed as horror but im not sure

Drawing Blood
Poppy Z. Brite
tis a good book

Karl Hungus · 07-02-2003 2:42am

Originally posted by ThenComesDudley
its listed as horror but im not sure

Drawing Blood
Poppy Z. Brite
tis a good book

I've got that myself.
Haven't gotten around to reading it yet though.

Also got her short story collection 'Self Made Man'.
That was a bugger to find.
But jesus! ****ing perverse ****!

Sangre · 08-02-2003 4:33pm

Well 'IT' scared the absolute cr4p out me.

Also like the Stephen King collection books, think one was 'Nightmares and dreamscapes??' Not sure

Well it had this story called 'the 9 o' clock ppl' about light smokers being able to see monsters... also one about a finger from a sink was very good

ThenComesDudley · 09-02-2003 8:33pm

well ive liked all her books
and i have a few on order

but
i recommend all of these

Drawing Blood
Exquisite Corpse
Lost Souls
Self-made man
Wormwood (allso Swamp featus if you have the us version)

also not Horror but a great book is
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

Mercury_Tilt · 09-02-2003 9:05pm

This post has been deleted.

Is1ldur · 10-02-2003 3:24pm

Hi all,
I don't mean to be a horror snob, but if all you are reading is Stephen King et al, you are seriously missing out. Ok, early Stephen King is not bad, The Shining, IT, and some others are pretty good, also Dean Koontz, James Herbert, Shaun Hutson are all good, however I am a huge fan of older novel and short-story writers. Guy de Maupassant, Ambrose Bierce, Robert Howard, Algernon Blackwood, HP Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, Sheridan Le Fanu, there are tons of them.
Best novel I have read in the last few years has to be Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

pauldeehan · 12-02-2003 11:46am

Mostly Stephen King, James Herbert and Dean Koontz

gogo · 13-02-2003 2:57pm

Originally posted by Brerrabbit
Pick up a copy of "The Dark" by James Herbert; one of the most atmospheric and well written horror novels ever written.

yay hay, i love this thread, I'm a hugh horror/horror book fan also stephen king fan, also like james herbert, dean koontz, and Robert McCammon is brillant also.

Herberts book the dark is very similar to king short story the Mist.
You should check it out if you liked The Dark brerrabbit.
King's 'salem's Lot' scared the sh1t out of me when i read it first, but The Stand' has to be my all time favourite. It would be great - I'd spend all my time routing through people things - the nosy person's dream. Everyone is away - where am i going to today.

gogo.

Tusky · 26-02-2003 1:32am

rohal dahl

neonitrix · 26-02-2003 2:03am

its not really horror but It is real scary.

Author: Richard Preston
Title: The Cobra Event

About: The Book is based on Bioterrorism with very scary detail. Its Fiction & brilliant.

Also good books by the same author are:

Hot Zone
Demon In The Freezer

tks

neo

Lorddrakul · 31-03-2003 12:41pm

Count666

I got to agree with you here man, Stephen King is a gateway for the wider world of weird fiction as it used to be known in the halcion days of the 30s Pulp magazines.

The likes of Le Fanu's Carmilla, F. Marrion Crawford's For the Blood is the Life, Clark Ashton Smith, HP Lovecraft, MR James and too many more to mention. All classics that make Mr King look like the Ed Wood of the literary world.

For my part I would have to say Lovecraft is my favourite with At the Mountains of Madness and the Call of Cthulhu, but Carmilla and Through a Glass Darkly in general is superb.

In terms of really make me scared stuff, nothing really does that, but stuff that makes me think like tha above is what gets me going.

Really good one I read recently was I am Legion by Richard Matheson.

Not read much decent lately.

LD

Sesudra · 01-04-2003 2:26pm

The best horror writer I've ever read is MR James.his short stories are seriously scary and you can pick it up for 2 euro in the Classics section of Easons.A close second is Stephen Laws-"Somewhere South of Midnight" and "Chasm" are geat reads

Mr. Fancypants · 03-04-2003 7:24pm

I have read a lot of King, Koontz etc but the only book to *truly* scare the **** out of me was The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.
I read it when i was about 14-15 and was actually scared to get out of bed to turn off the light at times. It is so much scarier because it is (aparantly) a true story and is written as such. The thought of Jody's red eyes still makes me shudder....

Pick it up if you get a chance.

Brerrabbit · 15-04-2003 2:02am

"Herberts book the dark is very similar to king short story the Mist.
You should check it out if you liked The Dark brerrabbit."

thanks gogo I'll check that out (as soon as summer comes around and I have money once more -its been a long moneyless winter for this student). Is it in one of his little foursome anthologies?

