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  2 0 There is one Stephen King story that I read at way too young an age that I will think of forever. It was in Skeleton Crew, and it was about a man stranded on a desert island. (Actually, as I write this, another story from Skeleton Crew, about teleportation, came back to me, too. That one was pretty creepy.) If I read it now, I'm sure I wouldn't find it that scary. (And if I could give one book to my younger self to read so that it would scar him forever, it would be Horror Story and Other Horror Stories by Robert Boyczuk. It's a new short story collection, and I haven't read all the stories, but what I have read is delightfully wrong.) Besides that, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend creeps me way the fuck out every time I think of it. Paul Constant answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 3 comments by "Cagey", O my captain, and Urgutha Forka… 0 0 I was going to suggest "The Other" by Thomas Tryon. If you haven't read it, do so before anyone tells you too much about it. The movie based upon the book in about 1971 was good, but significantly changes the ending. Basically, it is set in the early to mid 1930s in New England just a little after the Lindburg baby kidnapping. It's pre-world war II and in an era of inoscense between the wars during the great depression on a family farm. These are the days when entertainment was delivered by radio, and refridgerators were ice boxes and farming was done with horses and bailing by hand. That mixture of innoscense and antique time of your grandparents still living with you on the family farm makes the perfect setting for a young boys awakening to the world around him. Or does it? "Cagey" commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I loved the collection of short stories "Night Shift" but especially loved the story "Strawberry Spring"... it kept me guessing right up to the ending! O my captain commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 The two stories you mention are "Survivor Type" (guy on desert island) and "The Jaunt" (teleportation) Both great... Thinking about the events from "The Jaunt" actually still creeps me out to this day as well! Urgutha Forka commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 1 I'm surprised no one has mentioned Lovecraft yet. Best known for "The Call of Cthulhu" (at least nowadays), some of his other short stories that were just as great include "The Dunwich Horror," "The Colour Out of Space," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "The Thing on the Doorstep," "The Haunter of the Dark," and "The Rats in the Walls." I always found the idea of a color that doesn't exist in our known spectrum to be really disturbing. The man had imagination. There's a now-all-but-forgotten-author, Davis Grubb (whose novel "The Night of the Hunter" was made into the classic movie starring Robert Mitchum), who wrote a story called "Radio," about a console radio that won't turn off or turn down, even when unplugged, and it's written so well that you can't tell if it's really alive/haunted or if the protagonist is hallucinating. As others have written, Stephen King's early stuff was excellent. His short story collection "Night Shift" (which was only his fourth published book) had 6 or 7 truly first-rate horror stories, and "'salem's Lot" and "The Shining" are among the best horror novels ever. King's pal Peter Straub's "Ghost Story" is one of my all time favorites. Malicious shapeshifters take revenge on an entire town 50 years after five young men (now old men) hurt one. "Floating Dragon," with a kind of similar plot, is also really good. Matt from Denver answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by Infinity… 0 0 I am surprised *I* didn't remember Lovecraft while answering & I'm glad you brought him up. His horror stories where fantastic, though I find them difficult to recommend to people now simply because they are denser to absorb, for sure. The Shining is a very creepy book. The scenes with the topiaries used to make me afraid of my back yard. Infinity commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 1 Some of my favorites are short stories. A few that leap to mind are: "Dress of White Silk" from Matheson's I Am Legend collection. Creeped me the hell out. "The Small Assassin" (Ray Bradbury; I think it's in The Jar) "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (Bradbury) Skeleton Crew is one of King's best collections. "The Jaunt" and "Raft" are excellent, but the best is "Survivor Type". I haven't read "Survivor Type" in years but I just remembered "ladyfingers just like ladyfingers" and I am getting chills. CleverScreenName answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by Matt from Denver… 0 0 "The Mist" in Skeleton Crew is great, and he had some terrific stories in his first collection, "Night Shift" as well. "I Am the Doorway," "Sometimes They Come Back," "Trucks," "Battleground," "Strawberry Spring," "Graveyard Shift," "Children of the Corn" - all first rate horror. The man had it dialed in the 70s. Matt from Denver commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 Let The Right One In. Jesus christ, this book had more than enough Creep to keep me happy for a long time. Raindog answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 Paul- were you talking about "Lady Fingers" with the story about the man on the island? It was pretty disturbing- involved heroin and starvation if I remember correctly. Hmmm...in horror, I do like some older Stephen King stuff- It was pretty freaky, and Pet Sematary. His son also wrote a book called Heart Shaped Box and that kept me up the entire night I read it (yes, started and finished in one night; you can see it was riveting for me, as well as freaky). The Suicide Collectors (David Oppegaard) was disturbing to me in the same way I Am Legend disturbed me; neither are downright "horror" in the way I understand the genre, but both make the hair on the back of your neck stand up in a very real way. Infinity answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 0 The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Has some eerie bits and some bits that still freak me the fuck out if I think of them when I'm trying to go to sleep at night. Arkham answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 1 There's a book called The Pilo Family Circus that came out a couple of years ago. It's about a guy who gets kidnapped by psychotic