can anyone suggest me any horror books that make you want to crawl under your blanket and leave the lights turned on? every time I try to read horror I feel like the books rely on shock horror/body horror/being disgusting rather than scary. I’ve tried to read one Stephen King book but I couldn’t get into it (the institute, gave up real quick).
(please no books with ringworms, I can’t handle more ringworms 😭)
thank you so much in advance!
by IllustrativeWords
3 Comments
I’m the same way with body horror. It doesn’t scare me. It just disgusts me. It all depends on what you find scary. I find existential hopelessness scary, which made Replay by Ken Grimwood and A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck great reads.
If you find isolation scary, it doesn’t get much better than The Shining. I enjoyed The Institute, but The Shining is just on a whole different level.
Heart Shaped Box is a great book about a rock star who literally buys a ghost from the internet. If you enjoy relentless stalking and dread, you will probably enjoy this one.
Salems Lot / Pet Sematary / IT and The Shining are pretty good shouts from Stephen King. Dracula by Bram Stoker creeped me out pretty bad. You’re right though it can be tough sometimes to find a genuinely scary book as opposed to just shock factor, splatter punk style.
Some novels which I found creepy rather than gory: “The Woman in Black”, “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Little Stranger”. I’m like you, in that I much prefer unsettling horror to the visceral gross-out type.