"Stephen Laws-"Somewhere South of Midnight" and "Chasm" are geat reads"

Yeah I too was mightily impressed with Laws' stuff but I can't find any more of them in the shops at the moment (And strangely enough the two you mentioned, Sesudra, were the only two of his I have). I particularly enjoyed somewhere south of midnight; that shambolic fleshy thing (its been a while since I read it + I lent it to a mate so apologies for the vagueness) was REALLY menacing.

Amz · 25-04-2003 1:11am

I'm inclined to agree with AngelWhore, Anne Rice's earlier stuff was far, far better than her most recent "work"

I also loved Stephen Laws Chasm, nobody seems to really know of him though which is a pity.

Kurdt · 26-04-2003 3:29pm

Originally posted by Sesudra
The best horror writer I've ever read is MR James.his short stories are seriously scary and you can pick it up for 2 euro in the Classics section of Easons.

i'm reading this at the moment, its great stuff, very atmospheric and hard to put down once you've started one of the stories (granted they're only 10 or 15 pages long) but they're great!

has MR James written any novels?

Karl Hungus · 27-04-2003 6:58pm

I'm shocked I never gave mention to HP Lovecraft!

Everyone, please give mention now!

Señor Juárez · 17-05-2003 3:34pm

for me it has to be King's "The Stand". a good book. not particularly scary, but a very good read.

any good horror ebook sites? :P

also, i agree that King & Straub's "Black House" is very difficult to get into...

Space Coyote · 06-06-2003 4:22pm

All I read in me mid-teens was James Herbert. The Rats trilogy was pure class, and also extremely vivid and realistic and frightening. Clive Barker's The Damnation Game, that was good too. Nothing scares the shít out of ye like a good horror novel. Never been scared by a film, ever. Except Police Academy VI :eek:

patch · 06-06-2003 5:39pm

Originally posted by Count666

Best novel I have read in the last few years has to be Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

I saw the movie when I was a kid......... great crack, scary too.

I really liked James Herberts '48 -it's the only book I've read that really conveys an action-packed feel.

08-06-2003 9:51pm

48 by James Herbert is an excellant novel. 28 Days Later is awful similar to it.

Nemesis · 15-06-2003 7:52pm

Depends on the age you are when you read a novel.
IT by S.King was a book that made me look at clowns in a whole different light.
Was a great book..but Dont like much of his stuff now..I did like the fantasy book he wrote...forget name.
Rats by Herbert...Dean Koontz also had one about some Genetically alterted animal which was good.
I used to be a Librarian in the school (many moons ago now!)..And read so many Horror books.
Dont read at all now since damn PC's came into my life..and marriage and Kids...and work....and....aw well.:)
DemonBaby/Nem

patch · 16-06-2003 2:28pm

Watchers by Koontz, I think you mean.
Shame they made a sh1te of the movie......

PatLam · 17-06-2003 11:32am

Well, that must have been IT by Steven King
Don't know why, but it scared me to death, since then, I can't see clowns anymore...
And I must say that AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis had some impact on me too, even though it's not a real horror book. I just can't trust a man in a suit anymore...:)

17-06-2003 9:02pm

The Dark by James Herbert is one of the best horror novels I have ever read. Full of explicit violence, The shot gun between the legs being just one example. Its better than 90% of todays pussy horror which usually involves a friendly ghost help the good guys defeat evil.

Space Coyote · 18-06-2003 12:19pm

I agree darko, The Dark is a great read. The 1st Herbert book I bought meself I think. Must be about 13 years ago now probly. I have about 15 of them and only 2 or 3 were average. The rest, class. Must read them again.

simu · 19-06-2003 1:25am

Mine has to be Frankenstein.

Also had an illustrated Ladybird version of it when I was a kid that made my blood curdle.

I like Edgar Allen Poe too, even if I find his stuff induces melancholy rather than horror in me.

Really liked Clive Barker's books of blood when I was a teenager, as well.

jongore · 07-07-2003 1:57pm

'The Rats' by James Herbert, the story was plausible and the whole concept gave me nightmares. Herberts early stuff was excellent.

ObeyGiant · 07-07-2003 4:01pm

Just finished "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson, and loved it. It's very short (~160 pages), and really compelling throughout, so it's easy to finish it in one sitting.

It's basically the story of a sole survivor of a virus that wiped out humanity. Except it didn't exactly wipe them out - it turned them all into vampires, and each night, they come to his house and try to get him to come out. In the story, he finds out that Vampires have always been caused by this virus, and a lot of the legends surrounding them (mirrors, garlic, crosses) have logical explainations.

If you're thinking this sounds familiar, you'd be right - it was written in the 1950s, and was the inspiration for 'The Omega Man' and other films.

Seriously good book.

ilkhanid · 28-11-2015 9:28pm

The greatest horror novel written since World War 2 is 'Ghost Story' by Peter Straub.
I also recommend 'The Ceremonies' by T.E.D Klein

Favourite horror novel?

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