clowns and taken to a carnival in hell. It's scary and weird and also has a horrifying scene where a clown makes tender love to a houseplant. Did i mention that the clowns are scary? Because they are. Even more than normal clowns. frodomojo answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Christine. that style car still scares the shit outta me. Rev.Enant answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by O my captain and Rev.Enant… 0 0 That's why your avitar always freaks me out! O my captain commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 gotta face your fears though, right? besides, SPOCK is driving that buick, baby. Does it get better than that? Rev.Enant commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Not necessarily a favorite, but the most horrifying, in a really visceral and disturbing way, is something called "God of the Razor" by Joe Lansdale. Not for the weak of heart of stomach. Thomas Tryon's "The Other" is really good, in a much subtler creepier way. Here are some of my favorite collections of Horror: http://shelftalk.spl.org/2008/10/30/horror-stories/ and Ghost Stories: http://shelftalk.spl.org/2008/10/16/ghost-stories/ ...many of which I've used in the Adult Storytime I do at the Central branch of Seattle Public Library. David Wright answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by O my captain… 0 0 I second that vote for "Thomas Tryon's The Other"! O my captain commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 Resume With Monsters, by William Browning Spencer. Ancient evil in the modern workplace...with jokes! For anyone who has ever wondered if your shitty job is actually a conspiracy to steal your soul. Another writer to consider is Thomas Ligotti. He is one of a very few authors I seek out, and read everything I can find. Not to say that I like it all; but in a genre full of tired slasher and vampire stories, Ligotti is one of the few who can pull you into his bleak weird beautiful world. A truly original voice. Writes primarily short stories. Look for: The Night School I Have a Special Plan for This World The Last Feast of Harlequin The Shadow, the Darkness The Greater Festival of Masks Our Temporary Supervisor Adversary answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 "Summer Chills": an anthology released in 2007, with stories that go back as far as the early '80s. Great contributions by Barker, Karl Edward Wagner, Ramsey Campbell, Ellison, and lot of others. Contains Dennis Etchison's wonderful "The Dark Country". "Being Right" by Michael Marshall Smith is also terrific--supernatural, though not really horror. A common thread of most of the stories is vacationers in strange places, which turn out to be a lot stranger than they bargained for. Twenty tales in all. Hope this helped--Good Reads to you this summer! Timmytee answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 For long-term scariness, I'm going with Dracula. I tried to read it in first grade and got so scared that for years afterwards I wouldn't sleep with the window open, in case vampires got in. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is also wonderfully creepy. I was assigned it in high school, and it kept me up a week after finishing it. Kitts answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 I don't consider these my "favorites" but here are three books that scared the bejeebus out of me and still haunt me: "The Watcher" by Charles Maclean. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's 1983 New York Times book review describes the opening better than I can: " Martin Gregory, a computer programmer, comes home to his wife one evening with the intention of showering her with birthday gifts. Seized with an impulse he doesn't understand, he takes an electric carving knife, cuts the throats of his two golden retrievers, places the corpses in a large white box, writes a message in blood on the cover, and leaves." Lehmann-Haupt calls the book a "thriller," but I consider it psychological horror. "Image of the Beast" by Philip Jose Farmer. This dangerous book oozes sex and hallucinogenic horror: who doesn't love horny, blood-thirsty alien vampires? "Song of Kali" by Dan Simmons. This is Simmon's first novel and it features the most horrific act I've read in a book. Sorry, no spoilers, but you will be shocked. Freudian Shrimp answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 0 House of Leaves cupcake answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 1 Pet Sematary, also by Steven King, is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Among other effects, it left me afraid of cats for a year after I'd read it. In terms of classic horror, Dracula is also pretty spectacular. Cait answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by O my captain and muckfetro… 0 0 What about "It" by Stephen King? O my captain commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 Or Pet Cemetary? muckfetro commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  2 3 The Handmaid's Tale. Man, that book creeps me the fuck out. Geni answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 2 comments by CleverScreenName and Geni… 0 0 Me too, as speculative fiction, not horror. CleverScreenName commented about 1 year ago | Report 0 0 I know it's usually classed as SF, but it's pure horror story to me! ;-) Geni commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  0 1 I want to second Cagey's suggestion. "The Other" by Thomas Tryon is very good. A nice period piece that doesn't telegraph the ending or the story. Another good work by Thomas Tryon is "Crowned Heads" a collection of four or five novellas that follow the careers and lives of four separate cursed old Hollywood stars. "Fedora" was taken and made into a movie with Robert Holden in the 80s. O my captain answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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  1 4 Atlas Shrugged. Don't know if it's a fave, but it scared the shit outta me. Tom answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago | Report 1 comment by Geni… 0 0 The book itself just bores me, it's the people who carry it around and try to live by it that scare me. Geni commented about 1 year ago | Report Enter your comment or ask a new question preview THIS IS A PREVIEW: Click "Post" to submit it or "Edit" to make changes. edit Please wait… This could take a minute if the tubes are clogged.

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